A Comment that Deserves its Own Post

[The PHOTO is of Ephesus, and it comes from my friend, Maurice.]


What is worse is that public libraries are getting HIGHER USE during this recession.

People who have had their wages/hour cut at work (or who have lost their jobs altogether) have less money to spend.

They try to save a few $'s by frequenting the library to borrow books, dvds, and even video games.

They attend the "story times' for their children. They attend book readings and lectures.

Job seekers even utilize the resources at the library to help them in their career change or job search.

This is the time to INCREASE funding to the libraries, not decrease it.

BTW - David, you didn't mention it in this blog posting, but could you have a word about the Conservatory and the Stanley Park Petting Zoo.

I recently took my children to the Conservatory and, as usual, was happy to have an inexpensive, non-commercialized place to bring the kids on a cold day. The kids were pointing out birds, fish, plants and trees. After, as there was a break in the rain, we walked around the quarry gardens. It was a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours (and cost less than $10 for two adult admissions to the Conservatory itself). Not many places that we can go for an enjoyable outing for that kind of money.

Of course, because of the fiasco surrounding the Cambie Line, business dropped off for the Conservatory for a few years there. Now that the Cambie Line is complete, the Conservatory could be getting more people (individuals, families, school groups, seniors group and tourist groups) and more facility rentals, thus getting higher revenues.

As for the Petting Zoo, accessible transit has FINALLY been provided to Stanley Park (the #19 Stanley Park bus was not accessible until a couple of years ago). Families often had trouble getting here (if they didn't drive). Coupled with the Stanley Park Train, the Petting Zoo was another enjoyable outing for families.

I guess the needs of residents (especially families with young kids) just isn't on the radar of this city council

To voice protest, write the city at

mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca

I have already written my letter.

Billboard

Mark Leiren-Young's latest effort continues on all cylinders.

Check it oooooouuutt!

Energy Plus

Caught bits and pieces of "Walk the Line" again on TV last night.

Reese Witherspoon won the Oscar for Best Actress in 2006 for her role as June Carter Cash and, given, the peculiar choices that year, it was well deserved.

Joaquin Phoenix lost out to Philip Seymour Hoffman, who pretty much had the award to himself the moment "Capote" was released.

And Phoenix is pretty darn good in all of the dialogue scenes. From moment to moment, shy, determined, crushed, enraged, addicted, desperate and so on.

But...

When he straps that guitar on and leans into a microphone some alchemy beyond explanation takes place.

He is utterly transformed and imbued with a wild, deranged beautiful energy.

The performance and concert scenes are astonishing.

What is so strange is that this is exactly what happened with Jamie Foxx in his Oscar-winning performance in "Ray."

Both movies are rather pedestrian. Predictable and formulaic music star biopics.

But in both cases, the two actors get hit by a bug when they take on the music.

And in both cases the result is electric every time you watch.

I mean electric.

Last night, I kept switching over to some other movie or the news or whatever during the expository dramatic scenes.

As soon as the singing came back on, I was there, whooping it up and with tears in my eyes.

Go back to these two flicks for a helluva good Saturday Night time.

Inspired Performance

Wake Up Call

The Canadian Soldier Coming in From the Cold

Do you admire the Canadian Forces?

Are you pleased to see our men and women in uniform on the streets?

More and more Canadians would say, "Yes," to both of these questions.

There was a time not very long ago when the Canadian Soldier was very much at the bottom of the ladder.

That perception and the acceptance that comes with it is changing dramatically.

Michael Valpy has written a fascinating piece today examining this shift and our "embracing of the warrior culture."

Particularly interesting was the following:

"Warriors were the centrepiece attraction at a black-tie dinner titled True Patriot Love held in Toronto on Nov. 10, organized by some of the city's super-wealthy with $750-a-head tickets and an auction that raised more than $1-million for Mr. Hillier's Military Families Fund."

Could that have been possible even 10 years ago? I don't think so.

Very few people want war.

Some do, but that's another story.

Few of us want war, but most of us realize the cold reality of a harsh and often hostile world.

There are real dangers and it is our necessity to have a well-equipped and honorable and honored standing fighting force.

We needn't blindly worship these men and women. Nor should we revile them or diminish them, as we too often have in the recent past.

