Easter Wishes

I hope everyone has a happy Easter Weekend. I hope that whatever you torture and kill on Friday rises again on Sunday.

If you're an Egyptian child worried about the Angel of Death/Passover mythology, don't worry. The Angel of Death is tied up in appeals courts somewhere in Florida. Please recommend this post

Sarah Harmer Video

Head over to Sarah Harmer's website. Click on the Audio and Video Tab and watch the video for her newest song Almost.

There's not a lot of things that make me smile these days but this song and the video just blew me away. Please recommend this post

And Now For Something Completely Different

I don't often quote entire articles but this one merits it:

John Cleese writes an open letter to Americans.


NOTICE OF REVOCATION OF INDEPENDENCE

By John Cleese

To the citizens of the United States of America,

In the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. (Except Utah, which she does not fancy.)
Your new prime minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect :

1. You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up "aluminium". Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour', skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters. You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix "ize" will be replaced by the suffix "ise". You will learn that the suffix 'burgh is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to respell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation. Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up "vocabulary". Using the same twenty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "like" and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up "interspersed". There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary then you won't have to use bad language as often.

2. There is no such thing as "US English". We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of "-ize".

3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier). You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents - Scottish dramas such as "Taggart" will no longer be broadcast with subtitles. While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is "Devon". If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become "shires" e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.

4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters. British sit-coms such as "Men Behaving Badly" or "Red Dwarf" will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness.

5. You should relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The Queen", but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.

6. You should stop playing American "football". There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American "football" is not a very good game. The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays "American" football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies). We are hoping to get together at least a US Rugby sevens side by 2005. You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called "rounders" which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.

7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 2nd will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called "Indecisive Day".

9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called "crisps". Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat. Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added
to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.

12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all, it is lager. From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as "beer", and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as "Lager". The substances formerly known as "American Beer" will henceforth be referred to as "Near-Frozen
Knat's Urine", with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as "Weak Near-Frozen Knat's Urine". This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in Pilsen, Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.

13. From November 10th the UK will harmonise petrol (or "Gasoline" as you will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2005) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon - get used to it).

14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns,
lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.

16. Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you
shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

Thank you for your co-operation and have a great day.

Please recommend this post

Palm Sunday: Onan Revisited

In my last post, a letter to my Bishop, I seem to have created a bit of a controversy by using the term "Sin of Onan". I feel there should be a further explanation. I tried to get a Bishop to help with the explanation but today is Palm Sunday and they are all very busy.

Perhaps we should ask the young and the feeble to leave the room now so we can have a frank and open discussion about this topic.

First of all, go read the Book of Genesis, Chapter 38 for the background story.

Onan was the son of Judah. Onan's older brother died having been struck down by the Lord. Onan's obligation under Jewish law was to impregnate his widowed sister-in-law. This was not a task he was obviously enthusiastic about since as you can see in the Bible text he committed the flagrant sin of coitus interuptus. This is the first time this was mentioned in the Bible and the Catholics elevated the story to a vast and far reaching condemnation of birth control. Thus, over time, the Sin of Onan, came to mean the practice of having sex without having children.

So that is the first meaning of the metaphor, a rather sharp warning against family planning.

The second meaning, which is quite often used by Catholics, is the sin of (okay this is where it gets a little raw) self pleasure. Yes, we're talking about masturbation. AKA spanking the monkey. AKA shaking your fist in anger, etc etc. And please don't write me with your favourite euphemism. This is difficult as it is.

Anyhow, this was certainly the meaning we got in those lectures from Sister Brigette Madolyn of the Holyrood Academy of Boys Woodworking, which I attended one semester. I doubt sister Brigette was talking about the first of the meanings to a bunch of geeky 12 year old boys.

And that was certainly not the meaning I intended when referring to my member of Parliament. (Oops! I meant "A" member of Parliament.) Frankly, I don't see that man engaging in any kind of coitus, interuptus or otherwise. At least not with a sentient person.

