In MemoriamRichard Gordon Austin Beal (Rik)
1951 to 1995
"I have been, and always shall be, your friend".
from Star Trek 2
On March 13th, 2009 14 years ago today.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
In Memoriam Garry Ronald Cousins (Gaz)
March 11th, 1983 26 years ago today.
We still miss you. You taught me about modern music. Elvis, the Beatles, T-Rex, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. Like Elvis, Hendrix and Jon Bonham, You climbed that Stairway to Heaven to Kiss the Sky too soon.
"Death makes Angels of us all and gives us wings where we had shoulders smooth as raven's claws". Jim Morrison/The Doors
Kiss the sky forever!
Monday, March 09, 2009
The "last word" was not. I think you can figure it's meaning.
A NIGHT FOR CICERO
Shadows fall across the lustful plain as they drive into the darkness.
The night is unwieldy, yielding shadows full of pain, bereft of mercy.
Mercy is a shadow of cool darkness which light cannot contaminate.
Wheels roll forward, the road stretches out ahead,
lazy asphalt corridor a lace between cities,
skeletal and now infamous, traced into the prairie dust.
Bound between homes, passengers tire, sigh and sleep, lolling in seats
not invited to a party of wakeful terror,
as are others are who must purge their demons.
There is nothing proper, no saving as violence springs up
lurching, jilting, slashing, shadows taking form towards an innocent target
like Cicero, guilty of nothing, only wanting to be home.
End of season returning, simple journey to loving arms
ends here tonight on this conveyance, among strangers
in a public horror.
Afterwards, unspeakable details stretch out across a country
maimed by this night, transfixed in darkness, thoughts shudder
from city through town to unbelieving, horrified minds.
Strike the demon, down in the darkness, who can tell if it lingers, still
in the taught light of day, remorseless shadow across the face
as the courts, mere ciphers decide to protect the guilty.
The road still twists and swallows all, near this place
voices now lost on a prairie wind if ever they were heard at all
where fate pulled up one night and dealt death
on this guiltless road, in a gutless, gutted country
which can now settle back down into the prairie dust.
A NIGHT FOR CICERO
Shadows fall across the lustful plain as they drive into the darkness.
The night is unwieldy, yielding shadows full of pain, bereft of mercy.
Mercy is a shadow of cool darkness which light cannot contaminate.
Wheels roll forward, the road stretches out ahead,
lazy asphalt corridor a lace between cities,
skeletal and now infamous, traced into the prairie dust.
Bound between homes, passengers tire, sigh and sleep, lolling in seats
not invited to a party of wakeful terror,
as are others are who must purge their demons.
There is nothing proper, no saving as violence springs up
lurching, jilting, slashing, shadows taking form towards an innocent target
like Cicero, guilty of nothing, only wanting to be home.
End of season returning, simple journey to loving arms
ends here tonight on this conveyance, among strangers
in a public horror.
Afterwards, unspeakable details stretch out across a country
maimed by this night, transfixed in darkness, thoughts shudder
from city through town to unbelieving, horrified minds.
Strike the demon, down in the darkness, who can tell if it lingers, still
in the taught light of day, remorseless shadow across the face
as the courts, mere ciphers decide to protect the guilty.
The road still twists and swallows all, near this place
voices now lost on a prairie wind if ever they were heard at all
where fate pulled up one night and dealt death
on this guiltless road, in a gutless, gutted country
which can now settle back down into the prairie dust.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Outrage Continues over Li Verdict (The Last Word)
It's been a tough day all across the online community where concerned citizens have expressed their outrage over this ruling today in a Manitoba court. About the time of the incident last summer I expressed concern to the Canadian Justice department via an email. That was in August. In December I finally received a response from them. It seems justice is not swift by any means. I mean we're dealing with the government here, I think it I heard somewhere that they need to stop campaigning and start governing. Don't expect it to happen anytime soon though. By the way the response was almost a form letter, which is probably not a surprise. As always with the government, it's too little, too late and of that we are all victims. Good luck with your tax returns folks! If I recall in a little place across the pond, there's the option of being "crimminally insane". I guess we don't have that here in Canada, just this NCR bs.
Oh and by the way, I'm not literally responsible for this writing, even though my fingers did the typing.
It's been a tough day all across the online community where concerned citizens have expressed their outrage over this ruling today in a Manitoba court. About the time of the incident last summer I expressed concern to the Canadian Justice department via an email. That was in August. In December I finally received a response from them. It seems justice is not swift by any means. I mean we're dealing with the government here, I think it I heard somewhere that they need to stop campaigning and start governing. Don't expect it to happen anytime soon though. By the way the response was almost a form letter, which is probably not a surprise. As always with the government, it's too little, too late and of that we are all victims. Good luck with your tax returns folks! If I recall in a little place across the pond, there's the option of being "crimminally insane". I guess we don't have that here in Canada, just this NCR bs.
Oh and by the way, I'm not literally responsible for this writing, even though my fingers did the typing.
Outrage Stirs Over Li Ruling
The horror and outrage that was felt across the country last summer when Tim McLean, 22 was savagely attacked and killed on a Greyhound bus in Winnipeg has once again gripped the hearts and minds of Canadians. Today a Winnipeg judge ruled that Vincent Li is NCR, "not crimminally responsible" for the killing of this young man.
I've been following Bruce Owen of the Winnipeg Free Press on Twitter as he reported details of the hearing live over the internet. One can't help the feelings of outrage and anger when hearing the details of this terrible crime and then to find that the person who perpetrated it is not going to be held responsible as he was "psychotic" at the time of the incident. I find myself not only negatively emotional over the crime itself but toward the justice system. Just as the mother of McLean, Carol deDelley explained after the ruling, that NCR "has it's place but not in this case".
