CANADIAN POLITICS By Joe Ingino b.a. Editor/Publisher

CANADIAN POLITICS

By Joe Ingino b.a.

Editor/Publisher

“I live a dream in a nightmare world”

The Conservative Party of Canada

They say that if you are in the market for a good guard dog. You should not consider a poodle.

Then why is it that we keep drawing these bitches (as per dictionary definition: bitch - biCH/noun

noun: bitch; plural noun: bitches; noun: a bitch 1. a female dog, wolf, fox, or otter.) as per the poodle reference...

Now don’t get me wrong. The NDP and the Liberals don’t offer much of a better choice as their candidates are pedigree of their own breeds. Literally.

You have to give it to whoever is the political strategist for the Liberals. They had no one in their stable to run against the conservatives. So what did they do. Dusted off an old Canadian history book an noted that Trudeau was the beacon for the Liberals. That during the Trudeau era Pierre ruled as a Canadian emperor. The Liberal strategist may have tried cloning him and that did not work. Then they got the clever idea of a monarch type thinking.... who would be next to the throne? And here comes clueless Justin. Justin Trudeau, a nobody. But the perfect Poodle. He looks good has no clue what he is doing and he follows his handlers instructions to a ‘T’. Struggling through life like most of us... Living in “La vida loca” by being a Trudeau. All of a sudden the Liberal Party is desperately polishing a young turd into a gold nugget. It was a long shot for the Liberals but it worked. At the voting centers, most did not even care it was not Pierre. All they voted was on ‘TRUDEAU MANIA’.

When it was announced that Justin won. You could feel it in your soul how Pierre from his resting place once again congratulated all the ignorant Canadian with his infamous Canadian salute.

If I am wrong. Let me ask you a question. If Justin did not have the Trudeau name attached. And he was Justin Smith representing the Liberals. Would he had won?

Now to the NDP. As if the NDP were not left for dead during the last election. The NDP strategist had to get clever. They did not have a Justin to turn to... but could thank the Liberals for all the minorities from what Trump would deem “shit hole” countries. The NDP did not even have a poodle. They had an old toupee. Remnants from the old Ed Broadbent era. Then someone yelled... let’s round up the wagons and find a chosen one from the immigrants to lead us. The European blood line was thin. The Oriental door would have to many drawbacks. Hey, them South East Asian could do the trick in rounding up the minority votes. The logic in my understanding would have been. Why not play the minority card and take from that Liberal pool in order to revive this dead horse we call the NDP. Jagmeet Singh, in my opinion could ideally be Canada’s next Prime Minister. All the writings are on the wall... Much like many did not think Trump could pull it off. Keep an eye on Mr. Singh.

And then we have the Conservatives. In their glory day, instead of listening to the people. They became arrogant and the old boys club mentality predominated. This cause them the fall or some may call it surrender to Trudeau Mania. Do they have a chance at winning? I say NO. I say this with confidence as the Conservatives are nothing but a kennel of poodles. They have no real direction except the wet dream of being voted back in. Not for the betterment of the country for that of the preservation of the good old boys club. This is wrong. Look at those they choose to be Provincial and Federal leaders. Careered yes men. Are these bitches the characters to run our country?

Really!!! What the Conservatives need to do is re-invent the wheel. 1. Find a true leaders from outside of the good old boys... that will never happen as the political pyramid won’t allow it. 2. Set a real conservative agenda that is fair for all Canadians inclusive. Take a lesson from the Trump, ‘AMERICA FIRST’. 3. Go after the grass root voters. The people that don’t turn out. The problem they can’t is because the Conservatives are to into themselves and to ignorant to be in the political game. The party is so blinded by power and wealth... by the ‘ME NEXT’ mentality that the stench is repugnant.

Just look at those they have as their choices candidates... The Conservatives are doomed.

Like Really UOIT!!! By John Mutton

Regional Talk
By John Mutton      
Over the past 5 years, I have been proud and privileged to be able to recommend and steer philanthropic dollars to health care and academia. To the point of about 2 million dollars in each sector and much of it locally, has only gone to make a better health care and education system for us.
At UOIT we steered $200000 to two classroom donations, half a million to University Hospital for prostate cancer, 110k to Richmond Hospital Foundation for a lung box for children and those with asbestos poisoning and much, much more.
One of my big pushes has been in eliminating drinking and driving everywhere, we have been working with the province, the federal government on drug wipe technology and with many police departments, transit carriers and local contractors like Gay Company who have become the first Zero Tolerance Contractor in Durham Region. We have been working with Sheridan College and their equivalent to the Police Foundations course, putting on an assembly and bringing the industry experts from Alcohol Countermeasures Systems to cite their global campaign against drinking and driving heavily supported by Arrive Alive, MADD and SADD.
We believe that education and prevention is the key to saving lives.
I must say that in Durham Region I am VERY close concerned. We have had more DUI's by transit and school bus drivers than anywhere in the GTA. This led to a resolution by Pickering Councillor Maurice Brenner that was endorsed and passed by most Councils in Durham about demanding Alcolock devices be put on all public transit in Ontario.
What I will tell you right now is shocking. Durham College will not meet or discuss this issue, even over a social tea....shame. Especially when other colleges and Universities (ie UOIT locally) have met on this.
You can guarantee if I am successful in the Regional Municipal Election, I will bring everything I have in my power to the table to ensure all of Durham is doing what it can to PREVENT driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol and Durham College better reconsider their position.

Till next week...
John Mutton
President and CEO
Municipal Solutions - Energy and Infrastructure

Readers Say “Cancer Patients Deserve Better” By W. Gifford-Jones M.D

 The Doctor Game

By W. Gifford-Jones M.D.
 Readers Say “Cancer Patients Deserve Better”
          Several weeks ago I wrote that Canada’s Federal Minister of Health had announced 100 million dollars would be available to fight the opioid crisis. In addition, it would now be easier for addicts in treatment centers to obtain heroin.

But I argued there was no such easy access to heroin for terminal cancer patients in agony. I’ve received tons of mail from angry readers.

          From E.D. “I watched my Father die a horrible death due to cancer. He lost all dignity, begged doctors for heroin, as morphine did not help. A vet of the Korean war should not have suffered this way.”

          J.F., an English nurse, says, “When I came to Canada I couldn’t believe heroin was not available. I was told my patients might get addicted. I thought they   were joking as these patients only had a few days to live. You are right, not all lunatics are in the asylum.”

          Another nurse comments, “I trained in a psychiatric hospital where drug users were sent. Most addicts relapse and often tell you they just wanted a warm place for a few weeks. Safe injection sites are wrong and addicts should be sent to northern Canada to get over their addiction.”

          From an ex-military man, “I’m appalled that self-inflicted wounds are rewarded and not punished. To add insult to injury I’m paying for it.”

          D.S. replies, “Boy, did you hit the nail on the head! It blows my mind how the Minister of Health can spend millions on the opioid crisis when many cases are self-inflicted. I too am enraged that heroin is not available for cancer patients.”

          From Sault Ste. Marie, ‘Thanks for having the balls to say what is so apparent to any sensible observer. The biggest crowd on Main Street is in front of the methadone clinic! Send them to boot camp for six weeks to cure their addiction!”

