Happy Anniversary to Me and Mine!

It was 20 years ago today that the Varley clan arrived in Canada.

This is the front page of the Toronto Star from that day.




Iran/U.S. relations, CSIS, concerns about Canadian identity. How times have changed....

My Blogroll Just Got a Little Shorter

Andrew Sullivan comes dangerously close to a Bush/Hitler analogy today. It has been rather painful to read him of late, but this is intolerable.

I wonder if they'll let him blog on the way to the gas chamber...

Happy Anniversary to Me!

Bitter Lemon turns 2 today! Two years may not seem like a long time, but 2004 was practically another era. If you recall, the big international news was that the Russian government may have had a hand in poisoning someone. It's really great to see that the Russians have used the past two years as a time of growth. I mean, do you know how hard it is to kill a man with Dioxin?!

Letter to Dean David Ellwood, Kennedy School of Government

Dear Dean Ellwood,

Approximately one year ago, I resigned from my position at Harvard. At that time, it was my belief that I could better serve the world by seeking elected office in my native Canada. Since then, I have had time to carefully reconsider. I do not believe that my academic life is over, and feel that a position in Canadian government is not the best stage from which to fight for human rights around the world. As such, I respectfully request that you fire Sarah Sewall and return me to my position of Director of the Carr Center. While I applaud Professor Sewall's work and appreciate the commitment she has shown to the Center, I think you will agree with me that her intellectual celebrity does not compare to my own. Human Rights is one of the most important issues of our time, and the Carr Center needs a star such as myself to bring attention to its work.

I look forward to working with you again.

Yours Sincerely,
Michael Ignatieff
Director (?)
Carr Center for Human Rights
Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University

p.s. I understand the that timing may seem suspicious. I assure you that I made my decision prior to the delegates selection of Stephane "The New York Times Never Asks My Opinion" Dion as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada

Yaaawwn

It's Dion.

Huh? III

Further incoherent rambling from our former PM. He is bragging about his close relationship with the Chinese. Apparently he challenged them on human rights when no one else did. I'm learning so much about the Chretien years today. He was a wonderful leader!

Anyway, apparently Hu Jintao or Jiang Zemin (I can't understand a damn word he says) told him that Canada is China's best friend. Under the conservatives this relationship is falling apart. Shame Stephen Harper, shame! How dare you upset the communist dictators?

Huh? II

Chretien is whinging about the cuts the Conservatives have made to "social programs" despite the plentiful cash from taxpayers just waiting around to be spent. Among the programs he listed? "Women". I, for one, am glad I have been cut loose from the government.

(yes, I get that he meant Status of Women, but I don't think it is acceptable that one needs to decode what a man in his position means when he says something)

Huh?

The Little Guy From Shawinigan is speaking to a rapt audience (don't get it, never will). He's going on about all the wonderful things that the Liberals have done: saved the environment, solved Africa's problems, made money fall from the sky and made time travel possible, etc, etc. Among the things he said is that they are the party that said "No" to the war in Iraq. The crowd goes wild!!!! Including, interestingly, Ignatieff's bitches. They do realize that he supported the war right?

Bob Rae is moving across the floor (but where to?)

With him are Judy Sgro, Ralph Goodale, Joe Volpe and Greg Sorbara. It's a veritable who's who of Liberal scandal.

From gangsters to gansta -- the new Liberal Party

Offering commentary on CBC from the Liberal Leadership Convention, Andrew Coyne just referred to the infighting among the Libs as being like "crips and bloods".

Biggie Ig better watch his back!

It's On

Nicolas Sarkozy has announced his intention to run for the French presidency saying "I feel I have the strength, the energy and the desire to propose a different view of France..." I believe he does too, a view in which Bitter Lemon can be in love with the President of France.

I'm currently reading his autobiography, which is a bit of a challenge because it doesn't come out in English until next year. So far, the introduction has taught me that cheesiness knows no national or linguistic barriers.

Bonne chance Sarko!

Go Shopping!

In honour of Buy Nothing Day (I'm leaving for the mall in a moment), there's an interesting interview with Andrew Potter, co-author of The Rebel Sell over at Torontoist.

I very much enjoyed reading The Rebel Sell, but since I've never had any sort of problem with consumerism, I didn't really need to be convinced that culture jamming doesn't work. But it's always fun to read about the hypocrisy in supposedly progressive movements.

... you respond to your critics regarding your argument against organic food. And while these issues might be trendy (or “cool”) in some ways, is it not better that people are somewhat aware and thinking critically about things?

