Issue 14. Examining the world's spiritual climate.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
The Imperious Share the Same Mindset, Similar Tactics
“Many, including the very elderly, women with babies, and the disabled have been forced to spend freezing nights in the bush without shelter.”
This sounds like what I witnessed last Christmas Eve in the west end of Vancouver, while all those churches had empty activity rooms which could have facilitated 10 cots each, at least. But this quote comes to us from Christopher Munnion of The Daily Telegraph, reporting on Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.
This sounds like what I witnessed last Christmas Eve in the west end of Vancouver, while all those churches had empty activity rooms which could have facilitated 10 cots each, at least. But this quote comes to us from Christopher Munnion of The Daily Telegraph, reporting on Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.
Robert Mugabe and his Queen Gordon Campbell celebrating Gay Pride Week in Vancouver's sister city, Johannesburg.
Now that Vancouver’s city council is seriously considering locking the alley waste bins, we can expect a new form of rage: Alley Rage, which incidentally I hear quite often right here in Kitsilano already. Expect the decibel volume to go way up.
Between Premier Gordon Campbell's welfare eligibility policies and then the impossible monthly stipend the poor are expected to live on (less than $550 a month for everything) and now the city council’s new assault on the poor threatening their dumpster diving livelihoods, citizens might be forgiven if they thought they had awakened in a nightmare in darkest Africa somewhere.
But dark it might as well be when trying to distinguish between Campbell’s treatment of the poor and homeless and Mugabe’s imperious ways.
Maybe Mayor MuCampbell would like to make Johannesburg a sister city and learn first hand at Mugabe’s regal dinner table the way to practice his haughty indifference to the plight of the homeless while handing out business licenses to murderous biker gang members. And us taxpayers might as well pony up for Premier MuCampbell’s free ride to Zimbabawe to pick up some pointers on how to burn shanty towns and evict poor people from their market hovels in time for the Olympics.
Imagine the photo-ops. Go, please.
Memo to Ralph Goodale, Minister of Finance
Would it be too much to ask that before you sleaze into another expensive golf trip with bankers lobbying for their mergers that you insist to them that they all cut their exorbitant, thieving fees first?
And has it occurred to you Mr Goodale that every time one bank raises its lending rate within a couple of days they all follow suit? Why is this not collusion (which last time I checked was against the law)?
And has it occurred to you Mr Goodale that every time one bank raises its lending rate within a couple of days they all follow suit? Why is this not collusion (which last time I checked was against the law)?
Lorne Nystrom's Files
Have a peek, Mr Goodale at former NDP Member of Parliament Lorne Nystrom’s files re the Canadian chartered banks when you get off the golf course and read how these institutions have treated poor people trying to open accounts, and how they blithely charge $30 for returning a cheque as fast as they can but when it comes time to honor a cheque they take five business days.
Now that the holidays are almost upon you, start calculating how much each Canadian with a business account is shoveling over to the banks (approximately $15 a month) and for what? These fees all add up, and explain why the banks have been making enormous, unheard of profits of late.
Mr Goodale, please, put the golf club down long enough to pick up the phone and give Mr Nystrom a call and ask him about those files. While you have real leverage with the banks while they want something from you (us), tell them for us to stop robbing us with their sneaky fees. They charge for personal and business cheques much more than what typical printers might. They charge to negotiate the cheque. They charge to return the cheques. They charge to use the atm machines. They charge to go to the teller (depending on your plan). They charge you to have a business account there. And if you throw in the value of your time while you’re waiting in line to be charged to see a teller, these fees and charges can easily add up to more than $2200. a year!
At one time not too long ago the federal government was actually threatening the banks with legislation to Roll Back their Near-Thievish Fees. Whatever happened to that position protecting the ordinary Canadian, Mr Goodale?
Now that the holidays are almost upon you, start calculating how much each Canadian with a business account is shoveling over to the banks (approximately $15 a month) and for what? These fees all add up, and explain why the banks have been making enormous, unheard of profits of late.
Mr Goodale, please, put the golf club down long enough to pick up the phone and give Mr Nystrom a call and ask him about those files. While you have real leverage with the banks while they want something from you (us), tell them for us to stop robbing us with their sneaky fees. They charge for personal and business cheques much more than what typical printers might. They charge to negotiate the cheque. They charge to return the cheques. They charge to use the atm machines. They charge to go to the teller (depending on your plan). They charge you to have a business account there. And if you throw in the value of your time while you’re waiting in line to be charged to see a teller, these fees and charges can easily add up to more than $2200. a year!
At one time not too long ago the federal government was actually threatening the banks with legislation to Roll Back their Near-Thievish Fees. Whatever happened to that position protecting the ordinary Canadian, Mr Goodale?
Mini-Manifesto (see Issue 12) Correspondence
Harry,
I looked at your 7 Part Save the World recipe. If implemented it would be a total disaster. It has been tried - it is called communism. Do you really think people like Lenin, Stalin, Fidel Castro, Robert Mugabe or Saddam Hussein could save the environment or the world? Under communism i.e. Soviet Union, China, East Germany, Poland you would find the world's worst man-made pollution. In about 1991 National Geographic showed a photograph of a town in Romania. Everywhere was black with soot. It is ironic that after the Berlin Wall came down, western dollars and marks (now Euros) are still being used to clean up the socialist mess. The UN (look at Rwanda, Darfur, Kosovo, the Congo etc) is useless at keeping peace or keeping the environment clean. I am with the US on this i.e. don't trust the left-wing bureaucrats and do it your own way. Environmental laws in the US are as tough as anywhere. It is difficult to bribe officials in the US, but it is rampant in areas under UN control. –Roger
Dear Roger,
Point 7 is questionable certainly in that it does appear to advance communistic ideals. Redistributing wealth could be troublesome but a global tax to safeguard the environment as managed by that global body of point #1 might do the trick. It's the extreme greed, the addiction to senseless greed which I challenge. Checks and balances will have to be looked at if bullying countries and corporations don't restrain themselves.
China is realizing in its current state of galloping growth that it will need to make changes to protect its environment - not, interestingly, because that would be good for the environment or the people but because it is necessary to sustain their economic growth/peoples' health. Same situation with other countries. Canada now finds itself being cornered by a musician who makes the point from a moralistic perspective to protect the human environment from the devastation of extreme poverty whereas Canada would have to get the point eventually anyway from the perspective of the capitalist - do the environmentally correct thing to protect the economic growth/peoples' health.
