Jerks & Jocks & Wannabees

A few years back I wrote an email to sports "writer" Ed Willes at the Province lambasting him and his ilk for hurrahing these "games".
I called him out on the obvious pandering he and his fellow "writers" are obliged to indulge in, the convenient ignorance and blithe stupidity they'd have to indulge in, just so he and his pals could get to rub up against the monied and the newly famous.
He wrote back, calling me "Dick Eyes" and spouting some insane gibberish about the hopes and dreams of some fantasy kid.
Needless to say Ed and the ladies over at the Province are still obligingly close mouthed and strikingly short-sighted on the trampling of rights. Oh - he'll happily go on scrawling some dim-witted screed about steroid enhanced baseball players and the "damage" such indiscretion does to the "purity" of the game. But don't touch on civil liberties Eddie... no, you can't do that.

Did I mention that I think sports writers are amongst the lowest form of scribblers?
You bet they are.

Balloons

That balloons and blogs are actually thought dissent shows how bothered most REALLY are.

The majority offer platitudes; but at their core revel in the safety of their oligarchic masters. Typing, balloons, ethical funds might make one feel better about their inactivity as we drift to totalitarianism.

When the Raifs of the world are willing to give up their condo period, that's when change might happen. Everything else is tilting at windmills

I suppose, though, he'd just go live on his boat.

The olympics have never been

The olympics have never been a true form of pure sport. Further back than I can remember, they have been mired in controversy. Besides all of the doping problems we have been hearing about for years, there have been the issues over professional versus amateur atheletes, millionare hockey players etc,. etc., etc. ad naseum.

Worse than all of that have been the corruption scandals involving the IOC itself. The scams, and briberies surrounding the members of the committee are pretty well documented and now we see that they are getting all sorts of special perks, such as 5-star hotel rooms, limousine services, 30 million dollar bonuses to hand out, and so on. The list seems to be endless! And I was told that the olympics were for the atheletes. . . foolish me!

Then there are the politics. From Germany to Russia to China, and now British Columbia the games themselves have almost always beem mired more in controversy than competition, including the inevitable costs overuns that have plagued them.

Now we have the billion dollar security issues and infringements on our rights to dissention. Instead of the IOC handing out gold medals to athletes, we, the people, should be handing tarnished brass to the committee, the politicians, and anyone else who thinks that this schmozzle was a good idea in the first place.

The deathly clump of Gestapo jackboots......................

..............is slowly turning BC into a sleazy crime ridden, utterly corrupt province, where the rule of law is no more.

Geof Meggs and his Gordo lickspittal ilk, only believe in the right of the 'elites' and care nothing for the real rule of law.

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms? Just a scrap of paper to be discarded when the 'Great Unwashed' believe it protects them.

Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and all those greater and lesser realms of dictatorship, are the model that the wealthy elites want BC to turn into - power for themselves only!

The police and the courts are a joke, who assaults and insults the public daily.

The Olympics, instead of showing the best of athleticism, instead exposes the evil that is fraught in every society.

Evil to the Olympics as the evil the Olympics do to us.

Hail Victory!!

I'm sure it's all been said before, but what can you expect from a fascist organization like the IOC? It's nothing for them to send their neo-nazi bootboys to stomp on a few faces to promote their vision of a perfect world. All of these dystopian measures are actually required by the IOC and stipulated in contracts with host cities. We can thank Jim Furlong and VANOC for bringing this mess to our province. There is no doubt that freedoms will be violently trampled on during their 16 day party. Months or years after, there will be inquests and panels looking into these crimes to appease the public, but it will all be a show. We've seen it many times before and obviously learned nothing.

You had me there.

Well should we all go on holidays during the Oly's. I would love to and Raif, if I could, I'd go with you. Rights are always going to be trampled on with events like these and of course other events and stratagems. Take the secret dealings to build a Marina in Victoria's inner harbor as another good example. Raif clearly said it before, and I paraphrase; Governments are elected because they will promise you to act on your behalf when really they are acting on the corporate (unelected) behalf. I know, poorly said but you get the gist. The olympics are just that, a mega corporation no worse or better than a multinational corporation threatening to take their business elsewhere if they don't get a tax break or the banks that are financing them. Just yesterday it was announced that the huge "bonuses" are back. The olys are no different. $30 Mil in bonuses for putting the tax payers in BC in debt for who knows how long? Wow! I want a job like that! I think I could qualify easily. I sending my resume in to all the banks today and couriering one to Furling and the IOC.

Rule BY Law vs Rule OF Law

The really pernicious aspect of authoritian Western regimes is how many laws they pass. 1930's Italy and Germany made extensive use of carefully crafted legislation. The US, now one of the most undemocratic of states, passed law after law after law to spy on citizens, breach the constituion and detain people without warrant.

