09.10.2012 08:06 AM

Monday morning bits and pieces

  • Rotten Apple:  If, as rumoured, today’s big Apple announcement is about a smaller iPhone or iPad, I don’t really care.  Like billions of other people, however, I will care if they are planning to start manufacturing a smaller dock connector on Apple devices.  That move, alone, will make me, and billions of other people, really mad – because all of the devices we’ve bought over the years will be rendered obsolete.  Steve Jobs, where are you?
  • The Assault on Reason:  Allan Gregg has charted an amazing career path, and he is one of the smartest people in Canada – which is why I quote him at considerable length in my new book. Check out this Hill Times article about his speech, and read it all.
  • The Permanent Campaign:  Tom Flanagan – his recent dalliance with Wildrose notwithstanding – is also one of Canada’s smartest people (and is quoted on the cover of the new book).  His views on continual election readiness should be considered by every single Liberal.  One of Michael Ignatieff’s biggest mistakes was allowing his B-Team of mercenaries to shut down election readiness in Fall 2009.  He paid the price, dearly, and Harper reaped the benefits.
  • Tea Party Tim To Stay:  The Lord has heard my prayers! Thank you! Thank you! Tim Hudak is one of the principal reasons Ontario Liberals won the last provincial election – and why Conservatives lost their Kitchener-Waterloo fiefdom.  As long as Hudak remains leader, I’m a happy Ontario Grit.
  • Obama vs. The Rich Guy:  And the rich guy isn’t doing so well on the money front, turns out.  The fact that Obama’s also definitively ahead in the polls, to me, is pretty surprising: no U.S. president has recently won re-election with the economy doing badly (i.e.., less than three per cent GDP).  Tells me that impressions may indeed trump facts these days (see Gregg, above), and that it works in both ideological directions.
  • The federal benefits of anti-federalism: It’s true.  There are indeed some – within the Liberals and the Conservatives – who see the election of the Parti Quebecois as useful, in that it gives them an opportunity to wave the flag, and reap the benefits in TROC.  The theory falls apart, however, when the country does.  That’s the, you know, problem with it.
  • Idiot of the Month: We have a winner! This idiot – licence plate AMNX 030 – was photographed by my daughter on the 401, as she and Son Three and me headed up to the rainy lake on Friday.  In case you cannot make it out clearly, Queen Idiot is steering with her elbows while she eats an ice cream sundae.

30 Comments

  1. Jon Powers says:

    That’s Rob Ford in disguise.

  2. Ted H says:

    Allen Gregg, who is usually thought of as being a Conservative strategist, or at least has been in the past, has completely skewered the entire Conservative thought process and exposed the lies and mendacity that prevail. Good for him.

  3. Tim Sullivan says:

    How many members does Newman have? Just so we can compare …

    • frmr disgruntled Con now Happy Lib says:

      The LPOC is no longer broke, with a lot more members donating monthly, and has signed up 20,000 new supporters(not members mind you, but its a good start)…..
      Rumours of our demise, etc.
      Brian Mulroney’s comment at the Press Gallery Dinner on Peter C. Newman also comes to mind….

      • Tim Sullivan says:

        I wish I understood my phone better because that way I would have a picture of Newman, hunched over in a doze with a newspaper falling off his lap, sleeping sitting “upright” (I’ll say”) at the LPC convention.

        It was less than dignified. So too was his stab in the back for his buddy MBM the former PM.

  4. George says:

    She appears to have a few fingers on her left hand On the wheel but don’t let facts interfere with a good rant

  5. Tim Sullivan says:

    Gregg’s piece makes little sense. He is outstandingly and accurately critical of the CPC’s M.O. regarding science and the government’s use (and dismantling of) information to make policy, but he picks the low fruit, then then goes after one piece of provincial legislation, attacks Obama’s one-off foreign policy (domestic policy??) decision, and then takes a swipe at the Liberals from out of nowhere. How did a critical piece on evidence-based decision-making become a prognostication of the death of the Liberal Party of Canada?

    Contrary to our host, I have never liked Gregg. I never thought he actually read the books he dealt with on his TVO show, he has yet to say a kind word for the Liberals, and the CBC exalted him into an undeserved ‘non-partisan’ spokes role on the National.

    Gregg is not and has never been unbiased, non-partisan or objective.

    Thanks for posting two pieces predicting the death of the Liberal Party. Someone is starting to breath too much air at the Sun TV studios a little too deeply.

    • billg says:

      So he’s “outstandingly accurate” when he’s critical of the CPC but not so much when he’s critical of the Ontario Liberals, Obama and the LPC. Ya, no bias there. Until I read his BIO on his op-ed I had no idea he was a one time PC, I’ve seen him on CBC many times and just thought he was a pretty smart guy. Why do words and opinions upset so many people.

