That's it. I'm out of here.

This page is on hiatus. For those of you scoring at home, hiatus is a Latin word, meaning can't be bothered to post while on vacation. Regular episodes resume in August.

Out of Order

Former New Brunswick Lieutenant-Governor Gilbert Finn is the latest member of the Order of Canada to return his honours after Dr. Henry Morgentaler was named to the Order last week.

For those of you scoring at home, should this page ever be admitted to The Order of Canada, be assured that I would enthusiastically decline the plaque, polyester sash and discount coupon book. Like our elected dictatorship of a parliamentary government, the condescending relationship with First Nations, and our doddering, bankrupt Head of State holed up across the Atlantic in Buckingham Palace, The Order is another elitist, morally bankrupt holdover from Canada's imperial/colonial past. Real democracies don't hand out pseudo-knighthoods to so-called 'betters' like Brian Mulroney and Conrad Black.

If Dr. Morgentaler wants to keep his O.C., fine. If people like Flynn weren't listening, thought they were being admitted into the Order of Catholic, and are now so pissed off they want to toss back their O.C., that's fine too. This country just turned 141, and we're still taking orders from Rome and Westminster. Grow up.

Don't tear up your bus pass

The price of oil dropped $4.77 per barrel on the New York Stock Exchange earlier today.

With the price of the crude oil contracts trading at about $137 per barrell, that works out to about a possible 3% reduction in the price of oil over the long term, barring any circumstances that would lead to speculation, like, I don't know, an election, competing demands from other countries like China or India, or some place getting cold in the winter.

Remember when the U.S. government adopted a 55 MPH speed limit to conserve gasoline? If they could control the speed of information and create a few more slow news days, maybe gas prices would continue dropping.

Dead on the Fourth of July

Today is the Fourth of July, Independence Day: Americans across the United States will be celebrating today. Parades, picnics, baseball games and fireworks are the order of the day. This page wishes his stateside counterparts an enjoyable long weekend, particularly in that many of them will actually be celebrating the death of Jesse Helms.

Conversely, this must be a tragic day for the friends and supporters of Senator Helms. Gays and Lesbians will now be free to lead their lives as "weak, morally sick wretches." American tax dollars can be "used to pay for grade-school classes that teach our children that cannibalism, wife-swapping and murder of infants and the elderly are acceptable behavior." However, for those Southern-fried troglodytes, those horrors pale in comparison to the possibility that a Black man could be elected President in November.

Four Horsemen & a Dead Mermaid

Starbucks' is closing 600 U.S. locations, blaming the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the fuel crisis, and every other crisis short of the 'people no longer willing to pay $5 for a cup of cofee' crisis or the 'way too many Starbucks' locations to begin with' crisis'. Surely, the fact that the number of Starbucks' locations is going down, rather than up, is a sign of the Ameripocalypse.

Assume the position, repent, or just brew your own like this page does.

Chequebook Civics are NSF

The Town Council in the Vancouver Island community of Ladysmith wants residents to pool their carbon tax rebate cheques together to purchase a trolley bus system. This page commends Mayor Rob Hutchins for good intentions, but the B.C. Liberals' belief that Climate Change can be successfully addressed through the whims of individuals and the markets is paving a Hell of a road for future generations. It looks like protecting the Environment is moving to a User Pay model because Gordon Campbell wants to keep what's left of government revenues for such 'green' initiatives as The Gateway Project, Raw Log Exports, and Offshore Oil Drilling.

Why do we elect Members of the Legislative Assembly? What's the primary function of government? Is it bribing the public and buying elections, or is it...I dunno...GOVERNING?! If this page wanted the Libertarian gutlessness of the Province cutting me a cheque and telling me to figure something out on my own, I could have just moved back to Alberta. Victoria could have simply provided funding for public transit in Ladysmith, instead of expecting the locals to pony up their allowances for some public-private partnershipwreck of a bus system.

Lorne Again

Lorne Mayencourt is worried about rapidly disappearing rental housing in Vancouver's West End. He just realized this week that this was happening?

For those of you just joining us, Mayencourt is the B.C. Liberal MLA for Vancouver-Burrard, the constituency which includes the West End. Mayencourt has been their representative in Victoria since the 2001 election. Mayencourt did nothing when his government colleagues passed changes to the Residential Tenancy Act which allowed landlords to to save up rent increases over five years, and drive tenants out with cumulative rent increases of up to 20%. If that didn't work, Landlords could also use the new legislation to evict tenants for renovations, the purpose of renovations being to jack rents even higher when the tenants move back in.