BC has jumped right into the melee, passing its own unconstituional laws and statutes. We have moved from Rule of Law to Rule by Law, with the use of police, enfocement agencies and muscle. Just like the others.

Rule by Law also takes significant cooperation with the legal community, judges and the courts. Gandhi was highly critical of the legal community in India when it supported unjust English laws and called upon lawyers and judges to boycott Indian courthouses. Some joined him. And in the end, Gandhi's direct action won.

Chris Shaw is standing up for the very essence of what the western victory of WWII was supposed to stand for. And BC's elites and corporatations appear to have almost no insight into our history. Shame on them.

Rafe, you have come through with a clarion call, yet again!

you have good hindsight Rafe

Well, there you go again Rafe!
Making hay about mistakes you made in the past.
Just like Red Skelton made sketches about his silly mistakes.
It seem to me that the Tyee could find writers who have a record of thinking clearly the first time around?
There surely are enough people with hindsight to write the way Rafe does.
Of course the Olympics are a scam, the wonder is that so many "smart people" fall for it every time.

The City of Vancouver and

The City of Vancouver and the IOC have a contract, signed by then Mayor Larry Campbell, stipulating that legal matters between the parties will be resolved in a Swiss court.

Other documents require Vancouver to enact legislation consistent with The Olympic Charter.

Trouble is, Mayor Campbell had no legal authority to sign away the guaranteed Constitutional freedoms of the people. As such, the contract is null and void and will be declared so in a court of law once Dr. Shaw and Ms. Westergard-Thorpe's case against the City makes its way to court. It is crucial that this case be fast tracked because there is enormous potential for lawsuits from anyone who is harmed or whose property has been damaged in the course of rioting, police and security officers included, if the City is found liable for not having taken a stronger line against the IOC's oppressive demands.

The wisest thing the City can do is breach the relevant clauses of its contract with the IOC and fight that in court after the Games. At least there will be less chance of a public relations nightmare occurring on our streets for the world to see in February. And it could be found liable having received ample warning that police state tactics tend to escalate violence. Recent historical evidence backing up the case for a softer approach. The outcomes of large-scale events where demonstrations have occurred tend to depend on the approach taken by security personnel.

The City needs to work to soften the By-law sections concerning free speech. Security needs to get away from the idea of free speech zones. The inference there is it is unsafe to protest outside the zones. Protesters should be allowed to carry signs and banners anywhere through the City, as they might on a night when we host a Canucks home game and a rock concert at the same time. Let the activists exercise their freedom and things will work out well enough. Banning free speech is just another button pusher. This is Vancouver! Especially after Beijing, we should showcase the freedom that makes our democracy what it is.

It shouldn't need to end up in court. Mayor Robertson could do the Obama thing and invite Jacques Rogue over for a beer. I guess it wouldn't work so well now that I've said it, but something like that. Get creative. Twitter the guy or something.

Chris to speak in Ladner

Chris Shaw will be doing an event with The Council of Canadians here in Ladner Nov. 18.
Chris was here last February and many of us were shocked by what we heard, not only the real story of the Olympics but also the harassment of Chris by police. Since then Chris has been subject to even more "secret police" tactics.

He will be speaking:
Wed. Nov 18 7-9 p.m.
Ladner Pioneer Library
4683-51 St.
Delta {Ladner}

If you haven't read his book "Five Ring Circus"-it's necessary reading for us all.
Hope to see Tyee fans at the event on the 18th.

As far as tossing out the rights of Canadians...

As far as tossing out the rights of Canadians at a word from outsiders - I remember the ruckus around protests back when APEC was meeting out at UBC. Nevermind the infamous pepper spray incident: student activists were arrested without charge before any of that happened. All of this was to prevent the then-dictator of Indonesia, Suharto, from being embarrassed by signs reading "Democracy" as his entourage drove him to the airport. It reminds you what our political elite think is really important.

mea culpa

I am almost afraid to reply to this article, in fear of getting an unwanted visit from an Olympic security unit. Well, I'll live dangerously....

I have opposed these Games from the moment Glen Clark's NDP government enthusiastically helped launch the 2010 bid (this fact needs to be re-stated because I get tired of hearing NDP supporters claim ideological purity on this issue).

I haven't been active against the Games. I'm more with Rafe - I just want to get the hell out of town and avoid it if possible. But these latest shenanigans by the OSU, and new powers being given to municipal governments to enforce no-protest zones and sign regulations -- this is all making my blood slowly boil. And I suspect I'm not alone.

