Categories for Musings

Life is too short.

Gord Tulk – he of the nearly-4,000-comments-does-this-guy-work – is gone, for good.  This is my space, with my rules, and cheap shots championing the “free speech” rights of neo-Nazis are not welcome, particularly with lots of litigation underway.  Find a new sandbox, Gordon.  You have been erased.

Also erased: a nutty musician who needs to get a life, and a couple anonymous racist commenters.  And that’s just in the past week.

A plea: spare us, please, any pious sermonizing about Winston Smith and the memory hole and all that.  This is the Internet: nothing ever disappears for good.  If you want to find it, you can find it.

But if it’s offensive or libellous or repetitive or off-topic, you won’t find it here.

Have a good week, all.

 

 

 

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Angus Reid released its semi-regular Premier thing last week, and I missed it with all the Nazi-fighting.  But, as usual, it tells a story:

The poll may or may not be accurate, 21 times out of 20, plus or minus 101 points.  But it sure is fun to prognosticate about.

Some quick takes:

• At the top, Brad Wall is the Energizer Bunny of Canadian politics – he just keeps on ticking.  It’s amazing, given (a) how long he’s been there and (b) the state of the oil industry.  This guy is becoming a legend in Canadian politics.
• At the bottom, Kathleen Wynne has been at or near the bottom of this regular poll for a long time – it can’t be dismissed anymore as an aberration or something that can be magically fixed.  I know her well enough to know she will do the right thing for herself and her party.
• Near the top, Christy Clark.  Her third place position, here, belies the conventional wisdom in some circles in B.C.  And, this week, we will see why: she has appropriated key elements of the BC NDP and BC Green platforms for her Throne Speech, and she is forcing them this week to vote against same.  She will then use that vote as a club to beat them with in the election that comes shortly thereafter.  Genius, actually.
• Near the bottom, Rachel Notley in my home province is still somewhat competitive – for an Opposition role.  With the PC-Wildrose forces about to commence a civil war for control, I continue to believe that the beneficiary of the Conservative Wars will be my brilliant friend Dave Khan, the Alberta Liberal leader.  Dave is the guy to watch, next time.  (And I will be out there, helping out.)

What do you think, O Smart Reader?  Who’s really up, who’s really down? Opine away!

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I love the movie, still, and I also think the comparison works.  If you disagree, tell us what movie character he most resembles?

He’s hard to hate.  Tom Mulcair and assorted Tories try, certainly, but they usually just come off sounding bitter and/or jealous.  Trudeau (unlike his Dad, unlike Stephen Harper) is the Lloyd Dobler of politics:  like that immortal character in 1989’s Say Anything, Trudeau is the guy in high school who gets invited to every party, breaks up fights, and makes sure no one drives home drunk.  He isn’t a straight-A student or the valedictorian, but that’s also why you don’t hate him.

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Backing Conrad Black Sabbath. Nobody dimebagged me. 

L-R: Steve Deceive, Bjorn von Flapjack III, Wink, Snipe

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Come throw things at us!

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Now in HuffPo!

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Here:

• Warren Kinsella gives kids a glimpse into the heyday of punk with Recipe for Hate (Dundurn), which details how a group of punks took down a gang of neo-Nazis after the murder of two of their friends.

It’s actually for adults, too, so don’t get fussed about the YA tag.

You can pre-order here. Pre-order multiple copies, even!

 

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I have heard very, very troubling things. This, for example, is extraordinary and pretty damning.

The good folks at the Peterborough Examiner asked him, straight out:

Councillors didn’t debate the prospective sale in public – that happened in closed session. But they did vote unanimously on the plan in the open meeting. Mayor Daryl Bennett voted too.

Bennett is a director of a numbered company that owns the Liftlock Group of companies, which owns land nearby at 728 Rye St.

But in an interview following the meeting he said he doesn’t stand to benefit from the sale.

When asked by The Examiner why he did not declare a pecuniary interest, he said he was “a bit offended” by the question.

“What are you talking about? It has no benefit to me whatsoever,” Bennett said of the property sale.

It’s not national news, but I intend to make this a focus of this little web site for the next while.

Something stinks in Peterborough.

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