The News Down Under - Waaayyy Down Under

Two stories out of Australia are worth our attention...sort of.

The first shows that we are not alone here in Canada in our fine disregard for any common sense in the arena of Criminal Justice. The Aussie headline says it all, "Child murderer may be back out within a week." How reassuring that other jurisdictions are a mistaken as we are in dealing with lunatics.

The second story is about "moobs." I realize this may be a new word for most of us, but when you consider that we all learned to say "manssier," after a certain Seinfeld episode, I'm sure we can get used to men having their "breasts" surgically reduced in size. Yikes!

Getting it Wrong, and for the Wrong Reasons

The Number One story today and for the next umpteen years is and will be Climate Change.

This morning's Rag puts it at the bottom of the page.

Why? Because they think a completely false non-story about kids choking themselves is a better (racier, sexier, bloodier, more lucrative) headline.

Wrong again, Boys.

The professor's "one in five" bullshit ranks right up there with one-in-five Canadians is suffering from depression and one-in-ten persons is gay, both of which are colossol fictions furthered by people with a stake in the lie.

How about one in five academics is a dork who is hopelessly out of touch woith reality. Uh, make that three in five.

A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall

Unbelievable, but true.

Saw it with my own eyes.

Yesterday, I'm on my morning walk in the 'hood. The headlines are screaming global warming and the end of lives as we know them. Water, for sure, will be scarce.

So, I'm walking. And we've just survived - what - 40 days and 40 nights of relentless rain. So, we've got the first day of sunshine in months, and...you guessed it, some yahoo is sprinkling his little lawn and his two patches of daffodils.

It's no wonder we're destroying the earth. people are just flat stupid and dead selfish.

Bob Dylan - Masters of War

You asked for it; you got it.
Thanks so much for the recommendation.
Dylan was sitting next to me in a folk coffee shop on West Broadway in the 60's, while the owner was denying the rumor that Mr. Dylan might drop by.

Johnny Cash - Hurt

The last and possibly the greatest video by the master story teller.

Disney Opens Weddings to Gay Couples

Read it here.

What else can you say? Except, "Some day my Prince will come..."

Audio: First test - David Berner’s blog

I have finally found a piece of software that looks like it will do the trick for posting audio blog monologues. That's the good news.

The goofy news is I haven't quite figured out exactly how to use it. Keep in mind that I am a complete geek, with hands as soft as a baby's bottom.

So, patience, bloggists, patience.

Soon, I promise. We're closer...really...

Honor Among Thieves

Two local stories collide.

Basi, Virk and others are finally going to court after a police raid on the Provincial legislature MORE THAN 3 YEARS AGO. Whatever happened to "Justice delayed is justice denied?"

We still don't really know what all of this is about, although drug smuggling and drug sales seem to be involved, as does the sale of BC Rail to Canadian National.

Many have already been charged with various crimes around this story, and, although one or two actually have served some jail time, there is a litany of stayed, stayed, conditional sentence and more conditional sentences.

Down the road a piece, Poco mayor, Scott Young, is in trouble with the law again. He seems to have an anger management problem when it comes to intimate relationships. When asked by The Sun their feelings about their mayor being arrested - again - Poco citizens were marvelously forgiving. They offered the Canadian shrug. "Look at Premier Campbell, drunk driving, I don't think that's such a major issue."

Whatever happened to falling on your sword. You've disgraced your public office, you apologize ans step down.

Not in this era. Not when I am always right and I can never do wrong, because I am me and this is my movie and we can always spin this story in my favor.

Not when trials take 3 or 4 years and cases can't be won.

lou rawls northseajazzfestival 1992

Check out this hot, hot cut of the master live at the NorthSea jazz festival. We saw Lou in the main room at the Fairmont in San Fransisco in the 70's. There was one black couple in the audience, which mostly looked and acted like a mural. Staring incomprehensively at this guy on stage. Nevertheless, he killed.
He is the man who revolutionized the singing of the American national Anthem. It happened at a 49ers football game and he blew everyone's mind by turning the song into a very black and blue blues.
He aslo raised millions of dollars for the United Negro College Fund.
A great Citizen and such a rich singer.

Your Art, My Art

The Vancouver Art Gallery has lizards and other strange small creatures on display today. It is part of a new "installation."

I have some advice for you, Art Lovers. As soon as you hear the word, "installation," get on your palimino and head off in the opposite direction as fast as those 4 legs'll carry you.

Installations and video works are among the greatest hoaxes of the modern art world.

I remember vividly wandering through the wondrous halls of the San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art a few years ago. Much on display was wonderful. Then I entered a very large room where a crowd of people were encircling something.

I muscled my way into the inner layers of the crowd and this is what I found.

