Monday, July 21, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Zoom, zoom, zoom...NOT!
The news, announced in today's Province, that Oak Bay will be the first city in Canada to allow electric cars on its streets is both welcome and puzzling.
Didn't I just read that Quebec was making the same announcement, the immediate result of which is that the Zenn is stepping up production in its Quebec plant?
And while I welcome electric cars and look forward to seeing more of those then the behemoths we now have on the cit streets, I will look forward to seeing LRT trains running along street tracks on time and every two minutes in rush hour and every six minutes otherwise, just like in many cities in the world.
Our city driving has now become an unmitigated horror.
The only thing worse is the pathetic excuse for public transit. Daily, I am told of twenty and twenty-five minutes waits. Puleeeeeese!
Posted by
David Berner
at
9:27 AM
1 comments
The Rules of Dis-Engagement
Would one of you smart people please explain to me how CBC makes its judgments and determinations when it comes to obscenity and pornography?
Last night, I watched the first hour of Quentin Tarantino's one great movie, "Pulp Fiction." This was before he went completely insane and decided that slashing up a mother in front of her 5-year old somehow constituted entertainment. Before he declared publicly that filming violence made him hard, and he wasn't talking about endurance.
We might ask why the government funded network is showing American movies or any other American thing in the first place, but that's a whole other debate.
Here's my puzzlement.
Every time one of the characters in "Pulp Fiction" said "f___" or some derivation thereof - and they said it every fifth f______ word - the sound track bleeped. So there was a symphonic proliferation of bleeping this and bleep that.
But these words came through, sans censor, loud and clear: pussy, shit.
So can you explain to me the mind set or the Book of Kells that CBC mis-management is using for a doorstop?
Come on, you f______ pussies, explain this shit to me.
p.s. BY the way, it has taken me all these years to notice that Steve Buscemi played "Buddy Holly," the waiter who serves John Travolta and Uma Thurman.
Posted by
David Berner
at
9:09 AM
1 comments
The Good Judge
Judging "Ivory Tower Avoidance" and other follies
LET’S REMIND GOVERNMENT THAT JUDGES AND POLICE WORK FOR US July 16, 2008 SUNDAY July 12, another in a series of blue-sky days; but here I am, hunkered down struggling to meet a Monday morning deadline for this column. Shuttering out uplifting blue skies, I peck away at the keyboard under a couple of dark clouds that hover ominously over our criminal justice system. One is the disturbing release on bail of alleged perjurer Inderjit Singh Reyat, the bomb-maker implicated in the 1985 Air India in-flight explosion. Some time ago Justice Patrick Dohm denied bail for Reyat in a multi-count perjury case arising out of the Air India trial. Dohm based his decision partly on the ground that it was necessary to deny bail in order to maintain public confidence in the administration of justice. I think Dohm reacted appropriately to Reyat’s involvement as a bomb maker in two terrorist attacks in which 331 unsuspecting innocents were killed. The appeal court over-ruled Dohm and released Reyat stating in part that “An informed member of the public would recognize that Mr. Reyat is entitled to the presumption of innocence in relation to the perjury charge, regardless of his past criminal misconduct for which he has already been punished by serving sentences totalling the equivalent of 25 years.” That statement is ivory-tower avoidance of harsh realities. Surely an informed member of the public would disagree with the appeal court judge and say that Reyat is still a dedicated terrorist and would point out that the trial judge characterized Reyat as an “unmitigated liar under oath” concerning the plot to blow up two aircraft. An informed person would surely say that time spent in jail does not in any sense amount to repayment of a debt to society; that there is no such principle in the law; and that it is merely a metaphorical wiping clean of the punishment slate. Reyat will never mingle among us as a rehabilitated citizen of virtue for he can never shed his participation in this massacre. Judges need frequent reminding that as a branch of government they must always be a force in maintaining peace and order in our communities. It is not within their mandate to mollycoddle a self-admitted killer terrorist. After the appeal judge granted bail, she somehow concluded that her judgement, including bail conditions should not be made public, on the basis that an earlier order banning publication of the initial bail hearing precluded publication of the details of her judgement. Wrong, wrong, wrong: Once pronounced a judgment belongs to the public and not to the judge who rendered it. The second dark cloud is the slapstick-like behaviour of a dysfunctional integrated squad of RCMP and municipal police, a mob squad actually. Clouseau-like infighting forced federal prosecutors to short-circuit the mob squads multimillion-dollar investigation of several high-ranking members of the Hell’s Angels. This integrated squad working under the apt name Project