Bring Back Kirk

Hmmm, what shall I write about today? Discord in the middle east? The upcoming prime ministerial showdown in Canada? How about Obama's reactions to emerging global concerns?

Nope. Today we talk about Star Trek... and not just because Majel Roddenberry is dead.

I re-watched Star Trek: Generations the other day, the one in which one of my boyhood heroes, James T Kirk, is killed. I really enjoyed that movie; I think it had a lot of heart, even though it was clearly made on leftover change. What I didn't like was how they killed Kirk. See, I was one of the few people walking into the theatre who had no idea they were going to off the good Captain. I sat there with my mouth hanging open when it happened.

As Kirk said inThe Final Frontier, he always knew he would die alone. Well he wasn't alone. He was killed first when Malcolm McDowell shot him in the back. Then, when test audiences protested, the studio spent an additional $5 million re-shooting a very lame sequence in which Kirk dies when a bridge falls on him. A bridge!

A timeless icon of American culture, a man who fought (and defeated) Klingons, Romulans, the Gorn, humpback whales and even the god Apollo himself was taken down by... a fucking bridge?

Kirk should have taken command of the Enterprise D, as the original script idea had called for, and led the Next Generation crew into battle against the Klingons... but not before first goosing Commander Troi and knocking Worf on his ass.

There are several websites dedicated to both regretting Kirk's death and calling for his resurrection --like this post by Battlestar Galactica writer Ronald Moore and, of course, BringBackKirk.com.

My favourite of these sites, though, is the ever popular Top 100 Reasons Why Kirk is Better Than Picard. Here are some gems:

• When Picard went back in time he brought back Data’s head. When Kirk went back in time he brought back a blonde.
• When Sisko met Picard he told him he hated him. When Sisko met Kirk he got his autograph.
• When Picard has a problem he talks to Guinan about it. When Kirk has a problem he shoots it.
• Kirk’s Enterprise did not have a day care.
• The only Klingon serving on Kirk’s bridge would be a dead one.
• When Sarek mind melded with Picard, Picard cried a lot. When Sarek mind melded with Kirk, Kirk decided to hijack the Enterprise and bring Spock back from the dead.
• Kirk’s dress uniform does not actually look like a dress.
• Kirk would never allow his first officer to get more tail than he does.
• Picard’s first officer is named after a bathroom code.
• When Data hijacked the Enterprise, Picard was helpless to stop him. When Spock hijacked the Enterprise Kirk fought him to the death.
• Picard once wore formal Klingon robes for a Klingon ceremony. If Kirk ever wore Klingon robes it would be because he took them off a dead Klingon.
• When Kirk disguised himself as a Romulan, he stole a cloaking device and used it to escape to Federation space. When Picard disguised himself as a Romulan he ate some soup and then got captured.
• Kirk went to the center of the universe, met god and wasn’t impressed.
• Style: Kirk did it first, he did it better and he did it wearing gold velour and Beatle-boots with a space girl on each arm.

I also just finished watching UFC 92. Frank Mir is an inspiration. And the deaf fighter, Matt Hamill, was fascinating, especially how his corner has to communicate with him. That got me to finding this, a tape of some of the more brutal moments in MMA history. Dig John McCain's contribution:




As well, here's a rare online clip of the now famous war between Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin, a match that in many ways changed mixed martial arts history in North America by showing a regular broadcast TV audience how unbelievable this sport can be.


In Other News...

Here's a BBC documentary on how much science the new incoming US President needs to know.

And here's a slideshow of the the biggest douchebags of 2008. Enjoy!

The Goddamn Batman

I don't know why. It just seemed appropriate.

First up today: check out Barack Obama's random act of kindness. The man continues to impress.

From EK Hornbeck comes two interesting links. First up, our old friend Russel Smith tells us about outsourcing to India for.... grammar and writing services. Not too surprising, for a variety of reasons.

Next up, as EK puts it, "So much for the 11th commandmant -- 'thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow conservative...'" as he points us to this Washington Times article blaming Harper for Canada's recent governmental crisis. If you don't know, the Washington Times is a very right wing paper owned by the Moonies. Weird but true. Some key quotes from the editorial:

"Mr. Harper is now attempting to deflect blame for a crisis that he created..."

"If his government does not have the votes to carry out its initiatives, he should face the music in the House of Commons..."

"Mr. Harper's decision to reopen old wounds in Canada's already-fractured political landscape bespeaks an appalling lack of tact."

Some more EK Hornbeck bits... (the man has been busy). First, news from Italy that Berlusconi plans to "regulate the Internet". Aieeee! Regulation is bad enough. Regulation by an Italian president? Aieee!

Apparently Barack Obama's African grandfather was tortured by British soldiers for his supposed association with the Mau Mau. One hopes that this familial history will give the incoming President a saner view of the complexities of guilt-by-association in the developing world context, and of the horrors of torture in particular.

Lastly, EK sends us this laughable little bit about the UK Foreign Office putting on a show about "human rights". What they need is a visit from the Goddamn Batman.

Now, everyone has been sending me this article about the decline of the male animal. Yes, it's true. Epidemiologically, there's been an observation that biological "maleness" has been on the decline for some years now. It probably has to do with environmental contamination, too many hormones in our food, overuse of phytoestrogenic soy products and overuse of the female contraceptive pill, which releases female hormones into the water supply. And you wonder why I'm obsessed with my muscle mass? Muscle counteracts, to some extent, the environmental estrogenic effects.

And finally.... screw the Goddamn Batman. This is a real hero.

Murder in Mumbai

Image from CBC.ca
Anyone who's visited the mind-blowing financial, crime and movie capital of India, Mumbai, knows it to be a transforming and transformative place that tells of centuries of multicultural layering, a miracle of urban concentration well past imaginable limits of popular saturation, and a global leader in all manner of spectacle.

That its latest spectacle is one of terrorism on a dramatic --almost cinematic-- scale is a sad realization that baptism into the corridors of world leadership sometimes means acceptance of the plagues of affluence. On the verge of becoming one of the wealthiest nations in the world, India --always a hotbed of terrorism-- is now a more seductive target than ever.

This week, armed gunmen brazenly killed more than a hundred random citizens and have taken hostages --mostly foreigners-- in some of the city's top hotels. The most recent news is that the Taj Hotel was "liberated" by Indian security forces, killing a few of the gunmen in the process.

The Taj has its own fascinating history. Its founder was once, due to his skin colour, denied lodging in a British hotel in Mumbai whose name escapes my memory. So he vowed to one day build the grandest hotel in the country to outshine that of the British. He succeeded. It was a small taste of the grandeur that would be modern India's financial future. And so it's a tad ironic and even more tragic that the Taj would serve as the site of modern India's first urban bloodbath on the world stage.

The world media is focusing on the gunmen's targeting of foreigners, mostly American and British. But, as in all such stories, it's the local small people who bear the brunt of the villainy. The gunmen opened fire on a crowded commuter train. These trains are not like subway trains in the West; they are so jam-packed that bodies sometimes hang outside the doors. They are the arteries, not for the wealthy and foreign, but for the poor and working class. Mumbai, you must remember, is held aloft by oceans of destitute poor, many of whom sleep and work on the sidewalks.

