test blog #10

Long ago, with a very different readership, I blogged about political compass . I haven't thought about it ages, but just yesterday MSS of Fruits & Votes mentioned it in comments . James, also in comments, re-took the test. If you're not familiar with this tool, here's something about it from the website: The old one-dimensional categories of 'right' and 'left', established for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789, are overly simplistic for today's complex political landscape. For example, who are the 'conservatives' in today's Russia? Are they the unreconstructed Stalinists, or the reformers who have adopted the right-wing views of conservatives like Margaret Thatcher? On the standard left-right scale, how do you distinguish leftists like Stalin and Gandhi? It's not sufficient to say that Stalin was simply more left than Gandhi. There are fundamental political differences between them that the old categor...

Have you seen this badge on certain Canadian blogs? Under a picture of Jack Layton, it counts the days of the Harper government and says "Thanks, Jack!" Oh yes, Ralph Nader is responsible for the Resident and Jack Layton, of all people, is responsible for Harper. This is so stupid . The thinking goes, I suppose, that if the New Democrats had propped up the Martin government, we'd be basking in the sunshine of a Liberal minority government right now, instead of toiling under the dark cloud of a Conservative blahblahblah. I saw one of these badges this weekend (not the one I've linked to), and it was all I could do to restrain myself from posting one of Idealistic Pragmatist's greatest hits: "Jack Layton's Sinister Mind Control Experiment" , in which our Ideal-Prag takes apart this lame non-theory brick by broken brick. If you've never read this, do yourself a favour and do so now. I'll wait. OK, you're back? Now, do you know what? If Cana...

Does anyone here use LaLa.com ? How have you found it? I'm wondering if it's a way for me to hear more new (to me) music without spending a lot of money.

One of wmtc's recurrent themes, or at least something I'm always blathering about, is the continuing decline of the United States. I see this both in terms of standard of living, as the country in many ways becomes a third-world nation, and in terms of the breakdown of democracy and the inroads of fascism. In light of this, it looks like I should add this book to my (ridiculously lengthy) to-read list: It Can Happen Here by Joe Conason. An excerpt is available on AlterNet and truthout . It begins: Can it happen here? Is it happening here already? That depends, as a recent president might have said, on what the meaning of "it" is. To Sinclair Lewis, who sardonically titled his 1935 dystopian novel "It Can't Happen Here," "it" plainly meant an American version of the totalitarian dictatorships that had seized power in Germany and Italy. Married at the time to the pioneering reporter Dorothy Thompson, who had been expelled from Berlin by the Naz...

Al Sharpton - US politician, activist and civil rights leader - has learned that his great-grandfather was a slave owned by the family of the late US Senator Strom Thurmond. This just blew me away. Although Sharpton is known nationally and internationally, he's a New Yorker. We New Yorkers watched his several transformations, from minister/performer/civil rights activist/loud-mouthed buffoon and back again. No matter what his outer image, Sharpton has always stood on the side of justice. In recent years, he's evolved into a clear, steadfast voice for the working class and the poor, for peace, and for sanity. And what would we have done without him during the Giuliani years? From the New York Times : The results of the investigation, pieced together from census documents, slave narratives and birth and marriage registries, were unveiled yesterday in The Daily News , with the front-page headline, "Shock of My Life!" "In the story of the Thurmonds and the Sharptons ...

From the I'm Always One Week Late Department: Two Moms To Canada are in!!! All our very best wishes to the whole Two Moms family. And apologies on being so late with my congratulations. I'm always way behind on my blog reading. Who's next???

I can't say I've been following the details of the United States' impending invasion of Iran. I hope it isn't too ignorant to say I feel I understand about as much as I need to know. The US continues on its endless war, using one pretext after the next to gain control of a scarce and precious resource, and to install governments friendly to US corporate interests. The American public isn't part of the equation, except inasmuch as they provide the funding and the bodies with which to wage war. If they don't buy the propaganda, they are ignored, and occasionally silenced. What passes for political opposition is either a pantomime or utterly ineffectual. However... when I do try to understand the situation in any depth, I trust Seymour Hersh to know the score. For my money, Hersh is the most important investigative journalist of our time. Here's a tidbit from his latest wrap-up. What lessons did the Cheney regime learn from one of its predecessors? The Bush A...

