The first person in Candian history has been arrested for driving while stoned on drugs.
Some might think this progress.
But privacy critics call this an invasion of privacy.
I'll tell you what's a really, really big invasion of privacy -
Being struck down and killed by a stoned driver.
Now that's an invasion of privacy.
The American Family Association is at it again.
They managed, by threat of boycott, to get a MacDonald's executive to resign from the board of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
This activity was no doubt a heinous venal sin.
The Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce had the outrageous temerity to try to get health care coverage for its business-owning members.
Shame on them.
The MacDonald's exec has not only left the Board, he has left the good old open and tolent Excited States.
Last month he started his new job here in Canada.
By the way, when you Google the AFA, some of the choices you are offered include "The Homosexual Agenda," and "Hallmark Pushes Same-Sex Marriage."
A lot of people with a lot of spare time on their hands.
Between the two of them, Barack Obama and John McCain will have raised and spent more than a billion dollars on their campaigns for the presidency.
What does that say about "the system?"
How many health insurance policies, schools, day cares, operating rooms, and new houses would that money have brought to the common good?
I know.
Life is unfair. That's the way it is.
Sleepy, dreamy thoughts...
Dear David,
As soon as I heard about Right to Play on the CBC television news, I fired
off this letter to the Sun, the Province and the CBC. Perhaps I was too
quick as the print story had not yet appeared. In any event, it went
nowhere. If you are able to use it in anyway - please feel free.
Warmest regards,
Jillian Skeet
(International Affairs Consultant and Cambie Resident)
Nothing demonstrates the spiritual bankruptcy of the 2010 Olympic games more
than the recent news that "Right to Play" is being excluded from the Olympic
Village due to organizers' concerns that they will compete for sponsorship
money.
"Right to Play" is a wonderful organization that has the support and
involvement of Canadian athletes and Olympians. It provides sports
equipment and facilities for children living in some of the most deprived
circumstances on our planet. It believes that all children have a right and
a need to play. And it's probably the cheapest and easiest form of therapy
that we can offer to children damaged by appalling poverty and war - not to
mention a way to ensure that Olympic dreams are accessible to all the
world's children, no matter how humble their beginnings.
As a British Columbian, I shudder to think what we will be showcasing to the
world in a year and a half. The world will see a province with the highest
child poverty rate in Canada and horrific levels of homelessness, crime and
addiction. They will be told of all the cutbacks to programmes and services
for our most vulnerable citizens and how businesses were left to die along
Cambie to make way for the new Olympic super-train, while greedy developers
snapped up the bankrupt properties in true disaster capitalism.
In short, they will see a province without a heart or a soul, and no clue as
to the true Olympic spirit.
Jillian Skeet
Say it isn't so.
Tell me that this alleged row between George Clooney and Brad Pitt about who will play Professor Henry Higgins in a new version of "My Fair Lady" is sheer hooey.
There are certain movies - "The Godfather," "Lawrence of Arabia" come quickly to mind - that are so perfect in rhythm and pitch, that shot for shot they simply cannot be improved upon.
I just came back from the store, turned on the TV and there they were...Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn very near the end of the fairy tale. Even when you walk in on a scene so far along, you have lived for so many years with these characters and these sets and costumes that it is like reliving a familiar and welcome dream. The loveliness is almost unbearable.
Please no George Clooney or Brad or Angelina or Julia Roberts or Renee Z...please...
"Can I say this is more important that health care, this is more important than education or climate change and all the other legislative matters that are on the calendar?" he asked, denying suggestions that new legislation could have been passed if the government had not cancelled a fall session of the legislature.
"Even if we had a fall session, this would not be ready for legislation."
It was only on Sunday last that I posted my condemnation of that dangerous fool from Alaska who has taken to calling in public Barack Obama a friend of terrorists.
The contagion, fueled by desperation and flop-sweat, has spread.
Now, McCain has stepped out from behind his Bush and is spreading the same kind of inflammatory hatred.
Result?
The geeks from the audience are hollering out sweet greetings like, "Kill him!"