This is, of course, a horrible, foul series of crimes. But in a few months, when these bodies have been cremated and the relatives have slouched off to try to rebuild their lives, a new thing will arise. Terror and murder in India is a circular event. As sure as night follows day, this act of terror will be answered by an equally horrid attack by Hindu extremists on Muslim neighbourhoods somewhere in India. It won't make the world news because men in suits won't be affected; but more lives are sure to be destroyed.

There is strong evidence that this week's events were spurred by foreign meddling, possibly from immediately north of India. But India has enough of its own home-grown nuts and murderers and would-be village Napoleans that domestic organized violence will continue to be its weak underbelly for at least another generation.

Yes, they can build a nuclear weapon and put a spacecraft on the Moon. How about showing me some real advancement? How about showing me that they can keep their people safe?

Aside... unsurprisingly, the gunmen also targeted Mumbai's Jewish centre, one run by the Chabad Lubavitch. If indeed Pakistan is found to be complicit in this event, I'll be curious to see how Israel responds.

The Bush Legacy

It's no secret that I detest the Bush II administration. I had the great fortune of living in Washington, DC, during the immediate aftermath of 9/11, for the start of both Bush wars, the anthrax attacks and the Beltway sniper. I remember quite well the palpable fear of the times; many believed --quite rationally-- that a dirty nuclear bomb was about to be detonated in the nation's capital. Our wills and passports were updated, and everyone seemed to have a one-way ticket out of the city in his back pocket; and the family car was stocked and fueled at all times. There was a run on the antibiotic Cipro, the most accessible defence against anthrax. Israeli nuclear/biological/gas masks were sold out for months. Everyone was preparing for the worst. Seriously, that was the tone of the time. And we all --everyone of us, even we "liberals" who disliked the man-- looked to the President to calm the distress, defend the put upon, and quell the fear, not stoke it.

But he squandered every opportunity with head-slapping regularity. How should we protect the union? Shop. Seriously, he told us to shop. When rednecks were beating up brown people because they resembled Al Qaeda, Bush went on TV and said that that behaviour was sending the wrong message. Sending the wrong message? What about defending the rights of all Americans, not just the white Christian ones? Instead of a leader of a nation, we got an ideological partisan intent on pushing an agenda crafted by PNAC nearly a decade earlier, regardless of the globo-political realities that were essentially contraindications.

But, of course, Bush's greatest failing was the insulting, criminal invasion of Iraq. I spoke out and wrote about my objections to this act early on, and got death threats for my efforts. Today, it is common for the mainstream to talk about how they were lied to about weapons of mass destruction, and had they known of such duplicity, they never would have supported the war.

I call bullshit. To many of us, the duplicity was obvious. Most famously, weapons inspector Scott Ritter appealed to anyone who would listen that the evidence was shoddy. His reward was to be demonized by all the media, not just Faux News. Months later, the new weapons inspector, Hans Blix, would suffer the same fate.

In this sense, at least, Bush was not alone in his crime. His society's institutions, particularly the spineless media, were complicit. Those who voiced dissenting opinions were quickly demonized and denied platforms: Bill Maher lost his TV show for suggesting that suicide bombers were not cowardly; the Dixie Chicks lost shows and sponsors for decrying Bush policies. But extreme racist and militaristic voices, like Anne Coulter, who called for the invasion of Muslim countries and their forced conversion to Christianity, retained their pulpits and saw their audiences and contracts grow fatter.

Bush's policies in support of torture were clearly illegal according to laws under which the USA was a signatory. The internment of prisoners without charge and trial, wiretapping without warrants, the denial of counsel and aid for detainees... all of these are acts worthy of criminal investigation. Consider the following:

"George W. Bush's speech on September 6 amounted to a public confession to criminal violations of the 1996 War Crimes Act. He implicitly admitted authorizing disappearances, extrajudicial imprisonment, torture, transporting prisoners between countries and denying the International Committee of the Red Cross access to prisoners.

"These are all serious violations of the Geneva Conventions. The War Crimes Act makes grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and all violations of Common Article 3 punishable by fines, imprisonment or, if death results to the victim, the death penalty."

I would add that the fomenting of an unnecessary war of aggression, based on deliberately enhanced data, that resulted in tens --if not hundreds-- of thousands of deaths of innocents, is a monstrous war crime that I believe stains the hands of George Bush.

Now, my internet friend Rondi linked to this article, which argues that we are all judging Bush too harshly. Well, I must disagree. I think history will judge him with increasing incredulity that our society allowed him to transgress as much as he did. It's amazing that the US constitution survived the Bush Presidency, and I'm convinced that one more large scale terror incident on US soil would have fully unleashed the beast, and put the final nails in the coffin of the American empire and civil liberty.

A commenter on the Western Standard blog summarized well Bush's biggest blunders:

Bush should have:

1. Stayed in Afghanistan and caught bin Laden rather than starting a second war.

2. Appointed people based on merit rather than cronyism. This isn't an ideological complaint. Harriet Miers for SCOTUS? Come on.

3. Come out unequivocally against torture. Sometimes the good guy needs to fight with one hand tied. It's not fair, but it's what makes him the good guy.

4. Got warrants for surveillance. FISA allowed immediate wiretapping with retroactive approval, with no warrant requirement at all when the targets weren't US persons. Where's the need for unauthorized wiretapping?

5. Recognized that the separation of powers is as essential today as it was when the Constitution was drafted.

I believe that hisory will record that George Bush, Jr, presided over the decline of the American empire from a global military and economic power to fragile and nearly hollow democracy on the verge of becoming a have-not nation. And, if all our hopes are realized, President Obama may preside over the transition of that former empire into a simple, stable republic that once more values the profound ideals of its genius founders.

Where Were You When President Obama Was Elected?

It's 11:oopm Nov 4th, 2008, and Barack Obama has been elected the 44th President of the United States. Welcome back to the world, my American friends. You have one fewer reason to hang your heads. You elected George Bush twice, convincing us that you had all lost your minds. But now you turn around 180 degrees and show the world a remarkably new and encouraging, sane and rational face.

I find that a certain wet substance is blurring my vision at this historic moment. Four decades ago, Martin Luther King was killed for advocating for basic civil rights for Black Americans. There are Blacks who voted today who were not allowed to vote when they were younger. There are graves visited regularly where are buried selfless heroes who were murdered for registering Black voters in the 60s. There are Black Americans who voted today who, as youths, were not permitted to go to school, not permitted to use public bathrooms or drink from public water fountains, and not permitted to ride in the front of the city buses.

Not so long ago, Black Americans were property. They were legally considered three fifths of a human being. Debate even raged over whether they possessed souls. It is truly a heavenly wonder that this same nation has elected a Black man as its leader, within living memory of some of those dark days.

