Caring? Not Much

Victoria police were so concerned that Peter Lee would be a danger to his family that they met with Crown counsel to ask that he be denied bail.

Of course, the Crown knew better than the police.

Lee was released on bail and promptly butchered his entire family including his young son.

On Sept. 6, 2007, Peter Lee, 38, killed his estranged wife, Sunny Park, their son Christian, 6, and Park's elderly parents before committing suicide.

Now, as a coroner's inquest continues into this case, the simple truth emerges and is driven home -

No budget for domestic violence, Peter Lee inquest told

System could respond better, but only with more funding, probe into Oak Bay slayings hears

But we have our priorities.

Yesterday morning I pulled over to park in the 500 block East Broadway.

The new temporary signs are already up.

NO PARKING

February 4 - March 2

Huh?

Broadway and Fraser?

This is a major corridor to a Games event?

O.K.

Whatever.

In the meantime...

We have no budget for domestic violence.

All of which will of course evaporate in the swill of happiness and euphoria that descends upon us all from the glories of THE GAMES.

Family discord will come to an end.

Marital disputes will resolve spontaneously.

Peace on earth will prevail.

Right after the luge.

For What?

I suppose with all the bad economic turns in the journalism game not many reporters are flying these days.

How else to explain the "news" that senators and MP's fly business class a lot?

I routinely file past government freeloaders with their heavy black legal cases on the empty leather seat beside them as I head to the back of the plane for my apple box and cookie.

The good news is that I can usually find a chiropractor wherever I'm going to help scrunch the flight out of my bones.

On the other hand...

What is really news - and we have to ask why isn't it on the front page? - is that the Senate has quietly voted itself another travel perk.

Free international flights!

Liberal senator Lillian Dyck (write your own jokes, please) went to China last month on your money to visit her family's ancestral home.

I am feeling warm and cozy for her.

Now get this.

MPs and senators alike are each allotted 64 travel points a year, each point representing one free round-trip flight. They're allowed to use up to four points to visit Washington, but the rest are to be used strictly within Canada.

That would mean that Larry Campbell can fly free 64 times across the dominion.

Free, as in you pay for his privilege.

The senate should not be elected.

It should be closed down.

A start

Old bad joke:

What do you call 45 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?

A good start.

So the news that Transclunk has dumped 3 of their 28 highly well compensated executives is just that - a good start.

A headline like this every morning...

TransLink announces last stop for three well-paid VPs

Execs turfed after watchdog's critical report on spending

might make for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Lord, will miracles never cease?

Will the day come to pass when the turnstiles are finally installed and people actually have to PAY FOR their rides?

Now, let's look forward to seeing the City drop entire departments and stick to some core activities that have something to do with civic responsibility.

Jungle bells, jingle bells...

Letter to a Friend About Hope & Cagney

These were two great creative performing geniuses.

There is almost nothing they could not do.

Cagney's performance as George M. Cohan in "Yankee Doodle Dandy" is absolutely in every way possible beautiful and unforgettable. The moment of his father's death is heartbreaking.

I was thinking about the range of people like this when I was watching a few scenes from "Whit Christmas" last night.

Danny Kaye, known of course as a great comic and song-and-dance man was so powerful in a made-for-TV movie that came out in the '80's. Based on a real life story, the movie is called "Skokie" and it is about a Jewish man who protests a neo-Nazi march in suburban Chicago in modern times. Slowly he reveals that he is a concentration camp survivor. The film and Kaye are devastating.

So many people cheered when the "studio system" was dismantled, but it was the studio system of teaching and learning and covering all bases that allowed already gifted people to shine even brighter as they polished one skill after another.

We had a small taste of that right here on Hamilton Street when the CBC was cooking on all cylinders.

Of course, we will always have great performers emerging to the front lines, but I doubt that we will ever again see the likes of such triple-threat stars as Hope and Cagney, Crosby, Sinatra, Garland, Mickey Rooney. I saw Rooney on stage in "Sugar Babies" with Ann Miller in San Fransisco about 25 years ago. Rooney was an encyclopedia of performance art.

Two Performance Geniuses at Play