Clement vs. The Accepted Wisdom

Federal Health Minister Tony Clement is on a mission.

And it is a dangerous one.

Wish him luck and pray for him.

Clement is bucking all the accepted wisdom and all the official stories about safe injection sites.

Like you, he knows that these are hideous mistakes that help very few.

He knows that numbers and facts have been endlessly manipulated by doctors and social workers and politicos to support a program that is a deadly waste.

A few days ago, Clement said all of these things in public at a convention.

Yesterday, he said it again in the den of the enemy.

Addressing the Canadian Medical Association, Clement said, "Over the last five years, while Insite has been operating, we could have provided treatment to 5,000 addicts. Instead, during that time, 250 addicts have died of drug overdose alone," adding that the vast majority of injections still take place in back alleys and seedy hotels, and the centre's $3-million annual cost would be better spent elsewhere.

Of course, he has been viciously attacked for stating the politically incorrect truth.

Earlier this week, the Conservatives sent out a mailing decrying free needles and safe injection sites.

They are to be applauded heartily for this.

And they are to be given standing ovations if and when they provide money for real treatment.

Vicky Cristina Barelona

Woody Allen's latest movie, currently playing at the Park Cinema on Cambie Street, is one of his best.

Charming, funny, fascinating, beautifully cast, acted and filmed in delicious locations around Spain, this is Allen proving once again that you can take a story in 101 directions, pulling it like taffy, as long as you keep it interesting.

Two American girls spend a summer in Spain. Both get involved with a handsome Spanish painter.
The painter has an almost ex-wife.

Let the complications - and the gags -begin.

The painter is Javier Bardem, hot off his Oscar for No Country for Old Men. Bardem is one of those rare actors who can do anything and be a movie star at the same time. He is addictively watchable.

Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall are the two girls.

After Woody's 2005 film, "Match Point," I was prepared to dismiss Johnasson as a very beautiful but hopelessly inadequate actress. Maybe she has learned some things along the way. Maybe she is better cast or directed here. Whatever the explanation, she is wonderful.

Halfway through the movie, Penelope Cruz bursts onto the screen as Bardem's gorgeous volatile and half-mad wife. Like Bardem, she can do anything in front of a camera and make you watch.

All of the kissing and seductions and sex and fights and tantrums are filmed in romantic Spanish settings, sun-drenched and elegant. Wine and comfort are everywhere. Music plays forever.

It is rare that I ever want to see a movie again immediately after the first viewing.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is such a movie.

Six Degrees of Separation

My latest almost encounter with celebrity puts me oh so close to Woody Allen and Javier Bardem.

Last year, I had a small part in a new movie called, "Chaos Theory." Although listed as a feature, the final product went straight to video and was released a few months ago.

You can see my two scenes on my website at www.davidberner.com

I play the lead actor's doctor.

The lead actor is Ryan Reynolds, who is currently the romantic partner of Scarlett Johansson.

Ms. Johansson currently stars in Vicki Cristina Barcelona, reviewed above.

Thus, I get to claim my spurious connection to Woody and to Mr. Bardem, currently one of the greatest screen actors in the world.

Emily Mortimer, shown here, also starred in "Chaos Theory" and I had a delightful chat with her about her experience in Woody Allen's not-so-successful film in which Johansson also starred.

If I try hard enough, I am sure I can make similarly pointless connections to Burt Lancaster, Elsa Lanchester and Wally, the Talking Duck.

The Always Helpful Methadone

For years, methadone has been precribed for heroin addicts by killers calling themselves doctors.

NOw, this synthetic narcotic is being prescribed by prativally everyone and his dog as a pain killer.

Unfortunately, it is also a very effective patient killer.

The NY Times story, with video, is headlined "Methadone Rises as a Painkiller With Big Risks," and you can read it here.

TRAM ME, BABY

For those of us who favor LRT, a website, brought ot my attention this morning, provides many tasty treats.

The site is called, "Trams in France," and you can find it here.

Hey, at my age, this is like porno.

What's in a word?

Junkie.

Dope fiend.

Oooooo...so sorry.

The Harper government has sent a mailing to many Canadian homes, including my own.

There is a photo of a discarded needle in a children's playground. The word "SAFE?" is engraved on the photo.

I think this is legitimate and realistic and healthy commentary.

The text talks about keeping junkies off the street and in rehab.

Sounds good to me.

But oh, my.

Every mistaken weeping fool and his uncle has come out in outrage at this cruel attack on the sanctity of heroin addicts.

Here's some news for you.

Heroin addicts call themselves "junkies."

Get over it.

The word is not the message.

I have experienced this problem for over 40 years now.

Every time I talk in public about dope fiends and junkies, some cunning linguist rises in morally superior objection.

Never mind my track record in helping junkies become clean and sober citizens. Never mind that the dictionary people have never helped anyone.

Mark Townsend, the man responsible for running Insite said he was depressed to find the Conservative mailing at his home.

Really?

Well, you know what, Mark?

I'm depressed every time I hear about the killing machine known as Insite.

I was delighted by this mailing.