It does not matter that this particular Black man does not have a family history of slavery, having as his origins a direct Kenyan lineage that bypassed the American slave trade. The truth is that any non-White person living in the USA inherits the legacy of slavery. A Black man in America is a Black man in America, regardless of his actual origins.

Much has been made of Obama's biracial nature, of how he has supposedly chosen to be considered Black for political reasons; he is, after all, equally White. But the truth is that historically American law has decreed anyone with more than one eighth African heritage to be Black; that's how they decided who had to sit in the back of the bus. And the further truth is that, due to generations of the rape of slaves, every Black person in America has some White blood in him.

Regardless of your political stripes, you must be moved by the ascension of a Black man to the Oval office. Forever more, Black children in the USA will have as their role models not just singers and athletes, but now the President of the United States. The image of what it means to be American will be profoundly changed, as the First Family will now be comprised of Michele Obama and her two Black daughters. Take a moment to visualize that.

Why is this important? Well, when I lived in Washington, DC, seven years ago, I was dismayed to find on local dating sites White women whose profiles said they were only looking for White men (which is their right) because --and here's the catch-- they prefer to date "all American men". These were not cartoonish redneck racists, but average women working in offices in the nation's capital. The lesson was that so many of the White mainstream unconsciously and reflexively equate "all American" with "White". The same is true among a lot of people in Canada, too.

This is the hurdle that all visible minorities deal with: convincing the mainstream to change its iconography, language and symbolism to be inclusive of our identities. Yes, it's important. To see a Black First Family will be a transformative, revelatory experience in both the USA and Canada. Today's decision has essentially modified what it means to be American.

And what of John McCain? His very generous concession speech was a taste of the old McCain, a man who would have made an excellent President. It's his bad luck to have been saddled with the regressive figure of Sarah Palin and to have been forced to run against the epic, historic character.

We should all remember where we were at 11pm on November 4th. I was in my parent's living room in Toronto, watching the BBC. I chose to be alone lest others see my sissy tears. Where were you?

This Is It

Only a few hours till the polls open for what is feeling like the most important federal election in modern US history. All signs point to an easy Obama victory, but anything can (and usually does) happen.

I'm stopping the Deonandia poll right now. You will recall that the question was, "Who do you think will win the US election?" From 35 respondents, 62.9% called it for Obama/Biden, while 35.7% think McCain/Palin will pull it off. Four miscreants chose "Other". Bless their twisted little hearts, since I am assuming they're clinging to my 8 year of prediction of a Gore presidency in 2009.

Further to all things electoral, The Other Ray sends us 20 Things You Didn't Know About Elections. But the more touching story is that Barack Obama's grandmother, the woman who raised him, died one day before possibly seeing her grandson make history as the first Black man to be President of the USA. But you know what? That lovely lady managed to vote in the advance polls. A more apt Hollywood ending I could not imagine.

I can't help but think that Obama is still a young man in his 40s, yet he is now without both parents and the grandparents who raised him. As one whose adoration of his own parents has inspired him in all his ventures, I have a hard time imagining the void Obama would face when achieving this most exultant of accomplishments without any of his elder inspirations present. Indeed, I am ever impressed by the calm with which he has faced such shortfalls. If a lengthy and trying campaign is an apt test of a candidate's temperament for the Oval Office, no man has impressed me as much as Obama has these past months.

No, he was not perfect. He said a few dumb things. He kowtowed to traditional US electoral gods, like the Israel lobby. And he has not been the transformational messianic figure of a Kennedy or Roosevelt. But he has been the needed man for his time: very smart, globally bred, multi-everything, calm and reasoned, difficult to anger, and eminently responsible.

And no, upon his ascension to Office --if all goes as foreseen-- America's problems will not vanish in a haze of divine splendour. Rather, quite the opposite will happen, as the fomenting problems of the world, exacerbated beyond all reason by the criminal reign of the Bushies, descend upon Obama, who will have to bear it all without the condescending swagger of his predecessors to hide behind, and with the eyes of a still very racist nation watching for even the smallest of missteps to mar the tenure of the first Black man to aspire to national leadership.

An old mentor put to me best: "the best defence against racism is excellence." Obama has embraced that edict. But anything less that perfection will be seen by his detractors as failure for him, his party, his supporters and indeed his entire race.

It's all such a shame. In so many ways, America --still seen by many as the leading nation of the world-- is far behind everyone else; in the arena race relations, in particular.

As one commenter once put it, this is America's last chance. If voters fail to usher in to office the one candidate who is universally globally acclaimed, yet who also brandishes the intellectual might to actually face the harder issues, then the Empire will not only have crumbled (for that is obviously inevitable), but she will fall rapidly without the cushioning empathy and support of the community of nations.

The drama unfolds in six hours. Tears will flow, both in joy and in defeat. How best to note this occasion? Why, with an SNL clip about Mark Wahlberg talking to animals, of course:

Snake Bite Fever

In two weeks I head back to Guyana as part of a team sent by Veahavta, a Jewish philanthropic organization, to engage in some mother-infant health projects in the interior. This means having to get my fat ass into some kind of shape, and overcoming my distaste for sleeping in a tent. Right now, I'm shopping for a pair of comfortable yet functional snake boots, appropriate for lowland jungle usage. See, Guyana is beset with 5 species of poisonous snakes, one of which --the labarria, a type of fer-de-lance-- really likes to bite people. So if anyone knows anything about buying snake boots, let me know ASAP!

In the mean time, I have some random election-themed images for you. First, courtesy of EK Hornbeck, here's a behind-the-scenes look at the Sarah Palin stripper-lookalike-contest in Vegas:


Speaking of Ms. Batshit Crazy Alaskan Governor, here she is on that fateful day when she realized the full extent of her international affairs experience:


And can you believe the Republican strategy for addressing the global economic meltdown? More breaks for the rich? It's that ridiculous Reaganomics nonsense again: trickle down economics. Oddly, it was Michael Moore (who pisses me off a lot) who said it best, last night on Larry King Live. He said, in the days since FDR, America attained its wealth through the production and selling of goods. Then, in the Reagan era, they switched to making money from money, essentially through the manipulation of currencies and securities. There is no innate value in such speculation; ultimately a nation's wealthy comes down to its resources and production capacity. Hence, today's final image is a summary of the Republican's tired and wrong policy of trickle-down economics:

The Evolution of a President

From The Other Ray:

Angry Old Man

You know, for about 30 seconds I thought about "live blogging" the McCain/Obama debate last night. Then I realized it would mean sinking to an all new "I have no life" low.

For me, the evening can be summed up with this:



McCain's only shot was to come out swinging --which he did. But in doing so, he was unprepared for Obama's excellent defense, which was simply to relax and be presidential. The frustration eventually got to McCain, causing him to seem incredulous and petulant, as in the above clip. McCain just isn't a media friendly guy, as shown in the following image from Andrew Sullivan's site:


Want to know where John McCain got his debate talking points? Click here.

