Recently in Politics Category

Sometimes something very simple really makes you think.

'Nuff said.

Yesterday I was impressed that the PM was going to send his plane to help evacuate people from Lebanon. Today on the news I hear that some of the first evacuees were complaining about the conditions. These were folks stuffed onto a cruise ship to get them to Cyprus, and I don't imagine the trip was much fun. There is talk of lack of medical personelle, people vomiting and altogether unpleasent conditions.

I'm in no position to comment on war, the only experience I've had with real war is watching it on TV from halfway around the world. However, these people are being removed from a country where they are bombing each other and doing their best to kill people! Get out! Get out however you can and be happy you're alive is what I say. I'm just thankful that I have not had to experience such things. Lets hope that people come to their senses soon (or to quote Bush the Son, "get their shit together").

What do you think? Should we be concerned about how people are getting out, or just getting them out?

Every once and a while I have to say that politicians impress me. Mostly it's with dumb decisions.... this time though, it's the opposite. Seems that our PM Stephen Harper is aiding evacuation from Lebanon for Canadians in his plane. Now if I was Prime Minister I'd probably be taking the private jet down to the mall whenever I wanted a smoothy, this guy is stripping crew and gear out of the plane to stuff as many people into it to get them to Cyprus until this insanity is over.

Nice to see something like this happening instead of another scandlegate.

Just a quick thought... so after the floods they've detected that the water is toxic. At the same time, they're pumping water out of the city. Great pics of these massive pipes dumping water into the bay on the news. At least they acknowledge that it's going to kill everything in the water, which goes through the Mississippi and into the Gulf of Mexico. Great, go humans! Nature gives you an indication that it's pissed off at you by sending a hurricane, and we get back at it by pumping toxic water into key spawning grounds.... kick Mother Natures ass! *sigh*

Darren says he's voting green, and gives his reasons for his decision. Personally, I'm still undecided. Lately I've been thinking more about Canadian politics, especially after the Leaders Debate a week ago.

To help make my decision I decided not to go with the candidate-o-matic and ask my local candidates directly.

First of all you can find far more real information about the Leaders Debate here.

Lately, funnily enough thanks to things in the states, I've become a bit more interested in politics. There's an election coming up and I have no idea who to vote for (regardless of what the Candidate-o-matic that Darren found tells me). Flicking around when I got home and the Leaders Debate was on so I figured I'd watch it. Still am watching it as I write this as an example. Sadly, as I think is more often than not the case, far more was said than I learned.

The debate was between the four leaders:

• Smiley gruff guy in a suit
• Smiley young guy in a suit
• Smiley french accented guy in a suit
• Smiley loud mustache guy in a suit

They were all loud, ignored each other, spoke out of turn, evaded, accused, deflected, and ended up saying not a huge amount at all. In fact even when Smiley french accented guy in a suit directly asked Smiley gruff guy in a suit a question about him supporting same sex marriages (I think, it might have been immigrant rights, it was hard to tell) somehow it turned into one Smiley guy accusing the other of hiding behind the Charter of Rights, or being accused of kicking puppies or something.

Most of the conversations went something like this: "blah blah blah blah blah accuse blah interrupted blah accuse blah fight fight fight blah blah blah moderated shuts all four candidates up blah".

If you're going to ask someone a question it seems that in politics letting someone answer that question is something best not to do. In fact, turning your question into a long and rambling accusation seems a far better idea. If the person to whom you are asking the question tries to answer accuse them of interrupting, ramble some more, get interrupted, and then have a big free for all with all four leaders.

Do we really want somone without the basic manners that we were taught at the time we learned to speak lead us?

Probably a better wrap up of the debate would look like:

• Smiley gruff guy in a suit spent most of the time defending the existing government and saying how they'd do it better next time
• The other three smiley guys in suits spent most of the time attacking Smiley gruff guy in a suit and saying how they'd do it better

Final words consisted 90% talking about the other parties and what they did or are promising to do (or, in the case of Smiley loud mustache guy in a suit, artfully doing this while accuing othe others of doing the same thing).

I've ignored the leaders real names simply because after seeing this they really all seem pretty much the same.

The Orwellian Olsens is a nice look at this crazy crazy bushworld my friends to the south live in.

In Bushworld, it was worth going to war so Iraqis can express their feelings ("Down With America!") without having their tongues cut out, although we cannot yet allow them to express intemperate feelings in newspapers ("Down With America!") without shutting them down.

I'm sure no one will be pissed off about that article, oh no....

Wim pointed to a fantastic talk on free culture by Lessig. Great stuff, long, but worth it. He talks about free software, copyright, microsoft, and the evils therein.

Dear "President" Bush;

You are an asshole.

Love, Alan

Over at Teal Sunglasses there is a nice commentary on America -- love it or, um... which puts into words a lot of things that I've thought every time I see a political flame war break out. Erik has some good thoughts as well. All I can say is that I'm very happy the folks I know down south of the border aren't of this mindset :)