if i had a rocket launcher....

So Stephen Harper paid a surpise visit to the troops in Afghanistan.

Okay, now he's just making these Bush comparisons too easy.

Shoot me now.

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday...

Tomorrow, 500-700 farmers will descend up on the city of Guelph to demonstrate against what they feel is a lack of support from the Government of Ontario in their income crisis. I won't go into the nitty gritty, but farmers are in trouble and no longer making money off of farming. Not all, but many. They will be protesting in front of the very building at which I work. I'll be getting there early so that the call centre is up and running before 8:00, which is when most of the farmers will arrive.

This whole protest is expected to be farily orderly, and there are some excellent contrasts to be found here. While other parts of the world burn under the weight of Islamic protests over cartoons, Canada continues to set the gold standard for proper protesting. Not only have the protesters agreed not to obstruct us from entering work, but have told us their numbers in advance, and worked with building officials to arrange for porta-potties to be outside the building.

Ground rules set, facilities erected, and promise of order and calm. What a great country.

Am I The Only One Who Sees Something Wrong?

Some people find American politics boring. I find it scary as hell. What bothers me most are the conservative columnists who have a terrible sense of priorities. To contrast, I refer you to two entries from CNN's latest pet right wing-nut to replace Robert Novak:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/02/tyrrell.peacemovement/index.html

The basic theme of this entry? Peace activists are a danger to American society. Just because Franklin Roosevelt got the support of Republicans during WWII, George W. Bush deserves the blind confidence of both Democrats and the nation at large. Peace protesters are uninformed, and Cindy Sheehan is insane (and not a grieving mother with a message).

The next travesty:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/26/tyrrell.nuisances/index.html

This one is even easier: Ted Kennedy, like most Democrats, is incompetent, overweight, self-indulgent, and inarticulate. No, seriously, that's the entire one page article. What a waste of time. But you better believe that many Americans read this and chortle to themselves about what is apparently the weak minded liberalism that threatens the solid leadership base that Republicans have supposedly worked so hard to instill.

Now, for contrast, let's take a look a more liberal leaning columnist. Notice the abundance of 'facts' in comparison to the previous two articles:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/02/ivins.iraq/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/31/ivins.groundhogday/index.html

Note the ridiculous amount of statistics and evidence of real consequences for the Bush administration's actions both at home and abroad. Spying on citizens, buried and damning reports, billions wasted in Iraq, increased insurgent activity, etc.

What is frightening is the atmosphere of the non-dialogue that is taking place between both sides of the congressional floor, and even the media in the states. If the Democrats go after Bush over real and present dangers to the American way of life, the Republicans close ranks and try to change subject. Why bother dealing with corruption and denial of civil liberties when you can make fun of Teddy Kennedy and Cindy Sheehan? I just wish for the good old days when the Republicans tried to impeach Clinton for getting little Bill polished, while in the present day, Bush can wage a $trillion$ war over oil, I mean, I mean, democracy in the Middle East, Im mean, WMD, with little chance of accountability or concern.

Wake up folks.

Feels Like You're Waiting For The Sky To Fall

It's election night in the Great White Nord, and I feel nothing but an impending sense of dread: Three reasons:

1) The Conservatives will likely win a minority government.
2) I predicted that the Liberals would win a minority government. (that's okay, so did Air Farce)
3) The Conservatives could possibly win a majority government.

For interest's sake, let's take a moment and read Canada through the lens of our closest neighbour.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/01/23/canada.election/index.html

It's not as if they are factually incorrect. There is just something about the token article from CNN gracing the web that makes me laugh. How much often do they pay attention to anything else that goes on in Canada? Funny.

I am still wondering if we are going to experience an odd numbers phenom and see the first Liberal-NDP coalition in years. With the spectre of the Blockheadbecois clouding that radar, it makes it very unlikely.

Ah well. I could wax philosophic on this subject for hours, but I think I will wait for the victory speach of whomever wins this farce. Then you might see some real predictions of the year to come.

Adios.

Guns Don't Kill People...

Oh wait. Yes they do. They certainly did in "Lord of War". Krista and I watched that tonight. After I finished playing Halo II with my brother. Let's just say that I entered the movie with a healthy desensitization to violence. Not that the movie was excessively violent. Whatever that means. It was more of a character study of a gun runner played by Nicholas Cage. I am not overwhelmed by most of his performances, but he did succeed in making you neither hate nor love his character. Which is difficult considering that he was playing a man who supplied weapons to the worst murderers and dictators in the world.

