TWEETY TWO

Historic American Moment

You can read the coverage of yesterday's health care decision in Washington in the New York Times or the Washington Post.

But no one wrote it up any clearer or better than the Globe's Konrad Yakabsuki:

The passage by the House of Representatives of Mr. Obama's $940-billion (U.S.) overhaul of the health-care system ranks with the 1935 creation of Social Security and the 1965 advent of Medicare as a milestone that will change the face and character of this country.

Presidents since Harry Truman have aspired to put the United States on the path to universal health insurance for all of its citizens, only to be out-manoeuvred by lobbyists and politicians who exploited Americans' innate suspicion of government to win the day.

That Mr. Obama got farther than all of them – farther than Kennedy, Nixon, Ford or Clinton – assures him of a legacy that only weeks ago seemed in doubt. It also infuses his presidency with a burst of renewed potential to build on.

It is discouraging that this struggle became so ugly, so partisan, so personal.

In the end, the vote hinged on Obama's promise to sign an executive order that would ban federal funding for abortion.

In spite of that, one rabid enthusiast managed to holler out "baby killer" during the debate.

The Republicans - unwilling to consider their nearly 50 million uninsured neighbours - referred to this bill as Obama Care and the vitriol spilled forth both in public and private places.

The cost of health care is double that of other Western nations with considerably less positive results and deliveries of service - unless, of course, you have the loot to pay for the best attention.

The President had moments ago to also abandon any hope of what was being called "the public option."

Americans, with their long-bred - and often admirable and healthy - streaks of individualism and dislike of big government simply cannot see their way to anything that would resemble that health care porgrams that define Canada, France and Great Britain, among others.

This enormous - admittedly flawed - step is a great triumph for citizens.

It is also a huge triumph for the President.

On both scores, I say, "Good on you!"

Visitor

It is not often that we see a new thing.

This morning I saw a new thing.

A little bird - I think it's a junco - kept repeatedly flying off the pine tree in my front yard and onto a tiny sill on my bedroom window.

It would tap on the window several times and then flit off.

Only to return moments later and repeat this hopeless gesture.

What?

Food?

Reproduction?

Warmth?

Choo-Choo-Chaboogie

You the know the cute little ferry boats that ply the False Creek waters between Granville Island and the rest of the known world?

There are two separate companies operating these. One has blue hulled boats and the other rainbow stripes.

Both were born just prior to Expo 86 and they have been thriving ever since, including expanding dock locations the outer reaches of Yaletown and the Science World.

What is important to remember at this juncture is that when these small businesses were first proposed, the sitting City Council scoffed.

"What do we need that for?"

Deja vu, baby.

Vancouver says goodbye to Olympic streetcar

Here's the central problem and what makes it all wrong for us:

It is apparently "very efficient, very clean, very fast."

Well, why the heck would we want that?

City staff have suggested it would cost $90-million in capital costs to buy cars, build a works yard and take other measures to make the streetcar permanent.

I don't believe that.

Do you?

The thing runs every six minutes less than 2 k and we already have one or two cars.

What do they need? An occasional lube 'n oil job?

There has got to be another story lurking in the salal here.

Vat is it, mein schatz?

Tweet Tweet Tweet

To all my good fwends and fowowers...

Please note the little Tweety Bird off the the right hand margin.

This is to advise that you can now fowow me on Twitter.

My new Twitter account is called "BernerSpeaks."

If you are not alweady on my maiwing wist, you can cwick onto Twitter and sign up for reguwa notices about my daiwy bwog.

Wait for It

My Favorite Movie of All Time

I DESERVE EVERYTHING! BACK OFF!

First we had The Age of Enlightenment.

Doesn't that seem galaxies away?

For now, it is all The Age of Entitlement.

Look at this pompous ass.

His name is Jean-Pierre Blackburn and he is your National Minister of Veterans Affairs.

God save us.

Here's his headline:

Tequila tantrum adds to Tory woe

Blackburn tried to board a recent flight with a bottle of booze in his hand.

Airport security stopped him.

He freaked.

