Lunatic slaughterer of innocence, Bin Laden will be best remembered for his unabashed use of beard dye and preference for living in caves with smelly men perenially shouting.
For the death of death salesmen, attention will be paid - lots of celebration but renewed vigilance as well. More lunatics are out there, they meet each in secret places to compare beards and plot world conquest. They don't think much of their life which is why they think none of yours and mine. We remain at risk and on guard.
We also must acknowledge the excellent job in terms of fighting terrorism that President Obama has done. It cements, I think, his re-election in 2012. And it presents, shortly and in his second term, his opportunity to be a transformational president. Needless to say, both in Obama's performance and Osama bin Laden's death, GWB is smiling.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Canada's Yellow Revolution
It is so much fun to contemplate waking up next Tuesday to a Jack Layton government. Okay, granted it won't be Tuesday, it will be a few days after the first Throne Speech.
Jack Layton, as official opposition, will be asked by the GG to try and win the confidence of the house.
The rump Bloc will support the NDP. And, as we have seen this week, demand only that Layton make good on his campaign promises re: Quebec, in return.
The Liberals have a choice. Support the Conservatives in a coalition. Support the NDP in a coalition.
The NDP can win the Liberals over by offering, say, 3 cabinet positions to the Liberals. Maybe the Dipper's will have to thrown in re-branding some spending program as the "Education Passport".
Not all Liberals will like this deal and their protest will manifest itself in the form of some MPs (e.g., Scott Brison). However, it won't be enough to overcome the Layton-Liberal-Bloc coalition deal.
For Liberals, this is the best option available. They have submit to the NDP in order to match their actions to their words (i.e., remove Harper at all costs); while doing so, they have to pray for Layton to fuck everything up.
And the NDP would fuck everything up.
Jack Layton, as official opposition, will be asked by the GG to try and win the confidence of the house.
The rump Bloc will support the NDP. And, as we have seen this week, demand only that Layton make good on his campaign promises re: Quebec, in return.
The Liberals have a choice. Support the Conservatives in a coalition. Support the NDP in a coalition.
The NDP can win the Liberals over by offering, say, 3 cabinet positions to the Liberals. Maybe the Dipper's will have to thrown in re-branding some spending program as the "Education Passport".
Not all Liberals will like this deal and their protest will manifest itself in the form of some MPs (e.g., Scott Brison). However, it won't be enough to overcome the Layton-Liberal-Bloc coalition deal.
For Liberals, this is the best option available. They have submit to the NDP in order to match their actions to their words (i.e., remove Harper at all costs); while doing so, they have to pray for Layton to fuck everything up.
And the NDP would fuck everything up.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Sun News, Day 1
Seinfeld, the Simpsons, Chuckercanuck. Three things that sucked in their early days.
Sun News TV's debut was not Hoover-scaled sucky, but it wasn't a Peter Jackson fantasy epic either.
See, I thought it was great that the various hosts lined up to tell us how bad Lybia's dictactor is and that Jeb Bush is going to be interviewed in the coming days. I chuckled over the bit about the porn-star school secretary. And, I hear, Ezra Levant went all Prophet Mohammed cartoon on us. Real right-wing shock.
However, outside the Sun News TV studio, Canada is having an election. It seems to me that this election is worth a couple of minutes of air time.
The only election talk I heard was an endless loop of Liberal commercials telling me that Stephen Harper makes challah bread with the blood of young liberals.
So, at 8 pm, I turned to Don Martin and CTV because, unlike the Sun, they recognized that Canadians might, just might, want to talk about the election. At least I did.
Sun News TV's debut was not Hoover-scaled sucky, but it wasn't a Peter Jackson fantasy epic either.
See, I thought it was great that the various hosts lined up to tell us how bad Lybia's dictactor is and that Jeb Bush is going to be interviewed in the coming days. I chuckled over the bit about the porn-star school secretary. And, I hear, Ezra Levant went all Prophet Mohammed cartoon on us. Real right-wing shock.