          D. J., from Victoria B.C., replies, “Absolutely loved your column and wish our country had more outspoken doctors like you. It was criminal how my partner had to suffer when addicts are so babied and coddled. Please keep pounding away on these knuckle heads and the so-called political correct people.”

          Another reader had this ironic comment, “Our medical system has gone mad giving free drugs to addicts. Programs such as AA are available to alcoholics. Hopefully we won’t make the same mistake and start giving free liquor to them!”

          Some readers wrote it was the first time they had ever answered a column, but this one rang a bell. Others were so annoyed they said they would lock up these politicians and toss away the key.

          A few readers thought I should have more empathy for addicts. Didn’t I   realize that some doctors had over-prescribed these painkillers and bore much of the blame for the opioid epidemic? Others believed the solution could be solved by more treatment centers to fight the epidemic.

          But it was obvious from the volume of letters received that politicians were not in tune with the general mood of the nation on this issue. Taxpayers resented money being spent on addicts, when so much was needed in other health areas. Many sent congratulations for stirring the pot.

          Other readers wished to send money so I could once again fight for the legalization of medical use of heroin for pain. But 38 years ago several hundred thousand dollars were required from readers before heroin was finally legalized in 1984.

          It was a tiring and hard-fought battle. It was followed by the frustration of seeing the use of heroin strangled by asinine bureaucratic red tape. It was a battle won and a war lost. I will never forgive those who fought me and lied about the benefit of heroin. I hope they, if suffering from pain one day, will understand the suffering they needlessly caused patients over the years.
          So my sincere thanks to those who offered financial help. Now it’s too onerous a task for me to attempt again. But I do admit that if I were younger I would fight this idiocy again. 

Online docgiff.com Comments info@docgiff.com

The Odds from Wayne & Tamara

Direct Answers
from Wayne & Tamara  The Odds
   Hello. I need advice. About a month ago I confronted my spouse about being involved with a coworker. He admitted to the relationship. Physically, he said, they only kissed, but he did not offer this information readily. Our counselor had to pull his teeth to get it out. The day after the admission he was very patient with my questions. Now he be

comes easily agitated and shuts down. I feel I need answers in order to move on, because some of his comments don’t add up. This scares me. The counselor suggested I consider calling the other woman. This freaks me out. I am not afraid to ask, just worried she will be bitchy. I’m trying to be patient with my spouse in hopes he will come around, but I don’t know what to do.
Lexi

Lexi, a few years ago, a U.S. credit card company got in trouble for failing to tell customers that it could reduce their credit line if they used their card at certain businesses. The list of businesses included massage parlors, pawn shops, pool halls, tire retreading shops and…marriage counselors.
The company didn’t have a moral axe to grind. They simply needed to determine who posed a financial risk to them. So they ran the numbers. What they found is that couples in marriage counseling are at a high risk of imploding.
So there’s that. And there’s this. When a police officer comes up to your window and asks, “Do you know how fast you were going?”, most people won’t tell the truth. But it doesn’t matter because the officer already knows the answer.
Unlike the policeman, however, you don’t know the truth. You don’t know where your husband is in the marriage. He’s already decided he can involve himself with another woman. What else might he be lying about? You have at least one thing to build on. You have a good counselor. He or she is like a detective, able to get an admission from a suspect, when it is called for. Your counselor knows what happens next must be based in reality. That’s why he or she is trying to help you get to the truth.
If you call this woman, one of three things will happen. You will get information that conflicts with your husband’s story. She will tell a prearranged story identical to your husband’s. Or she will be belligerent and tell you nothing. Of course, there is a fourth possibility. She might tell you she fell for your husband’s lies about you. But whatever happens when you call, you will be inching toward the truth.
That’s why the next person you should call is a lawyer. Consider it an investment in peace of mind, like having an emergency plan for a flood, fire or tornado. You don’t have to enact the plan. But you need to have one in place in case you need it.
Consider also turning marriage counseling into individual counseling for you alone. Your counselor wants to counsel based on facts. A good lawyer wants the same. Only people dealing with the truth of your situation can help you.
There’s a market for people who sell fiction. There are people who want to be told comforting lies. But you don’t want to be one of them. You want to be like the credit card company. You want to run the numbers. You want to know the facts. You want to understand the risk. Only then can you decide on your wisest move in a perilous situation someone else placed you in.
Wayne & Tamara
Send letters to: DirectAnswers@WayneAndTamara.com

The Bachelorette By Joe Ingino b.a.

Logic
By Joe Ingino b.a.
Editor/Publisher
“I live a dream in a nightmare world”
  
The Bachelorette
    Like really!!!  How pathetic has television become that people are watching programs like ‘The Bachelorette’?
  As if it is not bad enough that we must endure the 24HR Trump network...oops silly me.  I meant CNN the most crooked news source.
Now the Bachelorette... and for un-explained reason after watching I can’t stop saying ‘LIKE REALLY’...  Nonetheless, how low can our social morals go.   20 women falling in love with one looser.  At the least put a half decent looking guy. 
No.  Instead they have Shaggy from Scooby Doo as their prince charming...  I have a question for the show producers... Where are all these low self esteem women that are so hard up to find true love by dropping their panties in front of a camera for America?
You got to wonder... Do these women not have any moral integrity?  The real eye catching thing of the whole show is the fact that they have all these Barbie types.  No fat Bertha’s looking for love.  Why the bias and prejudice or is it that fat chicks don’t need/want or are looking for love.
That would get my attention.  One skinny prince charming.... having to choose from 20 standard SUV type of gals... Pie eating, foul mouthed, ass farting real women.
No instead in the Bachelorette they are all prom queens... looking for love.   Please...  The only real winner on that show is Shaggy.  He gets to fondle, kiss and in some cases have sex with up to 20 women all in the name of love.
What fools these women are.   Do they not have families.  It be a cold day in hell if I ever let my daughter lower herself to such endevours...   Controlling?  Hell NO.  It is called responsible parenting.  She may want to jump off a cliff... it may be her right and choice.  But I sure hell will do everything I can to stop it.
I loved the part when the guy takes these Whorelette’s home to meet the family.   Like really... opps there I go again...  Would you not want to take home a woman that is independent, loving, appreciative, confident and over all well balanced.
Instead the Bachelor takes home a tomato from the basket of 20.  Do these women not know that the bachelor is kissing and being intimate with the other 19?   Does that not matter to them?  How can they be in love or falling in love when the one your are supposed to be in love with is right openly cheating on you right before your face.
How can these women feel love towards a man that is openly cheating on them.   Has American morals stooped so low that women have to compete for the love of some stranger.   Back to my Bertha model... It is not like these women on the Bachelorette can’t get men.   It is not like there would not be a line up around the block of guys that would give their right arm to date them.
Then, what gives?  Oh, I see it is a TV show.  Ok. Now I get it.
After CNN anything is possible.  The masses will follow ignorance to the end of the world and back. Think about it.  During world war II the Nazi introduced the concept of PROPAGANDA.  Propaganda is information that is not objective and is used primarily to influence an audience and further an agenda, often by presenting facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is presented.
Advertising is propaganda... In Latin, the word propaganda means to self promote.   In the case of the Bachelorette I guess the hype draws people in.  I pray that the show is just that.  To think that there are that many desperate women that would compete for the love of an average man.   That is purely insanity.
Propaganda at it’s best when it comes to reaching deep down into the morality of society and give us a look at how corrupt we are as a civilization that our women must compete for just an average man.
And for those gasping for air... The Bachelor show is no better.   In part understandable.  As for men it may be harder to find true love... and a competition for a prized sugar puff has a twisted rationale.
OK. I BEST STOP.  No it is not right either way.... Just thought I get your blood over the  top.

