SHAW TV EPISODE #4 - GEOFF PLANT/CASINOS

SHAW TV EPISODE #4 - GEOFF PLANT/CASINOS

HEADLINES...and what they mean

THE VERY REAL POSSIBILITY OF PARALLEL UNIVERSES

You may think this article in today's paper is about science and astronomy.

Wrong again, Uranus Breath.

It's actually about the great divide between citizens and politicians.

WAKING THE ZOMBIES

DERANGED

The greatest liar and mass murderer in Canadian history is appealing his sentence.

After serving a mere five years for building bombs that killed 331 people, Inderjit Singh Reyat was then found guilty of perjury and sentenced to nine more years in prison.

Mr. R. is appealing that sentence because he feels that it was"harsh and excessive."

Here stands before us the definition of a psychopath.

Goo Goo

B.C. Liberal Party president Mickey Patryluk called the addition of about 50,000 members since November "a clear signal of the enthusiasm that has been ignited by this leadership race."

This is pure politics and soap suds.

The sleeping masses have been going to work, having a beer, watching the game, having the occasional wrestle in the sheets and generally thinking about the local political scene about as much as they have been contemplating outer space.

What has brought about all these amazing new memberships is hundreds of volunteers making thousands of phone calls and other public disturbances.

This is called "tickling the baby."

Not to mention mass sign-ups of people who have been in BC for less than 3 years, don't speak either of the official languages of the country and wouldn't know a Falcon from a Dix.

UNKINDEST CUT

There is not much in public life that gets my approval.

But I am delighted to see the city fining people who cut down trees by the bushel, even trees in their own yard.

I understand a little trim here and there.

But I am at a complete loss to fathom why anyone would cut down big and beautiful and healthy trees in an urban area.

My friend Geoff lives on a small acreage on Salt Spring Island. The log house he and his family built with their own hands almost 40 years ago backs onto a bit of a forest. The air is magnificent. You can sense in every way the bounty of oxygen, and you are reminded how different is the air in town.

Today's story is about folks on Southwest Marine Drive performing what amounts to a massive clear cut just after being told by the city to stop.

I suppose when you live on SW Marine Drive you have the understandable illusion that you are above the ordinary rules.

Here is something that is even more puzzling.

Why are most of the city tree-cutters recent arrivals from China and India?

You would think that in countries where millions are crowded into cities a new environment with greenery abundant would be cherished.

Apparently not.

Be-Spoke

Marvelous op-ed in the Sun this morning by Rob Macdonald, CEO of Macdonald Development Corp. Macdonald is an avid cyclist and financially supports cycling events in Vancouver.

Yet he quite rightly and ripely tears into the stupidity of the Dunsmuir & Hornby Street bike lanes.

NATIONAL BASKET CASE

BELL wants to be a good citizen.

It supports February 9th as some kind of national mental health day.

The full page ad in the Globe today tells me so.

Unfortunately, it also tells me that "One in five Canadians suffers from mental illness."

This is not true.

There is no scientific or even pseudo-scientific evidence to support this absurd claim.

Think of all the people you know, the people you've met, the folks with whom you interact on a daily basis.

No doubt there are some among them who struggles with a mental illness.

But 1 in 5?

I don't think so.

Why are the so-called social sciences so slip-shod?

If you want me to support a worthy cause, try at least to give me some real and supportable documentation.

At the very least, give me a number that my good instincts can accept as reasonable.

GROUP GROPE

There are so many reasons that I have declined, over the years, to run for public office.

Privacy. Boring company. Tedious meetings, hearings.

But way up there at the top of the list is this reason:

Ethnic Voting.

I am interested in public policy, in what useful and helpful roles governments might have in the lives of the common weal.

The color of your skin, your choice of worship, your sexuality are completely none of my business and I don't want to hear about it, thanks.

If I were to run for office, I would not suddenly court "the Jewish vote." Or any other group that wants to claim special status to the exclusion of any other group that claims special status.

Of course, this naive and unrealistic position would guarantee that I would never be elected.

Today's headline is a disgusting case in point:

South Asian votes key to leadership races

Liberal and NDP candidates are aggressively pursuing support from a community that will play a major role in many of the province's ridings, with varying degrees of success

I know. You don't have to yell at me.