There are a small percentage of hyper-supporters of the Games in BC; and there are a small percentage of hyper-opponents. It's that 60-to-80% in the middle that always determines the way. That middle has been slowly, but surely, shifting to the opposition side of the fence. Nice little gestures, like last week's suggestion that athletes get priority H1N1 flu shots (even priority over the aged, sick and...), this is sure the make even the heartiest of supporters second-guess his/her support. The Billion dollar athletes village boondoggle - hey we may have to end up selling those social housing units on the private market just to break even!

Rafe, bravo for your mea culpa! It takes a journalist/commentator of integrity to publicly state such a thing.

priorities....

For those of us who have a conscience about the Olympics, the good fight may be in putting our money where our mouth is and not buying the products of the promoting companies (now, or ever again) and in holding the government to account.

Insisting that corporations develop a conscience, or to consider outcomes that are socially optimal, isn’t going to happen if we continue to allow their mantra to be the bottom line while we go on consuming without conscience. The negative externalities of our day to day, conspicuous consumption increasingly tramples on the human rights of millions of people. Who is the guilty party - the one who produces the good or the one who consumes it? While corporations have used every psychological trick in the book to promote buy, buy, buy, this does not excuse our and our government’s inability to choose what is necessary for life and what is not, and what is truly important and what is not.

We have gotten so used to being able to do the things we do that we don’t even recognize our complicity in trampling over what we trample over to get there. We also don’t recognize how psychologically numb we have become to being decent stewards of this poor beleaguered planet, to being decent brothers and sisters to the rest of humanity, and to how far we have come to being, as many posters eloquently state, “sheeple” to the corporate agenda.

Until we change our priorities the government isn’t going to change theirs and neither are the corporations.

Excited about the games?

Here is poll releaed on Oct. 17:

Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason writes today that, "The Innovative Research Group recently surveyed 3,416 Canadians online about the Olympics – including 549 in B.C."

1. EXCITED ABOUT THE GAMES?
IN BC
- 9 per cent said they were very excited
- 71 per cent said they were either not very excited or not excited at all.
IN CANADA
- 14 per cent said they were very excited
- 54 per cent said they were either not very excited or not excited at all.

2. ARE THE OLYMPICS A GOOD IDEA?
IN BC
- 20 per cent said it was a good idea
- 42 per cent said it was a mistake
- 36 per cent said they wouldn't know until after the Games were over
- 2 per cent didn't know
IN CANADA
- 19 per cent feel the Olympics are a mistake
- 31 per cent said it was a great idea
- 44 per cent think we won't know until after they're over
- 6 per cent didn't know.

Shocked by the results, Greg Lyle, managing director of Innovative, says, “We thought that, by and large, most people in B.C. would have thought the Olympics were a good idea. But clearly there are not many people gung-ho about it."

The column 'With the Games so close, harsh reality is setting in' can be read at http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/with-the-games-now-so-close-harsh-reality-is-setting-in/article1327783/?service=mobile.

Here is The Council of Canadians Statement on the 2010 Olympic Winter Games fyi: http://www.canadians.org/olympics/statement.html.

fascism

One has to wonder how and why the people of Germany allowed Hitler to turn their democratic country into a fascist state. They were an educated population yet they didn't protest the changes in time to deter Hitler from convincing them that his ideas were somehow justifiable. Now right here in BC we, the citizens, are allowing a similar event to take place. Under right wing conservative governments (Campbell is a conservative despite calling himself a liberal) the rights of ordinary citizens are being trampled on, large corporations are gradually taking complete control of the economy while the government passes laws that punish those that object to this change. History shows us this is exactly the way fascist governments begin and we know the outcome. Those of you who voted for Campbell will rue the day but we'll all pay the price.

disgusting cynicism

Alive: "It seem to me that the Tyee could find writers who have a record of thinking clearly the first time around?"
-----------------------------------------------------
Your cynicism is disgusting. For a high-profile individual to re-visit their initial views and opinions is something that should be encouraged; it only enhances credibility.

I have supported the Olympics but also oppose certain aspects of it. Alive: undoubtedly you're part of the whiny minority who wish for the Olympics to be a colossal failure so that you may selfishly prove some point and improve your self-worth.

More than anything I oppose people like you.

Conductor274

Those of you who voted for Campbell will rue the day but we'll all pay the price.

The 1990's NDP government got this Olympic ball rolling, and even now, both Carole James and the NDP Olympic critic are clearly on record as supporting the Games.

Do you think for a second that a vote for the NDP in the last election would have meant anything substantially different on the Olympic or Olympic security file? If you do, I have a brand-spanking new Olympic speed skating oval in Kelowna to sell you.

As for the Nazi analogy, I tell you what: If the BC Legislature mysteriously burns down, and a few months later Campbell passes a "Law for the Protection of People and State," followed by a BC Liberal version of the Gleichschaltung, a systematic forcing of all opposition political parties to be shut down, followed by the BC premier declaring the Charter null and void, then we can revisit your analogy.