Audacity from Wayne & Tamara

Direct Answers
from Wayne & Tamara Audacity
   Here’s the deal. I just broke up with my girlfriend of a year and a half because I sensed she was losing interest in me. Later I found out through her girlfriends that she wanted to be single and unattached. I am 36, divorced with three kids. She is 24, divorced, no children. According to her my “baggage” is not a problem. We got together not long after her split with her husband. She dated two different guys for a brief time before getting serious with me. She was very serious about me and loved me more than any other man she has known. She still claims to love me and care about me, and she calls or emails every three or four days. Usually it is about some insignificant topic which seems like a reason to see how I am doing.
Two weeks ago she called and asked me out for a beer for an hour or so. After listening to her talk about everything she has been doing, she asked if I was dating yet. Just curious, she said. She has also shown signs of jealousy because some of her friends like to hang around me.
I would love to win her back, but I need a strategy. I feel she is checking out the single life while trying to keep me in the picture, because she might be making a big mistake. She even admitted to me once she might regret breaking up with me. Do I just totally ignore her and remain friends while she goes through this stage?
Zach

Zach, you are in a child’s game of choosing sides. You think: pick me, pick me. But either you are her first choice or you aren’t. No one wants to be another’s fallback position.
Her stance is simple. “I am not madly, passionately in love with you, but I would settle for you if I can’t find someone else.” Your stance is, “I’m divorced with three kids, she has no baggage, and she’s 12 years younger. Yeah, I’d like her back.”
Her second thoughts come from, why haven’t I met Mr. Right yet? She says your baggage doesn’t matter, but it does.
She doesn’t have a problem with your kids. She has a problem that the kids are not yours and hers, but yours with another woman. But how can she say that? How can she say, you’ve experienced all the things I haven’t experienced; we won’t be experiencing them together for the first time.
She sees your link to your ex. She knows, I don’t have to see my ex again in my whole life. She wonders, what about the expense of his kids, and what will vacations and holidays be like?
With age difference, people often push aside the real issues because they don’t have to be dealt with today.
You probably haven’t considered the history she brings. She’s divorced. She’s chosen badly once, and the second divorce is often easier than the first. While you are a percentage of sufficient for her, a percentage of right—even if it’s 99%--still isn’t 100%.
It’s simply this. She went to the store and found a pair of shoes. They don’t quite match the outfit. But they’ll do in a pinch. So she hides them behind another shoebox, so no one else will find them, in case she can’t do better.
That mentality alone should warn you away. But her foot in your door keeps you from moving on.
Wayne & Tamara
Send letters to: DirectAnswers@WayneAndTamara.com

My Scottish Father Would Roll Over in His Grave By W. Gifford-Jones M.D.

 The Doctor Game

By W. Gifford-Jones M.D.
My Scottish Father Would Roll Over in His Grave

          Most people know that obesity is a health issue. But how many know that it’s responsible for 95 percent of Type 2 diabetes? Or that 50 percent of diabetes patients die of heart attack? How many readers know how obesity affects surgery? And what would make my father roll over in his grave?

          For 60 years I’ve seen obesity in children and adults increasing in North America and most of the world. It’s tragic that few people fully understand how much this epidemic affects their lives and what it’s costing society.

          My viewpoint about obesity developed over time as a surgeon. I was once asked during an interview if operating on a 300 pound patient compared to a patient half that weight was more difficult. The interviewer was shocked to hear that technically surgery on such a patient could be 10 times more challenging!

          Obesity means a longer operation, increased loss of blood and more anesthetic. Overweight patients are more likely to be suffering from Type 2 diabetes with increased risk the incision will become infected. They’re less active following surgery with greater chance of blood clot and sudden death from pulmonary embolism.

          But their problems don’t disappear after surgery. Unless weight is lost, Type 2 diabetes patients have increased risk of loss of vision, leg amputation due to poor circulation, and kidney dialysis or transplant. Moreover, half of diabetes patients succumb to the number one killer, heart attack.

          It’s because of these facts that I’ve been interested in Type 2 diabetes for 60 years. It’s also why I interviewed researchers at Eastgate Biotech Corp a couple of years ago. By using nanotechnology they’ve produced an oral insulin pill to control blood sugar levels. This is a monumental discovery that’s eluded Big Pharma for years. The finding means improved control of blood sugar, decreased risk of diabetes complications and no injections.

          I told readers that I’d purchased stock in Eastgate so I could follow its progress. But I knew taking the risk of buying a penny stock that appeared to be going nowhere was like committing a financial sin. It would make my Scottish father roll over in his grave. Then, when I asked my financial advisors about buying more shares, they thought I had gone completely bonkers.

          So far my penny stock has hit new lows. Recent interviews with Eastgate executives tell me the company requires nine million dollars to carry out clinical trials required by Health Canada. So my father would be saying, “I told you so! Never buy a penny stock!” But I’d reassure him I had not bet the farm, and besides, my investment, if successful, would benefit medical research.

          In my years as a surgeon and medical journalist I’ve never encountered a more humanitarian and potentially rewarding discovery than an oral insulin pill. It’s simply too important to collect dust.

          So I’m convinced Eastgate will eventually receive a financial transfusion. And the insulin pill will become available to millions of patients who desperately need it.

          It’s ironic that the Canadian government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on opioid addiction. Yet it fails to comprehend the health benefits of an insulin pill. Has it forgotten it was Sir Frederick Banting, a Canadian, who discovered insulin at The University of Toronto and was awarded the Nobel Prize for it in 1923? Ideally, this discovery should be financed by a Canadian institution and the profits remain in this country.

          So, I believe the University of Toronto or Health Canada is making a major historical and financial error in not supporting this company. Its success would result in huge royalties for the benefactor due to the worldwide epidemic of Type 2 diabetes.

          I realize University officials are not without brains. But I remember once hearing that ‘if your brain is so full of knowledge there’s no room left to dream.”  That may be their problem.

          Unfortunately, my latest research indicates Eastgate is now seeking funds from another country. Hopefully, at some time I will have the pleasure of informing others they foolishly missed the boat. And my father can stop reminding me to never invest in a penny stock.
Online docgiff.com Comments info@docgiff.com

Job growth, career growth and economic development By John Mutton

 Job growth, career growth and economic

While some politicians like their Economic Development officers to go after big game like auto plants and factories, the truth that the real growth is existing business growing into broader national and multi-national markets.
With job growth comes less unemployment, comes less people on Social Assistance, comes the economic multiplier of increased disposable income being spent in our communities, however a Durham co-ordinated approach is far from being achieved.