How would it be possible for any mother not to feel this way after what was done to her child? I know I would certainly want to kill the guy if this had happened to my child. Emotions run very high in a situation like this and people tend to react at the emotional extreme. But let's just take a look at what in my opinion is the obvious hypocrisy in our justice system.
Case in point number one, Ronald Smith is a canadian who has been on Death Row in Montana for the last 26 years for shooting two men in the back of the head. In Canada we don't have the death penalty but Canada has done nothing to get this Canadian's sentence commuted. Of course the US courts may have found him crimminally responsible, hence the sentence they handed down. But was he? Maybe he was on drugs or alcohol at the time, does that make you less responsible? Your mental state must surely be questionable in that case because you are "not in your right mind." Alcoholism and drug addiction are diseases too right?
Case number two in point, what about the Saskatchewan father, Christopher Pauchay, 25 who got drunk and took his two little girls out in a blizzard resulting in both children freezing to death? Surely he was "not crimminally responsible"? He was drunk, not in his right mind?? Right? In which case this is also a mental AND physical illness case which should be treated. So why not we sentence him to x number of years or months in rehab instead of jail time.
Let's just go South with this line of thinking for just a minute. Was Ted Bundy insane? Did he know what he was doing? What about Jeffrey Dahmer? Maybe they should have been declared "not crimminally responsible"? Did they know what they did was wrong? Son of Sam killer, David Berkowitz claimed he was "commanded to kill by a demon who possessed his neighbour's dog". Sounds like a clear cut case of psychosis and NCR to me but on June 12, 1978 he was sentenced to 6 life sentences in prison, a total of 365 years. Bundy got the death sentence and was described as a man "born to kill" and "consumed with murder all the time". As for Dahmer, although he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity he was imprisoned for 15 life terms and finally beaten to death by a fellow inmate with a bar from a weight machine in the prison gym.
I think you get the drift of where this argument is going. Who's to say that Li is not like these infamous serial killers? It's just that he was caught on his first one.
I think our justice system needs a tweeking. I can't help thinking of the adage, fair but not always equal. Don't we need to have a justice system that is fair and equal? Is that even possible? What frightens me is how many more like Li are there out there? But even more terrifying, how many people will do heinous things like this and then more or less get away with it by being found NCR??
To conclude I'd just like to express my sympathy to the McLean family once again at what has to be the second part of the most difficult time in their lives. My heart goes out to you, and my prayers are with you.
The horror and outrage that was felt across the country last summer when Tim McLean, 22 was savagely attacked and killed on a Greyhound bus in Winnipeg has once again gripped the hearts and minds of Canadians. Today a Winnipeg judge ruled that Vincent Li is NCR, "not crimminally responsible" for the killing of this young man.
I've been following Bruce Owen of the Winnipeg Free Press on Twitter as he reported details of the hearing live over the internet. One can't help the feelings of outrage and anger when hearing the details of this terrible crime and then to find that the person who perpetrated it is not going to be held responsible as he was "psychotic" at the time of the incident. I find myself not only negatively emotional over the crime itself but toward the justice system. Just as the mother of McLean, Carol deDelley explained after the ruling, that NCR "has it's place but not in this case".
How would it be possible for any mother not to feel this way after what was done to her child? I know I would certainly want to kill the guy if this had happened to my child. Emotions run very high in a situation like this and people tend to react at the emotional extreme. But let's just take a look at what in my opinion is the obvious hypocrisy in our justice system.
Case in point number one, Ronald Smith is a canadian who has been on Death Row in Montana for the last 26 years for shooting two men in the back of the head. In Canada we don't have the death penalty but Canada has done nothing to get this Canadian's sentence commuted. Of course the US courts may have found him crimminally responsible, hence the sentence they handed down. But was he? Maybe he was on drugs or alcohol at the time, does that make you less responsible? Your mental state must surely be questionable in that case because you are "not in your right mind." Alcoholism and drug addiction are diseases too right?
Case number two in point, what about the Saskatchewan father, Christopher Pauchay, 25 who got drunk and took his two little girls out in a blizzard resulting in both children freezing to death? Surely he was "not crimminally responsible"? He was drunk, not in his right mind?? Right? In which case this is also a mental AND physical illness case which should be treated. So why not we sentence him to x number of years or months in rehab instead of jail time.
Let's just go South with this line of thinking for just a minute. Was Ted Bundy insane? Did he know what he was doing? What about Jeffrey Dahmer? Maybe they should have been declared "not crimminally responsible"? Did they know what they did was wrong? Son of Sam killer, David Berkowitz claimed he was "commanded to kill by a demon who possessed his neighbour's dog". Sounds like a clear cut case of psychosis and NCR to me but on June 12, 1978 he was sentenced to 6 life sentences in prison, a total of 365 years. Bundy got the death sentence and was described as a man "born to kill" and "consumed with murder all the time". As for Dahmer, although he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity he was imprisoned for 15 life terms and finally beaten to death by a fellow inmate with a bar from a weight machine in the prison gym.
I think you get the drift of where this argument is going. Who's to say that Li is not like these infamous serial killers? It's just that he was caught on his first one.
I think our justice system needs a tweeking. I can't help thinking of the adage, fair but not always equal. Don't we need to have a justice system that is fair and equal? Is that even possible? What frightens me is how many more like Li are there out there? But even more terrifying, how many people will do heinous things like this and then more or less get away with it by being found NCR??
To conclude I'd just like to express my sympathy to the McLean family once again at what has to be the second part of the most difficult time in their lives. My heart goes out to you, and my prayers are with you.
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