Why would Mayencourt be worried? The more well-to-do condo owners that move into the riding and squeeze out struggling renters, the more likely it is that Burrard stays in Liberal hands. The more likely it is that any sense of community disappears as selfish NIMBYs start screaming for strict enforcement of Mayencourt's fascist pet project, the Safe Streets Act, and insist that the neighbourhood be remade in their selfish image. Anyone else notice how the Davie Village Business 'Improvement' Area ripped down the rainbow Pride banners from the lampposts along Davie Street? Anyone else wonder how that can happen on the watch of an openly Gay Member of the Legislative Assembly?

Of course, Mayencourt expects the City of Vancouver, which will more than likely be administered by a Vision Vancouver Council after November, to penalize property owners who convert rentals to condos, while the Liberals continue to wash their hands of the potential for an even greater housing crisis in the Lower Mainland. Is Mayencourt just trying to save face, or is he worried about another punch in the face?

Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, Tits.

George Carlin 1937-2008

What's wrong with this picture?

American Muslims are upset with the Obama campaign for barring two hijab-wearing supporters from appearing in photos with the Democratic Presidential nominee.

For a candidate reputed to reach across racial, ideological, and religious boundaries, Barrack Obama's path is clear: apologize and say 'cheese' with Hebba Aref and Shimaa Abdelfadeel. Any other response from the campaign panders to lowest common denominator bigotry. After going out of his way to point out that he is not a Muslim, this incident raises further questions about whether Obama is no more a 'Unity' candidate than John McSame, whose Rethuglican candidacy trades on a ready supply of Islamophobia.

This page works with a number of Muslims, some of them born in Saudi Arabia, just like Osama Bin Laden. I also work with a a few Americans, some of them born in the State of New York, just like Timothy McVeigh. I don't know if any of these Muslims or Americans would want to have their picture with me, but if they did, I would be honoured, and maybe I'd even get a second set of prints.

NDP Courts the Mullet Vote

Carole James and the BCNDP are taking a swing at the Campbell Carbon Tax, demanding that the Liberal government 'Axe the Gas Tax'. This page says be careful with that thing. Is it just me, or do any other New Democrats get nervous when the party takes positions nearly identical to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and the Vancouver Province? It's nice that James is drawing on a populist tradition seldom seen on the left since the days of Tommy Douglas and the CCF, but if I just wanted to hear dumbed down griping about high gas prices, I'd switch on CNN and watch Lou Dobbs for a while.

It's not enough to say 'Axe the Gas Tax': the principle of a carbon tax has merit, which is why James will be rushing to block the exits to keep converted Green Party members from rushing back to their myopic hovel of compostable capitalism. For every 4 X 4 driving Mullet in the Kootenays or Prince George that might vote NDP out of spite because he can't drive 55 (at an extra three cents a litre), there's a Scooter buzzing hipster in the Lower Mainland who won't because someone at Starbucks said that the environment is important. What's the difference between an axe and a double-edged sword when each can cut both ways?

If Carole James does lead the NDP to victory in 2009, what happens a couple of months, or years down the road when Translink and BC Transit need more money just to maintain capacity? What if a climate a change-related disaster (like the pine beetle infestation or the severe windstorms of 2007) elicits demands for the government to pull out all the stops to address climate change? Premier James will have little choice but to consider a tax at the gas pumps to go along with a cap and trade system. The NDP's tax may be fairer and be directly targeted to spending on the environment, as opposed to the Liberals greenwashed attempt to buy votes Carole Taylor says is a Carbon Tax, but it won't stop the Right-Wing Dogs of War in the media to cry havoc and scream for another yet incarnation of the Socreds to rise from the ashes of the Liberals' defeat to strangle the socialists in 2013.

What James needs to be talking about here is Just Transition: there is no reason why changing the economy to protect the environment has to leave anyone behind. She also needs to be telling the truth about the fact that taxes can be a good thing. Taxes aren't supposed to be for financing tax cuts for the rich, they're supposed to finance government programs, which are supposed to reflect the aspirations of the people. If the government was serious about fighting climate change, a carbon tax would go directly to things like public transit, green retrofits for public buildings, community fruit & vegetable gardens, and expanding passenger rail in the Highway 99/Interstate 5 corridor: How many cars are idling between White Rock and Blaine every weekend? Is it that a carbon tax is wrong, or is Campbell's carbon tax wrong?

