Very Important Post from a Real Expert

Gerry writes:

Here's an interesting tidbit of anecdotal information.

In a class of about 30 people attending an addictions seminar I teach, I asked how many of the participants knew someone who was currently or in the past involved with a methadone program.

9 people raised their hands.

I asked of those 9 people if they knew whether or not those people who were on methadone were abusing other drugs at the same time.

All 9 people raised their hands.

I then asked of those 9 people if any of those folks they knew to be on methadone were breaking the law to be able to buy the drugs they were abusing.

Guess what?

All 9 raised their hands.

Why is this slice of reality not the same slice of reality presented by the harm reductionists? I'll leave it to you to figure out why.

Humpty Dumpty at the Helm

I was wondering this morning...

What if my children were still little?

How could I explain to them - without causing nightmares - that the world is quite mad, that much is upside down and hanging by a thread from the ceiling, that illusion rules the day, the official story is almost always a lie.

Not a great world vision is it?

But listen to today's evidence.

“I think what the Conservatives ought to be doing now is funding harm-reduction strategies instead of paying for more lawyers. They should accept that harm-reduction strategies are an essential part of any substance-abuse strategy and should not appeal this further.”

Michael Ignatieff.

“With this second consecutive decision in favour of Insite, I hope the federal government will drop its legal efforts so that we can go back to focusing on Insite for what it is – a harm reduction facility that saves lives and improves health outcomes for those living with addictions."

Gregor Robertson.

Here's the problem.

These two great Canadian leaders actually believe what they are saying.

They are wrong and mistaken and all the real evidence completely contradicts their sentiments, but this is now hook, line and sinker, the official story.

This is what everyone is being badgered into believing.

Yes, here's the good news, kinder.

98% of all the people with whom I have ever spoken on the radio, in print, on the Internet and in public know that this story is a sham, an emperor's new clothes if there ever was one.

The photo says it all.

This is our enlightened strategy.

A kit to keep stupid.

Show me the lives saved.

You can't.

Did I mention that our leaders actually believe this myth?

Certainly we have learned over the ages that if you mutter a phrase long enough and often enough, it does have a hypnotic effect and, over time, seems to bring on its own meaning.

Well, Michael and Gregor and all the clever people in charge of things, try this little mantra on for size....

real treatment real treatment real treatment real treatment real treatment real treatment real treatment real treatment

Sleep Well

The RCMP, the army and the police will all be here.

This invasion alone will number over 15,000 real people.

And speaking of numbers...almost one Billion Dollars to pay for these good folks.

And when it's all tallied up, will we be assured of the illusive goal called 'security.'

No.

Meanwhile back in Quebec and other places east of here, what fun the crooks will behaving.

Oh, well.

Maybe this will all be a good exercise in preparation for something more dreadful than the U.S. winning the hockey.

Victor Loves Tessio

Old friend and occasional guest blogger has a thing for Abe Vigoda. But, Victor, Tessio sold out to the Barzini family!


The older I get, the more wisdom I mine from one of the great
exchanges between Fish and Barney on the Barney Miller Show. The fact
that I retain this perhaps says too much about my sense of humour. I
think the exchange is one of the priceless gems of American comedy.
Here it is.

Barney: So Fish, when you retire are you thinking of getting a job in
one of small town police departments in Florida"?

Abe: " Nah, a friend of mine did that and he died of boredom".

Barney: " Nothing for him to do, right"?

Abe: "Nah, an old bored guy walked in and shot him".

Ok, you don't get the depth here. Florida? Blue hair state? Chasing
career dreams at 70? The lurking horror of boredom at the bottom of
the false teeth jar? Fine. You don't get it.

But I think that Fish is the seniors' version of the Big Lebowski and
I think Abe Vigoda was 20 years ahead of his time in that respect.

I think that with the huge grey wave facing society, Abe's portrayal
of Fish was prescient. He was the Grey Lebowski. A big character in
future.

What do I know?

More About Heroes

A friend has forwarded this piece from an unknown auhtor published recently in the Montreal Gazette.


First of all, let me say quite clearly that I am NOT a
fan of Tiger Woods. Never have been, never will be.
I recognize that he can hit a golf ball quite well, for what
that's worth. Lance Armstrong can ride a bike. Barry Bonds can
hit a baseball. LeBron James can dunk a basketball. That doesn't
make any of them heroes. Matter of fact, they're all about as
far from being heroes as you can get.

