30 thoughts on ““After the battle, many new ghosts cry, the solitary old man murmurs in his grief.” ~ Du Fu”

  4. And heeeerrrrsss “Billy”
    The chickens have come home to roost with Campbell as far as the willfully ignorant electorate are concerned … and don’t ever think that he has not been rewarded for his treachery. For those with sharper legal minds than mine it would be worthwhile to verify if Campbell violated his oath of office and that being the case a lien could be placed on all his holdings.

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  5. Sad that we only have one life to live.
    When I see this wizened, broken, old before his time, caricature of a man, stoically striving to hold his stomach in and his chest out, so as not to belie the torment of a life poorly lived, I do feel a measure of pity.
    Men of greatness are larger than life in our eyes, molded as comic book super hero’s incapable of doing any wrong. Here is a man that had the opportunity to become such a hero, but for all the wrong reasons chose to do quite the opposite.
    History will not be kind to Gordon Campbell.
    He will best be remembered as an example of how not to do the right thing, and no time left to change that.
    Sad.

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  7. Remembering the words to a Simply Red song, Holding Back the Tears, I thought of Gordon Campbell’s departing. So, I searched and found.

    I wonder if the imagery and words in this Simply Red video seem artfully and appropriately metaphoric to the rest of you in describing our very own Premier Gordon Campbell. I was gobsmacked by the parallels I found. It is as though it
    was written and filmed for him. I won’t crowd the metaphors your readers have with those that the images have left for me other than to say that in the end, with the purity of Lady BC bespoiled, a scared little man is being ridden out of our minds on nothing less than a railway.

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  8. I will be the realist here irrespective of the lofty thought expressed be cause in the final analysis as all power resides with us conversely so does all responsibility for those we choose to stand in our stead in the halls of Parliament and Justice.

    Are none here aware of the fable of the frog and the scorpion?
    It appears not!

    It is an extension of ones wishful thinking that casts this most resent aberration of a Premier as “The Leader of the Province”

    The Scorpion and the Frog
    One day, a scorpion looked around at the mountain where he lived and decided that he wanted a change. So he set out on a journey through the forests and hills. He climbed over rocks and under vines and kept going until he reached a river.
    The river was wide and swift, and the scorpion stopped to reconsider the situation. He couldn’t see any way across. So he ran upriver and then checked downriver, all the while thinking that he might have to turn back.
    Suddenly, he saw a frog sitting in the rushes by the bank of the stream on the other side of the river. He decided to ask the frog for help getting across the stream.
    “Hellooo Mr. Frog!” called the scorpion across the water, “Would you be so kind as to give me a ride on your back across the river?”
    “Well now, Mr. Scorpion! How do I know that if I try to help you, you wont try to kill me?” asked the frog hesitantly.
    “Because,” the scorpion replied, “If I try to kill you, then I would die too, for you see I cannot swim!”
    Now this seemed to make sense to the frog. But he asked. “What about when I get close to the bank? You could still try to kill me and get back to the shore!”
    “This is true,” agreed the scorpion, “But then I wouldn’t be able to get to the other side of the river!”
    “Alright then…how do I know you wont just wait till we get to the other side and THEN kill me?” said the frog.
    “Ahh…,” crooned the scorpion, “Because you see, once you’ve taken me to the other side of this river, I will be so grateful for your help, that it would hardly be fair to reward you with death, now would it?!”
    So the frog agreed to take the scorpion across the river. He swam over to the bank and settled himself near the mud to pick up his passenger. The scorpion crawled onto the frog’s back, his sharp claws prickling into the frog’s soft hide, and the frog slid into the river. The muddy water swirled around them, but the frog stayed near the surface so the scorpion would not drown. He kicked strongly through the first half of the stream, his flippers paddling wildly against the current.
    Halfway across the river, the frog suddenly felt a sharp sting in his back and, out of the corner of his eye, saw the scorpion remove his stinger from the frog’s back. A deadening numbness began to creep into his limbs.
    “You fool!” croaked the frog, “Now we shall both die! Why on earth did you do that?”
    The scorpion shrugged, and did a little jig on the drowning frog’s back.
    “I could not help myself. It is my nature.”
    Then they both sank into the muddy waters of the swiftly flowing river.
    Self destruction – “Its my Nature”, said the Scorpion…
    An Interesting article regarding this fable

    We, the electorate are complacent in our own destruction and haven’t the gumption to assume responsibility for our actions bur would rather lay it off on the elected.
    I would say, “A pox on your house!”, as you have, by your actions, placed a pox on mine!

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  9. I hope this this ego-maniacal, danger to B.C. crawls back under a rock for eternity.
    If this spawn of filth is given a gravy spot in the Senate by some Ottawa moron I will be pissed but not surprised.