And unsurprisingly, someone has already Youtubed McCain's various facial ticks and contortions:



The BBC has a nice summary of people's reactions from around blog land. But I think what sums it up best is that America is angry and frustrated... but that doesn't mean the American voters want a President who's also angry and frustrated, which is what McCain projects. They appear to want one who's calm and dedicated to getting them out of their quagmires.

But hey, anything can happen in the next few weeks.


In Other News...

Time for some nerdotry. Ever read Wil Wheaton's recaps of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation? Do so here.

Entertainment Weekly has a defensible list of the top 10 ST:NG episodes here. I think they're wrong about the ranking, though. "The Inner Light" is the best, and possibly one of the best episodes of American TV ever.

EW gets this completely wrong, however: 17 Sc-Fi Misfires. They include the near perfect Bladerunner on that list? What are they smoking?

Nailin' Paylin

In preparation for tonight's 3rd (and final) Obama-McCain debate, check out the following PailinAsPresident.com website. Seriously, check it out.

And thanks to Cousin Ajay for news of Larry Flynt's latest opus, Nailin' Paylin [sic], a porn version of Sarah Pailin's quest for the White House. With such quotable lines as "Drill, baby, drill", this was inevitable.

Here's the star:


I'd vote for her.

Now, on to last night's election results...

With a very low voter turnout (something marginally over 50%), the Conservatives predictably walked away with a "strong" minority government. I don't know what can ever be considered "strong" about a minority government: either it's vulnerable or it isn't, and a minority government is always vulnerable.

Canadians no longer vote the issues. They don't even vote their local candidates. They now vote the personalities of the leaders of the federal parties, American style. Of the top four choices, Elizabeth May seemed genuine but amateurish, Jack Layton seemed ridiculously old-school partisan, Stephane Dion seemed confused and desperate, and only Stephen Harper remained calm and kingly the whole time. Combined with two factors --voter apathy and the splitting of the votes from the Left of centre-- Harper's persona won him another victory.

As discussed yesterday, however, this will not be accepted as a victory by Harper or the Conservatives. What's the point of calling an election if you simply retain the status quo? This was their one chance to get a majority government, and they failed. There is a very good chance that Stephen Harper will walk away from his throne in coming months. And there is a better than good chance that, come May, we will see a new Liberal leadership race.

What does this mean? Another election in 1-2 years, possibly involving two brand new front-runners.

So here are the results, as of 3:AM Wednesday morning (some ballots are still being counted):

Conservatives - 143
Liberals - 76
BQ - 50
NDP - 37
Green - 0
Other -2

Based on my predictions from yesterday, this gives me a total deviation of 50 seats.

My nemesis in this endeavour was Nasty Nicky B who, in the comments of yesterday's post, offered his own prediction:

Conservatives: 131
Liberals: 89
Bloc: 47
NDP: 39
Other: 2
Green: 0

Nick's total deviation from the actual results is 29. So I guess he wins this particular contest. But I'll get you next time, Barrowman. You know I will....

Canadian Election Predictions

Today is election day in Canada. I'd made up my mind not to vote, since both ridings in which I could are pretty much locked up by the candidates I would have voted for. But at the last minute, I decided to exercise my franchise and vote in Ottawa.

Now, none of my ID has my Ottawa address on it. So I went to the polling booth, produced my driver's licence (with Toronto address) and a letter I'd just received from the Canada Council for the Arts, with my name and Ottawa address typed on front of the envelope. Believe it or not, this was sufficient to allow me to vote in Canada's federal election.

Huh? Neither of those items proved that I am a citizen of Canada. And the letter from the Canada Council was in no way official; the address was typed on the front of the envelope, not inserted beneath the plastic window, which is the usual imprimatur of officialdom. I wonder how much election fraud actually takes place in this country, given how easy it is for an unqualified person to vote.

But I guess it can be argued that the problem in Canada isn't unqualified people voting, but not enough people voting at all! However, I'm one of those people who'd rather see a low voter turnout, consisting of informed citizens, than a high turnout of people who have no idea why they're voting.

Now, this is a peculiar election. Stephen Harper's Conservatives called it during a minority tenure with hopes that they could transform their tenuous government into a majority with a real mandate. But amazingly, the Liberals have threatened to take that minority away from them. So, if the Conservatives do anything other than win a majority government, they will be perceived as having lost.

It's unclear how the current economic crisis will affect things. I think the cold, dispassionate economist (Harper) wins out over the excitable professor (Dion) and the constantly-spouting-talking-points Other Guy (Layton). Thus, I present you with my prediction for this evening:

Conservatives - 124
Liberals - 100
Bloc Quebecois - 50
NDP - 32
Green - 1
Other - 1

I'm being generous to both the Greens and the Liberals, but a guy's gotta take a chance sometimes. And yes, Elizabeth May beats Peter McKay.

McCain vs Obama, Round 2

These Presidential debates are amazing things. Beforehand, the campaigns put out ridiculous statements aggrandizing the other guy, and minimizing expectations for their guy. Regardless of who actually did the best job, afterwards the spinners take to the town, trying to convince everyone that either their guy scored a knock-out punch, or the format was biased against them. (Example here.) And when it's all said and done, every viewer perceives the event through the reality filtering lens of his own political stripe.

A quick scan of the blogosphere sees Right-wing sites, like the Western Standard, saying things like: "Every time [Obama] talks, he reminds me of a smooth, condescending 'expert' coming down to the level of the not-as-smart folks he's trying to explain the world to. I can't get past his presentation style which reeks of phony to me."

Meanwhile, Democratic sites, like Daily Kos, report that "McCain was ridiculously bad all night."

My take? McCain was ridiculously bad all night. I think he read the audience all wrong. Today, for the first time in a long time, Americans seem to have lost their sense of humour. Their economy is decaying and they're not doing well in two wars. They want a smart guy to talk seriously to them, not to hand them platitudes and bromides. McCain kept handing them platitudes and bromides, and sank to negatively portraying his adversary more frequently than did Obama; the crowd did not seem to enjoy that.

In one particularly head-slapping moment, Brokaw asked the candidates whether health care was a responsibility or a right. A more soft-ball question I could not imagine. Obama answered correctly; whether he believes it or not, the right answer is that every citizen has a right to be healthy. McCain answered it with foolhardy candour: that it's a responsibility. Now, I get that he was trying to suggest that the government has a responsibility to offer health care, but that's not the way it came across, and that's certainly not the most salable message.

Obama's policies were well explained. McCain's were vague, and peppered with far too many "my friend" suffixes. I sensed that a lot of people --myself included-- felt spoken down to. On that topic, the blogsophere will make much of the following quote from McCain, in which he referred to Obama as "that one". It was the most glaring example of the disdain that was seething from McCain's pores:



Intended or not, the phrase will ring with racist overtones for a lot of people. Hence the following:



Now, Obama voiced a number of policies that I soundly disagree with, particularly his bellicose foreign policies. I want to reiterate something I've blogged earlier. By Canadian standards, Barack Obama has more in common with Stephen Harper than he does with the platforms and beliefs of any other major federal leader in this country. But as the furthest-most Left voice in maintstream American federal politics at the moment, I gravitate toward his candidacy. Let us make no mistake, however: if/when Barack Obama becomes President, I expect to take great exception to many, many, many of his policies.

