And the Answer is ...

The GG granted the PM permission to prorogue parliament, which was not unexpected. And now, meetings and such for me. I am thinking that I should prorogue my next meeting.

Ignorant Parrots

The current political "crisis" in Canada has emphasized for me just how ignorant the average Canadian is about our political system. I have read blog posts, Facebook posts, and comments here and there that describe coalition action as being undemocratic, illegal, and unethical. One uneducated person referred to it as a coup d’état! It is none of the above, though I will admit that the situation is bizarre and unusual. To these people, I want to say: "go enroll in a first year overview course on Canadian Politics at your local University!" And, I would bet that a good deal of the people urging Harper to prorogue parliament had never even heard the word prorogue until this week.

But, the whole episode points to a problem in the blogosphere where unsubstantiated statements are repeated with no critical investigation. So, Harper's incorrect comments about the legality of the situation are passed around as gospel. One person uses the word illegal, and suddenly, it is repeated on tons of neocon blogs. I am sure the same happens in reverse on left wing blogs. The web is so polarized that it makes the traditional news outlets appear balanced.

I am not 100% comfortable with this coalition. It is odd in so many ways. Here we have a bizarre array of disparate groups coalescing to form a government. The person to be installed as PM lost the last election quite badly, and was forced to resign. The Bloc has aspirations of changing the constitutional landscape of this nation. Yes, it is odd and strange. But folks, it is not illegal. There is nothing illegal about this coalition seeking the Confidence of the House should the current government lose a vote of Confidence, as is likely to happen should Harper resist the option to prorogue Parliament.

At times like these, when any yahoo can post misinformed rants on the web, I really wish that political education was compulsory. Having to explain what confidence means in the context of a Westminster Parliamentary system is tiresome. Having to explain the concept of Responsible Government is also tiresome. It is irritating too, because one feels like one is bashing one's head against a brick wall. These people are so recalcitrant, so blinded by political allegiances, that they fail to listen to fact. They fail to recall that Harper himself once sought an alliance with the BQ.

This rant comes out of bizarre online exchange I had with supporters of Harper who kept arguing that this alliance is illegal. And then, they argued quite vehemently that Harper should prorogue Parliament when such a course of action would be seen as an affront to our parliamentary traditions.

Sadly, the web is full of uniformed amateur journalists who think they know the answers without having done their homework. Go back to school, people and learn something about our system of government before you spread more disinformation and Tory propaganda.

Bananas and Sleep and Politics

Is there anything more disappointing than going into your usual grocery store and discovering that all of the bananas are as green as emeralds? It either takes a week for the bastards to ripen, or they do so overnight, because they are genetically-inferior and end up tasting awful.

But, on to more important things. For some inexplicable reason, I slept very badly last night. I woke at 3:00 AM and failed to get back to sleep. I really hate it when that happens, mostly because I am a great sleeper and rarely have any problems.

In other news, an old high school friend showed up on Facebook. Two, actually. That's all well and good. One friend now lives in a large American city. During our exchange of messages, he complained that the democrats were now coming to power and that this would sink the economy. Is he on drugs? I wanted to ask him if he happened to notice that the economy tanked on the Republicans' watch. Of course, talking politics and religion with friends is probably a bad idea.

I am kicking myself for not taking today off. I like taking Fridays off. Why didn't I take Friday off?

Second Last Word on the US Election

Please vote. Here's my favorite page of the day:

http://www.sarahpalin.com/ (This seems to be a joke. If you go there, it reads: "This page intentionally left blank.")

Notice that I used the American spelling of favorite, in honor (another American spelling) of the election.

I have to admit that I have election fatigue and I am not even American. The whole process takes way too long. There are the endless primaries with all of these presidential wannabes running around, raising cash, spending money, making speeches, kissing babies, etc. etc. etc. And, that is all before the election campaign officially commences. Usually, I am sick of hearing the names of the candidates after a while.

Anyway, please vote. But, if the elections are rigged, I wonder what the point is of even voting:

Palin is Dumber than Dubya!