Phoenix was part of the Organized Crime Agency of B.C. Its target: some leading Hell’s Angels. However the targets faded away as the first order of business became internal matters. The dominant RCMP squad members turned against the designated lead investigator, a municipal police officer and he was fired. A civil law suit arose from the ashes of Project Phoenix with former lead investigator Allen Dalstrom bringing a wrongful dismissal claim against David Douglas, the former chief officer of OCABC, who fired him; and Kevin Begg, head of the provincial government’s police services division. At present the RCMP seems to have regained its stranglehold on mob investigation with the OCABC being supplanted by a new Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, an integrated team of RCMP and municipal police officers. It is the same game under a different name: the unmanageable RCMP in charge, its operation beyond the reach of our Police Act and law ministers, and worst of all no civilian oversight and no accountability. I am certain that when the Dalstrom suit gets to court it will expose the “we-know-best” RCMP as incapable of working on a true partnership basis with municipal police forces. Hopefully there will be testimony concerning the Police Services Branch of the ministry of the Solicitor General and whether it is stacked with RCMP retirees. In her report of November 2, 2007, The RCMP Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Dr. Linda Duxbury included the following assessment in her “key conclusions”: “RCMP culture is not one that supports change. Nor is it one that promotes workplace health or provides competitive advantage. “Words that describe the general culture include: paramilitary; hierarchical; … overcommitted; one that declares victory before achievement; overstretched; one that shoots the messenger; risk adverse; defensive; low trust; one of winners and losers; one that gives preference to dealing with issues rather than people; one that under values human resources; cash managed; non aligned; siloed; focused on process and face time not commonsense and output; change fatigued; exploitive …” This ailing organization has de facto control over the future of policing in British Columbia and with the seeming acquiescence of the premier and his law ministers they are preparing to accept another 20-year fiefdom in British Columbia. We must always remind ourselves that we live together under a constitution that proclaims our right to “peace, order and good government.” Yet awareness of our constitutional rights without action will result in our democratic society being turned upside down. Then our coalescence as a law-abiding people will be fruitless as our executive, legislative and judicial branches of government – together with their bureaucratic agents and police – imperiously anticipate our obedience. Soon it will be time to cast our ballot with a vengeance. wallace-gilby-craig@shaw.ca; www.realjustice.ca. Published July 16, 2008 in the North Shore News
Posted by
David Berner
at
9:07 AM
1 comments
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Let the Light in, Gordon
Bravo to the Vancouver Sun's very strong editorial this morning calling for even the lowest level of transparency and decency from the Campbell goverment.
This administration has been making secrecy its watchword for far too long.
Posted by
David Berner
at
9:58 AM
1 comments
STOP THAT CHILDISH FUN, YOU HEAR!
You know why nothing can get done at City Hall?
You know why improvements to city life and health are less than zero?
Because 3 city employees and various departments and managers and clerks have been caught up in The Great Kerrisdale Tree Fort Initiative!
Thank god, we have these stellar guardians of The Right, and the nice neighbours to help them along.
Jack and Sam, you may NOT have a tree fort in your own yard. So there!
And don't mind about the homeless and the drug addicted living near by. We'll get to them in the next millenium sometime.
Just after we stop this guy from selling alternate newspapers or flowers near the bank.
Posted by
David Berner
at
9:52 AM
4
comments
Parole Board is Unbelievable
These idiots have struck again.
Will no one stop them?
A guy enticed hundreds of young girls on the internet to have sex with him. He managed to get at least two to comply.
He was sentenced to nine years.
Against the advice of his case management team, the irresponsible crew of misfits in the Parole Board has released him after less than one year in prison.
They say he has shown insight and understanding about his crime.
Hahahahahahahaha...I'm crying already.
The man is not allowed access to the internet while on parole.
Hahahahahahaha...I'm crying again.
The internet is like ants, locusts, cockroaches and mice. There are more of them than there are human creatures.
The internet is EVERYWHERE. You can't escape it.
How are these geniuses planning to patrol this injunction?
PLease, please, please ask Stephen Harper to totally revise the National Parole Board. It is a bigger danger to the community than drug cartels.
Posted by
David Berner
at
9:44 AM
0
comments
Flushing Meadow, Two
A group in San Fransisco wants to renames the local sewage plant in honor of President Bush.
You can join their petition at this site.
We miss this kind of citizen satire.
