A Friend Asks

David, I just heard a gentleman on the radio discussing AA. He is an alcoholic but has has been clean & sober for 40 years. The host asked him whether he considered alcoholism to be a disease. He adamantly said he did not and then went on to explain why the medical profession had been trying to label it a disease. I'd be interested in your thoughts on this! Robert


(This, of course, will teach you to stop listening to the radio.)

For many years, alcoholism was seen as a shame and a dirty secret. Cancer had the same public perception. Nobody wanted to admit to either.

About 40 years ago, doctors did the world a favour and convinced us all that alcoholism was something that had to be dealt with, not hidden away. They legitimized the problem by calling it a disease.

Fair enough...as far as it goes.

The only trouble with this approach and this history is that doctors then started to believe their own press kit. They came to believe that alcoholism is really a disease and that therefore it is something for doctors to treat.

Ouch.

Big boo-boo, kids.

If I have a heart problem (and apparently, I do), the doctors at VGH can weave their way through my arterial systems and clear a passage and put in a stent and send me home. My job is to eat well, exercise, not yell at bozos in traffic and take my medicines.

Alcoholism is different.

Doctors can do next to nothing about it. It is not a random disease picked up by using public washrooms.

It is a sickness alright. But a sickness of the soul and spirit. Some people can drink and some people can't.

If you are one of the people who can't, you have only one choice.

Stop drinking now.

Begin to live The Examined Life.

Learn who you are and how you function and mal-function.

Focus on values and helping others while you help yourself.

I have always been baffled by why any doctor would want to invest all his/her learning working with addicts and alcoholics.

Livers, kidneys, eyes, ears, noses I understand.

Alcoholism and drug addictions are for alcoholics and drug addicts to work on.

Stethoscopes have no role in this struggle.

Your Daily Cop-Out

It's Tuesday, so there must be another RCMP screw-up.

Yep.

Three guys are drinking tea. That's right. Tea.

Cops break down door. Attack dog bites through man's leg to the bone and drags him out of his apartment.

Much melee-ing and to and fro-ing. Lock up and release.

Punch line?

Oh, so solly.

Wrong door.

All of this took place - where else? - in Surrey, above a Sechuan restaurant in November of last year.

Oops, there.

Here's the challenge for the national constabulary.

Try to get through a fortnight without embarrassing yourselves and disgracing the uniform.

Our Deep Commitment to Local Affairs

Did you watch the so-called "Leaders' Debate" last night.

Good.

That makes 6 of us.

Three of the others were TV columnists.

Of course, putting this somnambulism on air at 5pm on a Sunday right after that Oscar contender "Fast Food High" is not exactly helpful.

And if this is someone's idea of "live" television, let's hear it for the dramatic improvement in cryogenics.

And didn't our local CTV station - pleading and fighting with the CRTC these very days for more money, more concessions - really out-do themselves with just about the cheesiest set design and lighting since Captain Kangaroo?

These guys blather on - the TV execs - about their commitment to local programming and then they give us...this? Brother!

Anyway...let's get to the substance.

Uh...

I said, "Let's get to the substance."

I know, it's a stretch to call these gaseous fumes weighty or meaty or even souffle.

Here's what I found pleasantly surprising. Or surprisingly pleasant.

Carole James came across very well.

Calm, strong, organized, knowledgeable. NOT strident or shrill or kvetchy.

I was particularly impressed by her skewering of the Premier on his fudging the numbers with long-term care beds for seniors and how he's fighting crime by cutting services. Ha!

What I found most peculiar, if not downright frightening, was how creepy Gordon Campbell appeared.

Desperate, pugilistic, bug-eyed. Has anyone ever told this guy that not everything in life is high school basketball?

What a vision he brings to the arena. Kill or be killed. Very helpful. Very mature.

The party's over
It's time to call it a day
They've burst your pretty balloon
And taken the moon away...

Pete Seeger will be 90 on Sunday

The Best Place on Earth - uh, if you know someone

Patrick Kinsella, friend and colleague of the Premier who would like to be your Premier again, is mighty miffed that anyone is suggesting that he had any undue influence in the government's decision to sell BC Rail.

So miffed, in fact, that he has somehow managed to get access to transcripts in the Basi-Virk affair - transcripts that are supposed to be privileged and not available to anyone who does not have standing in the court case.

How is that possible?

Is "privileged" the operative word here?

Could this business smell any higher?