Programs such as Employment Ontario being administered by the great people at the Durham Region Unemployed Help Centre offers programs and assistance to employers and those wishing for employment of any kind in Durham. Seven sites that administer this program in Durham with a total funding of 3.5 M dollars and supply chain and employment recruitment make the DRUHC one of the most powerful tools available for economic development in Durham, yet it is the best kept secret but with an incredible track record of success.
If you are a Durham employer, a job seeker or work in business development in the private sector or economic development in he public sector I urge you to look at the programs at www.unemployedhelp.on.ca. Don't let the name fool you, this is a huge granting and business development agency.
As we move into the Municipal election period after the Provincial election, I am committing right here, right now for the FIRST time in any Municipal campaign to actually put in job growth targets in Durham Region both cumulative and over all as well as sector based achievable job growth. The time has come for data based economic development that has job targets and is reportable and accountable by the Region rather than economic development by stealth or smoke and mirrors.
Till next week...
John Mutton
President and CEO
Municipal Solutions - Energy and Infrastructure
development are so essential to raising the quality of life in "Anytown" Ontario that while it is sexy talk, we rarely have a handle in what is going on.

My Predictions For 2018 By Joe Ingino

My Predictions For 2018
 Prediction #1.  - People of Oshawa prepare to be amazed by another tax increase in the range of 2 - 3%.  Yes you read it here first.  The level of incompetency of our municipal leadership will cost you 2 - 3% on top of the increase you had to endure last year.  One has to wonder with an influx of new housing that taxes would go down or stay the same... No and only in Oshawa.  When we get more tax cash coming in due to development do our cost also go up.  To me it means one thing.... “Poor management”.  Over spending and careless leadership.
Prediction #2.  - I see a new regional Chair taking over the Region.  Someone relatively young with a lot of municipal experience and a proven successful track record.   A person that in part may be considered an insider...but with a difference.   Most insiders only care about keeping their jobs.  This particular since he has been out of the ‘GAME’ for a while is genuine and believe it or not cares about the Region.  Not to mention that he out of all the serving/retired and or out of the ‘GAME’ has proven himself to have the qualification to lead the Region into a new and improved direction.  I will not name anyone as that may be considered and endorsement to political office and since no election has been called it would not be appropriate.   But stay tuned.  The phoenix of change will soon rise in Durham.
Prediction #3. - Oshawa tax payers prepare to be amazed by a Federal fine of about 7 million dollars against the City of Oshawa for failing to develop the Lake front properties awarded by the Feds.
Yes it has taken almost 8 years since the Federal Government has given Oshawa the Lake front property for development and Oshawa had done not a thing.  Is this Mayor Henry blind of the optimal opportunity?  Who is running city hall?
Prediction #4. - Oshawa airport will be sold and turned into a private enterprise for profit with little or no public input.   The airport will feel pressure from the Pickering airport project and the never ending operating cost.   Therefore sale of the airport will be the last resource.
Prediction #5. - During the upcoming municipal election the status quo will be re-elected and Oshawa will continue to enjoy the flat land developments we have.   The key to development is not give out lands to developers so they make money and  run.  The key is to strategically allow developers to develop high rise buildings and change the landscape of Oshawa.   Look at Aurora, Thornhill, Mississauga, Brampton.   What has happened to Oshawa?
Durham region is a fast growing place.   Unfortunately at least in Oshawa we have failed to take opportunity as we should.
We have an elected body that has no real experience in development.  No real practical and tactical vision or plan... I remember years back attending the viewing of Oshawa’s Vision for the future.  It looked great on paper and in the very expensive model.   Yet, it failed to show any clear guidelines on how this pipe dream could or would be attained.
Look at what our municipal elect have done so far.   They built in conjunction with the Feds a new court house on contaminated lands.   Great move.   To ad insult to injury they allow a friend of a friend developer to build a pathetic 5, 6, 7, 8 level condo building... deeming it ‘LUXURIOUS’, my ass.  A luxurious condo on contaminated lands.
What the city should have done is fine a true developer and propose that they erect a 40 level building in the heart of the city.  A super architectural monument exclusive to Oshawa.   No instead they allow erection of another box type structure.
But wait, not to sound grumpy and ungrateful... In GM town... our beloved municipal elect can’t even negotiate a deal with GM for the naming of our beloved John Gray’s white elephant.   Instead our city elect in the tradition of Celina St.  Our city elected opted to lift Oshawa’s dress and fornicate with a friend of a friend developer.  Now the GM Centre is know as The Tribute Communities Centre.  Yes, a ‘TRIBUTE’ to our incompetence and stupidity.   How are we expecting these community elect to negotiate million of dollars worth of development when they can’t even negotiate a mere sponsorship with the Nations largest company GM.  

Direct Answers from Wayne & Tamara - Personal Shopper

Direct Answers
from Wayne & Tamara
Personal Shopper
When I married my husband, he always put thought into gifts. They were wrapped with care, then lovingly presented. It was part of his upbringing. Now, when I receive gifts, it’s all for show.
How I dread Christmas. If we put up a tree, he wants things under the tree. But he never takes time to think what I'd like. He takes me shopping just before the big day. Despite the fact I do all the other shopping for the family, suddenly it's my responsibility to be available to go out and pick out a gift for "me" at the last minute. The only reason he goes shopping at all is so, when his friends come over for holiday cheer, they see how thoughtful he was. I do all the preparations, baking and decorating, and all he needs to do is show up. No matter what I do he's always there to take credit for all "we've" done. He has no idea how much thought I put into gifts for him. I take note of things he mentions and surprise him with the appropriate gift. But usually he returns it, rather than exchanging it for something else. I feel so hurt.
The emotional pain I feel from my birthday in October to New Years is unimaginable. Forty years ago we almost split up due to this behavior. Anyone would agree I am not a materialistic person. To me it's the thought, not the gift, that counts. I have few wants or needs, I only desire genuine feelings of the heart!
That is only the start of our issues. He shares no intimacy. I feel as though I am married to my son. We both recently retired, and I feel the only reason we're together is so he's fed, has a roof over his head and all the bills are taken care of. I'm crying on the inside and feel like I'm going insane.
Patricia

Patricia, perhaps it happened so slowly you couldn’t see it. Perhaps you didn’t want to see it. Perhaps only in retirement has it become too painful to ignore. But the depth of the rut you made has trapped you.
Your husband doesn’t think he has a problem. He likes things the way they are. You are the one with the problem. It’s as if you’ve lived in a house 40 years and always wanted the couch to be a different color. Why didn’t you switch things up years ago?
A common problem in letters we receive is a writer pointing the finger at someone else, instead of pointing the finger at themselves and asking “What do I need to do?” Change doesn’t come from hoping someone else will take the hint. Change requires direct action.
Your husband retired from his job a short time ago, but he retired from your marriage years before. When you went along with the charade of the presents, he made you a coconspirator in a fraud against his peers and against your own best interest. Why don’t you do what you want, and let him cope with it?
Staying in this spot is something you have to own. Then decide what, if anything, you are going to do about it. We are not trying to be hard on you. We are pointing out a simple fact. You can only control yourself and your own actions.
Change is hard. But if we don’t change, we wind  up with the life we are willing to put up with.
Wayne & Tamara
Send letters to: DirectAnswers@WayneAndTamara.com

By W. Gifford-Jones M.D.