I hope this clears up the original letter. Its just one of those cases where Catholics use a Bible story to condemn many different things.

Anyway, I hope you all have a Happy Palm Sunday. Please recommend this post

Letter To My Favourite Bishop

Dear Bishop Henry,

Your idea that the local parish priest withold the the sacrament, indeed eternal salvation itself, from Catholic Members of Parliament who do not uphold canon law against homosexuals and baby killers is a stroke of genius. One day Catholic seminarians will be taught about the Henry Doctrine I'm sure. If a Member of Parliament can be made to fear for his eternal salvation then i'm sure they'll start doing the right thing.

My problem is, i don't think this is going far enough. As you know canon law is quite expansive. For example I recently discovered through Sun Media that Peter McKay and Belinda Stronich are involved in an intimate relationship. They appear to have no shame or modesty and are flouting their pathetic little tryst. Just thinking about those two entwined in lust sends a shiver up my spine. Anyway, i believe you should look into this clear violation of canon law. I know striking up a secret Inquisition board and calling secret witnesses is a hassle, but it must be done. The good news is that it is not Peter McKay and Scott Brison which a lot of us were worried about. Please handle this discretely, not in your usual flamboyant manner, they're not Liberals after all.

Which remainds me, my group is adamant that you should not be shaming any Catholic Conservative Members of Parliament for reasons that are very very complicated and I can't go into them right now. But I know you agree because you have never condemned any Catholic Conservative Party Members of Parliament for violating canon law. And believe me, just between you and me, they can be a sordid bunch when you dig around a bit.

By the way, I heard one of the Conservative Members, from Calgary no less, was on a Catholic TV show and was complaining about the burden of being a single Catholic male. Apparently he is struggling with the sin of Onan. I thought you might chat with him and offer some private shaming. I'll forward his name, secretly, to your committee in the usual manner.


regards,
a loyal supporter Please recommend this post

Open Letter to C. Rice

Dear Dr. Rice, Secretary of State,

I am writing to you about our colleague Ambassador Cellucci. Just between you and me I think he's been over the edge a bit lately. Mad cow, softwood lumber, missile defense, Iraq - all these issues seem to have taken a toll on our mutual friend. Lately he looks haggard and defensive. He has those deep bags under his eyes that come from knowing the truth but not being able to get the heathen to understand it.

I heard he was leaving his post shortly and I hope you can help him find a more suitable job in a think tank somewhere. Do you have a replacement in mind yet? Mr. Cellucci would be kind of hard to replace but I have an idea for you to consider that I think would work out really well for both of us. (BTW: I was disappointed to hear that Mr. Wolfowitz is now unavailable for this post. )

My idea is that you appoint our loyal opposition, the Conservative Reform Alliance caucus, as the collective U.S. Ambassador. You will not find a more loyal group to carry out your President's agenda with respect to Canadian relations. Think of it: 70 full time eyes and ears constantly on the look out for any kind of anti-American thought or action. You would be well served by these loyal patriots. And I also know they would carry on this important work for free.

This would also save our loyal opposition leader, Mr. Harper, and his Deputy, Mr. Day, the trouble of having to run to the Washington post to publish their anti-Canadian pro-American op-eds. As the collective Ambassadors, your media and ours would run to them breathlessly and publish every word they utter. Good deal for you. Have you ever read our National Post?

Anyhow, I hope you will give this some serious consideration.

Regards,
A Canadian Patriot


P.S. I'm so sorry about Dr. Axworthy being so rude to you. I've written a very lengthy letter to David Horowitz about him. With any luck, you should'nt hear from him again. Please recommend this post

Saturday Picks

Head over to Klondike Kate's Aurora to read some hot-damn writing about life in Alaska. (I should point out that historically, Alaska is a part of Canada.) There is also an ad for Michelle Malkin's latest book over there (scroll down) which made my lunch come out through my nose.

Naomi Klein, my favourite writer is at it again over here.

