The Money Went Where?

An important point was made by commentator, "Martino," the other day when I was blogging about City Hall.

He said it is time for regular and public audits. I would say they should be called "Performance Audits," and they should reveal in somewhat the same fashion what the Auditor-General reveals for us in her federal audits, what City Hall is actually doing with all this money they collect in local taxes.

We really have no idea at this point how our local tax dollars are spent, and what is more, most of us don't seem to care.

If we cared, and if we were informed, half the departments would vanish.

Rosemary Clooney -- But Not For Me

They're writing songs of love...she was magic, unmatched...

Who's On First?

For the first time in Canadian history, a man has been released on bail after admitting that he shot and killed a police officer.

The man is accused of murder. He claims he didn't know the guy he shot 3 times with a .357 Magnum was a police officer. So now a Quebec judge has released him on bail.

But...let's see.

He admits that he shot SOMEONE 3 times with a .357 Magnum. The small detail that this was a police officer that he shot and that all of this happened during a crazy shoot-out in a major drug and stolen cell phone raid doesn't seem to have impressed our learned fellow on the bench.

Shoot a cop 3 times, claim ooops, sorry, I didn't know he was constabulary, and you walk out on bail.

A milestone. A millstone. A new low for Canadian jurisprudence.

What are we going to do about making judges accountable?

Rapunzel, Do You Have Hair?

A pair of academics will analyze crime patterns in the hope of predicting your next bank heist.

Another professor, far, far away in another land, has figured out that French Impressionist Claude Monet had cataracts.

I guess this is why those places are called Ivory Towers.

That still doesn't explain why these daydreams are published as news. Perhaps for me and you and Dave letterman's writers.

LIne 4, Go Ahead. You're on the Air

There is something creepy about the Premier of the province praising "one of Dave's callers" after an appearance on a Victoria radio talk show.

Many of you will say, "Well, that's just business as usual. That's politics. That's how is works." And you're probably right.

But that still doesn't wash away the bad taste of knowing that the Premier thinks it's normal or just swell or ticketyboo to have a political operative play havoc with what others are mistakenly believing is a free and open discussion.

Clearly politicians think that such forums are simply toys and illusions, playthings awaiting their amusement and manipulation.