Things like this make me miss New York. Not the vermin themselves. The people straining to see them, the talking about them, the shared experience of something simultaneously hideous, amusing and mundane. A little New York moment. Allan told me some other rodents have been spotted in New York City: beavers . Swimming in the Bronx River, and building dams. Photos of the little guy and his dam can be seen here. I bet you didn't even know there was a Bronx River.

Clicking on (part of) the banner should now bring you to the main page.

Finally, the religious right has a reference site of its own: Conservapedia . Don't be surprised if you can't get to it - it's listed in Technorati's Top 10 searches. Here's a sample from Conservapedia's main page: Conservapedia is a much-needed alternative to Wikipedia, which is increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American. On Wikipedia, many of the dates are provided in the anti-Christian "C.E." instead of "A.D.", which Conservapedia uses. Christianity receives no credit for the great advances and discoveries it inspired, such as those of the Renaissance. While you're waiting for Conservapedia to load (or not), here's a very amusing post about it, from blogger Jon Swift. For years homeschooled children have had to rely for all of their information on Wikipedia , which is full of dangerous ideas that homeschooling was supposed to prevent from seeping into the home. Now, finally, there is an alternative, which doesn't have any co...

Only a few readers responded to my question here , so for now, I'm leaving things the way they are. I love my wmtc.ca URL. I didn't go through all the trouble I've had with this blog to go back to using a blogspot address. I understand that some readers are disturbed by clicking on a link from this page and still seeing the wmtc.ca URL in their browser. If you are among them, here's an easy workaround: right-click on the link, and choose "open in a new window". Ta-da. Of course, when visiting other blogs, you can use your own bookmarks instead of my links. That works, too.

Many thanks to Woti-Woti, friend of wmtc and citizen of Joy Nation , doing his part for Canada-US relations.

Yesterday the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously that security certificates violate the Charter. The Supreme Court of Canada has struck down the security certificate system used by the federal government to detain and deport foreign-born terrorist suspects. In a 9-0 judgment handed down Friday, the court found that the system, described by the government as a key tool for safeguarding national security, violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The high court gave Parliament one year to re-write the law that's keeping three men at the centre of the case in legal limbo. It's excellent to see that the decision was unanimous, and that the court has charged lawmakers with changing the law. There's a story on the CBC website this morning that tells something of what the detainees and their families have been going through - although I'm sure it barely scratches the surface of their years of hell . For me, it's a relief to see that Canada will move in its own d...

I'm supposed to be writing right now. But that's not the dilemma. I've chatted with my DNS hosts. It seems much of strange behaviour of wmtc.ca is caused by the "stealth" URL forwarding. The "ghost" blog address - how this blog is actually hosted on Blogger - is wmtc.blogspot.com. It is then stealth-forwarded to wmtc.ca. That's how I can use Blogger, get all the new Blogger functions, and still have my own domain name. If I turn off stealth forwarding, and just use regular URL forwarding, the ghost URL will appear in your browser. But the blog would stop doing some of the odd things it does, like retain the wmtc.ca URL when you click on a link from this page. But what's the point of having my own URL, which I pay for and which I am very fond of, if this other URL shows up in your browser? It wouldn't even be my original address, wemovetocanada.blogspot.com, but some non-existent URL. If I'm not going to use wmtc.ca, I would have just stay...

