The circus comes to town every couple of weeks when Town Council has its regularly scheduled dog-and-pony-show exercise that passes itself off as municipal democracy in action.  And despite everyone performing their roles, with varying degrees of success, the production is made up seemingly of a council rubber-stamping whatever the administrative side of things wants it to rubber stamp.  Mind you, a couple of councillors will periodically raise objections to this, but will often get out-voted if they raise their concerns to the level of making a motion

That’s because here in Renfrew, we have what looks to be a chimera of democracy in play.  

Elected councillors are flummoxed by redundant and poorly organized agenda briefing documents, almost always numbering over a hundred pages, two-hundred pages, and often more.  This is how administration does it, firing smoke grenades to obfuscate things enough that councillors routinely pass what’s put in front of them because, as some have said, they trust the department heads to manage their departments with effectiveness and due diligence.

Sort of like the last council did.  

I’m not a betting man.  If I was I’d be a poor betting man.

I know betting’s all the rage now, especially with how easy it is, using your phone and, hell, even being able to place in-game bets.  Even Wayne Gretzky is all over it, a guy who is right up there with Tim Hortons and their Roll-Up-The-Rim contest in terms of Canadian identity and popularity.

Money lines, point spreads, over-under, parlay bets, teasers and props, middle, future, and live bets, there’s no shortage of ways to get fabulously rich, or if you’re me, fabulously poor.

Luckily for me, I don’t have the kind of money to engage in this activity.  Losing a single $5 bet would have me in apocalyptic circumstances, so I stay away.  I don’t even buy Lotto 649 anymore because I feel it’s too risky.

That said, I know others absolutely love the action, and are willing to place money on the most trivial of things, mostly in the world of sports.  But sports betting has it’s drawbacks, especially if players, coaches, officials, etc go to the dark side to influence how a game goes, or how much court-time a player gets, or ice-time, or at-bats, or carries, etc.