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  10. The sadness, the lament, comes from the fact that a man, now withered, had as a young man, pulled himself up by his bootstraps after the rejection/suicide of his father to rise to the highest position in the land. He got himself elected Premier with the highest margin of victory imaginable and he squandered the opportunity to use his power to become its greatest Premier. He wasted all those precious years. For What? He traded his power and the resources of this great province for what? greater wealth and power for the already rich?! What kind of a legacy is that? Golden decade, hah! Golden for whom? Under his watch, we have seen the decline of morality and our institutions like public education and child protection. It’s been golden for none of the people I hang with.

    Billy,
    I will not take credit for what Campbell and the BC Liberals have done. I have been fighting them for a decade. I have been making myself unpopular in public circles by daring to bring up the politics, policies and atrocious record of this government. I have not been carrying that scorpion on my back, nor have my friends.

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  11. SharingIsGood.
    And I?
    I have sympathy for the Devil?
    Not on your Nelly!
    The question remains on whose responsible for the quality of the politicians if not us? Yes all of us!

    I saw Campbell for what he was to become and gave warning only to be shouted down, banned and otherwise discredited or ignored

    My assertions Stand!
    if you have taken offence that is on your head.
    Laila has granted me a voice and for that i am grateful.

    I am a single old Geezer with no family and so have no interest other than the one that seeks Justice

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  12. Well I’m really having fun now! 23 pages open wit an overall average of 6 to 8 tabs each resulting in multiple crashes daily keeps this Geezer’s brain in some semblance of order … just.

    I now speak for me. I do not wear my collar backwards nor take confessions from those trusted to act on my behalf. I have had to take responsibility for every choice I’ve made and expect no less from those holding public trust.

    Do you not think that Campbell rise to power was not engineered by the Power Elite?
    The Power Elite
    by C.Wright Mills
    Oxford Press, 1956
    http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Book_Excerpts/PowerElite.html

    The propagandist worked over time to sway the electorate away from the NPD and over to Campbell. Is not the old saw about voting parties out an accurate reflection of the weakness of mind found in the voters?

    I never suggest credit be taken
    I suggested responsibly be taken, and not so subtitle difference!

    I admit one does what one can.

    It has almost become a point of honour with me as to how many sites I have been banned from and only to be vindicated in the long run.
    Campbell is water under the bridge.
    The major question now is will the votes repeat thief idiocies?

    My money is on “Yes they will!”

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  13. Well, “Billy” and “Sharing is Good”, I was not as asute as you two are. But I firmly believe in that old adage; ‘Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.’ And I’ve finally seen the light. Governments have for eons, maybe forever, helped themselves and their friends (did you hear that Hosni Mubarak is rumoured to be wealthier than Bill Gates?) at the expense of the multitudes. That Campbell and his associates benefitted from the give-away of BC Rail was not totally unexpected.

    When he inadvertently got caught up by ‘The Legislative Raids’ it was as if a little gremlin was precept to his licentious transactions and he would be found out. We waited with bated breath to discover the truth! Alas, we were denied that satisfaction when the alleged ‘criminals’ plead ‘guilty’. Fool me once!
    Then, the ‘guilty’ parties were let off with a sentence for which most married men would be grateful, AND their expenses were forgiven!!! Fool me twice!!
    No, I have no sympathy for him and his colleagues. May they rot in Hell!

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  14. ps

    http://www.angelfire.com/la/LAWGIVER/status1.html

    {“Law, in it’s most general and comprehensive sense, signifies a rule of action; and is applied indiscriminately to all kinds of action, whether animate or inanimate, rational or irrational. Thus we say, the laws of motion, of gravitation, of optics, or mechanics, as well as the laws of nature and of nations. And it is that rule of action, which is prescribed by some superior, and which the inferior is bound to obey.”
    Blackstone explains that the law is what it is. You cannot change gravity, motion or mechanics. The superior being, God, determined that they would be a certain way and that is what they are. Notice the inferior is bound to obey the superior. The inferior has no choice.}

    I take this to mean the Superior is the one with the knowledge of law: the overstanding!
    We are in dereliction of our duty when we do not fulfil our part of the social contract and learn the laws of our land.

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  18. Good video link there Billy, thanks.
    And yes Laila, old GC is looking mighty lonely there on the steps.
    He asked all his friends to be there and he wasn’t disappointed.

    His protegé Mr. Falcon is his hope to continue to live vicariously in the politics of BC while he settles into whatever new PAID FOR WITH TAXPAYER DOLLARS job, one I’m sure was given to him by big business for all the wonderful tax cuts and incentives and boosts to their coffers he has made, while at the same time destroying thousands of regular peoples lives, and livability and health for any who dare enter this province.
    In another’s words, “there is bound to be casualties of citizens, this is called “collateral damage”.
    Having a few people messed up is one thing, messing up the whole province totally another.
    Goodbye Mr Campbell, don’t come back.