Ontarians got some good news today. The citizens' assembly, which has been charged with studying how provincial elections are decided, voted overwhelmingly in favour of changing to mixed member proportional voting. The Toronto Star 's bias against the change was obvious in its headline -"Radical voting proposal gains steam" - and in this sentence, set off in its own paragraph: "The system can lead to permanent minority governments and a proliferation of fringe parties." As I understand it, this is mostly myth. The Star also later refers to the current system as "our centuries-old system". Lay it on a little thicker, why don't you. For the real story about proportional representation, read Fruits and Votes and Idealistic Pragmatist . I'm still reading up on the difference between true proportional representation and mixed member proportional voting. Hopefully MSS and Ideal-Prag will stop by to help out.

Why do so many Americans love the Canadian and British Parliamentary systems? Question Period! Prime Minister Stephen Harper was shouted down with cries of "shame, shame" during question period Wednesday after he raised a media report that said a Liberal MP is the son-in-law of a man police allegedly interviewed in connection with the Air India bombing case. Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion was asking the prime minister about judicial appointments, accusing him of stacking the committees with Conservatives and jeopardizing the independence of the judiciary. Harper responded that the Liberals opposed the changes the Conservative government has made that give police officers a voice in the process. But Harper then said he was "not surprised, given what I'm reading in the Vancouver Sun today when I read this is how the Liberal party makes decisions." "The Vancouver Sun has learned that the father-in-law of the member of Parliament for Mississauga-Brampton South.....

My head isn't into posting today, so I'll use a bit of humour that James emailed me.

Yesterday in comments on the Little Mosque post , reader Edward Ott noted: i think it is very funny, not sure how non-muslims get all the jokes as some off them are what i think of as inside jokes. I thought this was great, as I often think the same thing in a similar context: Seinfeld. Allan and I often wonder how non-New Yorkers understand some of the material, especially in the earliest (and, in my opinion, best) seasons, when the material was more New York-specific. But obviously millions of people not from New York City like Seinfeld, so we're all "getting it" on different levels. I like that. In Seinfeld, most of these references are quick throwaway lines. The excellent Subway episode is full of them. When George is handcuffed to the bed and the female con artist is stealing his suit, he screams, "That's my only suit! It cost me $350! I got it at Moe Ginsburg!" Moe Ginsburg is a great NYC reference, and a bit of a window into George, too, but only if...

From the New York Times editorial page: A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the dead of night. So it was with a provision quietly tucked into the enormous defense budget bill at the Bush administration's behest that makes it easier for a president to override local control of law enforcement and declare martial law . The provision, signed into law in October, weakens two obscure but important bulwarks of liberty. One is the doctrine that bars military forces, including a federalized National Guard, from engaging in law enforcement. Called posse comitatus, it was enshrined in law after the Civil War to preserve the line between civil government and the military. The other is the Insurrection Act of 1807, which provides the major exemptions to posse comitatus. It essentially limits a president's use of the military in law enforcement to putting down lawlessness, insurrection and rebellion, w...

Truthout has just announced the winners of the first annual Truthout Freedom and Democracy Awards. These awards have been granted to three individuals who have done the most in the past year to promote freedom and democracy . These recipients will each receive an honorarium of $1,000 to assist them in continuing their work. This year's recipients, in alphabetical order, are: Gold Star Mother of US Army Spc. Casey Sheehan and peace activist Cindy Sheehan, who has taken her protest of the War in Iraq to the president's doorstep and worked tirelessly to bring an end to US engagement in Iraq. 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, US Army, the first commissioned military officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq, stating that the war was not legal. Ann Wright, former member of the military and a US State Department Foreign Service member who resigned her post in protest of the Iraq War and has joined the fight to end the war. Each of these recipients has shown a deep commitment to efforts to st...

Two stories of freedom and attempts at censorship. The first: who can and can't do what in public . You might be sick of this story already, but I thought this was thoughtful piece. The second: what you can and can't write in a children's book . The first: two men kissing in front of middle America. The second: the word "scrotum". Crabbi recently blogged about people freaking out from seeing the real names for anatomical parts. I guess this is another one. * * * * And again the New York Times files a gay-themed story in the Styles section! What is up with that? I notice it all the time. It drives me nuts.

