You Have No Right to Know Your Father

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled that an unmarried woman has no obligation to tell the biological father of their child anything about the child, including her choice to put the child up for adoption.

Of course, this decision was made by a woman, Justice Daphne Smith.

Thank goodness, many local family lawyers, also women, have denounced this stupid sexist ruling.

What does this do for the child?

Does the good Justice have any connection with reality?

La La Land Forever

Tearing down a marine design facility at UBC to build more condos and townhouses may or may not be a reasonable thing to do. I don't have enough details to make a truly informed opinion.

BUT...

This certainly stays true to a woeful agenda we have been pursuing in Vancouver for far too many years now.

We have abandoned our true foundations and stability. We have forgotten that we are a port. And we have based our new economies on condos and lattes.

The results are disastrous - massive and disturbing homelessness in the downtown core of both Victoria and Vancouver, few head offices, less venture capital, less office space, MacJobs by the score (Get your PhD, become a barrista!) and an illusory wealth, promoted by the middle-class sillies of the media.

Everyone is smiling, everyone is decked out, everyone is having a grand time.

Except for the thousands who aren't.

Where's James Bond When You really Need Him?

Ecuador has elected a new President, Rafael Correa.

He hasn't put pen to ink or ass to presidential chair yet, and already Wall Street is screaming for his head because he has been talking about a "21st Century" agenda, which to America translates automatically as...wait it for it...it's really ugly...that's right - SOCIALISM!!! ARGGGGGHHHH...

Now, what I know about Senor Correa and his country you could put in a thimble and have room for a barn dance.

Nevertheless...could Corporate America just contain itself for five minutes from its belief that it has a divine right to shape the future of all humankind, i.e., Consumers?

Is it possible that Wall Street really knows about as much as I do about Ecuador?

Like how profoundly America has understood Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Falcon

CUPE has revealed that Minister of Transport, Kevin Falcon, has a short list for the new Transclunk board, but that he's keeping it all a secret.

Four ofthe five appointees are Board of Traders, one is actually part of the Gateway management (How conflicted is that???) and the last is Mike Harcourt.

Check it out.

More Dope(y) News

The Province features a story this morning about the safe injection site.

Almost all of the article is nonsense, but it is a must read for those of us concerned with addiction issues.

The cry is up that the Feds will close the joint. To which I say, "Hear! Hear!"

The feds claim they'll spend $35 Million on treatment.

A. That's nothing. Try $100 million.

B. What "treatment?" Silly Sam's Substitution Tango? Puleeeese...

The Dope Fiends Union are screaming the sky will fall in if their little toy is shut down. Double puleeese...

Tom Waits / Broken Bicycles

oh, this is sooooo goood....rember it from Coppola's movie musical about Vegas?

TOM WAITS - JERSEY GIRL

There's nobody even close to Tom Waits.

Parliamentarians at All Time Low

This is sickening.

The Conservative National Caucus Chairman is a sociopath named Rahim Jaffer. He has been an MP from Edmonton for 10 years now.

Some years ago, scheduled to be interviewed on CKNW radio, he had an employee take the call and claim that he was Jaffer.

In spite of that detestable behaviour, which thoroughly speaks to Jaffer's lack of character, the idiots of Edmonton has sent him back to Ottawa again and again.

In Ottawa, Jaffer enjoys celebrity status, dressing beautifully, being photographed with his MP girlfriend and maintaining his public image for style and panache.

And we wonder why our governance has sunk to an all-time low.

PROSTATE CANCER EXPLAINED

Any male my age (approaching 65) is all too aware of the prostate gland and all the delightful little challenges it can have in store for us.

Failure to pee, too much peeing too often, blood in the pee and, of course, the grand prize, The Big Casino, cancer.

For one of the most comprehensive pieces on the "subject," read this excellent piece in yesterday's Globe & Mail.

If you're alive and breathing, it's a must read. I'm saving it for my next visit with the urologist.

Dancing at the Lesbian Bar

Recommended by BEN...didn't know this guy...but, hey, he is GOOD...

Big Media Gobbles More Than We Want to Chew

Two major broadcast purchases were announced on the back pages of the business section today.

Rogers has bought 5 TV stations in the CityTV chain, and Astral Media has acquired 53 radio stations (including Vancouver's CISL 650 AM and 95Crave FM) and two TV properties.

To me, this is very big news. And it is bad news.

Both Rogers and Astral are required by the useless, redundant CRTC to spend many millions over the next few years on "tangible benefits, such as the creation of local programming."

There are only two questions to ask of the members of the CTC Board:

What medicines are you on?

