TRAVELLING MAN

Away on Biz tomorrow morning...back at the desk Thursday...

Be well...listen to music...shut out the Noise...believe little of what you read or hear...solace in friends...

ADRIFT

How about the TDP?

The Tired Democratic Party.

Or the MDP?

The Mistaken Democratic Party.

Or the RTLDP?

The Really Truly Lost Democratic Party.

These considerations arise following today's report that the federal NDP is contemplating a name change, specifically dropping the "New" from their name.

Not only are they considering this nonsense, they are devoting scads of human energy to the prospect.

This is a dreadful diversion from facing the real tasks at hand.

Carole James and Jack Layton cannot lead the Party to the Promised Land.

Good souls they may be. Winning Political Leaders they are not.

The Party has been wandering in ideology and focus for at least the last two decades, if not considerably longer.

Stay on track, People. Keep your eye on the prize. Distinguish yourselves from The Other Guys. You won't Win Votes by trying to win votes. You'll win votes by actually meaning something to Canadians.

OUT - OF TOUCH

A drunk locks his two-year old and four-month old children in a van in this heat - only worse, because this happens in Abbotsford, which is hotter than Vancouver.

He does this so he can go drinking.

What else? He's a drunk.

The children are treated for dehydration, washed and given clean diapers. They are then given to the care of "a family member."

So far, so good.

Maybe.

We don't know who the family member is. We can only hope this is the one sober unit in this fine constellation.

Now, what about The Drunk?

He has been released from custody.

We are told that "the investigation continues," and that "the incident may lead to charges."

You mean the "incident" in which a guy pretty much almost killed his own children except through some miracle someone saved his sorry ass one more time by discovering his children before they died?

I understand that police and prosecutors must have a solid case before they waste the time and money of the courts.

But do the police and the prosecutors and the courts understand the message they convey to the public when they release from custody a sick fool like this?

The message is that children are not really that important.

Locking children in a van during a heat wave is not really such a terrible thing.

The law cannot be run by public relations concerns.

But it cannot ignore what is strongly felt by the community to be its core values.

Fear Flames Out

Toothpaste, automobiles, patriotism...what do they have in common?

They are all "sold" through fear.

Greed, fear and sex are the great balms/bombs that are used and have been used from the beginning of recorded time to promote an encyclopedic range of agendas.

All of your smelly, messy bodily fluids are rushing to emerge into crushing daylight at every possible bad moment! Take our product and be saved the horror of public humiliation.

You are stupid. You have not planned for your slack-jawed, debilitated future. No Matter. Buy our Retirement Plan and you'll be poolside till they cart you.

Unemployment is rising, mortgages are collapsing, money is heading south faster than you can say, "The Head Office is WHERE?" Relax. It's all the fault of the immigrants and foreigners and everybody of Them that cannot be called Us.

Which brings us again to Premier Campbell and the BC Utilities Commission.

In an excellent column this morning, Globe writer Mark Hume makes the murky waters clear.

"Premier Gordon Campbell's government argued independent power projects, or IPPs, were needed to avert an energy crisis in B.C. and fight global warming. The commission's ruling made it clear, however, that there is no energy crisis."

"Had the British Columbia Utilities Commission not intervened, B.C. would have been damming its wild and scenic rivers, not in a noble fight against global warming, but in order to run air conditioners in California."

Recognize the M.O.?

Two More Laneway Views

1. FROM VICTOR

It is amusing to hear residents of the west side complain about a city
council being indifferent to neighbourhood concerns. It was the west
side that defeated the opportunity to adopt a ward system. They fell
for Sam Sullivan's idiotic contention that wards would make for more
expensive government. This economic ignorance is particularly galling
when manifested by the upwardly mobile.

If we had councillors elected by neighbourhoods they would be
accountable to neighbourhoods. There are dingbats who say that such
accountability would result in nimby-driven governments. Nimbyism is
a fact of life. We make a reservation at Bishops because we don't want
to sit beside a smelly homeless guy. We ask for upgrades when we fly
to get away from the steerage conditions of economy. We buy in Point
Grey because we wouldn't keep our dog on the east side, let alone live
there..

The greatest failing of the current era is that we have allowed the
nattering class (media) to convince us that preference equals
prejudice. If I deny shelter, employment or due process to somebody
on the basis of race, religion or orientation, that's prejudice and
it's against the law. If I do that, I deserve to be punished.


