David (the Menzoid) Menzies takes great pride in his shiny red Ford Explorer Sport Trac. He has frequently made mention of it on (Charles) Adler On Line, and the Michael Coren show. It refers to it as a "truck." By referring to it as a
"truck", he seems to fancy himself as being an urban cowboy, or wannabe 18 wheeler driver. When you actually look at his vehicle, you see it is a variation of the Ford Explorer SUV, except without the rear storage area and hatch, it has a diminutive pick-up truck like box. And when I say diminutive, I mean really small, it is a 4 foot long box compared to a full sized pick-up's 8 foot box. The Spot Trac is a vehicle that is neither fish nor fowl, but rather a tasteless combination of the two, it isn't a proper work truck, nor people hauler. Ford refers to the Sport Trac as having a "dual personality", so perhaps it is a great truck for Menzies, who frequently talks a tough game, but actually seems to be a softer girly man.
But getting back to the Sport Trac, it follows along the path lead by such trailblazing vehicles (with apologies to all Chevy Trailblazer owners out there) as the Subaru Brat and the Subaru Baja. Both were marketing failures, and now, without much surprise, I heard the news today, oh boy, that production of the Ford Sport Trac ends after the 2010 model year. With Ford bring out an all new Explorer for 2011, the poor sales of the Sport Trac didn't warrant the spending of any money to develop a new Sport Trac.
So if you were ever thinking of buying a Sport Trac, first of all shame on you, secondly if you still have the disorder to buy one, get yours now before they all get covered in dust and rust in the back of the dealers' lots.
But if you want to buy a real Ford truck, unlike the Menzoid, buy a F-150 or Super Duty.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Affirmative Action Gone Wrong.
At this point in time I have to admit I used to be a swivel servant employed by the Government of Canada. While serving my time, I had the opportunity to apply for many jobs within the Public Service.
I can attest that as late as 2007, the application process involved either a paper or on-line application form. At the very end of the form, the applicant was afforded the opportunity to voluntarily self-identify if they belonged to an an underrepresented group in the Public Service. At the time the underrepresented groups included women; first nations' persons; visible minorities; and persons with a disability. The explanation for the collection of that data was that the information could be used as a tie-breaker in screening applicants. Should two persons score equally, if one fell into an underrepresented group, they could be chosen ahead of the other person, only if the competition's initial posting specified that criteria could be used.
There is the possibility that use of the self-disclosed information may have benefited me, as I was, and still am a member of one of the underrepresented groups identified by the Public Service of Canada. But my co-workers and I knew that I had to be equal to them in terms of skills and ability, otherwise I could not have gotten the jobs based solely on my membership in one of the underrepresented groups.
What this meant was that affirmative action was applied at the end of the hiring process, and not at the beginning. You could not and would not be screened out at the application filing stage for being a white woman, as was the case for Sara Landriault.
I do not know when the usage of affirmative action became a mandatory, primary screening tool, but it does raise the possibility that lower qualified persons could be hired just because they fit into the particular pigeon hole of underrepresented group the writers of the job posting desired. The current method does not look like affirmative action, it looks like favouritism. The hiring practises monitored by the Public Service Commission of Canada are to insure there is no bias in hiring within Government of Canada Departments and Agencies, but this upfront screening of applicants under the guise of affirmative action is bias gone bad in my opinion.
I can attest that as late as 2007, the application process involved either a paper or on-line application form. At the very end of the form, the applicant was afforded the opportunity to voluntarily self-identify if they belonged to an an underrepresented group in the Public Service. At the time the underrepresented groups included women; first nations' persons; visible minorities; and persons with a disability. The explanation for the collection of that data was that the information could be used as a tie-breaker in screening applicants. Should two persons score equally, if one fell into an underrepresented group, they could be chosen ahead of the other person, only if the competition's initial posting specified that criteria could be used.
There is the possibility that use of the self-disclosed information may have benefited me, as I was, and still am a member of one of the underrepresented groups identified by the Public Service of Canada. But my co-workers and I knew that I had to be equal to them in terms of skills and ability, otherwise I could not have gotten the jobs based solely on my membership in one of the underrepresented groups.
What this meant was that affirmative action was applied at the end of the hiring process, and not at the beginning. You could not and would not be screened out at the application filing stage for being a white woman, as was the case for Sara Landriault.
I do not know when the usage of affirmative action became a mandatory, primary screening tool, but it does raise the possibility that lower qualified persons could be hired just because they fit into the particular pigeon hole of underrepresented group the writers of the job posting desired. The current method does not look like affirmative action, it looks like favouritism. The hiring practises monitored by the Public Service Commission of Canada are to insure there is no bias in hiring within Government of Canada Departments and Agencies, but this upfront screening of applicants under the guise of affirmative action is bias gone bad in my opinion.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
A breath of fresh air.
I went fishing for the first time this year. A little rain, a little breeze, little fish, then a little sun, but a lot of relaxation. I really needed it.
This also is the first post of my blog. I know its not much, but I hope its a start of something more.
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