Aside from that, it was an average day. I walked home from work, which offered a great opportunity to decompress from the day. The only thing I didn't like was the huge frigging hill at the end. I hate hills. And stairs. I frigging hate stairs.

I'm still avoiding commenting too much on the election. I'm still traumatized by the piss-poor job that Martin's campaign managers did. It makes me sick to even think about it. Soon we will get to drown our concerns in useless tax cuts, fulfilled excessive spending promises, increasingly privatized healthcare, assaults on minority rights, and all of the other bags of goodies that Harper and friends will give us after January 24. Maybe I should write more soon, and make some predictions so that I can say "I told you so" four years from now when the crud hits the fan.

Yes, I'm a Negligent Monster

Yep. I'm setting new records for not posting. I just can't seem to get over this writers block. My excuse is that I spend all day at work writing emails and reports and god knows what else, so feel little inclination to further write at the end of the day.

That, and I always see other blogs that wax philosophic and share (mostly) hilarious every day insights and literary analysis, and feel that I have to share something similar. At one point, I was telling myself that if I couldn't write along those lines, I shouldn't be blogging.

Well, to hell with that. I was inspired today by two different things that made me rethink this whole approach. One was my grandfather. He makes daily records of the weather, and any other basic activities that filled the day if they are of interest. I took a browse through his book, and found it neat that he has recorded such basic details. They take on neat sense of history when examined a year later. Especially if you're pushing 81, and have difficulty remembering what happened last week. (hey, he jokes about it more than I do) The other was my friend Ian. He follows the same pattern, and posts online. Basic and to the point. It is a lot easier to review after the fact. I don't know about you, but I just don't have the time in my life to read half of the garbage that I write, let alone the stuff that others pump out.

So here goes.

It was day two today of work in terms of the great email assignment experiment. Basically, people were complaining about other team members not reply ing to their fair share of emails sent to us by the public. So I have put in place a system where I assign them instead of people picking emails out of the common box whenever they like. It was actually pushed by other members initially, and it has so far worked. Not all reacted favourably at first, but these things take time. After work, we had hamburger helper. Which only agreed with one of us. After, I went to my grandparents, and we talked, and played cribbage. I lost both times, getting skunked by 50 points. It was brutal, but we had fun doing it.

I'm now at home with Krista and the cats. Have to go to bed soon because I'm getting up early to walk to work. For my health. And because we have one car. That's another story.

Election is coming soon. I don't think anyone in their right mind is going to want to call this one.

Historic Night My Ass

Yep. Mr. Stephen Harper just declared this evening as "historic", after he joined the NDP and Blocheadquebecois to knock over the Liberals.

Historic? Please. We've seen minority governments toppled before. There was nothing unusual about this! All the parties got together and kicked out the Paul Martin Liberals out for something the Jean Cretin Liberals did. Don't worry, I spelled Jean's name the way I did on purpose. What a frigging circus. I'm going to make some predictions right here, right now. If I'm wrong, don't bother to point it out, because I'm sure I will have figured it all out by my wittle self.

1) Everyone will attack the Liberals over the whole corruption thing, and for the most part, the Canadian public won't care. The Liberals will attack the Conservatives and Stephen Harper, and the Canadian public won't care. They have nothing against Harper, they just don't like what he's selling. Oh. And Harper will say something stupid. When the dust settles, we'll still have a Liberal minority, albeit with less seats.
2) Stephen Harper will be gone by August.
3) Jack Layton will continue to push his socialist agenda with increased fervour.
4) With the exception of the Bloc, the other two parties will be loathe to force another election for fear of further pissing off the Canadian's and thereby handing the Liberals a majority government.
5) Conrad Black will be denied his request to recover his Canadian citizenship. This has nothing to do with the election, but that embezzling blowhard just grinds my gears.

More to follow in the coming weeks. Harper also asked Canadians to ask themselves if they are better off from the last government. What a gift to Martin. Most Canadians will answer yes. Lower unemployment and lower debt load are just two of the war chests of arguments that Martin has on his side. Seriously! Anyone hear reading this less better off from the last two years? I welcome your comments to prove so...

I love it... Allan Gregg with the strategic counsel just called this a "perverse exercise", in light of the fact that the Liberals will likely get another minority. God bless you CTV Newsnet, you always get right to the point.

Later, I'll post a massive missive from the last election in which I totally owned a Harper booster via email... Good times.