If I change seats on a bus because I don't like the appearance, garb,
girth or aroma of the person beside me, that's preference. If he/she
suspects my action is based on preference, tough luck.


2. FROM ANOTHER HAPPY CITIZEN

In all honesty and sheer frustration (at the fact that I know so many of you good people dealing with this and I have simply been unable to find the time myself this year)...

I believe this 'shoving' a by-law, which effectively causes massive restructuring of our total City, with back door / behind the scenes changes that are not made available to the public, under conditions quite contrary to the expectations of why this council was elected:

I think we should bloody well call for an impeachment! Robertson, et al, be damned! ... Is there some way that citizens can bring into question (mid term) the dealings of a council??... This one is acting (in my pea brained mind) almost to the point of illegality!?!

Further to that, calling into question Mr. Gellar's (flagrant or near??) conflict of interest in advising council both before and now after the election, I would like to have some process taken his way.

And finally, I would like someone to suggest that Mr. Brent Toderian get the royal 'boot'... There is no question that he is driving much of this agenda with absolutely no consideration to the citizens of the City. Somebody fire him and tell him to go back to where he came from (Calgary / Ottawa?), and go ahead and ruin that City instead.

Not that I dislike Kitsilano as a community, but having the whole City look like a carbon copy (and then with even more densification potential) of that area is not what this City should look like. The citizens need to be informed on what this is all coming to. The only real 'print' on the subject that has made it to the mainstream media has been Gellar's inputs on how wonderful it would all be (total conflict of interest, and WHY the media doesn't take that into consideration is just gobsmacking???).

Again, I bring up the freeway model of yesteryear. I think a lot of citizens back then initially didn't really give much thought as to whether it was a good idea or not... For the most part, all other Cities were doing it, so why not us? It took some very visionary opposition to raise the alarm. Unfortunately, this one issue came fast and furious; but, I can't understand why this has to be a done deal and never be able to undone.

There, I've vented. Thank you for your time.

THE GREAT BIG SINKING SHIP

"Democracy is not an outgrowth of free markets."

That is an excerpt from the final chapter of a new book called "Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle."

The book is written by American war correspondent and Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges.

Maybe that first sentence alone should be mailed to the Fraser Institute every morning on the off chance that one day they might get it.

Hedges attacks what he sees as the self-deluding and corrupt character of American society, economics and global influence today.

In the excerpt quoted in yesterday's Globe, he ties his analysis to the recent bailouts of banks and other corporations.

Hedges points out two juicy little tidbits in his way to larger issues:

"If they quit, they quit with a golden parachute. Even [General Motors CEO Rick] Wagoner is taking away $21-million.”

and,

"Look at Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld. Many of his investors lost everything and yet he pocketed $485-million. An economic collapse does not mean only the degradation of trade and commerce, food shortages, bankruptcies, and unemployment."

Finally this,

"The free market and globalization, promised as routes to worldwide prosperity, have been exposed as two parts of a con game. But this exposure does not mean our corporate masters will disappear. Totalitarianism, as George Orwell pointed out, is not so much an age of faith as an age of schizophrenia.

“A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial,” Orwell wrote. “That is when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud.”

They have engaged in massive fraud. Force is all they have left.

There are powerful corporate entities, fearful of losing their influence and wealth, arrayed against us. They are waiting for a moment to strike, a national crisis that will allow them, in the name of national security and moral renewal, to take complete control. The tools are in place.

These antidemocratic forces, which will seek to make an alliance with the radical Christian Right and other extremists, will use fear, chaos, the hatred for the ruling elites, and the spectre of left-wing dissent and terrorism to impose draconian controls to extinguish our democracy. And while they do it, they will be waving the American flag, chanting patriotic slogans, promising law and order, and clutching the Christian cross.

By then, exhausted and broken, we may have lost the power to resist."

BACKING INTO THE LANE, PART DUH

Laneway Housing was passed by the current Vancouver City Council on a quiet summer day when it would receive the least attention.

The process, if such it can be called, was to ignore precedent and previous form and simply follow the Ideology - process which is the hallmark of this ideology-driven gang.

Neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood interaction has been jettisoned.

Below is a quote from one private report, followed by a letter from a Dunbar resident which nicely summarizes the polite thuggery currently in vogue at 12th & Cambie. This last item is an invaluable peek behind the shaggy curtains of Oz.

“At that last meeting, the city planner took pains to tell our group that democracy had no place in our planning process and that consensus was not expected.”