Do you remember Yokum Foikus, the Town Fool?
I was standing in front of our second rehab house back in the late 60's on a lovely summer day and I suddenly did a double take.
A man wearing a medieval jester's costume, complete with dangling bells, walked pass me with an ass. Yes, a real live grey beast of burden.
Foikus was active during the upcoming civic election.
We need him again. Soon.
Posted by
David Berner
at
9:36 AM
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comments
Margaret Wente's Fourth Column on Drugs
Wente is the first and only journalist in Canada to completely and totally "get it." She has embraced the painful truths of this story utterly. In focusing on Billy W., she has perfectly illustrated the beauty and the bureaucratic madness. Bravissima!
VANCOUVER — Billy Weselowski has seen it all, and he hates what he sees on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. “You can't go a block without a bicycle pulling up and giving you all the syringes you want,” he growls. Mr. Weselowski knows this world all too well. He grew up here. His childhood was a nightmare of violence and abuse. At 13, he blacked out from booze for the first time, and quickly wound up on the streets. He injected, snorted, stole, pimped women, stabbed men and became an accomplished felon. He was the hardest of the hard core. Today, he runs rehab programs for drug addicts that borrow from the tough-love model of AA. He has successfully treated thousands of people, using an approach that emphasizes structure, personal responsibility and abstinence. But this approach to addiction is deeply out of fashion. The experts who make drug policy, allocate public money, dispense research funds, advise politicians and push for reform aren't interested in hearing from people like him. Instead, they're interested in “harm reduction” – which, among other things, means giving people all the syringes they want. [Photo] Bethany Jeal a nurse with the Downtown East Side Clinical Housing Team, holds a typical tray with an injection kit that will be handed out to drug users at Insite. (John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail)
In Mr. Weselowski's view, harm reduction is a farce. “They're killing people by the truckload,” he says. Canada's official drug policy is known as the Four Pillars approach: prevention, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement. In practice, prevention and treatment have been neglected, while harm-reduction measures have steadily gained ground. Free needle and methadone programs are now widespread. (The term “needle exchange” is obsolete; needles are now handed out by the boxful.) Hundreds of addicts a day visit Vancouver's supervised injection site, which has become ground zero in an angry war of words. Yet, harm reduction remains the orthodoxy of the day. “The supervised injection site is beyond questioning,” says one Vancouver resident. “You are branded unprogressive, unfeeling and everything else ‘un' if you criticize it.” David Marsh, the Vancouver region's medical director for addictions, says harm-reduction policies are often misunderstood. “Essentially, harm reductions are interventions that help reduce the harms associated with drug use, without necessarily requiring that drug use be decreased or stopped.” They are a compassionate way to help the most addicted and marginalized of them all, to tide them over until they're able and willing to seek help. “It's part of Canadian tradition not to turn our backs to people at their lowest.” Harm-reduction advocates now rule the drug policy establishment. They dominate Health Canada, addiction research centres, drug policy groups, and the public health services of local governments. Nowhere is this more true than B.C., where social attitudes toward drugs are the most liberal in Canada. Public officials have fought tenaciously for the supervised injection site. For some, it represents a crucial step toward a far more sweeping form of harm reduction – legalization. Many harm-reduction advocates believe the real harms are done by drug laws, not drugs. Prohibition is impossible, prevention is futile, and abstinence is unattainable for many. Therefore, if we stop criminalizing drugs, we'll get rid of most of the drug problems – the international gangs, the billions wasted on interdiction and enforcement, the crimes committed by addicts who need drug money, the imprisonment for petty drug crimes, and so on. It's an attractive theory, at least on paper. Drug-law reformers have ideological allies around the world, in think tanks and at major universities. Among them is financier George Soros. Because of his deep pockets, he's been called the Daddy Warbucks of drug legalization. All of this is spicy stuff. Harm reduction is a hot research field that attracts major money and offers major career opportunities. At Vancouver's international drug conference last year, no one was interested in reactionary things like 12-step programs, rehab or recovery. The noisy marijuana lobby provides a lot of fuel for this crusade, despite the fact that pot is not the issue. Marijuana use is not what creates the lion's share of crime, public disorder, massive costs to the health system, and ruined lives. The real problem is hard drugs, especially cocaine. Vancouver's last three mayors have been outspoken advocates for legalizing marijuana (and the source of a certain civic pride for Vancouverites). The current one, Sam Sullivan, has called for medical versions of hard drugs to be available to addicts. The city's official drug policy calls for the federal government to legalize marijuana, and also to