Hey! I'm somebody! I have an office! Fax machines! Cell phones!

The press quotes me!

I eat in the Parliamentary dining room!

Blackburn is the second federal minister of recent days to pull the same stunt.

Helena Guergis, your Minister of State for Women, went postal in the Charlottetown airport in February.

Are these people mad?

I had security at Gatwick last month go through every little tissue and notebook in my shoulder bag.

I was mute.

This is the best policy around airport security.

Always has been, but especially these days.

However...

I am not a Minister of Cups and Saucers, or Minister of State for Bacon & Eggs.

I do not feel entitled to break all the other rules that apply apparently to those other little people - as great and wonderful and unique as we can all agree I may be.

I do not ride my motor scooter through city parks, talk on my cell while driving or scream up snowy mountainsides in my over-revved lawn mower.

I am a good boy.

I am only entitled to my tiny fair share of the world.

Except, of course, on Wednesdays, when I go completely mad and ask for service at a store somewhere in Canada.

The Columns

On a day of little news that grabs me, I find solace in two consistently good Globe & Mail writers.

1. Christie Blatchford finds her neighbours busy renovating. Unfortunately so does the City of Toronto and so do all the pesky other neighbours.

In this modern urban tale, we get a taste of how the social compact has become the Home of the Busy Bodies.

Add a sundeck to your house? Raise the roof?

Just who the hell do you think you are, Buster?

Blatchford invokes the ghost of Jane Jacobs and wonders how will all find peace in our own back yards.

2. Konrad Yakabuski charts the final push for Obama's health care reforms. Yakabuski spells out the grave stakes with all the numbers and all the melodrama that is at hand.

I hope the President gets the votes he needs and passes this bill. As short and compromised as this legislation may be, it is something and it is necessary and it is way past due.

Something Wonderful Comes

1. The Three Tenors in Caracalla

Long before the Three Tenors and their handlers embarrassed themselves and everyone around them with one quirky show after another in football stadia around the globe, there was the original concert in Rome.

On a typical 159 channels-with-nothing-to-watch evening recently, I came across the first 1990 concert of Knowledge.

Wow!

A spectacular setting on a gorgeous night.

At least twice, conductor Zubin Mehta looked absolutely transfixed by first one singer and then another. He seemed to stare in disbelief that someone could produce such beautiful sound and such powerful emotion.

2. Nixon in China

The Vancouver Opera's production of the John Adams opera, "Nixon in China" was fantastic.

The physical presentation was innovative and spectacular, often fooling us with stage tricks and misdirection.

The music and the singing and acting were sensational.

This is not for your average Puccini-Verdi fan.

This is ultra, ultra, ultra Philip Glass-like modern music and it takes a moment or two to get used to its own natural sound.

The video below is not the Vancouver production.

3. David in Venice

People often expect great reports from me when I come back from 3 weeks in Italy, as I did on March 2nd.

But the truth us...I often don't do much of anything.

Other than walk and gawk and drink coffee and read books.

In the evenings, I'm having dinner with friends, old and new.

Pretty exciting, yes?

Not really.

But always rejuvenating.

Always a fresh outlook on things.

Always the old Stones of Venice bring clarity and new ideas.

Nixon in China - The John Adams Opera

The Original Concert at Caracalla

A Most Dangerous Man

Many of us cherish the belief that Psychiatrists are among the craziest and most dangerous class of people in society.

I appreciate that this is an unhealthy categorical thinking that could be construed as "hate."

Or just a gentle warning to always listen carefully.

Today's example is chilling.

Psychiatrist says Greyhound bus killer could be released inside of 5 years

WINNIPEG — The man behind one of the most shocking violent crimes in recent memory is responding well to psychiatric treatment and could be released from custody in just a few years.

Vince Li stabbed, decapitated and dismembered 22-year-old Tim McLean in front of nearly three dozen horror-stricken witnesses on board a Greyhound bus outside Portage la Prairie, Man., in July 2008.

Li was suffering from untreated schizophrenia and psychotic delusions at the time.

