Jacques Cartier screwed up...

I was talking with a good friend of mine today, a small business owner here in Montreal. For the last 25 years he's owned a guitar store and also worked on and off as a high school English teacher.

We were talking today, as we usually do, about the political climate in Quebec. With Jacques Parizeau trying to revive separatism in his new book, with the Franco-racist-Brotherhood and Unions trying to push the government to go against the supreme court and stop French and immigrant parents from sending their kids to English Private school (because they're not allowed to go to English public school unless both parents are primarily English) and talking about where the hell our money goes.

To sum up the conversation, we both live in a province that should be proud of its heritage and want to motivate others to embrace it but insteand we shove it down everyone's throat and play the victim. We live in a province where our gazillions of tax dollars seems to disappear. We also live in a province where Unions are bankrupting cities and choking government infrastructure.

My friend, as always, has very extreme views on this and he's prepared to back them up... Here's what he says: "Muchacho, if I ever find out I'm ill and I'm going to die I swear to god I'm going to burn this whole place down and move down south. Where life is simple, the government won't tax me to death and I can get a decent blowjob before breakfast."

A mutual friend decided last year to pack up, sell everything and move to a Caribbean island and live the life. So I'm guessing that this is where my friend got his idea that on the islands everyone gets head before breakfast. Either way, the point is that here we were, two tax paying french born citizens contemplating on the ways our government screws us on a daily basis.

My friend lights a cigarette and looks at me and says: "When Jacques Cartier discovered this place, he should have just kept going south. He really screwed up..."

Chairman Mao, The Abe Licoln of Asia?

In a press conference held by China's communist party prior to the long awaited arrival of US President Barrack Obama equated China's invasion of Tibet in 1959 to Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves in America.

That's right folks, the communist regime that limits speech, screens the internet, massacred people in Tienanmen Square and portrays the Dalai Lama as a "violent separatist", did not in fact (as well all previously thought) annex the peaceful nation of Tibet in 1959. No, we were wrong, they liberated Tibet from under the oppressive thumbs of the Nobel Peace prize winning Dalai Lama.

It's a good thing that China's government is there to clear things up for me, because up until this point it appears that I had misinterpreted the photos of Chinese soldiers executing monks in the streets and burning buildings; it appears that world news agencies also doctored the footage of Chinese military violently silencing peaceful protesters in Tibet prior to the Olympics.

China is entitled to their opinion on the matter and I'm glad that it is being shared with us, especially prior to the arrival of the "leader of the free world". Because, to paraphrase Beijing: "The President should really understand China's point of view, seeing as how he is black and black people were slaves... And they were liberated right? So yeah, that's what we did in Tibet! Only we just thought of it now, like 60 years after the invasion...sorry I meant Liberation. See? We really care about the people of the world. So Mao is a really cool guy, no worries there."

For my part, I'm just not buying what Beijing is selling. Mao might be a lot of things but the one thing he is not is a caring liberator of oppressed people.

Thursday Morning Stupidity

While I was sitting at my laptop writing a post (unpublished as of yet) recapping my Remembrance Day with my grandfather so total asshole decided that he would rob the Legion in Scarborough Ontario of the money that veterans collect with the yearly sale of Remembrance Day poppies.

The Globe and Mail reported an armed man entered the basement of the Legion building where veterans were counting the donations received in the annual Remembrance Day campaign. He pointed a gun at an 84 year old veteran and demanded all the "bills".

The veteran lunged at the man with the gun and tried to subdue him, with the help of another veteran, who was 64, the intruder dropped his gun and fled on foot.

I'm not sure what kind of idiocy compelled the would be thief, I mean really... Is there no respect left in this world that someone would rob elderly war veterans of the money they collect for charity? And to do it after the one day of the year the entire nation stops to honor them?

I sincerely hope the police catch this man, put his face on the news and make sure that the entire country knows who he is.

For my Grandfather....

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

I'm outta here....

E.K.

EK was in his teens, a young man with a promising life ahead of him. He came from a middle class family and went to a decent school, he was a basketball star and he was at least a little popular... Or so the story goes.

I only met EK after the Accident.

The story goes like this... EK was jumped by a couple of guys and beaten in the head with a baseball bat. EK survived, his mental capacity however did not. EK is now a child in a man's body. EK's brother, while EK was recovering, found the guys that beat him and exacted revenge. He is now in jail for a really long time.

So EK's parents grew to despise their son and EK just ended up roaming the streets talking to everyone. A few times in his life, he fell in with the wrong crowd, pimps and drug dealers would use him to carry money or mule for them because the cops would never arrest EK and because he was big, strong, loyal and above all not very smart.

Evert now and again, I see EK when I'm driving or walking my dogs and he just comes up and talk to me about random stuff.

"Hey Muchacho you ever been to Compton?"
"No EK, I've never been there... have you?"
"No... it's bad in Compton."
"I know it is EK."
"Hey Muchacho... why is it bad in Compton?"
"People get shot EK, people have no money."
"Why don't people have money in Compton?"
"I'm not sure EK, you should ask them if you go."
"I will ask them when I go... but I'm not going to go. It's bad in Compton."

And so the story goes with EK.
This guys is probably the deepest thinker I know and I'm not even kidding. His innocent childlike reasoning has taken me aback many times with his insanely existential questions about human nature and the goodness of people and with his faith that the city he roams will protect him and provide for him.

So while some see EK and cross the street because they don't want to have a 2 hours conversation and others see him and feel pit; I look at EK and I see the person he is inside: a good man, with a good heart, without an once of malice inside him. He's happy and as I've always said: It's better to be happy and ignorant than be miserable and smart.

Apology

Well hello again everyone... First off, I'd like to say that for those who are going to read this, I apologize for not posting more often but I just lost track of time and things and work has been getting the better of me.