Friday, February 12, 2010

All The Spectacle That Fits

GhostingLeni
KliegLightVille



For all those going, either to watch or participate....

Have Fun at the Olympic Opening Ceremonies!


*****


And, while you stuff yourself with corporate-logoized Bread at the Circus ('cause you will be dragged away like a rabid dog if you have the temerity to try and bring in a baguette from home), try not to think too much about what we could have done with the $40 million that tonight's spectacle is costing us.

Like, say, oh I dunno....

How about continuing to fund ALL of the Biomedical Research in British Columbia for one year?

Why did I say 'continuing', above?

Well, it turns out that the British Columbia government of Mr. Gordon Campbell decided, for all intents and purposes, to choke the agency that oversees that funding to death earlier this year.

To the Rings!

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11 comments:

BC Mary said...

RossK,

That's one terrible line ... enough to chill the spine ... in your comments today about Biomedical research cutbacks.

I'm so sorry.

British Columbia is caught in an Orwellian nightmare where the truth is too awful to believe.

There was one line in the Speech from the Fake Throne, this week during the Fake sitting of the Legislature ...

mention is made of "folding BCRail into government ..." At first, I couldn't understand what it meant. Then old memories, old investigations began to re-assemble the precious assets still under BCRail ownership — like the 3 miles of waterfront lands in North Vancouver, for one example — are vulnerable to further giveaways.

There’s an aerial panorama map of this at my place today (thanks to Gary E).

http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/

There are 2,509 parcels of BC Rail lands ... Gordo and friends must be drooling. For Shirley Bond to be talking about doing this “to save money” is stretching the truth beyond the breaking point.

And here's Gordo under cover of The Games trying to stuff all this under the mattress at the Transportation Ministry (where the BCR-CN deal was tainted and botched in the first place) ... well. So statesmanlike.

I kinda think your one line about Biomedical Research in BC for one year might have a big significance too.

I'm so very sorry, Ross.
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Unknown said...

MCFD cuts 5 million and people arecrying at the visionof the torch demagoguery

Anonymous said...

MCFD cuts 5 million and people arecrying at the visionof the torch demagoguery

Mr. Beer N. Hockey said...

Who needs medical research when we can all look cool in our red mittens?

RossK said...

Mary--

I really only used that particular example as one among many as maryann so clearly points out.

In fact, even more egregious is the the thought that what the security bund it is costing us for private cops, concrete, cameras, helicopter gunships, paramilitary off-terrain vehicles careening across sidewalks, and helicopter gunships to find household packages on the edges of Burrard Inlet could actually be used to fund Biomedical Research in this province in perpetuity.

Seriously.....the Michael Smith Health Research Foundation could run forever on just a 5% annual return on $1 billion dollars.

RossK said...

maryann--

Very, very, very good point.

What I find most terrible about what is going on at the MCFD is that it appears to be a mix of of both money and ideology that is being used to screw over kids in this province.

And this is one of those places where I really and truly believe that the PAB does us a huge disservice when it tries to make it seem like Ms. Lesley du Toit et al. are doing their level best to implement the Hughes Report's recommendations when they are actually taking massive coal-bed methane-burning blow torches to the thing.

Thank the goddess for Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond.

(and anyone who is not following these goings on via Sean Holman's PublicEye Online is not getting even close to the real story).

Finally, for anyone (and that should be everyone in this province, ESPECIALLY those currently in the throes of the demagoguery) a full backgrounder on this can be found here, which was written back in the days before I was instructed to get my irate-o-meter in check to keep my blood pressure from going ballistic.

sheesh.

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RossK said...

Beer--

And when the dye rubs off in the rain and starts the basal epidermal stem cells proliferating resulting in a massive dendritic cell driven inflammatory response mediated by toll-like receptor induced NFkB signalling that causes huge skin welts that can be seen by TeeVee cameras all over the world....

Who's gonna pay for the research to figure out the cause of that disfigurement on the demagogued then?

Huh?

_____
writing stuff like the above, apparently, OK on the irate-o-meter scale because, as HST once said (i.e. after he took a break from that soul-destroying Salazar killing piece to go to Vegas with his attorney), letting your fingers run roughshod over the keyboard once-in-awhile is 'good medicine'.

Or some such thing.

And with that, you'll have to excuse me, because....I've gotta get to work and start writing another grant to try and keep my lab afloat...Just hope I don't have a cow watching the Circus unfold right outside my window....gurrrrr....

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G West said...

Best of luck Ross...something's indeed rotten in the state of 'Denmark'.

Be strong.

BC Mary said...

Oh. Well then ... still very sorry,

but not so worried about you.
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RossK said...

GWest and Mary--

The research cuts are crummy, but if were a betting man, I'd take pretty short odds that it will be reborn/branded for maximal photo-op exploitation down the road....

What is really awful, in my opinion at least, is what is happening, on purpose and with malice aforethought, at MCFD.

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Anonymous said...

nice post. thanks.