Week In Review

So many things to write about...so little desire to write about any of them in any detail. This will be a compendium.

1) Robert Pickton: Personally, I'd feed him to his pigs a la Hannibal. Given the damnable publication ban imposed by the judge, I'm not sure why he was found guilty of second degree murder and not first. Speculation is he had an accomplice--which is a chilling thought. Regardless: I believe the jury did its job admirably. They convicted on all six counts, and recommended a sentence that effectively turns the convictions into murder one. I really hope some future parole board doesn't take pity on the man and let him out.
For once, the justice system recognized that Downtown Eastside prostitutes are human beings. I wonder how long that sentiment will last...

2) Conrad Black: My interest in this particular individual, the covering of which has destroyed entire Canadian forests, rests somewhere below nil. His criticism of the jury that convicted him--"none of them know anything about finance"--tells you pretty much all you need to know about the man: he's a pompous, egomaniacal multimillionaire who (still) thinks he's above the law. Barring appeals, he'll serve six and a half years in an environment that will seem specially designed to humiliate him. I wonder if it will work. Somehow I doubt it.

3) Parvez case: Here we go again. This father allegedly killed his daughter over her refusal to dress in traditional Muslim garb. I will echo a sentiment I read elsewhere: it will be interesting to see who serves more time, this man or Robert Latimer.
This is yet another example of why I distrust religion--although to be fair, it's usually Muslims who fly into insane rages at the slightest provocation. What gives any human being the right to inflict his values on another? This sort of barbarity doesn't belong anywhere on the planet, let alone in enlightened, multicultural Canada.

4) The ongoing credit crunch: In what is described as "the biggest act of global economic co-operation since September 11", world banks are pumping billions of dollars into the economy. It'd be funny if it wasn't so sad. "Clearly, the central banks realized the severity of the situation and are taking on their most important role — to assure the efficient functioning of the world’s financial markets", says a chief economist with BMO Capital Markets. Really? From this angle, it looks as if "their most important role" is to ensure a free lunch in perpetuity. Trust me, these chickens will come home to roost eventually. Sooner or later there will be consequences for creating money out of thin air, then loaning it out to people who can never pay it back.

5) W007 W007: I majored in English, and I'm something of a stickler for proper grammar and usage. I can grudgingly accept the word "woot"...so long as it doesn't have numbers in it.
This has long been a pet peeve of mine, ever since I first ran across Sinead O'Connor's song "Nothing Compares 2 U". C'mon, Sinead, how hard is it to call it "Nothing Compares To You"? That's all of three extra characters. Or how about Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi"? "Skater's" been shortened by one whole character, and how'd she get through high school without knowing how to spell "boy"?
It's all due to the tabloidification of our culture. It's getting to the point where celebrities have shortened forms of their names, either alone (K-Fed, A-Rod) or in pairs (Bennifer, Brangelina)...are we truly in that much of a rush that we can't even spare the time to write out people's names any more?
And let me again state how much I hate text messaging, which is where these linguistic modifications are at their most extreme. What is the point of text messaging, anyway? Nobody's ever been able to explain it to me. You do it on a phone...what's wrong with calling people?

Enough. I'm supposed to be relaxing today.