March 7, 2008
Ford Never Sorry, Sikh Refused Constitutional Right To Brain Injury, UN Must Not Be On Crack
City councillor, unintentional humourist, and Torontoist favourite Councillor Rob Ford has grabbed himself some headlines again. He refuses to apologize for his comments on Wednesday, "the Oriental people, they're slowly taking over...they're hard, hard workers," because his sweeping generalization was intended as "a compliment." However, a spokesperson for the Canadian Council of Lazy Asians has said that the remarks were "deeply offensive."
A devout Sikh man has lost his bid to overturn the law requiring all motorcyclists to wear helmets. The Crown rejected Baljinder Singh Badesha's assertion that helmet laws infringe his religious freedom to wear a turban, arguing that non-helmeted riders were far more likely to be seriously injured in any accident, with the medical costs passed along to society. There's actually a potential compromise here—if Badesha would waive his right to any medical treatment necessitated by his irrationality, then when he inevitably cracks his head open on a curb (or "joins the Gary Busey fan club," as it's known in biker circles), the rest of us can contemplate the folly of interfering with natural selection without having to pay for it.
In the misty Otherworld of U.S. politics, the Clinton team is demanding that the primaries in Florida and Michigan, which don't count, should count, on account of she won them. The Democratic party may hold the primaries again, giving the tiny group of voters who choose from the tiny pool of candidates the ability to maintain the fantasy that this has something to do with democracy. The issue is particularly sensitive in Florida, where many people still think Al Gore is President.
The United Nations has slammed Canada for programs that provide free crack pipes to drug users in three cities, including Toronto. The Ontario Ministry of Health stands behind their programs, saying that they are essential for poor single parents and others who otherwise might not be able to afford recreational crack use.
A report to be released by the Department of Natural Resources says that climate change will lead to more "ice storms, torrential downpours, floods, droughts and landslides" in Canada. On the other hand, Canadian wines may be improved by the warmer weather, and it'll help to have a little buzz going as the environment collapses.
Also, we're getting a whack more snow this weekend, and you get to lose an hour of sleep to daylight savings time. Welcome to March, and sorry about everything.
Photo by Jamuudsen from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
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What is with this nasty snarky attitude that Torontoist has picked up in the last week or two?
Its just not sexy. Its grating and very tiring to read -- I didn't realize you guys hated everything now -- even Daylight Saving Time.
Why doesn't somebody just invent a kevlar turban already? Problem solved!
And everybody hates daylight saving time. Lousy farmers.
"Welcome to March, and sorry about everything."
This is gonna be my new personal mantra. I hate March. Lousy month.
Jeez, why are all Sikhs referred to as "devout?" What is a non-devout Sikh, someone who sits around in their underwear watching porn all day, driking beer and eating pulled pork sandwishes?
Mmm, pulled pork!
Wow, what gives, UN? I happen to work at a health centre that distributes crack kits to homeless, and it's a hell of a lot better than using broken ginseng bottles.
(Ever wonder why convenience stores have those little tubes of ginseng by the checkout? You guess it - smoking crack.)
Problem is, people share broken crackpipes, sometimes people with chapped, bleeding lips from being out in the cold so much, and that spreads HIV.
How could the UN be trying to prevent the spread of HIV and oppose safer crack use and safer injection sites?
Hypocrites.
"The Oriental people"
What does that mean, people who live east of the DVP?
I wouldn't say that you lose an hour of sleep. It's Sunday, you should be sleeping in anyways. The truly devout know that it's a sin to wake up before noon on a Sunday.
"The Oriental people"? Wasn't that a song by Marilyn Manson? Oh wait, that's "The Beautiful People."
I hate reorienting my clock.
Ford was so gross on Global News last night, playing up for the cameras while he fakely took an alleged call from one of his constituents, and was all, "Oh, so you DON'T think I should apologize! Ah ha ha ha..." and then trying verrrrrrry hard to say "Asian" instead of "Oriental."
When he had to say it, he would pause for a split second to make sure he was saying the right word. "I'm not going to apologize unless someone from the O...Asian community asks me." Painful to watch.
And then Global reported that he is thinking of making a run for mayor.
Considering Ford's racist attitude (Gino-Boy, the sian peril), I wouldn't want to be with him the next time he goes to an Italian restaurant, or opens an exploding fortune cookie.
Don't forget how he says that HIV is really only about crackheads and teh gheys, and that it's a cyclist's own fault if they get creamed by a car.
I keep wondering how Ford has been able to survive, politically, this long. I read the Wikipedia article on him and it was pretty interesting. I think I now know what I need to do to run effectively in his ward. LOL
Ford's big mouth makes him a media anti-darling but I'd bet there are a lot of voters out there who secretly think that being aggressively politically incorrect is kind of cool.
Lousy Smarch weather!
I'm willing to bet Ford plays to the Sun crowd. He's probably got a sizable amount of supporters.
