Good Girl

I would like to believe that justice was served yesterday when a jurt in Victoria awarded Willow Kinloch $60,000 in compensation for her encounter with the police three years ago.

But I have trouble accepting this story.

Drunk and violent and fighting with the police.

I wasn't there. I didn't see how cruel or violent the police may in fact have been.

But I still am not sold.

Perhaps I am an old fogie who has seen too much of a shift in our culture. Today, no young person is ever wrong about anything. No person can be limited, stopped, questioned, failed in school or a grade or a test, or criticised for bad behaviour of any kind.

Every child of four is armed with the Charter, and while they can't read or write much else, they've got this act down cold. They have rights.

Sorry, Willow. I just don't buy it.

Other Quote of the Day

"I have to have a lengthy conversation with my wife before I confirm anything."

This comes from Tom Christensen, who has done such an exemplary job as the Minister of Negletting Children and their Families and Endangering Practically Everyone.

He's referring to whether or not he should run again in the next election.

Let me provide relief for you, Tom. I know this decision is stressful.

YOU SHOULDN'T RUN...EXCEPT BACK INTO THE WOOODS.

Turncoat Despot - No Free Speech Please. I Need Re-Election

Turncoat.

When Gordon Campbell was in opposition he vehemently opposed third party spending limits as gag laws.

Now, that he's facing an election, he is trying to ram through the legislature, without much debate, the exact gag laws he used to decry.

Everybody - not just the unions - see this move for what it is: anti-democratic despotism.

I don't care if General Morons or Raleigh Caffeine and Cancer Company and my Uncle Sal spend millions on pre-election ads. Let's get it all out there. Let every dog have his day.

Anyone with the faintest notion of what constitutes a modern democracy is offended by Bill 42.

Everyone, that is, but the province's Attorney-Genial, Wally Opaque, who wins one of the Quote of the Day prizes with this gem:

"I don't understand why all of a sudden there's such a concern about this."

'nuff said?

Feed the Hungry

The Abbotsford pastor is feeding the homeless in a downtown park and the Business Association _ always one's best moral guides - would like him to stop.

Like any good story, this one is not simple.

Conflicting rights and needs are at play.

Drug addicts and others hang about. People use the park as a toilet. That's what addicts and mental patients do sometimes.

One could argue that feeding "these people" only reinforces their willingness to hang out. Feed the geese, they have no need to fly south. Yah, we get it.

But when all the arguments are finally done, one simpole principle remains.

Feed the hungry.

Yes, there are better solutions. Yes, the city of Abbotsford should provide. Yes, yes, yes...

But until some wizard comes along with something better,

Feed the hungry.

The pastor is right, and bless him, and the Business Association should stuff a cardboard turkey deep upside its ass.

Balloooooning...

A retractable roof for BC Place?

Minimum $200 Million?

Try more like $300 Million by the time it happens.

And all put together by David Podmore, the genius who ran the new Trade & Convention Centre costs up to close to a Billion Dollars?

Lovely.