Mayor Robertson and Councillors

City of Vancouver

453 West 12^th Avenue

Vancouver, B.C. V5Y 1V4

July 27, 2009

Dear Mayor Robertson and Councillors:

Re: Citizens’ Summit

I would like to provide a personal note regarding my experience with city process since I became a board member of the Dunbar Residents’ Association almost five years ago.

My first appearance at a Council hearing was in response to an application from the Approving Officer Rick Scobie, who was seeking Council approval for his approach to applications for subdivision of what are known as “orphan lots,” lots which are larger than others in the same block. Residents were upset at the Approving Officer’s approach, which was to give automatic approval, and Mr. Scobie’s application was no doubt the result. In the notice of application to Council, Mr. Scobie suggested that, if Council failed to approve his “automatic” approach, it might like to consider instructing him to take into account a range of factors, including neighbourhood concerns. On behalf of the Dunbar Residents’ Association, I joined a number of residents who spoke to Mr. Scobie’s application. Taking into account neighbourhood concerns when the enabling legislation clearly gave the Approving Officer discretion seemed a reasonable position for a representative organization to take, and, in fact, after I and a number of others had spoken, two of the councillors suggested that Mr. Scobie might want to take such concerns into account.

Mr. Scobie then proceeded to tell Council that the Legal Department had advised him that Council had no authority to give him direction in this matter, which effectively ended the discussion, although those of us who had spent hours on this matter had still to sit through then Mayor Sullivan’s commendation of Mr. Scobie’s “wisdom” in dealing with such issues. I am not sure that “wisdom” is the word that I would have used. None of the residents there appreciated having had his or her time wasted: if Council had no power to direct Mr. Scobie to act other than as he chose, Council’s approval was meaningless and residents’ arguments were irrelevant.

The next major city planning initiative was EcoDensity. Neighbourhood representatives were invited to presentations and meetings; we made submissions and arranged for planning staff to speak to residents. Our Association’s concerns were with the failure to appreciate that our Vision Plan made provision for higher density, which had yet to be exploited; the lack of provision that was being made for the social and environmental impact of higher density; and the failure to value the green space captured in single family residence areas. The clear and emphatic message that the City conveyed was that single unit housing was environmentally unsustainable

In the meantime, the Dunbar Vision Implementation Committee had been resurrected, and I joined in the hope that a city-sponsored committee might be more amenable to the views of residents. The DVIC’s first presentation, on a development at 39^th and Dunbar which, the Committee argued, exceeded the parameters set out in the Vision Plan, was completely ignored: the development was unanimously approved by Council.

Since then, the planning department has undertaken a review of the Vision Committees, a review that has absorbed scarce planning resources and lent poignancy to the Director of Planning’s admonition to Council at last Tuesday evening’s Council hearing that Council’s requests for monitoring could not be met due to scarce staff resources: who is setting the agenda here?

More recently, Council has held a hearing to consider the Director of Planning’s recommendation that single family residence areas be rezoned to allow laneway housing on lots 33’ and over, and I have felt as if I have wandered into an Orwellian universe. How did blanketing the city with more single-unit housing become an EcoDensity initiative? What on earth had I been doing spending my time considering seriously the arguments that had been made by the planning department in support of EcoDensity? Yet again I had been a pawn in a manipulative process intended simply to justify a predetermined result. Arguments made in good faith are rendered meaningless, the ground shifts, hearings are scheduled mid-summer, and residents are ambushed by sudden changes to what was initially proposed.

This Council was supposed to be different. Prior to the last election, the Dunbar Residents’ Association published on our Mailing List the results of a survey taken by the city-wide coalition that became Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver. The survey identified those candidates for Council who favoured neighbourhood input in planning decisions. Our response to criticism that we had abandoned an apolitical stance was that we felt that neighbourhood consultation was not a matter of ideological leaning, but fundamental to the participation of residents of all political perspectives in the development of their communities.

Ironically, the only example of true community consultation that I have experienced was at the insistence of an outside agency. Thanks to the support of Darrell Burnham, Executive Director of Coast Mental Health Foundation, the service provider for the facility at 16^th and Dunbar, the Dunbar Residents’ Association was able to facilitate the meeting of Dunbar residents with representatives of the city, B.C. Housing and others to form a joint community advisory committee which aims to allay neighbours’ concerns about the new supportive housing and make its future residents more comfortable in their neighbourhood.