However, outside the Sun News TV studio, Canada is having an election. It seems to me that this election is worth a couple of minutes of air time.
The only election talk I heard was an endless loop of Liberal commercials telling me that Stephen Harper makes challah bread with the blood of young liberals.
So, at 8 pm, I turned to Don Martin and CTV because, unlike the Sun, they recognized that Canadians might, just might, want to talk about the election. At least I did.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Rise up! Rise Up Canada!
Nothing Stephane Dion ever did was ever as sublime as this.
If anything ever killed a candidate's chances, this is it. And, salt to the wound, when Iggy looked for revolutionary inspiration, he chose yankee Bruce Springsteen - probably because he wasn't around when the Parachute Club released its opus on the world.
Of course, Parachute Club's Rise Up is Jack Layton's favorite song (I am not making that up).
If anything ever killed a candidate's chances, this is it. And, salt to the wound, when Iggy looked for revolutionary inspiration, he chose yankee Bruce Springsteen - probably because he wasn't around when the Parachute Club released its opus on the world.
Of course, Parachute Club's Rise Up is Jack Layton's favorite song (I am not making that up).
Monday, March 14, 2011
Bloc-quing a spring election
If anyone should stop a spring election from happening, it is the Bloc Quebecois. You can read the argument between the lines of this Chantal Hebert column.
The Bloc has no advantage to gain through an election. They can do, at beast, little in terms of seat count or, in terms of raison d'etre, advancing separatism.
The downside, however, happens on day 18 of the campaign, when Quebeckers realize that the Harper regime will swallow up another 20 seats and be the majority government of Canada. Suddenly, the Bloc Quebecois is at most an irritating rash on the Canadian skin. Chantal Hebert hides this point in her column, maybe because she doesn't want to scare the Bloc into avoiding the election. Because Quebeckers won't figure out the future flaccidity of the Bloc Quebecois in a majority government scenario too late. It will be Day 18.
Fun to mention: Duceppe is in his third decade as a major political figure in Canadian politics. This is historic proportions and I think lovers of Canada should pay tribute to his contribution to the richness and stability of Canadian political life.
The Bloc has no advantage to gain through an election. They can do, at beast, little in terms of seat count or, in terms of raison d'etre, advancing separatism.
The downside, however, happens on day 18 of the campaign, when Quebeckers realize that the Harper regime will swallow up another 20 seats and be the majority government of Canada. Suddenly, the Bloc Quebecois is at most an irritating rash on the Canadian skin. Chantal Hebert hides this point in her column, maybe because she doesn't want to scare the Bloc into avoiding the election. Because Quebeckers won't figure out the future flaccidity of the Bloc Quebecois in a majority government scenario too late. It will be Day 18.
Fun to mention: Duceppe is in his third decade as a major political figure in Canadian politics. This is historic proportions and I think lovers of Canada should pay tribute to his contribution to the richness and stability of Canadian political life.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Liberals & Libya
Like John Ivison and Warren Kinsella, turmoil in Libya has me remembering fondly the days when a long-toothed Liberal regime happily sold brand Canada to promote the wise stewardship of Colonel Kadaffy.
It sounded like smart politics at the time. Canadians, in full moral prim-itude, were not hip to the concept of human freedom. That was dangerous W dummy talk. We were sophisticated realists who knew the sum of human happiness was assured by men like Saddam Hussein. How better for Paul Martin to establish his anti-W cred than with a visit to newly-repented Colonel Kadaffy. Canada, our Prime Minister was saying, was a friend of Arab dictators and few dead dissidents wouldn't spoil the party.
Interestingly, today's Liberals are basically nowhere on what's going on in Libya specifically and the middle east generally. If they are saying something, clearly, no one in the media thinks they have anything noteworthy to contribute. Probably, knowing that pictures of Juggernaut Martin and Colonel Kadaffy, hanging in the Colonel's bedoin tent, are all over the internet.
