10Sep 2024 by R&O No Comments
The Guilty Taxpayers

The Guilty Taxpayers

Crime, Economy, Life, Life in Vancouver, Observations, Politics, Rants
While making my way to work in 2011 along Powell Street in downtown Vancouver I was given a pamphlet while waiting at a traffic light. The guy who approached me as I sat at the light mumbled something about 'Save the downtown Eastside' as he presented his informative missive. The title read 'BOYCOTT! Pantages/Sequel 138 - Condo$ are Destroying Our Low-Income Community'. This is asking the working, contributing taxpayer to support their quest to maintain the tattered, depressing hell-hole that is our downtown Eastside. Let's save the slums, the misery, the abject poverty and the legions of drug-addled, homeless people wandering into traffic. Vancouver's downtown Eastside eats the city from within, spreading its filth and drug addiction through violence and crime, affecting the lives of all that live and work…
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20Jan 2013 by R&O 2 Comments

Not the face of hunger

First Nation, People, Politics, Rants
Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence is in the news due to her recent 'hunger strike' in which she purportedly subsisted on a diet of fish broth, vitamins and tea. It amazes me that she's managed to maintain her round, blob-like features even though she has restricted her caloric intake to practically nil while living in a small tent until she secures a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gov. Gen. David Johnston to discuss "treaty issues". But alas, our round, fat, well-fed chief was really 'freshening up' in a local hotel and sampling the local cuisine when she should have been squatting, drumming and annoying the very taxpayers who pay her salary, her bottom-feeding boyfriend's salary and most of the members of her Northern Ontario tribe of approximately 2800. These…
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16Nov 2011 by R&O No Comments
What’s Up in the Gobi?

What’s Up in the Gobi?

Of Interest, Politics, The World
What's going on in China's Gobi Desert? There's been much speculation about the recent Google Map satellite pictures showing strange and mysterious structures, some containing burned out vehicles and planes sitting in the sands of the largest desert in Asia. Internet sites are abuzz about the reason for the odd installations, who built them and what they do. Although not a top-of-news event (although it appeared briefly on an unnamed local newspaper site but was relegated to bottom billing after pictures of Robert Redford shooting a movie in Vancouver appeared. Who's interested in Robert fucking Redford anyway? Hey newspaper website...'The Way We Were' is over. Time to move on). With winter temperature of -40 C and summertime heat up to + 50 C, it's a strange place to build anything…
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22Oct 2011 by R&O 7 Comments
The Dangers of Voting

The Dangers of Voting

Business, Of Interest, Politics, Rants
Municipal elections almost upon us and once again we pick the people that will guide the future of our respectives home towns. And in every November 19th vote lies the danger of electing the wrong people for the job. We've done it before and we'll probably do it again. Take my home town for example. Port Moody is a quaint little town, part of the tri-cities which includes Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam. It was quiet and uncongested until our city council decided to award building permits to every schmoe that held out their hands. Since our arrival from the bowels of Vancouver our daily commute time in and out of Port Moody has doubled, lineups for banking, shopping and most other services have increased and the general quality of life…
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