Hey, if you have any interest in being in a fantasy baseball league, go make a comment on this post.
Colby Cosh weighs in on the Danish cartoon fiasco zeroing in on the outrageous demand that a belief system be excluded from analysis.
Ann Coulter's column this week deals with the Danish Cartoon crisis. If you're reading this in subsequent weeks Ann's webpage wouldn't show it, so I'm hoping this Yahoo link has some legacy to it. Highlight of the column: "Muslims ought to start claiming the Quran also prohibits indoor plumbing, to explain their lack of it."
Ohh, we've heard over and over and over again how "images of Mohammed" are not allowed in Islam. Well, somebody decided to show how bunk that was: here is a collection of images of Mohammed that didn't result in massive protests. The images range from this picture from 1315 on file at the University of Edinburgh to Mohammed in the South Park episode "Super Best Friends". So Muslims everywhere can officially shut the #$&@%^$ up, okay?!
You may remember hearing that 3 "extra" images were passed off as Danish cartoons, including this weird looking thing. Well, Neander News was on the case, and has determined that its a bad photocopy of a photograph of Jacques Barrot, a Frenchman who won a pig squealing competition. Damn those Muslims are touchy. But we all knew that already.
The big political news in Canada is that Stephen Harper has decided to break about 66 promises at once by having his very own Belinda (though admittedly one who's far less of a whore, and his own Doug Roche. While the Liberals obviously are silent on it, conservatives across Canada [all 600 of us? -ed] are having wild debates about whether to stick to principles or support Harper's abandonment of them to possibly further the long-term conservative cause. My own opinion is a linear combination of the two, but my primary thought is this: there was a better way to handle this all.
Like the U.S. Vice Presidency, the Canadian Parlimentary Cabinet is not (as commonly believed) available only to people from a certain party. Harper is more than welcome to choose cabinet members from other caucuses, and in most nations a minority government is generally expected to do so. In other words, when Emerson asked to join the Conservatives (if that is indeed the timeline), Harper should have said no. And then selected Emerson to cabinet anyways. If you do the speech properly and put the proper initial spin on it, the story will take the form you want it to, and you can spin that form very well. Imagine, if you will....
David Emerson is not our first choice for International Trade Minister, nor is he our first choice for Minister for the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics. For the former, we would have preferred Calgary MP Diane Ablonczy and for the latter we much would have preferred Cindy Silver, our candidate in the North Vancouver riding this election. However, the people of Vancouver did not elect Cindy nor any of our other top-notch candidates in her city, and we do require a cabinet member to be able to provide liason services and overseeing of federal efforts in the run-in to the Olympics, and we cannot wait another two-to-five years for another general election in the hopes of Conservative representation. As well, it is only fair that our cabinet reach out to the other parties as is expected in a minority government in every other western democracy. Due to the small size of our cabinet and the concern we feel over corruption within the Liberal Party, in our first cabinet we are limiting this position to only one man, The Honourable David Emerson. David has previous experience as a cabinet minister which will be invaluable to the learning curve of our MPs who have spent their political careers in opposition. As well, David is from the City of Vancouver which as I have already stated requires cabinet representation due to Olympic requirements. Though Mr. Emerson has in the past been highly critical of our party, he does come from the Liberal's right wing and therefore on at least some issues can have common ground with the rest of our party and the five million Canadians who voted for us. For all of these reasons I am here to justify to you the selection of a Liberal member from the opposition benches to join us in cabinet. Mr. Emerson will not, however, be sitting with our caucus. He has not joined our party, and while I do not believe it to be appropriate for him to criticize the decisions our cabinet will make, I will be listening to his input during cabinet meetings in which he will take part. Unlike the Paul Martin minority government, our party plans to reach out to opposition members with whom we can find common ground. When I took over the Canadian Alliance leadership it was thought impossible to build bridges with the Conservatives, yet we proved it wrong. And now I am here to build bridges again, laying the foundation for a limited yet fair coalition with MPs from all the other parties who share our concern for a new era in Ottawa free of graft and corruption, free of the Chretien/Martin democratic deficit, and free of excessive government. To this end Liberal MP David Emerson has been invited to join our cabinet, an invitation to which he has accepted and I hope will set the tone for our 39th Parliament. I dream that one day this session can be looked upon as the session where everything changed for the better, where debates can take place along ideological lines rather than purely partisan ones, and where the people of this great nation can finally feel that they have a say in the way the country is run.Of course, on the matter of the appointed Senator there's no advice I can give...that one was completely indefensible.
