Facebook has bowed to legal pressure and pulled Scrabulous. Hasbro has announced how pleased it is at this development, especially as Electronic Arts has developed a legitimate version of online scrabble. Legitimate it may be, but it truly licks. I tried it out on EA’s pogo.com site for five minutes and was sidelined by a headache, thanks to the ugly visuals and the intrusive sound effects and no obvious way to click them off.

It is really sad that Hasbro couldn’t recognize the simple elegance of the UI the Scrabulous developers provided, and come to a mutually beneficial resolution.

For the most part I find Facebook a fluffy waste of time. I use its email function to keep in touch with acquaintances and distant friends, but soon grew tired of all its other distractions.

Funny piece over at Condohype. Bob Rennie as much as admitted on air to Bill Good that he’s grown filthy rich overselling granite and stainless steel.

Caveat emptor, and all that, but it sounds like Condo King Bob is having second thoughts about his “contribution” to life in Vancouver. If he thinks too hard he may decide he wants to “give something back” by running for public office. Let’s hope he sticks to his art collection.

Language NSFW.

Via Information Clearing House

Bless those BC Liberal hearts. This morning Mr. V. and I each received our $100 Carbon Tax “Dividend” cheques with the morning post. We are not sure what we are going to do with this bounty.

Even though we know it is hush money that will encourage us not to squeal when we fill up the gas tank or pay the Terasen bill, it’s nice to pretend we have a little walking around cash we can “re-invest” into a greener, cleaner, less oil-dependent world.

Just like the Liberals are pretending that this “dividend” is smart and progressive economic policy, even though as usual they haven’t thought about it very deeply or analyzed all its ramifications before patting themselves on the back and toasting themselves with another bottle of (imported) wine.

As I write this, Mediate and Woods are walking over to the final hole of their elimination round. I am rooting for Mediate, because this is so big for him, the greatest moment in his career. That said, win or lose, Tiger Woods will remain, with his so far 13 major golf titles, the greatest athlete alive on the planet today.

I was driving down Fraser Street yesterday, with tears in my eyes, listening to Stephen Harper’s apology to former residents of aboriginal schools.

Despite a troubling crescendo of scandals crashing down upon his government, the long overdue apology from Mr. Harper sounded sincere and heartfelt. Even he, a man with a penchant for shaking his children’s hands when he drops them off at school, appeared to understand the fragility and vulnerability of children.

The apology was to “former students” of residential schools, not to First Nations as a whole. In itself, this is interesting, because it neglected to address the “for their own good” cultural genocide the residential school system perpetrated upon Canadian First Nations.

This morning on CBC, Duncan McCue said that aboriginal people are not the only people who have suffered the indignity and violation of childhood abuse.

Here is the difference: residential schools ensured that entire communities and multiple generations were grievously traumatized by officially sanctioned policy consciously designed to take their essential identity from them.

Along with the regret—official and otherwise—there is also criticism. It is time, some say, for aboriginals to take responsibility for their lives and stop laying the entire blame for their problems on residential schools.

But when people who are as demoralized as you surround you, there are few role models. It is almost impossible to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. When the dominant culture secretly, but self-righteously believes you are an inferior breed, you begin to believe it yourself. Or so goes the conventional wisdom.

Clarence Louie, Chief of the Osoyoos Band, is not big on aboriginal victimhood, either.

My tears were not entirely for the horrible things that happened to so many of those children and their families. I knew some tears were for me, and for the thousands of other children who suffered equally grievous treatment, sometimes behind the facades of happy homes. Almost all suffered in secret, and most paid the price, in terms of anguish, anxiety, addiction, shame, and lost opportunities.

The abuse of children has been documented since at least Roman times, and has been a common theme in literature. But only in the last few decades has its frequency and its harm, to both the victim and society as a whole, been recognized.

Before people like Alice Miller stated writing about it in the late 1970s, some forms of abuse, like spanking and shaming, were commonly practiced and accepted.

Evidence and allegations of darker acts of emotional, physical, and sexual violence were discounted or denied, in churches, schools, and neighbourhoods.

Most perpetrators, including those in the residential schools, were themselves victims of childhood abuse. Once they achieved the power of physical adulthood, they found it compelling and easy to violate and abuse vulnerable children, as they had once been vulnerable and violated.

