Sandip Duhre's funeral compared to Jonathan Bacon's

It was an overflow crowd of family and friends at Surrey’s Valley View funeral home Thursday to pay tribute to the late Sandip Duhre. VS A handful of mourners visited a Langley funeral home Friday afternoon for a private family viewing of slain gangster Jonathan Bacon.



It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out how hated the Bacon brothers are in Surrey. Jonathon Bacon was a piece of garbage just like his other two brothers. Punks from the suburbs empowered by the Hells Angels who got too big for their britches. Take away the armored cars and the body armor and look what happens. He's dead and no one cares.

Errol Gardiner

Is that Errol Gardiner from the Throttle Lockers in Kelowna seen in the left beside what appears to be James Riach leaving the scene of the Jarrod Bacon / Larry Amero shooting? People say it looks very similar.

Who is Nabil Alkhalil?

Nabil Alkhalil was arrested with 11 kilos of cocaine after a high speed car chase in Ottawa. He was sentenced to a seven year jail term in 2008. Statutory release is after two thirds of his jail term has been served. So, if he's out of jail, what on earth would one of our local boys be doing hiding with him?

Confucius’ Five Virtues

Confucius was a wise teacher with many famous sayings similar to the proverbs of King Solomon. Confucius’ Five Virtues are:

Ren, the virtue of benevolence, charity, and humanity

Yi, the virtue of honesty and uprightness;

Zhi, the virtue of knowledge or wisdom;

Xin, the virtue of faithfulness and integrity; and,

Li, the virtue of correct behavior, or propriety, good manners, politeness, ceremony, worship.

These are all good things. Against such there is no law.

Bruce Lee and Yip Man

Bruce Lee wrote the book on Mixed Martial arts. It was called the Tao of Jeet Kune do. His original teacher was Yip Man. Yip Man is known as the grandfather of Wing Chung. Yet Wing Chung was a woman. She originally created the style using techniques that would work for a smaller practitioner to use against a larger practitioner.

Yip Man is highly regarded around the world as the patriarch of Wing Chung. He is very small and frail yet very talented and competent. It reminds me of the stories of the small old men who were Kendo masters. They were very relaxed and fast and were amazingly competent. It’s nice to see a smaller guy take out a larger guy using technique not brute force. Everybody likes a David and Goliath story.

Yet in our day, North Americans call for the steroid moneys to over power and control their opponents. It’s sad really. Not only is a huge portion of the arts lost but a large portion of the philosophy is being lost as well.

Royce Gracie put the UFC on the map. He was the man. He showed us how it was done. We need to remember that and respect what he did for the art that we now know as MMA. He was the king of ground fighting. He took a boxer to the ground, mounted him and the boxer tapped out because he had no idea what to do. He took out a much larger and stronger opponent by choking him out with his legs in a perfect triangle choke. He brought us technique before brutal force.

Bruce Lee wasn’t a very large man physically but he was very strong and very fit. His technique demonstrated how not only could a smaller opponent take out a larger opponent but multiple opponents. No a days it’s the old cop out, fight me fight my gang. Now it’s seven guys giving one guy the boots and pretending that has anything to do with manliness.

There was an older movie called the Dragon that was a good portrayal of the Bruce Lee Story. More recently there was a great movie done about (Y)ip Man’s life with Donnie Yen. I’m still not sure if that has been released with English subtitles yet.

There isn’t much Kung fu that has survived the UFC. Just like when full contact Karate became a sport, most of the hand techniques of Karate were dropped and replaced with Western boxing. Thai boxing has survived and risen to be very practical in the cage.



Chi Sao is just a drill but it does have a purpose. It can be done blindfolded to teach wrist sensitivity. The trapping hands of wing chung bridge the gap between stand up and grappling. It is well worth preserving that tradition.

Who’s killing the Rizzutos?

Last night the Fifth Estate ran a segment on the Montreal mafia murders called Who’s killing the Rizzutos? It was an interesting background but cut short before they answered the question. They ended it with the murder of Sal the Iron Worker and the arrest of Raynald Desjardins without a word said about the other Hells Angel associates arrested with him.

In fact the Hells Angels involvement with the Rizzutos and subsequent conflict with them wasn’t even mentioned. Sad. The question is, when Vito Rizzuto gets out of jail in 2012, will he wage war against the Hells Angels for teaming up with his enemies to murder his family? Time will tell. It always does.

Jeff Lynds

Reports are coming in that Jeff Lynds is dead. He was the one who confessed to shooting Randy Mersereau and was charged in two other murders.

Some claim the Hells Angels put a hit on his life for testifying against them so he killed himself in prison. Others claim the Hells Angels did it and it wasn’t a suicide. Either way his testimony shed light on several cold case murders in Nova Scotia tied to the Hells Angels. Now we’re left wondering about Rusty and Ellen.

