GNAWING HUNGER

Tomorrow, May 31st, is my son's birthday.

I know that.

What I didn't know until this morning is that tomorrow is also "Lunch Money Day" in Greater Vancouver.

The Food Bank is asking us to donate our lunch money to help feed over 10,000 children who go to schools on empty stomachs.

In Greater Vancouver.

Or Lesser Vancouver.

10,000 of our local children are going to school without proper nourishment.

Not in Rwanda, Haiti or Watts.

But in the "most liveable city in the world."

Tell you what I'd like to do.

I'd like to elect a government that uses my taxes to feed these kids.

At $5 a pop times 5 days a week times 40 school weeks, that's $10 Million.

You have my vote, Mrs. "Families First."

As we say in the running shoe business, "Just do it."

SMARM

The Smart Tax Alliance sends me at least one email a day.

They are doing everything humanly possible to tell me that the HST, like cough syrup, is good for me.

I wrote them back this morning.

This is what I said.

"Methinks the lady doth protest too much."

CANADA CAPTURES THE EU

THE CASE OF TTHE SMILING RICTUS

The Stonewall Opaque Missing Women Inquiry is a shameful masquerade.

It's ultimate purpose is to learn nothing, but say, "We tried."

The DTES Womens Centre, prostitutes and Aboriginal groups have no voice at this paper table.

Warm and Wonderful Wally says he has no control over how much money is spent.

He was the perfect appointee for this sham.

He and Attorney-General Barry Penner bat the birdie back and forth over the net, shrug their shoulders and all that is lost if the truth.

What a perfect pair of vaudevillians.

The Power of Social Media on Public Policy

Follow the Money

The CUTE premier (part of the Bobbsy Twin set with the CUTE mayor) repeats and repeats in our ear that she is all about "families first."

I mean, gosh, this is the "families first" province. (The Reverend Dobson must be thrilled.)

But check out the reality, please.

ON the one hand,

B.C. presses ahead with controversial hydro dam despite $2-billion jump in cost

In 2006, this boondoggle was set in stone at $3.2 Billion.

Today, the tag is $7.9 Billion.

And let's not even get into the environmental and conservation issues.

ON the other hand,

The Vancouver Children's Festival, which has been a delightful part of community life here for 30+ years now, is suffering a $140,000 deficit.

That's right.

$140,000.

That's not even lunch money for either the city of provincial government.

It's a coffee break.

Will Gregor or Patty Cakes please step up to the plate and clean up this tiny milk spill?

Come on, Cutesies, show us where the money and the priorities are.

Families, my ass.

Small Good News

Please note that the video shown below of our most recent SHAW TV show is now available in one single 30-minute piece, thanks to YouTube extending their bandwidth.

This conversation with Peter Ladner is controversial.

It's a good one.

Cheers.

RESTRICT FOREIGN OWNERSHIP OF LOCAL PROPERTY?

SMILES WILL FOOL ALMOST EVERYONE

So Christy Palin squeaks out a win in last week's bi-election.

That is, voters, taxpayers, citizens in a district say, "OK, we're witch ya kiddo. We're bettin' the farm on you."

Moments later, the champagne scarcely dry on her hair, the Squeak-By Premier shares her inner thoughts with us.

"Oh, you know, I'm thinking maybe in the general election which I will soon call I'll run in a different district. One where I'm pretty well guaranteed a walk-in. One where I don't have to be a Barrista-for-a-Day or actually participate in open debates."

Can you say, "Turncoat, Boys & Girls?"

Can you say, "Cheesy?"

Can you say, "Frightened, running blind and ambivalent?"

How about just NOT FIT TO GOVERN.

OLD JEWS TELLING JOKES

CLEVER...BUT WISE?

Christy Clark is a very clever politician.

She is a populist and plays to her crowd like a liquor store busker.

Her final comment on her squeaker victory last night was a boisterous reference to - guess who? - a certain local hockey team.

Her cheesy stunt during the mini-election here in Pt. Grey smacked of arrogance, ignorance and delusions of royalty.

Clark, like a method actor doing research, became for an hour or two a waitress and an elevator operator and a shoe shine boy.

Before I began my real working life at the age of 24, I had 30 different jobs. I counted them up. 30.