I hope that you will listen attentively to those who have had to deal with the city in the past few years. Norquay woke to find that the Neighbourhood Centre Program, which residents thought would undertake the needed revitalization of a commercial area, planned the mass rezoning of 2400 single family residences as a stated example of EcoDensity almost a year before the EcoDensity proposal came before Council. In a neighbourhood reeling from rapid change, the Riley Park South Cambie Vision Committee, which has a history of resident participation, appears to have been cut out of planning along the Cambie Corridor in favour of “advisory groups to provide advice at appropriate stages,” a phrase that suggests carefully managed rather than honestly sought, neighbourhood input. Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver has continued to make submissions that are thoughtful and balanced and deserve to be taken into account.

In fact, the only positive impression that I will carry away from my experiences will be residents’ deep commitment to and profound understanding of their neighbourhoods. Their goodwill and willingness to give of their time and energy are impressive. When allowed, they have made valuable contributions. My experience at the city level, however, is that residents are, at best, given information by pleasantly helpful planning staff and the opportunity to vent, while, at worst, made the subject of dishonest manipulation. Top-down planning prevails.

I appreciate that you have provided residents with an opportunity to make submissions. My experience with this and previous councils is that they will not be heard. The process lacks integrity, being a matter of form without substance, squandering the community’s resources in an unsustainable drive for further development.

Yours truly,

Susan Chapman

SHE WON! AGAIN!!

Here, in full, is the Globe piece of the latest triumph of Susan Heyes.


"Transit authorities have been ordered to cough up $600,000 now to merchant Susan Heyes, who was awarded that amount in damages for business losses caused by construction of the Canada Line outside her store on Cambie Street. The authorities had asked the B.C. Court of Appeal to stay payment of the award, pending their appeal of the B.C. Supreme Court judgment in Ms. Heyes's favour.

But Mr. Justice Edward Chiasson ruled yesterday that it would be unjust to deprive Ms. Heyes of the money while the appeal winds on. After the decision, the small-business owner, who has waged a tireless campaign for compensation, broke down in tears. "Tears of relief," she explained afterward."

How many other ways and times will this corrupt gang try to steal from this courageous woman?

BACKING INTO THE LANE

The Vision-less Council is approving "laneway housing" across the board for all of Vancouver, a clear violation of the process of neighbourhood involvements that have been in place for decades.

This is typical of a naive, agenda-driven council with answers to complex problems drawn from the nearest Simpleton Box.

Following is a little taste of the issue to be added to in more detail in the coming days.

First is the Frances Bula piece in yesterday's Globe.

Then, a comment from local lawyer and former council member, Jonathan Baker:

"Laneway Housing is a bad idea whose time has come.

This scheme is driven by and for developers under the false pretense that it is green, inconspicuous and cheap. The phrase "laneway housing" is 'developer speak' redolent of hobbits and country shires. Hobbitville is not what it will be produced. Every new house will have a second house in the backyard. Off street parking will be at the expense of landscaping and trees. Streets will be jammed with parked cars. They will not be able to restrict occupancy to families, students or rental. Developers will whine to the next council that their profits are insufficient to meet their goals. This will inevitably give rise to subdivided lots. This idea was concocted by NPA politicians who, thanks to the voters are no longer among the politically living. It is after all the least green form of development because it uses the most land as opposed to apartment buildings. At least that is what the eco-density policy proclaimed.

By this mass rezoning, Council has repudiated the policy of neighborhood planning put in place in the late sixties."

Watch this space for more on this matter soon.

LATE AT NIGHT

Let's be clear.

I am not blaming the victim.

But in the horrible case of a young girl being forced off a bus and then sexually assaulted by some Pig Person, a reasonable question can be and should be asked.

What is a 13-year old of any gender doing on a number 20 bus at 2:30 in the morning?

Maybe there is a reasonable answer.

Maybe this child had a job of some kind to help pay the family bills. Maybe the job ended at 2 a.m.

Maybe the family, if there is one, needs some serious self-examination about rules and regs and family dynamics.

Maybe I'm full of self-righteous hot air.

Maybe you had exactly the same very natural reaction to this nightmare.

The Coast Mountainn bus people have said that their drivers would normally question a young person or toddler getting on the bus very late at night.

Look.

If Evil Bastards want to do something terrible, they will no matter the good intentions of Real Citizens.

