I bought Johnny Ramone’s posthumous biography a few days ago, in Belleville, on the way up to the cabin. I liked the cover, above, and the design. I’m a sucker for great design, which is why I loitered at the National Post longer than I should have.

I bought Commando because the Ramones made the greatest album in the history of the world, and because – for the first four LPs, at least – they were the greatest band on the planet.  They were perfect.

I read it in a couple of nights.  The book is a first-person account of the life of the Ramone’s one and only guitarist.  The project was overseen by Ramone’s widow and one of his closest friends, which is one of the main reasons why it is such an eminently dislikable book.

Being an Irish Catholic, all of you know how much I fear speaking ill of the dead.  It’s a really bad idea; it’s dangerous.  The subject of the criticism never hears about it, and the author of the criticism usually ends up looking like a creep.  So I don’t do it.

Commando, however, will persuade you to speak ill of the dead – in this case, the former John Cummins, who has been dead for nearly a decade.  In this slender tome, Johnny comes across as a bigot (people he doesn’t like are “faggots”), a Right-wing loon (he lionizes Ronald Reagan and John Wayne, and he calls anyone to the Left of George W. Bush a “commie”), and an asshole (he repeatedly smears Joey, Dee Dee and Marky Ramone, but never once apparently considered breaking up their profitable partnership, or even getting their side of the story).  He comes across as an unmitigated jerk.

Any of us who are into punk rock always knew that Johnny Ramone was a grouch, and a conservative.  But what I didn’t know – what a lot of punks didn’t know, I suspect – was what a crummy person he was.  And that he himself would provide the evidence of said crumminess.

If you love the Ramones, don’t read this book.  It always sucks to discover one of your heroes is a jerk, and that’s all you’ll discover in Commando.

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It is always amazing to me that one group, facing prejudice, will then turn around and subject another group to prejudice. Amazing and sad.

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Hey, Simon from Ugly Pop here. It was an honour to release this– one of my very favourite Canadian records ever! Glad you were happy with it, Warren. We made a new master from OG wax and the sleeve/insert were recreated by the entirely excellent Darrin Crosgrove. Locals, you can pick it up at Hits & Misses (799 Queen St West), Volume (588 Markham, just south of Bloor) or Rotate This (next to Hits & Misses). Elsewhere, mailorder is through our website (uglypop.bigcartel.com). If you like this, please check out our other Canadian reissues too.

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And it wasn’t even written by Paul Wells!

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Our pal Raymaker (and bandmate) founded it.  Now some other guys have run it out of existence.  Sucks.

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Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Oh, the geniuses of capitalism at work, once again. I so love it.

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But you’ve got to admire his willingness to make a pile of predictions, willy-nilly, with nary a qualifier in sight. This is a columnist operating without a safety net, folks, and it’s a wondrous thing to behold.

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It’s early days. But watching NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair destroy himself, as he is now inarguably doing with his anti-West tirades, makes for compelling theatre.

In politics, no wound is ever as deep as the self-inflicted one. And Mulcair — with his stubborn insistence that he is right and everyone else is wrong — has become a case study in political self-immolation.

By now, the nub of his argument is well-known. Our booming resources sector, centred in Western Canada, is artificially inflating the Canadian dollar. The high dollar hurts our manufacturing sector, principally based in Eastern Canada.

A rainbow coalition comprising western premiers, the Conservative government, and the federal Liberal party have excoriated Mulcair for his willingness to pit one region against another. They have hammered him for his cynical attempt to win seats in the East by killing jobs in the West. But the NDP leader is undeterred. If you disagree with him, you are one of Stephen Harper’s “messengers.” If you marshal economic evidence disputing his argument —– and plenty have — he will simply say that “everyone” knows he is right.

Arrogance, conceit and ignorance aren’t anything new in politics. They’re ever-present. But Mulcair’s attack on the region that, more than any other, has helped ease Canada through a grinding global recession is truly breathtaking. It takes political ego and stupidity to a level heretofore untouched by other mortals.

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What a week newly minted NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair has had!

Ever since he donned his tinfoil hat and started hollering at passersby, quite a few of us have started to worry about him. There he stood on Parliament Hill, shaking his fists at the heavens, gnashing his teeth and rending his garments. Sounding crazier than Charlie Sheen on a bad day.

Angry Tom ranted about “Dutch disease.” He raved about how Alberta and Saskatchewan are bad places, run by bad people. He brayed and screeched about how anyone who had the temerity to disagree with him — and there are a growing legion of them — ­ were “messengers” of Stephen Harper.

Angry Tom scared away small children. He terrified the tourists. But he was undeterred. His position was “irrefutable,” he said, and “everyone” agrees that manufacturing job losses are caused by a high dollar, which is caused by surging energy exports, particularly from Alberta.

Well, no.

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