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  19. Campbell had choices. He chose to thieve and fraudulently sell the BCR, after he promised not to. That was an election lie. Campbell chose, to thieve our rivers and sell them. He chose to send our BC mill workers jobs to China, all 36.000 of them, along with our raw logs, and some of our mills were shipped to China. Campbell and Hansen chose to force the HST, onto the very people who can’t afford it. Another election lie, the HST papers were on Hansen’s desk, in March before the May election. Our HST went to the other snake in the grass, Harper. Where are the jobs, that Campbell and Hansen promised? We just lost over 40,000 jobs again, in the last three months. Where is all the money, Campbell and Hansen said we would save, by the merits of the HST. Our cost of living, has gone through the roof. You would have to be as brain dead as, Martyn Brown, not to see the HST is killing this province. BC people spend billions shopping in the U.S.A. and Alberta, since the start of the HST. People shop on line, because of the HST. The underground system, is flourishing. BC has done the worst of all the western provinces. All of the HST provinces, are failing.

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  20. An interesting and timely item on the CBC wesite regarding released BC Rail.

    The headline states: BC Rail investigation cleared politicians, and

    “……..The province’s Supreme Court released a host of documents connected to the RCMP investigation — dubbed Project Everywhichway — on Wednesday, less than two weeks before the governing Liberal party chooses a new leader to replace Premier Gordon Campbell…..”.

    Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/02/16/bc-bc-rail-documents.html#ixzz1EBYxH7W4

    I strongly suspect this file that was prepared at the very beginning of the investigation to white wash the entire process.

    http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/02/16/bc-bc-rail-documents.html

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  23. Uhmm.. Billy, I’m sorry but I will have to retract or backtrack my position about you. You went from good link poster to absolute ‘tard in a single sentence.
    If Laila is a pessimist, then good, she acknowledges that there are a lot of bad people (or bad politics, they’re intricately intertwined) out there who are striving to cause harm to the population and this province under the guise of “leader(s)”.

    BUT, She’s also an optimist, she proves many times over her “hopeful” thoughts and ideas and blogs that there is a good side to this, that “hopefully” these bad people will go away or do at least ONE RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS IN THEIR LIVES.

    She asks for change, she works for change by giving her time and energy.. and you have the gall to call her a pessimist? What have you done to create change or inform people of such?
    You Billy, are the pessimist, to leave a post and link like you did suggests that you think badly of Laila and the people of this province (and others) trying to make a difference in our politics and in our everyday lives.
    Bad thinking people are useless and should go back to playing with tonka toys and waiting for mom to make grilled cheese.

    I’m sure you’ve had your share of hecklers Laila, you’ve chosen a field that is full of pessimistic people and haters like Billy there. Just know for every one of his ilk there are hundreds if not thousands who appreciate you, your views and the effort you make to ensure that there is accuracy and validity to your statements.

    Thanks Laila, have a great day, and please do one “random act of kindness today” as it’s suppose to be that theme for the day?! I try to live that way, but don’t always succeed, better an effort than none I suppose. 🙂
    Much peace.
    Gordon

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  24. Canadianbud Amigo you really are a presumptuous ass!

    You have no need of explaining Laila’s position to me or anyone else for that matter and less to assume what was meant by the link I post.
    I suppose I should have given a long windy interpretation of the content of the ling. It is simply that th and you have the gall to call her a pessimist? e people I associate with have enough gray matter to see the intent and if they don’t, they ask for clarification.

    I am not used to spoon-feeding fools nor do I suffer them gladly.

    Perhaps if you had read and comprehended the article you might have been able to make the connection between the brain dead voters who continue to elect people who will screw them.

    This is a prise bit of ignorance: “…and you have the gall to call her a pessimist?”
    Kindly point to exactly where I called Laila a pessimist!

    It is knee-jerk fools like you that will rush in all full of indignation based on supposition that are fully responsible for the political climate of the province!

    WTF up! Become PRO-active rather than the RE-active idiot you just presented yourself as.

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  26. Maybe next time Billy, you’ll not allow me to be presumptuous to your position by only posting a link with no follow up explanation of “why” in particular you chose that link. Especially when you don’t designate who the link is for.
    One could only “presume” that you are responding to this article and therefore the link was relative to your thinking.
    And yes, I did read it, all of it. I thought it was interesting but did not see how that applied to this particular article unless it was Laila you were directing the “diagnosis” of panglossia at. I’d never heard of that term prior.

    That’s where the pessimistic attitude is taken from.. maybe you posted the wrong link.. maybe you didn’t, but it seemed like an attack on intelligence rather an application of.
    Maybe you can explain your thought on that link and why you posted it, pretend everyone isn’t as smart as you and doesn’t use big words all the time to seem… intelligent.
    If you explained yourself a tad bit better, presumptions wouldn’t be made.

    As for your facebook link I cannot follow. So, your attempt at belittling me fell flat.
    I can get my head around you being a pompous ass, as opposed to presumptuous.

    As to your blame, shame and criticism, all you’ve done is cement in my opinion of you.
    You think because you know something all others should instinctively know where you’re coming from (yes, sometimes long and windy is better than just a little fart). You think that because you know something and another doesn’t it makes them and idiot?
    You just name call all you like, I couldn’t care less. I had an opinion on a statement you made that, had it been better thought/written out, wouldn’t have caused any confusion.

    Have a nice day.

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