No, I don’t think so. That’s not to say that I don’t think there’s anything worthwhile about various forms of ethical consumption. Joe and I both think that ethical consumption is a good thing. If you want to buy a [Toyota] Prius to save the environment, go for it. If you only want to invest in [particular] stocks- no military, no tobacco and that sort of thing- excellent. There’s all kinds of great things you can do. They’ll be minimally useful, but there’s nothing wrong with them.

There are a number of things where people say, “Well, isn’t it at least sort of good that we’re doing this?” Organic food is one of them. It’s not a good thing to do if what you have is a form of status competition masquerading as ethical consumption. And I think it’s fairly obvious that’s what’s going on with organic food. A lot of people disagree. I think that the best way to see this is to look at how advocates of organic food behave. And very recently Walmart announced that they were going to move in a big way into the organic food business. And if you genuinely believed that organic food was a good thing and that the more people who bought it the better, then you should’ve greeted Walmart’s announcement with unalloyed glee. Here was the major evil retailer in the world conceding that there was a mass market for this- it would be like the Canadian Pension Plan announcing it would only invest in ethical mutual funds. This is a major coup. Except that’s not how the organic food people reacted- they reacted with hostility. And the reason is because suddenly the masses have access to some ethical thing that had been a status good. So what they said was, ‘Walmart isn’t selling ‘real organic’, because the organic food they’re getting is going to be manufactured for use by industrial organic farming.’ [Now there’s] a battle between the organic movement and the local movement. The local people are saying, ‘The true spirit of organic food is found in the local movement. It’s not just only the inputs that matter, it’s where it’s made that matters.’

What you’re seeing here is a bald-faced moving of the goal posts. In the same way people moved the goal posts in music or in cool clothes or sneakers- a way of getting away from the masses. It’s a classic Rebel Sell moment. To me, the reaction of the organic food supporters on this has been disgraceful. In a way that has shown the entire world that their favourite organic food was entirely a function of the status it accorded them and not the benefits it has for the world.

I actively avoid organic foods, 'cos it doesn't seem like a very practical way to feed the over six billion people on Earth and I like the way chemical pesticides make me glow in the dark . Every once in a while I'll run into someone who claims I'm not a "real" vegetarian because of this. The trick is to ask them why they feel only the wealthy should be able to afford to eat, and then sneak away when they start their tirade against "the system".

First Lindsay, then Britney, now Belinda

Got a bit of a reputation as a bad girl? Sick of people ignoring your talent and only talking about who you're sleeping with? Want people to take you seriously for a change? Have you considered dying your hair?

What Can He Say, He Enjoys Being A Pariah

Everyone's favourite 80s dictator, Muammar Gaddafi is back in the news again. This time he is claiming that there is no genocide in Darfur and that it is just the West's attempt to get their hands on Sudanese oil. You know, because the Sudanese government has proven so reluctant to sell it.

Well, I suppose it is important for the nutjob pacifist left to have someone to rally around.

Live Blogging the Election

The polls closed at 8 o'clock. CityTV has already declared that David Miller has won.

That's all folks.

I filled the gap in my arrow

So I did my civic duty. It's a lot less fun when you know what the outcome is going to be ahead of time (and you don't like that outcome).

Did the Toronto ballots look like this last time?



I thought it was rather strange and it would seem like I would have remembered. The fact that they change the ballot design every election is very strange. Are there a lot of ballots not getting counted due to voter screw up? Was the 2000 election in Florida more typical than we would think? What is wrong with simply ticking a box? It always seems like it has to be a puzzle. Filling in an arrow? Maybe they're just trying to make it more exciting for us. Next time, I think they should have stickers with the faces of the candidates, and we will move them to the appropriate box for the office we want them to hold.

Miller for school trustee!!!

Sim Country

From XKCD

Lest We Forget

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them

Northern Democrats

I suppose if the Liberals are fine with considering a man who is essentially American to run their party, there's no reason why they shouldn't select an American to deliver the keynote speech at their convention.

I can't wait to hear the crazy noises that Dean will make when Belinda gets her hands on him!

Ralph Klein Was Wrong

Ralph Klein is in hot water for a joke that he made about Belinda this week saying: "I don't think she ever did have a Conservative bone in her body, well except for one... Speaking of Peter MacKay . . ."

That is completely unacceptable! Belinda will have you know that Peter Mackay is by no means the only Conservative man that she has slept with. Why is there no honesty in politics anymore?!