Saturday, January 16, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Mystery Challenge of the Day
"We need to need to find out exactly what led to this child ingesting methadone."
One would laugh at this idiocy if it weren't so pathetic and tragic.
A 23-month old girl has died in a Nova Scotia hospital about a week after swallowing the synthetic narcotic methadone in her rural New Brunswick home.
Methadone is the deadly six-times-more-addictive-than-heroin drug used and misused and abused by doctors and pharmacists and city councils and ultimately heroin addicts.
These mistaken sorry folks believe, as children believe in Santa, that using methadone will somehow improve the life of a heroin addict.
Hahahaha...
I'm laughing and crying.
I've been laughing and crying at this monstrosity of perverted public thinking for 40 years now.
So how did that poor innocent child get hold of the poison that killed her?
I'll tell you how.
Her mother or father or more likely grandparent or court-assigned guardian is a heroin user/abuser.
The child's primary care giver is a dope fiend.
Calling people dope fiends these days is considered disrespectful.
Forget that that is what dope fiends call themselves and forget that dope fiends respect no one, least of all themselves, let alone, god protect them, their helpless children.
So the child's dope fiend primary care giver has whined and kvetched to his or her "case worker" that he or she can't quit using and abusing.
No prob.
We just happen to have handy this nifty supply of government sanctioned dope substitute.
We call it methadone.
(Psst...Secretly we believe that if these idiot users will just swallow this other drub, then they'll stop breaking into our homes and cars and stealing all our good stuff, like our blue tooth and blue ray and blue balls.)
(Of course, that really works.
'Cause the numbers of dope fiends breaking into our homes and cars has really bottomed out...NOT!)
The only thing is we're supposed to give out the methadone at a clinic or hospital or even at the local pharmacy, but sometimes the timing is not convenient, eh, or we're closed on the weekend, right, so like we just have to trust our dope fiend customers that they'll be like responsible with this shit when they take it home, ok?
Right.
Like that's going to happen.
Mystery solved.
Everyone in the chain is to blame.
The local government and provincial government and federal government who have sanctioned this horror show are to blame.
The doctors, nurse and pharmacists who play with this dynamite are to blame.
The addict is to blame.
The addict is a stoned junkie.
What's everyone else's excuse?
Who gets charged with murder?
First, Take. Then, Give Only politics could be this backwards
Perhaps this is an old political trick.
Or maybe it really is a case of a political team waking up (somewaht) to present realities.
In any case, B.C. Finance Minister has removed a bit of the HST sting today, announcing about $235 Million in relief rebates for schools and hospitals.
Hey, it's a start...
Afternoon Blog
I must dash out of the house first thing this morning for two meetings.
Thus, I will post today's blog in the early afternoon.
Stay tuned...
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Wrong Investments
No story more clearly illustrates the Campbell government than the one I meant to post yesterday.
Being a 2000-year old man, I got caught up in other matters (The Lady and the Library really had me going...) and I plain forgot.
Here is the story.
Victoria promised money to build a maritime centre in North Vancouver. This would replace the hopelessly inadequate Maritime Museum currently languishing on Kits Point.
For those who continue to live in the Popsicle delusion that this is a city fueled by latter and real estate, surprise.
We are a port.
Potash and compact cars, that's who we are, kids.
So, a multi-purpose centre on the waterfront that celebrates our very nature and offers educational, historical, archival, entertainment, shopping and dining opportunities is a no-brainer.
uh...
That is if you're not putting all of your eggs into a 12 day event in one February, and anything that's left over into a new Teflon roof for your stadium.
With much fanfare, including a 2008 announcement by Premier Gordon Campbell, the province put up $9-million in funding, and was expected to contribute an additional $20-million to $25-million in capital costs for the 110,000-square-foot centre.
The federal government pledged $20-million in funding, contingent on provincial support.Kiss that goodbye.
“I was afraid something like this would happen, given that it had been taking so long,” said James Delgado, president and CEO of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology based in Bodrum, Turkey.
“[I'm] heartsick, absolutely heartsick.”
Delgado, who was one of the best people we have ever had plying these local waters, left because he saw the handwriting on the wall years ago.
Jim was Executive Director of the Maritime Museum. He was also a wonderful writer, world-famous deep sea diver and relentless booster for Vancouver.
