Leonard Cohen: The Stranger Song

You MUST Read this Comment

Hello David.

A small but horrifying story for you, just one of many that I see every week.

There are drug dealer(s) working out of the Lore Krill social housing complex on Cordova (between Abbott and Carrall). (This is hardly news.) Walking to work in the morning, I often see drug addicts queued up at the intercom, trying to get in to get their morning fix.

This morning two addicts, a man and a woman, were at the intercom. The woman had a baby carrier on her back, and, initially, I thought she had a toy doll in it. When its head listlessly lolled back, I realized it was a live baby. It was naked. It's raining, it's three degrees. A blanket is trailing behind the woman, trailing through the puddles and the dogshit and the filth that spreads out from the homeless encampment across from Army and Navy.

Having lived in the DTES for a number of years, I know better than to directly intervene with junkies, especially those that are jonesing for drugs. Verbal abuse is nothing to me now - over the years I have been assaulted, grabbed, followed and threatened. Fortunately two men were nearby, a construction worker and a postman, and they intervened while I walked on.

I didn't see what subsequently happened. So many things bothered me about this vignette. My own cowardice, to start - it disgusts me that my fear for my own well-being is greater than my fear for that baby. But I am also swamped by a sense of futility. What difference would it make to see that the baby was wrapped up in the filthy, wet blanket, when its life is being destroyed, in far more profound and appalling ways, by its junkie mother? Why bother calling the cops - the addicts would be gone by the time they arrived, and what could the cops do anyway?

Baloney Always has a Pungent Odor

Buried amidst all the nonsense flowing from the testimony of Ryan Baloney is the widely ignored or wholly accepted fact that he was lobbying governments to buy armaments - tanks and such.

This is an honorable activity for anyone? For a Prime Minister? The Arms Business? Why not sell guns on the street?

Baloney didn't write an invoice for all the cash he received and he didn't declare any income thereby or offer to pay taxes until many years later, by which time all records had been destroyed.

These aren't crimes according to Canada Revenue?

Hate Crimes

Jews are sub-human and worthy of the firing squad.

And, oh yes, the Holocaust didn't happen.

These are the contents of a new book called, "The Jews - The Whole Truth."

The author had now been sentenced by a court in Greece to 14 months in jail.

There are those among you who will still argue for freedom of speech in such instances.

What is it about 6 million dead people that you don't understand?

Send Mandatory release to the Scrap Heap. Do it Now

The authorities are debating whther or not we should do away with mandatory parole.

Duh?

Women Run From Premier

Labor Minister Olga Illich, the latest woman to say, "Enough!" to Gordon Campbell (Carole Taylor, Dr. Penny Ballem, Virginia Greene, Tamara Vrooman and Christy Clark) blew the whistle on the cost overruns at the Convention Centre expansion many months ago.

She also was lobbying vigorously to raise the minimum wage.

What does all this say about the Premier?

Social Condition Bad. You think?

The BC Progress Report rates our social condition as amongst the worst in Canada.

Of course, all that would be required of the legislators is that they walk 3 blocks off their usual paths to the heart of Victoria which is a living cesspool of inhumanity.

Minister Claude "I never Saw a Government Job I couldn't Milk for Meself" Richmond says that the government is doing a wonderful job closing the gap between the rich and the poor.

Hahahahaha....

Sport on the Ropes

As Jim Rome, one of my favorite talk show host's put it yesterday, "Everybody in sport wants an edge. They are fierce competitors, evrey athlete, every sport. Everybody is looking for an edge."

The Mitchell report indicts everyone equally -"Everybody in baseball — commissioners, club officials, the players’ association, players — shares responsibility."

What will happen? I have no idea.

But I know this - we are all saddened and angry. While I could care less about Mark McGuire or Barry Bonds, I was, like millions of others, a fan of Roger Clemens, who henceforth will be known as Mr. Butt.

The system itself - high stakes, high payoffs, outrageous sums of money on the table - make professional sport a natural breeeding ground for illegal drugs, gambling, game-fixing and scams the likes of which most of us cannot imagine.

Remember the next time you watch the NFL or MLB or the NBA or tennis or golf or soccer, you may be seeing only a small part of the story.