EARLY WARNING

From May 20th - June 8th, I will be travelling in England, Scotland and Ireland.

I won't be posting the usual rants on this site.

But I will be posting a travel blog. Why not?

Here is the URL:

http://laughingintheisles.blogspot.com/

And here is a tiny preview:

If you don't want to learn...

Apparently the organizers of yesterday's Vaisakhi parade didn't get the message.

Or maybe they just don't rightly care.

Celebrate martyrs, show violence, what the heck.

Somehow, I am stuck back in the old adage, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."

We are a great multi-cultural soup here in Canada. It is one of our few strengths in an otherwise B-movie of a nation.

Unlike some, I am not asking people to all become Canadian - whatever the hell that is supposed to mean.

By all means, honor and cherish the customs, folklore, history, tastes and style of your original homeland.

But when Canada says - as Surrey Mayor Diane Watts, so clearly said - we will not accept the celebration of murderers, try listening.

That means honoring and cherishing the customs, folklore, history, tastes and style of your new country too.

Immigration Department is a Black Hole

It may be true that the American convicted in the U.S. of a selling chemicals to make illegal drugs has committed no crime here in Canada.

But that doesn't automatically make him our best bet as an immigrant.

I have recently learned that there are presently 800,000 - absorb this - EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND - immigration cases in backlog!

One of my dearest friends has been waiting over two years to bring his partner to Canada. Both are highly skilled and law abiding first-class citizens.

He was advised last month that his case HAS NOT YET BEEN ASSIGNED TO A WORKER.

The immigration file is probably the worst in the federal government.

It is a great bleeding shame and disgrace.

OK...Try This...

The Strangest, Greatest Singer

Another Point of View

The following is a comment on today's Bush/Iraq posting from our friend Robert. While I'm not entirely in agreement with the conclusions, the commentary is thoughtful and heartfelt and it deserves a full posting if its own:



Hmmm, things are [now] going fairly well over in Iraq. 30,000,000 Muslims have been freed from the clutches of a horrific, murderous tyrant. Democracy exists in another place in the Middle East besides Israel. This is something we should end?!

I realize that many reading the words above will think I'm off my meds and am some kind of right-wing war monger. If so, they'd be wrong.

Can we all agree that each person's views of the world are shaped by the experiences they've had to that point in their life? Mine involve being born into a family where my father & his siblings were little kids on the German side during WW2. He was vehemently against Hitler but was powerless to do anything about it. After the war he lived in refugee camps and then at a young age had to move far away from the family, picking potatoes 14 hours a day in order to send a little money back to them.

But what emerged from the tragedy that was Nazi Germany was a vibrant country, a true democracy, and big positive to Europe and the world.

So shall the same emerge in Iraq, given enough time and commitment. If many of you get your wish and the Americans pull out, Iran's tentacles will surely reach into Iraq and turn it into a bloodbath for a time and then a satellite state. In case you're not aware, the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas is directly funded by Iran. They're the ones who send suicide bombers into Israel to kill innocent civilians.

War is messy. The aftermath of war is often worse. But patience is the only course of action if you want a people to have the same liberty and democracy that you've enjoyed since birth; that you were given for doing absolutely nothing in return. And things that we're given with no expectations in return are almost always taken for granted, aren't they?!

A pox on All Your Houses

Why is David Cadman the only city councillor with the good comman sense and the balls to decry the City's plan to spend $5 Million on a Granville Street Bridge upgrade ... solely for the Olympics?

The plan, about as short-sighted as any this council has endorsed in its sorry short history, will turn all neighbourhoods near the Bridge into polluted near-highways.

Where is Vision on this?

Where is Mr. Bicycle Lane Who Would be Mayor?

Where is No Sirens While I am Sleeping Please?

Faster, Higher, Stronger - More Corrupt?

End the Olympics?

Too tainted to continue.

So goes a compelling argument in this morning's NY Times.

All the Time He Needs

"Mr. Bush's capacity for denial is limitless."

In a far-ranging and lengthy editorial, the NY Times this morning has called yet again for an end to the so-called Iraq war.

It's worth a read.

The World is Surely Mad

Over 100 people injured in Bangladesh because a crowd of 5000 men fought with police, throwing bamboo sticks and bricks, because the state might provide equal rights for women.

Bamboo sticks and bricks.

The symbolism is impossible to ignore.

Heathens rioting over heathenism.

It is not my job in life to "tolerate" the intolerable.

Diminishing, limiting and enslaving half the human race because of some hopeless "religious" compulsion will just not cut it.

Aha...

Yesterday, I asked in this space for your insights and ideas about the Harper government's refusal to let MDA sell it's Radarsat-2 to a Minnesota company.

Our good friend Jackie sent this NY Times story.

Today's Province Column

We need quality architecture, art and music to remain a vibrant city

David Berner
The Province
Friday, April 11, 2008

Today, thousands of people will be taking part in protests in front of CBC buildings across the country. They have called this a "National Day of Action to Save CBC Radio 2 and the CBC Radio Orchestra."

