Goodbye Canada AM
I loved going on Canada AM, back when JC was PM. I’d face off against David Miller (for the NDP), or Line Maheu (for the Alliance/Reform/whatever they were called that week), or Dan Tisch or whoever (for the PCs).
Canada AM was where I did this good-natured little jab, too. Became a Trivial Pursuit question, that one.
Anyway, goodbye Canada AM. And here’s a clip from way back when that a reader found (don’t know how). O that we were all young again, etc.
CNN decides to be fact-checkers again
Electoral reform: kudos to Cullen, Monsef and Trudeau
I have to get something off my chest about Elvis Costello
Me and the Hot Nasties saw Costello and The Attractions [emphasis added – ed.] for the first time on November 15, 1978 at the Jubilee Auditorium in Calgary. There was a minor riot at the foor of the stage involving the bouncers, us, and Costello. We refused to sit down and jumped into the orchestra pit to dance; the big hippie bouncers didn’t like that, and started to toss us around like matchsticks; Costello didn’t like that, and threw his mic stand at the nastiest, meanest bouncer. It was glorious.
Anyway. In those days, Costello was backed by Steve Nieve (ivories), Pete Thomas (skins) and Bruce Thomas (four strings). They were gods. Evidence, here:
Now, here’s Costello in his later years, without The Attractions [emphasis added – ed.]:
With The Brodsky Quartet? A classical ensemble? Seriously?
Like I say: I’ve been keeping this inside for too long. Elvis Costello TOTALLY SUCKS without The Attractions. He’s a boring old fart – the gravest crime for which you can be convicted, in my books.
Discuss.
My additional reaction to the Hunter Tootoo case
Seriously, guys: fish or cut bait. If you have an allegation to make, make it. But it’s not particularly fair to condemn a guy for the fact that you don’t have evidence he did something wrong.
“Hey! We think there might be some damaging shit about you, and we demand you offer it up, because we’re convinced it exists.”
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) June 2, 2016
How to beat Donald Trump, in one easy step
Here it is:
Also, this. This should be a big hit, and played on Down South every talk radio show, 24/7. This is how you win, in one minute and 44 seconds, Hillary.
But more importantly, what is the punk per capita ratio?
A minister resigns, plus Ottawa after dark
I wish him and his family luck. Ottawa doesn’t make this kind of problem easy.
On the Hill, the hours are crazy. So are the demands on you and your family. There’s a lot of pressure, there’s a lot of isolation, and there’s a lot of scrutiny – so people dealt with all that in different ways. Back in my day, there weren’t as many bars and whatnot around. But there was certainly a lot of people who would go for a drink after work. They’d do that every single day. That’s how they’d deal with how it is in Ottawa.
I was (and am) weird: I’d come from a punk Straight Edge scene, so I just never did that sort of thing. And – I confess – I didn’t often hang out with, or ever hire, those who did. Loose lips sink governments, etc. If you were a regular on a bar stool at D’Arcy McGee’s, I kept away.
Anyway, for those of you who are in Ottawa, peering at this on your government-issue device, wondering if what happened to this formerly powerful cabinet minister could happen to you, this is a useful rule of thumb. Fifteen or more a week? That’s a problem.
If you’re doing that, day in and day out, you need to do what Hunter Tootoo did. Get help.
Bumpersticker sums up what everyone feels about politics
In the U.S. and everywhere else, too. (H/T Richard Madan.)