Sorry, but I couldn't resist another political post. I have to hand it to John McCain. The ancient dude found someone even stupider than George W. Don't believe me? Well, check this out.


1) Sarah Palin has no idea what the Vice President does (10 seconds):



2) Sarah Palin thinks that the VP is in charge of the United States Senate! (50 seconds):



And why do all of her answers sound like she is being scored in a beauty pageant?

3) Sarah Palin has no idea what the Bush Doctrine is (2:34):



4) But, wait! She can see Russia from Alaska! (1:28):



5) "Most pathetic piece of tape I have ever seen..." (2:26):



7) Women should be forced to bear rapists' children (2:07):



8) Sarah Palin can't name a single newspaper she has read (45 seconds):



9) Sarah Palin is stumped (2:05):



10) John Cleese says she's "a nice-looking parrot" (1:22):



Honestly, she makes Mr. Bush look like a genius.

Wow, the work day is almost over, and I have nothing to say. Talk about a huge disappointment. Where does the time go?

So, I guess instead of something entertaining, irreverent, and possibly comical, I will simply tell you that I really liked what Colin Powel said on Meet the Press. He cut through the crap (I originally typed carp) and gave a non-partisan assessment of the two US presidential candidates that makes sense and is completely logical. Personally, I have never understood the way his given name is pronounced: it sounds like a body part or a punctuation mark to me.

In case you missed it:

Good News and Bad News

I am happy that Canadians were intelligent enough to stop short of granting Harper a majority government. But, I can't even figure out why the CRAP party won. At the very least, they ought to have received some comeuppance for ignoring the fixed election date law and wasting $300 million of taxpayers' money on an election we did not need just to come to a decision that is much the same as we had before. Brilliant, Stephen.

But, I have to say that I am really irritated by the election turnout, which was an underwhelming 58%, the lowest in Canadian history. What the hell is wrong with us? Almost half of us don't care who wins and refuse to exercise a right that many in the world would die for? Come on, people. Apathy about elections really infuriates me. I am angry with you 42%, really angry.

Election Day

The most important thing is to vote, of course. The next most important thing is to vote for anybody but the Reform ... I mean ... Conservative Party. Get out there and vote.

I am watching the debate (the Canadian one) and find it both amusing and depressing. I don't understand why anyone would vote Conservative. Harper is doing his best to appear nice and moderate and friendly. He should have worn the sweater.

Stephen Harper is no Ordinary Canadian

Now the truth is out. We have proof that Stephen Harper is an imbecile or maybe an idiot and possibly a moron. He is so out-of-touch with average Canadians, he thinks we don't care about the arts! Imagine a Prime Minister who believes that artists are 'rich'. It's mind-boggling. Only a truly stupid person would say such a thing. Clearly, he moves in social circles that keep him well away from the toiling artists in this country.

But, it's all part of a Regressive Conservative Party platform of cultural destruction that includes censoring our movies and cutting $45 million from arts funding. I have to agree with Jack Layton that Harper's yahoos are Culture Killers, or les Conserva-tueur de la culture.

Please, Canada, do not vote for Harper's weird anti-Canadian, pro-McBush party.
Please, vote ABC: Anyone But Conservative.

The Death of John McCain

The American public should not vote for John McCain, and here is why. Everyone knows that he is old. I mean, did you hear his speech? He remembers the attack on Pearl Harbor, for God's sake. He's ancient. The problem is that he will most likely die in office, leaving the country in the hands of a 40-something ex-beauty pageant contestant and opponent of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Just imagine having a President who thinks it's OK to ban books in libraries! She doesn't like certain books because that clash with her religious views and wants to deny you the right to read what you want. That's scary. Maybe she'll get a good ole' fashioned book burning going.

Mamma Mia!

I will confess right now that I hate ABBA passionately, mostly because my dad was a huge fan and I had to endure hours and hours of Mamma Mia. It scarred me deeply. John McCain has announced his love of the not-so-Fab Four from Sweden.

