April 4, 2008
Harper Says No, Art Car Good To Go, Cheers For Generous Joe
Prime Minister Stephen Harper won't be attending the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, but says that it has nothing to do with the current situation in Tibet. A cautious Canada walks the middle ground of diplomacy, earning the emnity of the Chinese government without even making a useful political statement.
Tory MP Tom Lukiwski has apologized for homophobic remarks he made on video back in 1991, when he referred to "homosexual faggots with dirt under their fingernails that transmit diseases." Although the remarks have inspired outrage, Conservative party officials have said that Lukiwski will not be removed from the party because he has apologized and because he really loves the caucus.
The famed "Flintstones car" has been found roadworthy. The pedal-powered shell of an '86 Buick, built by Montreal artist Michel de Broin, was pulled over by police while rolling down a Toronto street last October and the driver rider guy inside charged with operating an unsafe vehicle. A court found yesterday that the artwork/social commentary/practical joke was safe but annoying to authorities, who don't like stuff that's silly.
John Maxwell, owner of Allen's restaurant on the Danforth, has paid $30,000 for a bottle of 50-year-old single malt Scotch. Maxwell said he has not decided whether to sell the high-priced beverage to Scotch connoisseurs at $1750 a shot, or "just get totally wasted."
Honest Ed may have passed, but his spirit is alive and well on Bloor Street West. Butcher Jose "Generous Joe" Lima, who won $14.5 million in the lottery last week, spent yesterday handing out bags of free chicken legs to thousands of people who lined up outside the shop where he works near Bloor and Dufferin. Thanks for the tip, A. Puppy!
Photo by micsten.
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Memeber of Parliament Tom Lukiwski's recent apology reminds me of a favourite quote by Canadian pioneer Nellie McClung: "Never retreat, never explain, never apologize; just get the thing done and let them howl."
Indeed, Lukiwski's comments were inappropriate. So were a lot of people's comments about gays and AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s, when we were uninformed and terrified of contracting the disease through casual contact, kisses, mistakingly drinking from the same glass, and handshakes. Does anyone else rememember the woman with HIV in the early 1990s (I believe) who was on trial at College Park court, and the paranoia over touching doorknobs at College Park for fear of contracting the deadly virus?
We ALL says things that are inappropriate when we are younger, less informed, and in many instances, stupid. The man has apologized for his comments, and let's leave it at that, and not crucify him for something he said 17 years ago.
@Doggiez
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I can remember that swimming pools were drained and disinfected because some person who had been there had contracted polio.
Imagine, Sunnyside or Christie Pits closed for 2 weeks during the summer heat wave of the 1950s.
Good comment, David E. It's incredible to think Toronto used to have TB clinics, and screen potential immigrants for infectious diseases. I wonder if we even do that anymore?
"Does anyone else rememember the woman with HIV in the early 1990s (I believe) who was on trial at College Park court, and the paranoia over touching doorknobs at College Park for fear of contracting the deadly virus?"
Naw, I was too young at the time to be aware of that, but I do remember this from two months ago.
Conservative party officials have said that Lukiwski will not be removed from the party because he has apologized and because he really loves the caucus.
...and because Lukiwski was actually saying what they've all really felt.
The compact building at the south-west corner of Ross St. and College St. (very near Spadina) is the old Gage Institute where the permanent chest X-ray machine was located. If you look closely, you'll see shadows of lettering removed decades ago.
Gage was the textbook publisher and he was concerned with respiratory illnesses, hence the institute.
At Bloor & Jane, we had a chest X-ray facility run by the Gage Institue. It operated from a store front. I would sometimes go in and visit the nurse and chat with her.
In grade 9 at my high school, one of my classmates from East Germany tested positive for TB and she went to the Weston Sanitarium. She never returned to Humberside and all traces of her ran cold--no forwarding address.
Doggiez: I agree that times were different then and that people really were less enlightened and said stupid, ignorant things, but the thing that tends to creep me out about this is how the current Conservatives aren't the PCs of old, but include the vicious remnants of the Alliance/Reform party. That fact alone makes me take comments like that from a Conservative MP with a big, fat dose of skepticism. He may be legitimately penitent, but I wonder more if he's just embarrassed that he got caught saying things that are still said all too frequently behind closed doors in familiar company.
I can hear Graham Chapman now...
"Yes, I'm sorry but this car is just too silly to drive. Off with you."
Those wings look raw.
He was 40 years old when he made those comments. It may have been 17 years ago but he wasn't a kid shooting off his mouth. He was a grown man with fully formed opinions. Despite his apology I doubt his views have changed much. 1991 wasn't the Dark Ages for god's sake.
Could this finally be what it takes for the wider public to realize the Cons are still the same scary social conservatives after all?
In 1991 I was religious, conservative, and would certainly have been opposed to any gay marriage legislation.
In 2008 I am still religious and conservative, but am inclined to support gay marriage on simple grounds of human decency and equality. And my fiancée and I have shared our home with a gay housemate for the past couple years.
You guys need to get out of the house more often and get those straw men some fresh air.
Steve Harper won't attend the 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies. He must think they're in Toronto.
@pman
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Perhaps the real reason is that Tim Horton has no stores in the Middle Kingdom. No Timbits.
It's great that "Generous Joe" won the lottery, but folks should take their weekly ticket money to the bank instead. Id you want to be a millionaire, start saving and investing with your first job.
Cheers,
Tuds