Re: The Modern's criticism of wishing for colossal failure

There is a value in a colossal failure of the 2010 Olympics. It serves to educate the people of Vancouver and BC to be very wary and suspicious the next time somebody or some group tries to pull this sort of thing in the future.

We may lose a billion this time, but it might teach us a lesson so we don't lose 10 billion (inflation adjusted) in the future.

I shall not be a party-pooper for the 2010 Winter Olympics. In fact, I am praying for snow. Lots and lots and lots of snow. Every day.

It's good for the ski hills and the snow pack to boot.

Swallowing pride is not easy...

...But glad to see some people still able to admit when they are wrong. The closer we get to the spectacle the more people will come to our side. We need all of you, so when you are ready to switch sides, don't worry we won't judge you. Next week provides a great opportunity to ridicule the games and redeem yourselves. Come to Victoria and bring your super soaker. http://www.no2010victoria.net/

Don't ask, just apologize later

I spoke with a BCCLA lawyer who agreed the security forces intend to take whatever action they wish to "protect" the Olympics with full expectation that afterward, the greatest consequence will be a requirement to apologize. Much like police continuing to seize liquor without lawful cause even after a court determination. Punishment without consequence is license.

http://northerninsights.blogspot.com/2009/10/apologies-come-after-games.html

Olympics for a few, shut up, for the rest of us.

I agree with Chris Shaw as well. We, Lower Mainland Population, just seem to be a backdrop to the Olympics. A troublesome side show on the way to the games. Toss them in jail if they act up, its like a monarchy!!! Yet, we pay for it all.

I am really surprised that First nations wanted anything to do with it at all. Another disadvantaged group, lending their symbols to the OAC. For what?

What a joke.

torch

Check out Barry Larkin in wiki. Great torch hoax in 1956.

"The students wanted to protest against what they saw as "Too much reverence," to the flame, considering the Nazi origins. Larkin pretended to be an Olympic athlete, carrying a fake torch made out of a burning pair of underpants and a plum pudding can on the end of a chair leg. He presented it to the mayor of Sydney, Pat Hills, and escaped before anyone realized he was an imposter."

All the burning underpants details are in the longer account for Barry Larkin. Enjoy!

What next?

So what do you think the billion dollars worth of surveillance equipment is going to be used for after the games. Get ready to be on camera permanently.

freedom of peaceful assembly

In most BC municipalities now there are bylaws listing fines for illegal demonstrations, eg.

No person or persons shall be a member or members of or take part in any parade,
march or procession of any kind or nature or public meeting or other demonstration
of any kind or nature through, or on, any street, highway, public square or public
place of the City without a permit therefor first had and obtained from the Council.

No liability insurance, no permit.

A few years ago we were quoted (but didn't pay, changed location) $260 for an anti-war rally we'd planned for City Square. People who held a candlelight AIDS vigil did pay $75.

The point officials and the downtown business association etc make is that they aren't the ones charging the money, which of course must be paid to any insurance company.

I've advocated a press-photographed knit in, about a dozen women sitting around the stage, maybe some on it, knitting. Then, if the same players gather to protest the blood, lies and destruction piling up on Caspian Sea oil and gas, and get nailed for fines, I think we can claim something interesting like discrimination.

Also:

No. 1880 40. (1) Without restricting the generality or limiting the meaning of the terms “obstruct”
or “obstruction” as used in Sections 37 and 39, any person who lounges or loiters
upon any part whatsoever of any street or who takes part or joins in any gathering of
persons for street preaching, lecturing. or procession, shall be deemed to be
obstructing, or causing an obstruction to the free use of the street.

Municipal Ticket Information System Implementation Bylaw No. 2039, 2007
Participate in unlawful procession or demonstration 38 $100.00
presumably per participant.

Hinterland thanks Rafe

Though I endure living in a part of BC that Campbell Inc. undoubtably considers beyond Hope (both actually and metaphorically), I am paying hard-earned tax dollars to have this charade of a party take place. My tax dollars are supporting this while unwashed poorly clothed children go hungry to bed and unwell adults are living on our streets. Like Rafe, at first I was led to believe that the Olympics might be a good thing. In the way that the event, its security and the facilities have been planned and the contracts tendered, I no longer believe the Olympics are good.

Our modern day Olympics are a sham that need not be delivered with such fanfare. Isn't it supposed to be about the atheletes? I think the whole deal could have been put together with far less money. They could have skipped the hedge-funded athelete's village, the subway and the Convention Centre. They could have brought in a cruise ship or two to house the atheletes and their coaches, built some light rail and a couple of needed new venues in places that will not sink into Richmond silt - and we could have had a wonderful Olympics that left some useful legacies for about half the cost. This government is so wastefully foolish with our money.

a hack is a hack

to The Modern:
So you oppose people like me, who point out that ole Rafe is just a rabble-rouser who uses every opportunity to point out the obvious?

