ANNOUNCEMENT!

On Wednesday, Oct. 31st, at noon I will be the guest speaker at the Rotary Club, Chinatown branch at the Floata Restaurant on Keefer St.

The title of my speech is: THE TRUTH ABOUT ADDICTIONS - HOW GOVERNMENTS ARE WASTING YOUR MONEY AND HELPING NO ONE.

Please join us.

Parenting - The New Surrey Crime

The headine says, "Car Thieves Take Surrey Tot for a Ride."

But that's not the story.

Not by a mile.

The story is that the idiot irresponsible father of a 2-year old girl leaves the child in his Lexus SUV while he goes into a so-called convenience store at 10 pm!

Why is he not charged with leaving his car running, abandoning his child, bad parenting, aiding and abetting a criminal act and generally being a danger to his community?

Two years ago, I encountered exactly this circumstance in the shopping district on West 10th Avenue, an infant alone in a van. I looked everywhere for a parent. I hollared. Finding no one, I called the police. Before they arrived, the genius "mother" emerged from a tanning salon with a magazine and a ciggie.

"Is this your baby?"

"Yes."

"I called the police."

"What for?"

The police arrived, nothing happened except that I was viewed by the woman and one of the two officers as a meddling alarmist old fool.

Next time I see a baby abandoned in a van, guess what?

I'm going to call the police again.

Chretien Calls Kettle Black

"Shoot the messenger" is one of the oldest, most transparent, and oddly effective political tricks in the book. I think it pre-dates the Greeks.

So why be surprised that Chretien has risen from his golf course to accuse Judge Gomery of being "media obsessed."

There are at least 2 great clouds hanging over recent Canadian history. One is the Air India murders and the other is the Sponsorship Scandals. Neither of these files is closed, neither nears anything resembling justice.

In the Sponsorship/Gomery case, Chretien and Paul Martin were certainly culpable. It is not possible that skulduggery of that order could have occurred in the Liberal party without their controlling knowledge.

The Next BIG THING?

A Californian (who else?) has come up with an enormou$ plan to get us into electric cars - thousands of recharging stations dotting the landscape.

Read the story here.

The problem with this idea, which has of course already attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in investment funds, is that it is based on the same flawed model as our current (ha!) electrical grids.

Somebody who controls the flow makes up some arbitrary value for so many units of something flying through the air and charges you and me on that basis.

This provides for untold fortunes for a handful of companies and total blind obedience for everybody else, who just assumes this is he way things are supposed to be.

What if I had a small generator in my basement or backyard? What if every condo building had one?

City Completely Dysfunctional

A good friend spends much of his time these days around City Hall.

If I told you half of what he tells me, we'd all be sued.

Suffice it to say that the themes are consistent.

Nobody can get anything done.

No large projects are moving forward.

The Mayor has no idea about any of this or what to do about it.

The staff don't talk to the Mayor.

The Mayor, devoting all his time to re-election and getting drugs to addicts, is completely out of the loop at City Hall. His interest in the daily affairs of state is less than zero, and that is only matched by his knowledge of current affairs.

Nevertheless, the pathetic NPA have given this idiot a complete Pass; his candidacy will not be contested.

Which leaves COPE and Vision to come up with a winner, without splitting the vote.

Lord help us that they have the strategic wisdom to join forces and push the little fellow down the OUT ramp next November.

A banker sitting next to me at a fundraiser last Sunday had this comment after Sam received an underwhelmingly damp response:

"At first I was proud of this city that we could elect a quadriplegic as mayor. But it soon became evident that it's all about Sam. He's dreadful."

Playing to the Dangerous Doesn't Help

Doctors Withouts Borders withdrew from North Korea in 1998. Think about that.

Now the NY Philharmonic is considering a concert there after its upcoming tour in China.

This would be a dreadful mistake.

Read the editorial in the NY Times and tell me if you agree.

Our Juvenile Offender Programs are as Sophisticated as The Borstal Boy

The grass is always greener somewhere down the hill, and so called "experts" are fond of telling us how fabulously ahead of us the Europeans are in handling social problems (These are the experts who have never walked though the infested gauntlets in the main streets of Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Zurich and Dublin.)

Having said all that, do have a look at a little item in this morning's NY Times regarding the new approach that the state of Missouri has been using for juvenile offenders. It looks sensible and promising. I guarantee you we have nothing close to this in Canada.

My Answer to Peter Ladner's Oh-So-Cavalier Suggestion about Asking for a Refund From the City With no Services for 3 Months

I survived 3 months of no garbage pick-up.

