Our friend, Alex Tsakumis, whose Friday editorial in 24 Hours is often reprinted here, has a new gig.
He is now writing editorials as well for the CTVBC website. His pieces are called "Front and Centre" and you can find them easily enough here.
This week he offers his goodbyes to a certain mayor...
You needn't be a golfer or a golf fan to have appreciated what Tiger Woods did yesterday at the US Open at Torry Pines in La Jolla, California.
He has just come off his umpteenth knee surgery and the here, on the third day of a major, all the ice in the world was not going to help ease the pain each time he created that massive torque on one of his patented 360 yard drives. Or worse, on one of those 200 yarders out of the rough to a green on a second shot.
In the game throughout, trailing off and on by a shot or 3 shots, on the 13th hole, a par five, Woods sent an enormously long putt way off to the right and watched it turn at exactly the right moment and drop in clean for an eagle.
He, the crowd, the NBC announcers and, I suspect, everyone at home and in every sports bar, went insane! I certainly did. It was just one of those moments of pure sports magic - Borg down the line, Brady to Moss, Michael to the hoop.
Then, trailing by one to Lee Westwood, already in the clubhouse at 2 under, Tiger repeats at the 18th, curling yet another lengthy putt in for his second eagle in 5 holes.
Even my friend, Yan Min, who is not only not a golfer, but barely understands the rules let alone the subtleties of the game, was screaming.
The final round starts today at noon on NBC.
Do what I do. Tape the whole six hours, go out and enjoy a rare sunny day, and then, in the evening enjoy this classic by racing through the commercials and the coverage of all the also-rans.
If Tiger actually wins this sucker - and he has always won when leading after 54 holes - it will truly be one for the ages.
"Character is destiny."
Frances Bula's full page piece in the Sun today - THE ANATOMY OF SAM SULLIVAN'S DOWNFALL - makes excellent newspaper reading.
It is unnecessarily kind and it avoids the central issue.
Sullivan has famously said that he wants to stomp on his opponent's throats. Well he deserves an equal post mortem.
One of my friends who has known Sullivan for over 30 years says this.
"Sam is a case of arrested development. He is a bitterly angry teen-ager who stopped growing emotionally when he had his skiing accident at the age of 19. He is not only totally self-absorbed, he is utterly disrespectful of others with differing opinions."
I can tell you personally that on two occasions, one private and one very public, Sullivan infuriated me with his lunatic and destructive ideas on "helping" drug addicts and I started hollering at him. You know what his reactions were in both instances?
He was smiling broadly.
He loves to get you in any way he can.
And that is the single reason why he was the worst mayor in Vancouver history, and why any Ladner, Louie or Robertson will be an automatic improvement.
My post herein of Wednesday, June 11th, called "Fueling the Madness," has got quite a nice debate going, with 12 comments to date.
A great follow-up is today's Sun column by Bob Ransford titled, "Not All Transit makes Sense."
Ransford argues for grade-level trams. He is right.
Read it and be glad that someone in the media is saying what must be said.
Pictured above is Dublin's terric LUAS system.
Continuin the theme from yesterday's "Indian Affairs" and Thursday's "The Apology,"
Take note of the excellent article in the Sun's business section on Harry Cook, former Indian Band Chief at Lac La Ronge, Sask.
Cook urges young people to leave the reserve, move to the city, work and study and learn how the world works.
Then, if they want to return, they will do so with drive, energy and knowledge. He should know. His band employees hundreds of aboriginals and non-aboriginals in a broad range of highly successful businesses.
This is one of the best, most sensible and encouraging pieces I've read in a very long time on the future of natives.
And it is in stark contrast to the much higher profiled, emotional drivel to be found in Douglas Todd's full page babel about drumming and healing.
Federal Health Minister Tony Clement has wisely backed down on his original plan to over-regulate natural health products.
Swamped by concerned citizens and industry spokesmen, Clement recognized that it was entirely unreasonable to classify Vitamin C or Echinacea as either a "food" or a "drug."
Aside from the onerous Big Brother quality of the original plan, what was so ludicrous was this: There has not been ONE, not ONE recorded incident of death or anything remotely close happening to anyone in this broad country as a result of some hocus pocus they took from their local Finlandia.