A Socialist party should be agitating for coherent, collective solutions. Obviously, the laissez-faire, free market approach got us into this crisis, so why would anyone in their right mind think it's going to get us out of it? However, do you know what else brought us to the brink we're teetering on now? Lowest common denominator politics like 'Axe the tax'.

The Sky's The Limit

Is Air Canada's firing of 2000 employees

a) A response to rising fuel prices,

b) A message to remaining employees whose contract expires next year,

c) A passive-aggressive attempt to collect a government bailout, or

d) An attempt to soothe its panicky corporate and institutional shareholders?

This page picks d): Who's driving up fuel prices because of speculation in oil & gas futures, shifting the blame for a corporate culture of selfishness and ineptitude to an ever-dwindling roster of employees, and bankrolling governments who sign on for such free-market tomfoolery as 'Open Skies'?

Either way, air travel as we know it appears to be coming to an end. One would think that governments and corporations would be stepping in to promote alternatives, such as rail travel, but nobody's willing to invest in it like they are in guessing how much corn can be taken out of peoples' mouths for 'alternative' fuels or flogging pet toys online like they were doing at the turn of this century. Supply and Demand be damned: today's economy is the triumph of marketing over common sense.

A decade ago Eastern Europe finally figured out that Communism wasn't that great an idea. Could the rest of us be starting to feel the same way about Capitalism?

Robertson juiced to smack absentee landlords

After a rousing nominating meeting enjoyed by all not connected with Allan DeGenova, Vision Vancouver has elected Gregor Robertson as their nominee. As this page posted on Friday, most of this page's lack of an endorsement for Robertson came from a desire to see him remain as an MLA. However, if we see more positions coming from him like a tax on owners of vacant condominiums, who is this page to argue that 12th and Cambie isn't a better place for him?

It's now more pivotal than ever that Vancouverites put people in City Hall who are willing to stand up to the vicious cabal of real estate developers who treat Vancouver like their own game of Monopoly, brushing those in need of social housing off the board like so many potato chip crumbs. Peter Ladner and the NPA will continue welcome these cutthroats with open arms, and after the outright betrayal of social housing provisions in the 2010 Olympic bid by VANOC and the NPA, the City of Vancouver can't afford to keep that welcome mat out any longer.

Vision Impaired

Vision Vancouver will stage their Mayoral nomination meeting this Sunday at the Croatian Cultural Centre. As COPE has opted to sit on the sidelines (for now) with respect to going after the big chair, this page actually took out a Vision membership, and will be marking my preferential ballot in the following order:

1. Raymond Louie - This is not a case, as the Samantha Orwell's of the world have suggested, of supporting Louie because he's the Chinese candidate. For this page it's a case of supporting Louie because he's the candidate from a Labour background: anybody who stood up for CEP during Conrad Black's reign of terror gets a big leg up from this page. Unlike his major competitor, Louie also knows how City Hall works - the platform may be limited, but he gets that it's only a three-year term and bigger initiatives could run up against the de facto Mayor of Vancouver and his Public-Private Partnershit Lieberal pals in Victoria.

2. Gregor Robertson - This page has lived in Vancouver long enough to understand that anybody who runs for Mayor needs a bit of a mean streak. Larry Campbell had it, Sam Sullivan had way too much of it, but Robertson doesn't have it. My selfish inner partisan tells me that the Juice King is doing way to good of a job as the MLA for Vancouver-Fairview, and making voting NDP palatable to a lot of people who otherwise wouldn't. One would think that staring across from Emperor Gord every day in the Legislature, Robertson would know that not every former Vancouver Mayor makes a good Premier.

3. Allan De Genova - De Genova decided to throw his hat into the ring to spite Sam Sullivan for the Mayor's remaking of the NPA into Sam's own mean, barking dog, neck-stomping image. This Parks Board Commissioner is the only NPA candidate this page has ever voted for, particularly for his efforts to save Nat Bailey Stadium (and with it, pro baseball in Vancouver) from pre-2010 wrecking ball/redevelopment idiocy. This page would consider voting for De Genova for a Council position, but I'm not about to trust the big chair to anyone who thinks actively seeking support from Federal Liberals is a good idea - the last guy I heard say that was Ujjal Dosanjh.

What, me sorry?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has issued an apology on behalf of all Canadians to First Nations for the physical, emotional, and psychological abuse suffered by those who attended Residential Schools.