We lost his terrific energy because of this kind of short-sightedness.
Did you know that in the basement of the current Museum are actual relics from the Titanic?
I've seen them, but that's because I've bothered to go down there.
Me and 12 other people in the last 20 years.
So...back to Gorgeous Gord.
The priorities are clear and unmistakable.
Billions for the Big O, which used to mean something else altogether.
But when it comes to the relative lunch money for something that truly speaks of Vancouver and British Columbia heritage, the cupboard is bare.
Let's just rename the fellow Short Stick Gord.
Long-Term Solutions for Haiti
The Haiti disaster is horrifying and the rescue and relief responses are encouraging.
But Haiti has long been a hideous nightmare.
Will the Have Nations now truly do what they can to help lift these poor souls into a new life?
I cannot write any more clearly about this necessity than the editorial writers have today in the Globe, or the guest columnists have in their piece.
Please read both. They are important and spot on.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
None Other Than Us
Who is Jean Kavanagh, and where did she study civics?
Oh, that's right.
Sorry, I forgot.
We don't teach civics in Canadian schools.
Why would we want children to know anything about government or power or money or voting or citizens' rights or...hush, now...democracy?
Jean Kavanagh, it turns out, is the marketing and communications manager for VANOC.
And a bang-up job she is doing, alright.
All on her own precious initiative, Kavanagh has sent a memo out to libraries and librarians in Vancouver warning them, no less, that they mustn't display anything with a logo of a company that is not an official Olympic sponsor.
In her advanced state of wisdom, Kavanagh has defended this action by saying it is NOT censorship.
I guess because she says so.
But Alex Youngberg, president of the library union, says the memo is contrary to the spirit of a public library. "There's something in my library to offend everybody," she said. "And that's our job. Our job as library staff is to not ever censor any information."
Here are the remedial steps I recommend.
Fire this fascist fool.
Send all VANOC immediately into a crash course on the real meanings of civic responsibility.
Ask for 500-word essays from everyone on democracy on the street in an actual living community.
If this is Kavanagh's idea of creative marketing and communications, I suggest she will be most comfortable working in a college environment, where I have learned that people have very little idea of these concepts and very little touch with the great expansive outer world.
On the same day, John Furlong, main beater of the VANOC drum, is entreating the good burghers of Vancouver to get with the program and get onside and get happy.
We should welcome this kind of Kavanagh-thinking?
No thanks.
Heroes, Reconsidered
Yesterday, I wrote in this space about the un-necessity of having heroes.
On the other hand...
There is Miep Gies.
She died this week at the age of 100.
She was the last of Anne Frank's four protectors.
She was an ordinary woman who only did what she thought was right.
God willing, may we all be so ordinary.
The Strongman of Coney Island
Joe Rollino died yesterday while taking his daily five mile walk.
He was 104 years old.
He was struck by a van.
He was small, but one of the strongest men who ever lived.
Read this obit from the NY Times and marvel at a real character.
The Old Folks
This lovely photo is part of a large collection of elderly couples in China sent to me by one of my very dearest friends.
I post it as accompaniment to the Jacques Brel song offered below.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
No Heroes Please
I was never a great listener to Talk Radio.
I like music. End of story.
Since leaving the world of Talk Radio, I have listened to almost zero minutes.
I like music.
But, of late, if I am in the car in the morning, I will tune in to The Jim Rome Show or Dan Patrick in the early afternoon.
Last night coming home from dinner at a restaurant, I heard someone else's show. I am sorry but I don't know the fellow's name. He was very good at engaging with callers.
The subject, of course, was the amazing (both of my forked tongues are in all of my cheeks) revelation from Mark McGwire that he set his Major League Baseball records while on...yes, shocking, I know...steroids. AAArrgggghhhhhh.
Yes, Mark. We are all blown away by this confession.
So, a caller calls up the radio show and he does this monologue about heroes.
What is he going to do about his six-year old daughter and her apparent God-given need and right to have heroes?
What, indeed, knucklehead from Tallahassee, Florida.
This conundrum brings to mind the old therapy saw that "we are trying to stop thinking of ourselves in terms of being the giant of our dreams or the monster of our nightmares."
Believing that your six-year old needs or will find heroes in professional sport is as much "stinkin' thinkin'" as embracing the tooth fairy and heroin.
What about you, Dad?