Mike Jenkinson wondered in the SUN this week whither the NDP. Oddly enough, "Jenks" was against the United Alternative. At least, he was. Of course, lots of people who were against it are no longer quite so upset with it. Naturally an NDP supporter was quick to call him on the column in the SUN today. But the main thrust was the SUNshine girls. You know, the comment staff must hate them: they attract such reader opinions that every once and a while flare up and overtake the columnists themselves.
Lavalife is running a "Singles Week" contest that includes a trip to the Dominican Republic. Sweet. All you have to do is send (free) smiles or (hideously expensive) emails. Hell, I can do that. So after about 300 smiles sent, I think I've got a rough chance of winning (rough = practically zero, of course, but hey if its free). Now bear in mind that women who send a smile back at me get their own entry, so the smiles are more likely to flow now than when there's no contest. How many smiles have I received back over the past 12 hours? Two. Two tiny miserable smiles. For crying out loud, are women just that uninterested in me that they literally won't flirt with me even when there are prizes available to be won for flirting, and no actual communication with me is necessary? That's really really sad.
Holt Renfrew gift certificates are alternate prizes. Not only are there a paltry number of male fashions to choose from versus the female fashions (its an e-gift card, so I assume its only on internet purchases), but the male fashions are for the most part unbelieveably chauchy or slightly gay. They might as well have a splash page reading "Non-Metrosexuals not permitted within the premises". And are those two pages the only online male fashions I could get? Geesh, hope I don't win 2nd place! (Sidebar: the gay sweater itself costs $300 more than the $500 ecard)
My apartment is almost cleaned up for the most dreaded of all bachelor-living phenomenon: the mother's visit. Yes, my mother is up in the city to buy a new computer, so I'm helping her with that. Of course, Wal-Mart and Save-On-Foods happen to be close by where we're going, but that's a total coincidence.... [likewise the total coincidence of being out of milk/bread/sour cream/pasta/dish soap/kleenex/batteries -ed]
As the comments to this post have mentioned, Edmonton comedian Lars C. has moved his blog to a new location. He does his own mini-review of the Sunday "headlining" show that I attended. Bonus feature: a picture featuring the adorable yet a little too raunchy for my tastes Kathleen McGee
Between Kim's western Saskatchewan and the long-standing campaign in Prince George to move the Alberta border to incorporate their area (no link, but was covered in Alberta Report once), it seems like the Republic of Alberta could within days of incorporation expand its territory considerably through a means never before used in geopolitical history: pleading.
"Game sales are dropping because unlike movies, game makers are devoid of original ideas and are just making sequels." That's the argument behind this slashdot post. +5 Insightful, you say? He obviously didn't catch Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Fun with Dick and Jane, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, King Kong, The Honeymooners, Guess Who, Bewitched, The Fantastic Four, The Longest Yard, The Dukes of Hazzard, Star Wars Episode 3, Saw II, The Ring 2, Miss Congeniality 2, Son of the Mask, Harry Potter 3, Elektra, Deuce Bigalow 2, Cheaper By the Dozen 2, Grease 3 (!), Kronk's New Groove, The Legend of Zorro, Herbie: Fully Loaded, or Batman Begins. And that's just for 2005! And that doesn't count DOOM which was based on a video game. Now coming up is Big Momma's House 2, Pirates of the Carribean 2, Underworld Evolution, Final Destination 3, and The Pink Panther. Also coming out soon is a Curious George movie. Yeah, but video games have too many sequels...
If you watch American Idol then you might enjoy the twins'...er...twins... from an old Maxim shoot. Well, okay, watching American Idol probably only diminishes your enjoyment of these images. And since looking at pretty girls in revealing clothing is always fun, here's Henin-Hardenne, the French woman who beat Sharapova at the Austrailian Open. Also be sure to check out Sara from Edmonton, one of UMM's featured babes (and check out the other babes too, go ahead). Other fun photos include two girls flashing at Edmonton Police HQ, some people having fun at an Eskimos bus trip party, a photo shoot of local girls, girls from Edmonton's Powerama show in April 2005, and this pic which I picked out as the highlight from the Mode Models page...the Portland girls are better. Did I miss the 2004 Edmonton Sex Show archives? I don't think so!
Finally, this Wikipedia article says "Some sociology researchers dispute the existence of puck bunnies" which means, as Douglas Adams once wrote, they just don't get invited to those kind of parties. After all, a puck bunny graces the links to this site. And how else do you explain the wives of the Edmonton Oilers?