 The Doctor Game
By W. Gifford-Jones M.D.

Have you ever wanted To Say,
“I Told You So”
          This week, a big thanks to Dr. Freddie Hamdy, Professor of surgery, Oxford University, England. Why? Because, for many years, I’ve advised readers, diagnosed with early prostate cancer, to take their time when deciding which treatment is best for them. Some authorities have disagreed with me. Now, I can legitimately say, “I told you so”.
          Does this mean I’m smart? No. I was just lucky years ago to interview Dr. Willet Whitmore, a world authority on prostate cancer at Memorial Hospital in New York City.
          At the time Whitmore remarked, “The survival rate of this cancer has little to do with the type of treatment. Rather, it’s related to the biological nature of the cancer.” In other words, how malignant is the cancer? Some cancers are pussy cats,   others raging tigers.
          Now, Dr. Hamby says, “We have learned that prostate cancer, detected by a PSA blood test, grows very slowly, and very few men die of it when followed over a period of 10 years, only around one percent, irrespective of the treatment assigned.”
          Researchers followed 82,000 British men who had taken a PSA test. 2,700 were diagnosed with prostate cancer. Of this number 1,643 agreed to be randomly treated by either surgery, radiation treatment, or regular surveillance, to detect whether the cancer spread.
          The result? The study, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that all three treatments resulted in very low rates of death from prostate cancer. But those men who decided on active surveillance, showed a slightly higher risk of the cancer spreading, but not a significant risk of dying, after 10 years.
          Further words of wisdom expressed by Whitmore have proven true. He stressed that deciding on either surgical or radiation treatment can be associated with troubling complications. This was confirmed by the recent Oxford study.
          For instance, several months after surgical treatment, nearly half the men complained of urinary incontinence and were forced to use diapers. Moreover, after surgery, 88 percent could not have an erection, compared to 78 percent treated by radiation. Radiation therapy, however, also caused more bowel problems than those treated by surgery. .
          But men who waited and were followed by active surveillance did not get off scot-free. Eventually, 50 percent required either surgery or radiation treatment. But this also delayed potential complications.
           Every year 24,000 men in Canada and 180,000 in the U.S. are diagnosed with prostate cancer by the controversial PSA test. Currently, in Canada, the test is not recommended. Advocates of the test say this is a tragic error as they claim it saves lives. Others say it’s diagnosing too many men with cancers that are slow-growing, may never kill them, and that needless treatment results in troubling complications.
          This is why Dr. Whitmore claimed the PSA test should not be done in men over the age of 65.Why? Because they will, in all probability, live another 15 years without treatment. So why take the risk of worrisome complications?
          It is well to remember these facts. Autopsies show 50 percent of men age 70 have prostate cancer and one of three over 85. Moreover, although one in seven men is diagnosed with this disease in his lifetime, only one in 28 men die of it. Obviously this shows that not all men need to be treated.  As Dr. Whitmore remarked, “Getting older is invariably fatal, cancer of the prostate only sometimes!”
          The final decision of how to treat early prostate cancer must always be a decision between the patient and his doctors. This study shows that anyone diagnosed with an early prostate cancer doesn’t need to make a decision within 24 hours.
          Some men may decide they cannot live knowing they have a small amount of cancer and it must be treated. Others, knowing the results of the Oxford study, will accept a watchful waiting approach. And conclude it is better to live with the devil you know, than face the possible complications of treatment. So it requires the Wisdom of Solomon to determine which way is the best to treat this unique malignancy.
It is ironic that Dr .Whitmore died of this cancer.
Online docgiff.com Comments info@docgiff.com

Organ donation not a moral or racial Issue By Diane Bujold

Organ donation not a moral or racial Issue
By Diane Bujold
Just as disease is no respecter of race and culture, donated organs are not subject to moral issues or racial profiles. When the medical professionals treating Delilah Saunders made the sad decision to not place Ms. Saunders on the waiting list for a liver transplant, they did not do so out of moral judgment about her alcohol habit or addition. Nor did they base their decision on her race (Ms. Saunders Inuk).
There are many factors to consider when placing a person on a transplant list. Receiving an organ is not a normal type of surgery. You just don't go into a hospital, receive your new organ and walk out after a couple of weeks ready to resume your previous lifestyle. It doesn't work that way.
There are stringent procedures in place for good reasons in order to ensure the best possible outcome for organ recipients. People of all races, cultures and ethnicity are on transplant lists and none can jump the que. Even then, not everyone on a transplant list is fortunate enough to receive a new organ on time to save their lives nor are there any guarantees that the organ donated will work in its new host.
However, when a person is placed on a transplant list, that person should be made aware of the life changing effects this operation will have on them (if successful) and be absolutely mentally, emotionally and physiologically prepared to accept those changes.
I have a friend, Jan (not her real name to protect her privacy) who received a heart transplant twenty-five years ago. She told me that not only did she comply with all of her medical team's recommendations before being placed on the transplant list, but she was also made aware of the aftermath of receiving her new heart.
Jan received her new heart at the very last of her struggle as she would not have lived another week otherwise. She was fortunate.
Jan is limited in all sorts of ways as to what she can and cannot do on a daily basis. But she has life. She was given a gift that she cherishes with every fiber of her being and never takes for granted. That is why she chose to follow to the letter everything her medical professionals advised her to do (including abstinence from life choices that could compromise her fragile health).
Jan concluded her story by telling me that, for her, there is a moral obligation to keep herself as healthy as possible by adhering to the doctors' advice in every way because someone had to die in order for her to receive what she called "the most precious gift".  Jan said that organs are not harvested by the thousands and placed in cold storage just waiting for people who need them. She explained to me that most organs are donated out of someone else's tragedy.
In her on words, Jan said, "I often think of the family of the person whose heart is beating inside me now. They lost their loved, one probably through an accident as most are, and then they had to make the decision to give away their loved one's heart while they were in the midst of a grieving a terrible loss. I take good care of my heart. It would be inconceivable for me not to have done what I was told beforehand in order to receive it in the first place." I agree with that statement. After all, I would like to know that the person who received my loved one's heart was a person who respected and appreciated the implications.
Jan complied with all the medical professionals' requirements from the very beginning so that her new heart would have every chance of adapting to her body and not die in her chest and go to waste as a result of any carelessness on her part. "So, for me," she said, "there was, and still is, a moral obligation."
Medical professionals do not base their decision on moral grounds. They are there to perform a function to help enable a person to live but there are rules to follow for the patient. It is not a simple procedure.
After receiving her new heart, Jan was put on a slew of medication that she must take for life. She was made aware that her entire lifestyle had to change in order to allow the new organ to heal, to adapt and to function well. One of the medications is actually an immune system suppressor. This means that her immune system is more susceptible to infection than most people. Because of this, she cannot put herself in situations where she might catch even a cold. She cannot allow friends to visit her at home if they have the slightest hint of a cold or flu. She cannot travel to places where the risks of encountering foreign bacteria that could put her life in serious peril, more so than the average person. The reason for this immune system suppressor is because the body knows when a foreign object has invaded it and works to build a defense against it. Without this suppressor, the body would quickly develop an attack against the donated heart and kill it as a foreign object.
In speaking with Jan and doing a little research, I have learned that the liver is a different matter as it is not simply a pump, like the heart. The liver has a chemical function and therefore more complex in that sense. I do not know how successful liver transplants are as opposed to heart transplants and I would have loved to have the time to consult with a medical professional on the issue, but I would venture to say that the preparation for such an operation as a liver transplant should definitely entail total abstinence from alcohol at least six months beforehand and complete abstinence for life after the surgery. One cannot return to the same lifestyle and expect everything to function normally nor should anyone expect that drinking alcohol beforehand will not in some way affect the outcome of a liver transplant.
It seems to me that Ms. Saunders' family, friends and the Aboriginal community want to turn this into a racial and a moral issue. I can understand that in light of the situation, it may be easier to clutch at the proverbial straws and point the finger in an attempt to pressure the medical industry into making an exception in Ms. Saunders's case. But how fair would that be to those others on liver transplant lists doing everything they are told in order to ensure the best possible results?
After reading the above and perhaps doing some research of your own, my hope is that the reader will see the issue for what it really is; a complex procedure that cannot be left to chance as organs are very far and few in-between. They just don't grow on trees.
I truly hope that something will change soon for Ms. Saunders and that she finally receives the liver transplant she so desperately needs. Nobody wants the worst to occur.  But let's not make this into a racial or moral issue when it simply couldn't be farther from the truth.