Abuse of children was easy because those who could do something to stop it chose instead turned a blind eye, and because an unacknowledged hatred of children had developed in lockstep with accepted child rearing practices like shaming.

It is a small mercy that many victims of childhood abuse do not go on to become abusers themselves, and it is perhaps a larger one that for the abused there is healing and a way out of the pain for those who seek it. Life as a survivor is not the same life that would have been if the abuse had never occurred. But, as a wise therapist once told me, there is still plenty of gold to be found.

The people of the Alkali Lake band have been on the road to recovery since 1971, when the now-sober community began to practice alcohol abstinence. They continue to grapple with issues underlying addiction, as well as poverty and substandard housing. They say life under the aegis of Indian and Northern Affairs is about as bad as life in a residential school

Sound bites on CBC yesterday included voices from aboriginal people who are not ready to accept Canada’s apology, much less begin the work of healing and forgiveness. This is sad, of course, because forgiveness generally benefits the forgiver more than the forgiven.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission might help some participants to begin to forgive and to heal. But it is not a substitute for a collaborative framework to replace the Kelowna Accord, treaty settlement, or proper fiduciary oversight of band councils.

Heather Mallick opines, as brilliantly as usual, on Sex and the City celluloid.

Living the glamorous condo life? Garth Turner’s Greater Fool blog features a New York Times article on luxury condo foreclosures.

Fat people are blamed for global warming.

Oliver Stone’s new movie, W, may be a greater source of embarrassment for Tony Blair, W’s most ardent admirer, than for W himself.

Suzuki backs Dion’s carbon tax, says mean things about the Tories and the NDP.

Hillary for VEEP? What a mess that would be, despite her smarts and intestinal fortitude. Nevertheless, lots of people seem to think an Obama-Clinton ticket in November would heal the Dems’ wounds. I think Barry’s going to go with Bill Richardson, though he’s not mentioned as a possibility in this article.

Two guys in Colorado got in a “bonehead” dustup over a parked van and tasered each other, and neither of them was a cop. At least they didn’t use bullets?

I’m sure Ms. Clinton could do a fine job as US Prez. I’m equally sure that Obama will make a few mistakes when he is finally elected. Some of those mistakes will be big, just like the mistakes of any other human who has ever been elected or ascended to high office.

I would rather see Obama making mistakes than Hillary, who along with her husband Bill, represents old way of getting things done. Obama will not instantly transform the hidebound political system, but he will expose the ingrown hairs on its overly scratched back. That will be a start. He will also continue to elevate the quality of public discourse. He will pave the way for acutely needed change.

So, Hillary, after you’re fought the good fight in Pennsylvania, which everyone knows you will win, can you please take your seat and let a fresher wind blow. Politics-as-usual aren’t good for you, your husband, your country, or the rest of the world.

Damn Fine Pie
Our favourite house guest brought us some mighty fine pie from Tartine this week. Flaky crust in the tradition of my dear departed mother, and fillings that would be worth a bit of penance, if it were still Lent. We liked the bumbleberry a whole lot, and the strawberry rhubarb even more. Their bakery at 770 Beach Avenue, almost under the Granville Bridge, has a full breakfast and lunch menu, and lots of goodies, for take out. Did I mention their pies?

Ahhh, Artigiano
The new owners of local coffee roaster, Caffè Artigiano, have been growing their business, and have recently opened their newest location, near Hastings and Willingdon in Burnaby. It’s not close enough to our house to walk, but we’re delighted to no longer have to foray into downtown Vancouver to buy their Private Reserve Espresso beans.

Five Names, One Lucky New GM
Five names for new Canucks GM have been bandied about by the The Vancouver Sun. At our house, the money is on Jim Nill.

Kitchen Goodness
Some day, some way, we’ll get a new kitchen and quit bumping into each other and the fridge door. In the meantime, we dream, and I like this French kitchen a whole lot.

Don’t Take Your Cat On Skytrain
Tasers are meant to be used sparingly, as a substitute for lethal force. Unfortunately, for some of the “authorities,” tasers are toys, and for others, an easy and convenient way to keep people in line, witness the BC Transit Police tactics since they got their tasers into their hot little hands. If you wouldn’t shoot someone for skiving on their transit fare, then why taser them? Unless of course, the skiver is a cat…like the one that was fighting with another member of its species, or the other that may have accidentally wandered into the wrong place at the wrong time. RIP, kitties.