Friday, March 26, 2010

TWEETY TWEE

Apology and Greeting


My main computer is in the shop getting a shampoo and set today.

Which means that I have generated today's blog on my trusty little mini-machinka.

Which means that I don't have my email lists available.

So if you have found your way here, thanks for making the effort, and...

How the hell are you?

THE BLACK HOLE


The B.C. government says subsidies for housing in the city's poorest neighbourhood have been diverted to cover the administrative costs of an outspoken advocacy group, the Downtown Eastside Residents Association, and to help pay rent for ineligible tenants in subsidized housing in the community.

The list of allegations is long and it is damning.

I encourage you to read the entire article and take a hard look at what is being charged., because if even half is true, it is sickening.

It is also important to remember that $1 Million a day in taxpayers' money is poured into that sinkhole known as the DTES.

No one that I know of has ever asked to see what the "outcomes" are for this outrageous misuse of public funds.

And this set of charges against one of the cherished "babies" of the DYTES must represent only the tip of the iceberg.

You cannot tell me that with that much free money going into this living urban nightmare - run often by shrieking advocacy groups - that corruption, graft, personal dealings, skimming and rimming aren't the norm.

Where is the Board of Directors of DERA?

Where are the checks and balances on so much money going into such a small and dismal space?

The Tracks of My Tears


No train...

38 k of unused track...

$10 Million in executive pay in the last six years...

And that's since the whole thing was sold.

Now...wait for it...

$600,000 in severance for two guys who are leaving this tough job.

This is your Gordon Campbell government.

This is your B.C. Rail.

Does the word "corruption" ring a bell?

The appropriately named Shirley Bond is the Minjister of Transportation.

She says this ia all good.

Is her word her Bond?

Is she Bond, Shirley Bond?

Can she leap The Truth in a single bound?

Wait.

I was wrong.

There is a train.

It's...

THE GRAVY TRAIN.

Wooo wooooo....

Curiouser and Curiouser


Where's Joseph Heller when you really need him?

In a move straight out of "Catch 22," the federal government has come up with some new GST rules.

Now, if you want help on your taxes...you will be taxed!

Hahahaha...

Does no one in RevCan have a sense of humour?

Read the story and then close your company and go back to being an individual taxpayer.

This is how the people in the know encourage business in Canada.

Not Mary Richards


"Ordinary People" is one of the best movies ever made in America.

Robert Redford directed this family drama in 1980 and the movie won 4 Oscars, including Best Picture.

Whenever it show up on television, I find myself unable to not watch it.

And no matter how many times I see the movie, the last line and the last moment always reduce me to a sobbing mess.

What is particularly astounding is the performance of Mary Tyler Moore as the mother.

Moore was nominated for Best Actress, but was up against the marvelous work of Sissy Spacek that year in "Coal Miner's Daughter.' Spacek, channeling Loretta Lynn, won.

Spacek was deserving of her award, but it was a shame that these two towering performances had to compete with one another.

Mary Tyler Moore should have been given a shelf full of awards for this work.

What is really scary is that I know this woman.

I mean the utterly enclosed and frozen and self-involved mother that Moore played in the movie.

I had a friend for a great many years that, in time, I could no longer count among my friends or even see for a cup of coffee and she was this character in the flesh.

Jolly, friendly, jokey and completely false in every way.

Ultimately cold and distancing and destructive.

"Ordinary People" is one of the most simple and direct and honest movies I've ever seen.

If you don't know it, head over to your neighbourhood video store before it runs out of business.

You're in for a treat.