Monday, January 27, 2014

The Bumbaclot Kool-Aid Litmus Test

Rob Ford in a moment of personal reflection.
Today the Economic Club of Canada decided to give a refund to the people who forked over $89 to listen to Mayor Rob Ford deliver a speech last Thursday. The reason for the refund? Ford was 45 minutes late for the luncheon event (a crowd of middle-level businesspeople) due to being stuck in an elevator. Rhiannon Traill, President and CEO of the Economic Club of Canada, has thus managed to pass the bumbaclot Kool-Aid litmus test which is used to determine one's bona fides in being a hardcore, unthinking, unflinching conservative; the kind of person who will pay polite attention to any poisonous character who enthusiastically uses terms like "fiscally responsible" and "tax reduction."

The story here isn't the refund, although Twitter and the press seems to be spinning this as a positive action, it's that Ford was asked to speak in the first place. Ford was only a few days removed from his latest YouTube sensation in which he drunkenly called the Chief of Police a "cocksucker" and then cursed fluently in Jamaican patois, with "bumbaclot" (equivalent to "fuck") being the highlight. Oh, and he probably drove home drunk that night, as well. The only interesting thing about this latest scandal is that it heavily underlines and italicizes the fact Ford is an unrepentant liar and addict, not to mention being dumber than a bag of hammers.

So let's summarize: Rob Ford is an odious character who Rhiannon Traill (and probably all of the luncheon attendees) would not want as a neighbour or friend. I'm also betting that there wasn't anyone at that luncheon who would dream of hiring Ford for a responsible position, and that includes a job doing yard work. And yet all of the people there were willing to sit and listen to Ford because he was going to tell them that he will work hard to put money in their pockets. Traill and her audience were annoyed by Ford's tardiness (not his fault, as it happens), but their attendance at the event indicates that his epic personal and political failures are no problem as long as their bottom lines are improved.

The fact that Traill didn't cancel Ford's appearance, and that people actually showed up to listen to him, shows that the business commnity's moral compass is as skewed as Ford's. That's not a great surprise, but it's not often we get to see such a public display of naked, amoral greed. So congratulations to Traill and her friends who lunch, you've all passed the bumbaclot Kool-Aid litmus test! You are true conservatives and a credit to your bank account.

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