STILL AMAZED By John Mutton

Regional Talk
By John Mutton      
  Today I write my column on another day where it's too cold for the road salt to work. Going from the bitter cold to what seemed like a balmy 12 degrees back to minus 30 degree weather will take a toll on roads and much of our concrete and asphalt infrastructure.

I am still amazed that in Durham, we have not been able to coordinate our local Municipal snow plows with the Regional snowplows so we don't have snow plows lifting blades or not dropping salt because they are simply on a local vs regional road or regional vs local road. That is the essence of duplication.

In Oshawa the Region and the City are trying to negotiate having some Regional Roads like Park St return to being the property and responsibility of the City vs the Region. Why has this never happened? Quite bluntly, the City do not want the ongoing maintenance and capital costs of the road. As long as this is something that needs agreement, I doubt it will ever happen. Where residents should be concerned is that if a road should not be a regional road, why should residents of Pickering, Ajax, Uxbridge, Scugog, Clarington and Whitby pay for a local road in Oshawa. It would work the same if the issue where in any of Durham's 8 municipalities.

I know duplication exists and I know common sense is sometimes rare when it comes to parochialism. I guarantee this will not exist when looking after the taxpayers of Durham if I have anything to do with it. It has been said many times, there is only one taxpayer.

Till next week...

John Mutton
President and CEO
Municipal Solutions - Energy and Infrastructure

Oprah Said What!!! by Joe Ingino

Oprah Said What!!!
  Oprah’s God like  speech to the masses at the Golden Globe was a moment of intense viewing... It was as if she was about to split in half and Hillary to pop out.
Instead, Oprah with the flare of Hollywood stood there and said, “I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon! And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say "Me too" again.”
Wait a  minute... is that statement not prejudice?   I can understand the context.  But is the statement not bias towards girls and women?
What if a white man stood there and said the same about young boys and men?  Would it not be deemed as bias and prejudice and totally out of line?
Then the question lingers why is Oprah able to get away with it?  
To ad insult to injury.   The most untrusted news source CNN is quick to deem it a Presidential candidacy speech.   Really?   Are we not out to stop bias and prejudice?
I like the opening statement by Seth Meyers, “Good evening, ladies and remaining gentlemen.”
Part of that had to do with the general side lining of Golden Globes host Seth Meyers. The late-night star described himself aptly as “like the first dog they shot into outer space” as an awards host in the post-Weinstein Hollywood era. And he didn’t seem ready for the altitude at first, claiming early on that he’d been a second choice to host after various women said no.
This was in service of an unworthy joke about how women feel uncomfortable in hotels now because of Weinstein, and worse still, didn’t feel true. (He’s another straight white guy hosting an awards show! What else is new?) What did feel true was a staging of Meyers’s Late Night bit “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell,” in which members of protected-class communities get the opportunity to deliver the punch lines of jokes that, up until very recently, any other straight white guy hosting an awards show would have felt empowered to tell.
Is this going to be the new world order?  Is equality not something all can enjoy?   You have the Trump bashers making statements that Trump is a racist a bigot and does not respect women.    Really, I have yet to see any of those allegations made public.   I believe that Trump in the year in office has accomplished many great things for all Americans.   For the young boys and girls.  For the middle ages men and women.  For elderly men and women.   Not in one instance was there reference to bettering women over men.   Child over adult or youth over seniors.   I have yet to see how a cry to young women as Oprah did can’t be seen as bias and discriminatory. The underlying monster is politics and how battered we as a population truly are.   We suffer from a general overwhelment.   Deep inside we all want good in the world but we fail to understand the world enough to appreciate that utopia is not what we should be striving for as in perfection there is imperfection.
Seth in his jokes made references such as:  Happy New Year, Hollywood! It's 2018, marijuana is finally allowed and sexual harassment finally isn't. There's a new era under way, and I can tell because it's been years since a white man was this nervous in Hollywood. For the male nominees in the room tonight, this is the first time in three months it won't be terrifying to hear your name read out loud.  Satire with a strong social punch.  A punch that at times is hard to comprehend as it brings to question the change that we undergoing if it is for the good or the compromising of our civilization.  There is no question that there should be no discrimination, bias and or prejudice against no one.  If so then why did Oprah draw such line in the sand?

For The Love of Hate by Joe Ingino

For The Love of Hate
  What is wrong with America?  Have we finally lost our common sense and National pride?  I can respect freedom of speech and human rights.   What I do not understand is public defiance and civil unrest in the name of democratic freedoms.
In these modern time it appears that as soon as a white police officer wrongly uses excessive force against a minority that it has granted minorities a license to go out and riot.
It appears that in these modern times, to hate a President is the ‘IN’ thing.   I wonder if during Kennedy’s Presidency the same took place.   After all Kennedy was one that took the world by the horns and shook it.
Trump seems to be doing the same.  Trump in my opinion is a man that has his own cosmic significance and purpose.   He has gone up against the system that was stacked against him and has come out on top every time.  Yet, Trumps sublime TV network CNN can’t go 15 seconds with putting out his name to millions of people.
We the ignorant population eat it all up.   We talk about it during out day and we create opinion based on hearsay. 
We have become a population of people that love to hate and hate to love progress and change.  It appears that due to our daily failures we have  become blind and are easily manipulated to oppose success.   To look for fault and or fracture.
We live in a system that is not for us to succeed but for us to fail.  A system that has as oppressed by our own ignorance of the actual facts.
I remember at the University during my graduate years... a professor joking and stating.  We are the educated ignorant as no matter how smart we know within our disciplines.  We know nothing but what we are told and hear.
The system has each one of pigeon holed into a mind set.  Outside of that mindset we are truly ignorant of the real facts.  As I written. We are modern day slaves.  Instead of chains we are held in captive  by our necessities/commitments/responsibilities.    We are constantly punished and made to work harder through our many financial commitments.   We live in a world that has us believing we have choice.  In reality our choice is controlled by our ability to work hard for the system.
Romantics have noted that ‘Love and Hate’ are the means to the end in a philosophical “yin yang” model.
Instead of praising a President that is actually making significant changes.   It appears at least according to CNN that the village people want him out.
Now since when has bias news reporting been confused with ‘fake news’.   Or is ‘fake news’ the new or old ‘bias news’. 
As a journalist I remember the many phone calls for being labeling a particular slant based on what was printed.  In reality in 99% of the cases it was what it was.   If a particular side was predominant then that was what it was.  Today it appears that due to financial gains, bias is predominant... and when money can’t reach you.  Some media outlets like CNN have turned to ‘fake news’.  I say this due to the fact that look at the experts they bring on their show.   Everyone is an expert...  DAM now I am doing it... I am turning on to a CNN.  Every time I rag on CNN I am giving them public exposure.   For the love of hate.  Can we just all wake up and see the truth?   Ha, keep dreaming Dorothy.  The truth is not for all to know as much like in that Tom Cruise movie.  “WE CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH”.   If anything we are good ignorant modern slaves with opinions.   