The Section15 blog takes James Taranto and the Wall Street Journal out behind the wood shed.

Robert Fisk, not unsuprisingly predicts civil war in Lebanon. As predictors go he does not have a bad track record.

Why do these people hate America so much?


The rapture is right around the corner and we got a lot of work to do. Once the Christians leave they'll be a lot of stuff to be fixed up. We can beat this lake of fire thing if we have a plan and stick together. One of the things you can do to make this go smoother is to read this blog every day.

And finally, the word of the day is contrarian-obfuscationism. Please recommend this post

Destination 2 (Redux)

Speaking of slow death, I watched the movie Final Destination 2 with Aly Larter and Canadian actor Keegan Conner Tracy, pictured above shortly before getting the pipe through the head, or blown up, I can't remember. (Consumer activists should note that she was driving a Ford Explorer.) Intending to scare 16 year olds into staying in school this scene inadvertently created a chewable metaphor for life: The jagged pipe is almost always right near your head.

The theme of death stalking people has been done over and over again in literature and movies FOREVER but never so relentlessly predictable as in this movie. How many movies make you cheer for death? Usually death has some kind of theological purpose, but here its just to get to the end of the movie as quickly as possible. At the end of the movie they blew up poor Aly which seems to suggest she won't be back for the third in the series. And there will be a third.

Save your 4 bucks and watch Max Von Sydow in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal. Or if that's too heady for you how about Monty Python's Meaning of Life.

Death by Salmon Mousse, now that's funny. Please recommend this post

Teacher Says Sun Media Not Reputable

This one jumped out at me as particularly irritating.

From the Toronto Sun...

The Sun won't shine at a private Catholic school in King City, Ontario, where a Grade 10 student was docked 22% off her history assignment for using clippings from this newspaper [Toronto Sun]-- deemed "non-reputable" by her teacher. Jessica Bolzicco, 16, an honour roll student... said her teacher cut the grade on her current affairs assignment from an 87% to a 65% because she used the Toronto Sun as her source. Students were asked to bring in three clippings from "newspapers of repute."

How would an honour roll student not realize that the Sun has no intellectual merit on any topic? And using the same source on one project is hardly sound. While the teacher engaged in sort of a knee jerk reaction, its pretty easy to understand why. But, it would make a good teaching opportunity to have the students discuss the Sun stories and understand exactly why it has no repute.

Principal Paul Paradiso admitted the Sun has a good reputation for news coverage but fails from a "moral point of view" due to its SUNshine Girl and Boy. (The SUNshine Boy has not appeared in the paper since last September.)

No they don't have a good reputation for news coverage. But they do make a considerable income off sex trade advertising, while at the same time constantly soap boxing about morality issues. In the bigger picture, is'nt that weirder than a picture of a girl in a bikini?

So what really does the Catholic teacher object to? Maybe by non-reputable they just mean that there are pictures of girls in bikinis, but otherwise they accept the Sun's ultra right-wing content.

Sun Editor-in-Chief Jim Jennings said he was appalled by Jessica's story. "It's ridiculous that a history teacher would censor a student who brings in clippings," he said. "I thought education was about the exchange of ideas, but what do I know -- I only have a PhD."

Education is about the exchange of ideas. The Sun is not. Thats the point. And who cares if the editor has a PhD? I don't even want to know what that guy wrote his thesis on. The kids in that class probably need to be prepared for University where they sure as hell won't be citing the Toronto Sun in their research.

Read the article... Please recommend this post

Antichrist Revealed, then Mocked

Over at Jesus's General they discuss a new book which uses various means to identify the antichrist who is now among us. Having read portions of this book I cannot reveal who he is since that would ruin it for the rest of you. As my mom used to say, 'laddy stop prying, you're much better off not knowing who the big beasty is. '

But, suffice it to say when I read that name I said out loud: Exactly!

Soon though, in the comments section of the blog, as is prone to happen, the Frenchmen took it upon themselves to think up funny new names for the antichrist.