More from Cannonfire on fake - and surprisingly real - quotes from Lincoln, which I blogged about here .

Many months ago, I received an email from a new Canadian reader, who wrote: I'd love to read about your position on the monarchy as our head of state and (more "interestedly") your opinion about making an oath to the queen when you become a Canadian citizen! I told her I'd save the topic for a mentally rainy day, and that day has finally arrived. I don't have many feelings about the Queen or her representative, the Governor General , as the head of state. In modern Canada, the role is so symbolic, and seems so perfunctory, that it doesn't stir up many feelings for me. In theory, separating the head of state from the head of government is a useful tool, allowing the entire populace to look to one country, beyond any ethnic, religious, partisan or other divisions. Does it serve that function in practice? I don't know. It certainly doesn't bring together the French/English divide, and I imagine at times it's exacerbated that rift, since the GG represe...

Happy Lunar New Year! In 4704 , or 5767 , best known as 2007, I'm expecting some excitement when the Harper government gets the boot. So the year of the boar should not be a year to be bored.

Today the Toronto Star gave us an eye-opening glimpse inside a government selling its people on a war. The Conservative government has been "too American" in its attempts to justify the Afghan war to a skeptical Canadian public, according to an internal report commissioned by the Department of Foreign Affairs. The extensive critique of the Tory communications strategy on the war comes from a series of cross-country focus groups conducted in November 2006 at a cost of almost $76,000. The study, obtained by the Toronto Star, found that Prime Minister Stephen Harper was "echoing" U.S. President George W. Bush in his attempt to explain why Canadian soldiers are fighting and dying in the country's southern province. Harper has drawn a link between the NATO-led mission and the 24 Canadians who were killed in the collapse of New York's World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor recently described the fight as "retribution...

From our friends at Wal-Mart Watch : No matter how hard you hit Wal-Mart, they always come back for more. 14 years ago in Greenfield, Massachusetts our friend and partner Al Norman received national attention for stopping Wal-Mart in his hometown. Al was nicknamed "Wal-Mart's enemy #1" and has since been working with grassroots groups all across the country to protect cities and small towns from Wal-Mart's greed. But this year, Wal-Mart is back in Al's backyard. Not satisfied with the super centers already open just minutes away from Greenfield, Wal-Mart is pushing hard once again. And this time, their planned store is 20,000 square feet bigger! . . . We have a lot to thank Al Norman for. He is the "guru of the anti-Wal-Mart movement," and his organization, Sprawl-Busters, was a forerunner to programs like ours. Last year, we partnered with Al to create Battle-Mart , a clearinghouse of information and step-by-step tactics for activists to use in their o...

Anti-science meets anti-Semitism meets the United States Congress. There's a Congressperson who says evolution is a Jewish conspiracy. He has proof. I wish I were joking. Thanks to you-know-who . (Also, isn't that a great cartoon? "Abraham Lincoln also said...")

Last week a former NBA player named John Amaechi came out as gay. Some people try to downplay the importance of his announcement, shrugging their shoulders and saying, "Who cares about sexual orientation". Well, the sports world still cares. In 2007, we can say skin colour isn't a hiring factor in professional sports; in 1945 we couldn't say that. One day we'll be able to say sexual orientation doesn't matter, but that day is not now. Amaechi's announcement is a major milestone. Those of us who care about both progress and sports are waiting - and we wait still - for a male player, playing on (not retired from) a US professional sports team to come out as gay. Individual sports are not the same; women's sports are not the same. Any time someone in the public eye comes out, it's a victory, but the world of professional team sports, with its entrenched, unquestioned homophobia, and its thinly disguised homoeroticism, is still the final frontier. It...

Folks who were finding the all lower case text difficult to read should be happier now. I've got my template in all lower case, the way I like it, and you've got the content and comments in normal sentence case, the way you like it. I fixed the spacing issue on the sidebar - myself! That was fun. I also fixed the spacing issue that partially hid the post date with an arrow. The banner is a link to the main page in Firefox, but not in Internet Explorer. Designer Guy is still working on that. Meanwhile I made a stupid link in the sidebar as a workaround. I'm almost there.

