The story of Drunken Cowboy from Vancouver Island and his gay-bashing adventure in the big city.

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There was an unnatural wailing noise when the College St. car rolled into the Spadina stop (I was returning from lunch on Baldwin Street).

One child got on with his mom. He wasn't the source. Ditto the second kid.

So what was the source? A woman, possibly in her late 50s, looking to be in full nervous breakdown mode.

"Does anyboy know where I can get an air conditioner?" she cried out after she got on the streetcar (for the record, the temperature at this time was 28 degrees Celsius, but it felt like 37). No response that I could detect from the other passengers.

Screaming Lady then takes a seat right behind me -- and starts howling at the moon.

"Why is she crying?" asked one of the inquisitive tykes. Mom tried to explain that the heat was getting to her.

The bus driver told her: "M'am, you're going to have to be quiet, OK?"

"OK," she sniffled.

But it did start up again.

"Ma'am, where are you going?" asked the puzzled driver.

"I wanna go to Wal-Mart!" she yelled.

A kindly, elderly, East European-sounding man sat beside her, and told her he was going to Dufferin.

"I'll take you there (to Wal-Mart)," he said. She said thanks and quieted down.

I made my escape.

Afterthought

I allowed myself a shudder and a grimace when I wonder about she might react if Wal-Mart had no air conditioners left.

For one thing, I suspect those operators who are experiencing abuse issues have likely brought it on themselves.

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Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, who literally wrote the book on the Taliban, offers an analysis of how the U.S. and NATO forces have fallen short in Afghanistan.

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From CTV.ca:

A Jordanian court on Tuesday sentenced the editors of two weekly newspapers to two months in jail for harming religious feelings by reprinting offensive caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

The lawyer for Jihad al-Momani, chief editor of the Shihan, and Hashim al-Khalidi, chief editor of al-Mihwar, said he would appeal the decision and that both men had been released on bail awaiting the hearing.

Both had pleaded not guilty. Al-Momani said he had published the cartoons to show readers "the extent of the Danish offence.'' Al-Khalidi said that his newspaper had reprinted them along with an article criticizing the Danish newspaper that first ran them.

Lieut. Commander Steve Tatham, former head of the British Royal Navy's Media Operations in the Northern Arabian Gulf, was involved in the media planning for Iraq invasion. He's written a book -- Losing Arab Hearts and Minds: The Coalition, Al Jazeera and Muslim Public Opinion -- and spoke about it Monday with Democracy Now!

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Cameraman Doug Vogt, who was seriously injured earlier this year in Iraq, talked about his friends with CBS who died in Iraq on Monday.

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Citizen journalism evangelist Dan Gillmor has been writing fairly regulary for the Beeb's website. This entry is actually from a few weeks ago. It's one of his responses to readers columns. This is a glum little excerpt:

Reader: Organisations that produce newspapers have an enormous head start over any new entrants because they have the skills and networks needed to provide the content. The challenge for existing media organisations and new entrants alike is in developing revenue from the web, either from subscription, sponsorship or advertising. The revenue streams may be smaller, but the distribution costs for electronic news are orders of magnitude smaller than using dead trees. Keith Dowsett, London

Dan: I agree that traditional news organizations have a built-in advantage, but they have moved with remarkable slowness. What I don't know is whether the online revenues will reach the levels that support the journalism soon enough to make up for what will be lost on the print side, even with the potential savings. The early numbers aren't encouraging.

From the BBC:

Online journalists have the same rights as traditional reporters, a Californian court has ruled.

The decision was made in a case brought by Apple against a number of reporters who published information online about a future Apple product launch.

Apple filed the lawsuit to find out the source of the reporter's information.

But judges said that online journalists have the same right to protect the confidentiality of their sources as offline media.

"Today's decision is a victory for the rights of journalists, whether online or offline, and for the public at large," said Attorney Kurt Opsahl of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital rights organisation who have been defending the journalists.

From the BBC:

In her latest incarnation, she is a rich socialite who has a romantic history with another 52 character, ex-police detective Renee Montoya.

The new-look Batwoman is just one of a wave of ethnically and sexually diverse characters entering the DC Comics universe.

Others include Mexican teenager Blue Beetle - who replaces the character's previous white incarnation - and the Great Ten, a government-sponsored team of Chinese superheroes.

Regular characters Firestorm and The Atom, meanwhile, have been reinvented as black and Asian heroes respectively.

The characters are part of a wider effort to broaden the make-up of comic-book creations in line with society as a whole.

Batwoman, who first appeared in July 1956, has not been seen since September 1979 when she was killed by the League of Assassins and the Bronze Tiger.

A bit more can be found at Newsarama.com (H/T to Dwight Williams)

CTV colleague David Akin reminisces about about being in the little leagues of journalism before he got a desk with a view in Ottawa. :)

William Thorsell, former editor of The Globe and Mail, calls for a wider sense of inquiry by journalists -- and defecates on traditional notions of "investigative journalism." I offer some context and rebuttal.

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A CBS cameraman and soundman are dead and a reporter seriously injured after the convoy in which they were riding was hit by an IED in central Baghdad.