Tonight, Obama appeared relaxed, thoughtful and Presidential. McCain appeared frustrated, a tad exercised and maybe angry, but definitely desperate. To me, this evening was a resounding success for Barack Obama. But many things can happen between today and election day.

In the mean time, don't forget to take our poll on the side bar to the right!

Stop Saying Maverick! (And Other Palindrones)

Well, I didn't watch the Canadian English leader's debate. Why should I? We all know what would happen. The four least power-crazy candidates would (predictably and understandably) gang up on the blue-eyed Devil Child, Stephen Harper, and end up making him look more Presidential in the process. Notice that I did not say "Prime Ministerial". Harper runs his government as if he were a neocon American President, not a populist PM responsive to the entire Parliament.

No, instead I watched the ridiculous display that was the American VP debate. Before, I get into it, here's one prediction of how it would go down:



Well, what can I say? How sad is it that in what is supposed to be an open job interview for the chair next to the most powerful position in the history of humanity, one can declare success if one has simply failed to make a bleeding idiot out of oneself? Imagine if you went into a job interview and you just barely avoided an intellectual meltdown; would you expect to get the job? Yet this is how the spinners are portraying Sarah Palin's performance.

This is what Sarah Palin represents: the final absolute lowering of expectations.

In Canada, we (thank Zod!) still have a sense of wanting to be led by men and women who are better than we are: more eloquent, more learned, stronger, bolder, more robust and certainly more experienced in matters of import. In general, we don't care if our leader shops at our stores or if his kids play hockey with our kids. What we most care about is that he (or she) is the best our society can produce. I think it's fair to say that most nations view their leaders the same way.

Yet that is most certainly not the case in the USA. Joe Biden clearly had to hold himself back from outshining Palin, lest he be perceived as being too mean on the "little lady". She, on the other hand, peppered her delivery with so much awful, folksy pablum that I actually spat out my coffee at several moments. "Doggone it"? "Joe Six Pack"? Sending a "shout out" to her peeps? Winking at the camera? Is "also" the Alaskan equivalent of "eh" or "uh"? And how many times did she refer to herself and John McCain as "mavericks"? Fifty? A hundred? All so bloody sickening.

A lot of her defenders are claiming that she isn't dumb, she's just inexperienced. Well, I'm sorry. The definition of "dumb" has clearly been changed since I first learned it. There are lowered expectations all around, it seems. This woman is governor of an American state, and possibly two steps away from being the freaking President of the United States of America. For people who have her ambition and pedigree, we apply a more stringent definition of "dumb".

If she were one of my undergrad students, I'd give her a C+ for her demonstrated understanding of issues. The "+" is because I'm known to be generous. She clearly doesn't understand economics. (Neither does McCain, for that matter.) She doesn't seem to know the names of the Generals she keeps quoting. I don't recall a single time she actually spoke in a full sentence, or for that matter answered a question directly.

But the biggest, scariest moment for me was when she professed to agree with Dick Cheney, that the Vice President is more a part of the legislative body than the executive body. Luckily, Biden slapped her down hard on that one. The last thing America --and the rest of us-- needs is another Vice President eager to exert power beyond his or her tiny mandate.

Republican Kathleen Parker has a nice post mortem on the debate, aptly titled "She Won Fersure, Also." And Guardian writer Oliver Burkeman live-blogged the debate with some hilarity here.

But by far the funniest --and saddest-- post-debate moment is Faux News' attempt at questioning a "focus group". Watch carefully. This is no focus group. It's a bunch of paid (poor) actors who've been poached from an infomercial!



And my grade 9 English teacher, Harold Lass, sends us this:



So who won? Does it matter? I'll say this: of the four candidates involved in the current struggle for the White House, it's clear to me that Joe Biden is the most Presidential, and Sarah Palin is the least.

Debate Season

It's a weird time for elections, no? New Zealand is entering election mode. Here in Canada, we are knee deep in an election most people don't care about. And the big show, the US elections, has as its main event, not the heavy weight match between Obama and McCain (part 2!) but the freak show that is Palin/Biden, scheduled for this evening.


Canadian Federal Debate

But before we get there, believe it or not there was a federal debate in Canada last night. A lot of people don't realize this because it was in French. It was a weird, surreal exchange, with the leaders of all five recognized federal parties meeting in a civilized manner around a bizarre egg-shaped table, sort of like one of those European talk shows no one watches. (Well, except for me.)

Like a lot of Anglophones, my French is halting. I understand best when another Anglophone is speaking French, and least when a native speaker is waxing profundity. Hence, I fully expect the majority of the country to rate the performances of Stephane Dion and Gilles Duceppe poorly --unfairly so. But frankly, this debate was for Quebec ears and eyes; the rest of us were incidental.

Here's my take on what happened last night: Duceppe was in his element and clearly showed what a magnificent speaker and politician he is. It's a shame he has no interest in being Prime Minister or even in advocating for the interests of all Canadians. (For my non-Canadian readers, Duceppe is leader of the Bloc Quebecois, essentially a party whose only mandate is to advocate for the needs of the people of Quebec, ultimately toward secession!)

Jack Layton, who was otherwise on the ball, really screwed up by delving into health care. See, in Canada health is a provincial matter, though guidelines are set by federal law. In Quebec in particular, any suggestion of federal meddling in provincial matters is a grave sin.

Elizabeth May, the Green Party leader, was embarrassing. But I enjoyed her French the most because it's closest to my own: barely out of high school.

Dion, the only hope for we Harper-haters, was abysmal to my ears. I'm told that in French he came off as quite eloquent. But his body language was overly eager and a bit desperate. I don't think he made much headway last night.

The big winner, as much as it pains me to say, was the blue-eyed devil child Stephen Harper. He appeared so convinced of his divine right of rule that he was relaxed and kingly. The fact that the other "debaters" spent almost all their time focusing their bile against him and him alone actually strengthened his position as the strongest person in the room. We are doomed.

Now, as for the spectacle tonight...


The Upcoming US VP Debate

Well, well, well. Will this not be the most entertaining spectacle of the whole year? After disastrous performances during interviews with lightweight interviewers like Sean Hannity and Katie Couric, Sarah Palin was whisked into hiding by her handlers. Think about this for a second, will you? If she's afraid to face a bunch of preening, overpaid TV journalists, how will she ever face a real political beast, like Vladimir Putin?

In the face of these media catastrophes, even some prominent conservatives are calling for Palin to step down.

(For some hilarity, check out the automatic Sarah Palin Interview Generator.)

As many others have said, what we may see here is an example of the worst kind of sexism. America doesn't like to see its "girls" beat up on. Meanwhile, they expect full competency from their "boys". If Biden rips Palin's throat out on live TV, it is he who will come across poorly, not her. Because of this, I fully expect Biden to be soft and accommodating. I also expect him to phrase all his comments with respect to John McCain, and not Sarah Palin. His job is to attack McCain on behalf of Obama, not to further expose a laughably idiotic minor politician from state few Americans ever think about.