Mr. President, tell your lawyers: 'You're fired!' Larry Klayman

Mr. President, tell your lawyers:
'You're fired!'
Exclusive: counters those claiming Flynn matter not a problem for Trump.

No matter how hard President Trump’s lawyers try to spin it, or favorably disposed media try to downplay it, the criminal charges filed today, with the entry of a plea against and cooperation agreement concerning retired Gen. Michael Flynn, do not bode well for the White House. Flynn pleaded guilty of one count of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and with yet another leak from the special counsel it appears that no jail time will be recommended, only probation, if Flynn cooperates with Mueller and his team of Trump-hating leftist and Muslim lawyers and gives up the goods on the president, his associates and his family. Indeed, the speaking criminal information made public today in the open court of the Honorable Rudolph Cantreras speaks to Flynn’s admissions of likely so-called collusion (however legal in reality) with Russia over the removal of sanctions imposed by former President Barack Obama.

While the usual inexperienced political pundits on the conservative side of the spectrum rushed to made glowing assessments that if this is all Mueller has, then President Trump is “out of the woods,” those with any degree of real criminal defense experience, particularly in the legal culture of the Washington, D.C. swamp, know better.

The simple and hard fact is this: Given all of the illegal grand jury leaks of the Mueller prosecutors over the last many months that Flynn would ultimately be indicted for several alleged crimes, some of which if provable are very serious, the general pleading only to this very limited charge shows that the special counsel got a lot in exchange, implicating, at best, those in and around the president for other alleged crimes.

While I believe Flynn to be an honorable man and hero, the other hard fact is that Mueller and his hack prosecutors were without any doubt threatening to destroy him, his son and his family if the general did not “turn state’s evidence.”
And, as the old adage goes, a sinking and drowning man will grab on to anything to save his life, even if the suborned perjury at the request of Mueller is necessary to save oneself and his family.

That in simple terms is why today’s events, caused by a special counsel who is the product of both the Democratic and Republican establishments – most of whom would like to see the Trump presidency incinerated short of a nuclear attack by North Korea – is so dangerous for the president and all of his men and women who, only for now, have been left standing. And, to underscore the partisanship of Mueller, he chose to make his plea and cooperation agreement with Flynn known in open court, and elsewhere, on the very day of President Trump’s biggest legislative triumph to date: the passage by the U.S. Senate of tax reform, after the House of Representatives voted similarly a few weeks ago.

Mueller thus intended to take the media focus away from this Trump victory by smearing him with the Flynn criminal charges, plea and a cooperation agreement before a federal judge in Washington, D.C., who was nominated by former President Barack Obama.

 While I am not casting any aspersions on Judge Cantreras, one hopes that he will administer to the sentencing of Flynn impartially, as well as address any further criminal leaks of grand jury information by Mueller and his prosecutors.

I fully expect that over this weekend we will hear a drumbeat from the president’s lawyers, Ty Cobb, John Dowd and especially Jay Sekulow, the latter of whom has taken on the role of legal spokesperson, that all is well in Gotham. And, while I like Jay and think that he is a fine religious-rights lawyer at the American Center for Law and Justice, he, like his other two colleagues, is ill-suited to now wage a strong defense of the president and those around him in the months ahead.

Indeed, Ty Cobb, the great-great-grandson of the famous baseball player, has “struck out.” And, I have had my own experience with Cobb during the Clinton years, when he ran interference for the Bonnie and Clyde of American politics by representing John Huang, the suspected communist Chinese spy Bill and Hill placed at Ron Brown’s Commerce Department. There, Huang, who had worked for the Chinese Riady family and its Lippo Bank before moving to the Democratic National Committee and then Commerce, was believed to have passed classified economic information to the Chinese as a quid pro quo for the Chinese government illegally lining the coffers of the Clinton-Gore re-election campaign in 1996.

Not coincidentally, the Riady family were huge donors to Bill Clinton when he ran for governor of Arkansas and later the presidency. In several depositions I took of Huang, where he was held in contempt by a federal magistrate judge over 150 times for refusing to answer my questions under oath, Cobb was present to protect not just his client but also the Clintons. Why, then, would President Trump want him as his criminal defense counsel?

As for John Dowd, he is pure Republican establishment, that same establishment that has repeatedly tried to drive a stake in the president’s heart. And, Jay Sekulow, while loyal to the president, lacks the experience and thus depth to represent him in a criminal defense setting.

Now that Mueller’s handwriting is on the “Trump White House Wall,” the president must now be true to himself and his instincts and retain seasoned and hard-hitting criminal defense lawyers outside of the incestuous Washington, D.C., legal swamp – where most attorneys put their own clubby political and other interests ahead of their clients. The best defense for the president is a good offense. In this way he can keep the ball away from the Mueller team.

At Freedom Watch I filed suit late last week to have Mueller removed as special counsel based on the continuing criminal leaks and conflicts of interest. You can see our complaint at www.freedomwatchusa.org. It’s time the president hire lawyers who will also go on the offense and not only join our case, but also sue Mueller and his friend James Comey for the illegal wiretaps and unmasking the FBI and Obama administration initiated on the Trump Tower and team.

Now is not the time for President Trump to listen to his legal defense team and be consoled that all is going well. It’s time to wake up and with new lawyers go on the offense before it is too late. In the famous words of The Donald, “Your fired!” At this perilous point, the president does not need any more ill-suited conflicted, weak and inexperienced “apprentices”!

