Tom Young

You can call it your “Festive Season,” or you can call it your “Holiday Season.”  In fact, for all I care, you can call it whatever you like…

In our home — it’s the “Christmas Season.”

For us, that means a real decorated tree with lots of gifts under it.  A big turkey dinner where all of us I’m sure will eat far more than we need and it will just be a fun time.

My three children, my son in law and my granddaughter will all be at our home together doing what the majority of Canadian families do.  We’ll be up early Christmas morning, focusing on an 18 month old child as she runs amok, trying in her own way to figure out just what the heck is going on.

This is my last blog of 2007, since I now get the opportunity to enjoy eleven consecutive days without having to cross the threshold of the radio station.

Tyler McLean and I will be back in the New Year with our first show of 2008 on Wednesday, January 2nd and we’ll begin our routine again of bringing you The Afternoon News five days a week from Noon until 3 PM.

2007 has been a great year for Tyler and I and all because of your response to what we do!

May your worst day in 2008 still be better than your best day of 2007…

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I’m Tom Young.

Dan Fogelberg achieved a modicum of success as a singer and songwriter in the 1980’s and it’s likely that many of you have never heard of him.

He spent much of his career in folk music, but also transitioned into rock, jazz and even country with hits like, “Leader of the Band” and “Same Old Lang Syne.”

I see where he passed away this past weekend from prostate cancer, and anytime I see or hear of someone in their mid-fifties dying from prostate cancer, it saddens me — and at the same time — makes me very angry.

Far too many men in their prime die from prostate cancer needlessly.  I think it has become the largest killer of men of all the cancers which are highly treatable today.

Having been diagnosed with prostate cancer about seven years ago, I have become a bit of a crusader in hoping that some day — prostate cancer will become a thing of the past.

I get most upset when I talk to guys over the age of 40 and ask them if they’ve ever been checked out.  It must be a macho thing when they reply: “I don’t go to the doctor, cause I’m afraid of what he’s gonna tell me…”

What a stupid answer and what a dumb attitude.

Prostate cancer is really quite easy to detect, in some cases can be easily treated and if caught early enough — is almost one-hundred per cent curable. 

One visit to your doctor’s office just once a year for a routine prostate exam and an accompanying blood test is all it takes.  If that time and effort is too much to ask, then don’t come crying on my shoulder. 

My cancer was found during a routine blood test and a visit to the doctor — then a course of treatment was laid out.

I didn’t have chemotherapy, I didn’t have radiation, but I did have the prostate removed and luckily the cancer had been discovered in the very early stages and it was slow moving.

I’ve had a few urinary problems, but compared to what would have happened had I not gone to the doctor for a routine test in the first place, somebody else would have been writing this blog.

Listen guys, give up this macho crap.  If you’re over 40, you’re nuts if you’re not having a prostate exam and a simple blood test at least once a year.

The blood tests I’ve had every six months since having my prostate removed indicate I’m cancer free — so get on with it…

I’m Tom Young.

Either I’m starting to think like Pope Benedict XVI, or the Pontiff is starting to think like me, but whatever it is — we’re on the same wave-length.

I’m among those climate change sceptics who continue to insist that we aren’t sure if industrial emissions must shoulder the lion’s share of the blame for global climate change.

Pope Benedict in his remarks — all part of his annual message to be released on World Peace Day, January 1st, 2008 — suggest that fear over man-made emissions, melting of the ice-caps and a predicted wave of unprecedented disasters is nothing more than “scare mongering.”

The Pope is sure some of the concerns are valid, but policies must be based on science rather than the dogma of the environmental movement.  He understands the world needs to care for the environment, but not to the point where the welfare of animals and plants is given greater priority than that of mankind on Earth.

“Humanity today is rightly concerned about the ecological balance of tomorrow.”

“Agreement on a model of sustainable development capable of insuring the well being of all people, while respecting environmental balances.”

If nothing else, the environmental movement has given a 59 year old failed Presidential candidate countless millions of dollars. 

Today, Al Gore commands as much as $125,000 per speaking engagement, holds stock options in Google worth an estimated 20-million dollars and has made as much as four-million in advance of deals.

One would be an idiot not to recognize that mankind has made contributions to the climate change now occurring, but I’m still having trouble understanding how people go on discounting the fact that most of what is occurring could, (for the most part) be a naturally occurring phenomenon.

Maybe all it will take is a quick phone call to The Vatican so I’ll be able to ascertain what other roads Pope Benedict and I can walk down in step together…

I’m Tom Young.

Are you kidding me!?  “Poor Conrad!?”

I read an article the other day in one of the Ontario newspapers, where the columnist expressed the sentiment that she was feeling sorry for poor Conrad Black. 