The Yanks, under Bush (busy secretly changing the wording of the clean air/global warming treaties), will likely be last to see the light, particularly from the moralist's viewpoint.
I looked at your 7 Part Save the World recipe. If implemented it would be a total disaster. It has been tried - it is called communism. Do you really think people like Lenin, Stalin, Fidel Castro, Robert Mugabe or Saddam Hussein could save the environment or the world? Under communism i.e. Soviet Union, China, East Germany, Poland you would find the world's worst man-made pollution. In about 1991 National Geographic showed a photograph of a town in Romania. Everywhere was black with soot. It is ironic that after the Berlin Wall came down, western dollars and marks (now Euros) are still being used to clean up the socialist mess. The UN (look at Rwanda, Darfur, Kosovo, the Congo etc) is useless at keeping peace or keeping the environment clean. I am with the US on this i.e. don't trust the left-wing bureaucrats and do it your own way. Environmental laws in the US are as tough as anywhere. It is difficult to bribe officials in the US, but it is rampant in areas under UN control. –Roger
Dear Roger,
Point 7 is questionable certainly in that it does appear to advance communistic ideals. Redistributing wealth could be troublesome but a global tax to safeguard the environment as managed by that global body of point #1 might do the trick. It's the extreme greed, the addiction to senseless greed which I challenge. Checks and balances will have to be looked at if bullying countries and corporations don't restrain themselves.
China is realizing in its current state of galloping growth that it will need to make changes to protect its environment - not, interestingly, because that would be good for the environment or the people but because it is necessary to sustain their economic growth/peoples' health. Same situation with other countries. Canada now finds itself being cornered by a musician who makes the point from a moralistic perspective to protect the human environment from the devastation of extreme poverty whereas Canada would have to get the point eventually anyway from the perspective of the capitalist - do the environmentally correct thing to protect the economic growth/peoples' health.
The Yanks, under Bush (busy secretly changing the wording of the clean air/global warming treaties), will likely be last to see the light, particularly from the moralist's viewpoint.
Questioning Communism and Capitalism
I am not a communist. Nor am I the kind of capitalist who would agree with the protestant pioneers that God gave them the right to expand and prosper through the new United States (I forget the term for this.). While the Communists have been shown to have failed for the petty tyrants they became, the capitalists' creed has also to be questioned.
Moderation in all. Corporate and country extreme greed just doesn't add up and is highly destructive now.
The other point in my mini-manifesto which I myself find difficult to promote is #2, re de-industrialization. This needs more work but I believe science can get us there and we can see a real dip in world pollution just in the nick. –Harry
Harry,
You should try and pick up a copy of the June 27 edition of Time magazine - the one with the picture of Mao on the front cover. It contains a good article about China today. On page 36 it tells you something about the pollution, something I mentioned to you in a previous Email i.e. the enormous pollution created by communist countries.
This has been known for decades by the Green Party and by Greenpeace, but what have they done? Zero. Those two groups are not "environmentalists", but haters of capitalism. Look at the last paragraph on page 36. It is intended to build a road through the virgin Amazon forest to grow and haul soybeans etc to China. Greenpeace and the Green Party do miniscule work to save the rain forests there, but hammer BC and Canada for our forestry practises, which are far superior.
Another very serious problem that the enviros and "Peace Activists" refuse to deal with is Darfur, where about 200,000 people have been murdered in southern Sudan (this story is not in the Time article - you have to dig for it). China now extracts 7% of its oil imports from there. China is the largest foreign investor in Sudan. The China National Petroleum Corp (CNCP) has invested about $15 billion. They have recently completed a 900 km pipeline to the Red Sea, and built a $700 million refinery just outside Khartoum. China is the largest arms supplier to Sudan, including planes and tanks. In order to stop the killings in Darfur the UN proposed a motion to apply sanctions to Sudan. China vetoed it. Some of the oil concessions are on lands the peoplefur occupied. Too bad. The "Peace Movement" has said and done nothing.
-Best wishes, Roger
Roger,
As to China, as long as its current anti-human rights regime is in place and it stubbornly refuses democracy (while now capitalizing with a severe, chilly greediness), that country will never gain the support of conscientious people anywhere.
Problem being: there's not enough of us to derail this train. I didn't know Darfur was in their expansionary crosshairs. Greenpeace (and the green movement) has lost a lot of its original juice and seem to have found their comfy zone attacking seal fur hunters, whalers, megacorps etc but leaving the dirty work of dealing with the human tragedies to unqualified rock stars and self-appointed saviour celebrities like Brad Pitt.
Moderation in all. Corporate and country extreme greed just doesn't add up and is highly destructive now.
The other point in my mini-manifesto which I myself find difficult to promote is #2, re de-industrialization. This needs more work but I believe science can get us there and we can see a real dip in world pollution just in the nick. –Harry
Harry,
You should try and pick up a copy of the June 27 edition of Time magazine - the one with the picture of Mao on the front cover. It contains a good article about China today. On page 36 it tells you something about the pollution, something I mentioned to you in a previous Email i.e. the enormous pollution created by communist countries.
This has been known for decades by the Green Party and by Greenpeace, but what have they done? Zero. Those two groups are not "environmentalists", but haters of capitalism. Look at the last paragraph on page 36. It is intended to build a road through the virgin Amazon forest to grow and haul soybeans etc to China. Greenpeace and the Green Party do miniscule work to save the rain forests there, but hammer BC and Canada for our forestry practises, which are far superior.
Another very serious problem that the enviros and "Peace Activists" refuse to deal with is Darfur, where about 200,000 people have been murdered in southern Sudan (this story is not in the Time article - you have to dig for it). China now extracts 7% of its oil imports from there. China is the largest foreign investor in Sudan. The China National Petroleum Corp (CNCP) has invested about $15 billion. They have recently completed a 900 km pipeline to the Red Sea, and built a $700 million refinery just outside Khartoum. China is the largest arms supplier to Sudan, including planes and tanks. In order to stop the killings in Darfur the UN proposed a motion to apply sanctions to Sudan. China vetoed it. Some of the oil concessions are on lands the peoplefur occupied. Too bad. The "Peace Movement" has said and done nothing.
-Best wishes, Roger
Roger,
As to China, as long as its current anti-human rights regime is in place and it stubbornly refuses democracy (while now capitalizing with a severe, chilly greediness), that country will never gain the support of conscientious people anywhere.