review its prohibition policies for other illegal drugs. Three years ago, B.C.'s public health officers – the same ones who've cracked down on smoking – released a detailed report calling for “government controlled supply” for formerly illegal drugs. “Harm-reduction strategies have not been as effective as possible due to their implementation within the prohibition model.” It laid out an ambitious model for “post-prohibition harm reduction,” where the government, guided by its wise public health officers, would supervise the production and distribution of legal heroin and crack. Cuckoo? Not so much. Top health officials in B.C. already endorse the use of medical heroin, and a trial program has just wound up. Some of them belong to groups lobbying for legalization, and least one influential official is a vocal advocate for the benefits of psychedelic drug use. Not surprisingly, the group that runs Insite, Vancouver's safe-injection site, stridently opposes current drug laws, as does the publicly funded drug users' lobby, VANDU. These two groups are notorious for the noisy lengths they go to in order to silence their critics. They're also good at high-profile PR stunts, such as the recent demonstration on Parliament Hill where they planted 868 wooden crosses to symbolize the 868 people who overdosed at Insite. “Insite was about people dying – friends and neighbours!” spokesman Mark Townsend told me in an interview. In fact, the research found that Insite averts around one overdose death a year, not 868. When asked about this discrepancy, Mr. Townsend brushed it off as irrelevant. Given the current government in Ottawa, it's unlikely that the push for legalization will make headway any time soon. There's also another obstacle: the public. Health officials have faced citizen revolts in cities where people don't want free needles passed out in their neighbourhoods. Sadly, all this theatre has deprived Canadians of a genuine debate over drug policy. The question isn't whether Insite is good or bad. The question is what steps we can take that really will reduce the harm drugs do. Despite the shouting, it's not too hard to guess where the moderate majority stands on drugs. They don't want people prosecuted for smoking a little weed. (After all, plenty of them do it, too.) But hard drugs are different. We don't want to decriminalize them. But we also don't want to punish addicts by throwing them in jail. We want a humane drug policy that will help them get better – and if that means giving them a choice between rehab or jail, then maybe that's okay. So maybe what we need is not more Insites but more Billy Weselowskis – people who can give drug addicts a shot at dignity and a life. Mr. Weselowski knows that even hard-core junkies can recover. After all, he did. “We help get them connected to a spark of hope inside their souls."
Posted by
David Berner
at
9:32 AM
3
comments
Letter to the Auditor General from a Citizen
Dear Sir:
I would to like to offer my sincere apologies for the verbal tirade directed
at yourself and your office by one member of the legislative assembly, the
less-than-Honourable Pat Bell.
This member's juvenile behaviour was directed personally at yourself based
on the Office of the Auditor General's recent report, "Removing Private Land
from Tree Farm Licences 6, 19 & 25: Protecting the Public Interest?"
As a citizen of this great province, I felt ashamed at the behaviour
exhibited by an elected official who appears not to understand the role of
the Auditor-General's Office. I suggest that Mr. Bell inform himself of the
Auditor General Act. It is important that government, even in a democracy,
contain avenues where the people's business is conducted in a transparent
manner and that it be accountable. Systems of checks and balances are
important especially in an era where more government decisions are being
made by fewer elected officials, mainly its Cabinet, and more by unelected
government appointed officers residing in the Office of the Premier.
From my understanding the Auditor General reports to the Legislative
Assembly, which is comprised of 79 elected members, and although being part
of government, the work undertaken by the Office of the Auditor General
should be independent and not influenced by government.
I have watched with interest how the current government, first elected in
2001, with their majority, drastically reduced the budgets of two of the
government's oversight departments, The Office of the Auditor General and
the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. These offices are
an essential part of modern democratic governance and they should monitor
the actions of government to ensure accountability and transparency. I am
hoping your office's report does not cause the government to take punitive
measures by reducing your office's future budgets.
I would like you to know that the current government promised the citizens
of BC both improved accountability and transparency as well as a commitment
to consult with the citizens when it campaigned in 2001.
I would think that the Honourable Pat Bell should commend your office for
doing the work that ensures that his government's promises are being
met.
Unfortunately, the reaction your office received in the matter of the above
mentioned report may be a response to information not favourable to the
current government and possibly the reaction was in fact a response to
information not first vetted through the Office of the Premier's Public
Affairs Division.
Although in the past, I have not always agreed with the conclusions made by
your office, I still respect its role in government.
