wow...

We’ve been super out of touch with what’s been going on in the news as of late, but today read about the Vince Li’s trial and the judge’s decision. I’m not a huge fan of the phrase “not criminally responsible,” and don’t like “not guilty by reason of insanity” either; that NOT should precede “guilty” or “responsible” suggests that he’s off the hook, that he didn’t do it. The worst part of the whole deal is that at some point this guy could be released back into the free world if he’s no longer deemed a risk to the public. Li was clearly out of his mind but I just don’t entirely get why that means he’s not guilty; the Manitoba judge said, “He did not appreciate the act he committed was wrong,” but isn’t it true that a fair number of sane criminals don’t appreciate the fact that their crimes were wrong either? Perhaps it’s because I don’t know or understand anything about schizophrenia, but even so, I feel that, when a crime such as this is committed, with the accused having no recollection of the actual attack (even though he recalls there being voices telling him what to do) some modicum of responsibility should still rest with the individual. The fact that he will now be relegated to a psychiatric facility where he may or may not spend the rest of his life would be horribly painful for the McLean family. In any case, I hope that Li gets adequate treatment, but that he’s kept in a secure facility for the same amount of time as he would have spent in a prison if he’d been found guilty of the crime that he committed.

Crimes… Well, I saw one the other day at the mall. It wasn’t a purse snatching or a brawl or a granny mugging but… wait… wait… a cowboy STRIPPING to Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive” on a stage in the middle of the mall. I’m not even kidding. I honestly couldn’t believe my eyeballs – I heard the music and I saw this guy – dressed in faded, light-blue, high-waisted, long-crotched 90s jeans, a plaid button up shirt, a leather vest, a cowboy hat, cowboy boots and a bandana covering his face – swinging his hips and flutting and strutting around, gyrating and sexy (barf) moving to a scattered crowd of Romanians at 7:30 on a Wednesday night. There were families, girls and boys, teenagers and old folks – some stopping to watch and others nonchalantly strolling by. I, with my mouth open in utter disbelief...

(like this)

... couldn’t, at first, decide if it was real or a total joke… this guy was painful to watch. I mean painful – not to mention ridiculous. And it seemed so painfully inappropriate, him acting all stripper-ish up there on stage, in the middle of a shopping mall! I texted Tammy right away, but of course had left my camera at home… so couldn’t record any evidence of this ridiculous episode of a Romanian cowboy stripping in the mall. I seriously couldn’t watch, and came out of Zara to see him whipping his belt around, overhead, from side to side with hip thrust this way hip thrust that way, and people just kind of standing there as if they were watching a lecture or slide show. What made it even more strange, is that there were two women getting their hair done up on stage too – who would every so often get Mr. Cowboy in their lap for a few seconds; the girls had curlers in their hair, and this guy was just wearing jeans and a cowboy hat. Ugggghhhh.

So, why you ask? Women’s Day is coming up this weekend, on Sunday March the 8th, and apparently (according to Tammy’s Romanian teammates) it’s a day that (in Romania at least) women go to see male strippers. It is actually a normal custom to go and see male strippers – she was even invited to go with her team to perform this ritual for WOMEN’S DAY! I mean, I thought International Women’s Day was a celebration of the social and political progress women have made, and in the strength and wonderfulness of women, not the strength and wonderfulness? ickiness? of male strippers. Apparently it’s also celebrated as a day not unlike Mother’s Day – a day to honour the women in your life… and I love the idea of that – but won’t do so by taking my Mom and sisters and friends to see a stripper – uh, no thanks! More on International Women’s Day later… but wow, I just really had to write about this cowboy. I’m so mad that I didn’t have my camera – DOH!!!