Contrast that simple fact to this morning's headline story in the NY Times - Legal Drugs Kill Far More Than Illegal, Florida Says. Read that item here and weep.
Congratulations to the natural health products folk who stood way up and barked very loudly and to Clement who actually listened.
To those of living here in Canada, NAFTA has more significance than the EU.
But I was in Dublin last week and the signs FOR and AGAINST the Lisbon Treaty were everywhere.
Now the NY Times announces the defeat of the treaty by Ireland. For even more thorough coverage of this important story, go straight to The Irish Times.
Further to "The Apology," from yesterday's blog, please read Harvey Enchin's op-ed piece in this morning's Sun.
It is just about the clearest and most straight-forward editorial I've read in a long time on the subject of "Indian Affairs."
Enchin points out that with all the money being spent, the results are disastrous: growing poverty, bad housing, criminality, kids on welfare.
He suggest we start by tearing up the Indian Act, an idea that many of us have been insisting for over 40 years now.
He also quotes the great economist de Soto, who has argued world-wide for several years now that OWNERSHIP is everything. Thus, give natives the right and responsibility of owning their own homes on or off reserves.
Finally he quotes Clarence Louie, who is the Osoyoos Band Chief. Louie says what kids need is a job, not some feel good program.
I say, "Forget the healing. Let the going to school and going to work begin."
Stephen Harper was right and brave to make the apology to aboriginals for our sins of cruelty.
Chretien, who after all was Indian Affairs Minister for many years, didn't rise to the occasion. Nor did Martin or Ryan Baloney.
I believe the Prime Minister's apology to be sincere and real and important.
I also believe that it is time for aboriginals - while never forgetting - to press on into the future and stop the endless kvetching.
Bring up your children with pride. Let no child fall to drugs or alcohol or bad marks in school. Expect only the best from one another.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — A couple of years ago, a Canadian magazine published an article arguing that the rise of Islam threatened Western values. The article’s tone was mocking and biting, but it said nothing that conservative magazines and blogs in the United States do not say every day without fear of legal reprisal.
Things are different here. The magazine is on trial.
Two members of the Canadian Islamic Congress say the magazine, Maclean’s, Canada’s leading newsweekly, violated a provincial hate speech law by stirring up hatred against Muslims. They say the magazine should be forbidden from saying similar things, forced to publish a rebuttal and made to compensate Muslims for injuring their “dignity, feelings and self-respect.”
The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, which held five days of hearings on those questions here last week, will soon rule on whether Maclean’s violated the law. As spectators lined up for the afternoon session last week, an argument broke out.
“It’s hate speech!” yelled one man.
“It’s free speech!” yelled another.
In the United States, that debate has been settled. Under the First Amendment, newspapers and magazines can say what they like about minorities and religions — even false, provocative or hateful things — without legal consequence.
These are the opening paragraphs taken from this morning's coverage in the NY Times of an obscenity that was going on here in town last week. For the full NY Times story, read here.
I have it on excellent authority that the first NPA caucus meeting after Sunday's win for Peter Ladner was an unholy mess.
Instead of being grown-ups and recognizing that a contest had just been held and one man had won, the shreiking meemies apparently cried and cajoled and hectored with plaints like,
"How could you do that?"
"Sam was the greatest mayor we've ever had."
"Traitor."
and like that.
And we wonder why this sorry slate is going down.
The world-wide reaction to skyrocketing fuel prices is becoming increasingly violent.
Prices at the pump are high enough here and then you realize that they are cheap relative to prices in the US, in Europe and around the globe.
Solutions?
Vaughn Palmer, as he often does, got it completely right is his column this morning about the Premier and Higher Education.
In April, Campbell re-named 5 Colleges as Universities.
Within days, the orders went out from his government instructed everybody on how to not spend money and how to live with less.
Read this excellent piece here, and think about this government's continuing pea and shell game with the public it was elected to serve.
Congratulations to the "unsophisticated Lower Mainland career criminals."
It is encouraging to see that we are raising our level of culture and crime in one fell swoop.
Stealing Bill Reid art objects from the UBC Museum of Anthropology puts us on the map, for sure. I'm surprised Ladner or Sullivan or one of the other city boosters wasn't there for the ribbon cutting.
