Jingle Balls

Mary Anne Watson is a Jewish mother on the Island, who has pulled her 5-year old son, Joshua from his local public school because it's wall-to-wall Christmas and there's no Hanukkah or rabbis or kugel.

"Mary Anne Watson" is Jewish? Well, that's another geshichta.

Since when are public schools in the religion business?

Since when have families counted on public schools to teach or enforce their religions?

I lived through umpteen years of Christmas Carols in public schools. My first acting assignment ever was as the voice of the Talking Christmas Tree when I was 5. I hid under Miss Prescott's desk (which provided a refreshing view of Miss Prescott) and recited my clever lines.

And guess what?

I am a Jew.

I am a proud Jew. Love being Jewish. Couldn't imagine my life any other way. Don't care if everybody sings Christmas songs till February. Often sing them myself. Have no belief in the divinity of Jesus. Still enjoy Christmas as a cultural staple.

Mary Anne - get a Jewish name and then get a life. Bring Josh up in a Jewish home and he'll be a lovely little mensch for sure.

Tina Turner

So Ike died.
Ike represents the worst in all of us, a serious failure of the human gift.
Tina is real story.
Marvel at her.

One for the Fifth Estate

Major kudos to Vaughn Palmer and to the power of the press in the latest turn in the case of the children's watchdog.

The Liberal government refused last week to give Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond the money she needs to do her job. They refused because she had the courage to reveal how inadequately we are serving the 15,000 children in our care.

Now, thanks to Palmer's column, they are about to reverse themselves.

They will meet again.

She will present her budget again, and they will approve it.

It's a shame when governments can only do the right thing after they are exposed for doing wrong.

It's a thing of beauty to see the press bring about such changes of heart - as if governments had heart.

Wally Does Something!!!

Attorney-General Wally Oppal has stopped acting for a moment - shaking hands, slapping backs, looking solemn when the occasion demands it - and actually ACTED. This is banner news, indeed.

As reported in this morning's Province, the AG has called for a second look at those hideously inadequate sentences for the pigs who put Michael Levy into a wheelchair and hell for the rest of his young life.

Here's the whole story:

Attorney-general orders review of sentences in Michael Levy case

Jack Keating, The ProvincePublished: Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Attorney-General Wally Oppal Tuesday ordered a review of the aggravated-assault sentences given two young offenders who attacked 18-year-old Michael Levy and left him a quadriplegic.

"I think when a person walks out of a courtroom and laughs at the judge's decision that maybe the judge didn't get the message to the particular offender," Oppal told Global News. "And in those circumstances, I think the sentence deserves to be reviewed."

Oppal was reacting to news footage that showed Tuan Minh Nguyen, 18, and his friends entering an elevator after his 20-month conditional sentence and then an outburst of laughter being heard when the door closed.

Michael Levy was left a quadriplegic after the attack

"I'm ecstatic," Deborah Levy, Michael's mother, said of the review announcement. "What they got, I thought, was totally unjust. There was no justification whatsoever."

Mike Farnworth, the NDP's justice critic for public safety, also called for Crown counsel "to very seriously consider an appeal" of the sentencing by Judge Kenneth Ball in Surrey Provincial Court

"Family members and the public are understandably outraged at the sentence," said Farnworth. "This was a brutal, senseless crime that very nearly resulted in a death."

Levy was attacked by at least three teens during a dance at the Tynehead Community Hall in Surrey on Oct. 28, 2006. He was punched, pepper sprayed, hit over the head with a bottle and hit in the back of the head with an axe, severing his spinal cord.

Nguyen admitted punching Levy and Robert Alexander Green, 18, was given a three-year sentence to be served at the youth custody centre in Burnaby for hitting the teen with a bottle.
The third teen, who wielded the axe, will be sentenced Jan. 23.

"They're laughing at what they got," said Deborah Levy. "They're laughing at their sentence. That is a slap in the face to us. To Michael and I. Also to the judge."

"These guys are straight cowards," said Michael Levy. "You can't get any worse than that."
jkeating@png.canwest.com

Who's the Turtle Now?

"To move forward, you have to stick your neck out, but it's nice to have a hard shell."

Words to live by.

For newspaper columnists, talk show hosts, bloggers and The Whistleblower of the Year, Gord McAdams.

After 34 years on the job and on the day of his retirement, the despicable creeps at the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management (???) changed the locks on his doors and told people not to come to his retirement party or to associate with him.

Who's their HR advisor?

For the whole story from this morning's Sun, click here.

Commentator Post

David,

I am offended to the core by the shameful behaviour by some members of the Sikh community.

This group of people has been welcomed into our country and communities in a way that no other country on earth has done. We have changed our pre-existing culture to ensure that the one they brought with them from their home country is accommodated.

The response of this group of people is to shout at us that we are all racists because our authorities applied Canadian law to a Sikh who had managed to smuggle himself into Canada under false pretenses.

They have called the Vancouver Sun, the Province (newspaper), CKNW, British Columbians and Canadians in general racists. It’s despicable.

