The Oppenheimer Report - 6/28/10

6/23/10 - Headed back from Buffalo to Toronto, I must have been driving on the QEW when “big” earthquake struck, and I missed it! While the epicenter was near Ottawa, people felt it as far away as Toronto. Shauna said that she felt it in Katrine. Maybe ten years ago I felt a slight tremor from our high rise apartment, and I understand that there are some major fault lines running through this area. While this quake was a mere 5 on the Richter Scale,  the rarity of earthquakes in this area made it a notable event. I wonder what will happen to our 51 storey apartment building if a big one hits. Later on today, up in Midland Ontario (not too far from Jasper Bark Lodge), an F-2 tornado touched down and did some major damage. The G-8 Summit started up in Huntsville last Thursday, so all those would-be terrorists hiding out in the woods might have had a bit of a windy night. Don’t mess with Canada you fundamentalist jackals, you can’t handle our weather. The reason Mahmoud can’t find his rocket launcher is because it’s now in a cow pasture in Uxbridge.



6/25/10 - The reason I came back from Buffalo sooner than I might have chosen to is that today, the G-20 summit began in Toronto, and I knew I’d have trouble getting into the city  if I waited. There are police and security people everywhere, and there are protesters all over the place hoping to make their concerns known to the presumably well protected leaders. I hope they’re well-protected , because some of these protests are about the gigantic price  the Canadian taxpayer will pay for this little shindig ... about $1 Billion. Today, I rode my bicycle over to the east end to drop off some old clothes at Goodwill, and I rode right through the beginning of a big protest march. There was some guy up on his soap box screaming some anarchist nonsense, and there were phalanxes of policemen patrolling both sides of the street. As I rode further up the street there were bus  filled with standby police parked and waiting. One bus came all the way from Cape Breton Island. Are we expecting trouble?



Saturday 6/26/10 - Now I understand why there was such a huge police presence; today the protest got ugly. While the majority of the protesters were well-mannered and peaceful, there were a group of perhaps 100-150 troublemakers - the press called them anarchists, but  I think that does a disservice to anarchists - who broke store windows, pillaged, and lit several police cars on fire. It was strange to follow the local live coverage on T.V., then to look out of our apartment window and see the smoke from the burning cars. I understand these troublemakers travel from summit to summit and are well known to law enforcement agencies. I think it’s pretty stupid to light a police car on fire when you know a hundred people, including the media, are filming it. Under the circumstances, I think the police showed remarkable restraint. People were throwing bricks and rocks at them and generally, they did not seem to overreact. If something like that had happened in Buffalo, the cops would have beaten the violators to within an inch of their lives. Sunday I rollerbladed down to where the violence had occurred the day before and there were a lot of boarded up buildings.  Hope the summit was worth the price.


Final notes ... U.S. Senator Robert Byrd dies at 92 ...  Tropical Storm /Hurricane Alex may threaten the oil spill cleanup efforts in the Gulf. 70 days in, with all that oil floating around in the Gulf, think about the mess a hurricane would cause. In the World Cup, The U.S. lost to Ghana dashing their playoff hopes. Germany defeated England, and Argentina beat Mexico to advance to the next round. I’m headed back up north tomorrow, now that the dust has settled.


Earthquakes, tornadoes, riots, torrential rainfall and floods … do you think Mother Nature is making some kind of statement about the sorry state of our world? I suppose those G-20 leaders paid about as much attention to her as they did to “Jews against Zionism” protesters . Just another week in paradise!


Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED