The Oppenheimer Report 6/14/10

The G8 Summit is about to take place near Huntsville, Ontario, which is about 20 miles from our house in Katrine. While the event has prompted a major facelift for the town, including some improvements to infrastructure, the jury is still out as to whether or not it will be good for the town’s economy. Many of the businesses with which I deal in Huntsville are heading for the hills, and the newspapers are filled with stories about secret service and security. I imagine that anyone who goes camping in the Muskokas next week will be in for a rude surprise. Personally, I don’t think one can “get back to nature” while commandos are scampering around in the bush carrying automatic weapons. When the G8 was held in Kananaskis, Alberta back in 2002, I was foolish enough to go grocery shopping in nearby Canmore, and it was a ridiculous spectacle. That sleepy little mountain town was overrun with secret service guys talking into their sleeves, there were fighter jets constantly traversing the sky, and helicopters were everywhere overhead. Let’s just say it was bit of a rocky mountain buzz kill. I was sure someone was going to try to assassinate Dubya during that summit, but no credible threats were ever publicly reported. Shortly after the G8 takes place up here, there is a G20 summit in Downtown Toronto. I read about security for that little get together, and it appears that if I need to travel to or from Buffalo between June 24th to the 26th, I’m S.O.L. It seems that every major highway into Toronto will be all but closed down. All the snipers are presently scrambling for the best high rise roofs.




The FIFA international soccer match is now underway in South Africa, and World Cup fever is upon us. If you’re too busy to watch it on T.V. many internet providers are offering live streaming video of the matches. Who am I watching there on my 2 inch cell phone screen …. is it Ghana or Italy, I can‘t tell? Is that a player or a bird? I ask you, how in heavens name are we supposed to watch a soccer match on a cell phone screen? So far, I’ve watched several matches, including the one between Argentina and Nigeria last Saturday, (1-1). I watched the U.S. tie England (1-1) the other day, and that was considered an upset because, on paper England was the better team. Franky, I don’t understand why soccer isn’t more popular in North America; it’s a great game to watch. For my money it’s ten times more exciting than American football, not to mention the fact that it requires ten times more stamina. Soccer players play two 45 minute periods of almost constant running, there are only 3 substitute players (plus the backup goalie), and they play with very little padding. I realize that there are overpaid, pompous, self-important athletes in all professional sports, including world cup soccer, but I think the Americans have everyone else beat in terms of atrocious athlete behavior. But that’s a (never-ending) rant for another day. I think we Americans thrive on the bad behavior; it gives us something about which to complain.



The Chicago Blackhawks are the new Stanley Cup champions after winning Game Six in overtime IN Philadelphia. Former Buffalonian Patrick Kane (speaking of bad behavior) scored the game winner, and though I was watching, I did not actually see the puck go in the net. That was a good series. I hate a playoff series wherein one team completely dominates. I’ll always remember that the Hawks won that series because my nephew and his wife had a baby boy (Willem) that morning, and they live in Chicago. Everybody’s joking that Willem’s middle name should be Stanley. I think that is a little like naming your child after the place where he or she was conceived. Meet my daughter Schenectady.



Friday was day 53 of the BP oil spew. The big news last week was that BP knew that more oil was spilling out than they admitted; as it turns out about twice as much. All we need to do is take an aerial shot of the Gulf of Mexico to see that. I say stop the finger pointing, there’s plenty of blame to go around. Let’s face it, most North Americans have a pretty big carbon footprint. I’m like Sasquatch. This is a big mess, stop squabbling about how big and figure out how to shut it off and clean it up. Fun facts: over 1 million feet of coastal boom and 430,000 feet of deep water boom have been set. The volume of the spew is now estimated to be up to 40,000 barrels a day, the hard cap containment system won’t be ready until next month, and Louisiana has a new tourist attraction as well as a lot of dead birds. Come to the Gulf and grab a blob of souvenir oil to remind you of mankind’s ill-conceived reliance on oil. The anti-immigration debate in the U.S. heated up last week when a 15 year-old year old Mexican boy trying to smuggle illegal aliens across the border was shot to death by a U.S. border guard. Perhaps we should loosen the immigration rules a little and simply insist that the immigrants move to our less populated areas, like North Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska … the Louisiana coast. Just kidding.

Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED