Sorry, I just LMFAO looking at these.

[graywarrior]

http://gawker.com/39-breathtaking-photos-of-north-americas-most-photogen-1458983349?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Click on link. Must be seen in its full glory.

[longship]

1. That's right. This man has no dick.

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

[JaneyVee]

2. The obvious was staring us in the face all along.

[1000words]

3. If Chris Farley was a politician ...

[LuvNewcastle]

19. Yes, I was just thinking of the motivational speaker who says,

"I live in a van down by the river!"

[1000words]

21. LOL ... that was a great sketch

Farley was immensely talented.

[Arugula Latte]

52. That was the best ...

Matt Foley: "Well la-de-freakin'-dah! We got ourselves a writer here! Hey, Dad, I can't see too good. Is that Bill Shakespeare over there?"

[Blue_Tires]

39. I instantly had a vision of "Tommy Boy", too

[uponit7771]

41. +1

[rdharma]

4. You've got to love a mayor who defends his smoking of crack......

....... by saying he was real drunk at the time!

[antigone382]

10. +1

I do feel the need to ask a question though: apart from his appearance, demeanor, and clear proclivities towards substance abuse...how good or bad of a mayor is he? I ask because I honestly have no idea.

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. you mean aside from poor judgement, distorted thinking, defends breaking drug laws?

I think I would want my mayor to have some intergrity
and, given any serious emergency, availability to be sober and fully functioning.

[antigone382]

16. Well, I don't necessarily expect anyone to be available at a fully functioning level all the time.

The fact is most people have their moments of indisposition from time to time. And I don't believe existing evidence supports the illegality of drugs as an effective means of reducing their negative effects on society, so I really don't care who breaks those laws. More and more research is validating the idea that addiction is a disease and would be better dealt with via social support and access to appropriate mental and physical health care than drug laws.

I should probably state upfront that I don't minimize his actions, nor do I assume that they had no effect on his work. However, on principal, I believe that someone's private behaviors are just that, so long as those behaviors don't negatively affect other aspects of one's life, including relationships and responsibilities. So while it is embarrassing to the city that he engaged in this behavior, and even more so that he did it in such a public setting, I just want to know what concrete effect his behavior actually had on his management of the city, apart from the damage it might do to the city's image.

I only ask because I haven't followed the story in detail, and don't know the details of how frequently he was engaging in these behaviors, or whether he was working while obviously being under the effects of those substances. Granted, crack is a pretty hard drug (as is alcohol, to a lesser degree), so I would not be at all be surprised if his work did suffer negative effects. I just want to know what those negative effects were.

[laundry_queen]

32. Here's a little overview

He's a hard core anti-government conservative whose main goal when running was to 'save taxpayer's dollars'. Him and his brother (who is also on city council) have a radio show where they trash people who criticize them, especially the media (oh, and they like to have people they know call in to make them look good). It's alleged that his brother was a drug dealer once upon a time. They both grew up in a wealthy family and inherited quite a lot when their dad died, so they've had a privileged life (although that's neither here nor there - people can have compassion whether they are rich or not.)

Others on the city council complain about his constant absence, his rude, bullying behavior, his demoting people who didn't agree with him 100% of the time. He's shown up at public city functions floor-licking drunk - several times (I think he's had a few DUIs as well). There's one video where he's clearly wasted. He was photographed with some drug dealers (the same ones in the video, apparently) at a know crack house and one of the drug dealers was murdered around the same time the video disappeared. He denied for 6 months now that a video even existed and he trashed anyone who was trying to investigate. Apparently what he says on the video is disgusting as well (homophobic comments).

In my opinion - it's not that he has a substance abuse problem. Lots of people do. It's that he denies he has a major problem (even after all this he said he'd never give up drinking), it's that he refuses to even step aside to get help, it's that him and his brother have dragged their dysfunctional family dynamics into the municipal government, it's that he's the Canadian equivalent of a tea partier, it's that he's rude, belligerent and narcissistic and attacks people and blames everyone else for his issues. I posted in another thread that I know this particular dysfunctional family dynamic because I lived it and so long as Rob Ford is mayor (and his brother is there to constantly back him up), there will be constant drama in the big TO.

One thing I'll say is I HATE, like with Chris Christie, that people keep commenting on his fatness. That has nothing to do with it (although the likeness with Chris Farley really is uncanny), heck, I'm as fat as Rob Ford is and I'm not an asshole like he is (well, I'm not a conservative, but I repeat myself...) I hate that he's snowed so many people over with his anti-government stuff. Why is it the anti-government whack jobs can't wait to get a job IN government?

[antigone382]

34. Thanks for the info...

I haven't had the time to learn more than what is discussed on NPR every night, and they have not discussed his politics or his on-the-job behavior as far as I have heard. This paints a much clearer picture.

[SidDithers]

23. One of the worst mayors in North America...

Seriously. He's a loud, obnoxious, right-wing, conservative asshat. He's "out of town" every year during Toronto's Pride festival.

He's a fucking boor.

Sid

[antigone382]

35. Thank you for the information.

I haven't had time to get more context than what is presented on NPR. They haven't discussed his politics or anything except the intoxication/crack allegations. It certainly doesn't surprise me that a guy with a crack problem is crappy at governance...I just wanted to know the details.

[rdharma]

38. He's the closest thing to a "teabagger" they have in Canada.

But Toronto is doing well in spite of him....... not because of him.

[notadmblnd]

55. In other words Chris Christies brother from another mother.

[mucifer]

44. He's Worse than Rahm.

[MoonRiver]

36. The Drunken Stupor excuse!

[seveneyes]

56. That's almost as good as the DC Mayor that said what he did about smoking crack

The _____ set me up!

[rudolph the red]

5. He looks like an older Chris Farley

[Fumesucker]

6. Damn, a John Candy movie I haven't seen n/t

[Kingofalldems]

7. Chris Farley would be proud of this guy.

[Cali_Democrat]

8. I like this guy!

[Bobbie Jo]

11. Right?

[SidDithers]

24. No...

He's best pals with Stephen Harper. He's a conservative piece of shit.

There's nothing likable about Rob Ford.

Sid

[uponit7771]

42. thx, I was in the same boat but if he pals around with bastards like that then fug em

[WCLinolVir]

9. Thanks, I needed a laugh!

He said he tried crack on one of his drunken binges.

[appleannie1]

12. He looks like the Trump's fat twin brother

[TlalocW]

13. In that second picture

He's look at the guy next to him and asking himself, "Can I eat him?"

TlalocW

[rrneck]

15. "Mercator projection head face relationship"

[johnd83]

17. The girl in the third picture looks so uncomfortable

[FSogol]

18. Hope he doesn't move on to Bath Salts. n/t

[lame54]

20. I always liked Benny Hill

[lumberjack_jeff]

22. I love this one

I'm pretty sure he actually will be "living in a VAN down by THE RIVER" pretty soon.

[graywarrior]

26. Yeah, the ones where he looks like his brain stopped working

[UtahLib]

30. Gonna pee on that tree before spying the camera? n/t

[2naSalit]

28. That was

my favorite seconded only by the GIF of him trying to throw a football... probably pretty well lit in that one!

In the pic, though, what came to mind was that he dealt a nasty one and was trying to look like it wasn't him but the guy next to him was pretty sure of the origin!



http://www.google.com/imgres?start=508&client=firefox-a&sa=X&rls=org.mozilla:en-US fficial&biw=1366&bih=662&tbm=isch&tbnid=AgHSlwowDr7VGM:&imgrefurl=http://harpervalley.wordpress.com/2013/05/25/rob-fords-crack-smokes/&docid=Bzcmgsp_SBmi0M&imgurl=&w=521&h=480&ei=TMd6UpbtFsHYqgHS14HwCg&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:17,s:500,i:55&iact=rc&page=26&tbnh=180&tbnw=192&ndsp=21&tx=108&ty=131


http://www.google.com/imgres?client=firefox-a&hs=dcs&sa=X&rls=org.mozilla:en-US fficial&biw=1366&bih=662&tbm=isch&tbnid=YkFMi5ilwRZ2eM:&imgrefurl=http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/rob-ford-crack-video-toronto-mayor.html&docid=hwu-sXgjuv36ZM&imgurl=&w=560&h=375&ei=YsR6Uun8OZPEqQGBu4DgBQ&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:6,s:0,i:108&iact=rc&page=1&tbnh=182&tbnw=230&start=0&ndsp=11&tx=142&ty=126

[HappyMe]

25. LOL!

Comic relief!

[Jamaal510]

27. Crack is whack.

[UtahLib]

29. Hmm, pretty heavy football. n/t

[dreamnightwind]

31. I tried, but I can't dislike the guy

His exuberant humanity destroys all obstacles. I don't know him, maybe he's a total creep, but what I saw in those pictures didn't support that.

In most of he photos, the people around him are lit up, in a good way. I've seen lots of photos of politicians interacting with people, often the people look like they hate the politician and are just going through the motions to get it out of the way. Not so Ford, in many of the photos the people around him look quite happy. ???

[MoonRiver]

37. Everybody loves a drunk!

[dreamnightwind]

43. Hmmm...

I have never been one to like drunks, or even irrepressible extraverts, not my thing at all. For some reason I feel this guy (or am conned by him).

I remember those photos of Bush drunk at a sporting event, I forget where it was, but the people around him were ashamed and embarrassed, not at all like what I see in these pics.

But I just saw this thread, might be time for a reassessment on my part.
"I need f---in 10 minutes to make sure he's dead': New Rob Ford video surfaces
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023996018

Sounds like Jon Stewart's call for rehab for Ford as a long term investment in Stewart's career might be right-on, he needs to keep Ford live to keep new material coming in, apparently no shortage of it.

[MoonRiver]

51. I don't like drunks either unless they make me laugh, which this guy does in spades!

[dreamnightwind]

54. I see

I misunderstood your first post. Are we sure Chris Farley is dead? Maybe he just took a long vacation to Canada...

[Blue_Tires]

40. I agree there is a likeable authenticity about him

But no way in holy hell should that man hold any public office higher than street sweeper...

[dreamnightwind]

46. Dunno

I actually like that Canada approaches things a little differently, they seem more interested in human values than things like winning the future or ramping up the efficiency of their human resources to maximize productivity.

More info coming out, doesn't look good for Ford, we'll see. Maybe he's just another big man who wants more of everything and whose appetite knows no bounds, such people often do well in social structures but are truly dangerous.

Love your tagline! George was truly ahead of his time.

[mucifer]

45. yeah except that there is footage of him talking about murdering someone.

Of course he probably was totally high and had no idea what he was saying:

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/11/07/i-need-f---in-10-minutes-to-make-sure-hes-dead-new-rob-ford-video-surfaces

[dreamnightwind]

47. Yeah, just saw that

[Call Me Wesley]

48. Why do you hate Canada? (nt)

What a scumbag this one is ...

[Xyzse]

49. Wow... You're right.

Dang... No words.

[CitizenLeft]

50. this is just...

...freakin' hysterical. THANK YOU for making my afternoon!!!

[Arugula Latte]

53. It makes me feel better that we're not the only country that produces people like this.

Canada's like our smarter, more successful sibling, and finally Mom's Little Favorite messes up.

[hatrack]

57. So, he's Toronto's Stephen Harper?

Or is Stephen Harper Canada's Rob Ford?

either way.