Problem being: there's not enough of us to derail this train. I didn't know Darfur was in their expansionary crosshairs. Greenpeace (and the green movement) has lost a lot of its original juice and seem to have found their comfy zone attacking seal fur hunters, whalers, megacorps etc but leaving the dirty work of dealing with the human tragedies to unqualified rock stars and self-appointed saviour celebrities like Brad Pitt.
Keeping the Puzzle Simple
I've been watching Darfur for years and scratching my head along with Axworthy (a man I truly admire) and multitudes of others. We all saw Rwanda and are doing it all over again. That's why Point 1 in mini-manifesto mentions a global group with teeth for protection delivery.
I try to keep the puzzle simple: food, shelter, then if you're lucky, the company of loved ones. And that's all we need. But we're living in a kind of global rumpus room where childish dictators are consumed with one-upping their enemies and wearing gaudier outfits with more plumes, more plumes!
As for the Amazon rainforest, this story has been a failure since successive governments there keep dropping the ball for not preventing the ranchers and locals from clearcutting decades ago. The natives sure don't have the on site support they would need for a successful uprising to prevent any more devastation (and they need the logging jobs). Last I heard from the Peruvians, the only thing that was working was the outroght buying of the land by people who were forming trusts to protect it for its natural medicinal and global ecological/weather value.
All the more I see the need for a global moral creed to be adopted, and to be insisted upon before trade and free relations with the rest of the civilized countries can proceed. That's my nickel's worth. -Harry
I try to keep the puzzle simple: food, shelter, then if you're lucky, the company of loved ones. And that's all we need. But we're living in a kind of global rumpus room where childish dictators are consumed with one-upping their enemies and wearing gaudier outfits with more plumes, more plumes!
As for the Amazon rainforest, this story has been a failure since successive governments there keep dropping the ball for not preventing the ranchers and locals from clearcutting decades ago. The natives sure don't have the on site support they would need for a successful uprising to prevent any more devastation (and they need the logging jobs). Last I heard from the Peruvians, the only thing that was working was the outroght buying of the land by people who were forming trusts to protect it for its natural medicinal and global ecological/weather value.
All the more I see the need for a global moral creed to be adopted, and to be insisted upon before trade and free relations with the rest of the civilized countries can proceed. That's my nickel's worth. -Harry
New Motto for City Police
The Vancouver Police Department’s freedom of information department was asked two months ago to release the name of the victim of the brutal assault at Super Valu as perpetrated by that store owner. The victim was witnessed to be repeatedly kicked and thrashed about and he subsequently died two days later.
Other bureaucrats and officials involved in the handling of the man’s case, his body and its ultimate disposition have all pretty much followed the new police motto: No more Serve and Protect… more like Stall, Duck and Stonewall.
Other bureaucrats and officials involved in the handling of the man’s case, his body and its ultimate disposition have all pretty much followed the new police motto: No more Serve and Protect… more like Stall, Duck and Stonewall.
Justice Not Done
Too bad they don’t seem to get the point that as long as they all play that pathetic game of petty tyrant controlling the information (for which they get to cash their public-supported pay cheques), it’s the public’s safety they continue to put in jeopardy. Justice has not been done. But what do they care.
And don’t bother calling the mayor’s office. Now that he’s got the police wagons nicely circled he’s back on the golf course with Premier MuCampbell planning their safari to Johannesburg, remember?
And don’t bother calling the mayor’s office. Now that he’s got the police wagons nicely circled he’s back on the golf course with Premier MuCampbell planning their safari to Johannesburg, remember?
Too Late for Gaia?
Not a cheery week. 86 year old James Lovelock, who penned Gaia, a New Look at Life on Earth back in 1979 now tells us, “I’m naturally an optimist, but I think our chances are pretty grim. I tend to think, and so do my friends in the climate community, that there isn’t time for the right sort of adjustments to take place. I will be surprised if we do get through this century without civilization having to move up to the arctic basin. I think the world is going to become pretty uninhabitable.”
Hefty Culling
James Lovelock is an independent atmospheric scientist who lives and works deep in the English countryside. He has a knack for making discoveries of global significance. Lovelock is the inventor of the electron capture detector, a palm-size chamber that detects man-made chemicals in minute concentrations. In the late 1950s, his detector was used to demonstrate that pesticide residues were present in virtually all species on Earth, from penguins in Antarctica to mother's milk in the United States. This provided the hard data for Rachel Carson's landmark 1962 environmental book, "The Silent Spring," which launched the international campaign to ban the pesticide DDT.
“There will be probably a culling of the (world) population on a pretty hefty scale.”
As it happens, David Suzuki was mentioning the same thing about this global warming business and that it’s just getting too late to be able to turn away from the inevitable and drastic reaction of the earth and sky to our pollution.
Meanwhile George Bush’s lackeys have recently watered down the text of the latest international treaty re emissions causing global warming making it toothless to enforce.
-with notes derived from article by Lawrence E Joseph in Salon.com
and Lovelock interview by Doug Saunders, Globe and Mail
“There will be probably a culling of the (world) population on a pretty hefty scale.”
As it happens, David Suzuki was mentioning the same thing about this global warming business and that it’s just getting too late to be able to turn away from the inevitable and drastic reaction of the earth and sky to our pollution.
Meanwhile George Bush’s lackeys have recently watered down the text of the latest international treaty re emissions causing global warming making it toothless to enforce.
-with notes derived from article by Lawrence E Joseph in Salon.com
and Lovelock interview by Doug Saunders, Globe and Mail
First Person Shooter's Games Becoming Deadly
German scientist Klaus Mathiak’s neuroresearch suggests that reinforcing the circuits the brain uses to respond to a crisis with aggression, even violence, may prime the brain to act the same way in real life. This would suggest then that by playing violent first person shooter games one is actually predisposing oneself biologically to react with violence to certain crisis situations, similar to Pavlov’s research with programming dogs.
Biological Inclinations
Repeated behaviour then may dispose a person biologically to this kind of reaction in the future. The same theory may apply to homosexual behaviour which may then become an inheritable trait. What about murderous behaviour?
Imagine though, if we were all predisposed biologically to know bliss. But given this issue’s dismal reportage on the human condition, I expect it’ll be a small eternity before humans can ever claim to be so joyously predisposed.
Imagine though, if we were all predisposed biologically to know bliss. But given this issue’s dismal reportage on the human condition, I expect it’ll be a small eternity before humans can ever claim to be so joyously predisposed.
Sunday, June 19, 2005
China’s Invasion of Canada
1200 Chinese spies are here and we are to believe that their sole purpose is to follow the members of the Falon Gong around the world to see what havoc they might be wreaking thousands of miles away from their homeland?
