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On Imagining A Weedless 4/20 And Snoop Dogg’s Lecture On The DTES

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by Sean Orr | Not satire: VSB reminds students 4/20 is not a day off. I’m paraphrasing here: “Hey kids, there’ this really cool event downtown where thousands of people gather to smoke illegal drugs. Don’t come, ok? You totally won’t like it. We cool?”

Meanwhile, 25,000 people consume boatloads of drugs and not a single arrest. Photos.

The only bad thing that happened was that some dude tried to swim to Vanier Park.

While I love to make fun of 4/20 on social media, just imagine 25,000 people getting drunk on a super hot spring day on a beach. Imagine the fights. Imagine the nudity. Imagine the sheer volume of vomit.

Speaking of vomit, Trudeau says Respecting Saudi deal a ‘matter of principle’. Maybe it’s time to get new principles (or at least reconcile the ones you already have with the truth).

Like how it’s possible to be a feminist arms dealer.

Maybe it has something to do with quantum theory: The Justin Trudeau Quantum-Computing Story Is What Happens When Social Media Shapes Reality.

It was the inevitable product of today’s inexorable social-media machine, in which shareable content fuels the traffic-referral engines that pay online media’s bills. What’s remarkable is just how readily and unwittingly we bend reality to that machine’s imperatives.

Let’s call it quantum politics. A theory which helps to explain how Trudeau’s middle class tax cut actually benefits the rich.

It might go some lengths to explain how Peter Fassbender can be the minister responsible for Translink while not knowing a single thing about…er…Translink. Just watch as Peter Fassbender first smugly attacks the Leap manifesto out of nowhere, then asks why the Opposition is in opposition to things.

Speaking of Leap, Derrick O’Keefe dissects the media’s bizarre obsession with it: Hyperbole and gotcha journalism threaten to obscure necessary debate on climate. “The way the press reacted, you would have thought NDP members had voted to ban hockey…”

To wit, here’s Bill Tieleman getting it spectacularly wrong: NDP Should Forget Leaping and Protests, Just Win Elections. Of course, for Bill Tieleman, winning elections only happens when the right is split.

Here is Patrick Johnstone debunking the BC Liberals debunking of Massey Tunnel replacement myths.

Lecture of the week: Snoop Dogg tells Vancouver ‘clean this s**t up out here!’ as he drives through DTES alleyways in a massive SUV. Right Snoop, because Canadians don’t ever get hassled at your border and you certainly don’t have a massive Skid Road in Los Angeles. Listen and cringe…

A video posted by snoopdogg (@snoopdogg) on

As annoying as it is to have outsiders regularly comment on our efforts to mitigate AIDS and Hep C, the ignorance they espouse is mirrored locally, too. Just look at the comments in The Province’s post on the subject (or don’t look at the comments — they’re horrible — so just imagine them).

In any event, it’s really astounding to see that some people still think that handing out needles actually encourages drug use. Just like handing condoms to prostitutes encourages sexual intercourse. Jesus.

Urban planning of the day: Why One Corner of East Van Could Be Truly Revolutionary

Local art of the day: Glenn Lewis and Maggie Boyd.

On Ken Sim’s So-Called “Swagger” and ABC’S Class War

Sean Orr is back from his hiatus with a rundown of the local headlines that have been running on a ticker tape through his mind over the past six months...

On Post-Election Recuperation, Platform Paradoxes and Refund Communities

In his latest read of the local news headlines, Sean Orr finds irony in "safety, affordability, and sustainability", and shouts out a bunch of amazing local organizations working on the frontlines.

On Running for City Council, Playing Whack-a-Mole with Homelessness, and the Public Washroom Deficit

In his latest read of the local news headlines, Sean Orr finds a park ranger with a grudge, a gross misuse of air quotes and Tripadvisor slander.

On Living in a City Preoccupied with Street Cleaning, Chandeliers, and Campaigns Against the Homeless

In his latest read of the local news headlines, Sean Orr hones in on the recent Langley shootings, and the ongoing criminalizing and dehumanizing of the homeless population.