However...this might be a wake-up call for the bus drivers to be required, at the very least, to keep youngsters who board alone late at night, clearly nearby and in sight, to the degree that they can.

20 YEARS OF BAD PUBLIC POLICY

Yesterday morning, I walked through one of those small parks that exist in the West End that were created some years ago when the City Fathers and Mothers blocked off a few streets and added a bench or two and some plants.

This was a good initiative.

Traffic was slowed down and diverted, and lovely little places of tranquility arose in the heart of a busy urban centre.

That, of course, was then and this is now.

Yesterday, my walk through this tiny park was more like a trot or a gentle jog.

Why?

Drug addicts, of course.

Most of the apartment buildings in proximity to these former havens - which are now little Main and Hastings replicas - have signs boasting a K9 Narco Patrol, or some such. In other words, this building gets a regular sweep by sniffing German shepherds for drugs on site. Reassuring, no doubt.

The addicts now own these little parks, just as they own many streets and alleys and entire neighbourhoods.

They own these public spaces by virtue of their dirtiness, their ugliness and their made or implied threat of contamination or assault.

They are the Poster Boys for Living Crime.

How did we get here?

20 YEARS OF BAD PUBLIC POLICY, that's how.

Unable and unwilling to ever say "no" to anyone, including and especially our own children, who must never be denied anything, we have as a community been giving out needles and heroin and methadone and crack pipe kits and anything else that would enable and give legitimacy to a life style choice that is illegitimate and destructive for all concerned.

We have asked or demanded nothing of the addicts who terrorize our land, because it isn't nice to judge other people (unless, of course, you happen to be a Judge, in which case, we all wish you would throw the Book at 'em once in a while) and we must always be seen as nice people who are never mean to anyone.

We have accepted the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, VANDU, as some sort of legitimate voice for "the oppressed," instead of recognizing for what it is - a non-group of disorganized drug freaks who want to shoot dope and rob citizens and be left alone to do what they do, because they have rights, don't you know.

What we have done with this Harm Seduction approach is caused more harm to more people than could ever have been imagined a few decades ago.

Harm especially to the addicts themselves.

1. They don't know where they stand. Is being a dope fiend a bad thing these days, or is it OK?

2. We have NO TREATMENT options for them, because, in spite of all the real evidence or real people who have cleaned up and moved on, we no longer believe in the efficacy of treatment. We actually declare in public documents sent from City Halls and other policy-making centres, that "treatment doesn't work."

Of course, the Harm to the public weal is almost uncountable now. An entire district - the DTES is a revolting to-be-avoided-at-all-costs international disgrace.

Street corners in every district throughout Great Vancouver are controlled by criminal drug addicts.

And the lovely little half-block parks in the West End?

Good luck, Bunky.

RUN OUTTA TOWN

Fascinating.

The B.C. Utilities Commission has killed Premier Campbell's plans to revise energy issues in this province.

"Green Premier's agenda hits snag as energy plan rejected

Commission says British Columbia government's initiative not in public interest"

What makes this decision so compelling is that the Preem has couched his plans in the popular wedding gown of ecology and clean energy, when in fact his plan has always been about what all his plans are about - helping Big Biz get more.

In this case, we are talking about run-of-river rights being handed on a plate to private energy producers. This being a typical Campbell Triple P, Triple Sauce, Private-Public-Partnership scam.

God, he thinks he's so clever, and like most people who are enamoured with their own cleverness, he is soooooo transparent.

"Some analysts say the ruling – which shocked the government and the stock market – indicates B.C. has been over-estimating the amount of power the province needs in order to justify the development of independent power projects.

“We have a very flawed energy plan in this province … the government cannot continue to exaggerate the need for power,” said Lori Winstanley, a spokeswoman for the professional employees' union known as COPE, which has long been critical of BC Hydro's energy plan.

For years the opposition NDP has questioned the Campbell government's energy plan, claiming independent hydro projects that harness some of the province's rivers – known as run of river projects – pose hazards to the environment, and sports fisheries."

I had the pleasure of hosting and moderating a public debate about this very issue not too many months ago. Both debaters were excellent presenters and decent people.

But it was clear to me that this was another Campbell Sell-Off, in which, under some noble disguise, resources are given to private concerns to make hay while the public purse is left in the lurch.

Hey, it worked for George W. Bush in Texas, why not for Wee Gordie in BC?

I applaud the Utilities Commission decision.

