Please excuse Ali McGraw’s attempt to act in the video clip accompanying this lesson.
Being in love (with yourself) means (always) having to say you’re sorry.
Rob Ford is intent on making every effort, no matter how utterly ridiculous, to hold on to his job as the mayor of the Big Onion, regardless of the fact that he has been stripped by the city council of most of his power and of a major part of his budget.
However he ploughs on, threatening legal action and intimidating councillors and gallery spectators who have displeased his majesty. He has stated that he has sinned and argues that in this way he is like most other people which is likely true the only difference being that Ford is the mayor for fuck sake. He seems to feel that his apologies for drugging, drinking, and pushing at least one of his fellow municipal politicians around – literally – should be enough to absolve him from his sins, including the purchase and consumption of illegal drugs.
He explains away his behavior by saying that he was so inebriated that he didn’t know what he was doing when he smoked crack or when he went on a recorded rant during which he “discussed” killing a certain “racist prick” and that all he needed was fifteen minutes to make certain that this particular “motherfucker” was really dead.*
*See the video entitled “Rob Ford’s dope and drug-fueled rant” accompanying JuicyLesson #53, posted on Friday, November 8th.
Rob Ford needs help. He seems to feel that he will be able to stop drinking just like that. It certainly looked that way in his interview with Peter Mansbridge who received this answer from Mayor Ford when he asked Rob if he was through with alcohol. “You can test me anytime you want.” The guy didn’t even have the guts to actually answer Mansbridge’s question. A programme – Alcoholics Anonymous – is required when anyone is struggling in a fight against addiction. Narcotics Anonymous (N.A.) – affiliated with A.A. – is intended to do the same thing for drug addicts as A.A. is supposed to do for alcoholics and there is no doubt in my mind that Ford is both.
I distinctly remember Ford stating at a news conference no more that two weeks ago that it would be “unrealistic” for him to say that he would stop drinking. Now he has done an about-face, declaring in a roundabout way that he is through with drink, attributing his change of heart to what he described as a Jesus moment (or words to that effect) in the Mansbridge interview. Yeah sure, tell me about it.
Both Ford and his brother, Doug, have used extreme language to describe the municipal council’s overwhelming
vote in favour of stripping Hizzhonour of most of his powers. Doug called this move an attack on democracy while his fuckhead brother announced in chamber in the aftermath of the vote that the council “had just attacked Kuwait”. Theatre of the absurd…I think so.
To finish today’s JuicyLesson, allow me to quote liberally from Andrew Coyne’s Gazette article alliteratively entitled “Menace, a mayor, a mockery, manipulation and a message” which appeared in yesterday’s (Tuesday’s) paper.
“Something snapped at Toronto council Monday afternoon and it wasn’t just Rob Ford’s cerebral cortex. Watching the mayor, and his brother strutting about the council chamber – ignoring the speaker, taunting other councillors, shouting down city officials, shouting insults at spectators, the whole carried out with an air of archaic glee – was to sense the last tether connecting our politics to some sort of civilized norms breaking under the strain. We are adrift now, floating wildly, with no idea where we will end up.
“At one point, the mayor engaged in an extended pantomime of a drunk driver, directed a councillor who had been cautioned by police. At another, racing about the chamber – literally sprinting – he plowed into another counselor, knocking her to the floor, apparently in his haste to join the apprehended brawl then underway between his brother and members of the public gallery.
“To add to the general note of menace, the mayor was seen directing his personal driver security-guard, who for some reason was allowed onto the chamber floor, to videotape certain spectators who had displeased him. Given the services his last driver, the alleged extortionist Sandr Lisi, is accused of performing, it was an altogether chilling moment.”
Let me interject one word here: Mayhem!
Finally, in his concluding paragraph Mr. Coyne writes: “All of which should make abundantly clear that it is time to put aside the therapeutic language, the Oprah-like pleas to the mayor to “get help” or “seek treatment”. We are long past that point. The mayor’s actions Monday were quite deliberate. They reflected the influence, not of intoxicants, but of his own limitless ego and unformed character. As such it is not Ford who has the problem; it’s the city. The message he needs to hear, from every corner, is not get help, but get out.”
What is Ford trying/hoping to accomplish by staying on well beyond his best-before date? This mess is not likely to just disappear while he clings to the trappings of his office. He will have to step aside, no freaking doubt about it. Why postpone the inevitable? Get out. Get help. Right now. Even a man as out of touch as Mr. Ford is and appears to be, must either grasp the facts by himself or do so with the assistance and support of his brother, his immediate family, and anyone else who loves him. Once that happens and the mayor is able to see himself at least to some extent as he is perceived by the rest of the world, he will no doubt take his leave. For the sake of Toronto, Ontario, and Ford himself let’s hope that that happens sooner rather than later.
Habs win. Habs win.
Peace out.
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