Children & Families Ministry a Sham and a Disgrace

Yet another investigation of the deaths of children in government "care" has been announced.

And that's fine.

But it brings our attention once again to the plain and simple fact that, while we are awash in new buildings, new highways, new luge tracks and athletes' villages and new money, the Children & Families Ministry of the provincial government has been a horror show for many years now.

One charming, ineffectual boob after another has done nothing with this file and the Premier has done less.

Victor Rants on The Drug Pimps

Like you, (though without your experience) I am so concerned about the vacuous "official/think" that underpins Vancouver's drug crisis.

Mr. and Mrs. Kerrisdale actually believe that there is something out there called treatment. Who can blame them? Our media stars have promulgated that myth, thanks to the uncritical assessment of our last three mayors.," Huey, Drunkee and Loser".

Most astonishing to me is the hilarious notion that we can clean the DTES before the Olympics.

Check history.

When Alexander the Great crossed Iran and Afghanistan, 300 years before Christ, his army was followed by whores and bootleggers. His written records speak to his frustration about this. (See your local library once the pickets stand down).

The point is, from the ancient days, the parasites of human kind have followed the rich trekkers, be they soldiers, crusaders ,pilgrims or tourists.

And, no matter what Silly Sam thinks, the parasites are already planning their trek to Vancouver.

Somewhere in Nebraska, a meth addict is scrawling this message, with a rusty nail, on the side of a dumpster. " Vancouver 2010, Be There, Beg. Rob. Hassle"

Shortest chapter in the New Testament. Two words. "Jesus wept". Yeah, if He saw this nonsense, He would. So would Moses, Allah and Buddha.

Le boulevardier

How to Lose & Win at the Same Time - Government Job

In most jobs, if you are so incompetent and irresponsible to have people stealing regularly under your watch, you walk the plank. Kersplash!

But, not, of course, when you work for a government in Canada.

"Irregularities" at BC Lotto led to the inevitable firing of President Vic Poleschuk. But don't shed too many tears for Vic. He leaves with a $750,000 severance package.

Sort of like winning the Lotto.

Rare, great Doc TV

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week, CNN broadcast 6 hours of powerful documentary television.

The series, which will be repeated this weekend, and which I encourage you to see, is called "God's Warriors." The narration and interviews are by Christiane Amanpour, CNN's leading foreign correspondent, who travelled the world to assemble this report.

Tuesday, we met God's Warriors - The Jews. Wednesday, Islam and last night, Christians. Frankly, I don't know who was more frightening.

Three enormous and powerful groups, each of whom believes utterly in the truths it has found in one Good Book (Torah, Koran, New Testament), each detesting the other, each armed to the teeth and marching according to God's will.

I am a Jew, and I found all three episodes equally difficult to watch.

Aside from the huge questions of survival, the last question that remained for me was this:

Can we live a moral life without a Good Book?

I believe we can, but it is challenging and heretical to most of the world.

The Softer, Kinder USA

It's good to know we're not alone.

No, I'm not talking about another remake of "Body Snatchers."

I'm talking about our feel-good criminal injustice system.

Normally, we think of The Excited States as a hang 'em high, lock 'em all up mentality.

But, here' s an unusual story from Hamerica, in which we learn that an assassin will be released from prison.

The man is Arthur Bremer. He shot and paralyzed George Wallace. He had originally planned to kill Nixon.

While not many of us were fans of Wallace or Nixon, few of us approve of Mr. Bremer's choices for protest.

So, he did 35 years...so what?