Mike Carlton, a smart columnist from the other side of the world, writes that President Cheney is visiting his country. The Chickenhawk-in-Chief is coming. We are to be visited next week by Deadeye Dick Cheney, the most odious individual to hold the office of US Vice-President since the criminal Spiro Agnew resigned in disgrace from the Nixon administration. A little history to begin with: first the chicken. Asked in 1989 by The Washington Post why he had dodged the draft for the Vietnam War, Cheney notoriously replied that "I had other priorities in the '60s than military service". Now the hawk. In recent years, his enthusiasm for military service - other people's military service, that is - has multiplied like anthrax. No man, not even George Bush, has done more to drive the American disaster in Iraq. It's an excellent wrap-up of Cheney's treason; you can read it on Common Dreams .

Have you seen this? It's a favourite quote of the wingnuts, one that was especially popular during last year's attacks on Representative John Murtha . "Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged." — President Abraham Lincoln. If you know anything about Abraham Lincoln, you might find it difficult to believe he said such a thing. You might suspect the quote is a hoax. And you'd be right. From Editor and Publisher , courtesy of my favourite researcher : The drive by some political and military figures -- and pundits -- to paint those who oppose the war in Iraq as traitors or at least not supporting the troops has hit another low , with a Washington Times columnist trumpeting an incendiary quote from Abraham Lincoln shown to be a fabrication last year. Frank Gaffney, Jr. opened his latest column with this: "Congressmen who willfully take actions durin...

We learned this morning that Mohamed Mahjoub was finally released from prison, after being held for seven years without charges being made against him. It's about time a Canadian court woke up and did the right thing. But it's a terrible disgrace that Canada imprisoned a man indefinitely without charging him with anything - and is still holding other people in the same circumstances. Thomas Walkom writes that Canada is taking steps back towards sanity, but has a ways to go. Gradually, tentatively, the country is groping its way back to sanity . Yesterday in Toronto, a judge ruled it didn't make any sense to keep a sick, 46-year-old man who has not been charged with any crime locked up for almost seven years. Meanwhile, in Ottawa, the opposition majority is set to let two of the most odious provisions of Canada's illiberal anti-terror laws – enacted in panic following 9/11 – die a richly deserved death. We haven't gained our equilibrium yet. Egyptian refugee claiman...

I'm trying to close up the white space between the sidebar headings and their contents. (I believe this is called padding?) I've tried several things, but I can't seem to get it. There are three different kinds of widgets in the sidebar: text, link lists, and html/java. The text widgets are not bad, although I'd close them up a little if I could. The link list widgets have way too much white space between the heading and the list. The java/html widgets vary. Any ideas? Update: Now I've somehow increased the space between paragraphs within posts. Argh. He'p me.

Are you all still watching? Now that we've seen four episodes, what do you think? I like it. It's not hilarious, but it's quietly funny, and the characters are being fleshed out more. I thought this last episode, about the convert, was good.

Two weeks after arriving in our home, Tala has really turned a corner. For about two weeks, she was extremely hyperactive. All young dogs have a lot of energy, but this little girl was just bouncing off the walls. Then, all of a sudden, she settled down. I realize now that the hyperactivity was her response to the overwhleming change that had been foisted on her. When we adopted Gypsy, our first dog, from death row at the ASPCA, she was depressed. She had very little personality (boy, would that soon change), and did little but sleep. More recently, Cody was depressed when we first moved to Canada, and then again when we moved to the new house. So I was looking for that type of behavior in Tala. Not seeing it, I mistakenly thought that she showed no signs of missing her foster family, had no difficulty adjusting. But just as people respond to crises in different ways, dogs do, too. In fact, some people, when overwhelmed with a life change, become hyper, zooming from one activity to th...

