If it’s true – and I don’t know if it is – it’s great news. He’s the guy who brought me in to the Sun Media operation, so I’m biased, but we’ve been friends for a long time.  He’s tragically misguided, politically, but I rather suspect he says the same thing about me.  The fact that he drives some in the PPG bananas is a bonus.

Good news, if it’s true.

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Being Irish Catholic, and therefore more superstitious than a Red Sox fan, I don’t find the following events disconcerting. They’re comforting, because they prove that I was right all along – the End Times are indeed near, and you all should’ve listened to me while you had the chance.

Oh, and my eldest son is firmly convinced the world is going to end in 2012. He’s a chip off the old block.

• B.C. river mysteriously turns bright green.
• Black birds mysteriously drop dead in Sweden.
• Two million fish mysteriously die in Maryland.
• Hundreds of birds mysteriously drop from Louisiana sky.
• Thousands of birds and fish mysteriously dead in Arkansas.
• Bumblebees are being mysteriously wiped out everywhere.

Mysterious? Perhaps.  Or,  solid proof that I was right: happiness is a trick, and life is the arrangement of merciless logic for futile purpose.

We’re all doomed. You’re welcome.

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Asked about the cabinet shuffle, I immediately fall asleep.

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*

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The Globe has given over an entire page, today, to that Abacus “survey” about the federal parties and leaders (and which I take on in the Sun, here).

What the Globe doesn’t advise its readers about, to my surprise, is either (a) how the methodology in that poll is suspect and (b) that “Word Clouds” can be manipulated any which way you like.  They do not represent a benign or random sampling of words in a given piece of text – but a lot of people seem to have been fooled into thinking they do.

Up above is one I just did, using my bio page.  It took me five seconds to mess around with it, and change what had been automatically generated.  You can do it, too, here.

Bottom line: beware the Word Cloud.  They’re fun, but they’re not science.

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From my colleague Rob T., for Christmas!  Get your own doll (or voodoo doll) made up here!

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When you think about Stephen Harper, do you also think “taxes”?

When you consider Michael Ignatieff, does the word “corruption” spring to mind?

How about Jack Layton “in touch”?

Me, neither.

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Someone sent me this link, in which the new Conservative MP for Vaughan is quoted:

“That whole passage of history is unpleasant. And some of the things that happened to me on my campaign were unpleasant too.”

The “whole passage of history” he refers to includes, inter alia, the Holocaust.

Is he saying what it sounds like he might be saying?

It is way too soon in the New Year for this sort of stuff to be happening.

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I’m at my desk, this morning, but – based on the drive-in, and a survey of the streets – it doesn’t look like many others are. Whassup, Terranna?

Anyway.  Here’s a roundup of some of my blogroll.  Good reading, all.

• Powers: Politically, says Timmo, Excitement is moving to the provinces in 2011.  Personally, I heard the Excitements left for the States a couple years ago, when their Dad got transferred with his job.
• Far and Wide: Steve V. calls for a cultural change in the Liberal Party, bottom to top.  He says that’s the only thing that’ll make it relevant.  He’s right, of course.  It will also never happen.  Carry on as you were.
• Big City Lib: My brother Mike continues to poke fun at my media employer, noting that a grocery store is now our neighbour.  Could’ve been worse.  Could’ve been a Victoria’s Secret.  I mean, can you imagine?
• GritChik: She’s got a review of her year in blogging.  Always interesting to see what folks find interesting.  In my case, the all-time winner had nothing to do with politics.  It was the now-legendary Kraft Dinner post.
• Bourrie: He hasn’t posted since October.  Anyone know if his site has gone 404 or not?
• Spector: Norman says it won’t be so easy for the Reformatories to simply say “no” to a Quebec City arena.  Winnipeg, along with many other places, watches with interest.  As I recall, the sponsorship program mainly got its start in 2007 in sporting venues.
• Blunt Objects: Kyle has very sober, and sobering, assessment of the political year ahead, and the one behind.  His prognosis: for everyone, pretty much, things ain’t so good.  As a good Irish Catholic, I regard such pessimism as natural as breathing.
• Dawg: The good doctor (like BCL) has a disturbing report on the English Defence League (EDL), a notorious British hate group that enjoys the support of Canadian white supremacists like Arnie Lemaire.  As Dawg shows, the Jewish Defence League has apparently been playing footsie with the EDL.  If true, a bad move on the JDL’s part. Meir seriously needs to reconsider.
• Curran: Jim recalls meeting the Governator, and how Ahhhnold was ahead of his time on the environment, like Dion was.  I’d love to see those two in an action flick together.

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“1. Election 2011: If it happens, it’ll happen in the spring simply because too many fall provincial elections will be taking place in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, P.E.I., Newfoundland and Labrador and the Northwest Territories. If it happens, too, it’ll only be because Stephen Harper and (insert Opposition leader name here) favours it. Lotsa cowardly “ifs,” there. But if Harper sees winning conditions for his Reformatories and losing ones for the Liberals he’ll go for it.”

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