I am encouraged that your office undertook its investigation into the
removal of private lands from tree farm licences in response to the many
requests of concerned citizens. I would hope the government would carefully
study the report and specifically address the issues in your comments,
namely:
-the decision was not adequately informed - it was based upon incomplete
information that focused primarily on forest and range matters and the
interests of the licensee, with too little consideration given to the
potential impacts on other key stakeholders;
-consultation was not effective and communication with key stakeholders and
the public about the decision was not transparent;
-and the impacts of previous land removal decisions were not monitored to
help inform future decisions.
Please take the time to commend your staff for the work they are doing not
only on behalf of the Legislature but on behalf of the citizens of BC.
Sincerely,
Phil Le Good
1507 Vidal Street
White Rock, BC
Posted by
David Berner
at
9:16 AM
0
comments
Friday, July 18, 2008
Confession
Somedays, there is little or nothing in the news about which a fella should get up-worked.
Try to make this your own personal Long Weekend.
Stay off the cell, walk or ride the bike, play cards, read...
Posted by
David Berner
at
8:26 AM
1 comments
Alex T. on Women in Politics
As the great Sigmund Freud himself said more than once, "Vomen! Vat ze hell do zey vant???"
GREAT WOMEN DON'T GRATE US
I am always amused by the notion that there aren’t enough women in politics. Since the fairer of us comprise more than half our population, you’d have thought that we would not need, for example, the provincial NDP’s, now in play, policy nonsense where clear quotaism may kill otherwise winnable ridings for them.
No, I laugh, heartily, because the word ‘qualified’ is seldom used to describe the lasses who bravely take the political plunge. Frankly, there are few qualified to govern, past or present. And don’t shoot the messenger, it’s not because they’re women…
Leaving ‘Teflon’ Carole Taylor and Amazing Grace McCarthy and their one in one hundred million super-qualifications in a class by themselves (although closely followed in competence by Surrey Mayor and future Premier–if-she-wants-it Dianne Watts), how many other women can you name who are (were) worthy of being called ‘qualified’ to be in government or represent us at all?
The NDP’s Margaret Mitchell springs to mind. She was always one of my favourties, Margaret made me feel that there were actually some brains and integrity on the NDP side in the House and I loved Barbara MacDougall (who wouldn’t?) as a counter-balance to the inanities of the dunce, Shrilla Copps, in the good old days.
In Victoria, the provincial Liberals Olga Ilich, I always admired. Her, sometimes, rough ride as a provincial Minister was largely due to her frustration with the snail’s pace of the workings of government. She rode her own development company into stratospheric success and while ‘Overdrive Olga’ was never a slouch in making a good decision, the slothfulness of the bureaucracy must have driven her mad..
The women on the Surrey First slate running in November are all very bright lights, too, and I was always fond of Clr. Mary Anderson in White Rock, who is as knowledgeable as she is impervious to stupidity, all at an age (she’ll tell you herself) “where most gals might be found well retired and sunning themselves somewhere”. Only Catherine Ferguson might live up to that legacy in the same city. And Lois Jackson in Delta leaves me with hope that the GVRD, excuse me, Metro Vancouver, will remain in goods hands—for now.
But where do we look for inspirational women in politics in Vancouver? Gone are the greats: May Brown, Lynne Kennedy and Marguerite Ford. School Trustee Eleanor Gregory and Parks Commissioner Heather Holden are, unfortunately, retiring--leaving us with the likes of Suzanne Anton, Elizabeth Ball and Kim Capri. ‘The Three Amigas’ are only now, incredibly, starting to recognize that their blind (read: mindless) support of Sam Sullivan may have cost them, dearly. Clr. Capripants informs recently that she has decided not to seek the Liberal nomination in the fall provincial by-election of Vancouver Fairview where she would have been trounced by almost any NDP candidate, in a constituency freshly vacated by the Juice King, likely to be Mayor (current polling has Peter the Great and the NPA trailing woefully).
Clr. Capri can’t help herself. In a recent email to “supporters” (all of three…) she managed only a mere handful of words of begrudging acknowledgement of Peter Ladner, who still hasn’t found the intestinal fortitude to, appropriately, throw her under the NPA train (reduced to two cars and a caboose, thanks to the Sullivan train wreck) since she is so very disrespectful of the NPA membership’s decision.