We're on a roll with movies now, because baseball season is fast approaching, and because I've pared down our ZipList to only our high-priority films. Last night we watched "Thank You For Smoking" , Jason Reitman's movie based on the Christopher Buckley novel of the same name. The main character of "Thank You For Smoking" is a lobbyist for the tobacco industry, and the consummate spinmaster. How do you do sell a product that kills 12,000 people a day ? By obfuscating and twisting the truth, and generally corrupting language until it has no meaning, and can mean anything you want it to mean. TYFS's Nick Naylor can make the tobacco industry look like victims or defenders of freedom. In his business, there is no objective truth, there is only who is the better spinmaster. According to Wikipedia, Reitman says "Thank You For Smoking" is meant to make fun of so-called political correctness, but I didn't see that. To me this movie is about P...

I just found out that a friend of mine died Tuesday night, after a ten-year struggle with breast cancer. I want to write a little memorial for her here. * * * * "Battle with cancer" is a tired cliche, but this woman did battle with everything she had, trying every treatment, both conventional and alternative, and exploring other forms of healing, such as Chinese medicine, meditation and other spiritual practices. Regina was not one my closest friends, nor someone in my immediate circle whose absence I will feel daily. But over the years our casual friendship deepened, and she came to confide in me. We developed a warm bond based on mutual respect and admiration, and some common interests - especially our love of dogs. Regina was a paralegal at the New York City law firm where I worked on the weekends. Chronically disorganized and scattered, she usually came in on Sundays to catch up. It was on those Sundays that we became friends. She was a great Rennaissance person, with a p...

We saw "Scoop" last night, Woody Allen's latest . If you love Woody Allen, as I do, you'll enjoy this one very much. Allen plays an aged Jewish magician who hails from Brooklyn, doing his act in London; Scarlett Johansson is a goofy American be journalism student who can't stop sleeping with the men she's supposed to interview. Allen's classic Woody Allen character is completely over the top - more stuttering, more nervous hand gestures, more indigestion and anxiety, than any character should have to live with. It's a cartoon, but knowingly so, a nod to all the Woody Allen characters of the past. Thankfully, the man has learned a thing or two, and hasn't scripted a romantic encounter between the two leads. Allen still possesses that uncanny knack of getting more out of his female leads than anyone else can. From the early days of Diane Keaton and Mia Farrow, through Dianne Weist and Julie Kavner, on to Helena Bonham Carter, Mia Sorvino and Christin...

More reasons for hope, courtesy of AW1L's subscription to The Economist . Check out #5! AMERICANS are worried about God, globalisation and their place in the world. That, at least, is the conclusion to be drawn from the global sale of history books through Amazon.com. A new edition of Thomas Friedman's 2005 bestseller, "The World is Flat", is there, along with Newt Gingrich on the role of religious faith in America and Michael Oren and Mark Steyn (interestingly, both outsiders) on the consequences of American behaviour abroad, especially in the Middle East. These books all came out within the past six months. Big names and big subjects tend to generate big publicity around publication time, but it takes an additional, often indefinable something for a book to continue selling. James Loewen's "Lies My History Teacher Told Me" is nearly a decade old, and still sells hundreds of copies each week. In an easy, readable style, the author vets ten topics (fro...

I used to blog regularly about Wal-Mart (now conveniently filed under "labour" for your viewing pleasure). Although I don't mention them much anymore, I am still on the mailing list of the good folks of Wal-Mart Watch . They are a busy bunch, and a recent court ruling gave them something to celebrate. The historic lawsuit called Dukes v. Wal-Mart - the largest class-action suit in US history, popularly known as "Betty v. Goliath" - will be proceeding against Wal-Mart, despite the company's best efforts to stop it. From WMW: Wal-Mart may have the best legal team money can buy -- but even the fanciest of corporate lawyers can't stop the largest class-action lawsuit in U.S. history. Thanks to the determination of current and former Wal-Mart employees, their dedicated counsel and the judicial wisdom of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the world's largest employer will face allegations that it actively discriminated against its female employees. This c...