This page says that's nice, but it's too easy to score political points by extending apologies for past transgressions, and it's not always the afflicted party one is trying to reach out to. This is not a sincere effort towards reconciliation with Aboriginal people, this is an exercise in covering for the churches who ran the residential schools so that good Evangelical Christian Racist Tory voters can sleep at night knowing their man in Ottawa has done the heavy lifting. Harper is looking to get out in front of this parade of regret and steer it to the right well after progressive Christians have already addressed the residential schools issue.

A sincere effort towards building a relationship with First Nations would be something like restoring the Kelowna Accord or abiding by the United Nations Declaration on Aborginal Peoples: when is Harper going to call a press conference to apologize for trashing one and dismissing the other?

BC 150, History 0

Stan Hagen, the Minister for Tourism, Sport, and Arts doesn't want Victoria's Showcase Theatre Society to get a BC 150 grant to produce a play chronicling the life of Labour firebrand Ginger Goodwin. Is this page surprised? Not really. The overwhelming majority of British Columbians are indifferent to our history because successive right wing governments ignore our true history, and expect cultural institutions to do the same, as a means of social control.

Imagine how the Bill 29 dispute would have played out if someone besides the Hospital Employees Union and the B.C. Federation of Labour were conscious of the fact that there was a General Strike in Vancouver a year before the well-documented Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. What if people knew enough about the On-to-Ottawa Trek to draw comparisons to the Anti-Poverty Committee? Don't claim denying the grant for 'Dancing in the Coal Dust' isn't political when governments have a stake in manipulating popular history. If the public knows that this kind of Opposition, Resistance and Direct Action have happened before, and society has changed for the better as a result, how can governments scare people into submission and continue to consume the spoon-fed propaganda of 'The Best Place on Earth'?

History ain't pretty. If it is, it ain't worth mentioning. There's a reason why Storyeum failed miserably and sits as an empty shell in Gastown.

Stick between the Spokes

Mayor Sam Sullivan was upended by Councillor Peter Ladner at Sunday's Mayoral nomination meeting for the so-called 'Non-Partisan Association' (NPA).

A couple of things - a coalition of anti-labour, anti-progressive poor bashing thugs shouldn't be considered 'Non Partisan'. Vancouver is the one major city in Canada where there exists a substantial number of people who realize that Liberals and Conservatives are cut from the same selfish, elitist cloth, so do us a favour, drop the charade, and exhort people to vote for the Board of Trade Whores we know you are. Secondly, when will we start calling these mayoral nomination contests 'primaries'? Given the hall-busting recruiting which has been going on, particularly on the Vision Vancouver, it seems that almost as many people could be voting for mayoral nominees as will be voting for Council, School Board and Parks Board positions in the fall.

Despite the fear-mongering from the likes of Ian King and Peter Tsukmanis, Citizen Sam's Army of Darkness, the one which allegedly left Carole Taylor trembling in fear and clutching her hat instead of throwing it into the ring, never materialized to take down Ladner. Don't get me wrong, this page is glad to see Sullivan sent packing, and hopefully as he goes so go his deluded synchophants on Council and such policy blunders-in-waiting as 'EcoDensity', a Skytrain line to UBC, and further privatization of police operations. However, the Enemy of my Enemy is not this page's friend when voters are about to be deluded that the NPA is tacking towards moderation. This will be the same NPA who thinks that City Hall should be subservient to the whims of our B.C. Liberal overlords in Victoria, and demand that hardworking, cash-stressed homeowners pay more property taxes to pay for tax cuts dished out from 12th and Cambie to the Likes of Best Buy, Canadian Tire, and Wal-Mart.

The other loser besides Sullivan (who sensible voters know was a loser long before Sunday's vote) is Allan De Genova, who bolted from the NPA after personal disputes with Sullivan to seek Vision's nomination for the big chair. Spite might make for a few passably readable paragraphs on a blog, but it's not credible logic to lead the third largest city in Canada.

Cash in Your Chips

The Premier is apparently concerned about money laundering at B.C. casinos.

This page says that Gordon Campbell is probably as concerned about money laundering at casinos as he was about drunk driving, leveraging the sale of crown corporations with dirty money, evidence tampering, ripping up legally binding contracts, conflicts of interest, and rigging the next election. Why should one worry about breaking the law when one can act as if he's above the law?

Could it be because Psychopaths don't care about the law, let alone anything or anyone else? Money laundering at casinos is one thing, the BC Lieberals and their corporate masters gambling with the future of British Columbia is another.