Is there no way the crusty old amateurs who are running the NDP campaign cannot carry this ball over the finish line? What more do they need?

THE PHONE BOOK

Imagine the telephone book getting something right that has so far eluded every intellectual, government official and doctor in Canada.

This morning I was looking in those first few pages of phone book for a Telus service.

I came across a list of social service, and what do you think it said under "Addiction Services?"

Not Insite or Harm Seduction or any of the other blathering bad public policy mistakes of the last 20 years.

No.

It said in plain English and bold type ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS and NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS.

These two organizations, with no money and no publicity and no fame and no kvetching, of course, help more human beings to live clean and sober than all of the other thousands of fakers who suck the Great Tit.

Congrats to the folks at The Yellow Pages.

Leiren-Young Honored

Congratulations to local writer Mark Leiren-Young who has won the 2009 Leacock Medal for Humour.

Wow!

That is so great, Mark! Mazel Tov!

Well, That Explains Everything!

Mountain Equipment Update

For Immediate Release

Canada-Israel Committee expresses satisfaction with decision of Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) members to reject Israel boycott

Vancouver, April 30, 2009. In a widely publicized Annual Meeting held this evening in Vancouver, MEC members voted to reject a motion that would have asked the MEC Board to boycott goods manufactured in Israel.

“We’re delighted with this decision, which should be taken as a ringing endorsement of MEC’s outstanding policy on ethical sourcing”, said CIC’s Pacific region chairman Dr. Michael Elterman. Observing that the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation group PAGE was a key supporter of the defeated pro-boycott resolution, Elterman observed that MEC’s current policy has allowed the company to use its purchasing power to encourage progressive principles like workers’ rights and environmental sustainability in such countries as China, where these are novel concepts.

“MEC members across the country were outraged by this attempt by a few hard-line ideologues to hijack the agenda of one of Canada’s most socially responsible organizations”, Elterman concluded. “We’re hopeful that this matter is now definitively closed.”

Ted Reynolds

Ted Reynolds was a great broadcaster.

Like a handful of others, Reynolds happened to be talking about sports.

And like that same handful, it was clear that he could cover any subject if he really so wished.

A rare bird, indeed, he will be missed.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2009/04/29/sp-ted-reynolds.html

JAM

Yawn, Goodnight

Sure, there are bigger news stories.

Swine flu is now a level 5 pandemic. That's a big story.

The nightmare known as Darfur continues.

It's Thursday, so North Korea issues its weekly nuclear threat.

Still.

Is there any excuse for this provincial election?

Have you ever seen such mud-sucking lethargy?

I've seen meetings of the Public Library that were more energized than this.

The NDP should be hacking and hailing and hefting all over the place, scoring bulls-eye after bulls-eye.

Instead, it continues its two left feet demo, proving once again that having advisers who failed the party two decades ago are maybe not your best bet going in. (Someone might also suggest to Iggy Pop this weekend that Francis Fox left office disgraced as a liar and a crook and having him on your tram ain't such a robust idea either.)

What exactly is the burning issue for May 12th?

The economy, stupid? Roads? Hydro? Canlit?

Search me.

We have proven our hickness with this one for sure. Dogcatcher, Illinois. A fight to the finish over renaming Railway Road to Hilltop Terrace.

For a similar opinion - and a few very funny lines - check out Alex Tsakumis in today's 24 hours.

And wake me when it's over.

TIME

We seem to have such a surfeit of it out here on the Wet Edge.

Two stretchy examples:

More than two years after the spectacular collapse of the roof over the site of the 2010 Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, there are still few written procedures for handling similar emergencies and a lack of staff training at the provincially owned facility, WorkSafeBC has found.

Hey, wassa hurry, Buddy?

Then this:

A street racer involved in a crash that killed a Vancouver woman almost nine years ago has been deported to India.

Sukhvir Singh Khosa lost his bid to stay in Canada in March after the country's top court ruled he had to be deported.

Mr. Khosa left Canada on Tuesday.

Irene Thorpe was struck on a Vancouver street and killed in November of 2000 as Mr. Khosa and another man were street racing.

His co-accused, Bahadur Singh Bhalru, was deported four years ago.

Nine years, four years...Iceberg, Goldberg, wassa difference?

You know why it's "the best place on earth?"

Not because Gordon tells us, but because we have so much time on out hands.

I think I'll go out and stand on the boulevard for a few weeks.