Thanks to a socialist government, the women of Portugal will be more free of the Catholic Church's control of their reproductive decisions. After a referendum on Portugal's strict abortion laws failed due to low voter turn-out, the country's Socialist government has announced that it will work to legalize abortion in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. Portuguese voters yesterday decisively voted to liberalize Portugal's extremely strict abortion law, but the results were considered invalid because only 44 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot; for a referendum to be considered binding, at least half of the country's eligible population must vote. Currently, Portuguese legislation allows for abortion only in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy if a woman's health or life is at risk. Women pregnant because of rape may be considered for an abortion until the 16th week. Luis Marques Mendes, who heads the Social Democratic Party, remarked, "The will of the Portugu...

Ta-da! It's finally up! We're still tweaking the sidebar and a few other things. But the basics are here. Fun with banner photos is coming, too. Enjoy.

Longtime friend of wmtc James and his partner have a new puppy! James is blogging about it . James has been so nice about the off-topic material, I thought a shout-out was the least I could do. The puppy is adorable, as puppies are. Go over for a quick melt.

...I have temporarily turned off the verification. Let's see how it goes.

I've heard from many readers that comments are behaving badly. Some people are unable to leave comments at all, others can only sporadically. Blogger is aware of it, and hopefully it's temporary. But who knows.

This man just won the lottery. What will he buy? Improved treatment for his lung cancer. That is, if he can get New York State Lottery to assign his ticket to the cancer treatment centre and pay out his winnings all at once. Who needs universal health insurance when getting better cancer treatment is only a jackpot away?

Did any of you watch the first season of "Jeff Ltd."? I discovered this strange Canadian comedy one night last year, and got hooked in spite of myself. I didn't know anything about it, but there seemed to be only one season, and it was being re-run in random order on the Comedy Network. When I introduced Allan to the show, he had a similar reaction. At first you don't think it's very funny, but somehow you get hooked. "Jeff Ltd." shares a sensibility with Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm": an unsympathetic main character who continually gets himself into trouble, completely of his own doing, and never learns, and never changes. Like Larry David in Curb, Jeff Seymour's character is annoying and usually wrong, but you end up liking him anyway. This show is not as good as Curb, but that's a high standard. It has a similar vibe, and I think Curb fans would like this show. Last fall I caught a bit of (what I assumed was) the season fi...

I'm always saying everyone is Canadian . Idealistic Pragmatist has a great take on this. She posted this in comments a while back. Q: What do Canadians call a famous person who was born in Canada but left to go to Hollywood at the age of four? A: A Canadian. Q: What do Canadians call a famous person who was born in the United States but moved with his family to Vancouver at the age of fifteen? A: A Canadian. Q: What do Canadians call a famous person who was born in the United States but married a Canadian and spends summers in Toronto? A: A Canadian. Q: What do Canadians call a famous person who was born and raised in the United States, lives there now, but once made a pit stop in London, Ontario on his way through from Buffalo to Detroit? A: A Canadian. OK, that last one might be a humourous exaggeration. But there's no denying that when it comes to famous people, Canadians claim the lot, from Saul Bellow (born in Lachine, Quebec, but identified with the city of Chicago for m...

We finally saw "An Inconvenient Truth" last night. I thought it was truly excellent. A huge amount of complex information is conveyed in a very clear, straightforward and compelling way - and that is the highest compliment one can pay a movie like this. I've written some educational videos, and let me tell you, it is not a simple thing to do. I think Al Gore and his team have done a brilliant job. Several wmtc readers said they found the segments about Gore himself jarring or intrusive. I did not. I think the movie is also a personal journey or quest. It's about, in some sense, why Gore made the movie. I think that personal piece might make it more compelling for some viewers. I admire Gore tremendously for dedicating himself to educating the public this way, for committing the time, energy and resources to what is clearly the most important issue of our time. If Gore wants to be part of the story, well, why shouldn't he be? Who doesn't want recognition for th...