BTW a big shout out to the Canadian far East. My mother was born in Amherst and my father’s mother was born in Woodstock. I think in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick they have a better understanding of what I’m trying to say about what living the dream really meant for motorcyclists and how a handful of criminals have distorted that dream completely.

Some are wondering if his death is just a transition into witness protection. Who knows. I just think we need to come clean on who killed Rusty and Ellen.

Cocaine seized at UN headquarters in New York

A bag containing 16kg (35.5lb) of cocaine was found at the United Nations headquarters in New York last week, police have said. The drugs were in a bag printed with a version of the UN symbol which arrived at the organisation's mailroom, setting off a security alert. Spokesman Paul Browne said they seemed to have been delivered by accident. There was no name or address on the shipment sent from Mexico City through Cincinnati, he added.



People are wondering if this missing shipment of cocaine has anything to do with the UN gang in the greater Vancouver area. We know they have stamped their logo on bricks of cocaine in the past. People are also wondering if this missing shipment of cocaine has anything to do with the recent murder of a high ranking UN member in Mexico who was alleged to be working off a debt for a previous missing shipment.

I’m wondering how it went missing and ended up at the UN Headquarters in New York. It’s not like someone puts UN on a package and drops it in the US Postal service and they deliver it to the wrong UN by mistake. The people moving the product are supposed to know where it’s supposed to be delivered to. It makes me wonder if the UN’s enemies had anything to do with the shipment going missing.

Oh “They” would never do that you say? But they also said “They” would never sell drugs. “They” would never have anything to do with Robert Pickton. “They” would never report an enemy to the police. Yet they have. It all makes me wonder. I guess that’s why they call me crazy.

Zen in the Martial Arts

What first led me to Zen was a study of the martial arts. Remember the martial arts originally was a way of life. There was a philosophy that was a part of any real martial arts training. In today’s world that seems to be lost entirely.

Old movies like the Karate Kid showed a struggle between good versus evil. Most of the early Bruce Lee movies showed him fighting the bad guys who were smuggling heroin. Bruce Lee was not fighting to promote drug smuggling and greed.

The UN gang tries to take some of the traditional Asian values and twist them into supporting something bad. Honor and loyalty are good but there is no honor in selling crack and loyalty to a criminal enterprise is very misguided. Especially when that criminal organization sells date rape drug.

Zen is very much in the moment. It doesn’t just apply to Buddhism. I can apply to anything. It’s simply thinking outside the box. Looking at the bigger picture and seeing how our actions affect others and the world we live in. No doubt true Zen has a social conscience (Dali Lama) and a passion to protect the environment. Indeed, we are one (Bob Marley).

The purpose of martial arts training was to preserve and protect. It was not to control and abuse. That is the dark side which leads not just to anger and hate but to selfishness, greed , oppression, dishonesty and unfulfillment. It is not only wrong but it is empty and incomplete.

Allan Watts studied Zen. He wrote an interesting booklet that talked about Christianity. In it, he claimed the translation of the Greek word sin literally meant to miss the mark. If our ultimate goal in life is to find peace, happiness and fulfillment, to sin would be to miss the mark like an archer misses his target. To sin then would be to do things that would take away true happiness and real fulfillment.

Martin Luther King taught anyone can be great because anyone can serve. Clearly the dilemma arises when we realize that true happiness comes through service to others. Not slavery, but service. Indeed whosoever shall lose his life shall in so doing find it.
I remember hearing about a Chinese painting of Heaven and Hell. The artist’s image of hell was a dinner table filled with food. Seated at the table the guests had chopsticks longer than their arms. They were too long to get the food into their mouths and were the only way they could eat the feast before them.

As a result everyone was in torment because they were starving sitting in front of a huge feast and unable to eat it. They were miserable. Conversely, the artist’s image of heaven contained the same dinner table with the same eating utensils. Only this scene was very different than the other. In this scene everyone was happy and fulfilled. The only difference was they were feeding each other.

I don’t believe Hell is a place where God spanks us for eternity and repeatedly tells us I told you so. I think Hell is simply having lived a selfish live and being then grouped with people just like us. Living in a society where people rob, rape and murder would be somewhat less fulfilling then living in a society where people aspire to something higher and work together for a common goal. It really is that simple. Is this the real life or is it just a fantasy? You tell me. Perhaps it’s just a Bohemian Rhapsody

Bad Month in Surrey

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, front page of the Surrey Leader reads: “ Bad Month in Surrey 31 days, 8 shootings, 4 gun fatalities.” Then the absurd heading beside it What’s going on? Are more liberal drug laws needed?” No, that’s part of the problem. Look at the difference between the Australian judicial system and the Canadian judicial system. You don’t oput out the forest fire of drug addiction by pouring gasoline on it. The New York model was one of enforcement. You stop letting the crack dealers sell crack in public. Making the fire burn underground is the only way to contain it.