Back to the Back Room Strategy Board, Gord.

THE PRESIDENT

I've just been watching President Barack Obama speaking to the world about health care reform and other weighty matters.

Has there ever been such a plain-spoken leader?

I appreciate that he is a politician and a clever man. I do not think he is the Messiah.

But, man, he is a continuing pleasure to behold.

It is hard, after years and years of seeing nothing but liars and dissemblers in public life, to enjoy and find credible one who is talking directly to the heart of the matter.

He is far from perfect and he has already caused a few blips and speed bumps along the way.

But, dammit, he is good.

And he is credible.

About what other leader can this be said? Harper? Sarkozy? Campbell? Berlusconi?

Rock on, Pres. I for one am enjoying the ride.

DANGER! STEP BACK, PLEASE!

Watch the provincial government.

And watch it closely on at least three fronts:

The Barber Shop Quartet Tax (hummmmm....are we Harmonized yet?)

The Basi-Virk Trial (Will anyone ever confess to erasing 4 years of emails at election time? Will any newspaper follow this scandal?)

and Health Care.

Especially Health Care.

The Pit Bull known as Kevin Falcon, a bird of Prey if ever there was one, is now the Minister responsible for Health Care., Lord help us.

Can you say, "Slash and burn," kids?

Now our health care priorities are being managed by the 2010 Olympics. I kid you not.

"The Vancouver Coastal Health authority pledged to cut elective surgeries during the 2010 Winter Olympics, based on the experience of other host cities that saw demand fall during the Games."

Operating rooms will close, surgeries will be reduced, as will maternity services and pediatrics.

Mr. Falcon continues to see health care as a business. Wrong model, Kev! Wake up and smell the role of government in certain essential community responsibilities, like say, just for example, to take one...health care!

And the Olympic Premier, who never saw a shiny windbreaker he could resist, continues to place the Big Party next February above all else.

Watch these guys.

They are dangerous.

IS PSYCHIATRY CRAZY?

In a word...Yes.

Two new books on the subject were reviewed in this Saturday's Globe under the following headings:

"Is psychiatry a failure?

Two new books attack big pharma and lazy doctors for not doing enough to help patients. Sometimes talk, not drugs, is all a person needs"

The books are "prescriptions for the Mind" by Joel Paris and "Doctoring the Mind" by Richard Bentall, and the reviews are written by Todd Dufresne.

Oddly, at exactly the same time, a piece by Christopher Lane on the same subject called, "Bitterness, Compulsive Shopping, and Internet AddictionThe diagnostic madness of DSM-V,"

has appeared in Slate, the on-line journal.

This last was sent to me by my old buddy, Gavin Walker, the Jazz historian, Broadcaster and Player, who has managed to keep his own special brand of craziness going beautifully for a few decades now without the help of the couch or Big Pharma.

Question...

Does anybody take psychiatry seriously these days? After Woody Allen, is it possible?

Oh, yes, the occasional person, after much hounding and harassment and oversight by his or her family, is given the right mix of medicines for something real and legitimate and devastating like schizophrenia.

But all those other drugs that are pissed into our water systems making Big Pharma, along with Arms, Oil and Illegal Drugs one of the Four Big Businesses in the world?

All those children, especially young boys, who are given psychotropics which make them far worse than they ever were before their nitwit parents or teachers sent them to the good doctor?

I'm amazed that this pseudo-science still exists or that its spooky practitioners are still allowed to hang their shingles and take money.

Remember that the psychiatrist who is "treating" Mr. Li, the nice man who cut off a guy's head on a Greyhound Bus, has reported recently that Li is making "good progress."

Doesn't that just about sum up this alleged discipline?

Hunker Down Kids..The Worst is Yet to Come

Oh, no.

Please, say it isn't so.

Bicycle lanes on every bridge in the province.

Badly run homeless shelters on every street corner.

Such is the future if today's political guessing game comes to life - Vision B.C.

Aarrggghhhhhh....

True, the provincial NDP has gone nowhere and is going nowhere, and while Carole James may be a fine person, she clearly cannot lead the party out of the wilderness and into the honey pot of power.

True also that the provincial Liberal party under the inspired leadership of Gordon Campbell (hahaha...) has enraged at least half the voters, who unfortunately are too stupid and selfish to bother voting, thinking that kvetching over their double doubles will bring change.

But Vision B.C.?

Mr. Smiley Simplepants as Premier?

Aaarrgghhhh...