Gong. Wakey, wakey.
Here we have our Canada - which Canadians appreciate so much that we almost let it split in two, and may yet – rich in water and mineral resources, vast tracts of unpopulated land, of reasonable moderate climate unless you prefer dog sleds to BMW’s, hordes of meek people so nice that we’ve thrown our borders open to Jamaican drug dealers, Russian mobsters, Vietnamese gangs, and David Wilkins, and all in the name of multiculturalism and now we’re hosting 1200 spies from that warm and sunny home of Tiananmen Square.
Gong.
Currently being leaderless, we have permitted our politicians of all warped stripes and dubious moral textures to extend their hands in fellowship to this undemocratic country of enormous military strength. While our publicly supported media showcases our embarrassment and the intricacies of the workings of our government, and regularly features the hapless state of our military, we permit 1200 professional spies to slither through every crack and cranny of our limp-along society note-taking for their superiors precisely where we keep the keys to the back door.
Gong.
We have an immigration policy that is basically driven by economics where if one family were to arrive with sufficient capital no one in that fuzzy-headed ministry, let alone at the helm of this bloated bureaucracy, would ever challenge their application for landed status. It was during the reign of Willy Vander Zalm that this policy of fattening our coffers with immigrant moolah was most promoted and which resulted in a huge bulging of our Vancouver numbers, changing the social mosaic permanently. And guess who rich people vote for?
Gong.
But farbeit from me to suggest an invasion is imminent. We have, after all, a most capable military. Our fleet of subs and helicopters alone are enough to put the fear of God in any country possibly contemplating an uninvited landing on our shores. And in Vancouver alone, we would have untold numbers of Asian immigrants joyously fattening the rolls of our beleaguered military.
Gong. Gong.
Gong. Wakey, wakey.
Here we have our Canada - which Canadians appreciate so much that we almost let it split in two, and may yet – rich in water and mineral resources, vast tracts of unpopulated land, of reasonable moderate climate unless you prefer dog sleds to BMW’s, hordes of meek people so nice that we’ve thrown our borders open to Jamaican drug dealers, Russian mobsters, Vietnamese gangs, and David Wilkins, and all in the name of multiculturalism and now we’re hosting 1200 spies from that warm and sunny home of Tiananmen Square.
Gong.
Currently being leaderless, we have permitted our politicians of all warped stripes and dubious moral textures to extend their hands in fellowship to this undemocratic country of enormous military strength. While our publicly supported media showcases our embarrassment and the intricacies of the workings of our government, and regularly features the hapless state of our military, we permit 1200 professional spies to slither through every crack and cranny of our limp-along society note-taking for their superiors precisely where we keep the keys to the back door.
Gong.
We have an immigration policy that is basically driven by economics where if one family were to arrive with sufficient capital no one in that fuzzy-headed ministry, let alone at the helm of this bloated bureaucracy, would ever challenge their application for landed status. It was during the reign of Willy Vander Zalm that this policy of fattening our coffers with immigrant moolah was most promoted and which resulted in a huge bulging of our Vancouver numbers, changing the social mosaic permanently. And guess who rich people vote for?
Gong.
But farbeit from me to suggest an invasion is imminent. We have, after all, a most capable military. Our fleet of subs and helicopters alone are enough to put the fear of God in any country possibly contemplating an uninvited landing on our shores. And in Vancouver alone, we would have untold numbers of Asian immigrants joyously fattening the rolls of our beleaguered military.
Gong. Gong.
Invasive spies cont'd.
Well, if that didn’t pan out, our inspiring burger-faced leader Paul Martin could always conscript the dope smokers from the Kootenays, native inmates, liquor store malingerers and French Canadian bank robbers to fill out those new military uniforms we bought and paid for a few years back. Olive on olive, I think it was but not to worry: with Queer as Folk in its last manifestation this season as an artistic venture, we’ll have no shortage of willing costume designers.
Invasion? Nah. Why bother? Just send in your 1200 spies and tell them to read our immigration policies (those same policies which prevent young people from South America trying to visit here) and then hand them a free map locating with an ‘X’ all those resources for sale.
Canada has always been for sale. We have posted our Open for Business sign long ago and witnessed much of our resource base being traded off to the United States in the form of company shares and long term leases. And as long as we permit our so-called leaders to negotiate our resources with authoritarian countries like China who persecute their intellectuals, stymie the use of the internet, and harangue members of a religious group within our own borders, our most pressing concern shouldn’t be about an ‘invasion’ but rather our supply of gate grease.
So meet me on the shores of English Bay and altogether now,
“This land is your land.
This land is your land.
From Bona Vista to Tianamen Square…”
Gong.
More on the Invasion front…
Invasion? Nah. Why bother? Just send in your 1200 spies and tell them to read our immigration policies (those same policies which prevent young people from South America trying to visit here) and then hand them a free map locating with an ‘X’ all those resources for sale.
Canada has always been for sale. We have posted our Open for Business sign long ago and witnessed much of our resource base being traded off to the United States in the form of company shares and long term leases. And as long as we permit our so-called leaders to negotiate our resources with authoritarian countries like China who persecute their intellectuals, stymie the use of the internet, and harangue members of a religious group within our own borders, our most pressing concern shouldn’t be about an ‘invasion’ but rather our supply of gate grease.
So meet me on the shores of English Bay and altogether now,
“This land is your land.
This land is your land.
From Bona Vista to Tianamen Square…”
Gong.
More on the Invasion front…
Evangelicals Invade Ottawa
A right wing Christian organization, Focus on the Family, is setting up its propaganda ministry in Ottawa to bolster its anti-abortion and anti-gay rhetoric. This American political heavyweight will be renting offices and employing nine people full time to fleece Bay Street donors and help fund Christian activists’ campaigns to become candidates for the federal Conservative Party.
Given that the passing of same-sex marriage legislation is likely now to be stalled until next autumn, this political maneuver of an American lobby group is craftily timed. With a minority government wobbling on the fringes of a political abyss and its spendthrift leader embroiled in corruption charges the current Canadian government is an easy target for shotgunning broad accusations of moral bankruptcy. The situation bodes well for Focus on the Family’s version of Christian righteousness when played alongside the dismal hymns of ancient Liberal regimes.