"And the L-rd set a mark upon Cain . . . . " Gen. 4-15. By H.J. ROGERS

 H. J. Rogers
Harvard Law School '66
    
        The Biblical Mark of Cain is not intended to be a punishment, nor lead to some form of punishment.  In the words of Gunther Plaut, editor of The Torah which is used in most Reform synagogues, "[I]t is not a hand of rejection but a sign of protection."   The person who best expresses my own conflicted feelings with regard to those who kill is the Irish poet Oscar Wilde in his long poem "The Ballad of Reading Gaol".  Wilde spent a couple years in prison on what might be loosely called a morals charge today.  During his routine exercise walks, Wilde would observe another prisoner walking in another ring in the opposite direction:
        I walked with other souls in pain,
            Within another ring,
        And was wondering if the man had done
            A great or little thing,
        When a voice behind me whispered low,
            "That fellow's got to swing."
        I can see clearly now that it the not the murderer per se that attracts me.  Murder, any murder for any reason, is a terrible thing, so very terrible that even a man like Albert Camus, a Nobel prize winner who rejected any morality based on Judeo-Christian precepts, could reject it categorically:  "There are some causes worth dying for but none are worth killing for."  Equally terrible is what is done to a person convicted of murder: They are locked away in a tiny cell for years to prevent them from "cheating the hangman".  What is humorous in a way is our attempt to make killing humane.  To my mind the Chinese do it best with a small caliber bullet to the base of the skull.  The organs are immediately "harvested" and the next-of -kin is sent a bill for the bullet.
        Nothing attracts public attention like a murder trial.  In the mid-1950s, we my family living in a little coal patch near Wheeling.  A man named Walter Rabulsky was accused of murdering a bar girl and dumping her body along the railroad tracks.  The trial was highly publicized and based on circumstantial evidence.  My parents were quite divided, arguing the evidence as it appeared each day in newspapers.  My mother was certain that Rabulsky had done it while my father was skeptical about the quantum of evidence.  Rabulsky's acquittal was almost a personal triumph for my father.
        The trial was one of the few things that brought excitement to both of my parents, so I was surprised at their relative lack of interest at the next big murder case that occurred in Wheeling.  I had expected them to be as enthusiastic as they had been about the Rabulsky case, but they were almost indifferent.  The perpetrator in this case---a young boy murdered a playmate in the crawl space under a house on Wheeling Island---was clear and thus the "who-done-it" element was not present.  I read the early stories eagerly but not even my mother wanted to talk about the case.  Nonetheless, I was determined to skip high school, hitchhike the eight or 10 miles to Wheeling, and see with my own eyes someone who had to swing.
        Tommy Williams was the defendant's name.  He was 13 or so but was being tried as an adult because of the heinousness of the crime.  The testimony was to the effect that Williams and an even younger boy had lured the third boy under the house with the intent of killing him.  Because the City-County building was under construction, the trial was held in the banquet hall of the Greek Orthodox church on lower Chapline Street.  When I opened the door to the courtroom, I was surprised by the fact that there were only a handful of spectators.  The facts of the case doubtless sent a shudder through the minds parents in the  early part of the Eisenhower era.  It is one thing to preach to kids to be wary of strangers.  It is another thing when one's precious is lured away by playmates and one of them beats the child to death.
        The trial was a classic battle of psychiatrists.  It was the first time I had heard the phrase "Oedipus complex": The victim was a surrogate for the father who came back from the war and supplanted young Tommy in his mother's affections.  "Sounds like you," my mother said, unimpressed with the summary of the psychiatrist's testimony that she read in the newspaper.  "I'm not going to let you use that excuse if you kill someone", she laughed.   My father was less kind when he found out that I had been skipping school to go to the trial.  He called me a "ghoul".
        "But Pop," I said, "I want to be a lawyer.  That's why I'm going to the trial."  I was lying through my teeth but the answer pleased him.  My fascination with murderers was certainly not the reason that I eventually became a lawyer.  I went to law school as a prerequisite to entering into politics.  The murder mystery of the Orient Express still bores me.  It was the transgression of the natural law that fascinated me (making me an odd bedfellow with Justice Clarence Thomas) at the time.   Hemingway's idea that killing was a divine attribute exercised by a mortal was what first intrigued me.  The terrible fate that awaited people convicted of this terrible crime completed the equation. 
  Mary Wright, the grandmother of megalawyer and Democratic Congressional candidate Ralph Baxter, also attended the trial.  She lived in Pine Grove which made her commute over 60 miles one way.  She was driven by her husband Earl who rode to work at the Hope Gas facility in nearby Hastings with my grandfather John Henry Stewart.  Earl Wright had to take off from work to drive his "ghoulish" wife to and from the trial. When the trial was over, Earl resumed riding with my grandfather.  For the next few days, Earl would regal my grandfather with second hand accounts of the trial. When my grandfather came home in the evening he would tell his wife (also named Mary) about the proceedings.
        When the story of the trial passed from my grandmother to my mother on a Sunday afternoon telephone call, my mother learned that the thing than had most impressed Ralph Baxter's grandmother about the proceedings was how Tommy Williams's older brother had sat behind him every day in the courtroom, listening to every word of the testimony.  It was Mary Wright's opinion that the older brother was probably in on the murder, possibly even the instigator.  "I wouldn't put it past him" Mrs. Wright told my grandmother.
        "I didn't have the heart to tell your grandmother," my mother said with a smile, ''that her precious grandson was the person that Mary Wright thought was in on the murder."
        Years later I would tell Tom Goodwin, the man who prosecuted the case (I would try a civil case against him), and a half dozen years later one of the defense attorneys Jim Byrum (in 1962, he would meet me at the door of a 12-step program) about how I had seem them ''strut their hour upon the stage'' when I was just a high school student.  Also, I would meet with one of the psychiatrists (a Dr. Osterman) about a client of mine at his office at 3 or 4 a.m.  He kept weird office hours, which would lead to his murder in the late 1970s.  I was later appointed to represent the accused murderer (a fellow named Barrett from eastern Ohio) on a post-conviction review case.
        [Osterman was a proponent of electroshock treatments and the murderer administered his own form of "shock treatment" to Osterman with a 12 volt battery.  The word on the street was that this was a hit disguised to look like a drug robbery.  According to scenario suggested to me by a local "doper" lawyer--Steve Herndon, a conversation between Osterman and a lawyer in his building about an underaged patient lead to the hit.
If Herndon knew what he was walking about, this lawyer ended up involved in Barrett's trial.]  
        Williams was sentenced to the old maximum security prison at Moundsville for life with mercy, which meant that he would be eligible for parole.  When he sentenced Williams, the judge said that because of his youth, he was to be accompanied by a guard at all times when he was out of his cell.  This was to protect him  from sexual predators.
        In 1963 between college and law school, I would spent 6 or 7 months as a guard at the prison.  The place was as tough as it was reputed to be.  An old guard once pointed out Williams at my request.  Like me he was now in his early 20s, quite indistinguishable from the hundred or so other inmates milling around the yard.  I asked about whether he had always been accompanied by a guard.
        "Oh, yes.  He was accompanied everywhere he went until he turned 18.  It was in the order of commitment, you know.  He would have been a prize catch for one of the old cons," the old guard said.  Then he smiled and gave me half a wink.  "Of course, the guard would turn his head every now and then.  By then he was community property, if you know what I mean."  I had a few opportunities later to speak with him but never did, basically because I didn't know what to say.  After all, I had grown up with sports and girls and college while Tommy had grown up, well, he had grown up here, in the constant company of guards who would for reasons of their own occasionally turn their heads.  And then it got worse.