How Stupid Are You?

While standing in the line at the drugstore checkout yesterday afternoon, this page scanned the magazine rack and noticed a publication with this title: "The Complete Idiot's Guide to NASCAR" No, I am not making this up - "The Complete Idiot's Guide" is a line of how-to books similar to the 'Dummies' series (at least 'Dummies' is little more pejorative than referring to one's audience as Complete Idiots). Why do Complete Idiots need a guide to a "sport" which is only popular with Complete Idiots? What complicated strategy could there possibly be in NASCAR? Get in the car and drive really fast? Be sure to keep turning left?

The fact that stupid publications about stupid and destructive diversions litter our magazine racks and collective consciousness only proves how far we are from any notion of becoming an advanced civilization. The public accepts the stupidity of NASCAR, American Idol, 'Reality' TV, Wal-Mart, Perpetual War and Neoliberal Tax Cut Politics because for the past few decades that this page has been alive, the public has been conditioned to believe that we are Complete Idiots.

This page is haunted by a conversation I had with a friend over the roulette wheel in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. She felt that her dialogue with me was 'an education', but she didn't really feel the need to be involved with politics because, by her own admission, she felt comfortable and compared to other parts of the world, didn't believe life in Canada is all that bad. This friend of mine is anything but a Complete Idiot: she has a PhD, and is simultaneously working on an MBA while conducting some pretty advanced research which, by comparison, would relegate this page to ranks of the Complete Idiots.

Imagine that my friend focused just a tiny bit of her attention more on the systematic corruption and injustice perpetrated by the arrogant criminals who think we live in "The Best Place on Earth". Imagine that she found a tiny piece of her mind, which is otherwise devoted to extremely demanding and worthwhile pursuits, to give to these so-called "leaders". Imagine yourself doing the same thing. Our lives may not be so bad, but there is nothing wrong with wanting better lives marked by compassion, sustainability, and democracy, especially when what we want for ourselves, we want for all. There are enough of us to create real change, unless of course, we are Complete Idiots.

Hope I Die Before I Get Old

Courtesy of our friends at Valley Haven Rest Home in Chilliwack, The Fraser Health Authority, and our B.C. Lieberal Government, here's another shining example of your tax dollars at work...or more to the point, your tax dollars diddling around on the sofa with the PlayStation blazing a few Js with their tax-cut addicted friends while their grandparents are forcibly shacked up with complete Alzheimer's-stricken strangers.

Thanks to BILL 42, THE BRITISH COLUMBIA RIGGED ELECTIONS ACT, expect more of the same in perpetuity. If you voted for Gordon Campbell and B.C. Liberals in 2005, or plan to do the same again, do this page a favour and take a nice hot bath with your hairdryer while its plugged in because YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A SELFISH UNETHICAL PSYCHOPATHIC SACK OF SHIT!! When the 2009 Election inevitably turns ugly/violent, you will have no one to blame but Gordon Campbell, Wally Oppal and yourselves, but you assholes want it that way, don't you?

Vote Early. Vote Often.

Mark Latham at VoterMedia.org has informed this page that I have been entered in the Vancouver Voters' Guide Blogging Contest. Mr. Latham says that the purpose of the contest is to stimulate 2008 Vancouver election coverage among bloggers by offering financial incentives. Believe it or not, but this page was granted a late entry, apparently as the result of popular demand, and currently sits 12th among 12 blogs listed.

You know those murder mysteries where Agatha Christie puts together different types of people, one of them is the murderer, but they all have a good alibi? That's what being in this kind of contest is like for this page, and to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if I go down in the first couple of chapters. There are people who deserve to be read and discussed, like David Eby, there are major professional players like Bill Tielmann, Sean Holman, and there are bloggers who do a lot better job of putting themselves out there, like Samantha Orwell and her Vancouver Manifesto. This page has never considered himself as part of a blogging 'community', but there's a nice feeling just being mentioned in the same breath as this group.

Of course, there are also self-deluded sack-of-shit B.C. Lieberal Apologists like Walter Schultz who obviously need to take a little break. If you do check out the contest, I would appreciate your support, but bear in mind that doing this for free and under a pseudonym gives this page certain freedoms not readily enjoyed elsewhere, like the freedom to call Walter Schultz a sack-of-shit B.C. Lieberal Apologist. It's more important to me that Latham's money stays out of the hands of a right-wing propagandist shill than it is that it goes into my hands.