Or, From what Jurassic Park have you wandered?

"Local Programming" is almost non-existent in Canadian (and American) Narrowcasting today.

Channel 6 in Victoria is now E!, a weltshmerts of Brittany Spears and Paris Hilton updates 24/7.

Thank god for Keifer Sutherland and his DUI - some Canadian content!

CityTV in Vancouver, having fired dozens of good news people, now has a 30-second news hit every so often throughout the evening, read by an almost illiterate young man.

The "convergence" of TV and newsprint under the Canwest Global banner has been, no doubt, a boon for the corporation in terms of economies of scale. But, for the Canadian public, to whom the CRTC theoretically owes some allegiance, this is a disaster.

Not only do we have to suffer the constant cross-promotion of one medium to the other for mediocre work, but we are limited to the sound of one hand clapping. One voice, one editorial stance, one version of the truth.

I am not saying that this is an evil plot. It is simply human nature to ride with the herd and echo the elk next to you.

The one good news is this otherwise moribund landscape is that so many people have sheered through the transparency of Big Media that millions now turn to small presses and the Internet to get alternate voices and faces and opinions and sounds.

Sports Medicine?

THE LANGARA DIALOGUES, a series of debates on important matters of public policy held monthly at the downtown main branch of the Vancouver Public Library, has scheduled a debate on performance enhancing drugs in sports for the evening of October 17th. Doors open at 7:15. The event runs from 7:30 to 9pm. Please join us.

In preparation for that discussion, you might want to read this piece from this morning's NY Times, which reveals the thorough and enormous presence of these substances in the marketplace.

Bruce Springsteen Dancing In The Dark

How great is this?

Small Light at End of Cambie Tunnel

Vancouver Board of Trade Chair, Henry Lee, has made a most practical and useful suggestion: Add 3 cents (!!!) to the new Canada Line fare to compensate the Cambie Merchants' losses during construction.

Of course, proposing something and having it become a reality are often light years apart. Nevertheless, kudos to Mr. Lee for the idea.

Following is the entire story from The Vancouver Courier and then guest blogger Susan's response:

Board of Trade boss suggests small fare increase could provide money for beleaguered businesses

Sandra Thomas
Vancouver Courier

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Diners and shoppers have been reluctant to negotiate around cut-and-cover construction along Cambie St., so Board of Trade executives ventured to the area for lunch this week with Canada Line CEO Jane Bird to show Cambie's open for business.
To get a real feel for Cambie Street, representatives from the Vancouver Board of Trade and the Canada Line should dine inside one of the massive trenches lining the road, says Art Goday.
"I don't know if anyone would want to have lunch on Cambie Street because the noise from the construction is so loud," Goday, the owner of Funhouse Tattoo on Cambie Street, told the Courier Monday.

Last week the Vancouver Board of Trade joined the Canada Line to promote Lunch on the Line, a public relations campaign to encourage the city's business community to eat at restaurants along the beleaguered street. The $2-billion Canada Line project is a rapid transit system under construction to connect the city with Richmond and the Vancouver International Airport.
The cut-and-cover method of tunnelling, used along much of Cambie Street and part of Granville Street, has been highly criticized by businesses owners affected by construction. Since heavy tunnelling began along the main business corridor of Cambie a year ago, almost 40 stores, businesses and restaurants have closed or relocated. Business owners who have survived have unsuccessfully asked for compensation from the city through tax breaks and for low-interest loans from the provincial government. Lunch on the Line launched this week. Today, Vancouver Board of Trade chair Henry Lee and managing director Darcy Rezec, were scheduled to join Jane Bird, chief executive officer of the Canada Line Rapid Transit Project, at Tokyo John Sushi at 3349 Cambie St. for lunch.

Lee said lunching and shopping along the Canada Line immediately injects cash into businesses along the line.

"Right now it's out of sight, out of mind," said Lee. "But it's really not difficult to get to businesses on Cambie. Too many people are focused on the negative and they need to look on the bright side."

But Lee agreed the businesses need financial support.

"I don't like to use the word 'compensated,'" Lee said, "because it's too controversial. But at the Board of Trade we also don't like to sweep anything under the rug, and we all agree these businesses are suffering."

Because the project is a joint effort between a number of partners, such as Vancouver, Richmond, TransLink and InTransit, Lee argued compensation shouldn't come from one partner. He suggested business owners should be jointly supported with money that could be paid back by increasing ride fares on the rapid transit system by three-cents.