And before we Obama/Biden supporters get too cocky, let's remember that Joe Biden isn't all cherry trees and boy scout badges, either. This article lists his sins. In particular, he's of the Hillary school of excuses for the Iraq War. You know what I'm talking about. He regrets his decision to support the war, but claims that he and "everyone else" thought that Saddam really had WMDs there.

I call/called/continue to call bullshit! No thinking person was ever convinced that there were WMDs in Iraq. The data were clearly shallow, especially when weapons inspectors Scott Ritter and Hans Blix failed to give the hawks the rationale they needed. So Joe Biden, either you're lying or you're an idiot. Either way, you don't get a pass from me.

Don't forget to take the poll on the right. Tell us who you think will win the US election. As for the Canadian election, it's a done deal. Harper's conservatives will win. The question is: minority or majority?


In Other News

Australian students have no language skills? Crikey.

Want to see something freaky? Here's a crab riding a jelly fish!

In a similar vein, here's a shrimp running on a treadmill:



And while we're on the topic of youtube hilarity, check out the Ninja Cat (courtesy of Katie):

Sarah Palin's Facebook Page

No, this is not real. And yes, I stole it from a link provided by Andoo who stole it from Zod knows where. But it's funny, dammit, so international copyright laws don't apply. Click to enlarge:

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The Great Bracelet Battle

I saw this as a moment of humour on the intentional part of Obama. But it could have also been a moment of shared maudlin cloyingness. From someone at rabble.ca:

Obama-McCain: Round One

Some observations after the first McCain-Obama debate:

• What has happened to John McCain in the last 8 years? Back then, he was exciting and bold. Today he just seems tired and a bit too eager to be President.


• Obama really needs to stop stammering. I find it distracting.


• During the Democratic primaries, I didn't like Hillary Clinton's condescending tone. Ultimately her personality caused me to gravitate toward the less skilled and a tad vacuous (policy-wise) Obama. However, watching tonight's debate I couldn't help but think that if Hillary were the Democratic candidate, she would have hammered McCain into the ground.


• One of the reasons I'm biased toward the Obama camp is that I support his style of "debate". It's professorial, what one commenter called "intellectual generosity". In a professorial exchange, you acknowledge your opponents positives and seek middle ground. Obama said "John is right" several times in an attempt to bridge the gap. McCain, on the other hand, comes from the confrontational school of debate, wherein you never give any ground to your opponent. I don't know which is best, only that I find the former a tad more civilized.


• When both candidates were asked, "What is the lesson of Iraq?" I was screaming for Obama to answer, "The lesson of Iraq is that we did not learn the lesson of Vietnam."


• I'm so tired of politicians listing their passport visa stamps as foreign policy credentials. They all do it. In Canada, during one Parliamentary exchange, all the top leaders from all parties made it a point to slip in that they had been to Afghanistan. Tonight, McCain mentioned his trips abroad many, many times. Well, lots of people go to Paris, but how many can negotiate a trade deal with France? Politicians travel all the time; the trips are managed and protected. I really wonder what insights it actually offers them. I trust the well schooled book-reader to know a place better than any frivolous political tourist on a stage-managed visit.


• When McCain suggested that he would build a sort of league of democracies, I thought Obama should have answered, "Great idea! When I'm President I will make sure you get to head up that project!"


• To be fair, McCain appeared to be much better versed on the details of American foreign policy, while Obama floundered on those points, looking as if he had lost his cheat sheets. But I don't think the details are what this election is about. Rather, it's about vision and values. Obama nailed it when he said something to the effect that we will have less money next year, not enough to do everything he wants to do, so we will have to make choices and priorities, and they way we do that is by being clear on our values.


• I couldn't believe McCain brought up his POW experience at least twice that I counted. Give it a rest already! I also couldn't believe that he referred to himself as a maverick; just because you say it doesn't make it so. But I was relieved to see the CNN live polling reveal that viewers across all political stripes responded very poorly to both instances.


• There were two memorable moments for me. The first was when, as they were battling to squeeze in one more point, Obama smiled his charming smile and said, "that's enough; I think you want to ask us another question, Tim." At the same moment, McCain looked like he was going to burst a blood vessel.


• The second --and best-- memorable moment was when John McCain finished his cloying, manipulative story about the bracelet given to him by a military family, Obama gave that smile again and said, "John, I'm also wearing a bracelet...."


• Lastly, I want to comment on how annoying it is that the networks cut from the end of the debate to a place they usually call "Spin Alley", where each party's communications people lie through their teeth about their guy's performance. Why do we need to see this? Their comments are predictable and valueless.

Obviously, I scored this contest resoundingly for Obama. But I'm a partisan, so take that for what it's worth.


Now on to the joyful slaughter that will be Biden vs Palin!

Never Forget.... 1973

On the 7th anniversary of the terror attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, the predictable ones are predictably commenting with such tropes and memes as "Never Forget" and "Never Again", etc.

Yes, it was an awful thing that 2000 people died on that day. And I hope everyone who was responsible is brought to justice, and I hope the like never happens again.

But I also hope that the event ceases to become a reason for further pointless murder in such places as Iraq and Afghanistan. It behooves me to say it, but someone needs to: well beyond 2000 have now been murdered ostensibly in the name of vengeance for those killed in 2001. And I say "ostensibly" because thinking people realize that the real reason for those wars has very little --if anything-- to do with 9/11 or terrorism.

And as far as the "Never Forget" bit goes.... Well, how many remember another September 11, back in 1973? I think Americans should never forget that date, either, though most have. Chileans certainly haven't. On September 12, 2003, I wrote:

Yesterday every media outlet in the world had something to say about the anniversary of September 11.... 2001. Since they've got it well covered, I'd like to turn your attention to September 11, 1973. On that date, 30 years ago, US-backed terrorists overthrew the peaceful and democratically elected government of Chile.

Ohhhh, some of you are saying, Ray is bashing the US government again. But listen: there's a connection between what the Nixon administration (which included Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld!) did back then, and what happened to innocent people on 9/11 of 2001. By overthrowing a popular democratic government in favour of a brutal murdering dictator (General Pinochet), the world learned to see the USA as a regime whose rhetoric of freedom and opportunity only applies to its own interests, while pain and repression are its goals for the rest of us. That's the vision digested by Al Qaeda; and given the events of 1973, it's difficult to argue with that interpretation.

The Pinochet "government" went on to murder thousands.

"I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people," Kissinger said of Chile at the time. No wonder people like Osama bin Laden feel no remorse about punishing similarly "irresponsible" people.

"It is not a part of our country's history that we are proud of," Colin Powell said of the Chile affair. Yet why are Cheney and Rumsfeld rewarded with wealth and power, instead of being prosecuted like the criminals they are?

