Attenzione, si prega...

I must leave early Wednesday morning on an assignment and I won't get back until Thursday evening.

Ergo, non blogismentis.

Hope to be back in full dish Friday a.m.

Best wishes to all and to all a good night...

Clarity

It was sad to see Tim Shields, the local RCMP spokesman, hiding behind a false claim on the supper hour news last night.

"Privacy."

That's the mantra being used by the police these days when they want to excuse not letting people see what they have done.

They want to protect the privacy of the guy who died in their care.

Right.

Clayton Alvin Willey died of a heart attack in 2003 several hours after police knocked him to the ground, hog-tied him, kicked him in the chest, pepper sprayed him and used a taser on him repeatedly.

What the RCMP is doing in cases like this - and there are far too many in recent days - is misusing some one's right to privacy to shield themselves from investigation.

According to all reports, Mr. Willey, no matter how restrained or injured he was, just kept on fighting.

Now, I have seen such situations and they are not pretty and I can understand the police trying to do their job.

But the police have to understand that they must be clear and transparent and accountable to the citizens for whom they work and who they try every day to serve.

Show the evidence, gentlemen, and man up.

Celebrity

Yesterday, Oprah's guest was Sarah Palin.

Today, a porn star.

Palin is everywhere these days. She had a "book published."

I put that phrase in quotes because it will be hard to imagine anything coming from this idiot as resembling a book, or that someone other than a horse trader bothered to publish it.

Did I mention that Sarah Palin is an idiot?

She is also dangerous.

The fact that half the population of the U.S. takes anything coming from Palin's tiny corner seriously is frightening.

This woman has never had a thought that wasn't lonely. She functions in cliches and shop-worn non-ideologies.

She is ignorant of most of the world.

Of course, Bush didn't have a passport until he was elected President.

How many ways can the central idea of democracy be misunderstood?

Even Better Quote of the Day

It wasn't love that was visiting Calgary last weekend.

Swastikas and slogans including “kill Jews” and “6 million more” were spray-painted on a Holocaust War Memorial, the Calgary Jewish Centre and mailboxes, signs and fences in the southwest neighbourhoods of Pump Hill and Woodbine overnight Saturday.

Now the local police have to decide if these are hate crimes.

Hm...touch one.

Well, let's give them a little hint,

It ain't an MGM musical, kids.

However, the best response came from Stephen Harper:

“Anti-Semitism is a disease of the soul; its odious manifestations, in any form and however rare, can never be tolerated in Canada.”

Quote of the Day

In the ridiculous mock war between the TV boredcasters and the cable and satellite exhibitors, the simple issue has always been who gets to haul in more consumer dollars.

Now that they are facing the CRTC, it is marvelous to hear the CTRC chairman, Konrad von Finckenstein lambaste both sides for their histrionics.

“I don't know why you two don't realize it's in your long-run interests to come to some solution – rather than scaring the daylights out of Canadians.”