TRAVELLING MAN

Away on Biz tomorrow morning...back at the desk Thursday...

Be well...listen to music...shut out the Noise...believe little of what you read or hear...solace in friends...

ADRIFT

How about the TDP?

The Tired Democratic Party.

Or the MDP?

The Mistaken Democratic Party.

Or the RTLDP?

The Really Truly Lost Democratic Party.

These considerations arise following today's report that the federal NDP is contemplating a name change, specifically dropping the "New" from their name.

Not only are they considering this nonsense, they are devoting scads of human energy to the prospect.

This is a dreadful diversion from facing the real tasks at hand.

Carole James and Jack Layton cannot lead the Party to the Promised Land.

Good souls they may be. Winning Political Leaders they are not.

The Party has been wandering in ideology and focus for at least the last two decades, if not considerably longer.

Stay on track, People. Keep your eye on the prize. Distinguish yourselves from The Other Guys. You won't Win Votes by trying to win votes. You'll win votes by actually meaning something to Canadians.

OUT - OF TOUCH

A drunk locks his two-year old and four-month old children in a van in this heat - only worse, because this happens in Abbotsford, which is hotter than Vancouver.

He does this so he can go drinking.

What else? He's a drunk.

The children are treated for dehydration, washed and given clean diapers. They are then given to the care of "a family member."

So far, so good.

Maybe.

We don't know who the family member is. We can only hope this is the one sober unit in this fine constellation.

Now, what about The Drunk?

He has been released from custody.

We are told that "the investigation continues," and that "the incident may lead to charges."

You mean the "incident" in which a guy pretty much almost killed his own children except through some miracle someone saved his sorry ass one more time by discovering his children before they died?

I understand that police and prosecutors must have a solid case before they waste the time and money of the courts.

But do the police and the prosecutors and the courts understand the message they convey to the public when they release from custody a sick fool like this?

The message is that children are not really that important.

Locking children in a van during a heat wave is not really such a terrible thing.

The law cannot be run by public relations concerns.

But it cannot ignore what is strongly felt by the community to be its core values.

Fear Flames Out

Toothpaste, automobiles, patriotism...what do they have in common?

They are all "sold" through fear.

Greed, fear and sex are the great balms/bombs that are used and have been used from the beginning of recorded time to promote an encyclopedic range of agendas.

All of your smelly, messy bodily fluids are rushing to emerge into crushing daylight at every possible bad moment! Take our product and be saved the horror of public humiliation.

You are stupid. You have not planned for your slack-jawed, debilitated future. No Matter. Buy our Retirement Plan and you'll be poolside till they cart you.

Unemployment is rising, mortgages are collapsing, money is heading south faster than you can say, "The Head Office is WHERE?" Relax. It's all the fault of the immigrants and foreigners and everybody of Them that cannot be called Us.

Which brings us again to Premier Campbell and the BC Utilities Commission.

In an excellent column this morning, Globe writer Mark Hume makes the murky waters clear.

"Premier Gordon Campbell's government argued independent power projects, or IPPs, were needed to avert an energy crisis in B.C. and fight global warming. The commission's ruling made it clear, however, that there is no energy crisis."

"Had the British Columbia Utilities Commission not intervened, B.C. would have been damming its wild and scenic rivers, not in a noble fight against global warming, but in order to run air conditioners in California."

Recognize the M.O.?