And on Dec 12, 2006, I wrote:

No one talks about it much anymore, but let's not forget that [BushCo] are torturing murderers who belong in the same category as Pinochet. One day --hopefully not too long in the future-- W's funeral will cause the same introspection among Americans as Pinochet's has among Chileans, and for much the same reasons: the apologists for his crimes will weep, while we who protested will be saddened that the world was too cowardly and morally bankrupt to ever try him and his cronies for their crimes.

In other, more banal, news, have you noticed the new "RD" icon flashing in the web address box on your browser? That's courtesy of my new hired gun flash/java/etc consultant, Adam B, young progeny of Nasty Nicky B.

Batshit Crazy Alaska Governor

It seems every blogger's favourite topic these days is Sarah Palin. Why not? I for one am relieved that John McCain picked her as his running mate. I was afraid the Republicans were going to do something sensible for a change and deprive us all of good comedic material. Stand-ups feasted for eight years on Bush II. It's nice to see that the Republicans haven't given up on being batshit crazy Bible thumpers.

But beyond the easy (and valid) criticisms of the McCain/Palin ticket as being retrograde, theocratic, bigoted, anti-woman and so forth, is the very rational bipartisan criticism --voiced best by Andrew Sullivan-- that McCain's choice of a VP he barely knew shows what a poor decision maker he is:

"McCain picked someone he had only met once before. I repeat: he picked someone he had only met once before. His vetting chief sat Palin down for a face-to-face interview the Wednesday before last. It's very hard to overstate how nutty and irresponsible this is."

The whole article is worth reading. One of the comments posted afterwards is also quite pithy: "McCain embodies a great deal of the country: too lazy (or afraid) to delve into people and policies and analyze them. It will be George Bush all over again." (Daniel F. Vojir, San Francisco, USA.)

It really is a remarkable circus, the election south of us. And McCain's mind-boggling choice is like a brainless, cartoonish twist in a professional wrestling storyline, the choice of a tagteam partner made solely for immediate shock value, but who probably can't do the flying headbutt off the top rope.

Think about it: Americans are given over a year to meet, vet, dissect and analyze their candidates for Presidency. This is as it should be. Yet John McCain chooses his President in one week, after meeting her only once, days earlier. I say "his President" because that's what his choice of VP really is. It's like writing in his will, "in the event of my death, I choose as successor to the Oval Office.... this batshit loony, completely inexperienced woman no one knows anything about."

Oy vey.

I particularly enjoy the shortsightedness of the RNC's speechwriters, who gave Palin the line, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities," or something like that. They always look for the zinger without thinking about the target it places on them. But I enjoy more this response:



And while we're being fair, let's have some face time for Obama:

Goodbye, Charley Reese

Deonandia has long been fond of quoting one eloquent old curmudgeon named Charley Reese. The man is sort of a Libertarian, sort of a paleo-conservative, but most of all a fellow who's lived long enough and grouched about so much that he no longer allows labels to define his viewpoints. I haven't agreed with everything he's written, but much of it. Over the years, I've shared many of his nuggets with readers of this space. Now, Mr Reese is retiring. His final column is here, and some of his archives are here.

Here is a sample of some of the quotes I have lifted from his articles. Reese is (was?) important because he was one of the few self-proclaimed "conservative" American pundits who had not drunk the kool-aid, a man who voted for Bush then slapped himself on the forehead afterwards, a pro-gun Southerner who nonetheless understands the duplicity of the American empire and the needlessness of its foreign pugilistic ambitions. Thomas Payne would have been proud of Mr. Reese. (#23 is my favourite, but I think #18 will prove to be the most poignant in the long term.)

[1] "...the U.S. has fought only one justified war in this and the past century. That was World War II. Putting aside the fact that the U.S. government provoked Japan into attacking, attack it did, and the U.S. had a right to respond. We were not attacked, however, in Korea, Vietnam, Libya, Lebanon, Panama, Grenada, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan or Iraq."

[2] "The government should not regulate people's private lives at all. It should protect them from force, fraud, usury, foreign attacks and the rape of our share of the planet. Other than those, if some people wish to self-destruct, it's nobody else's business, least of all the government's."

[3] "Terrorists should be considered criminals, and their acts as ordinary crimes. Physically dealing with terrorists is properly ordinary police work. There is no war involved."

[4] "Oh, yes, collective punishment against innocent civilians is a war crime, and it is an Israeli specialty."

[5] "The fact is, the Bush administration has created a gulag, as Amnesty International recently charged. Certainly it is not on the scale of Stalin's, but a series of prisons in Cuba, Iraq, Afghanistan and in other, hidden places where people are held indefinitely without charges and without access to even humanitarian organizations can be fairly called gulags."

[6] "What we are witnessing is the beginning of the end of Euro-American domination of the planet. When the emperors start being idiots, the empire is on the way to the ash heap of history. If you have any grandchildren, you might suggest that they study Chinese."

[7] "The so-called war against terrorism is unwinnable... The analogy of war is a false one. The proper analogy is simply dealing with individual criminals and a few criminal gangs."

[8] "...The only prevailing morality in the country is greed. Greed has corrupted politics, law, science, medicine, education and even the church."

[9] "We are, I believe, living in the twilight of Euro-American domination. We are like a former world champion gone to seed from luxurious living."

[10] "The Iranians are just as sensible and levelheaded as anyone else. Don't buy the propaganda that they are all a bunch of crazies. They've been around a lot longer than we have. I would trust them with nuclear weapons as much as --perhaps even a hair more than-- I trust Bush. Americans must stop allowing politicians and propagandists to scare them into reckless behavior."

[11] "When they finally hang Saddam Hussein, we'll probably miss him."

[12] "Those who opposed this [Iraq] war have been proven right, and those who advocated it have been proven wrong."

[13] "[The USA is] the only country in the world that has military forces permanently stationed all over the Earth. All imperialism, even the American form, is ultimately based on social Darwinism, a belief not openly stated these days that we are a superior people and therefore must inevitably rule in one way or another the inferior others.... The code word we use for superiority these days is 'democracy.' It is democracy that is superior to all other forms of government, and therefore we are doing people a favor to spread it."

[14] "If you cannot condemn the flagrant abuses of Palestinians by the Israeli government, then you are undoubtedly a bigot, the worst kind of racist pig who believes that Palestinians are some kind of subspecies of the human race. If you do condemn in your heart these terrible abuses, but are afraid to speak out about them, then you are a damned coward."

[15] "All we have to do is cut the apron strings from Israel and pull our troops out of the Middle East, where they have no business being anyway, and Middle East terrorism directed toward us would evaporate overnight. We have no natural conflict with the Arab world or it with us, and most assuredly Islam is not our enemy."

[16] "Times are a-changing, and the world is not about to let America impose its will on everyone else without resistance."

[17] "The probability is high that [the Iraqi people] will drive us out and Overthrow whatever puppet government we leave behind. The question is how many billions of dollars and how many American lives we want to spend teaching George Bush a lesson he should have learned at the library."

