Collision in Air and Road

Two horror stories collide.

The themes are malfeasance, incompetence, laziness and lying.

One story is Air India. The other is the deadly crash of the farm workers' truck 2 months ago.

They are the same story.

Today we learn that the dog handler and his famous bomb-sniffing dog were not allowed to do their work clearing the doomed Air India flight for take-off.

Even worse, we learn that both Transport Canada and the RCMP told the 2005 inquiry that the dog had been there and that everything had been searched. THIS WAS A COMPLETE LIE.

Someone asked, "How could this have happened?"

The same way that so many things happen in Canada - laziness, indifference, sloth, ego.

In the case of the farm workers' crash, the vehicle should have been pulled off the road a dozen times for safety infractions. But we can't do that because all of our money is invested in the Olympics and giving addicts needles and drugs. Why would we spend money on inspectors and ask them to do a good day's work? It's just human life. Oh. Wait. It's just female, immigrant, Indian life.

Oh What a Beautiful Morning

This loverly foto showed up just about everywhere yesterday and this morning.

The caption on Crooks and Liars read, "You know things are going well in Iraq when the Vice-President has to wear the largest flak jacket ever when he steps of the plane in Baghdad."

BILLION-AIR

One man owns more airplanes than Air France and BA combined.

He is the biggest, richest owner of aircraft in the world.

His name is Steven Udvar-Hazy and his fascinating story can be found here.

A Symphony All At Once!

Speaking of which....

All of those YouTube videos that failed over the past few days, have now magically appeared!

So scroll down and find another Tom Waits piece, John Lennon, and Al Jolson!!!

Shrinks Paid to Pill-Up Kids...Nice.

Was it only yesterday (Yes, it was. I checked.) that I was ranting about doctors taking money from Big Pharma to prescribe poison to their patients?

Well, it gets worser and worser.

At last, the press is reporting what we all knew already.

Psychiatrists - those fake, pseudo-doctors - are taking Big Bucks from Big Pharma to prescribe poison to CHILDREN!

And these self-righteous bastards sit over cocktails in the evening and tell each other how swell they are.

They are pimps and crooks.

Read the detestable tale here.

Waiting for Tom

YouTube is amazing, but, like all of us, not perfect.

Of late, all of my attempts to post videos to the blog have simply failed.

Yesterday, I tried 3 times to share a Tom Waits original with you. (To say Tom Waits and "original" in the same breath is redundant, n'est ce pas?) No dice.

But here, today, you have below, a Jim Jarmusch film with Waits turning a Sinatra classic on its ear.

tom waits _ it's alright with me

Tom Waits - On The Nickel

Imagine - John Lennon

AL JOLSON SINGING

Here's one of my fall-time favorite moments from a very corny movie that has had an enormous influence on my life. I was 4 years old when "The Jolson Story" was released in 1946. I saw the movie and how could I not be drawn by a story of a Jewish boy who loves to sing.

Larry Parks was nominated for Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of the man, who for many years, was called "The World's Greatest Entertainer."

In this lovely moment from the movie, Jolson's Rabbi father encourages him to sing after the singer has taken a kind of false "retirment."

I post this for my sweetheart. We are celebreating tomorrow our One Year Anniversary.

Happy Anniversary, Baby...