David Talks/The Berner Monologues: Dec 8, 2009

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Too Tall

The beauties of Venice are almost entirely man-made, including the very fact of the city itself, resting atop millions of timbers buried in the mud.

Above ground and water are palaces and paintings beyond price.

Little of the attraction of Vancouver is man-made. Our blessings here have always been nothing more arcane than the mountains and the water.

But our enlightened new City Planner has a different vision.

Brent Toderian says he will be proposing that the city allow four new extra-tall buildings on its skyline, including one with a potential height of 700 feet.

Thanks, Brent.

What are we, Dubai?

We need 700 foot towers in Vancouver so more bureaucrats can spend more of our tax money pushing paper on floor 69? Or more drug dealers can shoot each other in more apartments on floor 81?

Has anyone pinched Brent lately?

He needs to wake from his slumber.

Deadly Help from your Friendly Doctor

Gerry Verrier, senior program manager at Manitoba's Behavioural Health Foundation alerted me yesterday to this piece in the Globe.

Overdose deaths from painkillers skyrocketing in Ontario: report

Ontario study says painkillers causing twice the number of overdose deaths they were two decades ago; most dying got prescriptions, saw doctors

Read this article and be advised.

The War Comes Home

The following arrived via email last night from our good friend, Victor:

My nephew, a 22 year old Marine based in San Diego, got his orders on
Saturday to deploy to Afghanistan on Boxing Day. He is a young
father. Merry Christmas. He is in a battle unit. He will be there 8
months. But when you're a Marine in Insaneastan, you work 7 days a
week, Add to that pre-deployment training and post-deployment re-
orientation, what it means is this young man will give a year.

We, our family, expected this ever since the "President Who Can Do No
Wrong" (with all the "o's" in that title, I'll just all him Poodoo)
announced that he was ramping up the "War That Makes No Sense" ( we'll
call it WAMS).

One could take consolation that it will be a brief war, because Poodoo
wants all the soldiers home in time for his pre-election campaign in
2011. Poodoo is a man of resolve. He is resolved to be re-elected.

But although it will be a brief war ( if you believe that, you're
NASCAR stupid) it will be a horrid war because Poodoo wants results in
18 months. He has a victory speech on his 2011 teleprompter already,
don't you see? So he will command every sacrifice of young soldiers to
win an 18th month war.

America will have 80,000 soldiers in Insaneastan after this
deployment. The Russians had 100,000 soldiers there. They didn't build
schools, hospitals or roads. They didn't hand out candy or teach kids
to play hockey. They bombed the supreme shit out of the country and
left in defeat. The Russian soldiers were not constrained by an
election date. They lost and the wives and mothers in Moscow demanded
that they come home. The Kremlin listened.

I will leave a note for Santa, asking him to bring a soldier home.

Trial by Sentiment

Have you been following the bizarre case of Amanda Knox?

Knox is a young American student, who has been found guilty and sentenced to 26 years in prison in Perugia, Italy for the brutal sex game killing of her roommate, Meredith Kercher.

What has made this case so strange is the almost universal reaction of the American media.

CNN has been all over it and Larry King had Knox's parents on his show last night. I didn't watch.

The central message seems to be, "Amanda must be innocent because she's American!"

My take, based on nothing more than watching a few news reports last week?

She's guilty as sin.

Grinning idiotically and mugging for the cameras...Puleeeze.

But you should see all the smart American commentators and lawyers basically claiming that a lovely blond haired blue eyed American princess could never do something like this.

Are you kidding?