Anita Baker,

Here's one of the true originals. She has completely her own marvelous sound. One of the great, great jazz singers.

Headlines From Mars

The move by Gordon Campbell and Rich Coleman to purchase some old hotels and upgrade them for the people who live in single rooms seems praiseworthy enough. I hedge my bets by saying "seems," because seeing Gordon Campbell as a saviour of poor people is not something to which I have been accustomed. Nevertheless, it "seems" a good thing.

A better thing will be an announcement of a steady and thorough plan to build social housing in the way that CMHC used to before it became as useless as tits on a lamp post.

What is definitely peculiar is the screeching way, way, over-the-top headline in The Rag's editorial today. "BC Government takes a big step toward making homelessness history."

Whoa, Rebecca!

When the folks who scripted that fairy tale all long dead and gone, homelessness shall still be amongst us.

Buying a few hotels is fine and good, but "making homelessness history?" Where do I get whatever Happy Juice these smiley faces are drinking? I gotta get some of dat!

Slaughter House

The plight of chickens is not my usual concern.

But an advertisement on the net caught my attention this morning.

The ad is sponsored by PETA and it is about the "atrocities" of KFC chicken plants. The video is presented by Pamela Anderson and it is not pretty.

Now, the whole issue is more than difficult.

All through the "food chain" something is eating something else. That's the natural given. But is this kind of cruelty and neglect and mass production necessary or reasonable or even human?

Look at that page and watch the video. It's not fun, but it may get you thinking the next time you think about wings with that beer.

Judges Out of Tune

There has been considerable, and deserved, reaction from the public, politicians, the media and others about yesterday's announcement of a sentence reduction for a murderer.

The man at the centre of the story stole a car. He tried to steal some gas from a gas station, but a young employee interceded. The killer drove over the employee and dragged him screaming to his death over several kilometres.

The killer was charged with manslaughter, and yesterday had his sentence lowered by several years because of 3 mitigating factors: 1)his young age at the time of the offense (16 years), 2)his aboriginal status and dreadful family history, & 3)time already served.

The public is right. The critics are right.

Even the grandfather of the slain gas station attendant is Metis and he is right when he says that ethnicity and age are no excuses for murder.

All of this might have been debatable, save for one salient fact, which seems to have escaped the attention of the judges who reduced this man's sentence.

After the SOB did his killing, he bragged to friends about the deed. That's all you really need to know.

He should be in prison for life, and the erring judges should be pumping gas.