Rob Ford as mayor of Toronto, eh? But he's so politically incorrect, offensive, and seems to have his foot permanently stuck in his mouth. Oh wait, I think that's the campaign that Mel Lastman ran on, and it worked for him.
I say let him run for mayor.
Hopefully the slightly higher profile and increased scrutiny of a mayoral bid would completely overwhelm him. How do you get elected when you've actually alienated everyone in the city? Is he really popular with the SUN crowd, per se? I think he gives blue collar joes a bad name! I wouldn't want him representing me. He's a crass jackass.
Having said that, Patrick's got a point. He is making the most of it. He certainly plays up this politically incorrect angle.
Ling: I wish I could find a link, but there's an editorial cartoon from (I believe) the Globe and Mail entitled "The Lastman Years". It ran around the time Lastman left office. It shows a car full of clowns and various other characters (labelled with scandals that arose during Lastman's time in office) driving away from Toronto. The city is shown with a thought bubble, thinking "Well, that was interesting..."
If Ford actually becomes the mayor, I call for the republication of the cartoon with the caption "Well, this should be interesting..."
Ford is the designated media distracter for the right specifically positioned to make Case Ootes not look half as dangerous as he actually is.
I really really really really really hope that Rob Ford runs for mayor.
what's with this over developed canadian sense of political correctness ...or is it "ameri-centric" sense??...no...wait, it's "hypocri-centric" . has anyone noticed that you cannot call a duck a duck anymore?
Since when has calling Asians "Orientals" been acceptable. It's akin to calling me colored.
I agree with you, David. Let's see Ford run for mayor. That would provide the sharp contrast to those who were truly serious about the office.
When one has the likes of Tom Jakobek or Mel Lastman as a rival candidate, their values and beliefs stand in sharp relief to the truly serious candidate. That makes the serious candidates' work all that much easier.
Bring on the clowns. Remember that you should never argue with an idiot because bystanders won't know who's the idiot.
"Oriental" is an old-fashioned term used to describe the Far East. It is no longer widely used. Here's an article from CBC's website about Ford and the term:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2008/03/07/oriental-outdated.html
There are far more extreme examples of political correctness, which I agree can be taken too far. However, referring to people from Asia as Asians isn't political correctness gone mad. It's simply doing away with old-fashioned (some would argue imperialist) terminology over a more modern and more accurate term.
Or was the duck in this case "hard working"?
Last week, I peripherally overheard people in downtown Toronto use both "coloured" and "Chinaman," and it was like, whaaat? Did I just slip into a time warp? It's not like these terms were updated last week.
I also don't know how one can be a councillor for seven years in a city with such an enormous Asian population and still not know that "Oriental" has become long obsolete.
As Margaret Cho says, rugs are oriental; people are Asian.
It reminds me of when I was growing up in Seattle. I once heard my friends grandmother refer to me as a "Hershey Kiss".
How about "twinkie" (yellow on the outside, white on the inside), or "CBC" (Canadian-Born Chinese)?
The last time I heard "Oriental" unironically would have been in McDonald's $1,000,000 Menu Song circa 1989: "Chicken Salad Oriental."
While we're going back in time like Doc and Marty, I personally think they should bring back the term "Celestial." It's so poetic. Don't you think?
I don't get the natural selection bit in the post...
oh, well...pretty soon asian will be a thing of the past...just because there is asian-fusion food, and look what happened to oriental as in oriental carpets....of course you can take this further and refuse to call the swiss swiss because only cheese can be swiss and only irish ale can be irish....viener schnitzel...french kiss...berlin wall...i'm not even attempting to go into jewish...
The best thing about Ford running for mayor would not necessarily be the endless freebies he'd give his more worthy opponents or the comic relief for the press. The best thing would be that in running for mayor he'd be giving up his position as (apparent) councillor-for-life.
I have a Newfie uncle who still uses "negro" unfortunately.
Dipp re: " don't get the natural selection bit in the post..."
Yeah, it's pretty opaque - the only defense I can offer is that it made sense to me when I wrote it at 6 am.
What I was trying to say is that requiring riders to wear helmets when they'd prefer not to is interfering with natural selection (survival of the smartest) which is a foolish thing to do, so long as we don't have to pay for the consequences of not doing it.
I still can't figure out if the sentence actually says that - I can think of half a dozen ways to phrase it better but I think the moment for correcting it has passed.
Fair enough. Mr. Badesha may not share that view however.
@ t-rek: Me too. Well, my uncle isn't from Newfoundland, but it's cringe-level embarrassing.
In the March 11 edition of the Toronto Sun, it seems like Rob Ford has made apoligies to the Chinese community under the headline, 'Oriental' comments dog Ford.
I still question using "Chinese" and "dog" in the same headline. Cat, perhaps?
Hey, another one! First the Sikhs, now tghe Muslims. Wheee!
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/350404