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Ex-politician Jim Pankiw apologizes to reporter

Harper-media spat gets more international attention

Amnesty International & Observer fight Internet censorship

Censorship by Indigo/Chapters/Coles

 

The Globe and Mail's Geoffrey York has written a very sobering assessment of the situation on the ground in Afghanistan, particularly in Kandahar province where Canadian troops are operating. It is a must-read if you're interested in this subject.

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You can find the list here.

The Oil did it!

While I predicted an Oiler victory in six games, I'm just as happy to see the Edmonton Oilers beat the Anaheim Mighty Ducks 2-1 and win the NHL's Western Conference final in five games.

Now I can concentrate on watching the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes until that series ends, although from what I've seen of the Sabres, it would be the closest we could get to an Oilers vs. Oilers series.

Frankly, no matter what happens, the Oil can be very proud of their post-season performance (although they had some notable flat spots over the regular season).

They knocked off number-one-seeded Detroit Red Wings, the NHL's best team over 82 games, then the San Jose Sharks, and then the Anaheim Mighty Ducks (who beat the Calgary Flames in 7, thus ending the possibility of another Battle of Alberta).

The keys for the Oilers? They need goalie Dwayne Roloson to stay in his groove. They need to stop taking stupid penalties (at one point late in the third against the Ducks, they were down two men), but other than that, just keep doing what they're doing. If they can maintain the focus and passion and grit they've shown throughout the playoffs, they will win their first Stanley Cup since 1990 no matter who they play.

Seeing Dubya lose a little bit of Texas swagger has some right-wing radio jocks shaking their heads, and others wondering whether it's the influence of his wife Laura or new White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten.

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The deaths of civilians in Haditha, Iraq appears more and more to be a case of some U.S. Marines going berserk.

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After another grieving father blasted him, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made it sound like a communications problem was behind banning the media from covering repatriation ceremony of Capt. Nichola Goddard's remains from Afghanistan.

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The Canadian Newspaper Association has produced a study that claims young people still have some time for old media forms. But there's a catch.

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Gov. Gen Michaelle Jean delivered a speech at the annual meeting of The Canadian Press, talking up the issue of journalistic responsibility.

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This CP story talks about how the PMO told the Conservative caucus to avoid comment on the coming marriage of RCMP Consts. Jason Tree and David Connors.

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismisses the PMO-PPG feud as "inside Ottawa stuff" during an appearance in Vancouver.

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Peter Donolo, former communications director for Prime Minister Jean Chretien, and Michel Gratton, who held the same job for Tory Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, will hold forth on globeandmail.com on Friday starting at noon EDT.

Update:

Thursday's globeandmail.com story on the PMO-PPG feud attracted 302 comments. A measly 217 people  commented after the Friday follow-up story. And only 97 commented on Friday after the Donolo-Gratton chat.

So I guess interest is dying down. :^)

However, the Globe also ran an editorial and two op-ed pieces: One by Jeffrey Simpson and one ny former press secretary Mark Entwhistle.

So they must figure somebody's interested in this stuff.

The Edmonton Oilers did not administer the coup de grace to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks tonight.

Far from it.

In fact, 6-3 from it.

My head is quite fogged right now by multiple pints of Steamwhistle, so I can offer nothing more substantive than "the better team one won tonight."

Well, the luckier team too. For example, one Ducks goal trickled in after hitting an Oiler defenceman's skate first.

However, take  that away, and the Ducks were still the better team -- tonight. They fired 25 shots at Oilers goalie Dwayne Roloson in the first period alone.

The Oil put themselves into three, two-men-down situations in the first. They were probably lucky to escape being down 3-0. And while they came back a bit in the second, the Oil looked sluggish in the third.

Anyway, the one day off I have this week to watch hockey like a civilized human being and the Oil loses! Agghhh!!!

An NYT story looks at the current crop of college interns who head off to corporate jobs -- and then blog about what goes on behind closed doors.

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An Alternet article on the growing number of "you be the editor" news websites.

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Susan Delacourt, the Toronto Star's bureau chief, had a note to Zerby on the PMO-PPG imbroglio turned into a posting.

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Maclean's magazine columnist Paul Wells reprinted part of a late 2003 speech he gave to civil servants. You can find it here.

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Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean has a "scheduling conflict" and won't be attending this fall's Parliamentary Press Gallery dinner, CTV is reporting.

Last week, officials in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office indicated he might not be going. Harper, of course, is in a righteous snit with the gallery these days.

Sigh. Nobody wants to party with the pundits any more. :^)

My pal Deborah Jones blogged on the Harper-PPG controversy over at Canadian Journalist.

Here's an excerpt:

 The absurd tug of war with Canada's Prime Minister's Office is simply a part of a much bigger picture. As much as the idea appals any professional journalist, walking out of a press conference with the prime minister is the right thing to do. I'm on side with Yves Malo, a TVA reporter and president of the press gallery, who said yesterday, "We can't accept that the prime minister's office would decide who gets to ask questions . . . Does that mean that when there's a crisis they'll only call upon journalists they expect softball questions from?"
I support Malo, and say that reporters who stay and play by the prime minister's rules are betraying not just their colleagues, but our craft.

Check out the Ukele Orchestra of Great Britain playing Smells Like Teen Spirit. (thanks, Kevin!)

 Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a London TV station that he's going to bypass the national media and speak mainly with local outlets from now on.

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