One of the worst and dumbest faces of a week-kneed liberalism - that can only flourish in the safety and luxury of a peaceful social order - is the citizenry who scoffs at its military.

These comments are not a reflection on foreign policy or an excuse for not asking for the same transparency from the military that we demand from other government offices.

Costs of Recovery

Wendy Stueck has written an excellent and compelling report in today's Globe about the Burnaby Centre for Mental health and Addictions.

She argues persuasively that the Centre is doing some truly good work in helping some hard case people to get clean and sober.

I admire their efforts and cheer them on.

But there is a small catch.

The cost per bed per annum at this facility is in excess of $125, 000.

Critics of treatment often charge that treatment is too expensive.

My first response is I am happy to pay whatever it takes to do this difficult and necessary work.

But I add this.

The Behavioural Health Foundation in Manitoba is doing exactly the same work with better demonstrable results for $50,000 per bed per annum.

BHF is the oldest and leading Therapeutic Community in Canada.

Other TC's in Canada operate on similarly smaller budgets than the Burnaby Centre.

They are able to do this because they use so many recovering addicts as staff.

Praise the Burnaby Centre, but note that less can be more.

The Sponsorship Scandal - Quiet Please

I copy herein in full the Globe story of the crook who wept and gnashed his teeth at his sentencing yesterday.

I add that we are not moved.

DANIEL LEBLANC

OTTAWA — From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009 12:00AM EST Last updated on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009 3:11AM EST

Adman Gilles-André Gosselin had the gall at the time of the sponsorship program to frequently charge taxpayers for more than 24 hours of work in a single day.

The move was part of a systematic attempt to squeeze every penny out of federal contracts, even if it meant making up timesheets and fake invoices.

For his crimes against taxpayers, whom he defrauded of $655,000, a sobbing Mr. Gosselin was sent to a federal prison yesterday to serve a sentence of two years plus a day.

His lawyer said Mr. Gosselin, 62, is bankrupt and suffers from depression, heart problems and sleep apnea.

Madam Justice Lise Maisonneuve took those factors into account, but she insisted on a jail sentence, saying the one-time journalist was educated and well aware that he was committing fraud as president of his advertising firm from 1997 to 2000.

Mr. Gosselin said little during the 11/2-hour hearing, except to plead guilty at the start and to express remorse at the end.

"I'm sorry, I apologize," he said in tears, unable to add anything else.

Mr. Gosselin's firm, Gosselin Strategic Communications, was a major player in the sponsorship program, overseeing federal visibility at 500 events that received government funding.

He made $4-million from 1997 to 2000, but his remuneration was obtained in part through the submission of 81 fake invoices to Public Works Canada.

The court heard yesterday that Mr. Gosselin had instructed his staff to overcharge the government to maximize his company's revenues.

On the Dial

One of the best things on television these days isn't on television, it's about television.

So why isn't someone televising it?

The CRTC hearings over the dogfight between the broadcasters and the cable companies is a laugh riot and filled with great quotes day after exasperating day.

But Jim Shaw gets the award with the following addressed to Ivan Fecan, the president of CTV Globemedia:

“You're the CEO of CTV. You're owned by the richest family in Canada, and yet you've never, ever come and seen me … never, ever come to Calgary,” he said of Mr. Fecan, whose company also owns The Globe and Mail. “You can't even get your arse on a plane and come out and see me. Come on.”

Shaw has said that he is tired, very tired, and Konrad von Finkenstein, the CRTC chair says that he is sick.

Between them, they are sick and tired.

Hahahaha...

"Good morning, Sicken Tired. How may I direct your call?"

If they think they are sick and tired, try being an average popcorn consumer of Canadian Cable TV and paying a fortune for Seinfeld reruns.

War Stories

One story has utterly dominated this morning's Globe.

It is on the front page. It is the main subject of the editorial and the editorial cartoon and the op ed and the letters to the editor.

The story is this.

Richard Colvin, a Canadian diplomat, has testified that our soldiers in Afghanistan turned over prisoners to the Afghan knowing full well that the prisoners would be tortured.

At first glance, nothing seems very surprising about such an admission.

But the reaction from the government - our government - and from some observers is amazing.

This horrible "whistleblower" must be lying, claims Defense Minister Peter MacKay.