That's a clear indicator that garbage pick-up could easily be once every TWO weeks.
But that's not going to happen is it?

Nor are any of the thousands of cost savings that are possible, because there is no political will to do so.

Children at Risk Sacrificed for Other Glories

Nine foster kids in one placement.

A home that has already been flagged for mistreatment.

A child dies.

Inter-office communications break down.

Check the list of fools who have held this portfolio - Ministry of Children & Families - in the last 10 years.

Not one person has known enough about children or children at risk or social work to do an effective job.

And how could they when there are huge staff shortages?

Of course there are going to be huge staff shortages...there are no foto ops, like the ones that come with Lance Armstrong and 2010 and the Trade and Convention Centre.

Gordon Campbell understands the underbelly of history. Years from now, people can look at the edifices he has strung together and say, "Wow. That was Premier Campbell."

They are not as likely to say, "Gee, that Premier Campbell saved children's lives."

The Doctors' Voices

In their respective health care editorials in today's Sun, Dr. Penny Ballem and Dr. Brian Day, each hit out of the park for me.

Ballem says we've got to stop creating "policy on the run."

Remember that she walked away from Gordon Campbell's team most precipitously.

Clearly this simple caution is loaded with criticism of a government that only makes policy as it suits their short-sighted, egotistical political aims.

When and where will be find the politicians who will go beyond these self-serving motives, to the larger considerations?

Then, Day says that we've got to stop block funding for hospitals. Many of us have been saying exactly that for years. Hospitals and their funding should spin exactly on the needs of patients.

Until we put that kind of system in place, we will continue to buy box car loads of stents and bedpans simply to complete budgets.

Air India - The Daily Report

And speaking of lawsuits...

The AG is suing Malik for the $6.4Million we gave him as a loan so he could get acquitted from the bombing he was involved in that only killed 331 people.

Of course, Malik has been and is a millionaire, rich in properties. So, why did we have to lend him money?

Well, we did and now we're asking that he return it. That's the good news.

The bad news is that we'll never get that money. But we will spend another million or two fighting with this guy in court.

And the really, really bad news, that will make you laugh until you cry is that Malik is suing us, the Province of BC and the government of Canada, for "malicious prosecution."

How about we all sue the government for malnutritious prosecution?

India is Hip

Hip replacements in India?

Now, that I didn't know.

It is rare that I actually learn a new thing reading the paper.

Mostly, I react to the news.

But in today's massive Health issue of the Sun, I actually was surprised to learn how many BC people are flying to India to pay for private surgeries.

Why not sue Gordon Campbell and Stephen Harper for re-imbursement?

Hollywood North is, of course, A Cruel Ilusion

The local press loves to wax rhapsodic about all the great successes of the local movie industry.

But no one that I know has gotten below the shimmering surface of this nonsense.

It is difficult to get excited by Brightlight's announcement that they made $100 Million on one of their recent, desperately bad projects.

Yes, millions of dollars flow into the local economy and that's a good thing.

Thousands of truck drivers, caterers, cab drivers, costumers find work.

But let me tell you the truth about Vancouver actors.

The best of the best are starving.

Most Vancouver film and television actors, even those with long and exemplary resumes in the Biz, get little work. And the work they do find is tragically underpaid.

Brightlight and other local companies have been paying actors 25% below scale and getting away with it for years. "Small budget," is what they'll cry in their notes to agents and actors.

And, if longshoremen and city garbage collectors had a union like the one that pretends to take care of local actors, they'd all do a Jimmy Hoffa right soon.

I know of at least half a dozen actors who have said, "Thanks, folks, that's all." Most have moved on to completely different careers where they are, oddly enough, well paid and treated like human beings and not necessary evils.

The next time you read about Hollywood North, just remember that reading either a press release or a Valentine from a newspaper writer who is just blindly sick with love for Show Biz.

The poor sap.

The Guilty were Always Known. JUst Couldn't Close the Case - Air India Revisited

It's always reassuring to learn that what we knew all along is what we knew all along.

Thus, how happy and relieved are we to learn that a retired CSIS agent (More! More! Retirement suits this gang.) confirms that everyone knew from the first day that the Maliks and Bagris were the lunatics who murdered 331 people in the Air India massacres.

Little catch. Couldn't prove it.

Yes, we noticed.

$50 Million of courtroom and trail and heartache later.

What an invitation this case must be for all the bombers-in-waiting.

"Hey, come to Canada. You can blow up hundreds of people, and their police are so stupid, even if you're caught with detonators in your hand, they'll believe you were on your way to your daughter's Halloween party. Hahahahaha."