[18] "There is a definitely a whiff of anti-intellectualism - so characteristic of fascist states - in the air. Beware of bully boys who worship the military and scoff at museums and libraries. Beware of people whose limited brains see everyone as either an ally or an enemy. Beware of people who can't tell the difference between patriotism and military conquest. Beware of people so stupid and ignorant that they accept anything and everything the political and the media demagogues tell them."

[19] "I'm afraid electing Bush president was like handing a loaded gun to a 6-year-old."

[20] "If we allow our government to pursue perpetual war, then we will lose our freedom altogether. It might be true that the first casualty of war is truth, but the second is individual freedom - especially the freedom to dissent from the war government's policies. That's why we must elect people who will eliminate terrorism the only way it can be eliminated - by correcting the injustices that cause it."

[21] "Our American service people take an oath to defend the United States, not to serve as legionnaires on the outposts of a global corporate empire."

[22] "...in every democracy in the world, including ours: the slow slide toward authoritarianism. Democracy has always had a short life span."

[23] "Most Americans grossly underestimate how very dangerous stupid people can be."

[24] "God, has no one in the Bush family ever read the Constitution?"

[25] "A good start [to reducing global poverty and population] would be to stop selling armaments to governments. Armaments are a negative investment. They don't create wealth. If they are used, they destroy it. A million dollars sitting in a tank is a million dollars unavailable for food, medicine and education. A lot of poverty is a direct result of military expenditures and wars for power and loot."

[26] "What is the difference between Adolf Hitler's invasion of Poland and Bush's invasion of Iraq? There is no difference. Both were unprovoked attacks in violation of international law. Both were blatant attempts to achieve political objectives by force – in Hitler's case, the annexation of Poland; in Bush's case, regime change. Morally, there is not a thread's difference between the bombing of Warsaw and the bombing of Baghdad."

[27] "The Bush policy in regard to Iraq has been a fraud from the beginning, and it remains a fraud with the appointment of an old CIA leech as prime minister to oversee the rape of Iraq by the favored corporate pirates. The Iraqi people know the score. The question is, Do the American people?"

[28] "The Palestinian-Israeli conflict? Started by Great Britain and France at the end of World War I. The Kurdish conflict? Ditto. In fact, the modern Middle East was created by a Frenchman and an Englishman without the slightest reference to the wishes of the native people or any natural borders... And while we still struggle to undo mischief begun in the past century, our leaders are creating mischief that might well occupy our posterity. Here again, what they are doing appears plain stupid on its face."

[29] "[Bush is] the only president in my lifetime who has liked to boast about how little he reads. He needn't boast. It's quite evident. I don't say he is dumb, but he is without a doubt the most willfully ignorant man who has occupied the White House in recent years."

[30] "I have often said that history is a lot scarier than Stephen King's horror stories. I get scared every time I hear Bush talk — or try to talk."

[31] "Two American political myths are about to collide with reality. One myth is that economies can continue to grow indefinitely. The other is that we can find a substitute for petroleum."

[32] "The human race consists mostly of idiots, with a scattering of wise people. The problem with political systems is that most make it difficult to put the wise few in the positions of power. Thus, for the most part, in every generation the world is ruled by idiots, some of whom have criminal minds."

[33] "And for God's sake, folks, why would anyone believe that if we are willing to shoot, bomb, burn and dismember Iraqis and destroy their country, we would hesitate to employ torture? The United States is without a doubt the most self-deluded nation on Earth, and that nest of liars who occupy Washington work full time to maintain the delusions."

[34] "This entire glorification of war - as if the whole and only purpose of the government and the country were to fight wars - smells of fascism. The news media glorify the war and militarism; we get the same dose on television, in the movies and in video games. If the American people aren't careful, they will wake up one day to find out they've become a nation of mindless heel-clickers."

[35] "The Arab world sees us - correctly - as an accessory before and after the fact to all the crimes Israel commits against the Palestinians and other Arabs in the area. We cannot load Israel down with modern weapons, with gifts of more than $90 billion of American tax dollars, with absolute protection from all attempts to hold it accountable under international law, and then pretend we are innocent. We are guilty by proxy of murder, land theft, destruction of property and all the other human misery that Israel has caused in the region."

Jon Voight is Officially a Wingnut

Today was orientation day for incoming first year students at the University of Ottawa. As a professor in Health Sciences, I was encouraged to participate --along with a handful of other professors-- in a "student olympics" competition between the incoming frosh from our faculty, Health Sciences (HSS), and those of the Human Kinetics (HK) faculty. For those not in the know, Human Kinetics is essentially physical education, so it's populated by very fit, body conscious individuals.

Well, we professors arrived first. Slowly, a enormous team of glistening young HK students arrived, each with muscles atop muscles... and I'm talking about the women here! Even before their competition had arrived, they were into their warm-ups. Then, thank Zod, our team arrived, a few score of young HSS students... each about a third the size of the HK kids.

It's tough being an aging man. See, when we men look in the mirror, we unerringly see 25 year old muscular perfection, even if we're 41 and pot-bellied. We have a rough time of it when the truth of our past-the-prime existence is rudely shoved in our faces. And so it was for this aging 41 year old, who has often prided himself on his fitness and healthfulness. Ultimate frisbee, soccer, relay races --whatever the event, the HK kids kicked our silly butts. And I sit here now, at home, a couple of hours later, icing my lower back and eyeing the Ibuprofen on the shelf with something resembling sexual passion.

What was really humbling was watching the skill and grace of all the young people on the field, even our moderately less-than-HK-perfection HSS students. Glistening muscles, clear skin, unending energy, limitless power and tireless abundance of motivation are truly the hallmarks of the young. I had to keep reminding myself that these were people in their early 20s and late teens. In fact, some of them were as young as 17!

Getting old sucks.

But my true lasting observation was this. All the kids, each and every one of them, was a champion soccer player. Ten years ago, it would have been impossible to pluck 60 17-20 year olds from a Canadian university and expect them to have any skills at all in the game. But with the advent of soccer momhood, the game of the masses has found traction in the Canadian suburb. So these days they all arrive with mad deking abilities and headbutts worthy of a Welsh brawler. In three generations, typical teenagers will arrive in universities with expert mhuay thai or mixed martial arts skills, possibly 'roided out to the gills.


In Other (But Sort of Related) News....

The Other Ray sends us this discussion of a high-meat diet that seems to work for one dude. Now, I'm into month #3 of my pesco-vegetarian existence. I have minimal meat cravings. But I have to admit, I'm having a hard time maintaining my protein intake. My body fat percentage has gone up and my muscle mass has definitely declined. I have noticeably less power and endurance, which was evident on today's sports field. I can't increase my soy intake without risking an estrogenic effect. Therefore, I'm considering admitting bird flesh into my diet. I'll keep y'all updated.

'Cause I feel like a little objectification today, I give you Chickipedia.

D-Mack sends us this top 8 most annoying blog commentator types. I would add as my #1, The Insecure Intellectual-Wannabe, who tries to impress us all with his big words and confrontatoinal style, but only manages to reveal his shallow understanding of all things.