Guest Editorial from V. - Most Important!

The provincial government has come down on the farmer whose van was involved in the needless, heartless deaths of those Indian women who perished in an unsafe van ,while on their way at dawn to process food for our tables. Fine Mr.Falcon, but not enough. This is a far bigger problem than one farmer.

See, here's the thing.

I don't want to buy my broccoli , from a store that buys its broccoli, from a farm or greenhouse that abuses or causes the death of its workers.

I think most decent people feel the same.

So we need to take a page from the great Cesar Chavez who fought so gallantly for farm workers in California.

I want to see a vigorous inspection system for farms. One that tells me they are treating their workers right, protecting my health, and protecting the environment. Maybe BC Fed could do this.

Then I want all stores , large and small, that sell farm products, to have their supplier list reviewed by the inspectors. Stores that buy farm goods from farmers who respect workers, public health and the environment get a window sticker. Losers don't.

If there's no sticker, I don't buy my broccoli there. Neither would you.

Cheaters would try, but a scum list could be published for those that attempted to forge a sticker.

Yes, I can hear the yeahbut crowd saying " What about food from Mexico, China, Thailand,California etc.". I can't change behaviors in those countries. But I sure as hell can do it here.

I hope you or I never ate a single tomato that came from that man's business. I can't be sure.

But if we did, those dead women were working for us when they died. How does that feel?As the commercial says " Can you hear me yet?"

I never want this to happen again. It's not enough to make one person the official sin eater, no matter how guilty he was.

Let's fix this. Let's demand that it be fixed.

Hola Cesar Chavez. Your work continues. It is our job now.

Regards

A Boulevardier

Claims and Damn Claims

Why does the press publish lies? Or uncontested claims?

In a tiny announcement about the hiring of more child care workers here in B.C., the Sun announces - as if this is a fact - that "one in seven B.C. children suffers from a mental disease."

This is utterly false.

This is not true.

Where is the evidence for this?

There is none.

It is simply what the Caring Industry wants governments to believe. The issue is money.

Why would anyone believe a statement so evidently wrong? Why would anyone casually print it?

Whisle Blowers Beware

The intersection of 2 stories in this morning's press should raise some alarm.

An Environment Canada employee was led away in handcuffs by the RCMP because he is alleged to have leaked information about our government's plans to scuttle any involvement in the Kyoto accord.

And the Supreme Court is now 0 for 3 in hearing appeals from fired whistle blowers. Two are Health Canada scientists who complained that major health decisions were being made politically rather than based on any good and reasonable science. One was an RCMP officer who complained about corruption at the Canadian High Commission in Hong Kong.

All three were fired or severely punished for their transgressions.

The Court has refused all their appeals and, as is tradition, given no reasons for its decision.

How are we to protect our public institutions?

Poison The Pear

(Now, that's a curiously suggestive photograph, isn't it?)

The Letter writers get it right, and the government gets it wrong - again.

An obscure bureaucrat, hidden away in the bowels of Obfuscation & Mismanagement Directive, has dusted himself off and emerged into the light long enough to declare that Canada will INCREASE the amount of pesticides allowed on fruit and veggies because our current rate - already 1400 times higher than European standards! - has become a trade irritant with the United States of Consumption.

The fool's name is Richard Aucoin. Good name, as many ordinary Canadians are now questioning how much money (Oh Coin!) the chemical lobbies have filtered into federal coffers for this decision.

Mr. A is the head of our Pest Management Regulatory Agency. Which I guess makes him Mr. Pest, or Monsieur La Pest.

God forbid we should count on our governments to protect the foods we eat, instead of worrying about what Mr. Bush thinks...assuming that Mr. Bush is capable of thinking...

John Lennon Beautiful Boy(darling boy)

Do you all remember the lovely scene in "Mr. Holland's Opus," the movie for which Richard Dreyfuss was again nominated for an Oscar? It is a rare thing when an actor can make us forgedt for a brief moment John Lennon.

Here is Lennon singing his beautiful lullaby...

Collision in Air and Road

Two horror stories collide.

The themes are malfeasance, incompetence, laziness and lying.

One story is Air India. The other is the deadly crash of the farm workers' truck 2 months ago.

They are the same story.

Today we learn that the dog handler and his famous bomb-sniffing dog were not allowed to do their work clearing the doomed Air India flight for take-off.

Even worse, we learn that both Transport Canada and the RCMP told the 2005 inquiry that the dog had been there and that everything had been searched. THIS WAS A COMPLETE LIE.

Someone asked, "How could this have happened?"

The same way that so many things happen in Canada - laziness, indifference, sloth, ego.

In the case of the farm workers' crash, the vehicle should have been pulled off the road a dozen times for safety infractions. But we can't do that because all of our money is invested in the Olympics and giving addicts needles and drugs. Why would we spend money on inspectors and ask them to do a good day's work? It's just human life. Oh. Wait. It's just female, immigrant, Indian life.

Oh What a Beautiful Morning

This loverly foto showed up just about everywhere yesterday and this morning.

The caption on Crooks and Liars read, "You know things are going well in Iraq when the Vice-President has to wear the largest flak jacket ever when he steps of the plane in Baghdad."