Do McCain and his Worst Choice Ever Next to Dan Quayle take responsibility for this detestable behaviour?
And what do you accomplish when you call a political opponent or anyone else standing near you, "That one?"
What you accomplish is that you depersonalize that human being. You reduce that other soul to a number, an object, an object of derision.
There are those among you who want McCain to be the next President.
Mercy on all our souls.
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts has proven once again why she is just about the best politician to appear in Canada in living memory.
The Atira Women's Resource Society has been awarded $1Million from Surrey to complete their new shelter and home for "women-at-risk" and their children.
This is a great, "good news" story.
Read it here and then email Watts (mayor@surrey.ca) first to thank and congratulate her, and then to ask why no other mayor in the region has had the wisdom or courage to step up to the plate like this for a very long time.
There are no less than three separate stories in the sports section today about the possible involvement of various National Football League players in major crimes, each with the added attraction of violence.
This is to date a taboo subject.
I have yet to see or read or hear a major journalistic piece covering what has become common and unhappy knowledge.
There exists in the NFL, and perhaps other major league sports, a criminal subculture that can barely contain itself in public.
The NFL is the most successful sports league in America if not the world. I believe the Dallas Cowboys franchise was listed recently at a book value of $1Billion US.
Little wonder then that the league is not rushing to air its dirty linen. But air it, they must.
Of course, steroid use is commonplace and has been for decades. That goes without saying.
But now, a great many players are gun-packing punk hoods and the NFL might want to give a good thought to how much they want this kind of citizen representing them.
"We respect [Right to Play's] vision, mission and mandate and greatly admire the work they have done around the world," said Cobb.
We just don't respect them as much as we respect General Motors.
And those guys, well, WE REALLY RESPECT THEM!
This was VANOC trying to do the double shuffle on trying to keep a charitable group out of the Olympic Village because the group had the audacity to be sponsored by - gasp - Mitsubishi.
Just wait until the Olympic Village itself becomes a charitable cause.
And we thought it was all about sport and effort and glory and accomplishment...
Not a good sign when your watchdog says he can't do his work.
David Loukidelis says he has received numerous complaints about lobbyists that he cannot investigate because he simply does not have the legal power to do so.
"Because of my restricted mandate under the [Lobbyist Registration Act], I am unable to gather information from unwilling parties or to impose corrective measures or sanctions even if I were to believe that a person has engaged in unregistered lobbying."
The Sun report in this morning's paper concludes thus:
"Attorney-General Wally Oppal was not available for comment Tuesday evening."
Friends,
I know what it's like to be special.
I grew up in Greystones Manor.
My horses and dogs loved me.
So did my Mom and Dad and my dresser and my presser, Bertie and Birdie.
My tennis coach, Tyron, never once said a discouraging word to me and that's probably why I won more matches than anyone in Club history.
When a very poor kid I knew who had somehow won a scholarship to Ole' Miss was drafted and went to fight in various odd wars around the globe, I was devastated.
So I know what it's like to be truly American. That's right. I do.
The White House won't scare me like it might scare some others. To me it's just like a Howard Johnson's only without a coffee shop with those really good pancakes.
Thanks for your attention tonight and God bless.
To the Editor - Re: Olympic Village way over budget - Province Oct 7/08
Imagine that.
Another Olympic mega-project with a fixed completion date, and assurances
from the government that it will be completed "on time, and on budget".
"We don't see that there is a risk with taxpayers". Millennium's Athlete's
Village.
"Risk will be transfered to the private partner". Canada Line (P3).
(The Trade and Convention Centre.....and so on)
Both projects are grossly over budget, with Canada Line by all accounts at a
BILLION dollars over the budget that was cheerfully and firmly stated as
"not a penny more" by TransLink.
The City owned land at 2nd and Cambie was not in the original RAV proposal,
but it was sold to Millenium at a price well over market value, and soon
became the site for the Athlete's Village/Shopping Mall.
Recently it was discovered that Canada Line, like Millennium, had also
invested it's surplus
operating funds in sub-prime backed paper - and lost it.