I was 15 different kinds of salesman - from toys and men's clothes at The Bay to door-to-door encyclopedias. I was an accountants clerk, a taxi driver and dispatcher, a teacher, a caddy and I poured cement and made hamburgers (although not at the same time, in spite of the registered complaints.)

By the time you reach the age of political life, shouldn't you have gathered some life experience? Shouldn't you have held some miserable jobs and learned how to survive awful bosses and demanding customers? Isn't that what we used to call "growing up?"

Apparently not.

Apparently, one smiles ones way into power or office and then, in a showy tribute to one's isolation and distance from everybody else, one dashes out with camera troops in tow to sling a bit of hash and wash a dish or two.

Yes, Clark is a clever politician.

But is she a good and wise governor?

To give her credit, she has already surprised us all with a few good moves - like raising the minimum wage.

But her track record as Minister of Children & Families and a few other files was dreadful.

Perhaps, like many another person thrust into the big chair, she will grow into the role.

We can only hope.

And we can give thanks that we are not in Mississippi or Colorado and we won't have to survive Newt Gingrich.

ART SHMART

I went to the Vancouver Art Gallery yesterday.

I went because I had a free pass and I wanted to see what's up.

I went because Kathleen Bartels, the Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery, was my guest on SHAW TV back in February.

The VAG has a six-month commitment to an exhibition by local artist Ken Lum.

I lasted less than 20 minutes.

There is no question that Lum has a good sense of design and might make quite a handsome living in advertising.

His specialty seems to be combining the occasional image with a few words. There are always words.

And videos.

And mirrors.

Let me say this about videos.

All TV, my own work included, is either Lucy or Walter Cronkite. My own work is often both - at the same time.

And mirrors?

My bathroom has mirrors.

This is where I can see everything sagging and getting smaller. Except, of course, my tummy.

In the middle of a very, very large square room, in a stroke of pure genius, Lum has placed several hide-a-beds. The beds are facing each other. The sofa seats are cast aside, and the mattresses and springs are all somehow "interacting." Maybe they are fucking, I can't be sure.

Now, what exactly is Lum's genius here?

Simple.

He has perfected the trifecta known as The Emperor's New Clothes.

Let's shudder to think of the hordes of dollars he has been paid for this Popsicle delusion.

Let's convulse at the thought of where the Road of Art has led us.

Let's stay away in droves.

WEEKEND ROUNDUP

ITEM - The election of NDP dingbat Ruth Ellen Brosseau in Quebec (She didn't campaign; she went to Vegas on a holiday; she doesn't speak French; and she may have fudged her papers - but aside from that she's a wonderful person.) is a hideous travesty.

While Senor Mustache may be gloating about walking backwards into the propeller wash of opposition status, he should take a moment and have this "triumph" somehow annulled.

ITEM - The American government -with millions in poverty and out of work and without adequate health care - provides billions of dollars in military aid to Pakistan each year.

For which they get duplicity, betrayal and hatred.

Nice deal.

We appreciate that international diplomacy is a subtle and dangerous enterprise - Pakistan is nuclear-powered, India is next-door, India is a democracy - but really, kids.

ITEM -

How quickly Christy Clark has forgotten her radio host roots

First rate column from the Globe's Gary Mason.

ITEM - What we need is a system like Cuba ’s neighbourhood Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. “Exposing who on your block or in your office uses most energy might be a good incentive for everyone to reduce their carbon footprint.”

This gem of lunatic reductionist academic non-thinking comes from an extraordinary column by Peter Foster in yesterday's Financial Post.

The author of these so-called thoughts is a Professor of Mathematics and Biology at Harvard University.

Keep in mind that the nine people who decided in a ninety minute meeting at Wansee on January 20, 1942 the fate of millions of Jews had the following attributes in common: They were all male; they were all German; they were all Nazis; and they were all graduates at the highest levels from the best universities in the Fatherland.

An education does not necessarily awaken one's glint of humanity.

ITEM - Money is being stolen (seconded?) from School budgets to help billion dollar energy companies in BC.

A fantasy, you say?

Check out Craig McInnes in the Sun today.

SERVICE ANYONE? TED TOPPING - PART ONE

SERVICE ANYONE? TED TOPPING - PART TWO

UNFIT

Baby left alone at home dies in fire

This sickening idiocy happened early this morning near Hope, BC.

The so-called parents went out for a walk.

That's right.