Evidently he said: "You're a no-class guy if you like ABBA...I'm not embarrassed to say that I like ABBA." He also said that he would use ABBA music in every White House elevator, which is reason enough to decline any invitations I might get to the House of the President.

While digging into my ABBA memories, I discovered that there is a perfect song for McCain: I'm a Marionette. It's perfect for the McBush.

You're so free
That's what everybody's telling me
Yet I feel I'm like an outward-bound, pushed around, refugee
Something's wrong, got a feeling that I don't belong
As if I have come from outer space, out of place, like King Kong

I'm a marionette, just a marionette, pull the string
I'm a marionette, everybody's pet, just as long as I sing
I'm a marionette, see my pirouette, 'round and 'round
I'm a marionette, I'm a marionette, just a silly old clown

Like a doll, like a puppet with no will at all
And somebody taught me how to talk, how to walk, how to fall

Can't complain, I've got no-one but myself to blame
Something's happening I can't control, lost my hold, it's insane

I'm a marionette, just a marionette, pull the string
I'm a marionette, everybody's pet, just as long as I sing
I'm a marionette, see my pirouette, 'round and 'round
I'm a marionette, I'm a marionette, just a silly old clown

Look this way, just a little smile, is what they say
You look better on the photograph if you laugh, that's okay!!

I'm a marionette, just a marionette, pull the string
I'm a marionette, everybody's pet, just as long as I sing
I'm a marionette, see my pirouette, 'round and 'round
I'm a marionette, I'm a marionette, just a silly old clown

You're so free
That's what everybody's telling me
Yet I feel I'm like an outward-bound, pushed around, refugee

Ah, it's so perfect. And now, I am off for what I think is a half day meeting :-(

Obama

Boy, Hilary Clinton really messed that up. It was her campaign to lose, and she did just that, not that I care, really. At the outset, I merely hoped that the Democratic party would nominate someone who could defeat the Republican nominee, who, in this case, is an old man who loves war. Why elect someone who wants to bomb Iran?

Electing John McCain is just as bad as electing George Bush. Please don't do that. This is a chance to undo the damage caused by eight years of idiocy. The war against terror started off well enough. Even I supported the action in Afghanistan, but then it went off the rails at the hands of lying president. But, this has all been said before.

I know, some people will read this and curse the ravings of a so-called left-wing blogger. I don't define myself as a left-wing blogger, although my sympathies are clearly with the left. This may have something to do with being Canadian and our pseudo-socialist state. What most Americans call the left is really the centre in Canada.

The other thing I find astonishing is that the right denies global warming. I have even heard it referred to as the "global warming fiasco" on right-wing blogs. Is this because Al Gore (a Democrat) is the leading spokesperson for the movement to curtail pollution? Can the right wing really be that dumb?

A Political Detour
"Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" - John McCain

The American presidential primaries are a fascinating spectacle. There is a part of me that sympathizes with a couple of Russian journalists who once said that the entire world should be permitted to vote for the president of the United States because the actions of the US government affect almost everyone in one way or other. That is very apparent in Canada, considering our deep personal, cultural, economic, and political ties. After all, the USA is our largest trading partner. Unfortunately, we also have Stephen Harper, who seems bent on becoming a puppet of the American President.

I am absolutely dumbfounded by John McCain. In case you missed it, he started to sing the line "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" to the tune of the Beach Boys' Barbara Ann. Of course, that was last year. What I also recently learned is that he was singing a parody that had been written and performed by Vince Vance and the Valiants, who wrote the song in the midst of the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979. Here are the lyrics:

Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.
Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb, bomb Iran!
Let's take a stand, bomb Iran.
Our country's got a feelin'.
Really hit the ceilin', bomb Iran.
Bomb bomb bomb, bomb Iran."
Gone to a mosque,
Gonna throw some rocks.
Tell the ayatollah,
Gonna put you in a box! and
bomb Iran. Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb, bomb Iran!
Our country's got a feelin'.
Really hit the ceilin', bomb Iran.
Bomb bomb bomb, bomb Iran.

