Category: Politics

Peaceful weekend

It was the kind of weekend when I did a little cooking and a little laundry and a lot of lazing around, so I consider it a success.  The crows are flying to their day jobs, the sky is strewn with grey, pink and purple, there’s a siren in the distance and it’s just like a regular Tuesday….. except there’s tapioca in the fridge.

So what happened in the world.  Looks like Canadians are headed to the polls, although the date has not yet been set.  McCain picked a running mate without vetting her seriously first, which strikes me as mildly insane but not really surprising.  The Tories want to revamp public health in the wake of the food borne pathogen outbreak.  I thought this meant they were going to hand out free Pepto-Bismol but apparently they are going to do something a little more substantive.  Well, good luck on that; it’s kind of hard to enforce standards when you have no inspectors.  Maybe they will get more inspectors. Funny family story; when my uncle Gary was a youngun he helped inspect food production facilities in Ontario for a summer and at the end of it the only thing he would eat was Laura Secord chocolates.  I really don’t think much has changed.  When I was a puppy I worked for a structural engineering firm that did the upgrades to the Maple Leaf plants in Toronto and the boys would come back from site inspections and regale the other employees with what actually goes on in a meatpacking plant, especially if the other employees decide they don’t like you.  Blech.  Plus ça change, baybee.

I guess it wasn’t a peaceful weekend for everybody.  Amy Goodman discusses her arrest.

New Youtube video, Revelation, etc.

No link – it’s not like I’m ashamed of it, I just think it is not exactly… well…. I’m having WAY too much fun singing it, and that is kinda sorta a bad thing. It really should be sung with as close to a straight face as possible, and I just can’t manage that.

Keith and I read my version of Revelation last night and we ended up giggling like idiots. Then it occurred to me… this just plain isn’t respectful to people of faith. In my defence, I’d like to point a couple of things out.

Martin Luther, one of the greatest theologians who ever lived, didn’t like Revelation and wanted it yoinked from the Bible. John Calvin, one of the biggest dickheads who ever lived, and also a good theologian, did a commentary on every book of the New Testament except Revelation and very very rarely referenced it. There was argument among the church fathers right up until the 6th C whether it should even BE in the Bible (so much for Biblical inerrancy…) and the Eastern Orthodox church dislikes it so much that it grudgingly accepted its inclusion in the scripture but refuses to use any of it in its liturgy, an excellent compromise, and exactly the kind of thing a syncretic church should do. After all, that’s exactly what contemporary American Christianity is doing when it ignores the thousand or so references to assisting the poor that occur in both Testaments to focus its mascaraed eyes on the handful of references to queerness. In other words, ignoring what is actively repellent to it, or politically murderous to it, without reference to What God Wants.

So I will continue to Play with Revelation, but I’m only going to be sharing it with those individuals who demonstrate interest.

I note that a Democrat is suing to have Barack Obama’s name stricken from the rolls of Presidential candidates because it turns out he was born in Kenya. Nice. Personally, I wouldn’t mind if they did the same for the lovely and talented John McCain, who was born in the Canal Zone (note to self, aren’t we all, except for the folks delivered by caesarian).

Political punditry and conspicuous consumption

This dude takes on ‘bittergate’ – supposedly Obama’s bitter misreading of middle America.  As is frequently the case, the post is excellent and some of the comments are even better.

What kind of strange middle class fffreak am I turning into?  Going shopping at IKEA?  Yes, we bought a kitchen table and some kitchen shelves.  I rented the Montana (finally learned how to put the back seats down and up again, with some struggle) and we went to the Richmond IKEA and I have to say Monday evening around supper time is a way better time to shop there than the weekend.  The last time I was there on the weekend I thought I’d died and gone to a special corner of hell.  I’m glad Patricia suggested eating in the cafeteria at IKEA.  The food was excellent (they have a license! but of course I had a CAN car so I stayed off the sauce) and with milk and cookies and meatballs included it was 16 bucks for the two of us.
The car smelled funny.  I am almost inclined to get it detailed to try and offload the curious “what the hell is that?” aroma that is in the car.  The Prius was like that too, especially on a warm day.

After much delay, I’m off to see Katie K tonight.  What with her staging her condo and me moving, it’s been ages since we’ve seen each other and we are long overdue for an earflapping.

There was snow at the same time the sun was out yesterday; then snow pellets; then this morning a skin of ice on everything.  Winter is clinging like a cast off lover with a personality disorder.  Except, of course, you can’t call the cops on the weather.  Even if you could, I can’t hear Mother Nature saying, “Don’t tase me, bro!”

Eddie has been to the vet, and now he has medicine.  The vet at Petcetera is pretty good and his staff are too, so says Jeff.

When I come home tonight, the furniture will be assembled.  I asked if I could help, and Jeff just looked at me like I’m nuts; being my brother he gets to do that a lot, since I provide loads of evidence that it’s true. Let us hope all the hardware is in the fracking box.

Man, is BSGs4 going to a dark place or what???

Watched Breach last night.  That was a damned good movie.  I may want to see it again sometime.   If you want to see a movie that has very little swearing, no graphic violence whatsoever and only one little bit of violence, no explosions and no car chases, but a gripping plot, good acting and a great script, check it out.
Shoot.  It’s 7am.  Time to don the gay apparel and grab the next shuttle to the mothership.

Stephen Harper shows some class

Normally I don’t care much for the gent, but I have a lot of respect for somebody who goes to Auschwitz and then declines to comment to the press afterwards.  He showed up and didn’t use it as an opportunity to grandstand; kudos to the man.  Of course, I guess this just proves that he’s part of the international Zionist banking conspiracy, or may to the “I can has armband” crowd.