Huh?

Why?

Why would Colvin make up this tale?

And what could be more ordinary in the course of war, murder and mayhem than the torturing of prisoners?

This is new? This is news?

Why the hysterical denials?

The man was giving testimony to a House of Commons hearing. Does he have some secret and dangerous agenda?

Or is the government of the day just being plain old silly?

On the other hand...

If you want to really learn something about the realities in Afghanistan, read the piece on Malalai Joya, (pictured above) an Afghan woman and writer and activist. Here you will find more of the hard and simple truths.

Your Library Card is Running Out

Watch for library cuts across the city.

City hall wants the Public Library to trim close to $1.5 million from its budget.

Shorter hours, fewer staff, closing of some branches altogether.

Now, that $1.5 million is juts about the exact equal to what this gang of fools spent on the famous bike lane nonsense on Burrard Bridge.

As a friend said yesterday as we were crossing the bridge in the dark and the rain, "It was all symbolic."

I had just commented that the Bikes on Burrard issue was neither good nor bad. It was simply a waste of tax money.

The truth is that car traffic has been barely changed and that bike traffic has been barely changed.

So what was it all about?

Pretty Boy Floyd told his pedal constituency that he'd do this thing, so he did.

Whoop-atee-ay-oh.

Now, libraries - that's another matter completely.

To me, a public library system is one of the first signs of a civilized state.

The Toronto Public Library, main downtown branch, for example, is much loved by locals and deservedly so.

I seem to be one of the few people who really likes our main library downtown.

More importantly, I want to see all public libraries in all neighbourhoods open 7 days a week and for long hours.

I'm happy as a taxpayer to fund this commitment to lifelong learning.

City hall is, as usual, an ass.

Attenzione, si prega...

I must leave early Wednesday morning on an assignment and I won't get back until Thursday evening.

Ergo, non blogismentis.

Hope to be back in full dish Friday a.m.

Best wishes to all and to all a good night...

Clarity

It was sad to see Tim Shields, the local RCMP spokesman, hiding behind a false claim on the supper hour news last night.

"Privacy."

That's the mantra being used by the police these days when they want to excuse not letting people see what they have done.

They want to protect the privacy of the guy who died in their care.

Right.

Clayton Alvin Willey died of a heart attack in 2003 several hours after police knocked him to the ground, hog-tied him, kicked him in the chest, pepper sprayed him and used a taser on him repeatedly.

What the RCMP is doing in cases like this - and there are far too many in recent days - is misusing some one's right to privacy to shield themselves from investigation.

According to all reports, Mr. Willey, no matter how restrained or injured he was, just kept on fighting.

Now, I have seen such situations and they are not pretty and I can understand the police trying to do their job.

But the police have to understand that they must be clear and transparent and accountable to the citizens for whom they work and who they try every day to serve.

Show the evidence, gentlemen, and man up.

Celebrity

Yesterday, Oprah's guest was Sarah Palin.

Today, a porn star.

Palin is everywhere these days. She had a "book published."

I put that phrase in quotes because it will be hard to imagine anything coming from this idiot as resembling a book, or that someone other than a horse trader bothered to publish it.

Did I mention that Sarah Palin is an idiot?

She is also dangerous.

The fact that half the population of the U.S. takes anything coming from Palin's tiny corner seriously is frightening.

This woman has never had a thought that wasn't lonely. She functions in cliches and shop-worn non-ideologies.

She is ignorant of most of the world.

Of course, Bush didn't have a passport until he was elected President.

How many ways can the central idea of democracy be misunderstood?

Even Better Quote of the Day

It wasn't love that was visiting Calgary last weekend.

Swastikas and slogans including “kill Jews” and “6 million more” were spray-painted on a Holocaust War Memorial, the Calgary Jewish Centre and mailboxes, signs and fences in the southwest neighbourhoods of Pump Hill and Woodbine overnight Saturday.

Now the local police have to decide if these are hate crimes.

Hm...touch one.

Well, let's give them a little hint,

It ain't an MGM musical, kids.

However, the best response came from Stephen Harper:

“Anti-Semitism is a disease of the soul; its odious manifestations, in any form and however rare, can never be tolerated in Canada.”