Seems like a good occasion to reflect on what we may mean when we speak of "culture" here on the wet edge.

I am in complete sympathy with those who have decried this move by CBC brass to dismantle the last remaining radio orchestra in North America, and a damn good one to boot.

To disable this treasure under the guise of saving less than a million dollars is to define the old adage, "penny- wise and pound-foolish."

But what is even more offensive is the ready answer from so many citizens: "Good, kill the damn thing, I don't want my tax money paying for a government radio/TV/Internet mess."

Yes, the CBC needs a major overhaul. It wanders in mandarin deserts, showing a thousand faces to the shifting sands of taste. It is rarely mindful of a central vision or purpose, in spite of the fact that its core values are written into national legislation.

But, it is an important and valuable institution. Disband it and you will have the choice of rap or rap and pap or pap.

For all its sorry mistakes, the CBC brings us, albeit in ever-decreasing small doses, the alternate programming that commercial broadcasters will never offer.

The same hick town outrage emerged when the B.C. government announced on March 7 a $50-million gift to the Vancouver Art Gallery for a possible re-location from its present site at Georgia and Howe. "Spend that money on homelessness" went the cry.

Of course, we should spend many, many millions on building adequate housing for the homeless.
But what's that got to do with funding the art gallery? This is not an either/or proposition.

And while we're at it, how about the federal government spending $100 million on the Vancouver Maritime Museum and the Vancouver Museum?

Did you know that secreted away in the dusty bowels of that A-frame on Kits Beach are genuine artifacts from the Titanic?

You've never seen them because there is no space to show them. This is not a Leonardo DiCaprio movie. This is the real thing.

This city exists and functions because it is a port. It's those freighters in English Bay that take away potash and bring in Toyotas and blue jeans that make the place tick. Shouldn't we celebrate that?

On Tuesday night, Vancouver trumpeter Brad Turner, bassist Jodi Prosnick and Cellar Jazz Club owner and record producer Cory Weeds swept the National Jazz Awards. That too is an important part of West Coast culture.

City Hall announced on March 27 another $11 million for the beer strip known as Granville Mall. This is somebody's idea of culture?

We need music and architecture and art.

Without them, life is one long dental appointment.

Parading Killers is Not a Go in Canada

More Kudos to Surrey mayor Dianne Watts.

She has refused to appear on a float or stage in this weekend's Vaisakhi parade unless the organizers remove their homages to killers.

Killers, whome they call martyrs.

That includes the assassins of Indira Ghandi and the masterminds of the Air India bombings that murdered 331 people.

One of the parade organizers had the gall to assert that showing a picture of the Air India psycho is the same as putting up a picture of Jesus Christ in a church.

Maybe I don't know my New Testament very well. Jesus killed people? Bombed airplanes out of the sky?

Oh, yah, Matthew, Mark, Luke and Talwinder...

I Have Friends in Blank Places

Video of taser victim erased?

Oh, please.

What was Nixon's secreraty's name? The lady who accidently leaned left one day and erased 18 minutes od damning evidence against President Sneaky.

Headlines we wait for

"Number of Gangsters in BC Rising"

Yah...and that doesn't even include the legislature and the houses of parliament.

Minding the Store?

I don't know enough about the subtleties involved in the MDA sale of its satellite Radarsat-2 to a US company to make a definitive comment, but I sure find it puzzling.

Perhaps you can shed some light on this story.

The Federal government has blocked this sale. While many of us, self included, often decry the selling off of valuable Canadian companies to foreign interests, we are also usually committed to the idea that one has the freedom to sell one's products and services, be they legitimate, to anyone we please.

Furthermore, deals like this are done every day.

Or is this deal truly a threat to our own sovereignty? You tell me.

Another Wrong Hero

I forgot yesterday to make mention - probably because I was so disgusted - of the Kaiser Foundation award to Sun writer, Peter McKnight, for what they claim is his marvelous insights into the problems of addictions.

Rarely has anyone shown so LITTLE understanding of the issues.

What McKNight fathoms of the core mechanics of addictions can be put in a thimble and leave room for a barn dance.

He writes with considerable bravo and arrogance from a hopelessly ill-informed, intellectual point of view. Has he ever met an addict?

He is highly opinionated. So am I. The only difference is that, on this matter, I happen to know what I'm talking about and he doesn't.

His conclusions are reached before the end of the first sentence.

This award is so terribly undeserving and brings the very nature of the Kaiser Foundation into question.

Watch out for the Salmon Wellington

The Vancouver Port Authority has told the Cannery restaurant it must soon move off the site it has occupied on the waterfront off Commissioner Avenue for many years.

Security. Terrorism.

It's hard to believe that we are doing such a great job patrolling our very vulnerable waterfront that the restaurant somehow compromises that agenda.

The Cannery is one of those rare eateries that can legitimately claim Consistency over the years - consistently great good and great service.

We hope they are able to find an equally wonderful new location.

Sting

Sonny Rollins