Tiger Woods is a man whose life is built around greed and a
ruthless, monomaniacal obsession with winning. No wonder he's
obsessed with acquiring mistresses. The man has always had
everything he ever wanted. Who is going to tell him no? When I
read about Woods, all I see is stories about when he's going to
return to the PGA Tour, how he's going to rehab his image (as
though it's all about image and nothing else) why he's likely to
come back better than ever. No one mentions that this was one
twisted, greedy human being from the get-go. Tiger Woods is what
happens when you turn your child into a machine.

Pity his father, Earl Woods, is no longer around to see the
destruction he has wrought. The infant who was on television
putting against Bob Hope when he was 2 years old, the 3-year-old
who shot 48 for nine holes, the teenager who stepped into a
multi-million-dollar Nike contract before he won his first pro
tournament, has finally broken out of the carefully constructed
shell. Predictably.

What Tiger Woods, his father, his handlers and his sponsors
failed to understand was the simplest of all truths: we are
human. We are not robots. The human Woods kept trying to break
through the robot. We caught glimpses and they weren't pleasant:
The petulant child hurling his clubs and swearing when a shot
goes awry. The swearing. The dirty, leering jokes. The arrogant
brat who does his famous drive-by every time he passes the
autograph hounds waiting after round, refusing to do a Phil
Mickelson and spend 15 minutes signing autographs for the
adoring gallery.

The greedy walking corporation who made it eminently clear from
the beginning that he didn't care about the Asian sweatshop
workers who were turning him into the wealthiest athlete on the
planet. The American of mixed racial heritage who couldn't care
less about politics at home, where people of colour have
suffered and bled for 300 years.

The most outrageous thing I have heard said of Woods came from
his father. Earl Woods predicted that Tiger would turn out to be
one of the great men on the planet, like Gandhi or Nelson
Mandela. Woods is a great golfer, whatever that is worth. He is
not a great man, by any stretch of the imagination. Woods
doesn't begin to measure up to the athletes who were also great
humans: Jackie Robinson, Jim Thorpe, Bill Russell, Babe
Didrickson, Muhammad Ali, Jesse Owens, Rocket Richard. They had
to fight real hatred and prejudice. They suffered real hurt.

Woods is a shill, nothing more or less. He works for anyone who
will pay him. He'll peddle watches, golf balls, automobiles,
consulting companies. And Woods will not trouble himself for one
instant if he learns that a good part of his fortune is because
of the labours of Asian workers making a few dollars a day.
That's not his problem, as long as he can afford to cruise off
into the sunset on a $20-million yacht named Privacy - a middle
finger flipped at all the suckers who pay the bills.
The nearest parallel we have to Woods is Michael Jordan. Jordan
was the first athlete to go global as a brand rather than as an
iconic sports hero. He was the first anti-Muhammad Ali, the
athlete who didn't give a damn about anything but himself.
Jordan refused to take a stand against people like the racist
South Carolina senator Jesse Helms because racists buy Nikes,
too. Now Woods has picked up where Jordan left off - and therein
lies a cautionary tale. What was left of Jordan after his career
was over was seen in his disgraceful speech when he was inducted
into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Jordan is now a bitter, angry,
vengeful, vindictive man who used his Hall of Fame speech to
slander all of his rivals and most of his one-time friends and
teammates.

Someone wrote to me yesterday to say that "we" have torn down
the icon that is Tiger Woods. Nothing could be more wrong. "We"
might have built Tiger Woods into the monster of ego and greed
he has become, but "we" had nothing to do with tearing him down.
Woods did that himself, with his insatiable greed, his roving,
relentless sexual appetite, his cynical use of his beautiful
family as props to distract attention from what he was really
doing.

In two or three years (if not sooner) most of this will be
forgotten. Woods will be divorced, he'll have as many mistresses
as he wants, he'll go back to winning majors, raking in millions
and endorsing half the products on the planet. Why will he get
away with it? Because sports fans want someone to worship, and
the bottom line is that they don't care if the man inside is
worse than Tony Soprano.

If you want to help your children find heroes in the world of
sport, stick to figures like Tony Dungy, Marc Trestman, Anthony
Calvillo, Ben Cahoon, Jean Béliveau, Otis Grant, Clara Hughes.
Remind your children that when Hughes won her gold medal in
Turin in 2006, she immediately donated $10,000 to Right to Play,
the charity that attempts to help African children through
sport. If Tiger Woods was to donate a comparable portion of his
personal fortune, it would come to $200 million or more. But he
won't do it. That is one reason he's not a hero. Never has been,
never will be.

Because for openers, if you're not a hero to your own family,
you're nothing.

Lovely Song