Li was found not criminally responsible during his trial in March 2009. A provincial panel ruled ten months ago that the Chinese immigrant must be confined indefinitely under heavy security at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre.

Dr. Stanley Yaren, Li's original psychiatrist, said Monday that his former patient is making good progress in treatment — and could be released into the community in a matter of years.

"It's really a guess," Yaren said. "But I'm going to say a time frame within five years is not unrealistic.

"Relatively speaking, his response to treatment . . . has been better than average, somewhat faster than usual."

Here is my question.

Is there any possible explanation for how completely out of touch this psychiatrist is with reality?

Is there any possible explanation for how this psychiatrist is allowed to continue to practice?

Violent Young Offenders

Yesterday, we were babbling in this space about the Federal Government's considerations to let the public know the names and faces of violent young offenders, and the raising of such violent young offenders to adult court.

Today, the poster boy for this initiative appears.

The currently unnamed suspect (He was 17 darling years at the time of the offences - last year.) had been spending his free time drawing swastikas and the words "kill Jews" on mailboxes, synagogues and war memorials for Holocaust survivors.

For this he is being charged with mischief and "hate-related" charges.

Mischief.

I am a Jew.

I would like to know this sweet fellow's name.

I want to see his photo.

I want to know when to cross the street or grab a brick.

His "rights" are being protected by some perversion of bad thinking and legislation.

And my rights?

Open Court

TV cameras in BC courts?

By all means.

Bring it on.

B.C. Attorney-General Mike de Jong says he would like to see cameras in the province's civil and criminal courts with a pilot project as soon as this fall.

“The justice system belongs to people that it is designed to serve and who pay for it,” said Mr. de Jong, who practised criminal and matrimonial law for six years before entering politics. “I am also very concerned about what I see is a growing disconnect between the justice system and the people,” he said yesterday in an interview.

There are those who are opposed, suggesting with some good sense that the players will begin playing...to the cameras that is.

This may be what comes to pass, but it is a small price for more transparency.

Of course, this being Canerda, we are looking at a "pilot project."

God forbid anyone in office should ever just make a decision and get behind it.

Unless, of course,m it means more tax revenue.

BIdness

1. Are we surprised that Blockbuster is on the ropes?

Not really.

Netflicks, vending machines and Cable downloads of current hits have made your corner store look like log cabins.

I'm always surprised when I see that they're still open.

2. What does "branding" mean?

Check out the quarterly reports for Nike.

In spite of the Tiger Tale. profits have DOUBLED.

I don't know about you but I will drive another 10 blocks and endure more service indifference from non-existent clerks to avoid buying the swoosh.

Fortunately, the brand doesn't need meanies like me.

I remember a few days after the SUV crash seeing a middle-aged paunchy Chinese man in a Chinese restaurant wearing his sporty TW/NIke ball cap and thinking, "Like they've got something to worry about...right!"

Victor is Not an Obama Fan

Victor, whose comments are occasionally given free reign here, is my friend. We do not always agree on matters. This is such a case.

Ok, now I'm pissed.

I wonder how many of the Jewish glitterati who supported Obama are
surprised by his hard line on Israel. These glitterati included not
only the Hollywood types (Streisand, Geffen, Spielberg) but multi-
billionaires like Sergei Brin, co-owner of Google.

They made the assumption, I suppose, that a black president would be
empathetic to a minority like the Jews.

Damn, dumb fools. Not a month of street smarts among them. Not a week.

There is a strain of anti-Jewish sentiment among blacks that runs as
long and putrid as a piss stain on a wino's leg.

Remember Jessie Jackson's apology tour for his " Hymie" remarks.

Research Martin Luther King and savour his frequent and consistent
anti-Jewish rants. He hated Jews.

Understand, there are 250 million Moslems in Africa. Obama's dad was
born there.

I lived in Detroit when it burned in 67 and saw interviews with blacks
rejoicing about burning " Jew stores". Where did they come by that?
Well, I suppose that because Jews were a mercantile culture, they
opened a lot of small stores in the 19th and 20th centuries and had no
choice but to collect overdue bills from poor blacks buying shoes for
their kids. Would you want to have that conversation?

