Will Bono get the Point?

The thepoint.com has found a worthy cause:

OBJECTIVE To get Bono to retire from public life (so he'll stop leading misguided counter-productive philanthropy efforts)

Exhibit 1: the Red Campaign, co-created by Bono in 2006:

The RED campaign has managed to spend $40 million more on marketing that it has raised from RED product sales, while sending consumers a dangerous message.

The grassroots leaders of the global fight against AIDS didn’t ask for Bono to be their frontman. Its time for Bono to step down. We’ll all pledge donations to the Global Fund, but no pledges are collected until Bono retires from public life. ... If he want to fight AIDS he can make a direct donation instead of buying a sweatshop GAP T-shirt. As the pledges grow, Bono will have to decide what matters more, fighting AIDS effectively, or him being the movement’s frontman.

Spread the word.

h/t: much music

Oh ya, that's much better ...

Here's a little glimpse into the future for those of you who where calling for TASERs to get banned after the Langan incident:

A 26-year-old man died in hospital this morning after being shot by police outside an inner-city home when he refused to drop a knife he was brandishing ... One officer tried to use a Taser to subdue him, but the effort was unsuccessful and officers were required to use lethal force to stop the threat he posed.

Police said it’s too early to tell if the Taser malfunctioned, or if the electronic probes it shot failed to attach to the suspect.

Do you still want to suspend their use, Dr. Jon Gerrard? Let's suspend keeping people alive in favour of killing them with bullets, until the government conducts a review and sets guidelines for not killing people with bullets. Brilliant. And like Frogger points out, the police set guidelines for TASER use, not the government.

Seriously though, what's with all these people pulling knifes on cops? What are they hoping to accomplish?

Thoughts on the Greyhound beheading

If you're reading this, then you have a computer with internet, which means you're already familiar with the story so I won't bother providing a link. Also because there are too many to choose from.

There is usually a sequence of events when a tragedy like this happens:

1) media saturation. Good bye Taser story. Hello dude with no head. Get the widow on the set, we love dirty laundry.

2) people trying to make sense of it all. Did they know each other? Was he mentally unstable? Was it gang related? Was it race related?

It's not gang related. Like Darcey says over at The Broom: "Beheading isn't in their toolbox". Gang bangers are pussies who shoot from cars or attack in large groups. This guy wasn't a gang banger.

Was it race related? Doubtful. Beheading is in the toolbox of some extreme elements of certain ethnic and religious groups. But the victim is reported as being native. Are Canadian Indians the #1 enemy of Islamic extremists? Do Indians behead each other? I just can't see this as being a race thing.

Was he mentally unstable? Hmmm, let me think about this one. YES. And maybe, just maybe, that's all there is to it.

3) Political opportunism. I hope to God we skip this step this time around, but I wouldn't put it past David Chartrand and his ilk to spin this into some kind of Indian victimhood story.

4) Knee-jerk reactions. Ban the Taser! Ban shooter girls and cheap drinks! Put metal detectors at all Greyhound stops! It'll happen, don't worry.

One last thought:

If this had happened in LA, the attacker would be dead. I was visiting a friend in LA once when I ran into a detour in Santa Monica. I found out why, later on TV. A high speed car chase ended a block away in a hail of bullets. It was all recorded by helicopter camera: the cops had the car surrounded, and proceeded to turn it into swiss cheese. They could have, if they were so inclined, arrested the fellow and took him into custody, but that's not the way they do things down there. I'm not saying it's good or bad -- I'll let you make your own judgment call on that one -- but it is certainly expedient and cost effective. This guy, whoever he is, will have to be in custody or closely monitored for the rest of his life. He'll also be a threat to society for the rest of his life. A carton of bullets for a Glock .45 = $45

Just sayin' ...

Don't tase me, bro

Prepare yourself for another 2 weeks of non-stop Robert Dziekanski footage, as the news programs cover the apparent Taser death of 17 year old Michael Langan, along with the resulting cries from the irrational masses to "ban the Taser".

Unlike PITT and JDS (who I'm not saying are irrational ... although they might be on occasion), I DO support the use of Tasers. Like I wrote back here

the death of Robert Dziekanski was regrettable, and the police may have been a little trigger-happy with their 50,000 volt toys, but it is undebatable that the use of a Taser is still a far better option than the use of a gun in subduing an unruly person in close quarters.

