He Said, She Said

I saw something strange and disturbing on TV a few nights ago.

That could be practically anything, of course, from "Deal or No Deal" to the NBC News with Brian Williams.

But this was just a moment or two that I could bear of a Muslim man trying to interview a woman who claimed to be a Buddhist.

The woman, in her '60s I would guess, had an almost shaved head of grey stubble. She was wearing the familiar burgundy and orange robes we associate with the Dalai.

As I clicked my way through the channels and landed on this gem, the woman was talking about "males."

She was talking about "males" as she might about rats, vermin, root canal, rapists and radio station managers. What was so shriekingly evident was her total abhorrence of the "man" side of any equations.

But the Muslim man, bent on being "the interviewer," was doing a classic Bill Good and not listening to a word she was saying, intent on his next scripted question. He must have been a graduate of Bill's popular workshop, "How to Never Interact With Your Guests, but Still be a Local Media Star."

The - shriek! - man, asked the woman Buddhist about how she actually practiced her religion. He was very specific. How do you begin your day? What prayers or meditation do you choose? And so on.

Her answer was, "Well, that's a very general question."

His question was extremely specifically specific.

But you see she hates men and therefore whatever he might ask or say will be wrong.

What was so interesting and horrifying was that he didn't notice any of this and she didn't acknowledge anything coming from him.

So here were two people utterly NOT communicating, but doing so on television.

I lasted less than a minute and settled on Bruce Willis shooting everyone is sight.

YOUR GOOD MONEY GOING TO HELL IN AFGHANISTAN

The Vancouver Sun's coverage of the secret and even simply unknown and untalked about sides of the war in Afghanistan is most welcome.

We have known for some time now the hideous corruption and overspending by America in their desperate disaster in Iraq - cement, bullets, oil, rebars, name it - so many overcharged, double-billed and worse.

Now we are seeing the identical story for the Canadian government in Afghanistan.

"There is nothing more Canadian than sipping a double double in Kandahar Airfield while watching a hockey game," says General Rick Hillier by way of explaining how he has spent $4MILLION of your tax money on a Tim Horton's franchise in Afghanistan.

Well, I've got news for the good general and for Mr. Harper.

When I want a dose of really bad amateurish sociology, I don't turn to Mr. Khaki, thanks very much.

And I don't drink double doubles or anything else at Tim Horton's and I don't give a flying frittata about hockey.

And, yes, oddly, enough I am still a Canadian. Is that OK?

And I am not encouraged to learn that SNC Lavalin, the folks who are doing such a good job on the ram-it-down-your-throats-and-to-hell-with-your-mom-&-pop-shops Canada Line, have contracts of over $700 MILLION for various make-do projects in Afghanistan.

Will anybody ever investigate Lavalin's relationship with generations of Ottawa mandarins and parliamentarians?

JACK JONES

Jack Jones, one of the great saloon singers with George Shearing...this is such wonderful stuff...

Say, "Happy Birthday, David!"

I read an entire newspaper from cover to bloated cover and another on the web...and I have found nothing that catches my eye this morning.

This may be because there is nothing much of note.

Or it may be that tomorrow is my 65th Birthday and I just don't want to complain about the world this weekend.

See you all again on Monday.

YVR Taser Death the ONLY Story

The Sun's coverage of the Taser death at YVR is appropriate and first rate. Yes, the pictures belong on the front page.

And Stockwell Day is wrong to dismiss off hand a public enquiry.

And the RCMP are completely wrong to keep these 4 goons at work.

This is Rodney King revisited and the video that has now flown swiftly around the world demonstrates one of the strengths of the "global village."

If the RCMP and the government think that this story will wither and die in the coming few days, they are about to learn how sadly they are mistaken.

The Candian public would like to return to the days of having respect and trust for its police forces.

As long as these atrocities occur, that desire will be an unfulfilled ache.

NOTE: The video was posted below last night.

Torta Me, A-Torta-You

The skyrocking price of pasta is causing panic in the streets of Italy.

This is a curious reflection of the skyrocketing price of maize and tacos and torillas in Mexico.

The reason? Biofuels.

Corn gets more at the pump than the sump and more growers are switching from wheat to corn and other biofuel producers.

Our friend Adrian Mastracci led us by the nose to this tasty morsel from CNN, MoneyNews.

Addiction Recovery in America

Great NY Times article on Recovery Centres and addictions in Florida and other communities around America. It includes a video.

Bravo to all these folks!

And ask the idiot murdering experts here in BC what they know about these centres of hope and recovery.

"No Cell Phones" Catching On

Maybe we'll pick up this trend from Seattle soon. I hope so.

More and more businesses - including Seattle's millions of coffee shops - are banning cell phones outright or forcing users to wait in line while others are served.

This is a great little story from the Seattle PI sent in by our friend, Martin.

RCMP Taser Video & Condemnation

Our friend Robert Werner has written a powerful scathing indictment of the RCMP taser action at YVR. His blog post, shown here, includes the Video of the hideous event. Please watch.

Bonds Indicted

The morning after our LANGARA DIALOGUES public debate about sports & drugs. Barry Bonds has been charged with perjury in a doping case.

Here's the full story from the NY Times late edition.

The photograh was electronically manipulated to fit in his hat.

RCMP Continues Its Dreadul Slide

Understatement of the Year:

The video of Robert Dziekanksi's death "shows the RCMP in a bad light."