They went for a little walky-poo in the moonlight and left their 18-month old child alone in a house with three suites.

What can you say?

May they never have children again?

Idiots, idiots, idiots.

My sympathy for these cave-dwellers is buried way below my disgust and anger.

KETTLE CALLING THE POT BLACK

Malik files lawsuit against Dosanjh

Federal election campaign flyer put out by former MP was defamatory, suit claims

Mr. Malik has stepped into a trap of his own making, and it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Now, he will be obliged to answer questions under oath in open court about the Air India bombing for which he was found innocent.

Not that Malik has shown much concern for oaths or the truth in the past.

We continue to support and applaud Ujjal Dosanj in this matter.

ONE MORE REASON WHY IGGY BOMBED

Last Monday, I was asked to comment on Sun News new TV network that Iggy Pop supported "safe" injection sites.

Here is the link for this one:

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/918589270001

TV DEBATE ON INSITE

Taped a segment for Alberta Prime Time TV on Friday afternoon regarding the possibility of opening "safe" injection sites in Edmonton & Calgary.

Here's the link to the video:

http://www.albertaprimetime.com/Stories.aspx?pd=2276

NEW LINK - and it's not a golf course

Please note that my old buddy, Steve Hocevar, has become a blogmeister.

Steve is a comedian and magician and magician comedian and comic magician.

His name and new blog are now at the top of my links list to the right.

Check him out!

HOW I AM VOTING TODAY AND WHY

First, my son and I agreed that we were both voting Green. We agreed further that these were protest votes.

We were protesting, among other things, the fact that none of the four leaders was mensch enough to refuse the TV debate unless Ms. May was invited to join. That would have been the honorable thing to do, and any of those 4 gonovim (Hebrew for crooks) would have secured my vote by doing so.

Also we were protesting the "consortium" of TV execs who hold our democracy balls in their little hands and decide who gets to speak at a national debate.

This is a perfect microcosm of the real universe we occupy - business at the helm; democracy a Popsicle delusion.

So, Green Party, it was.

Then, last week I started complicating matters.

No, I thought.

I've got to help Harper get that majority.

I detest the demonetization of this boring, little man. Sure, he's an autocratic putz. Sure, he's no great coffee company. But he has been quietly managing the affairs of an unwieldy unmanageable country for several years now, so give the guy his mandate and let all the others shut up.

Then I realized that the Conservative candidate in my riding is married to someone I haven't had any time for in the past 40 years, so why would I vote for her? Everything is political and everything is personal.

Then I did about 17 fresh turns of thought.

I walk a lot and I'm not listening to tunes or yammering on my cell or texting. I'm just walking, so I get in a lot of mental wandering time.

So I started double and triple thinking and reversing and cutting back.

For a crazed moment, there I almost settled on the NDP, until I realized that it was David Eby, the NDP candidate in the Provincial bi-election next week, that I will be voting for a) because he's a good man and we could use him in the legislature, and b) because nothing could be funnier than having Premier Clark without a seat.

I don't know the Federal NDP candidate.

So, guess what?

I have come full circle.

Today, I am voting for Ms. Shaw, the Green party candidate in my riding.

I hope Ms. May trounces the hell out of that do-nothing fool, Gary Lunn in Saanich & the Gulf Islands.

At this point in time, almost any new voice will be a welcome change from the same old, same old.

Why are we such sticks-in-the-mud in this country? God forbid we should consider anything new or mildly different.

Notice that I have ranted for several minutes here and not said a word about a cert6ian other party that used to be big.

Soon, it will be very small and the geek who took it to the bottom of the hole will thankfully disappear from the front pages.

Finally, and on another note, I am voting to have Bernd Walter removed from office.

Walter is the head of the BC Review Board.

In recent weeks, it has been his pleasure to release into our communities several murderous lunatics, each of whom has killed people and is a crazy dangerous risk to us all.

Walter, in his light-headed liberal isms, has chosen to ignore good common sense and favor the dangerously crazy among us.

In one case, the public outrage was sufficient to have this stupidity reversed - the dangerous killer is back in custody. In the latest episode, the stabber stabbed again. Nice.

If we could vote on this man's employment, I would do so.

But of course, we cannot.

He is someone's cousin or lover or business partner or fourth at bridge.

I vote for him to leave his post at once, before someone else gets hurt.