Apology

Yesterday, I posted a "John van Dongen Exclusive."

I'm told that Global TV did a similar thing recently and had to apologize as well.

The gist of the story is that I had learned that John van Dongen had a charge of running a red light pending against him.

Turns out there are two John van Dongens.

The man who is charged with running the red light is considerably older than the former Solicitor-General and collector of speeding tickets.

Top Cop has enough troubles without my adding needlessly to them.

I apologize and put myself in the penalty box for 23 hours for "piling on."

VAN DONGEN EXCLUSIVE

There is much to amuse in this morning's coverage of the resignation of Top Cop, John van Dongen. If only it were in the least amusing.

The nine speeding offences in five years, the man's announcements about crackdowns on speeding, the four contested tickets, the three contests he for which he failed to appear in court, and so on.

Donkey says he always tries to separate his personal life from his work.

Wrong.

Thinking error.

Can't be done in your arena, Johnny.

But here is the real news.

Brace yourself. It is unlikely that you will read or hear this anywhere else, because this was sent to me by a friend, who just happens to be a policeman.

I found some more information on Van Dongen's driving record that you might find interesting.... If you look him up at the "Court Services Online" website you will find his speeding tickets, but there is also an open file of him that is reported as this: "10-Jan-2008 MVA - 127(1)(a)(iii) Failing to yield to vehicle on green light". It looks to me like he ran a red light in Delta and might have even caused an accident. His next appearance in court is listed as "Richmond Provincial Court 30-Jun-2009 09:30 AM". If you want to see this for yourself, the website for Court Services Online is located at https://eservice.ag.gov.bc.ca/cso/esearch/criminal/partySearch.do You can just enter his name to find the records, or you can use this file number I got from the site - 28738815 (you also need to select the court location which is Richmond).

So, while the Good Burro claims that he has now "learned his lesson," turns out he still hasn't told us the full story.

He still hasn't admitted to running a red light.

This by the way is the exact same action that killed RCMP officer Jimmy Ng.

And this man is going to run for public office again?

Fluville

Swine flu comes from animals and humans interacting.

The disease jumps the genus barrier and mutates from barnyard pet (or lunch) to keeper.

Wait.

Don't we just live in the greenest darn city on earth?

Isn't this the forward-loooking place that just voted to allow chickens in your back yard?

Oh, good.

In Mexico City, many, many people live in close proximity, right in the heart of the city, to pigs and chickens and goats. How cute.

Let me know when the tacos are ready, Compadre.

Pin Me

Step right up! Get 'em here! Get 'em while they're hot!

That's right! Authentic Canadian Flag Pins! Show your true colors, show your patriotism.

Get these authentic flag pins supplied by an authentic Quebec company and made by...uh, that is, made in...uh...

Excuse me.

These Canadian Flag Pins were made in China.

We have companies right here in Canada who make flag pins.

One of them has an office two blocks from Parliament.

Pity, you say.

Only in Canerder.

Get Together

The FEDERAL Liberals are holding their Group Grope at one of the big Downtown hotels this week.

You will read and hear much about Iggy Pop and his book(s).

What you won't learn is the cheesy other side of what these songfests are really like. And what they cost.

A friend, who has never belonged to a political party before, decided to join the Liberals recently. Her tale of trying to find the office, then finding it and finding almost nothing but a few packing boxes and some kid straight out of college who knew absolutely nothing about anything is hysterically funny.

She did pay the $20 bucks to get her membership, but she didn't get even so much as a receipt.

When she said she wanted to attend the Convention, she was sent to one local outpost after another in search of a gang with whom she might appropriately bond.

Turns out, she was "a senior."

Ah, age.

Finally, after a couple months of dizzying run-around, she was triumphantly welcomed into the great Liberal fold and invited to attend the famous Piss-Up.

Well, "invited" is perhaps a debatable word in this context.

Her "fee" for showing up and caring enough to register was...now, I can't remember (ah, age), but something like $900.

She passed.

Still has her party card though.

She'll read about Iggy's book(s), just like you and me.

And they wonder why they can't elect anyone outside of Toronto.

Junk Bonds

The Brits will give you $3,500 for your old clunker if you buy a new car; the Germans 4 Grand.

It's all terribly false economics - tricks by tricksters for stupid people.

Let us pray that Harper's Used Car Lot doesn't get this idea into its pretty head.

SWINE FLU?

Oh, right.

The election is upon us.