Fighting this insidious nonsense is about as productive as complaining about cell phones and texting.

It is simply not in my range of acceptability that you or I should vote for Avtar or Bennie or Bruce because he or she is Sikh or Jewish or gay or purple or green.

But I am not very bright and that is why it's a good thing that I don't run alongside all the honorable candidates.

SHAW TV SHOW EPISODE #3

The two videos below comprise our third show on SHAW COMMUNITY TV.

Retired Justice Wallace Gilby Craig shares with us his unique assessment on how we are managing law and order these days.

This is not for the faint of heart or the nodding traditionalist.

JUSTICE CRAIG - PART ONE

JUSTICE CRAIG - PART TWO

MAKING WAVES

Well.

We have a new abiter of public consumption, a new Mubarak of Free Speech.

It's fascinating to find these despots in the most curious of places.

BC Ferries blocks sex-education, abortion sites on Wi-Fi service

Since when did it become the purview of BC Ferries to determine what you and I and our children and our grandparents can or cannot read or gawk at on our computers?

"Experience the difference," indeed.

IN DE NILE

Mr. President! Mr. President! There are millions of peasants storming the palace, sir!

Puleeeeze. I am the President. You said so yourself. Anything else, today?

FIVE BELLS

The old rickety engine that drives the sale of most products and services and bad political ideas is FEAR.

Your body stinks.

Your body leaks.

Your breath, hair, arms, privates are all inadequate.

Get NEW ALL-PURPOSE FIX-O!

Buy this big honking truck, you dumb rube.

There you go. Now you're a REAL MAN!!!

So how surprised should we be that one of the most scurrilous politicians in America today is hollering FIRE in the opera house this morning over...what?

The Canada-US border.

Yes, Senator Joe Lieberman suggests that perhaps we Canadians should need a visa to enter the US.

Why?

Because we have lenient asylum laws and immigrations laws.

I have a rabbi friend who thinks the independent Senator from that heavily besieged state of Connecticut is great because the good Senator is an orthodox Jew who never lets his duties interfere with the sabbath.

With due respect to my rabbi friend, this is the kind of non-thinking ethnic voting that has become one of the hallmarks of voting in Canada.

Here's what we thank the various lords for -

Joe is not seeking re-election.

WALLY WOBBLE

Poor Wally.

He's overworked.

He wants folks to package their complaints.

Why don't you whiners all get yourselves together before the hearing and bunch up, like, sort of in a group. And that way, I wouldn't have to sit here so long and listen to the same boring story of your sister or your mother or whoever being killed or something.

Here's what the headline says:

COMMISIONER SEEKS TO REDUCE REPITION IN SUBMISSIONS

The commish is Wally Opaque.

The Inquiry is the farce and public show known as the Missing Women's Inquiry.

Wally has already granted "standing" to the usual suspects - the City of vancouver, the RCMP and so on.

But the women, the families, the independent investigators, the social groups - in other words, the riff-raff, well that's another story all together.

Could we please have another hearing?

One led by someone who actually cares.

One that isn't pre-designed as a cover-up and a PR sop.

If it's painful to read about, how deep a turn of the blade must it be for people whose lives have been directly impacted by this nightmare?

The woman in the photo is Helen Hallmark.

BANG

JUST HOLD THAT THOUGHT

Cam Cole, musing in today's Sun about Tiger Woods, has crafted one of the best sports pieces I've read in a long time.

Cole brings forward the elephant that no else dare mention - Tiger may never, yes never, be the golfer we knew (or really didn't know at all) a few years ago. Tiger is basically toast.

He may be right.

On the other hand (to quote a certain Milkman), the ESPN "story line" for the Australian Open tennis was nonsense. "The Changeover."

Needing as we all do these days (governments, real estate sales, quiz shows) a "narrative," the sports broadcaster chose to convince us that Federer and Nadal are basically over and done and that Djokovic and a few others will be the new stars, starting right about...now.

Wrong again, Smartypants.

No question, Djokovic was magnificent in his run to the finals and in his defeat of Andy Murray. He has never played better and he is significantly better than he was even one year ago. He is now truly one of the great contemporary players.

But Federer and Nadal are the two best players I have ever seen play this game. Ever.

And they are not going away. They are hardly finished.

Tiger may be, but they are not.

Stay tuned.