And your depression, Mark, is not my concern.

My concern is that, rather than providing treatment and more treatment and then some treatment, completely wrong folks like you are helping junkies to stay stupid.

Calling junkies junkies is not offensive or an indicator of being out of touch.

Giving drunks booze and shot glasses and giving dope fiends anything other than real help is extremely ugly and sick.

Libby Davies is a kind and thoughtful and lovely person. But she is completely and totally wrong on this issue.

So is Ujjal Dosanjh.

The Harper government is heading in the right direction on drug addictions and crime.

They will be excoriated by the Enablers and by editorial writers.

Help them, encourage them, tell your MP and the Prime Minister that you want treatment now.

The Tyranny of Language - Victor Comments

Today, the CNN news scrolled up on my laptop, as it does a few times a day, and I noted that a sweet old man had died in Iowa. His name was James Hoyt. He was 83.

When James was 19, he was one of 4 US soldiers who liberated Buchenwald. For anybody who doesn't know what that means, I scorn your ignorance.

The soldiers took photos. The photos are beyond Dante's imagination. James kept a journal . Young James walked through the camp in horror. Machine gun on his arm. Chewing gum in his kit. He realized in seconds that neither the gun nor the gum had any use. He was greeted by walking skeletons. Somehow they found what he described as "the incredible reserve of human strength", to throw him in the air.

James, in his own words, saw" hearts freshly taken from living bodies." He saw skeletal people die while clapping for him.

James went on to a quiet life, a farmer in a very small town, among good people. But James never got over it. He was tortured by that best of all cameras, the memory, until he died. At 19, he was one of 4 soldiers to see hell. At 83, he was still transfixed. Still 19.

I know Deniers. I have a young European friend, age 40, incredibly rich and successful , who denies the holocaust. He is English, not German. We communicate weekly but I despair.

But what infuriates me is when David Suzuki, Bill Good and Gordon Campbell label anybody who doesn't use a blue box as a Denier. My European friend denies that James saw the horrors in that camp. He is a Denier. If I ask for a plastic bag at CAPERs, I am not on the same plane as the people who scorned James Hoyt or scoff at what he saw.

He was still a baby at 19. With his gun and gum.

Rockabye, Sweet Baby James.

I did not know you James.

But my cheeks are wet at your passing.

God holds you.

Le Boulavardier

A Little Clarity

Some friends of the blog have been confused by an announcement I made about a week ago regarding guest columnists.

To be clear.

I have decided that I will not publish friends' columns in their entirety on this site.

What I will do is provide links and recommendations to columns that I think you will enjoy or find worth reading.

From time to time, I will continue to publish other's comments as I chose.

Hey, It's my sandbox.

LRT - Yah, Real Noisy

A Certain Band - You Might've Heard of Them

The Board is Bored

Yesterday I commented on the lack of understanding coming from Victoria Mayor Allen Lowe in ending the Police Chief affair with no information given to the public.

Today we learn that the nine-member police board happily voted no confidence in the Police Chief on Lowe's word, without reading a single word about the issues or facts involved.

Who are these sheep?

Wouldn't even one of these bleating ungulates say, "No, sir. Not good enough. I want to know the whole story."

The perfectly named Christine Stoneman (Not as perfect as Canadian Olympic swimmer, Keith Beavers, but hey...) has the gall to say with a straight stoneman face, "We're intelligent people."

Hahahaha...

Of course, The Opaque One has said in the past that mayors should not be the heads of police boards and he was right. The only problem is that now that he is Attorney-general and in a position to do something about it, he is a grinning rictus , as usual.

Solicitor-General, John van Dongen, was absent in his field somewhere.

HollyNews

Batman's thumping his mom and his sister in a swanky hotel room...

And 82-year old Jerry Lewis is packing heat at the airport.

Vaaaiiirrry scaaaaiiirrry ...

Oh wait.

This just in.

Jerry's 22 baretta was a prop gun, and Baleful's loving mom and sis are not pressing charges.

Still scary...

Ray

Five'll Getya Ten - Victor on Gambling

The go ahead for slots at Hastings stirs memories of the unique ability of BC politicians to combine hypocrisy and stupidity.

Remember Steve Wynn. This was the guy from Vegas who was going to build a casino on the Vancouver waterfront and toss in a convention centre ten years ago. All on his own tab. He is currently doing precisely that in Macau.

But the politicians in Vancouver and Victoria would have none of it. Why? Well he was an American, see. A little too flashy for Rubeville-on-the-sea. And gambling was bad. Bad,bad, bad.

Well since then, taxpayers have been gouged with a grossly over-budget convention centre. Our governments grow fat on gambling revenues now that every convenience store is a mini casino, selling lottery tickets to survive.

And Steve. Well, he's over in Macau, spending billions, welcomed with open arms by those very Chinese we are currently labeling as intolerant.

Comment From Light Rail Guy

The streetcar of today is very different from the streetcar of yesterday.

- Helsinki, just built 5 km of new streetcar (streetcars are LRT) for Euro 15 million or CAD $23.6 million or CAD $4.72 million a km.! Compare that with almost $200 million/km. for SkyTrain.