What he does for a living is merely stirring the pot on whatever issue that makes headlines.

His articles are well written but become tedious when he repeats his pet peeves endlessly.

Yes he has acknowledged his past mistakes (and he could fill a book with them I am sure); is that something we should applaud?

My call was for writers who have a record of being correct in their past efforts; not glorified hacks.

Praying for snow too...

Good Doctor, I'm praying for snow too. Tons of it! Masses of it! Delicious amounts that will be fun to play in and will bring even more fun as we watch our city's 47 (yup, count'em... 47!) snow plows desperately try to clear the streets of this so very appropriate venue for the winter olympics.
And Mr. Mair? Welcome to the team, sir.

Claim your rights

Anyone ever heard of Sect. 39 of the Criminal Code. Claim all your property as a right and you can protect it from all comers. Also all the bylaws are for persons. Look up the meaning of person in the Interpretation Act. Are you a person as defined? I think not.

There's still supporters for this thing?

Supporting the Olympics is akin to supporting parents that can't feed or clothe their family coming home with a new car and a big screen tv.

There's lots of real problems in BC and those of you that support the Olympics are the reason they're getting worse.

wayfarer

The Green Party supported the Olympics too.

A Tale of Two Cities

Vancouver like Montreal will take a generation to recover from the Winter Olympics of 2010. One can only hope it is the last time we hold a Modern Olympics in Canada.

mair

zalm: what good will a anti olympic marches do during the Olympics?
People have bought their tickets. The show must go on.
The time to have done the work of protest has long passed.
I think you are a bit too hard on this geezer who seemed to be out there 24/7 on the Save our Rivers campaign.
I'm not against a march or protest but it would be newsy only for a few short news spots.
I'm not sure about where the balloons end up. In rivers, streams, the ocean?
Perhaps the best protest is not to buy tickets.
jackets, t-shirts,caps with the olympic logo and an X over it could be worn.A sticker.

Olympics

The Greek city states, that founded the Olympic games, existed at a high level of civilization because they had slaves to do all the hard work, allowing the patricians with citizenship to sit around thinking and enjoying the spectacle of naked young men wrestling, hurdling and what not. It remind me somehow of the patricians now in power in BC. Remember, Chris Shaw, what the Greeks did with their gadfly, Socrates, who insisted on allowing slaves to sit in on his seminars on justice, etc?

What are these a**holes afraid of anyway? That the world will discover they are not descended from the gods? That people will learn the Olympic movement is as anti-democratic as were the Greek states in which it first came to life? The olympics as an ideal are dead, taken over by commercialism and bourgeois self aggrandizement, and the notion that a lot of medals at an olympic games somehow measures a country's greatness is absurd. I always thought we should be spending our money on something else, and the current, fascistic clamp down on free speech justifies any and all criticism anyone cares to level, no matter how ill-founded.

Chris Shaw blogs on the Vancouver Observer

Chris Shaw has been writing a column on the Vancouver Observer for more than a year called "Olympics Retort." Check out Chris's column here:Check out his VO blog: http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/olympicsretort

Each of his columns has revealed an important piece of information or brought to light an issue of importance to public safety and human rights. He has contributed vital information on important stories like the closing of a North Vancouver chlorine factory for the Olympics due to possible terrorist concerns and public safety issues. He fairly pointed out the red flag this raised on dangers the plant poses for Vancouver when the Olympics aren't going on.

For the chlorine story, written by Megan Stewart with files from Chris Shaw:
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/politics/2009/08/25/canadian-counter-terrorism-vancouver-2010-winter-olympics-and-worlds-deadliest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1lDXR9Zl3o Chris Shaw video

Also, if you want even more Chris Shaw, see the video of him and Megan Stewart talking ethics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1lDXR9Zl3o
filmed by Jeff Gerein and Jonah Mckeen for the Vancouver Observer.

Violation of Canadian Charter of Rights is standard procedure

Also serious violations of the BNA Act of 1867 have been going on routinely since 1913 but most Canadians don't read that stuff.

Here's what they can look forward to if they organize any protest that truly threatens the global establishment:

Stop SPP Protest - Union Leader stops police provocateurs in Montebello Quebec

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fprisonplanet%2Ecom%2Farticles%2Faugust2007%2F240807%5Fstage%5Friots%2Ehtm

We have no rights only "priviledges".

Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Margot and rockbysea bring out some excellent, yet astounding points. Considering all the "powers that be" are always feeding us the "rule by law" line, it is about time that we give them the "rule by law" right back.

I still cannot wrap my head around the idea that you need a permit for a protest. I mean, that is a real WTF? moment if you thing about it.

It's all very Catch-22.

I am grateful to those that take great personal risk in protesting "without permits". It is too bad that there are so few lawyers who feel the same way and assist those that do challenge the various bylaws in an effort to re-establish the supremacy of the Charter over manipulating and coercing governments of all levels.

Glen Murtz, I would say that you are almost right.

To me, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, the two American sprinters who raised their fists in their medal award ceremony in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics will always be the embodiment of an athlete's personal sacrifice for a cause.

This is how the Vancouver 2010 Olympics is going to turn out.

In various fora and coffee conversations I have ranted and railed over the upcoming Olympics.

I have now reached a kind of mellow point over all this, even though I am going to wind up paying for someone else's party for a long time.

I am going to fall back on two sayings that have stood the test of time.

1. Be careful for what you wish for, because you just might get it.
2. You get the government you deserve (or the Olympics you deserve).

So, for those people that really, really wanted the Olympics here in Vancouver, I wish you well and Good Luck. You are going to need it.

This Whole Thing Has Been An IQ Test

Apparently, we are morons. (I just wish we could find a way to send the bills to the Liberal voters. And Glen Clark.)

the balloon idea

Love the balloon idea, but animals and birds will eat them when they deflate. They'll suffer, and some will die.

Is there a more environmentally friendly way to get the same effect? How about releasing doves or pigeons with messages tied to their legs?

It is about time

and nice of you, Mr Mair, to join the rest of us who have been opposing this charade from the get-go.

In today's Canadian culture, we have been programmed to admire those with social skills. Being a 'smooth operator' socially requires both confidence and the ability to self-promote. Unfortunately, both these traits are common characteristics of the modern sociopath. And there is the rub.

The good news is, the Olympics will be over soon

The bad news is that the Liberal government is here to stay. The RCMP showed their true colours to Robert Dzeikanski and all the other Taser victims. They show their true colours when yet another officer is charged with drunk driving. The Olympics are just a litmus test that indicates the pH. The problem is the putrescence of the air BC.

I think

Chris Shaw is a self fulfilling prophecy.

Free Speech Zones (with bonus rant about alive's comments)

Dedicated free speech zones imply that free speech is not tolerated anywhere else. I find this ominous.

The proposed law allowing police to enter private property to swiftly remove offensive signage is ostensibly to protect advertisers against guerrilla marketing, but if the wording of the law is vague enough, there is nothing to stop the police from making "questionable" interpretations as to what is acceptable. Downright scary.

Bonus Rant:
Why do posters like Alive insist on reading Rafe's articles if the man is such a hack? Alive further wastes his own time by calling on Rafe to change. If you think a writer is a hack then stop reading.
The Province or National Post might be more your style, Alive.

Expo 86

Expo 86, big at the time as a trough, was the Olympics writ small.

Some may remember a song I wrote, and performed really really badly on CoOp Radio, about Grace McCarthy's stuff about the need for restraint because so much money as being spent on the Transpo:

Restraint just means
never quite shitting all over you
Restraint just means
never quite knocking you flat
Restraint just means
laughing in private at taxing you
To pay for the feathers
ooh whoopee
We put in our hat.

Get the whores off the street
we are pimping the city
painting her up to look
ever so pretty
If we can eliminate
all competition
when the Expo bucks flow
we'll all be in position
To make a few richer than richer than sin
We play dirtier if we can win
and restraint just means....etc.

The verses could be easily adapted to fit the Olympics, any throaty young types interested?

Barry Larkin day

It's too late for Barry Larkin day to be run through city councils and such, but it could be unoficially celebrated with a yell, or something in the front window, the day the torch comes to town.

Perhaps people could walk around with flaming underpants in a tin nailed to a table leg, held high. But it would be too easily declared a fire hazard.

How can we honour that glorious hoax in Australia 1956. Imagine a public official holding up the flaming pants and reading his speech. Droool, think, invent.

Nazis, Gestapo etc. never needed billions to prevent protests ..

... because there wern't any at the 1936 Olympics.
Hitler was maligned by the press for not shaking the hand of Jesse Owens. It was said this was done because he was black. The truth was different, but you never heard anyone from the press appologize! -

Why even dangle this red herring all the time?

Keep to the subject matter and protest your disappearance of our freedoms TODAY! Fight, where the fight should be fought - on the lawns of the Legislature (peacefully assembled, of course) and the lawn in front of the Parliament Buildings!!!

We, the sheeple are much too tolerant!

They see us as STUPID!!!