I’ve checked everything I can find in this short, overweight body that I am now blessed with — And I can’t find even one sinew that has any sympathy or empathy for Conrad Black.

Conrad Black, at one time, had it all.

He may have owned more newspapers than any other media baron in the world.  He was a modern day “Citizen Kane” and I’m sure had the money rolling in so fast that every week he likely took it to the bank in a wheelbarrow — and yet — it still wasn’t enough.

Not only did he want his, and ours, and yours — But he wanted the money from all the people who owned stock in his company.  Since he was able to get his hand in somebody else’s purse, he’d put it in empty and take it out full. 

In plain English, Conrad got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.  Too bad for him, it was one of those American cookie jars, and it seems the American legal system takes a much dimmer view of white collar crime than does the Canadian system.

One wonders under similar circumstances in this country if he’s even been charged, let alone sent to jail for six-and-half years. 

Poor old Conrad was born with the preverbal “silver spoon in his mouth,” so he never had to learn or care about how the other half lived.  However, he’ll soon get some life lessons.

Convicted felons in the American system are required to serve at least eighty-five per cent of their sentence before even being considered for parole.  Seventy-eight months times eighty-five per cent in this case works out to just a shade under six full years. 

Just to put his earning capacity over the next six years into context, — He’ll be paid twelve cents an hour for cleaning toilets. Twelve cents an hour works out to about four-hundred dollars per year, which comes to about twenty-four hundred dollars at the end of his six year term.  In the same six years, if his hand hadn’t have been stuck in the cookie jar, one can only wonder how much REAL money he might have made.

As for him ever coming back to Canada, please remember that he renounced his Canadian citizenship to become, “Lord Black of Crossharbour.”

I wonder how British Lords are treated in the American penal system?

Have fun Conrad.

I’m Tom Young.

I use the word “abhor” in place of the word “hate” because I find “hate” to be one of the most offensive words in the English language.  So when I say, “I abhor it,” I keep looking for examples to recommend Winter, but I just can’t find any.

Ab-hor: verb (used with object), -horred, -hor·ring. to regard with extreme repugnance or aversion; detest utterly; loathe; abominate.

We may be at least two weeks away from the actual calendar start for Winter 2007/2008, but looking outside — the calendar really doesn’t tell us right.

I abhor snow, ice and freezing rain.

I abhor wind, snow tires and skidoos on the road.

I abhor trees with no leaves and with broken branches from the weight of the falling snow.

I abhor salt, sand and snowplows.

I abhor snow blowing off trucks onto to my windshield, merchants who don’t clean their sidewalks and dummies who think it’s okay to walk on open ice two centimetres thick.

I abhor wet mitts, pedestrians who walk on snow covered roads and wet socks that squish in your shoes all day — but I’ve solved the wet sock problem.  I wear my “Crocs” year round, because wet skin dries much faster than those terrible wet squishy socks.

I abhor dirty cars stained with road salt, old guys shovelling snow and then having to go to the hospital and snow piles you can’t see over at four-way intersections.

My list could go on-and-on…  But wait!  There is one thing I LIKE about Winter…

HOCKEY.

And there’s one thing I actually LOVE about Winter…
…WHEN IT’S OVER!!!

I’m Tom Young.  

We begin today with a question — Is it possible the fact that the University of New Brunswick at Saint John was not mentioned in the province’s speech from the throne last week was all part of the Graham government’s master plan?

Could the following be the scenario?

Grade 12 students are now looking at which University they would like to attend next fall after successfully completing their secondary school education.  Many of them who might have thought of going to UNBSJ are now left in limbo by the fact that they don’t know whether or not the courses they want are the courses they’ll be able to get come next fall.

Instead of going to the Saint John based campus, other universities could also be strongly considered.  Maybe attendance at UNBSJ will drop off dramatically over the next couple of years because of the provincial government’s inaction on the future of the school.

If enrolment numbers do fall dramatically, the province can then say, “You don’t have the enrolment required for the continuation of all the courses which you’re currently offering.  As a result, you must begin to cancel some of the more poorly enrolled programs because of a ‘lack of interest.’”

This then, would allow the government to get off the hook and introduce wide sweeping changes to the curriculum.  Courses dropped would mean less and less students — and would also enable the province to combine the university with the community college under the guise of the polytechnic institute.

It is inconceivable that the provincial government, (if it has any long term plans) to let the university function in the future the way it is today, that they would continue to leave students hanging out to dry.

All three of my children attended the campus of UNBSJ for varying lengths of time.  However, if they were younger and just graduating from high school, because of not knowing what is going to be offered next fall, old Dad would be the one instead telling them, “You want a university education?  You better start to look elsewhere!”

This isn’t the way any province would do business, is it?  I’d like to know sooner but I’ll bet I find out later instead…

I’m Tom Young.