Now, I can sympathize with this parody in light of the Iran Hostage Crisis. Sometimes, we need to show our anger, rattle some sabers, and show some solidarity.

This is one of the videos of John McCain breaking into song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAzBxFaio1I

Of course, I immediately recalled Ronald Reagan's live microphone accident (August 11, 1984) where he announced that bombing of Russia would commence in five minutes. This summed up Reagan's sheer intolerance, misunderstanding, and total hatred of a political system that differed from the American system. No, I am not a fan of authoritarian governments and clearly the Soviet Union was not a model to be emulated. As we all know, Reagan presided over the largest peacetime military buildup in American history, a buildup directed at the former Soviet Union and its allies, rather than address the possibility of arms control. MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) was mad.

Reagan also signed a drug enforcement act as part if his War on Drugs. I think we can conclude that the war on drugs has failed and has resulted in glaring racial disparities in prison populations, mostly because of the different sentences handed down for crack cocaine, a lower class drug used by mainly African Americans and other impoverished ethnic groups, and powdered cocaine, an upper class drug used mainly by white folks including George W. Bush. Yes, he refuses to deny that he has used it. But, I am getting sidetracked.

I was fully in support of the American action in Afghanistan, but the USA virtually quit Afghanistan to hunt Saddam Hussein and walked away from Osama bin Laden. The effect has been very clear in Canada, the nation that is currently in charge of military operations in the Kandahar region. With the US military more interested in Iraq, many Canadians understandably have a hard time distinguishing between Canada's NATO role in Afghanistan and the US war on terror. Our troops effectively freed-up American forces to move to Iraq, and so we have become part of the problem.

John McCain is on record as suggesting that he would not be opposed to American troops staying in Iraq for 100 years! His argument is that Americans would not object to such a deployment either. What they will object to, he argues, are casualties of war. It's clear that McCain, the Viet Nam veteran, is a war hawk. What I find even scarier are those who argue that McCain isn't "conservative enough." I can only hope that the American public will not endorse a man who wants to take their nation into another pointless war that cannot be won. My choice, given the American political landscape, would be anybody but McCain...well, maybe that's going too far.

Addendum

As we all know, blogging about politics is no-win situation. You either attract comments from those who revile your political views and simply tell you that you have no idea what you are talking about (usually offering only dogma and unsupported opinions to counter what you have said) , or you receive congratulatory comments from those who accept everything you say with the hopes that a few of the undecided will be convinced to join your side of the ring.

This, of course, reminds me that Ethan Zuckerman advised us to resist homophily in social networks. I have read lots of right wing blogs and left wing blogs and I think that we are all guilty of promoting our opinions at the expense of impartiality. Such is the polarized landscape of the self-important amateur political blogger. My experience from previous political posts (especially this one) is that I had been surrounded by a few like-minded people (the homophilous, if you like) and our opponents (another homophilous group). In the end, I would describe the bloggers, the commenters, and our statements with such words as intransigent, intractable, recalcitrant, and belligerent.

Blogging has given me a new appreciation of the difficulties in writing without bias. So, the preceding is biased, but what can you expect from a Canadian who routinely votes for the NDP?

Virginia Tech

Shocking news from Virginia Tech today. I am left wondering what it will take to finally convince lawmakers to make some serious changes to gun control legislation. It stands to reason that if you make the acquisition of guns far more difficult, there will be less violent crime and, hopefully, fewer incidents like this. I strongly believe that the right to keep and bear arms should not be entrenched in the US - or any other - Constitution.

Comment moderation remains on: to see why, read these posts: one, two, three, four.

Technorati Tags: Virginia Tech, guns, gun control

So, Maybe I Complain too Much (and a comment on Iraq)

Today, many of us woke up to ice pellets, snow-covered ground, and forecasts (I actually typed forecats, which is something entirely different) of freezing rain. I even had to do a bit of shoveling for the first time this winter.