The CBSA may well suffer from bureaucratic incompetence for not handling this differently, but I feel they are due some defense: They were deporting a man in a lawful and dignified manner.

If they had taken him into custody or had planned some undercover deportation can you imagine the outrageous would have leveled against them?Shame on them, and shame on us for allowing it.Maybe you have this week’s column.

AND WHAT'S MORE...

The headline in this morning's 24 Hours is:

"IT'S A BIG VICTORY"

For what?

Mob rule? Intimidation?

The protest at YVR wasn't about civil disobedience or reasonable protest. It was about preventing officers of the law from performing their sworn duties.

And this commentary is not about race, religion, color, customs or differences.

It is about respecting the laws of a sovereign state - Canada.

If those Canadian Border Service agents had proceeded out of the building and approached the taxi in which Mr. Singh was waiting, absolute chaos would have followed.

Perhaps that is to be expected in other cultures and communities, but it is not welcome in Canada. Just as people who sneak into the country using false documentation are not welcome.

That mob scene was a disgrace.

CULTURAL BLACKMAIL

Laibar Singh entered Canada illegally. He used false documents.

Canada is trying to send him back to India. Canada has the right and the obligation to do just that. End of story.

Canada has a very unattractive record when it comes to deporting people who break Canadian laws. Mr. Singh should go.

But Mr. Singh suffered a stroke since his illegal arrival in Canada and he is now a quadriplegic.

He is also a Sikh.

Yesterday, 2000 protesters prevented the Canadian Border Services agents from taking Mr. Singh from his taxi at YVR onto a waiting aircraft.

This isn't civil protest. It is cultural blackmail.

We won't vote for your government. We won't buy tickets on your airline. And we will riot in the streets and disrupt your daily affairs.

That would all be understandable if there were some important principle at stake here.

But the only "principle" is that Mr. Singh is one of us and therefore you are discriminating against us.

How false.

Mr. Singh is a criminal. he broke the law on day one.

The Sikh community should think more of itself and be proud to be law-respecting Canadians. They should deliver Mr. Singh to the plane themselves.

The Crime Blotter

One needs a separate blog just to cover the criminal cases.

1. Michael Levy is a quadriplegic. He became a quadriplegic because 3 horrible out-of-control pig-people attacked him at a party. They were given slight sentences, even though they were tried as adults.

Shame on the judge once again.

2. Conrad Black has been sentenced to 6 1/2 years. He will appeal. Whatever the outcome, one can only marvel at this story. The most arrogant, successful, wealthy fellow imaginable stumbling to this place in life. No doubt the books and screen play are being written as we speak. Oh, I forgot, the writers are on strike.

3. Bagri, charged and acquitted in the Air India murders, made a speech calling for the murders of 50,000 Hindus. For this act of inciting hatred at the very worst and most obvious level he was and will never be charged. I suppose we just wait about like good friendly Canadians for the next bomb.

4. Larry O'Brien is the mayor of Ottawa. He has been charged with 2 criminal counts. He and his city council are so clueless, they are not sure what to do now. After all, innocent until proven guilty, right? Wrong. He is a public servant, the mayor of Canada's capital city. He must step aside until this dark cloud is lifted or resolved. Who, besides the mayor and his council, didn't know that?

5. A Newfoundland doctor, found guilty of drug and sex charges involving his patients, has lowered the bar even on scum like himself. Not only was he blackmailing his patients into providing sexual favors in exchange for perscriptions and sharing in the scripts himself, but hitting a new low for creep behavior, he would - hold onto your seat, now - pick patients up after their Narcotics Anonymous meetings so he could give them more narcotics.

6. Four pm at 41st and Knight and a guy is trading gunfire with the police. Welcome to Kansas.

The Fake Task Force - BC Fools Again

I apologize that it has taken me one week to notice...but Andrew MacLeod has written an extraordinary and important piece in The Tyee (thetyee.ca) about the latest Victoria outrage.

Health Minister George Abbott has created a new pharmaceutical task force, charged with reviewing prices. The only problem is that 5 of the 9 named, including the Chair, are all tightly tied in knots to the pharma industry.

What possible good can come from this latest charade?

Read this terrific article here.

Falling From Grace - Michael Vick

10-year, $130 million contract

That's where he was but a few months ago.

Today, he has been sentenced to 23 months in jail. He is pretty much penniless, in debt and horribly disgraced.

His name is Michael Vick and he was an elite athlete, a superb running and throwing quarterback with the NFL Atlanta Falcons.

His reversal of fortune has to do with dog fighting, cruelty to animals and gambling.

To see someone this good expose himself for being this bad is tragic.

Pickton Guilty - Much Still to Consider

Robert Pickton has been found guilty of 6 counts of murder. That's a good thing.

But much remains to consider.

First, he was charged with first-degree murder, but found guilty of second-degree murder, the thinking being that although he intended to kill, the murders were neither planned nor deliberate.

That would suggest the bizarre possibility that serial murderers can be spontaneous.

Next, the equally bizarre possibility exists that, although Pickton will be sentenced to life in prison, the typically unhinged parole board might some day recommend that he be released. This is most unlikely, but given the sorry state of human nature, why allow even the remote option to exist.