Let us KEEP OUR FEET on the ball and tell our very own three piece suits who is really the boss!

This reminds me of a Pogo cartoon years ago, where Pogo comes back to his pals and declares: I went out to see the enemy and ... the enemy is us!

Therefore, Y'all do your civic duty and see your representatives and tell them:

I WON'T STAND FOR IT ANYMORE! YOU ARE FIRED!!!

Kudos & brickbats

Kudos to those like Rafe who have the courage to publicly stand up and critically oppose fiascos like the 2010 olympics (lower case purposefully mine).

Brickbats to posters who only badmouth the author but have nothing constructive or instructive to say.

BTW I do think that the majority of the comments here are both constructive and instructive, to the point where "I couldn't have said it better myself".

And I'm with the one who suggested the lawsuit opportunity... a few well placed class actions might give some of the perpetrators pause for thought, assuming the cases get fair hearings of course, which is not at all a certainty.

Olympic hangover

The writing is already on the wall. When the hosting of the olympics turns out to be one of the worst decisions in BC's history, the blame game will begin.

Yes, Glen Clark and the NDP were the first to pursue the 2010 winter olympics. However at crunch time it was the Gordon Campbell Liberals that put on the full court press required to secure the games. Whenever I hear someone question the wisdom of BC pursuing the games the mainstream media seems to be very quick to point out that the NDP was the party that initiated the process, and though technically true, the main thrust was carried by Gordon Campbell and the Liberals.

Thus, by my accounting, these games fall solely on the Liberals with respect to any decisions made since 2001. They are the ones that are complicit in the erosion of our rights in order to submit to the IOC's wishes.

As for the security issue, one has the feeling that the RCMP are either over reacting or trying to justify their existence. Let's hope that their overzealous pursuit of local dissidents of the games doesn't get in the way of the bigger picture. It would be a shame if they were so concerned by the harmless protesters that they left the door open for some much more serious attack from some outside terrorist group.

The way I see it, we have been led down the garden path by the IOC, our politicians and the corporate elite. They will get their face time on the national and international stage and we will get to pay for it with our freedoms and our money.

Valid Points Regarding this abomination of a law...

...but the fact remains that I and many others CANNOT support Chris Shaw as long as he continues to condone the violence and vandalism the Olympic Resistance Network stands for. He would find a whole new audience MUCH MORE responsive to his arguments if he simply condemned violence, endorsed Gandhian forms of non-violent protest, and distanced himself from the ORN.

There can never be justification for violence in a democratic society.

shall I leave or should I stay

During the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, you know the Games full of corruption, the Games that taught the IOC how to bookkeep Mafia style...more people departed from the SLC International Airport than arrived during the month of February 2002. In fact, less people came into SLC during the month of Feb 2002 than Feb 2001. This statistic was rarely reported outside of SLC as was the fact that sales taxes in Utah increased by less than 1% during the period of the 2002 Games compared to the same period in 2001. The actual increase was 0.006%.

Gee, why did the good folks of the latter day saints leave their city during the Games in flocks?

Security in the city won't be as bad as Beijing, after all we aren't sending two million people on a winter holiday whether they like it or not. We aren't telling the workers of Vancouver, Beijing to stay at home, give up your wages for the good of the country nor are we asking people in metro Vancouver to park their cars like they did to those in Beijing. No, we are a Democracy with Rights and Freedoms, we would never do that.

Nor would we act like Hitler and Goebbels Games in 1836, we wouldn't parade 30,000 youth in front of the world to demonstrate their inclination for the IOC's corporate sponsors products and we certainly wouldn't tilt the Games in favour of our own athletes, digging into the treasury of the people and spending free willy on a handful of spoiled brat athletes so we can claim the podium, nope, we wouldn't make hockey players from around the globe to play on a smaller ice surface, NHL size, just so we could take advantage of them, nope, no siree.

We wouldn't forbid our journalists from printing anything negative about the Games, not since we are supplying them with all the freebees and full access to the Games, coddled and smoozed so their stenographer pencils will write whatever Goebbels wants them to...nor would we put fear into the hearts of those who oppose dictatorships, totalitarism or even the Campbells and Meggs...nope.

Here's what Michael Byers, prof at UBC and director of the BC Civil Liberties wrote to the Globe and Mail...this should put shivers down your back...

October 15, 2009
Heil Olympics

Michael Byers

Letter to the Editor, Globe and Mail, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009

Reading Marsha Lederman's report about Canada's behaviour at the 1936 Olympics (A Salute That Shocked The World - Review, Oct. 14), I was struck by how little we've learned. At a recent meeting with officials at the Integrated Security Unit for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, I noticed a poster from the 1936 Winter Games on the boardroom wall. The evidently Aryan figure on the poster is making the Nazi salute. Civil liberties, anyone?

Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law, University of British Columbia

rafe you are not alone, my apologies

The Nazi Games of Hitler and Goebbels was in 1936, typo...

Some say the 'modern' olympics as we know them began in 1894, however, they didnt have tv then, they didnt have corporate sponsors nor did the host state use the Games as a way to show the world just how smart and creative and powerful they were, they didn't coddle the media so they would get all the good press they needed to fleece yet another dumb city to take on the losing franchise, they didn't have torch relays nor did they have their citizens dressed in battle fatigues ready to jail and punish even execute those who didn't wave pompoms at the appropriate time, nor did the people watching stand up and salute their leader...nope...

The real modern games began in 1936. The similarities to the all of the Games since the Nazi Olympics in 1936 is significant.

So when you are waving your pom poms during the torch relay just remember where the real roots of this PR stunt originated from, you got that right, the 1936 Nazi Olympics. The route through various European countries selected for the first torch relay in the history of the IOC's franchise operation, the Olympics in 1936 by the Nazis, was the same route they took in 1939-40 during their military invasion of Eastern Europe...

...

"I have opposed these Games from the moment Glen Clark's NDP government enthusiastically helped launch the 2010 bid (this fact needs to be re-stated because I get tired of hearing NDP supporters claim ideological purity on this issue)."

Not in direct response to wayfarer, but rather the comment regarding the NDP...

I'm not sure why this gets trotted out every time someone mentions their opposition to the games. I have never been in favour of the games, despite being an NDP supporter. There are Liberal, Green and Conservative voters who oppose these games, too.

The majority of the opposition to these games has nothing to do with party affiliation. On the contrary, most, if not all oppose the games despite their parties position.

If most critics of the games come from the left, that's because we're smarter ; )

Wonderful Modelling!

Registered just to commend you for your integrity and humility!

There's so much wrong with the Olympics scam that it's easy to oppose, but they've got generations of media-imprinted boosterism working in their favour and it's difficult to compete with their $.

I moved to Vancouver long after the deal had been done, with little prior understanding of how grotesque the Olympics charade was. Then I saw Five Ring Circus and started looking deeper!

No2010 has done a wonderful job of raising public awareness, but it was quite shocking to follow the recent hoopla with Obama's pandering for Chicago. Here's an article I wrote in which I evaluated Obama's actions: "Obama's True Colours."

Anyway, thanks again for your candour, and now that you know, good luck spreading the word! :)

Gandhian protest is the only protest that works...

All of these violent forms of action promoted by Mr. Shaw only goes towards building resentment by the working class people towards activists, as it mostly inconveniences and damages them...not the actual targets of protest.

You can't protest on behalf of working class people while harming them in the process. You must appeal to their better nature. Otherwise, all you get is another form of tyranny.

Verso on the NDP & Games...

Verso,

Your point is valid, and well stated. I fully agree that opposition to, or support for the Olympics, transcends party lines. Many fiscal conservatives on the right oppose the Games because they've crunched the numbers, looked at past host city stats, and concluded it's a money-loser in the long-run.

I raise the issue of the BC NDP's position on the Games, usually in response to NDP'ers who accuse those who did not vote NDP of implicitly allowing this mega-event and its security issues to screw us.

Another reason I raise the NDP link to the Games is because, quite frankly, many people in BC (where political memories tend to be very short), including a good many younger NDPers I've talked with, were not aware that this was an NDP government pet project to begin with. All the focus tends to get turned on the BC Liberals, who merely took the torch from Glen Clark and were happy to run with it. I think remembering our political history is important.

The irony, which speaks to the deficiencies of our First-Past-Post electoral system, is that according to polls, the vast majority of BC'ers have doubts about this event's worth to the province, yet there is no party in the Legislature to voice that majority opposition. Even Vancouver's NDP mayor comes off like a schoolboy about to take his first trip to Disneyland when discussing the Olympics.

Who among our elected reps, either provincially and locally in Vancouver/Whistler (or even federally for that matter), is voicing our majority opposition? Not a single rep. That's the most disheartening thing about this issue.

@ Wayfarer

The NDP started the bid a decade ago, the Olympics weren`t quite the fiasco then as now and most certainly public knowledge wasn`t aware of the "five ring circus"

That said...People are just sick of the lies and the con..

The Province,the feds,even municipal governments need to just come clean and say it....

The Olympics are going to cost more than we can afford,there will be fraud,corruption,rights will be trampled to host the games,the IOC plays hardball,developers and insiders will clean-up and after the games are over we will have a hollow feeling inside us saying....is that it! You mean the world has forgotten about the 2010 games by march 1st 2010?

Does anyone talk about Bejiing anymore?