Some of the suggested names:

333 Eric the Half a Beast
666-A The tennant of the Beast.
999 the dyslexic beast?
667 Neighbor of the Beast
665 Antichrist underachiever
222, the factor of the Beast
1/666, the inverse multiple of the Beast
-666, the additive inverse of the Beast
66 - amputee beast
|666| - the Absolute Value of the Beast
@@@ - The amnio sonogram of the Beast

I quote these without permission, but knowing there's no great sin recognizing that there are many people funnier than myself. Quite a few actually. Possibly millions.

But seriously, don't these people know they're bringing a whole lot of bam-stick on themselves by making fun of the apocolypse?

I have to read the later chapters of this revolutionary little book. I'm quite anxious to see if there is a role for Canada in the great end game.

Read the original post here. Please recommend this post

Replacement Please

Could you please join with me in writing to the American Embassy and asking for a replacement Ambassador. The current one does not seem to be functioning properly. I believe he is under warranty and that they are obligated to replace the defective product. Apparently, every once in a while the Ambassador-3000 robotic series goes buggy and develops delusions of grandeur.

When contacting the Embassy use the following talking points.

• Could you please just shut him up.
• You said he was leaving for the private sector. When?
• Why is he such an annoying brain dead hack?
• Could you please just shut him up.
• There is more to Canada than the Fraser Institute, the Alberta Government and Sun Media.
• We are not stupid colonial rubes who need to be lectured daily by a gaseous overbloated self-inflated overly hyperbolic 5th rate talk show host. (Charles Adler was here first)
  
• Once again, could you please just shut him up.
• Lets see what else...Oh, yeah, our Prime Minister does not report to the Ambassador.

Contact them Please recommend this post

Four RCMP Officers Killed

As you've probably heard four RCMP officers were killed yesterday near Mayerthorpe, an hour or so north-west of Edmonton. They were trying to serve warrants when they found a marijuana grow operation. A gun fight followed and all four died along with the criminal they were dealing with.

Naturally there is quite a bit of shock and grief. The officers were all juniors in their 20's and early 30's and there has not been such a great loss of officers in one incident since the late 1800's.

The nature of the tragedy will re-ignite a whole bunch of contentious political debates (law and order, marijuana legalization, gun registry, etc, etc) and soon you will start to see a whole punch of political spin. Even Stephen Harper is saying its too early to connect the horrific event with public policy. (Maybe he should call Art Hanger and tell him to stay off the radio for a while.)

Since my primary interest is politics & media I know this tragedy will create a lot of discussion and debate. I just don't think today is the right time. Please recommend this post

Former Foreign Minister Cracks Back

Lloyd Axworthy is alive and well. In a recent op-ed in the Winnipeg Free Press he writes about missile defense and puts Paul Cellucci in his empty headed place.

Excerpts:

Now, I understand that there may have been some miscalculations in Washington based on faulty advice from your resident governor of the "northern territories," Ambassador Cellucci. But you should know by now that he hasn't really won the hearts and minds of most Canadians through his attempts to browbeat and command our allegiance to U.S. policies.

...

Sadly, Mr. Cellucci has been far too closeted with exclusive groups of 'experts' from Calgary think-tanks and neo-con lobbyists at cross-border conferences to remotely grasp a cross-section of Canadian attitudes (nor American ones, for that matter).

...

As our erstwhile Prairie-born and bred (and therefore prudent) finance minister pointed out in presenting his recent budget, we've had eight years of balanced or surplus financial accounts. If we're going to spend money, Mr. Goodale added, it will be on day-care and health programs, and even on more foreign aid and improved defence.

Ouch.

Read more.. Please recommend this post

Poll Update

Just a quick update to let you know that Jeri Ryan is running away with the poll. Although there is a strong 'bugger off' contingent out there as well.

Some astute readers asked why Terry Farrell as Jadzia Dax was not included. Well, because the series had no critical acclaim and no one ever heard of Terry Farrell before or since. It seems that DS9 was a bit of a career killer for all involved.