I think I am getting old, because I elected not to cycle today. Instead, I crammed myself into the subway system and got a little too close to way too many people. I was so close to some guy, I could have counted the hair follicles on his face. He missed a few spots, but I decided not to tell him. There was a woman, stuffed into a seat applying eyeliner. I posted about the public application of makeup in the past. It never ceases to amaze me.

Anyway, I prefer cycling out in the fresh air. I know, Toronto's air is not that fresh, but it is better than breathing in someone else's aftershave or perfume at 8:00 A.M.

I notice that the Iraqi government bungled another execution. They managed to decapitate Hussein's half brother in the course of hanging him. I hope Bush is happy that he got his man, after an expensive and pointless war that has made the entire region worse off, to the farcical trial and botched executions.

Technorati Tags: winter, Toronto, subways, TTC, transit, cycling, Iraq

And Still no Snow in Toronto

If you haven't seen An Inconvenient Truth, you should. If you haven't seen The End of Suburbia, you should. Just don't watch them back-to-back; that would be far too depressing.

I recommend Al Gore's film just based on the fact that it demonstrates the most outstanding use of PowerPoint I have ever seen. Too many people make such atrocious use of PowerPoint, it should be - in the hands of these people - renamed RedundantPoint or BoringPoint. Al does it correctly.

You know what I am talking about: someone at a conference or a presentation projects slides full of text. You read each in a few seconds, and then you have to wait for them to read it. Boring, boring, boring.

Anyway, while the cycling guy in me is loving this winter, I am feeling really sad for the polar bears. A huge chunk of Ellesmere Island just broke off. It is 3 degrees in Toronto, heading up to 5 degrees later today. And, there is not a flake of snow in sight.

I really hope this winter will convince those jokers (notably Stephen Harper and George Bush) to do something, like ratify the Kyoto Accord. That would be a nice thing to do before part of Manhattan is flooded.

Technorati Tags: winter, global warming, Kyoto, PowerPoint, End of Suburbia, An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore

I'm a Twit!

So says Miriam-the-Librarian in this post. She objected to my post about the recent Canadian election. I always knew I was a twit, but I am happy to have the confirmation.

Technorati Tags: twits

It Could have Been Worse

It could have been a majority government, and that would have forced me to move to a liberal country somewhere in the world, but I am not sure if there are any left. Cuba looks good right now.

I am amazed that Canadians have such ridiculously short memories. The Conservative Party (once known as the Progressive Conservative Party, and are now better described as the Regressive Conservative Party) brought in the GST. And now we elect them on a promise to reduce the tax? They should not be elected for undoing part of a stupid tax that they created.

The Conservative party is homophobic and wants to trample on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Conservative party supports big business and wants private health care. The Conservative Party likes George Bush and his missile defense plan. Let us not forget that Harper wanted Canada to send our troops to Iraq. The Conservative Party likes pollution and, given any chance, will kill Kyoto.

I am not happy about this, but I hope that Canadians will see the error in our ways by the time the next election rolls around.

Technorati Tags: election, Stephen Harper

A Few Random Things

1) I'm not going to say anything about the looming election, other than that Jack Layton should really shave off his moustache. I've said that before. If he wants to keep it, he'd be advised to slip on a cop uniform or dress from head to toe in leather. It's really up to him which way he goes, but the status quo is definitely out. Oh, I once commented on the fact that Stephen Harper kind of looks like a Husky. I think that is worth repeating.

2) Reuters has recently reported that longer syringes are needed for injections into people's butts because asses are getting fatter. (Hey, I've used some form of the word 'ass' in my last two posts). It seems many of the injections are missing the muscle and end up being intrafatular, rather than intramuscular.

3) I just read a story about a 50-year-old man who pulled a truck a few yards with his penis. Evidently, he studies Qigong, an ancient Chinese art or movement. This makes me nauseous.

4) Tom Cruise bought a sonogram. I wonder if he can use it to see if he has a brain?