Everyone is Green Today

What are we to do when one of the world's biggest polluters buys full page ads to tell us how GREEN they really are?

Barf? Laugh? Cry?

GM has given itself a Gold Award for a modest program in whch they reccycle old cars. Yippee!

Has anyone noticed the gas-guzzling, polluting shit-kickers these folks turn out on a daily basis?

Boys, puleeeeze...

Your Kid's Shrink is Your Kid's Biggest Danger

This is news?

94% of child psychiatrists are creepy, evil drug pimps. Duh!

Is there someone who didn't know that kid shrinks have been licensed dope dealers for Big Pharma for years now?

Yes, there are two people: parents and the press, who keep announcing this as if nobody had ever noticed before.

The level of prescription medicines being enlisted for social and emotional problems of children as young as 3 soared in the past 2 decades, and the reason is simple - Big Pharma went on The Big Push. And all the little pea-brained, immoral, amoral Baby Shrinks bought into The Plan.

A Tale of Two Cities

From a circle of concerned and INFORMED citizens:

Dubai:

Today, we find that a Canadian anti-narcotics official, who was at work in Afghanistan on alternatives to poppy cultivation has been convicted of drug possession and sentenced to four years in prison. He had several dried poppy flowers and 0.6 grams of hashish (which he claims in another article was trace elements found on his clothes from working in areas rife with drug problems). (http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=06af35e1-2a4a-4a24-a973-8a1a8a2af218&k=17994)

Vancouver:

Earlier this year, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Peter Leask acquitted a member of the Hells Angels on a cocaine trafficking charge. Glen Jonathon Hehn was found not guilty, even though he had about 1.5 million dollars of cocaine in his locker. Leask dismissed the idea that it was Hehn's, "... he'd have had to have been out of his f. . .in' mind to store it in his own locker, all right? I mean, that's for sure he wouldn't do that. Let's not spend any time on that theory." Later, Leask apologized FOR HIS USE OF PROFANITY.

The score:

a half dozen dried poppy flowers and an aspirin-sized amount of hashish worth about $4: four years hard time in Dubai.

$1.5 million in cocaine or upwards of 20 kilos: an apology from a BC judge.

Cecilia Bartoli - Agitata da due venti

From the ridiculous (escaped murderer cons cop) to the sublime Cecilia sings Vivaldi

Smooth-talking escapee evades police

The story of escaped murderer, Richard McNair, is well told in the New Yorker magazine of Oct. 9, 2006. A complete transcript of this unbelievable AND TRUE video is included. The officer is interviewing a murdere, who has just escaped from a super-hyper-maximunm security prison.

Johnny Reb Takes the Road

And, of course, I forgot to mention the latest from Johnny Reb, the All-Canadian dufus.

All over the world, people drive through and around traffic circles without confusion.

In Vancouver, the Adolescent Community, people, truck drivers and even police (!) simply ignore the signs and the traditions and common sense and turn left because THAT'S WHAT I WANT TO DO, SO WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM EH?

Pit Bull Rules

Why?

Because we are a nation of snarling, rule-breaking, adolescent, self-absorbed pit bulls.

All of the letters to the editor in today's Sun were concerned with dogs in the city. Dogs poop, nobody cleans up, dogs off leash and so on. All of which is true, no doubt. And I always said if you want to get the lines ringing on a radio show, just say the word "dogs" and you're in business for the next 3 hours.

But "the dog problem" is merely symptomatic of a social order (if the weltshmertz in which we swim can be so described) in which nobody behaves about anything.

I walk on a certain lovely "walking path" on average once a week. (My other daily walks are usually in my neighbourhood, on sidewalks.) This path is clearly designated with ample signage as a NO BICYCLES walking path. I encounter, on average, 3 bicycles per 30 minute walk. Not bad. Only one threat to my physical safety every 10 minutes. Hey, I'm a ranger; I can handle it.

No cars in Vancouver use turn signals. I drive a 14-year old Mazda, so I'm not up on the latest models, but it has been my firm belief for many years now that cars sold in Canada do not come equipped with turn signals. Or how else to explain their non-use when that is the law?

People now walk against red lights all the time.

Cell phones and flashing cameras are standard fare at concerts, in spite of the threats by ushers that the offending toys will be confiscated. I'm not talking here about teenagers. I'm talking about 40 year old men and women.

You think the cell phone in the car is a danger and a nuisance? Haven't you noticed the latest terror?

It's the cell phone pedestrian crossing the street, not looking for an instant at the traffic he/she is stopping.

The Me Generation is alive and well. It is an unruly, self-involved unlovely petty criminal. And like the pit bull it should be put down.

But, what can you do? Eh?

Perry Como: Someone to Watch Over Me - early video

The Gershwins' greatest ballad sung by one of the sweetest and easiest voices in pop music history.

David Oistrakh plays Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (3rd Mov.)

This is THE GREATEST recording of the Tchaikovsky D that I know of. I have 2 or 3 others, each by renowned players, none as good. I have owned a vinyl LP of this since I was 22. I love it, I love it, I love it. Did I mention I love it?

Monty Python - Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Did you hold back on toking the ganj just enough to remember the '60's?

Do you wonder how we got here? And where "here" is exactly?

Check out this marvelous little editorial in today's NY Times on the birth and death of Liberalism.

Giuliani for President...Maybe Not

“He’s making a million dollars a month with his speeches,” said Chief Riches, 55. “It’s blood money."

Not all New York firefighters are enamored with Mr. G. If you've been watching the various group gropes with Wolf, you should enoy reading this story.

Be Quiet, Joe.

A Rabbi friend of mine thinks Joe Lieberman is the cat's pajamas. The Rabbi has always been impressed by Lieberman's strict Jewish orthodoxy.

While I love the Rabbi dearly, I couldn't disagree more with him on Lieberman's value as a public policy maker.

Lieberman has waffled and wandered from opinion to opinion over the yars, changing his values with his socks.

Now he wants an American air strike against Iran.

His own party has asked him to resign. That's particularly funny, because Lieberman is an Independent, and his party is one guy.

Read the story here.

Gianni Basso Sextet with Phil Woods

The Streisand Effect

We all knew Barbra was a force to be reckoned with.

But who knew that if Streisand does a European tour, an economic wave of happiness sweeps across Manhattan?

Read the full story here.

Miles Davis - New Rhumba (1959)

Enrolment Down - Close it!

Continued kudos to Janet Steffenhagen for her ongoing coverage of education issues for The Vancouver Sun.

Her full page story on Tuesday describing the closing of more than 150 public schools in this province in recent years was a barn burner.

It continues to amaze us that we have to save pennies by dislocating children and their families with school closings, but we can find billions for vanity projects like the Olympics.

This government's priorities are clear and often distasteful.

Daniel Izzard: May 19, 1923 - June 6, 2007

We note with sadness the passing of local artist Daniel Izzard.

Mr. Izzard may not have been the world's greatest or most progressive painter, but he was damn good and he was that rare creature - a painter who made his living painting.

He was also a busy, active, committed memeber of the local community, who was always charming and gracious and ready with a good story.

We need more like him.

3 Times You Will Deny Me

"I don 't believe in ripping up agreements."

"I have never said I would tear up agreements."

"I am not tearing up agreements."

The New World

Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Lovely.