New Media

The Tyee is an online-only, Vancouver-based leader in independent news coverage and views, reaching more than 150,000 unique visitors per month – and growing. Their goal is to get 5,000 new subscribers by June 30.

They’ve got a ways to go, but I think it’s simply a matter of getting the word out. Great content, interesting features not covered by the mainstream media, without the pandering to the lunatic fringe that you might see in publications with similar mission statements like indymedia (or would have seen if hard-core communists and anti-Semites hadn’t hijacked the site).

Best of luck, Tyee. And if you could pass a few of those 5,000 subscribers back my way, I wouldn’t complain in the least.

There will be critics who note a disconnect as California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger’s promotes his lofty vision about protecting the environment to Canadians. The sprawling freeways and car culture of major Californian cities, superbly demonstrated in Los Angeles, is the antithesis of Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan’s policy of densely a densely-populated metropolis where cars are an option, not a necessity.

High Californian auto emission standards, the highest in North America, are also a bit of a misleading subject – there are no car manufacturers in the state that would have to build cars to those specifications.

But the Governator inherited his state’s freeways and smog-choked cities. At least he’s saying the right things. It’s a stark contrast with the American president, who has had his head stuck in the oil sands on the issue of global warming since he took office.

The Big Valley Creation Science Museum has opened its doors this week in Big Valley, Alberta, featuring displays on how men once walked among dinosaurs, a giant model of Noah’s Ark, and a set of English scrolls tracing the family of King Henry VI back to the Garden of Eden.

Like its controversial counterpart in Kentucky, this museum will explain how the world and all its animals, of every epoch, were created at the same time by God. Evidently, a typical day for Adam and Eve involved staying one step ahead of the velociraptors.

That we still have to deal with this bunk in the 21st century is beyond the pale for a society that has gained so much advantage from its science and technology. Christians would be so much better off doing what they do best – helping the poor, doing charity work in their own communities, providing aid and assistance in disaster zones, and helping some people to achieve more spirituality in their life – than trying, and failing (in ways that open themselves up to ridicule), to explain how Genesis could have occurred as written in scripture.

Vancouver’s Anti-Poverty Committee’s vandalism of provincial cabinet minister Ken Dobell’s office is bad for the city’s image, bad for democracy and ultimately bad for the people the APC claims to be representing.

Since APC members posed as media to gain entrance before trashing the office, regular folks who actually want to speak with their elected representative will now face heightened security. Basically, it inconveniences those who want to participate in our democracy, since all visitors will now be suspects.

Meanwhile, Vancouverites will be even less disposed to sympathize with those falling through the cracks of our society. People generally don’t respond well to threats and ultimatums.

Actually, if one looks at the APC’s demands, there is no way that our society could even come close to meeting them:

IMMEDIATE CANCELLATION OF THE 2010 OLYMPIC GAMES. Yes, well, we had a referrendum. The Olympics won out. Deal with it.

DIRECTION OF ALL OLYMPIC FUNDS TO NEW HOUSING AND SOCIAL PROGRAMS. Hahahahahahahahaha!

WITHDRAWAL OF COLONIAL OCCUPIERS FROM ALL UNCEDED INDIGENOUS TERRITORY. Um, my ancestors are from Russia. They never gave any smallpox-infested blankets to the locals. Can my family stay at least?

DOLLAR-FOR-DOLLAR REINSTATEMENT OF ALL FUNDING CUT TO SOCIAL PROGRAMS BY THE PROVINCIAL LIBERAL GOVERNMENT. Ah, yes. Let’s determine our budget according to a socialist fiat. Bleah.

KEN DOBELL’S IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION FROM AT LEAST TWO OF THREE CONFLICTING POSITIONS. Well, maybe.

Here’s a thought, APC: We have a democratic system that is the envy of most nations of the world. Join it.

Tens of thousands of Venezuelans marched today to the Caracas headquarters of an anti-government television station, which is being forced off the air after President Hugo Chavez’s administration refused to renew its broadcasting license.

Just so we’re clear, this is happening in the same country where virtually no one had anything to say when Chavez gave himself dictatorial powers and the country’s elected representatives went along with it.

Message to would-be-dictators everywhere: give yourself that promotion. Just don’t mess with the freedom of citizens to watch television.