The original poll called T'Pol T'Pal by mistake. T'Pol is the character played by Jolene Blalock. There is no T'Pal. However there is a T'Pau. She was a Vulcan elder on the original Star Trek series and that character re-appeared in a younger version in an Enterprise episode. I was thinking about Janeway at the time and that your mom is so hot thing kind of intruded into my subconscious.

Confused yet? You would be surprised how many trekkie web sites refer to T'Pol as T'Pal or T'Pau. I think there was also a dance band in the 80's called t'pau.

I'm hoping that some day science will be able to extract all the pop-culture crap from my sub-conscious and replace with more useful information.

Of course this is all a complete waste of time and band width so I'm going back to work now. Hopefully my upcoming material will be more useful. Please recommend this post

The Creative Process

Keanu Reeves, during the filming of his latest film Constantine, requests some minor script changes.

(If you have a better punch line lets hear it.)

Please recommend this post

March Reader Poll

The Hottest Female Star Trek Character
	Kate Mulgrew - Captain Janeway
	Majel Barret - various roles
	Jeri Ryan - Seven of Nine
	Kirstey Alley - Lt. Savik
	Jolene Blalock - T'Pol
	Marina Sirtis - Deanna Troi
	I only read Shakespeare and David Frum
	Bugger off
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Please recommend this post

Your Daily Reading

Linda McQuaig writes a brief op-ed about Missile Defense.
read it

Maureen Dowd writes about the surreal spectacle of George Bush lecturing Vladimir Putin on open government and media.
read it

David Holohan writes about Intelligent Design. (Every once in a while you read something and you say to yourself, Man, I wish I could write like that...
read it

William F. Buckley gyrates and twitches trying to parse George Bush's sloppy and weird Inauguration speech.
read it

I expect a brief 50-100 word report from each of you by the end of the day. Original thoughts only please. Please recommend this post

Maher Arar and Ernst Zundel

You would probably not often see those two names in the same context, and indeed they have nothing in common with one another. Except that they were both kicked out of the United States, but with completely different considerations.

I was just reading this excellent article by Bob Hebert at the New York Times. He interviews Maher Arar about his ordeal in Syria. Its really heartbreaking to read in detail about what happened. The man is lucky to be alive.

Around the same time the story broke that Ernst Zundel was being punted across the pond, back to Germany. But it is not the romanticized neo-nazi paradize that Zundel yells about, but rather it is the Germany that is going to throw him in jail. Here, he was our #1 promoter of racial hatred. Over there he'll just be just another neo-nazi that no one cares about. Germans have a much more refined understanding of the nuances of white supremacy rhetoric and will deal with Zundel under their laws. Is'nt that ironic?

I hesitate to even write about Ernst Zundel because it is a pointless conversation. Merely acknowledging that he exists is extending too much attention. But it did strike me as a major contradiction in the different ways Zundel and Arar were treated. Arar transfers planes in a U.S. airport and is essentially kidnapped and shipped to Syria. Zundel, spends years tying up the courts in both the U.S. and Canada. The U.S. decides after a long while to throw him out and sends him back to Ontario not Syria. But not after extending the maximum amount of due process possible. Meanwhile, the National Post et al fixates themselves to death on a Romanian Stripper and a low-level con artist Pizza maker.

The policy as I understand it: When dealing with white supremacist neo-nazi hate mongers, extend them all the due process you can, and if you must deport them deport them to Toronto. Brown people with funny names should go straight to Syria.

With Maher Arar we will never ever know what happened and who made what mistake. Due process and transparency do not apply. You might as well be arguing with the East German government in 1960.

I've been thinking a lot lately about alternative universes. Somewhere there is an alternative universe where Ernst Zundel steps off a plane, gets kidnapped by the INS/CIA/FBI/DHS who then drop ship him to Tel Aviv. For some strange reason the Mossad thinks Zundel knows something they need to know and tortures him for a few years. Every once in while, but not often, someone says, hey, whatever happened to that guy in the hardhat.