How about Bullies & Thugs?

The officers who perpetrated this monstrosity at YVR did so for the same reason a dog licks itself -because it can.

The once honorable force is in deep trouble, top to bottom. It needs a serious overhaul as soon as possible.

$tealing from the Public Pur$e Deserves Another Chance

Two local pharmacies - let's call them Drug Stores - have been found guilty of overcharging Pharmacare hundreds of thousands of dollars on methadone prescriptions.

Leave out of the discussion for the moment how useless and destructive methadone is and think only about these pigs stealing from the taxpayers' pool of money that should be buying legitimate medicines for the elderly.

So the courts in their endless wisdom have decided that the decision to cut these crooks off at the knees was made too hastily. The poor babies - proven crooks - deserve another chance to over bill us all.

Is there anybody who is not rightly furious with and frustrated by the courts today?

Is there anybody in the courts with an ounce of wisdom?

SEGOVIA

Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth is

President Bush vetoed a $606 billion spending bill Tuesday that would have funded education, health and labor programs for the current fiscal year, complaining that it was larded with pork and too expensive as he took aim at a top priority of the new Democratic Congress.

At the same time, the president signed a $471 billion Defense Department spending bill that funds regular Pentagon operations other than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Many Lies of George Bush

Yesterday, Congress criticized the Pentagon.

Bush immediately rose on his hind quarters and said that it was not the job of Congress to tell the military what to do; it was the job of the military to tell politicians what we should be doing in a war.

That's a remarkable expression coming from the one president, who more than any other in history, willfully ignored military advice before and during the entire Iraq campaign.

Donald Rumsfeld ran the Iraq debacle. Generals were practically yelling at him from the beginning and he repeatedly threw them out of the room.

Make no mistake. Everything about this disaster is and has been and will be political in the tiniest, smallest, most partisan and selfish sense of the word.

ESSENTIAL READING!

Below is one of the most important articles you'll ever read about homelessness, Skid Row and the Police. The title and subtitle of this lengthy piece are:

"The Reclamation of Skid Row:

The LAPD’s efforts are reviving America’s most squalid neighborhood—and the homeless industry is hopping mad."

The piece is long, but a MUST read if you care about Vancouver's Downtown East Side.

It clearly tells the story of a district destroyed by so-called civil libertarians and poverty pimps. It also tells the story of the same district being rescued by compassionate tough love police.

Read it, will you? http://city-journal.com/html/17_4_skid_row.html

And tell me if this isn't the clear answer to Vancouver's woes.

Federer Needs a Coach - Now

Roger Federer is by any measure one of the greatest athletes alive today.

To list his records, including 12 Grand Slam wins in tennis, would take several pages. Here are only a few recent accomplishments:

By winning Wimbledon in 2007, Federer also tied Björn Borg's open era record of five consecutive Wimbledon championships.

He is the only player ever to have won both Wimbledon and U.S. Open for four consecutive years.

He is also considered a great sportsman and a wonderful, sweet fellow.

His recent output has not been so legendary.

He bombed out in the first round the other day at the season-ending Masters tournament in Shanghai, a contest he was won the last 3 yeras in a row.

"World No.1 Roger Federer is eager to prove he's not slipping after losing consecutive tennis matches for the first time in four-and-a-half years.

Federer lost to No.7 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 4-6 7-6 7-5 today at the Masters Cup to snap his 15-0 record in round-robin play at the season-ending tournament.

It also was the defending champion's first loss in 11 meetings against Gonzalez."

His behaviour in the above match was a throwback to his old teen years of throwing tantrums and berating judges.

What does this all mean?

Possibly nothing.

Tiger had an abysmal streak or two - each time his critics crying that it was all over - and came back with roars. Last year he played as well and as successfully as any in his career.

Breet Favre is having the best year a quarterback in his late 30's has ever had.

And as Federer has already proved to be a great champion, he may indeed bounce back next year and be even better.

But one fact is glaring - he has no coach.

There is no man of tennis age and wisdom pointing out to Federer the simple deficiencies that will creep into all our games.

Playing at his level without a coach is vanity.

I love watching Federer play. I will love it even more when he smartens up, gets a coach and returns to his glorious form.

Teachers' College a Sham.

BC Teachers' College, like most of its brother and sister "professional colleges" exists solely to maintain the status quo. They are almost secret societies.

It has been no surprise to any good observer for many years now that teachers who break the rules are rarely named or exposed or punished or disciplined in any way.

In this regard, they are remarkably like the College of Physicians.

Today's story on the front page of the Sun is business as usual.

When will the provincial government step in? Never.

Canada Line - The Anti-Citizen

As if the Canada Line can't get any uglier in its disregard for citizens...

We learn that Lavalin - company really struggling with its bottom line, NOT! - is pushing slave laborers from Columbia, Ecuador and Costa Rica to get out of their union.

Lovely.

GEOFF PLANT IS SAFE & CIVIL - Hooray!

We can only thank the Nutty Mayor.

He has successfully fulfilled his Civil City mandate by keeping Geogg Plant from homelessness.

Meanwhile....

Mr. Plant and his $300,000/year office are planning fora and surveys and studies. Yip-atee-ay-oh!

Back in the old days, we used to call this corruption. collusion, cronyism and downright silliness.

No doubt, Kim Capripants and Susan Antigen are excited.