Given that the passing of same-sex marriage legislation is likely now to be stalled until next autumn, this political maneuver of an American lobby group is craftily timed. With a minority government wobbling on the fringes of a political abyss and its spendthrift leader embroiled in corruption charges the current Canadian government is an easy target for shotgunning broad accusations of moral bankruptcy. The situation bodes well for Focus on the Family’s version of Christian righteousness when played alongside the dismal hymns of ancient Liberal regimes.
Brew of Hoopla cont'd.
While this slopping over our borders of this uniquely American brew of evangelistic hoopla should come as no surprise to the few Canadians left who have not succumbed to a state of stunned miasma as disseminated through overexposure to laugh tracks and soap operas, we should take heed and gird ourselves for the arrival within our borders of such radiant notables as the born-again Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart, with Tammy Faye bringing up the rear with her new line of Jesus Loves My Eye Care products.
Given the recently published photograph of Stephen Harper imitating a quarterback, one can be forgiven for appreciating that any refurbishing of his image in whatever new peculiar association may be a vast improvement over his current status, including branding him as the savior of our very own misguided families, one and all.
How can he lose? How can this organization of right wing zealots be considered anything but sanctimonious when they repeat, repeat, repeat in our ears that’s it’s our family’s welfare they’re thinking about? And anybody who votes against them is really saying that they’re anti-family.
According to one former Liberal currently scouting for any party of integrity, “Well forgive me if I appear anti-daddy, anti-mommy, anti-son, and anti-daughter but when I see these horses’ asses rearing their way up my trail I’m gonna take Thoreau’s advice and head out the back door and over them thar hills as fast as I can git. And leave that proselytizing gang of Harper’s bizarre born-again friends focusing on my behind, in search of what dregs they may find to feed their nincompoopery.” Sound familiar?
Given the recently published photograph of Stephen Harper imitating a quarterback, one can be forgiven for appreciating that any refurbishing of his image in whatever new peculiar association may be a vast improvement over his current status, including branding him as the savior of our very own misguided families, one and all.
How can he lose? How can this organization of right wing zealots be considered anything but sanctimonious when they repeat, repeat, repeat in our ears that’s it’s our family’s welfare they’re thinking about? And anybody who votes against them is really saying that they’re anti-family.
According to one former Liberal currently scouting for any party of integrity, “Well forgive me if I appear anti-daddy, anti-mommy, anti-son, and anti-daughter but when I see these horses’ asses rearing their way up my trail I’m gonna take Thoreau’s advice and head out the back door and over them thar hills as fast as I can git. And leave that proselytizing gang of Harper’s bizarre born-again friends focusing on my behind, in search of what dregs they may find to feed their nincompoopery.” Sound familiar?
THE GOB’S LATEST POLL
In the Gob and Flails’ electronic polling booth it asks,
“It seems the media are paying more attention to the personal lives of celebrities. Which of these statements best describes your opinion of celebrity journalism?
*It's a harmless diversion
*It trivializes the important issues
*I love it, can't get enough
*It's gone too far
For a once noble newspaper which has since declined in grace to compete with The National Toast and overflowething with its own bedazzling celebrity content, this is a truly specious poll.
“It seems the media are paying more attention to the personal lives of celebrities. Which of these statements best describes your opinion of celebrity journalism?
*It's a harmless diversion
*It trivializes the important issues
*I love it, can't get enough
*It's gone too far
For a once noble newspaper which has since declined in grace to compete with The National Toast and overflowething with its own bedazzling celebrity content, this is a truly specious poll.
"Seems..." cont'd.
And what if we a were all to answer (breathlessly) ‘I Love it. Can’t get enough?’ Would the Gob and Flail then devote more space yet to this pathetic celebrity gazing phenomena that our society has managed to sleaze into?
Giving the common public what it wants is not necessarily a noble and educating thing to do. Given that our society is becoming illiterate and graduating morons, maybe it would behove the mainstream media to awaken to the crisis in this country of anti-intellectualism and start giving its readership that which it desperately needs: Real debate, thoughtful and well researched articles. And more space for readers to participate in the dialogue.
The common media across the board in this country, including the public-owned CBC, are all guilty of elitism and their own brand of pseudo-intellectualism while people of real intellectual drive, a thirst for enlightenment and an expectation of emancipated debate all suffer for this weary approach to journalism which focuses on the tawdry and amoral lives of a few unhappy freaks we have catapulted into a stellar social status.
When the Gob and Flail can’t even acknowledge honestly its own descent into celebrity worship (“It seems the media are paying more attention…”) , then it becomes the role of the bloggers and cyber-scribes to pick up the slack and offer the red meat of investigative journalism, the juice of revolutionary thinking. And we attempt to do this without the vast resources of corporate advertising and subsidies.
Giving the common public what it wants is not necessarily a noble and educating thing to do. Given that our society is becoming illiterate and graduating morons, maybe it would behove the mainstream media to awaken to the crisis in this country of anti-intellectualism and start giving its readership that which it desperately needs: Real debate, thoughtful and well researched articles. And more space for readers to participate in the dialogue.
The common media across the board in this country, including the public-owned CBC, are all guilty of elitism and their own brand of pseudo-intellectualism while people of real intellectual drive, a thirst for enlightenment and an expectation of emancipated debate all suffer for this weary approach to journalism which focuses on the tawdry and amoral lives of a few unhappy freaks we have catapulted into a stellar social status.
When the Gob and Flail can’t even acknowledge honestly its own descent into celebrity worship (“It seems the media are paying more attention…”) , then it becomes the role of the bloggers and cyber-scribes to pick up the slack and offer the red meat of investigative journalism, the juice of revolutionary thinking. And we attempt to do this without the vast resources of corporate advertising and subsidies.
Feeling Sick Yet? Give George a Buzz.
Recently appointed Health Minister George Abbot has declared he has the “mojo and the jazz” to manage this complex and critical portfolio dealing with the life and death issues of our people.
How reassuring for all those patients dying for a bed, lined up in emergency wards, driving with heart attacks an hour longer to a hospital, and trying to find the funds to pay for drugs not covered by Pharamcare to know that their new head honcho charged with managing their recoveries has the following credentials:
“Before his election to the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Abbott was a political science instructor at Okanagan University College . He also owned the oldest and largest berry farm in the Interior.
“He received his bachelor of arts from the University of British Columbia and his master of arts in political science from the University of Victoria.
“Mr. Abbott was the chair of the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District. He was also involved in amateur sports as a minor hockey coach."
