the np: --30-- ?

Maybe. If the court say so. (cbc.ca) You hate to speak ill of the dead, and there are going to be a lot of journalists looking for work when this thing flames out, but I want to see what happens when the neo-con hacks in the editorial department realize that they're casualties in a free-market system. They never thought that this day would happen to them.

Yikes, These People are Mean

The Leader-Post's editorial -- oh, hell the whole paper -- was pretty good today.

The editorial -- dressed up with a nice picture of a beggar in Dublin (photo courtesy of the Washington Post because our panhandlers look too scruffy) -- dissed a U of R report on panhandling, saying that 'citizens' have rights too. Oooookay.

The editorial notes that the analysis in the report "hinges on the assumption that panhandlers are in fact poor" as opposed to "freelance hustlers who may not be averse to using physical size or aggressiveness to intimidate others into money, less out of social compassion than out of fear.”

Hmmm. A means test for beggars (why not call them by their correct name?)

I can think of a few politicians and power brokers -- sorry, 'citizens' -- I’d like to test for sincerity, (Brad “No really, I just need one little reactor for isotopes… Can you help me out man?" Wall comes to mind, not to mention whoever wrote that editorial).

Hobo symbol courtesy Wesley Fryer (Flickr)

Leader-Post's Arts Coverage -- or not ...

The General Fools (their home page) are in the midst of their first ever improv comedy act festival, bringing in three troupes from outside the city. (Check the prairie dog that's currently on the stands). The Leader-Post (arts section) doesn't have one line about it that I could find in Thursday's arts section. And at the time I look at their arts section on-line ... there's no locally generated copy at all. Nothing on the Extroverts reunion last night, nothing on General Fools, and the story of Jason Plumb's new record release has already been buried. Regina isn't a very interesting city, artistically, to those who work on the arts section of the city's daily newspaper.

That's what happens when your local newspaper isn't local any more. Just ask the residents of Nanton, Alberta. (Toronto Sun Family)