BILLION-AIR

One man owns more airplanes than Air France and BA combined.

He is the biggest, richest owner of aircraft in the world.

His name is Steven Udvar-Hazy and his fascinating story can be found here.

A Symphony All At Once!

Speaking of which....

All of those YouTube videos that failed over the past few days, have now magically appeared!

So scroll down and find another Tom Waits piece, John Lennon, and Al Jolson!!!

Shrinks Paid to Pill-Up Kids...Nice.

Was it only yesterday (Yes, it was. I checked.) that I was ranting about doctors taking money from Big Pharma to prescribe poison to their patients?

Well, it gets worser and worser.

At last, the press is reporting what we all knew already.

Psychiatrists - those fake, pseudo-doctors - are taking Big Bucks from Big Pharma to prescribe poison to CHILDREN!

And these self-righteous bastards sit over cocktails in the evening and tell each other how swell they are.

They are pimps and crooks.

Read the detestable tale here.

Waiting for Tom

YouTube is amazing, but, like all of us, not perfect.

Of late, all of my attempts to post videos to the blog have simply failed.

Yesterday, I tried 3 times to share a Tom Waits original with you. (To say Tom Waits and "original" in the same breath is redundant, n'est ce pas?) No dice.

But here, today, you have below, a Jim Jarmusch film with Waits turning a Sinatra classic on its ear.

tom waits _ it's alright with me

Tom Waits - On The Nickel

Imagine - John Lennon

AL JOLSON SINGING

Here's one of my fall-time favorite moments from a very corny movie that has had an enormous influence on my life. I was 4 years old when "The Jolson Story" was released in 1946. I saw the movie and how could I not be drawn by a story of a Jewish boy who loves to sing.

Larry Parks was nominated for Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of the man, who for many years, was called "The World's Greatest Entertainer."

In this lovely moment from the movie, Jolson's Rabbi father encourages him to sing after the singer has taken a kind of false "retirment."

I post this for my sweetheart. We are celebreating tomorrow our One Year Anniversary.

Happy Anniversary, Baby...

Pill Takers Beware!!!

Shocking experience this morning. Lesson learned.

My normally reliable Safeway Pharmacy blew it Big Time in attempting to refill a prescription.

The particular formulation is one of the statin drugs used to get better cholesterol numbers. Thank God I'm a naturally chatty person. The pharmacist gave me the refill and I started talking about how simvastatin almost killed me 2 years ago with dreadful muscle ache side effects, and that I was so please with now using this older version, called pravastatin.

The pharmacist looked at me like she's just seen Jim Carrey naked.

Guess what?

They had given me the wrong scrip!!!

Fortunately, I still had 2 pills left and the bottle with me so I could compare and match the new prescription.

LESSON FOR ALL: Check, then double-check that you have been given the right poison.

Fire the Writers! Some Comedies Just Write Themselves

So we ask you to do something, and then you do it too well, so we stop talking to you.

Ecco the City of Vancouver.

For years, the City has been giving an east side neighbourhood trucks and bins to clean up their area. The neighbourhood won awards for their diligence.

Now, the City says that the 'hood is throwing out too much "personal" trash.

Result, the City is taking away the trucks and bins.

In fact, the City is threatening anyone who tries to throw out "unauthorized" garbage" with...wait for it..."a dumping infraction."

A dumping infraction....hahahahahaha....you can't make stuff like this up!

Only the City can satirize itself so successfully.

SHRINKING THE LAW

When will we remove psychiatry - that most witchy pseudo-science - from our criminal justice system?

In the latest travesty in which a head doctor hijacks a courtroom, someone claiming to be an "expert" in sleep disorders, changed the entire outcome of a dangerous driving case in a local court.

A woman fell asleep while driving at 6:30 in the evening and killed a 5 year old.

The psychiatrist convinced the judge that the driver was suffering from "undiagnosed chronic insomnia."

How does he know this?

Why would the judge and a set of appeal judges give this man any credence?

Cheques & (Bank) Balances

There is a disturbing trend in editorial writing these days.

This morning, The Vancouver Sun has published yet another piece decrying public disagreement with official policy. A consistent pattern has emerged in recent months in which the city's largest daily journal objects to debate or opposing opinions, favoring in each case, the status quo.

Today they say ,"Critique of Olympic Planning is Redundant and Wasteful."

And they may be right about the way this study was funded and other particulars. But isn't this the core of democratic process - checks and balances?

So a group was gifted $109,000 to rate VANOC's performance?

When VANOC is shrouded in secrecy and spending is astronomical and historical precedent tells us that Olympic Games are often in the red, why not ask questions?

The Fifth Estate can do better.

Doctor, Doctor. Gimme More!

Did you know that it is legal in America for a doctor to receive payment from a pharmaceutical company to prescribe the pharma's drug products?

And because it is legal and highly profitable, moral and ethical considerations never enter the equation.

Click here to read the startling and detestable story. Then ask yourself to what degree does the same behaviour appear here in Canada. I don't know the answer. But I do know this. While I am happy to see many reforms in our health care system, including the embracing of some private components, the example herein points clearly to the disaster of free-market health care delivery.