A day after outlining how David Miller spent almost a quarter of a billion dollars earmarked for desperately needed infrastructure investments on annual operating expenses, there's a certain irony that Toronto Star decided that the most important issue of today (it is their front page, above the fold story) is that Toronto City councillor Karen Stintz spent $4,500 on public-speaking training. Of course Stintz didn't break a single city rule - the expense was part of her office budget and approved by the city clerk. Never mind that one of her male, socialist colleagues spent $3,875 on French lessons. Who cares if the Mayor is spending $140,000 on a climate-change lobby group. Never mind that many of her colleagues have spent thousands of dollars attending various conferences. Stintz has been one of the most effective critics of the fiscal irresponsibility at City Hall and the general incompetence of our current mayor - but that's of course just a coincidence in this being front page Toronto Star news. I have no doubt that Stintz being rumoured as a likely (and very credible) opponent of David Miller is also just a coincidence here. As a friend emailed me this morning, the world is terrified of a another great depression and the Toronto Star is terrified of losing David Miller. But I do have a challenge for Silver-Powers readers: I can find hundreds of examples of female politicians from Hillary Clinton to Sarah Palin and now Karen Stintz being described as "shrill." Can you find a single example of a male politician being called shrill? First commenter to post an example gets an autographed Tim Powers sweater vest (in baby blue, needless to say).