He noted the Canada Line estimates it will handle 100,000 rides per day, which works out to more than 30 millions rides per year. Even if that number turns out to be half that, said Lee, at three cents, or even 30 cents, per ride over three years, he estimated enough money would be raised to pay back any amount borrowed.

He said the same goal could be accomplished with "minute" raises to property tax.
"I've crunched the numbers several times and it could work, there are very few merchants along the line," said Lee. "In the meanwhile let's do lunch on the line."

Vancouver Courier 2007

Thank you Mr. Lee for your support for financial help for the merchants.Even the biggest supporters of the RAV/Canada Line project, the Board of Trade, are searching for ways to do the right thing and financially support the small businesses.One of several suggestions was that 3 cents a trip on the new line would do the trick, says Henry Lee. Just 3 cents. Enough money could be raised to payback ANY amount borrowed."We all agree these businesses are suffering"."I've crunched the numbers several times and it could work, there are very few merchants along the line".So many solutions to this problem, yet the will to even take a determined look at a remedy has been dismissed by those in a position to make it happen.To all parties in this project - Stop the political finger-pointing, show some integrity, and do the right thing.

Susan Heyes

Cambie Merchant

There are Lies, and then there are Statistics

Statistics are almost invariably the other man's argument.

They are numeric fibs set in a row to sell more snake oil.

We must always ask ourselves, in the face of these teasers, who is to profit? What is at stake? What is to gain?

Statistics Canada - now there's a billion dollar expense that we really need and really asked for, NOT - will have us believe that we are tougher on crime here in B.C. than our fellow Canadians are elsewhere in the dominion.

But , as the Indian Chief replied to Columbus, "No. We discover you. All is relative."

StatsCan claims that we have the lowest rate of jailing drunk drivers at 6.4%, compared to the national average of 12.4%.

But what does this tell you?

It tells me that, after all the carnage,, after all the years and tears, we still believe that it is a right to be stupid drunk, drive a car and kill people. Why isn't the national average for jailing the murderous bastards who drive drunk more like 96%? I'm happy to pay for the jail costs, aren't you?

And what are these stories that appear day after day in our newspapers and newscasts about criminals getting off Scott free or with inappropriately small sentences? Are they fantasies? Are they the exception?

Why do police and librarians and doctors and mothers all believe that we are soft on crime?

Because we are, StatsCan be damned.

A horrible asshole who lives across the street from me attacked a school boy last month, absolutely unprovoked. Asshole was drunk and high on drugs. He smashed all the boy's teeth with a rock. Four police cars were on the scene.

Guess where this violent, out-of-control pig is living these days?

That's right. Across the street from me.

May he move into a house across the street from Stats Canada.

Colliding Values

Do I have to respect the social values of an entire nation, when I believe that those values are retrograde?

On the one hand (as Tevye, the Milkman, would say), it is my tendency to respect the ways of other countries and other cultures. On the other hand, I believe in the equalities of rights, privileges and responsibilities of people regardless of the usual package of race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, and economic status.

So, what to do about Saudi Arabia where women cannot drive a car or travel abroad without their husband's permission and where there are no movie houses?

I don't respect those values in the same way that I don't respect the so-called "values" of men like Warren Jeffs who screw hundreds of teen-age girls, make hundreds of babies and call themselves direct descendants of Jesus.

Read this morning's NY Times story here, and decide for yourself.

He's not worth the ink.

THREE articles about Mr. Allen, including a full-page spread of him in his rainbow-colored bathrobe, which is funny for such a homophobe?

Come on, kids, let's move on.

What is much more interesting and more to the point is how the radio station shows its true colors.

This is another fine mess you've got us into, Ollie.

UBCM is a Horse's Ass

The other day, we registered a lengthy post about Censorship.

Today, we can add the Union of BC Municipalities' refusal to add the provincial Green Party to their annual gabfest.

The Green Party isn't much and hasn't achieved much, true, but it is a legitimate political party and the subject of the UBCM convention is "Climates of Change."

Could they do anything more to shoot themselves in the foot?

Bush-Wacked

Bush once asked, "Is our children learning?"

Now he has answered, "Childrens do learn." (Spellcheck just had a meltdown.)

A person who cannot speak his own native tongue properly is a dangerous person, a person incapable of real thought.

This is not some adorable, amusing nervous tic. This is a fundamental statement of inadequacy.

How frightening that America twice elected this disturbing fool.

george michael

I was in a private water taxi on the Grand Canal in Venice at 8 in the morning, when, against the silence and the silver quiet water, this explosion came on the sound system. I bought the CD ("Songs from the Last Century")at Heathrow.