New Media

A Nazi war criminal is being held in a Vancouver jail, at least until a local judge makes up his mind about a pending bail application.

The man is 83 years old. He has lived a full life in Canada without incident for 50 years.

Fortunately, there is no statute of limitations on murder, a crime for which he faces nine counts. But it doesn’t change the fact that the geriatric former concentration camp guard and torturer has already escaped justice, for pretty much all intents and purposes.

Just to put this in perspective for those who think that the old man ought to be allowed his freedom in the winter of his life and that he is simply the victim of a vindictive prosecution, here’s a thought: Robert Pickton being arrested and going to trial for the first time… in 2057.

Next up, Osama bin Ladin could use a big hanging banner from Harbor Center in downtown Vancouver. Any takers?

Commuters in the city of Windsor nearly spilled their coffee on their laps this week as they passed by a giant billboard depicting Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. His face overlooks a caption reading “Lebanese and Arab communities in Windsor city congratulate the Lebanese people for their steadfastness and endeavor to establish peace in Windsor.”

That’s odd. Hezbollah is outlawed as a terrorist entity in Canada.

Yes, Hezbollah does fund social programs in southern Lebanon. They also commit kidnappings, assassinations and bombings.

If I donated a large chunk of my income to Human Rights Watch and also happened to regularly murder people, I wouldn’t be known as a human rights activist. Likewise, a terrorist organization like Hezbollah ought not to be receiving PR on a giant billboard in Windsor.

By the way, why does the Lebanese community in Windsor need to endeavor to establish peace in Windsor? I didn’t realize Ontario was an ethnic-religious conflict zone.

(Thanks to conservative blogger Celestial Junk for the link to this story).
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgjxpjGbmo4]

EcoDensity is taking hit after hit in the Vancouver’s mainstream media these days.

The Vancouver Courier’s latest line on Mayor Sam Sullivan’s pet project is pretty much par for the course. A cover feature warns of the consequences of densifying neighborhoods for Vancouver families who have lived in their sprawling spaces for generations. Whatever will people do without their backyard gardens?

The criticism is as short-sighted as it is gutless. Undeterred by insane real estate prices, people are flooding into the Vancouver region literally from all over the world. We need places to put them, and that means more density.

Don’t let Vancouver’s ever-upward downtown skyline fool you; most neighborhoods in our Pacific paradise are low density, composed of single-family dwellings on relatively large lots. These neighborhoods – including the ones with backyard garden plots – are environmentally unsustainable.

There are certainly legitimate criticisms of the EcoDensity plan. But quoting people who simply want to continue living in a bubble where unsustainable living is celebrated like a kind of indigenous culture isn’t the best way to do it.

Not this one, haters. No, I’m referring to the MetroBlogging Vancouver site, to which I used to contribute political commentary and amusing snippets of Vancouver city life.

WARNING: For those who find the inane rivalries of bloggers, well, uh, inane, READ NO FURTHER. I’ll probably have a post about evil dictators or the garbage strike or the how the Taliban wastes your tax dollars up shortly for my loyal fans.

My involvement with MetroBlogging began in the really exciting days just after free, user-friendly software like the one I’m using made blogging popular… and before Facebook rendered most ill-maintained blogs obsolete. Even Skeletor of He-Man fame got into the act with a little podcast from Castle Greyskull (shown above).

It was an exciting time… well, for some of us. I enjoyed my little foray into citizen journalism, but gradually, my actual paid writing gigs, regular teaching job and other mix-and-match of freelance creative duties have simply taken away any time for the project.

If I’m going to blog, and blog with passion, I’ll blog on my own blog.

Lo and behold, I seem to be merely the first in a veritable stampede of authors away from the site, which was having trouble attracting regular posters even before the summer crunch.

MetBlogs Captain Jeffery Simpson has valiantly kept the site alive pretty much on his own with a Herculean effort for several weeks. But how long can he keep up the solo effort?

Question #1: Can Beyond Robson finally claim the title of Vancouver’s definitive Web 2.0 blog – by default?

Question #2: Is this the moment for Urban Vancouver to finally reconquer a little market share in the Vancouver blogosphere?

Question #3: Does anyone aside from geeks like myself really care about any of this?

A Falun Gong protester gets shot at and beaten up by three attackers outside of a a foreign embassy. Not exactly surprising stuff, except that the building was the Chinese consulate in Vancouver.

Falun Gong protesters have held a permanent vigil to protest human rights violations against their group outside the embassy for six years. Despite objections from Mayor Sam Sullivan over a year ago, the protest still stands. Has the Chinese government’s patience finally been exhausted?

If not, what other explanation could there be? It’s not like the victim was strutting down Granville Street around midnight, gawking at the testosterone and alcohol-fueled goons who have taken over our entertainment district.

One niggling question is why the mainstream media hasn’t picked up on this incident yet. It has been four days since the assault.

The Epoch Times’ editorial line is unabashedly anti-Communist China and pro-Falun Gong, so one has to read even their straight-up news articles like the one reporting this incident with a skeptical eye. But why isn’t the Vancouver Sun, the Province or even the Georgia Straight reporting an assault outside a foreign embassy involving a gun?

Just asking.