Johnny Hartman & John Coltrane

Homelessness is up 20%.

This is news?

I know.

How about 'nother study?

How about a commission at $250/day per head?

I don't suppose anyone would consider building housing...

Nah. What was I thinking?

What'll it be, Sir?

Premier Campbell wants climate change legislation, but he seems to want privacy-bordering-on-secrecy for polluting corporations even more.

Did we feel this all a bit too good to be true?

Read the Sun story here.

Local Jazz Sweeps the Nat'l Awards

Huge HURRAYS! for Cory Weeds, Jody Prosnick and Brad Turner, who snared a lion's share of National Jazz Awards last night.

Cory is the sax-playing owner/operator/founder of the Cellar Jazz Club at Broadway and Alma. His Cellar Live won for best label of the year. As it should.

Trumpeter Brad Turner and Bassist Jodi Prosnick have both been regulars at the Cellar from the beginning only a few years ago.

I've had the pleasure of working with all three of these superb musicians, and Cory used to make regular appearances on my radio show, often phoning in from gigs in Italy.

Go here for the complete winners' list, and here for the Cellar website, and here for Cory's blog.

BOSS

*** APOLOGIES ***

The 2000 year old man strikes again.

I use a particular pair of glasses to work on the computer...different focal length.

I left them on my desk at work yesterday. Brought the case home, but not the glasses.

Cannot do this with my other glasses or get serious eyestrain.

Solly.

Please check this space later today for the usual compliment of ranting and raving and self-aggrandizing stories and complaints ...

We'll do anything to Prevent Mob Violence. We'll kill to prevent mob violence.

The Olympics are a legitimate activity.

And so are public protests against them or almost anything else.

One letter writer in today's Sun noted the irony how the Olympic flame must be aggressively protected from any expressions of free speech.

The Sun's editorial declaring that the "political sideshow can't douse the Olympic spirit," smacks of naive and simplistic boosterism.

Judging

When will anyone take the police seriously?

When will judges take the police seriously?

It is most discouraging to learn that the man who has most probably murdered his children in Merritt was in custody the other day and, against the recommendations of the police, the judge ordered him released.

Within hours, the man's children were dead.

Will that judge retire? Will he be filled with remorse, sadness, shame, sickness?

No one can prevent lunacy when it is determined to emerge.

But from time to time, sensible people can PAY ATTENTION.

You've seen Chilliwack. Now try, Say, Richmond

"CHILLIWACK - His chief administrative officer at city hall became the president of his riding association.
He had real estate dealings with a former council colleague.
Another councillor's wife acted as his agent in a controversial land deal."

So reads the first three paragraphs of the Sun's first-rate coverage of the John Les melodrama.

For the full story, click here.

But then ask yourself this:

Fine, this is a little fable about Chilliwack.

Now, what about the bedtime stories that await - uncovered as yet - in Richmond or Nanaimo, for example?

I've been following the Richmond thread for about five years now, and the most amazing part of that little pocket of intrigue is that nobody can prove anything and nobody has been indicted for anything. I do know that certain officials laugh heartily at what they are getting away with on a daily basis.

Any community - like Richmond or Nanaimo, for example (Did mention Richmond?) - that experiences sudden exponential growth is ripe with opportunity for financial and political fun and games for personal gain.

Why would, say Richmond, just to pull one example out of the air, be exempt from this age old law of human misbehaviour?

Chilliwack, John Les...a hundred grand here or there...sure...but this is cow plop compared to the possibilities in a place like, say, Richmond...

Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues

Dylan was just awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Not My Hero

It is very possible that Samantha Mohan is a lovely person.

But does she deserve a "Heroes" award for 15 years of handing out clean needles to addicts?

That is exactly what will happen next week thanks to the BC Persons with AIDS Society.

All of the evidence is that the clean needle programs have NOT scotched or reduced the spread of HIV and other diseases. That, in fact, the numbers continue to rise geometrically.

What Mohan has been doing for 15 years is sad, ineffective and an atrocity.

She has been helping addicts to stay stupid.

There are many people here in BC who have been quietly helping addicts to get clean and walk away from needles and bottles and pipes and they are unsung heroes.