Hundreds of stuffed toy poodle dogs, black and standing about knee high, were arranged in dozens of concentric circles, all focused on a $5 toy baby doll lying on its back in the centre of the circle.

The people were silent. They were giving serious consideration to this drek.

I started to laugh. Then I howled. Then I said something real friendly, like, "You folks are idiots," and I moved on to the next room.

What the art galleries of the world need these days is more living creatures. Not lizards and spiders, but curators and administrators who can tell the difference between exciting new art and lazy, conceptual put-ons.

When it comes to Art, with a very big A, the emperor has no clothes.

O'Reilley Hates Immigrants

Like all scoundrels who hide behind the flags of patriotism, Fox News cretin, Bill O'Reilly, got into the most unattractive shouting match with Geraldo the other night. Aside from ignoring at his own peril Marshall McLuhan's famous dictum that "Radio is hot, TV is cool," O'Reilly wonderfully revealed what a tiny hate-monger and threatened dweeb he truly is.

Check it out in full color here.

And while you're at it, click on the story on the same link page about McCain's "Jew Counter." I tell you, America is just one big Love Fest.

Rollover, Beethoven

All new cars will have systems installed by 2012 that will prevent rollovers, which result in thousands of deaths each year.

Many SUV's already have this inexpensive technology on board.

That's the good news.

The bad news comes from these 2 questions:

1. If the technology has been around for a while and it costs under $150 per unit, why hasn't it been installed years ago, and why wait until 2012? Put the sucker in tomorrow.

2. Does this just mean that SUV fools will feel emboldened to drive even faster in the ice and snow on the Whistler highway, now that they believe they can't possibly tip ooooooooooover?

Best New Business Name This Year

A friend of a friend with some internal problem is attending - and we are not kidding, we are not inventing this - the following office:

UPPER CANADA LOWER BOWEL CLINIC

Anita Baker,

Here's one of the true originals. She has completely her own marvelous sound. One of the great, great jazz singers.

Headlines From Mars

The move by Gordon Campbell and Rich Coleman to purchase some old hotels and upgrade them for the people who live in single rooms seems praiseworthy enough. I hedge my bets by saying "seems," because seeing Gordon Campbell as a saviour of poor people is not something to which I have been accustomed. Nevertheless, it "seems" a good thing.

A better thing will be an announcement of a steady and thorough plan to build social housing in the way that CMHC used to before it became as useless as tits on a lamp post.

What is definitely peculiar is the screeching way, way, over-the-top headline in The Rag's editorial today. "BC Government takes a big step toward making homelessness history."

Whoa, Rebecca!

When the folks who scripted that fairy tale all long dead and gone, homelessness shall still be amongst us.

Buying a few hotels is fine and good, but "making homelessness history?" Where do I get whatever Happy Juice these smiley faces are drinking? I gotta get some of dat!

Slaughter House

The plight of chickens is not my usual concern.

But an advertisement on the net caught my attention this morning.

The ad is sponsored by PETA and it is about the "atrocities" of KFC chicken plants. The video is presented by Pamela Anderson and it is not pretty.

Now, the whole issue is more than difficult.

All through the "food chain" something is eating something else. That's the natural given. But is this kind of cruelty and neglect and mass production necessary or reasonable or even human?

Look at that page and watch the video. It's not fun, but it may get you thinking the next time you think about wings with that beer.

Judges Out of Tune

There has been considerable, and deserved, reaction from the public, politicians, the media and others about yesterday's announcement of a sentence reduction for a murderer.

The man at the centre of the story stole a car. He tried to steal some gas from a gas station, but a young employee interceded. The killer drove over the employee and dragged him screaming to his death over several kilometres.

The killer was charged with manslaughter, and yesterday had his sentence lowered by several years because of 3 mitigating factors: 1)his young age at the time of the offense (16 years), 2)his aboriginal status and dreadful family history, & 3)time already served.

The public is right. The critics are right.

Even the grandfather of the slain gas station attendant is Metis and he is right when he says that ethnicity and age are no excuses for murder.

All of this might have been debatable, save for one salient fact, which seems to have escaped the attention of the judges who reduced this man's sentence.

After the SOB did his killing, he bragged to friends about the deed. That's all you really need to know.

He should be in prison for life, and the erring judges should be pumping gas.

Peggy Lee

The video is dark, but this piece from The Johnny Cash Show is the definition of The Singer as Story Teller. It's only phenomenal.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Iran will release those captive British Sailors. That's the very good news.

The bad news is everything else about the President of Iran and his marvelous objectives.

Rich Man, Poor Man

The NY Times has a valuable editorial about the gap between rich and poor in America today.

It's worth a look. Then we might ask ourselves about Canada. Are we suffering the same disparities? And, if we are, why?