The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

One entire page (B1, which I cannot find online) in the Sun is given over to the shocking news that teen girls who watch TV get pregnant.

Brilliant.

Teen girls have been getting pregnant since time began. It usually happens because teen boys are shtupping them.

Another entire page is given over to real journalism. Gordon Hamilton, in a very thorough and important piece in the business section chronicles what we already knew, but need reminding of - neither the Liberals nor the NDP have the faintest idea what to do about forestry.

Both parties have platforms and promises and both are barely up to the task.

Nobody Really Cares

Here's the sorry reality.

Nobody really cares about Gregor Robertson cheating the SkyTrain or playing silly time in our courts.

You know why?

Because this is an adolescent culture, where crossing the street on a red light in the face of oncoming traffic and parking under signs that say, "Emergency Vehicles Only" is basic to our perpetual need to be teen rebels.

Cheating the SkyTrain is fun.

The Sun, by the way, hasn't even reported the story. Or did I miss it?

No, Gregor will be elected Mayor and we will have a council even worse the the present one, which is already the worst in living memory.

Gregor will be elected by all those female co-workers of a dear friend of mine.

You know why they're voting for him?

"'Cause he's real cute!"

I suspect Gregor has been getting away with a lot of things his whole life long because he's real cute.

What he and his friends are going to do to this city will not be cute.

Justice Run by Lunatics

Alexander is now permitted escorted day passes from a minimum-security-prison healing village in Harrison Mills in the Fraser Valley.

This is the man who stabbed a woman - his next-door neighbour - 83 times.

He is coming up for parole and the victim's family is mounting a petition to protest the possibility of his getting the parole.

But, thanks to the geniuses who run Corrections Canada and the National Parole Board, this sweet fellow, who was caught in a sting when he agreed to undercover cops to kill another woman, is now on day freaking passes.

What is a "healing village?"

And what is this psycho-killer doing in one - whatever it claims to be?

Do you have any idea how dreadful our corrections system is?

How mistaken? How dangerous? How irresponsible?

How blind to the community?

LAST WORDS

Barack Obama and John McCain have both written op-ed pieces in this morning's Wall Street Journal.

Here's Obama's.

Here's McCain's.

You've read and listened to what everyone else in the world has to say.

Now try the candidates.

Other Voices

Here is what I propose:

I would like to improve the public safety and security of Vancouver by:

1. Instituting a zero-tolerance policy for criminals.

2. A better equipped, trained, and funded law enforcement apparatus and a way of ensuring judges not be overly lenient with repeat offenders.

3. Open-air drug selling would be curtailed by working with the federal government to improve certain sections of the Canadian Criminal code.

4. Insure that judges are fully aware and educated on the victimization of normal families in Vancouver because of their leniency with criminal sanctioning.

5. Ensure that every rightful Vancouver resident, no matter if you are rich or poor is being treated with respect and their rights protected because Vancouver residents have lost their sanctuary and sense of security due to the increased sophistication of crime creeping into their (our) neighborhoods.

6. Implement placement programs that will ensure that every Vancouver resident works in a profession that they have chosen for themselves based on their own interest and for the love of the job and not forced to take any job because they have to pay for room rent, and enjoy the job based on the fringe benefits that are included with the chosen job. I would implement “special job placement” programs to match levels of expertise and experience under the responsibility of the mayor of Vancouver.

7. Personally coordinate with all the “job placement agencies,” head a Task Force of Inter-government affairs and demand that the provincial and federal governments come clean with their promises in stepping up their efforts in human resources management.


8. Initiate and implement a Monday to Friday "Seamless-Transfer Transit Pass/ICBC Registration" (STP-ICBC SmartCard) for all eligible drivers who parked their ICBC insured vehicles at the "Park & Ride" or at home. The STP-ICBC SmartCard holders will commute to work in a public transit system and this will reduce the volume of vehicles entering Vancouver.

9. Insure that the city councillors work for Vancouverites so that you are treated with respect and your rights are “protected” as the residents of this great city.

Thanks and best regards,

Jeff Kuah
"The only serious alternative"
For Mayor of Vancouver

Notes From Near and Far