And then, for the NPA, there are also the candidacies for Parks Board of victim-player, gossip blogger and innuendo peddler Jamie Lee Hamilton and DivaNova progeny Melissa DeGenova to be proud of…
The uber qualified: COPE’s Loretta Woodcock, NPA's Laura McDiarmid, Vision’s Sharon Gregson Andrea Reimer, Heather Harrison and Heather Deal, must be laughing all the way to the political bank…
Women...
Posted by
David Berner
at
8:24 AM
0
comments
The Dark Summer
I don't want to ruin your weekend, but...
IT'S A BATMAN MOVIE!!!
Get over it...have a life...
It's an expensive cartoon.
Hello?
Posted by
David Berner
at
8:14 AM
1 comments
Every Country Needs a Senator Larry
Do you remember Senator Larry Craig?
He was the U.S. legislator who was caught playing footsie in a washroom and then called a press conference to declare, "I am not gay."
Well, this is terribly cruel and terribly funny.
Here he is commenting in public on oil policy: "Don't let foreigners "jerk us around by the gas nozzle.""
Nice metaphor, Senator.
Watch.
Posted by
David Berner
at
8:10 AM
0
comments
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Margaret Wente's Third Column on Drugs - Perfect
Europe 's approach to drugs is more enlightened ... it's tougher
MARGARET WENTE
From Thursday's Globe and Ma
July 17, 2008
In 2006, Governor-General Michaëlle Jean was hosting Queen Silvia of
Alas, the Queen was not impressed. She briskly informed the GG that
Advocates of harm-reduction measures, such as needle exchanges, methadone programs and
As a consequence of grassroots support for this policy, drug use in
Two months ago, the Scottish government announced a change in direction. From now on its primary focus will be on "recovery," not just harm reduction. "Harm reduction ideas have failed in
The
Like
I asked
The provision of "clean" drugs is, in fact, what many advocates of Insite want next. "Many individuals who promote harm reduction believe there's fundamentally nothing wrong with drug use, except the fact that it's illegal," says Prof. McKeganey.
Every nation is different, and drug policies that work in one place may not work in another. But to him,
Posted by
David Berner
at
2:03 PM
1 comments
This is Rich
"No process, no consultation, no process."
This is how BC's Auditor-General, John Doyle, has described the Campbell government's way of handling land deals.
Of course, the government's response is the old "shoot the messenger" gag. Forest Minister Pat Bell starts calling the AG names. Sweet.
What makes this latest case so tasty is that Rich Coleman was the Minister when this questionable done-deal was rammed through in favor of Western Forest Products. Coleman's brother, Stan, is a senior exec at the company.
So my old question, asked always in these situations - Whose cousin is he? - must be updated to - Whose immediate sibling is he?
Driving into Seoul from Inchon airport a few years ago, along many kilometres of perfect highway, I asked, "Whose cousin had the cement contract?
The next morning I read in the English language newspaper about the scandal of the cement contract going to some government official's near relative.
Hahahahahaha...
One thing about government corruption is that it is always so laughably predictable.
Posted by
David Berner
at
10:30 AM
1 comments
Non Compismentis
Compensation from BC Hydro?
What are you smoking, Girl?
Rogers has refunded me a considerable amount of money on an error for I am admittedly largely responsible.
Shaw has refunded me for an almost 24-hour outage of my TV and internet service a few weeks ago.
But asking BC Hydro to pony up would be like asking the Old and New Testaments to be re-written.
Posted by
David Berner
at
10:23 AM
0
comments
Cover Me
Alan Ferguson has written an excellent editorial in this morning's Province about the Obama New Yorker cartoon.
The cover cartoon was an obvious satire of the lunacy coming from the extreme right regarding Obama's history and sympathies.
But unless you stop and think about it, at first glance the cartoon seems to be saying that Obama is a flag-burning Islamic terrorist.
Of course, it is a typically outrageous New Yorker cartoon.
I agree with Ferguson's analysis in large measure, but I don't agree completely with his conclusions.
I don't think the cover is "brilliant" and I don't think it was a wise choice, precisely because so many people are so stupid and see only what appears to be the obvious.
This week, I received 3 pieces of mail scolding me for a poster I created in which I deliberately used the wrong spelling of a word to create a jokey pun. None of the letter writers got the joke.
Of course, that doesn't mean I should have resisted the joke, and there is no question the New Yorker should not be attacked for this cover.
Still, my sense of this is that it was a good laugh in the news room, but maybe it shouldn't have gone any further.
Posted by
David Berner
at
10:11 AM
0
comments