As for Obama, read carefully and think.

He is facing a close mid term election in November. He needs that
record black vote that got him elected.

Whether you like to think it or not, beating up on Jews, however
discreetly, scores well in some segments of the American black
community.

Yes, I know, Hillary and Joe Biden echoed Obama's views.

A liar and a jerk.

Hillary, in her memoir, said she was shocked, shocked (cue Claude
Rains) to discover Bill had cheated.

As for Biden, Google "Biden and gaffes" and be prepared to spend an
hour.

I have remained an Israeli hawk for decades. It's self interest. Jews
gather patents and Nobel prizes in amazing numbers. They advance
science and save lives far beyond their small numbers.

Is George Clooney really waiting for the next medical miracle from
Yemen?

Law & Order

Watch out, Kelowna.

The Cop Killer is coming to town.

Craig Munro, who shot and killed a police officer and let him bleed to death in 1980, has been denied parole from his life sentence, but he has been given instead a number of unescorted absences.

He killed the cop while he was out of prison on mandatory supervision.

Of course.

We trust that the RCMP in Kelowna will be keeping a close eye or two on Munro during his upcoming visits.

Now hold onto all of that scenario while we consider the fuss and bother being raised over the Harper government's moves to publicize the names of violent young offenders.

What is so amusing and so predictable is the name calling from those who oppose such a move.

Apparently, any of us who feel that a little taking of responsibility for one's actions - whether one is 14 or 40 - make us a unique sub-set of human Canadian beings.

We are the dreaded "Law and Order Crowd."

Oh.

Let me get my noose.

I don't know about you, kids, but I see laws being broken with complete pathological indifference every day and I don't like it.

That qualifies me for membership in the Law & Order Crowd apparently.

Yesterday, as my son and I took a walk after breakfast, we saw a young man barrel through a city park on a very nice electric motor scooter.

The bike was silent and interesting and the fellow was wearing a helmet.

But he was driving on a pedestrian pathway in a city park.

What does he care?

On the way to breakfast, there was a brief traffic tie-up with horns blaring.

A man in a van was talking on his cell phone and he was so completely distracted that he basically had stopped in the middle of Broadway.

Now if a 16 year old lunatic pummels someone to death, it seems reasonable to me that he or she be tried in adult court and that we the public see his or her miserable little face and learn his or her fabulous name.

But I guess for the sociologists of the world that makes me - and most of you - Pale Riders.

So be it.

And by the way...

Could the Parole Board please send me an email and let me know when Craig the Cop Killer is going to be in Kelowna so I can book elsewhere?

P.R. in Place of Substance

Solicitor-General Kash Heed may welcome the distraction of avalanches and debates about regulating mountain speed junkies.

At least all of that roar distracts the public from his measly token gift to the growing problems of family violence.

The numbers are up and they are huge and they are growing each year.

To date, this is how police in BC study domestic violence.

They take a short on-line training course.

Nice.

Thorough.

Human.

Engaging.

Kash to the rescue.

Almost 3 years after the Peter Lee murders in Victoria, Heed has announced a $250,000 fund to develop somethingorother.

$250,000?

In provincial spending...that's lunch money.

But let us not be too harsh on Mr. Heed.

We all know that the Holder of all Purses in British Columbia is the Premier.

A man deeply dedicated to matters of social justice.

What He Loves to Do

Tiger Woods may or may not win the Masters next month.

He may or may not win scads of future tournaments and, in time, supplant Nicklaus as the greatest all-time winner of majors.

But there is this certainty.

It will now be impossible to ever look at him again the way we did a year ago.

We know too much.

Way too much.

Tiger's friend, Mark O'Meara said this:

"...maybe the better palce to be is out on the golf course, that is what he loves to do."

Was O'Meara going out of his way to be funny?

That is what Tiger loves to do?

You mean in addition to serial sex with Bimbette of the Week?

I am not blaming Tiger or judging him.

I am saying that because of my own vivid imagination, watching Tiger from now on may be its own peculiar distraction.