Mohan is herself a kind of addict. She NEEDS those grateful, grasping hands reaching out to her so that she can feel wanted. But at what a cheap price!

When Immigration gets it Wrong, They really get it Wrong

Now we have a 23-year old Rwandan refugee claimant who has been a public menace since he arrived here at the age of 14.

Last week he terrorized a mother and her daughter and all for $15.

He should have been deported ages ago, but for sexual assault charges that are still standing and must be dealt with.

Send this dreadful excuse for a human being back to his village.

Let's get Civil

I was out of town and missed the wisdom of the sages, like Mike Harcourt, on what constitutes a civil society.

But I can tell you this:

First, I was disappointed to see the Sun's choice of commentators/editors - The Usual Suspects.

Second, as I see so much of the Rudely Uncivil Society on a daily basis, I hold out not much optimism for healthy, positive change.

Yesterday, I was walking across a pedestrian crosswalk in the parking garage at YVR. I young kid was parked firmly in the middle of the crosswalk, with miles of empty concrete where he could park legally and without getting in any one's way.

When I pointed this out to him ("Please move off this crosswalk."), he started shouting hysterically at me, "I'M SORRY!!!"

Earlier in the day, I was at a family celebration in a downtown hotel. I smiled at one of the other guests. She glared at me.

The civil society has not only a long way to go; it has an almost impossibly long way to go.

Susan on the Civil Society

To The Editors Re: Civil Society - fact or fiction? SUN - April 5/08

In a civil society, Small Businesses and the families that operate themshould not have their life's work expropriated by the government and hugecorporations. Small independant businesses are the heart and soul of ourcommunities - to be cherished and supported.The Canada Line and all it's government and corporate partners have turned ablind eye to the agony caused by excavating the length of Cambie Street forthe past 2 and a half years, and are hiding in part, behind a lack oflegislation.Jane Bird the CEO of the Canada Line project, defended their position torefuse any and all financial relief by saying "there is no existinglegislation that requires it" and "as a society, we may want to have aconversation about whether to compensate".We most certainly do.In a civil society, when governments use their powers to confiscate valuefor the common good, such as when they build multi-billion dollartransportation projects with taxpayers money - individuals must becompensated. If all the impacts of these mega-projects cannot be adequatelymitigated with factored in compensation and financial support, then theprojects should not proceed.All of us who face this preventable financial ruin expect the City, theProvince and all the Canada Line partners including TransLink with theirrecently announced $408 Million dollar 'slush Fund', to do the right thing.Our life's work is at stake, along with our faith in government to act withintegrity.We expect full compensation and legislation to ensure that citizens areprotected, and that this despicable situation never happens again.And, in a civil society, small businesses should not have to take theunthinkable step of taking their government to court to achieve this.As Stephen Hume said in his piece, 'let's hold society to higher moralitythan economic self-interest'.

Susan HeyesHazel&Co3190 Cambie Street604 687-0721

New Tune?

With mild apologies to Roger Miller, "David in North Burnaby" has written a clever little ditty to the addicts and their helping friends who have taken over the town.

See it (on David's blog) and sing along with it here.

High Priorities for the Police

7 seconds of Chuck

Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1968)

Charlton Heston - Moses & Michelangelo

I was never a big fan of Charlton Heston, but reading his obituary in this morning's NY Times is like reading a history of America in the last century - and not just the movies. Wars, social movements, unions, name it and he was involved.

Not my cup of tea, but a fascinating and amazingly accomplished man.

ICBC chief gone - What took him so Long?

"The chief executive officer of the Insurance Corp. of B.C. gave notice Friday that he is resigning and moving to the private sector, the same day the RCMP announced an investigation into a scandal arising from the corporation's automotive research and training facility."

Paul Taylor says this has nothing to do with the fact that the RCMP announced yesterday afternoon that they are investigating ICBC.

Read the whole story here, and then tell me - Lately, does it seem that the RCMP spend more time investigating officials of our governments than all other crooks? Do they have more success with these files than, say, with proving that violent drug dealers and Hell's Angels may be the same people?