      • Tim Sullivan says:

        The point of his article is to review the Harper M.O. and it delves into something other than that. I do not recall any comment on Ontario Liberals, not making any suggestion that there was one. I don’t think he’s wrong on Obama’s ordering extra-judicial executions, it just seems beside the point of the article. I cannot comment on whether he is accurate about the death of the LPC, it just seems to be beside the point of the article. However, I have never heard him say anything complimentary about the LPC. This would have been a good time to point out that the Liberals DID NOT CANCEL the census and generally prefer evidence-based policies.

        He missed that opportunity.

        If you didn’t know he was a PCer, I can’t help that you don’t follow these things. However, you may have noticed his bias is quite evident. As for mine, well, my only comment was and remains, his slams against the QUEBEC LIBERALS and Obama’s decision is just out of place when talking about evidence-based decisions and misleading factual statements. As for his comments on the death of the LPC, I am reminded of a Simpsons episode where Homer wrote some kind of complaint to the sanitation dept and included some critisicm of the UN.

        Maybe justified, just a little crazy and out of place.

  6. Dan says:

    Is it really surprising that Obama is ahead? “No U.S. president has been re-elected with a bad economy” is political hackery that ignores the fact that Bush created that bad economy, and that it’s been very easy to remind voters of that.

    Re: Quebec politics, cancel the nervous breakdown.

    http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/09/04/kelly-mcparland-cancel-the-nervous-breakdown/

  7. Chris says:

    I’m a jerk.

  8. !o! says:

    “Tells me that impressions may indeed trump facts these days (see Gregg, above), and that it works in both ideological directions.”

    I think this has always been true. The way things are presented is all that has changed. Facts used to take more centre stage, and so impressions of the facts looked more like the facts themselves. I think though that the fact that Obama is so resilient in the polls is a sign that the most fundamentalist forms of corporatism disguised as free-market utopianism are being looked at a bit more suspiciously by people. The Republican party has a lot of brand tied up in free-market utopia stocks, which aren’t doing so well the past couple years. The Democrats also have a significant chunk of their portfolio there too, but they can get away with pretending that they don’t.

  9. Greg from Calgary says:

    That woman is my hero. Up until now it was a woman driving a car with her elbows while eating corn on the cob. But the corn eater had no kids in the car. Sundae eating elbow driver is now number 1!!!!!

  10. Brad says:

    The Assault on Reason….. I don’t understand why Steven Harper choses to ignore the facts. But he is doing it and nobody notices or seems to care.

    If the new Liberal party Leader does not stand up during next election and call him out, then they deserve to lose. Harper has a majority, he can’t blame anything on anyone else anymore.

  11. Dude Love says:

    Isn’t posting a picture of someone and giving out their license plate illegal or open you to libel?

  12. deb says:

    In regards to the upcoming american election, Mittens will have to spend alot of Koch donations to distract americans from his mormon undies, his positions on healthcare and social security and he probably will have to hire Clint and “the chair again” to save his campaign;)

  13. Brammer says:

    Monday morning bits and pieces – nothing on Mr. Goldleaf’s embassy closures?

    • Warren says:

      I didn’t see what the big deal was, myself. It’s a racist outlaw regime, one that persecutes its own people and assists various terrorists. Why would we want to have diplomatic relations with them?

      Am I missing something?

  14. DanR says:

    The best part of Gregg’s interview was this charming observation: “If you asked people, ‘Which political party has values that best reflect your own?’ Overwhelmingly, for all my adult life, the Liberals won that question,” Mr. Gregg said. “Today, they’ve become a party that basically represents no one and stands for nothing. And that’s how they’re viewed; I’m not being cruel or anything.”

  15. metakaizen says:

    The Ontario Highway Traffic Act allows for the “……eating of one (1) McDonald’s-type Sundae of up to large size, without the adornment of nuts, and of either the Strawberry, Hot Fudge, or Caramel variety. McFlurry’s are prohibited…..”

    Ha, just kidding- everyone knows that only Tim Hortons has an exemption under the Act.

  16. Pat says:

    Just as a note, you do realize that Apple has been making you purchase pointless adapters for years, right? I mean, they never even included VGA ports. While every other phone in the world has been using USB for charging and computer connection Apple has been using a stupid “special” connector. That company has been all about milking every last penny for decades. They’re selling confidence and cockiness more than anything else. “Oh, you have a Samsung laptop? Well, I have a Mac, and its the best (which somehow makes me the best)”.

    Another note, they also made the last iPad thicker and heavier. I can’t imagine that would happened with Jobs around. He never would have let something be WORSE in any spec.

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