Then, we must consider the issue of pursuing a second trial on 20 additional murders. I believe we should do exactly that. But you can certainly have your say both in the comments to this post and in the survey to the right of this entry.

Finally, although it is most likely that Pickton acted alone in his monstrous insanity, he was hardly alone in the atmosphere that proceeded these murders. Many people, including "upstanding" and often well-known and well-placed citizens were known to favor a little fun at the pig farm on a steady basis.

Will these stories and these names ever come to light?

Addicts at St. Paul's? Really?

The news that addicts are stealing the alcohol-based hand sanitizers at St. Paul's Hospital is only the beginning of a much larger story.

Ask anyone who works at St. Paul's and he will tell you that addicts high jacked St. Paul's - particularly the emergency ward - some years ago.

You don't ever want to call an ambulance and have them speed you to St. Paul's. If you have a single breath in you, holler, "VGH!"

Addicts basically use St. Paul's ER as their private rest stop between fixes, overdoses, withdrawals and no-money-for-food-and-pills. They often use the ambulance services as a taxi service, and they do this in every large Canadian city.

I have a friend who has worked in this quagmire for years. In spite of regular attacks on his person, calls for security, and anxiety and sleepless nights, he somehow still manages to love his work. Bless his soul.

As for the rest of us, be warned. Unless you want to sit in pain amongst self-inflicted dope fiends, try another hotel.

Drunk Driving Under Welcome Attacks

We have seat belts and air bags.

Why not steering wheels that measure your blood alcohol level so that you cannot drive drunk?

No doubt there were squeals and shrieks galore from both the public and the manufacturers before seat belts and other safety devices. Even today, there are those who believe that their individual "freedoms" are compromised by having to strap on.

Nevertheless, the technology now exists and it is simple and inexpensive to embed sensors in steering wheels that measure one's blood alcohol levels. Anyone who has ever run on a treadmill is familiar with exactly this technology that gives an immediate and accurate reading of heart rate.

Heart rates are hard to come by when you've been struck by a drunk driver.

MADD is correct, as always, to pursue this worthy goal.

They are also correct to lobby against the motor company that employs Keifer Sutherland, no doing 48 days in jail for drunk driving, as their voice and spokesperson.

In Arizona, one enterprising lawman has gone even further. He is launching billboards and website with the photos of drunk drivers. Why not? I think that is perfectly useful and appropriate?

Read that story here.

Emmylou Harris - Prayer in Open D

Billy Joel Gives His latest to Young Cass Dillon

On the Other Hand

One of about similar 40 emails that I have received since Friday's column:

Finally,someone said it.

Between sanguine SAM and capricious Kim andthe rest of the rot on 12 avenue,it's hard to pick a standout.Sullivan had one good idea and he patents it.Since he and theother j green stole the election I've been dumbfounded.They don't evensee the homeless.

The Olympics were a boondoggle from day one.Some howMr.Furlong & co. have created their own little fiefdom and no-oneseems to care?The only problem we have down town seems to be thedumpsters.

Sullivan is more paranoid than Dick Cheney and seems to haveto prove it monthly.So we watch in awe as Sammy goes from custom wheelchair to custom ski chair and seems to lose them every time hetravels,which he does more often than Al Gore.

At this point evenCarole Taylor seems a better bet.Considering the way she's representedher constituents on Cambie,thats a scary thought.-- terry mckinney vancouver BC

Vanoc has lost all Bearings

Vanoc is going to sell Olympic-logo-stamped school supplies to kids.

Of all the disgraces this Party has been responsible for to date, this is the worst.

Will the millions raised from kids screaming to their struggling single parents go back into education?

Probably not.

Hands off the children, you greedy money-grubbers!

Read the whole story from this morning's Province here.

Kim Wouldn't Know the Truth if She Fell in a Barrel of it

Kim Capri can't tell the truth.

She never for a nono-second spoke about my thoughts on drug addiction. She never asked me a thing about this subject. It never came up.

I did not give her an angry rant.

I quietly told her what I thought after she told me far too many times how disappointed she was in me.

Often when you tell people something unpleasant they remember it as yelling.

Why write to the Province?

She doesn't know when to quit.

Here is her letter published today. It is full of falsehoods.

LetterPublished: Sunday, December 09, 2007

David Berner is fully entitled to his opinions, but it is important that he gets the facts correct.
I do respect some of his ideas about drug treatment, so I decided to call him and invite him to elucidate his thoughts.

I phoned the number on his business card. When he answered, I assumed that he, like myself, was working late.

Instead of a rational conversation about what we need to do to bring civility back to our city, he launched into an angry rant full of personal attacks.

At this point, I realized that my hopes for a reasonable conversation with some helpful feedback from him were futile.

I'm pleased to see he is now writing for The Province. The media loves having politicians to skewer. But Berner's column would have been far more interesting and helpful had he chosen to share some of his good ideas.

Coun. Kim Capri, Vancouver

John Lennon - Imagine Acoustic Live