- Helsinki's tram (streetcar) system carries over 20,000 persons per hour per direction (pphpd) one one downtown route, during peak hours. Compare with SkyTrain, which can't carry 15,000 pphpd without a $3 billion upgrade!

- In Karlsrhue, Germany, one can board a streetcar in the downtown and alight in Heilbronn, some 150 km. away, with the streetcar operating on-street; on a reserved rights-of-way (LRT); and as a railway train, track-sharing with the mainline railways! Compare with SkyTrain, it can only operate on a massively expensive segregated rights-of-way and is compatible with no other railway!

- The Kong Kong tramway's (those quaint double-decker streetcars) CARRIES OVER 80 MILLION PASSENGERS ANNUALLY! Compare with SkyTrain, with almost $6 billion invested with the metro, barely 70 million passengers annually use it, with 80% first taking a bus to use it.

- In Spain, a new streetcar line cost under CAD $7 million/km to build, including cars! Compare with SkyTrain where $7 million would buy you 70 metres of guide-way, without cars!

- Streetcars can travel at 30 second headways. Compare with SkyTrain, which even 1 minute headways pose a problem.

- Streetcars come in all sizes, from small metre gauge 2 axle affairs, to large, multi-axle articulated vehicles, with a maximum capacity of 350 persons (Strasbourg's 'Jumbos').

- Streetcars can climb 10% grades with ease (Sheffield, UK); in Lisbon, their 'heritage cars' (see above) climb 13.7 percent grades. compare with SkyTrain where the system doesn't like steep grades at all!

- Streetcars can travel as fast as 100 kph.

- AND STREETCARS OPERATE WITHOUT PROBLEM IN THE SNOW! In the Great Blizzard's in Denver last year, the LRT/streetcar only stopped operating because there was no passengers to take. No one could reach the streetcar! Compare with SkyTrain, where one flake of snow causes panic and.......... you know the rest

TV Blues

The firing of the Breakfast Television team at CityTV is not a national tragedy, but it is discouraging.

Not only for the very decent and capable people who will be hard-pressed to find work in this moribund market, but for all of us as lively and involved citizens.

It is a text book case of everything that is wrong with broadcasting in this country.

The CRTC grants licences to every manner of well-heeled hooligan, who dutifully promises to spend millions on local programming.

The reality, of course, is that people want to kick back and watch American Idol or the NFL.

What would local programming have to be to attract a significant audience? Sex and snuff movies?

So, from the very beginning of television in Canada, we have been soaking up the Ed Sullivan Show and Donny and Marie and Oprah and Charlie Rose.

The original Global station in Toronto became incredibly rich on two strands - one, great buying of new American product at the annual Las Vegas fair, and two, repeater stations granted to Global throughout rural Ontario. Literally, a license to print money.

Except for local newscasts - which CITY abandoned a few years ago - very few local or even Canadian programming ever sees the light of day. CTV and CBC love to gush over themselves when they crank out cheezy, imitative police dramas.

Yawn, goodnight.

CBC, never having the courage of its own alleged convictions, plays CanCult one minute and Sean Penn movies the next.

Australia has the advantage of being very, very far away, adrift in a remote sea. Thus, they have created a booming and unique film industry and their own TV stars.

But, as we huddle together here on the 49th parallel, in the shadow of the really, really Big Show, we continue to be a B-movie that can't even sustain a morning show with 6-minute guests.

Pity.

The Conversation Turned Sour

Most of us, in our wisdom, ignored the PR stunt called the "conversation on health."

Its transparent purpose - to encourage support for private initiatives in health services - was comically apparent.

The rube who heads the class in Victoria sees the rest of us as turnip patchers and thinks that we won't get his cloddish slight-of-hand tricks.

How refreshing therefore to learn that the $10Million caper brought exactly the opposite results. Over and over again, citizens showed up and told the hired monkeys that they supported government funded universal health care.

Hahahaha.

Of course, I shouldn't be laughing. That's 10 Million of my and your Canadian tax dollars and 18 months wasted on complete and utter bull.

Isn't government grand?

Too Lowe for Comfort

The Mayor of Victoria, Alan Lowe, needs some quick instruction on the the basics of contributing to a democratic society.

His handling of the Police Chief affair is appalling and amateurish in the extreme.

The Police Chief has been under investigation for many months. He has now been cleared. And he has resigned.

He was under investigation for WHAT? He has been cleared of WHAT? He has resigned WHY?

This is the Police Chief! If there is the hint of an aroma of a whiff of mis-doing, we the public must know.

Hiding behind arcane inner sanctum rules will not cut it.

If anyone should resign, it is this mayor.

Return of the Streetcar

For fans of LRT - and we are legion - it is very good news indeed that no less than 40 American cities are looking at re-investing in long gone or non-existent or minimal streetcar systems.

Not that the uber-planners in Victoria would ever consider such good sensible ideas.

Read the NY Times story and hope and email your local elected dope.

The Boss, Live 1975