Any Cost Overruns on Anything is OK for 2010

From the day it was announced, we denounced the new Trade and Convention Centre expansion, knowing instinctively that the projected costs were as real as the Wizard of Oz.

Vaughn Palmer's coverage today details (the devil is in the details) the sheer incompetence and running comedy of this sideshow.

Here are two highlights:

"The Liberals...began building the foundation before designs were complete for the upper floors."

"They also budgeted for "know unknowns" and unknown unknowns."

Now, only satirists and science fiction writers can come up with stuff like that. But no, it's award winning Gordon Campbell, whose TV show, Uncle Gordo, kept children around the world howling for so many years. Remember the big floppy feet and the red rubber nose? Hahaha, weren't they great?

Of course, now that the costs have doubled - yes, doubled - we can all sit back and admit what we knew all along.

The machinery that drives almost all public policy in this province has 5 rings and some artificial snow. It's called the 2010 Olympics.

Campbell will do, push, shove almost anything to get his party to be lots of fun.

Lucky us.

Iraq is a Criminal Activity

For the sheer criminality of Blackwater in Iraq, watch this astonishing NY Times video report.

If America had any honour, it would have pulled Blackwater and similar rogue mercenaries out of there weeks ago.

But that's some if.

If my aunt had balls, she'd be at Wimbledon .

The Law is an Ass

In the continuing coverage of the Massacre in the Surrey Apartment, two items stand out:

1) Solicitor-General John Les says, "We need to re-invigorate the notion of deterrence in the criminal justice system."

Duh, John?

Every reasonable Canadian has been saying exactly this since the Federal Government some two decades ago changed all focus in sentencing to the rehabilitation of the crook and threw out almost entirely any concern for the safety of the community.

So, now that you've caught up with the rest of us, John, watcha doing about it, Mate?

Of course, we know this was only another foto op and not a serious consideration. What happened, Sir? Run out of Booster Seats?

2) The ever predictable, horribly over-quoted SFU prof, Neil Boyd, says that Les' remarks are "hasty and ill-considered." He adds that putting people in jail longer is not a good idea.

What a hopeless over-simplification.

The truth is that putting petty criminals in jail for long periods of time or even short ones is often the dumbest thing we could do. There are many alternate choices and we can find many more for these sorry souls.

BUT, for the Gun People, the serious dedicated murdering criminals who have a committed set of anti-social values, long-term prison sentences are exactly appropriate. For them and for me and for you.

You're looking for rehabilitation for guys who execute 6 people in an apartment? Huh?

Does anyone have any sense anymore?

When the AG Lies, Where is Law?

What order of law can you expect when the top cop in the land is a bold-faced liar?

Attorney-General Wally Opaque tells the press gallery that he didn't go near the Booster Seats and certainly never had a foto op with the little devils.

But there on his website is a foto of the Honorable Member handing out one such Booster Seat, plus 20 more, plus his own personal message of Good Will: "The government has provided these seats, etc, yadda, yadda, blah, blah..."

This is what we used to call back in grade three - lying.

I said it yesterday. I say it again. These folks are so bush.

Blame the Judges for 2 Innocent Deaths

In the story about 6 people killed in the Surrey apartment, there is one glaringly obvious factor which is not getting enough attention.

The four now assassinated petty criminals who were the targets of this mayhem were all "known to the police."

That's a too, too polite way of saying that, although they were all under 22 years of age, they had all been arrested and charged many, many times for many, many crimes, including the use of firearms.

So, why were they living Scott free in an apartment in Surrey? Why were they not in one of our illustrious Canadian penitentiaries where they so obviously belonged?

Two completely innocent citizens were murdered in this massacre.

I would argue that the lives and deaths of those two innocent men hang over the heads of the judges and courts who failed the community by not sending these criminals to prison.

Now, Wally Opaque isn't going to do anything, we know that.

And when Stephen Harper talks about getting tough on crime, he is demonized by the snivelling classes.

Is there any such thing as an Honorable Politican?

Politics is losing much of its fascination for me.

It has become so transparently a mug's game, a slime ball's home turf.

The Booster B.C. fiasco is the latest example.

2000 child booster car seats "given" (paid for by your tax dollars) to needy families. Sounds good. maybe.

Until you realize that they were all given by Liberals, each of whom rushed to the foto op.

Minister of State for Childcare, Linda Reid, who as we all know is doing such a remarkable job, said, "There's no politics in booster seats."

Except that no NDP ridings got them.

Buying votes by kissing babies is so bush.