While all of the details have yet to come out, it appears this kid put himself in that position:

"They repeatedly asked him to disarm himself and to drop the knife," const. Jacqueline Chaput said. "The male refused to comply and at that point the electronic control device was deployed.

Remind you of anybody else?

The mother says "they might as well have taken a gun and shot my son." Well, you know what? That's exactly what they would have done if they didn't have Tasers. At least with Tasers there's better than a 99% chance he'll live.

Every use of the Taser should be reviewed to ensure the circumstances were appropriate (shooting each other in the ass at a party is not appropriate, by the way), but ban the Taser? Fuck that. If you support banning Tasers then you support increased death of idiots who don't understand that threatening other people puts yourself in harm's way as well. I guess you could call it natural selection, but I'm an old softy and I think that these idiots should at least be given a fair chance to survive the encounter and turn their lives around.

The man with a plan

This made me laugh when I saw it on the Free Press web site:

Ooo. Ooo. I know! Ask me!

Katz runs the city of Winnipeg like I play monopoly (except that Katz doesn't end up in jail).

In the column Lett makes a good point about the costs of developing Point Douglas:

All the moaning and whining about the costs of assembling and remediating the light industrial lands that dominate South Point Douglas ignores an important point: The city will have to bear those costs sometime in the future if Point Douglas is to move forward.

That does not mean that the stadium/hotel/waterpark idea is any better of an option for development in the area. What this means is that our mayor and our perma-councilors need to do some thinking and planning about how to revitalize the neighbourhood over the long term. And I'm not talking about fancy street lamps, planters and banners that say "South Point Douglas Village". I'm talking about cleaning up the area and encouraging organic growth. And listening to the people who know something about urban planning.

I'll trade you my Higgins Ave and my Upper Fort Garry for your Forks.

Lazy days of summer

Sorry for my lack of activity. Actually, not really that sorry. Just explaining. Other things have taken priority including family stuff, landscaping my yard, golf, base ball, and just generally taking advantage of this blip in time known as our summer. I am sure other members of the local alternative media will keep you informed and entertained while I piss around over here, including the always insightful Policy Frog, newbie Don Street, and all the others.

I do still have half an eye open on the local goings-on, and I have to say there have been some tremendous developments:

I'm so happy that city hall has approved giving $7m of rapid transit community centre Kildonan Park money to fund a water park. This is good news, because if a private developer hasn't built a kick-ass water park in Winnipeg yet it obviously is never going to happen, right? And we need a kick-ass water park in order to be a world-class city, and everybody wants Winnipeg to be a world class city, right? Ergo, we must divert public money to a water park. Simple logic 101!

More good news ... a record was broken in Winnipeg! Oops sorry .. wrong link there. My mistake.

Catch you on the flip side of the weekend.



If I had a million dollars, I'd buy a lot of coke. Heh.

Friday Afternoon Update

I have absolutely nothing to talk about. I am totally uninspired. It is 5 o'clock on Friday and I started drinking 3 hours ago. Not that that has anything to do with my lack of blog output -- in fact it may help given enough time and beer -- but I just thought it might help indicate my frame of mind at the moment.

So, with nothing to contribute to the pressing issues of the day like, what Winnipeg's new slogan should be ( and which of the varous polls you should bother voting in, if any) ... actually I have my own write in suggestion that I mentioned on the NewWinnipeg web forum: "Here be giant banners" ... But don't bother with that. Vote in MrChristian's poll instead. Anyhow, where was I? Oh ya right, birds ... I'll give you an update on the bird that nested in my front yard, since I KNOW that you're dying to find out how the family is doing.

Ok. The little blue eggs














successfully hatched into little wee baby chipping sparrows
















(Trust me, they're in that picture somewhere)

And then one day shortly thereafter the nest was empty. No sign of a struggle. No baby birds on the ground or blood of anything. Just gone. Mama bird was flying around with a worm desperately trying to find her babies so she could feed them. So sad. I suspect a crow nabbed them out of the nest. Damn crow.

Sorry for the downer. I'll change the subject:

If you happen to be in the area of the art gallery in the afternoon between Tuesday and Friday until the end of the month, pop into the WAG Studio and check out the student art show. There's some crappy stuff, some weird stuff, and some really good stuff too. And some of my stuff. Specifically this. (Looks better in person, I think) I should have submitted this too, but oh well...

I'll be back next week with hard-hitting commentary on the newest Winnipeg Megaproject, whatever that happens to be. Ciao.