Might you consider being your child's hero? If, in fact, he or she needs one?
Of perhaps you might consider raising your child such that he or she becomes his or her own hero?
Or lives without the fantastical notion of heroes.
Below is a song by Marvin Gaye.
Marvin Gaye's teenage wife says that in their last years together - before he was shot and killed by his own father - that she and Marvin were "seriously addicted to drugs and alcohol."
There is no question that Gaye was a seriously gifted and fascinating man and musician.
Those who knew him well still feel the crush of love and disappointment that came with Gaye's descent into personal and public hell. They still care deeply about this man because of all the good that he brought with him.
But he was entirely a human being...good, bad and all things in between.
Hero?
I don't think so.
Mark Sluggo McGwire? He of the Popeye arms? Bad choice.
Tiger?
We can all learn from Tiger's fierce determination and above all preparation for his golf game. Apply that focus to almost any activity and you should be the better.
Well, almost any activity.
No.
Who am I to speak? Hardly the Father of the Year in any year.
But I say this.
Raise your kids to notice the world around them.
To appreciate and cherish so many things.
To be appalled by the appalling.
To laugh and to disagree and to find their own ways.
Be your own best version of a mother or father as often as you can remember to be.
NBA stars with guns. Rapper with guns. Singers, actors, football players on coke...
Get serious.
Because a guy can tackle another guy and send him to the hospital is hardly reason for your kid to call this one-note johnny a hero.
The paradigm needs some serious shifting.
The Costs of Learning
A friend has asked me to comment on the Harper government's cutting off funding for the Canadian Council on Learning.
I told him that I was yet qualified to offer an opinion because I didn't really have a good clear picture of what the CCL did to earn its $85 Million start-up grant.
Today, the Globe & Mail editorial tries to answer this question.
While I don't know that they've covered all the bases here, I tend to agreeing with their take on the matter.
Do you know anything about the CCL? Has it earned its keep? Will it?
Monday, January 11, 2010
Sshhhh...we're Canadians, Part 9,876,242
Roy MacGregor has tackled the prorogued Parliament story in his morning column in the Globe and he has managed to come up with two new twists:
1. Canadians prorogued Parliament on a permanent basis years ago. We just don't give a beaver's tail.
2. The worst governments we've ever had were the activist meddlers of Trudeau and Ryan Baloney.
The best we've ever had, like Chretien, did nothing.
Hahahaha...
It's an excellent read.
Not Quite Toscana
Economic realities are based on the exploitation of low-cost foreign labour, living in sub-human conditions without human rights.
What ugly evil regime is described in that first sentence?
Sorry to say that it is the lovely, sun-drenched buon giorno of Italy.
Millions of African workers pick that fresh fruit and vegetables everyone enjoys.
After weekend riots, thousands of these real human beings were jailed.
That may or may not be better living conditions than they already have in make-shift camps.
Meanwhile, Berlusconi's wife is looking for about $68 million in her divorce.
Guest Blogger, Victor, Takes on Sammy Kahn
Two questions come to mind as the notion that Canada's airports should
hire elite investigative observers instead of investing in scanning
technology gains momentum.
First, where would we find these people? After all, we're told by the
same media critics that the RCMP is hopelessly corrupt, our military
is in collusion with dark forces among the Afghanistan government and
CSIS was manipulated by Homeland Security in the Mahar Harar affair.
So if we are so hapless in creating competent, corruption free
investigative agencies, what makes us think we can do it in this case?
Second, will the Elite Investigative Observers spend equal time
peering into the eyes and smelling the sweat of all passengers?
Remember, this is multi-culty Canada and if these security officers
spend a nano second more peering into the eyes of a turbaned passenger
than they do checking out the 60 year old white Anglican grandmother,
the CBC and the usual quote monkeys from the Civil Liberties industry
will go into full dudgeon.
The whole concept of Canada creating an effective corps of Elite
Investigative Observers is in keeping with our propensity to wallow in
our own fables. Which prompts a song:
SONG FOR ELITE INVESTIGATIVE OBSERVERS (EIO)
Transport Canada trained some guys
Ei Ei O
To rudely peer in travelers' eyes
Ei Ei O
With a stare stare here
And a leer leer there
Here a stare there a leer
Equal leering have no fear
Transport Canada trained some guys
Ei Ei O (shit)
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