The Tiger Trail - Stalking and Chalking the Records

Try this wonderful piece by Steve Elling on CBS Sportsline.com. It really captures the excitement of watching this once-in-a-lifetime athlete pursue his goals before our astonished eyes.

Smoking Mirrors to Better Health - the BC Way

The Campbell government has captured the front page with a hollow announcement about spending $22 Million on improving our collective health.

There are only two problems with this piece of puffery.

First, there is almost nothing substantive in the so-called plan. Who? What? When? Where? Only the Why is addressed and we all know that part already.

And second and most important, look at the "participants:" BC Lung, Canadian Cancer, Heart & Stroke, Dietitians, Diabetes, yadda, yadda, yadda.

No doubt all honorable institutions.

But this money will be parcelled among them and pay for the faxes and the coffees and the meeting to interface, and ... poof! Vanished....

Asking the Right Questions about Homelessness

The Reverend Marianna Harris has asked all of the right questions about Vancouver's shameful record on the homeless among us.

Her Letter to the Editor in today's Sun is linked here.

Note, in particular - especially those of you who have become engaged in the drug debate on these pages - this question: "Where are the treatment centres that are so badly needed?"

BIG, BIG TAKE-DOWN

Many of us will be mildly cheered to learn that a refugee claimant who has been ordered deported and his since been seeking refuge in a temple has been finally arrested.

What is so peculiar is that is took nine police officers and Canadian Border Service agents to take this fellow from a hospital bed.

Were they expecting an ethnic upraising?

Shuffle Off to Palookaville

Harper shuffles his cabinet, and this affects the Canadian citizen How?

Whatever his motivations, Mr. Harper can expect a turn in his political fortunes of next to zero.

This has been, and will remain, a one-man band. It is Mr. Harper front and centre, and most Canadians would be hard-pressed to tell you which faceless, ineffectual non-entity is covering his ass in which file.

When a nebish like Gary Lunn is responsible (?) for Natural Resources, you can bet that we'll be out of water and oil by next Wednesday.

Gagorama - The Wages of Sin

Dope dealer swallows coke and croaks.

This is a story?

This is cause for an inquest? (I guess inquests are required.) A discussion?

NEXT!

Passing the Old ER Buck

St. Mary's Hospital on the Sunshibe Coast has no doctors covering the ER on the weekends in August - high disaster time.

What is so re-assuring about this story is the reaction of the vancouver Coastal Health authority.

"It's not our responsibility."

Hahahaha....and this from their official spokespersonage, Viviana Zanocco, a former news reporter. How does she sleep at night?

A better quote comes from Dr. Geoff Appleton, the head of the BCMA: "The can't let themselves off the hook. It;s their emergency room. It's their community."

Do these regional health authorities want the power and the responsibility that goes with the power or do they not? Are they answerable and accountable or are they not?

It has been clear to many of us for some time now that these bodies are a huge and unnecessary financial drain on the medical system. GET RID OF THEM.

Right-Hand Drive Cars Should not Be Allowed

If right-hand drive cars are 40% more likely to be involved in an accident, why do we allow them to be imported?

And who are the middle-aged teen-age rebels who buy them?

Every day, we all witness dozens of traffic offense, including parents walking across red lights with their children...teaching them what?

The miracle is that more people aren't killed. The other miracle is that these boneheads can get out of bed in the morning without causing damage.

The Bob Newhart Show: Howard's Kitchen Floor.