And Iggy, who once stood with the Kurds against another violent loony tune - Saddam Hussein, is in an awkward position on Libya in particular. He famously threw the kurds under the bus and argued that wthe orld would be a better place if Saddam Hussein was restored to power. From that, we can only infer that he has his fingers on Colonel Kadaffy's behalf. However sincerly held and rigorously considered, Iggy's preference for status-quo autocracy in the middle east is not the fashion these days.
It sounded like smart politics at the time. Canadians, in full moral prim-itude, were not hip to the concept of human freedom. That was dangerous W dummy talk. We were sophisticated realists who knew the sum of human happiness was assured by men like Saddam Hussein. How better for Paul Martin to establish his anti-W cred than with a visit to newly-repented Colonel Kadaffy. Canada, our Prime Minister was saying, was a friend of Arab dictators and few dead dissidents wouldn't spoil the party.
Interestingly, today's Liberals are basically nowhere on what's going on in Libya specifically and the middle east generally. If they are saying something, clearly, no one in the media thinks they have anything noteworthy to contribute. Probably, knowing that pictures of Juggernaut Martin and Colonel Kadaffy, hanging in the Colonel's bedoin tent, are all over the internet.
And Iggy, who once stood with the Kurds against another violent loony tune - Saddam Hussein, is in an awkward position on Libya in particular. He famously threw the kurds under the bus and argued that wthe orld would be a better place if Saddam Hussein was restored to power. From that, we can only infer that he has his fingers on Colonel Kadaffy's behalf. However sincerly held and rigorously considered, Iggy's preference for status-quo autocracy in the middle east is not the fashion these days.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Protests in the Middle East and Middle America
Protests are busting out all over. Will democracy bloom in the middle east? Or will Turkey, Israel and Iraq be the only free-vote trio in that area?
I have no clue. I know Ghaddafi's facial hair creeps me out. But would I brave sniper fire over it? Probably not. Instead, my protest would be quiet and incremental: I'd get lazy. And lazy is what really kills dictatorships.
It is something like having an asshole for a boss - nobody works hard anymore. Nobody comes up with any good ideas or makes any helpful suggestions. Everybody keeps their head down but their eyes on the clock. Laziness is a slow-motion tsunami.
Down in Wisconsin, they are protesting too. In fact, there are hippie punks with the nerve to compare themselves to the brave punks of Cairo. If they have the nerve to compare themselves, let's look at that seriously:
In Cairo, part of the protest is about bureacrats getting rich from corruption.
In Madison, Wisconsin, the entire protest is about keeping the fat, corrupt benefits that public unions have extracted from tax payers for their workers.
In Cairo, they protest under the threat of violence for economic fairness.
In Madison, they protest with no threat of anything for economic gluttony.
Someone should spank public unions and their members. Do they know the value of their pensions? They are all millionaires. And none of them understand how unique the rewards of their labour are.
I have no clue. I know Ghaddafi's facial hair creeps me out. But would I brave sniper fire over it? Probably not. Instead, my protest would be quiet and incremental: I'd get lazy. And lazy is what really kills dictatorships.
It is something like having an asshole for a boss - nobody works hard anymore. Nobody comes up with any good ideas or makes any helpful suggestions. Everybody keeps their head down but their eyes on the clock. Laziness is a slow-motion tsunami.
Down in Wisconsin, they are protesting too. In fact, there are hippie punks with the nerve to compare themselves to the brave punks of Cairo. If they have the nerve to compare themselves, let's look at that seriously:
In Cairo, part of the protest is about bureacrats getting rich from corruption.
In Madison, Wisconsin, the entire protest is about keeping the fat, corrupt benefits that public unions have extracted from tax payers for their workers.
In Cairo, they protest under the threat of violence for economic fairness.
In Madison, they protest with no threat of anything for economic gluttony.
Someone should spank public unions and their members. Do they know the value of their pensions? They are all millionaires. And none of them understand how unique the rewards of their labour are.
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