What about the city? Having a crackhead as the mayor has got to be a bad thing! Well, maybe not. LEAFS SUCK doesn't have a strong mayor system. The mayor is just one vote on council, and to get anything done, he needs to build an alliance of a majority of councillors. Riding high on his electoral victory into his first year in office let him push through all sorts of stuff by just obstinately sticking to his positions and bullying folks to get on board or get run over. Those days are long gone. If anything, since Rob's views on governance and understanding of how things work are so flawed, his being impaired and less effectual is probably a good thing for Council. Although, this behaviour is more egregiously bad than even some of the stupid crap we've had before and reflects badly on the city. Well whatevers, LEAFS SUCK has had some interesting mayors.
One thing in the Torontoist article that I disagree with is the bit about Ford's use of hateful language - particularly the bit about Justin Trudeau being a "fag". Don't get me wrong - that language is indeed hateful and incredibly inappropriate for any holder of public office. BUT, dude was saying that shit while he was fucking high on crack. I'm okay with giving some leeway to the garbage that comes out of your mouth immediately after a heavy pull on the crack pipe. It's the crack smoking that's still the major issue.
That said, I really hope that the "just fucking minorities" comment about the Don Bosco Eagles is fake. Throughout Ford's various trials (literally) and tribulations, the one mitigating aspect of his bad behaviour was his dedication to underprivileged high schools and to his football team. Sure there's a strong argument that the Rob Ford Football Foundation is just a publicity device and a money laundering tool for campaign financing. But even still, that foundation does do what it claims to. And sure, maybe football has nothing to do with turning around a troubled high school, but if you believe it does then Rob is doing exactly what he claims he thinks will help the most. And he seems to genuinely care about his football team - so much so that he misses Council meetings for games. Video of him slagging those players would totally suck. Even given that he was high on crack at the time of the statement - it would still be pretty hurtful.
Final point - to clarify my first statement on this over at Teh Mothership, Sarah Thomson accused Rob Fod of groping her during a photo op - which turned out to be a fizzled scandal despite having the awesome name of Ass Gate. Then, Sarah Thomson went on local radio and diagnosed Rob Ford as being high on coke based on her extensive use of Google, which of course - hilarious, at least it was until video evidence starts being discussed.
One thing in the Torontoist article that I disagree with is the bit about Ford's use of hateful language - particularly the bit about Justin Trudeau being a "fag". Don't get me wrong - that language is indeed hateful and incredibly inappropriate for any holder of public office. BUT, dude was saying that shit while he was fucking high on crack. I'm okay with giving some leeway to the garbage that comes out of your mouth immediately after a heavy pull on the crack pipe. It's the crack smoking that's still the major issue.
That said, I really hope that the "just fucking minorities" comment about the Don Bosco Eagles is fake. Throughout Ford's various trials (literally) and tribulations, the one mitigating aspect of his bad behaviour was his dedication to underprivileged high schools and to his football team. Sure there's a strong argument that the Rob Ford Football Foundation is just a publicity device and a money laundering tool for campaign financing. But even still, that foundation does do what it claims to. And sure, maybe football has nothing to do with turning around a troubled high school, but if you believe it does then Rob is doing exactly what he claims he thinks will help the most. And he seems to genuinely care about his football team - so much so that he misses Council meetings for games. Video of him slagging those players would totally suck. Even given that he was high on crack at the time of the statement - it would still be pretty hurtful.
Final point - to clarify my first statement on this over at Teh Mothership, Sarah Thomson accused Rob Fod of groping her during a photo op - which turned out to be a fizzled scandal despite having the awesome name of Ass Gate. Then, Sarah Thomson went on local radio and diagnosed Rob Ford as being high on coke based on her extensive use of Google, which of course - hilarious, at least it was until video evidence starts being discussed.
6 comments:
But even with all that, I'm hoping he's not a crack addict because that would totally fucking suck for him and his loved ones.
Oh don't be such a liberal wuss. They made their beds, now they should go lie in them. If the guy's policies have hurt even one Leafs Suckian he should be hurt himself.
Sick & tired of people's families getting a break too. Unless it was an arranged marriage & you were too young to run away, you married it so you live w/ it.
Totally agree with M. Bouffant. If this turns out to be real - and, granted, that's a big if - then why on earth should we go easy on him? The man is demonstrably a nasty piece of work, and he sure as hell wouldn't show any such courtesy to a political enemy if the shoe were on the other foot. No, Boss Hogg (and his scumbag brother) would be all for stomping down hard on any opponent stupid enough to get caught up in such a scandal. I say we give him exactly the same treatment as he'd give to us.
Respectfully,
John D.
Carousel!
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I totally agree that in the general case (and also especially in Rob's specific case) one chooses to be a crack user. And Rob's a long-time member of the Tough on Crime drug-abusers are the root of all evil etc. and so forth.
Still, I can't help my bleeding heart tendencies. He's probably going through a truly rough time and poking at him now is too harsh for me to do.
That said, I'm not saying he should get away with anything. Despite our lax attitudes towards pharmaceutical experimentation, crack's still pretty illegal here in CanadaLand. Maybe after he's in jail I'll roll out the pointing and laughing. Also too, yeah we should know more about his alleged crack habit since he is supposed to be out mayor.
One more thing, Dragon:
"Throughout Ford's various trials (literally) and tribulations, the one mitigating aspect of his bad behaviour was his dedication to underprivileged high schools and to his football team."
Ford's treatment of those kids has always struck me as being deeply cynical and self-serving. He's used them as his own personal political props, and at one point, was hiding behind them every time allegations of wrong-doing began to crop up. Even if he's been otherwise totally sincere about his money laundering, er, 'charity' work, let's not whitewash that aspect of things. He simply doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt here.
To the extent that his interest in Don Bosco is genuine, I'd say that it's due to him getting off on the immediate gratification that comes in coaching high school football. (When your team wins, at any rate.) He obviously loves having his fat ass kissed, wouldn't you say? So his supposed love of coaching can be chalked up to Ego. The fucking oaf has publicly insinuated that those kids would all be drop outs and/or gang members if it weren't for their participation in "his" football team. So, yeah, as with all narcissists, it's all about him, isn't it?
Do we really need to bend over backwards to be 'fair' to a lying demogogue who's demonstrably, manifestly not dealing in good faith?
John D.
Sure. Mandatory sentencing cuts both ways.
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