Please recommend this post

Flying Monkey Carbon Tax Hysteria

Flying Monkey award of the week.

Over at the Calgary Herald, their lead Business writer Charles Frank goes round and round in a big circle about how there is a secret clause in the latest Federal Budget to plunder the Alberta treasury with a Carbon Tax. It is so secret, in fact, that the author cannot reveal any facts.

The author starts out with a shocking revelation: Buried deep in the nether regions of this week's federal budget is an incendiary paragraph that could pave the way for a carbon tax.

The next nine paragraphs are boiler plate diatribes about Trudeau and the National Energy Program. The diatribe goes on a bit long and you have to flip to page E9 from the front page of the business section to get back to the original story line. Its like someone telling a really really long not so funny joke that you've heard before, but you feel you have to be be polite and listen to the end, and then fake a sincere laugh.

Finally, deep in the bowels of page E9 scrunched up next to unflattering pictures of Remax top sellers we finally get to the heart of the matter. The text in the budget that will ruin all of our lives and kill our puppies is this: For any environmental goal it is important that consideration be given to all of the available policy instruments and that solutions be identified that produce the best results for the environment.

So there you have it. You may now become hysterical and phone Charles Adler.

The general quality of writing throughout CanWest/Southam sure has gone down hill. Turgid prose which takes innuendo and active imagination and presents itself as fact is too dull to read, especially when our personal band-widths are getting more and more crowded. After the first paragraph it ceases to be Journalism under any traditional definition. The author uses enough weasel language to indicate that his heart really is not in the argument.

The general philosophical statement of seeking balance between economic and environmental policy has been in the liberal playbook forever, and does not indicate or foreshadow a specific policy. The problem is that the federal Liberals have really only talked about this kind of stuff and not actually done very much. Paul Martin is certainly less committed to Environmental policy than Chretien or Trudeau were.

Read the Article here
(Subscription required)

Please recommend this post

Thursday's Musings

I'm starting to hate Thursdays. Always acting like Fridays but really they're just second rate Wednesdays. No one ever says, boy am I glad its Thursday. Nobody ever says I'm glad its the upper latter mid-point of the week.

In honour of Johnny Carson I have a punchline without a joke. The punchline is: Are you sure it was'nt Star Jones in a fur coat? I'm counting on someone out there to supply the joke. But, you have to admit, the punch line almost stands on its own.

I almost went to Thailand last month. Thank God I did'nt go when Star Jones was there. I might have seen her on the beach and gone blind. The Lord was looking out for me and I feel blessed.

They were interviewing Jolene Blalock on the radio last night. She seems pretty smart and articulate for a hoo-hoo girl. All the Enterprise cast is out doing the circuit trying to reverse the show's cancellation. Its an ok show. Not as good as Voyageur. Voyageur had really well written stories and who could resist that Your mom is so hot charm of Captain Janeway. But I thought Enterprise was a little too violent. I always believed Star Trek was a metaphor about the role of the United States in the World. (Scott Bakula has a really big nose, but not as big as that guy in the Life Of Brian who got punched out at the Sermon on The Mount.) Maybe this is it, maybe there won't be any more Star Trek stories. That would push a few geeks off the deep end.

Somewhere in an alternate universe David Frum just shot himself and Hunter S. Thompson is writing his Eulogy. Thompson's last column is about him making a 3am call to Bill Murray to propose a new version of Golf involving shot-guns.

You can read it here but it seems they are having a lot of band-width problems.

I just watched this terrible terrible movie called The Garage. It was a remake of a Japanese horror movie and starred Sarah Michelle Gellar and a cast of many many horror stricken Japanese people. There was no Garage in this movie, but they kept talking about how something really bad happened in The Garage. That chick from the Ring with the creepy long black hair was in this movie, but I have no idea why. Please recommend this post