How reassuring for all those patients dying for a bed, lined up in emergency wards, driving with heart attacks an hour longer to a hospital, and trying to find the funds to pay for drugs not covered by Pharamcare to know that their new head honcho charged with managing their recoveries has the following credentials:
“Before his election to the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Abbott was a political science instructor at Okanagan University College . He also owned the oldest and largest berry farm in the Interior.
“He received his bachelor of arts from the University of British Columbia and his master of arts in political science from the University of Victoria.
“Mr. Abbott was the chair of the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District. He was also involved in amateur sports as a minor hockey coach."
Georgie and his Minor Hockey Whistle
Thanking you in advance Mr Campbell, our fearless criminal leader, for the inevitably hilarious gallow’s humour we can expect from this minister. And with all due respect and gratitude, we thank you also for focusing so thoughtfully on the well being of our families.
Did you bring your whistle, George?
Did you bring your whistle, George?
Another George Front
On another George front, we have John Bonifaz, an American constitutional lawyer, rallying the public and families of the war dead in Iraq with the declaration that there is enough evidence to impeach George Bush for war crimes and for lying to Congress about the justification of the war.
To make this charge stick however, Bonifaz is going to need to appeal to a world body not overly infiltrated by American propagandists or to sufficiently inflame the American people, a majority of whom now disapprove of their president, and find among them enough commonly decent people to rise up and revolt against any more of Bush’s illegal bullying on the world stage.
A mother of one dead soldier, Cindy Sheehan, stated, “This aggression on Iraq was based on a lie of historic proportions…” Ouch. “The leadership of this country rushed us into an illegal invasion of another sovereign country on prefabricated and cherry-picked intelligence.”
To make this charge stick however, Bonifaz is going to need to appeal to a world body not overly infiltrated by American propagandists or to sufficiently inflame the American people, a majority of whom now disapprove of their president, and find among them enough commonly decent people to rise up and revolt against any more of Bush’s illegal bullying on the world stage.
A mother of one dead soldier, Cindy Sheehan, stated, “This aggression on Iraq was based on a lie of historic proportions…” Ouch. “The leadership of this country rushed us into an illegal invasion of another sovereign country on prefabricated and cherry-picked intelligence.”
Seething Mothers
There are 1700+ more mothers (and dads and brothers and sisters) and one can never tell when a groundswell of protest might hit its tipping point and bring down a government.
If more Americans were to expose themselves to European newscasts and the opinions of Europeans generally, they may find that they are becoming increasingly isolated by world opinion and that America is losing critical ground in the role it may play in shaping the new world order.
Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about what he did in the darkened corridors of the Whitehouse with a lipstick-smeared intern. But many believe those actions don’t hold a candle to what George Bush is currently doing on his war rampage.
Countless Iraqi civilians have been killed and deeper divisions have been carved into their unstable society since Bush’s campaign in his “war against terror.”
If Bonifaz and the grieving American mothers have their say, the war against a true terrorist will be fought where it belongs, on American soil, targeting a place of some recent disrepute, the Whitehouse.
And yet another on a George front…
If more Americans were to expose themselves to European newscasts and the opinions of Europeans generally, they may find that they are becoming increasingly isolated by world opinion and that America is losing critical ground in the role it may play in shaping the new world order.
Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about what he did in the darkened corridors of the Whitehouse with a lipstick-smeared intern. But many believe those actions don’t hold a candle to what George Bush is currently doing on his war rampage.
Countless Iraqi civilians have been killed and deeper divisions have been carved into their unstable society since Bush’s campaign in his “war against terror.”
If Bonifaz and the grieving American mothers have their say, the war against a true terrorist will be fought where it belongs, on American soil, targeting a place of some recent disrepute, the Whitehouse.
And yet another on a George front…
PRINCE GEORGE TO BUILD COLISEUM
Prince George Mayor Mawlin’ Kingsley sees hockey goon fights as a chance to get his city on the map. He is in the process of having plans drawn up to erect a Coliseum in the spittin' image of the famed Roman edifice where Gladiators brutally maimed each other unto death.
Coliseum Plans cont''d.
Citing a loss of public image with the charging of a local judge recently in the kiddie sex scandal, Kingsley believes his city could use a makeover and what better way to present yourself to a world obsessed with violent video games and bloodfestive movies than to grab the bull by the horns and host extreme goon fights at a venue reminiscent of the coliseum.
To test the viability of his plan, he has scheduled some wife-bashing fests at the local arena and once he has a grip on the public interest levels he’ll know best what size of coliseum to build.
Kingsley states, "Talking to staff, they believe this (the hockey goon-bash)is quite an attraction for people to come from across Canada and from the States to view the show live and it's going to broadcast globally on pay-per-view TV," he said. "We view it as an opportunity to get the name of the city out there."
To test the viability of his plan, he has scheduled some wife-bashing fests at the local arena and once he has a grip on the public interest levels he’ll know best what size of coliseum to build.
Kingsley states, "Talking to staff, they believe this (the hockey goon-bash)is quite an attraction for people to come from across Canada and from the States to view the show live and it's going to broadcast globally on pay-per-view TV," he said. "We view it as an opportunity to get the name of the city out there."
Grizzly Contests
Having conferred with members of the local RCMP, the mayor expects to showcase some pre-pubescent working gals outdoors under the newly dimmed lamplights on the nights when the ladies will be brawling with ex-hubbies indoors at the arena. Intermissions and half time shows will feature cock fights, dwarf-pitching and size contests among the self-esteem challenged.
Gerhardt Speer, grandson of Albert, has been consigned the task of drawing up the coliseum's architectural designs but Kingsley hastens to add that the building itself will concur with all current earthquake and blood-drainage bylaws currently in place for Prince George.
In its slower seasons when gladiators’ rosters are being refilled, Mawlin’ has it in mind to offer ambidextrous lumberjacks a chance to compete in grizzly deballocking contests. To prep for this unusual form of rivalry, local environmentalists have been invited to don bear costumes and share some quality time with lumberjacks in the arena.
As to Kinglsey’s unwavering belief in the prospects of his very own Coliseum, he has this to offer, “If I build it they will come.”
Caligula couldn’t have said it better.
Gerhardt Speer, grandson of Albert, has been consigned the task of drawing up the coliseum's architectural designs but Kingsley hastens to add that the building itself will concur with all current earthquake and blood-drainage bylaws currently in place for Prince George.
In its slower seasons when gladiators’ rosters are being refilled, Mawlin’ has it in mind to offer ambidextrous lumberjacks a chance to compete in grizzly deballocking contests. To prep for this unusual form of rivalry, local environmentalists have been invited to don bear costumes and share some quality time with lumberjacks in the arena.