Was this the plan from the beginning?

Gregor leaves his elected position as MLA half way through his term to run for mayor, he is backed by big bucks and social engineers and terrific organizers and wins by a landslide...only to set up the NEXT BIG STEP?

I see it now.

First order of business in the new Vision-run Provincial Legislature.

Standing Order B21 - A change of name of the Province from British Columbia (So yesterday!) to...wait for it...

HOLLYHOCK!

A hot tub in every yard.

BRAIDWOOD

Judge Thomas Broadwood, after listening patiently for months, often to totoal drivel and fabrications, released last week his recommendations on the use of tasers by police.

He has basically said that you cannot use these instuments "casually," that the situation must be dire and serious and involve immediate danger and threat and some action involving a fedral crime.

No bursts longer than an initial hit of five seconds.

He has also called for greater training and for agreed rules of behaviour across the spectrum of various police forces in the province.

Kash Heed, B.C.'s Solicitor-General (who I mistakenly called our A-G last week; my apologies), has told the RMP and other police forces to put Judge Braidwood's recommendations onto the street at once.

None of this will return the life of Robert Dziekański, but it is good news.

SPOTLIGHT ON A PROBLEM

Now the President has invited the Professor and the Policeman to the White House for a beer.

Looks like their taking him up on it.

Meanwhile, back in Cambridge, Mass., every cop and his cousin is dismissing and dissing the Pres for his outrageous nerve at calling their fellow officer stupid.

No doubt the Republican and the Fox News screamers and radio talkers are having the best time they've ever had.

Look.

W can be sure that Dr. Gates was loud and noisy and arrogant and uncooperative when the police stopped him from breaking into his own house.

We can also be sure that the Sgt. Crowley took the usual cop stance - equally arrogant and righteous and demanding.

Neither man worked very hard at defusing a silly and ridiculous moment that could have easily ended differently.

"Please show me something that identifies you with this property, Sir."

And Obama didn't help by wandering into an already sensitive incident with the word "stupid" at the ready. Which he has admitted.

But you know what?

All of this, including Obama's off the cuff, not very wise, honesty has brought focus and attention to a central problem in American public life - racial profiling.

Both Obama and Henry Louis Gates have had the experience. As have millions of black Americans.

When I hear the police high on their righteous horses in this story, I can only feel, "Methinks the lady doth protest too much."

VALUES

I was sitting at a sidewalk cafe. Imagine! A difficult job, yes...

A tent walked by.

A beige stiff and starched draped tent.

Only a slit for the eyes.

A woman's eyes, I had to guess.

I do have a brain. And that brain not only offers the power of reason, it is all the repository of much stored information.

So, later, after my initial shock and horror and disgust wore off, I was able to put my book down on the table and think about how people have a right to practice their religion, I guess...

But there is no question that my gut reaction was shock and horror and disgust and a deep anger about subjecting women to the roles and rituals that define them as chattels.

It is also the right and privilege and yes, even duty, of people who immigrate to Canada to maintain their homeland virtues while adopting to what likes to think of itself as a modern democracy.

My family did just that. Coming from Russia at the turn of the last Century, we spoke English on the street, mostly Yiddish in the house, went to both public schools and synagogue and somehow straddled the old and the new, making subtle shifts and compromises of one kind or another as we went along. Canadians, but Jews. Jews and Canadians. Nowhere did we identify ourselves as "Russian-Jewish Canadians." Who knew from hyphens?

All of this has come to mind now that the mother, father and brother of a family in Kingston have been charged with the murder of three of their daughters and their "auntie," who it turns out is actually the first barren wife of the accused father.

The more you read about this case - and it is in all your newspapers and websites - and the more you realize that there is a very strong chance that this is about ancient religious beliefs and practices, the more you ask yourself about our immigration processes.

Do we really ask anything of anyone? Do we point out that killing your daughter because she is dating some drip about whom you don't approve just isn't a "go" in this neck of the woods. That no young women would get past the age of 14 if we succumbed to these sentiments and rationalized dreadful behaviour with holy writ?

I suppose people have the right to sail down Broadway on a hot summer day disguised as a drifting tent or anything else they fancy.

But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Pressing Engagements

The bridge gang is about to arrive. The coffee is perking and the cards are on the table.

Tomorrow - The Rideau Canal murder case: 4 women, old world values...and Judge Braidwood's recommendations on Tasers.

Stay Tuned.