According to reporter Jeff Nagel, "ABCP investments were backed by U.S.
residential mortgages but suddenly stopped trading last summer when the U.S.
real estate market began
to melt down and heavy mortgage defaults began.
Individual Canadians, corporations and agencies (pension funds) have $33
billion tied up in ABCP that so far can't be redeemed."
Gordon Campbell, who once worked for Millennium, agreed to bail Canada Line
out with $56 million - just like that. Is this just the beginning?
Of course, it was Premier Gordon Campbell, after the failed 2nd round of
voting on the RAV/Canada Line project that said "the Province will assume
the overall responsibility for completing the RAV project".
Sounds a lot like the "doomsday plan" for the City to step in and fund the
Millennium
project as well. And just like TransLink, these decisions are being made
behind closed doors.
Peter Ladner wrings his hands, and calls this situation "distressing", as if
the writing was not on the wall on his watch.
Something else that is distressing is losing your personal life's work due
to the negligence of a government funded and driven project, as the small
businesses all along the Canada Line have. The precedent this abuse of power
is setting is an ugly one.
Where is the "doomsday plan" for the families along the Canada Line?
Gregor Robertson is calling for a "transparent process. The public has a
right to know".
Millennium could not - or is that, would not - be reached for comment.
I wonder how much taxpayer money, and pension funds Fortress Investment
Group has in sub-prime backed paper? I wonder how many other government
projects are tied up as well.
This Liberal government has failed the people of British Columbia.
Susan Heyes
3190 Cambie Street
604 687-0721
___________________________________________
Johnny Depp's Pirate bounty
Johnny Depp is to earn $61 million to appear in the fourth 'Pirates of the Caribbean' film, the highest upfront payment in film history.
(BANG) -
Johnny Depp is to earn $61 million for the fourth 'Pirates of the Caribbean' film.
The staggering sum is the largest upfront payment in film history and will see Johnny, 45, move to the top of Hollywood's rich list - overtaking Will Smith - when he reprises his role as Captain Jack Sparrow.
A source said: "It's a hell of a lot of money for one movie but there's only one man who can play Captain Jack Sparrow - and that's Johnny Depp.
"Pirates just wouldn't be the same without him, so they were more than willing to smash the record books to land Depp again. He's been the star of the show every time."
Earlier this year, Will was named the highest earning actor in Hollywood by Forbes magazine after he grossed $76 million in one year.
However, Johnny's new deal will see his earnings soar to $137 million.
The source added: "He's laughing all the way to the bank. Not only is he probably the biggest heartthrob in Hollywood, he's now going to be the richest."
Johnny's co-stars in the first three films in the franchise, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, are unlikely to appear in the latest installment.
In this evening's McCain-Obama debate, we can look for at least these three elements:
- Who will say something useful and constructive - if such is possible - on the economy and the desperate need in America for decent jobs?
- Who will envision a new welcome role for America on the world stage?
- Will the vicious personal attacks be abandoned in favor of policy?
"We don't see there is a risk with taxpayers."
This gem follows this headline:
I just saw something so horrifying, so unwholesome, so frightful I can only wonder why it is allowed on television at 8 in the morning.
You may not want to hear this. Warning...
What I saw was...
STEPHANE DION HUGGING HEDY FRY!!!
Yes, and to add to the terror, one of the Trudeau boys and Raymond Chan and apparently hundreds of adoring fans cheering and weeping with the sheer joy of Liberal togetherness.
You may think, "Oh Dave, this was merely an early morning nightmare. Open your eyes, it will all go away."
Let me assure you...nobody calls me Dave.
And I actually saw this.
Perhaps the demons who manipulate TV screens created all this in a photo-lab, I don't know.
Certainly there can be no reasonable explanation for cheering on the WORST PARLIAMENTARIAN IN HISTORY and the MAN DESTINED TO LOSE THE ELECTION AND HIS JOB and THE PARTY THAT STOLE MILLIONS IN TAXPAYERS DOLLARS AND NEVER REPENTED.