As to Kinglsey’s unwavering belief in the prospects of his very own Coliseum, he has this to offer, “If I build it they will come.”
Caligula couldn’t have said it better.
And by George, one more George for the road…
In memory of my Dad, war hero George Langen, who at 19 years of age survived “being hit twice in 20 minutes” and was willing to return to the front lines in service of a very different country in those days.
And now for just one more celeb shot for all those addicted slatherers...
If he doth proteth too much, what doth that say about Thientology?
And now for just one more celeb shot for all those addicted slatherers...
If he doth proteth too much, what doth that say about Thientology?
Kudos to the CRTC
Are we to witness the end of a.m. radio as it finally falls from grace to the advent of satellite radio? No more DJ’s pretending to be hip and funny every Monday a.m. and an end to live broadcasts from the back alley of Pharmasave? And maybe if we’re all lucky the collapse of yap radio and all those gravelly-voiced pontificating lords of the airwaves who thought of themselves as God’s vocal gift to the rest of us squeaky heathens. Good riddance to all of that.
"I am..."
"I am..." Photo and text: R Harry Langen
I am the tall yellow grass which makes visible the warm wind delivering the scent of the honeysuckle. And the seeds of that field of strawberries there and the rain which imbues the lake of milk with my spirit.
I am the design of the heavens at night, their perfect wheels marking rhythms and I am the Holy Breath comprising the misty galaxies.
I am the lover of young men and finisher of their fantasies.
See me in the enthusiasm of young students and in the delights of curious girls. Spy me in the intelligence inherent in nature where even the lowly ant has, by my design, instructions for you.
I am the bee others swarm about as they labour to make the nectar for your table. I am the face of a thousand heroes, the trust between friends and the spirit of the winning effort, the perseverance of the man lost in the dark wood and his triumph.
I am the affirmer, that light which reconciles your conduct to the universe. I am the path of heart, the wisdom of the sages and the denial of the iniquitous.
I am the object of desire and the confounder. I am the insight of holy men and the mother's knowing of her child.
I am her milk.
In you I am well pleased. What will you have of me?
-Excerpt from Lightstream, copyright R Harry Langen
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Drum Roll for Revolutionary Manifesto, Please
Mass Murder by Starvation, OnGoing Species Extinction and Corporate Fascism
or
Change the Global Mindset
A minor hallelujah if you will. Live8 founders have won a major 40 Billion dollar concession from G8 counties, releasing Africa from its debtload. The efforts of these world’s prominent musicians (Geldof used to hang in Vancouver) and environmental groups are most laudable in organizing the global effort focusing as it does on world poverty. In this heightened state of awareness, allow me to suggest a more long term and even possibly a permanent fix to our current global dilemma.
Tap tap tap. Now listen up class.
It’s really very simple. This situation we face of mass starvation in Africa (again), species extinction and criminal corporate greed is the result of our own peculiar social evolution. The world has witnessed extreme improvements in communications technology and hence speedier deal-making and economic shifts.
Who, for example, would have considered China to become such a major player, and so quickly that their government hasn’t even bothered to address its human rights issues among its own people before stampeding into the global marketplace? And to the shame of most countries of any economic significance, China has been allowed to neglect those issues of human decency and bully its way around with its unchecked, dubious moral status.
It’s in this neglect and charging around where we find the actual evidence of the problem which has plagued mankind throughout our human history. These economic actions and decisions are now playing out on a global field and their consequences are hurrying along the demise of our very living environment. Witness the extreme pollution warnings sounding right now back in Montreal and Toronto, and that whole Canadian northeastern industrial hub. Asthmatics are wired for oxygen and carcinogens are being gulped by children at play.
Well if we can expedite the demise of our environment through enhanced communications technology then why can’t we expedite the recovery of our environment the same way? All we would need is the will to change the global mindset, shifting away from plundering to preservation.
And now that we can all see the evidence in satellite photographs of the devastation of the Amazon, the Dead Sea, the sacred forests of India etc etc and witness also the degree of air and ocean pollution we have created as a global society what choice do we really have? Much sooner than we expected it will be a matter of grasping at desperate straws to see our way clear again.
So here’s Uncle Harry’s really very simple...
or
Change the Global Mindset
A minor hallelujah if you will. Live8 founders have won a major 40 Billion dollar concession from G8 counties, releasing Africa from its debtload. The efforts of these world’s prominent musicians (Geldof used to hang in Vancouver) and environmental groups are most laudable in organizing the global effort focusing as it does on world poverty. In this heightened state of awareness, allow me to suggest a more long term and even possibly a permanent fix to our current global dilemma.
Tap tap tap. Now listen up class.
It’s really very simple. This situation we face of mass starvation in Africa (again), species extinction and criminal corporate greed is the result of our own peculiar social evolution. The world has witnessed extreme improvements in communications technology and hence speedier deal-making and economic shifts.
Who, for example, would have considered China to become such a major player, and so quickly that their government hasn’t even bothered to address its human rights issues among its own people before stampeding into the global marketplace? And to the shame of most countries of any economic significance, China has been allowed to neglect those issues of human decency and bully its way around with its unchecked, dubious moral status.
It’s in this neglect and charging around where we find the actual evidence of the problem which has plagued mankind throughout our human history. These economic actions and decisions are now playing out on a global field and their consequences are hurrying along the demise of our very living environment. Witness the extreme pollution warnings sounding right now back in Montreal and Toronto, and that whole Canadian northeastern industrial hub. Asthmatics are wired for oxygen and carcinogens are being gulped by children at play.
Well if we can expedite the demise of our environment through enhanced communications technology then why can’t we expedite the recovery of our environment the same way? All we would need is the will to change the global mindset, shifting away from plundering to preservation.
And now that we can all see the evidence in satellite photographs of the devastation of the Amazon, the Dead Sea, the sacred forests of India etc etc and witness also the degree of air and ocean pollution we have created as a global society what choice do we really have? Much sooner than we expected it will be a matter of grasping at desperate straws to see our way clear again.
So here’s Uncle Harry’s really very simple...
