About This Blog

There are some things you really should know about this blog.

Although my first post was about the Vancouver Hockey Riots, 2011 Edition, I do not intend this blog to be primarily a rant site. There will, by all means, be the occasional rant when situations irk me enough to deserve comment – the riots are a prime example of this kind of event. Rather, I intend this site to be a place wherein I can vent my spleen against some of life’s more frustrating idiocies.

Things like: people not paying attention to stop signs; people not knowing that Earth is the third (from the sun) of eight (yes, eight) planets in our solar system; people not knowing that Japan is, in fact, a country, and not a city in China (seriously, someone once said this to me – she was married to a pretty tough biker guy, high up in an “organization,” so I failed to correct her at the time out of a sense of self-preservation); people not knowing that you should wait for others to leave an elevator before crowding your way on; and so on.

In short, I intend this to be a site where I can comment on some of society’s minor ills, small disgraces, and occasional disregard for proprieties. A site where I can extol the virtues of a basic education, and for the things a person can learn if they keep their ears open and their mouths shut, virtues that are sorely lacking today. A place where I can virtually slap people and say, “What are you? Some kind of idiot?” Most of us are, from time to time.

I hope this will be a place you can have a little laugh, and maybe vent a little yourself in the comments when you see a topic that irks you as well (or when you disagree with me). Maybe you’ll see yourself a little, or you’ll see someone you know – you can always point them here if you’re too embarrassed to tell them that chewing gum while serving food is just plain disgusting.

About Riots

There are things you really should know about riots.

To be perhaps a little over-simplistic, there are two kinds of riot: those that enable the disenfranchised to express themselves and gain a political voice where one might otherwise be impossible to find; and everything else. To find examples of the former, you need look no further than the Arab Spring which has been rocking the Middle East and North Africa for the past several months.

But more relevant to my point here, there are some things you really should know about that "everything else" category. Let's take as an example the riots that occurred in Vancouver BC after Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final on June 15, 2011.

First, to be absolutely clear: I am completely pissed off and embarrassed about the whole situation. It is in no way whatsoever cool that a couple of hundred (thousand? we'll break down numbers below) jackasses have gone and given an otherwise beautiful, world-class city a black eye, and on top of that, associated the violence directly with a sports franchise that would love nothing more than to distance themselves from such rabid hooliganism. A good friend of mine said to me this morning, "This is why I can't be a Canucks fan." Of course, he's a Habs fan, so that's a completely different kettle of fish - but the fact remains that his statement is indicative of an even greater problem - another friend of mine said he'd rather not raise his daughter in a city like Vancouver, if this is what Vancouver is like, and he's a life-long Vancouverite. So...I'm going to go over some things you really should know.

Things You Really Should Know:

- posting status updates on Facebook or Twitter about how the riots are cool is NOT COOL

- posing for pictures in front of a burning car is NOT COOL, even if you make devil horns

- posting about punching some "pigs" in the head is NOT COOL

- lighting fire to a car, police or otherwise, and then mugging for the myriad cameras around you, is not only NOT COOL, but it is also extremely stupid. Extremely.

- attempting to achieve cool status by posting things you haven't even done, is not only NOT COOL, but it might cost you your job

- jumping on a burning car is actually kind of cool, but might get you in the ICU, thus NOT COOL

- flashing is almost always cool, unless you're a FUWM

- beating up people that actually have pride in their city and are trying to protect random panes of glass that are still, remarkably, intact, is not only NOT COOL, it also labels you as a complete jackass that should be in prison for a very, very long time

On further thing - if you want to riot, take off that Canucks jersey - you aren't a fan, you're a stupid POS.

To get briefly into numbers. A good friend of mine was downtown at The Railway Club, and from his first-hand experience, he felt that the entire riot was fomented by a few dozen or at most two-hundred individuals who appeared ready to riot, re: bring ski masks, batons, lighter fluid, and the like. And the ballsy simplification being provided by the VPD is an obvious attempt to politicize the riots (it wasn't just a bunch of anarchists and drunken youths, it was a few people wanting a riot, and a bunch of drunk idiots who thought that a bit of social reconstruction and violence would be cool - this thing would never have got out of hand if several thousand idiots hadn't insisted in staying downtown to "experience" the whole thing).

So, some things you really should know: if your riot is for anything other than a sense of disenfranchisement and a need for a political voice to be heard, it comes under the category of "everything else" - it is, basically, a piece of absolute shite, and should be abandoned at the absolute earliest possible moment lest you be labeled as completely idiotic and NOT COOL.