Quote of the Day

In the ridiculous mock war between the TV boredcasters and the cable and satellite exhibitors, the simple issue has always been who gets to haul in more consumer dollars.

Now that they are facing the CRTC, it is marvelous to hear the CTRC chairman, Konrad von Finckenstein lambaste both sides for their histrionics.

“I don't know why you two don't realize it's in your long-run interests to come to some solution – rather than scaring the daylights out of Canadians.”

911 for the 911

It is not often that I feel the direct impact of a labour dispute.

But the current struggle between Ambulance drivers and paramedics and the B.C. Government has me a little worried.

It was only a few months ago that I dialled 911.

Within minutes, the whole gang was in my kitchen, and only a few minutes later, I was in a bed at VGH.

The response from these dedicated and knowledgeable workers was terrific.

Now, as they have been legislated back to work, they are running a series of work stoppages that has severely limited the number of vehicles and personnel on the road.

The public is being urged to call 911 only in the most dire emergencies.

The first thing that tells me is that in ordinary practice many people are calling for ambulance services when they should not.

If people are being told to visit a walk-in clinic or their local bones, they must be casually using 911 frivolously.

This is not something I had ever before considered, but why should I be surprised?

Now...

If anybody, any worker or group of workers is fighting with the B.C. Government about almost anything, my natural sympathies will lie immediately with the workers.

And so in this case, I support the paramedics pleas for a better contract. They do great, life-saving work and they should be appropriately compensated.

I just wish they could find a way to drive home their arguments without scaring the living beejazus outta me.

The Prize

As proof positive that the world is completely mad, we offer some recently announced and conferred awards:

1. Martin Scorsese will be honored with the Cecil B DeMille Award for lifetime achievement at the Golden Globes next year.

It is true that Scorsese made Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, two brilliant iconic movies.

And then?

The aptly named "The Departed" won the Best Picture Oscar. I departed the movie theatre with 40 minutes left to run. Months later, I asked a group of people who were standing around talking about it (Why?) who killed whom at the end.

The answer was, "Everybody."

If that wasn't the most execrable movie ever made, then certainly "Gangs of New York" was. I walked out of that just after Daniel Day Lewis threw an axe into someone's back.

Scorsese is obsessed with bloody violence and macho posing.

He is absolutely a fine craftsman and knows film as well as anybody ever has.

The Howard Hughes bio? Yawn, goodnight.

Unfortunately, he makes unwatchable drivel.

2. The man who was drug czar for the City of Vancouver is being given an award from a delusional group in the Excited States. They feel that this creep, who helped create and open Insite and has openly said repeatedly that "treatment doesn't work," has put Vancouver right at the apex of leadership in responding to drug issues.

These geniuses should try living here for five minutes.

They are also awarding the nutty German psychiatrist at UBC who is giving a handful of heroin addicts free heroin. Cost about $8,000,000 a year. Nuff said.

3. And then, of course, there is the dullest bore in broadcasting who was recently given a Lifetime Achievement Award for reading off his question sheet and never looking at his guests. Hahahaha...

By the way, one of the stations that still pays His Dullness has recently fired one of its longest running and popular hosts to accept $100,000 a year in fees from a rival broadcaster to air programs on their own home signal. Possibly a first in the history of broadcasting and the clearest possible example of living by the Bottom Line.

Who knew that the Bottom was so far down?

'Tis Wonderland, kids.

Whole Lotta Sheikhin' Goin' On

Can a war criminal or terrorist or soldier be tried in a civilian court?

Should he?

Can such person get "a fair trial?"

Can justice - whatever that may be - be served?

How?

Can the confession of a man who has been tortured be believed or accepted.

These are big questions and they are all thrown on the table as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and friends are brought to New York City to face charges on killing more than 3,000 people in one horrible moment, now known a 9/11.

Every paper in the world has covered this story today.

The Globe and Mail's is as good as any other, I suppose.

Read it, and tell us what you think of this.

Simple "off with his head" comments won't cut it, so to speak...

Speaking Out

British novelist, Martin Amis, has become a lightening rod in recent months cheering for feminism and jeering against radical Islam.

His interview with Margaret Wente is a tiny gem.

One quick great quote:

" We have also infantilized ourselves with a whole generation of relativism."

Half an hour of driving your car in the city can pretty well confirm that observation.