Seven Point Save the World Program
Shifting the global mindset:
i) create or pick a global body that has political teeth to create and enforce new global laws protecting what’s left of our environment;
ii) begin a process of de-industrialization;
iii) implement and insist upon the adoption of the global moral creed which would place human life and decency above the demands of corporations insistent on “protecting their shareholders” (as though their shareholders are somehow intrinsically more important than the starving millions of children in ‘developing’ countries); and which would protect citizens from oppressive and murderous tyrannies;
iv) globalize the production and distribution of all pharmaceuticals;
v) free scientists to work for the common good directing their shared energies to serve the emancipation and healing of all humankind;
vi) guarantee the education of all people;
vii) pay for all this by redistributing current wealth and making it criminal to horde or amass wealth beyond what can be reasonably spent on luxuries.
In future issues, I will examine these points and hope to illustrate that they’re really not all that far-fetched. Remember: If we created this mess with our whiz-bang technology then we can fix it too. And why wouldn’t you want to be able to enjoy your occasional luxuries (which this plan affords us) in the knowing that all other citizens of the world are now being actively cared for. What a relief!
Imagine the results! How the earth itself would breathe a great sigh. How our boundaries will be loosened to permit some ease of travel and concepts of private property and land hording would be re-evaluated so as to allow for more people spreading out from the overly congested urban areas into more relaxed rural environments.
The oceans would become enlivened and enriched and the air we breathe would become fresher, even more aromatic. Breezes would be delightfully alive. Deserts would become green pastures and rivers would spawn new and plentiful fishes. De-industrialization can achieve this.
New songs of rejoicing, enlightening dances and new holidays would all contribute to the sense of being completely revivified.
And as to that all-important global moral creed? Let it be begin with the words of my mentor: “There is no one greater than you. There is no one less than you. There is no one the same as you.”
Carry a lamp to frighten the naysayers and illuminate the way of science.
I can die now, having thrown in my nickle’s worth.
i) create or pick a global body that has political teeth to create and enforce new global laws protecting what’s left of our environment;
ii) begin a process of de-industrialization;
iii) implement and insist upon the adoption of the global moral creed which would place human life and decency above the demands of corporations insistent on “protecting their shareholders” (as though their shareholders are somehow intrinsically more important than the starving millions of children in ‘developing’ countries); and which would protect citizens from oppressive and murderous tyrannies;
iv) globalize the production and distribution of all pharmaceuticals;
v) free scientists to work for the common good directing their shared energies to serve the emancipation and healing of all humankind;
vi) guarantee the education of all people;
vii) pay for all this by redistributing current wealth and making it criminal to horde or amass wealth beyond what can be reasonably spent on luxuries.
In future issues, I will examine these points and hope to illustrate that they’re really not all that far-fetched. Remember: If we created this mess with our whiz-bang technology then we can fix it too. And why wouldn’t you want to be able to enjoy your occasional luxuries (which this plan affords us) in the knowing that all other citizens of the world are now being actively cared for. What a relief!
Imagine the results! How the earth itself would breathe a great sigh. How our boundaries will be loosened to permit some ease of travel and concepts of private property and land hording would be re-evaluated so as to allow for more people spreading out from the overly congested urban areas into more relaxed rural environments.
The oceans would become enlivened and enriched and the air we breathe would become fresher, even more aromatic. Breezes would be delightfully alive. Deserts would become green pastures and rivers would spawn new and plentiful fishes. De-industrialization can achieve this.
New songs of rejoicing, enlightening dances and new holidays would all contribute to the sense of being completely revivified.
And as to that all-important global moral creed? Let it be begin with the words of my mentor: “There is no one greater than you. There is no one less than you. There is no one the same as you.”
Carry a lamp to frighten the naysayers and illuminate the way of science.
I can die now, having thrown in my nickle’s worth.
The Safe Sex Club
So the kiddies have invented a new way to have sex. And I thought we’d exhausted all those greasy avenues. This new form of sexual adventuring is entirely in keeping with their desire for isolationism as they bebop down the sidewalks in their i.poddled states, play their latest video game tabulating all their kills and learning their social skills from a computer chip named Intel… everything in defiance of the natural mode of relating to the outside world with senses and limbs that actually protrude into that world. Everything about this human body was designed to relate to everything outside the human body but in step with all that is wonderful to man we persist in learning new ways to enclose ourselves.
Try this on for size!
So the kiddies go home after school and being all worked up from all that non-communicating, turn on their computers, switch on their webcams and drop their drawers for some mutual masturbation with their girlie (or otherwise) chums.
Perfectly safe and thoroughly dehumanizing. But given their education in the ladies and gentlemen department, what can we expect? Tenderness? Words of desire spoken with thoughtful restraint? Charm and considerateness? Courtship and artful social timing? Dream on. “I don't have to worry about getting to her house, she doesn't have to worry about getting to my house. I don't have to walk, I don't have to try and get a ride.” And doesn’t he sound like a fun partner?
Perfectly safe and thoroughly dehumanizing. But given their education in the ladies and gentlemen department, what can we expect? Tenderness? Words of desire spoken with thoughtful restraint? Charm and considerateness? Courtship and artful social timing? Dream on. “I don't have to worry about getting to her house, she doesn't have to worry about getting to my house. I don't have to walk, I don't have to try and get a ride.” And doesn’t he sound like a fun partner?
Be the first on your Vancouver Block… To Piss in Public
The city fathers of Vancouver are finally becoming aware of the problem of facilitating nature’s call. After decades of ignoring the needs of pedestrians to occasionally pee and poop at bathrooms, the problem of stench and visual blight has forced their hand to actually consider doing some thing about the issue.
It was alright to ignore it when it appeared to only affect the poor and homeless people of the downtown east side. The restaurateurs have for many years enforced a policy of No Public Bathroom on Premises which some might argue is really quite mean-spirited but they are not in the business of accommodating people to traipse down their hallways to relieve or otherwise amuse themselves in their tiny closeted spaces.
But now this problem may become an issue with the almighty tourists so instead of building new bathrooms and to save money the city is seriously considering open urinals to be installed throughout the problem areas. (One doubts that the installation of these urban biffies would be in the vicinity of the convention centre or the grand theatres.)
It was alright to ignore it when it appeared to only affect the poor and homeless people of the downtown east side. The restaurateurs have for many years enforced a policy of No Public Bathroom on Premises which some might argue is really quite mean-spirited but they are not in the business of accommodating people to traipse down their hallways to relieve or otherwise amuse themselves in their tiny closeted spaces.
But now this problem may become an issue with the almighty tourists so instead of building new bathrooms and to save money the city is seriously considering open urinals to be installed throughout the problem areas. (One doubts that the installation of these urban biffies would be in the vicinity of the convention centre or the grand theatres.)
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