Team Gushue at St. John's International Airport

...And I went to get pictures for you all. Aren't I fantastic? Seriously, the things I do for you, my dear readers!

Jamie Korab

Mike Adams


Mark Nichols "The Surgeon" (Whose cousin, incidentally, was my Biochem lab instructor last semester)

The man himself, Skip Brad Gushue

And just so you can get a small idea of the crowd, which was standing room only (trust me, this picture doesn't even come close to giving you an idea of how many people were there):




In any event, it was almost impossible for me to get these pictures. Not only did I have to battle the multitudes of well-wishers who came out in throngs to catch a glimpse of our gold medalists, but my camera was on its last joules of battery power, despite having been filled with brand new batteries mere hours before. I managed to get 24 shots in all, and these were not only four of the best photos, they were also four of the last ones as well. By the time these pictures were taken, the crowd had mostly dispersed and my batteries were pushing up entire gardens of daisies.



Russ Howard, of course, is from New Brunswick and so I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of him. I may post some of the other photos later, but right now it's four in the morning and I am tired.

Snow!

Hoo boy did it ever snow here on the weekend. And if you check the St. John's webcam on the right, you can see that no matter what time you read this, it'll probably still be snowing. My back simply aches from all the shovelling. In the end, a friend of ours used a backhoe to shovel out our second driveway. There was no way in hell I was going to shovel that out.



Of course, when they re-instate the Gander weather office, perhaps I'll actually be prepared for these kinds of storms, because I'll know about them in advance.

The Other Da Vinci Code Conspiracy

"The Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown is in hot water over new allegations of copyright violations:

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Author Dan Brown appeared in court on Monday at the start of a trial in which two historians say he copied their work to write "The Da Vinci Code" best-seller and are suing his British publisher.

Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent are suing their own publisher Random House for lifting "the whole architecture" of the research that went into their 1982 non-fiction book "The Holy Blood, and the Holy Grail," itself a bestseller.

Brown's religious thriller has more than 36 million copies in print worldwide and has upset Catholics for suggesting Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a child by her. The same theory is put forward in "The Holy Blood, and the Holy Grail."

Lawyers on both sides of the case have declined to comment on how the trial might affect sales of the hugely successful novel or the distribution of a major Hollywood adaptation which Sony Pictures plans to release in May.

Jonathan James, representing Baigent and Leigh, told the High Court that "... Dan Brown copied from 'The Holy Blood, and the Holy Grail' and therefore the publication of the result by the defendant is in infringement of the copyright of my client in the United Kingdom."

The most intriguing claim made by the two is certainly striking:

Commentators have pointed out that a major character in 41-year-old Brown's book, Sir Leigh Teabing, has a name that is an anagram of Leigh and Baigent.

That's pretty interesting. We'll see how this one goes.

Men's Curling Round-up

Well that was one hell of a match. I missed most of the first five ends, due to an extremely poorly planned Ichthyology midterm (though I notice the prof wasn't there to invigilate - I wonder why), but by the time I got home at around 2:20 PM I was in time to catch the 'end' of the fifth end. At that point, Canada was leading 4-2, and it looked pretty solid. The sixth end is what clinched it for Canada, and for that we've got to hand it to Mark Nichols, or as he should now be known, 'The Surgeon.' The man shot a 97% today! Simply outstanding. His first shot in the sixth end was an unbelievable double take-out that would have made neurosurgeons marvel at its precision. His next shot was likewise as beautiful.



I know Brad will get some good-natured ribbing for missing the draw at the sixth end on the last rock, but I don't think anyone cares at this point. What I loved most was the comment he made to a teammate about the weight he was going to put on his very last rock of the game, a take-out. He smiled sardonically and said, "the same as the draw in the sixth end." Priceless.



My sympathies also go out to Brad, as his mother is battling cancer. Brad fought back tears after talking with her shortly after winning the game, and I can only imagine what it must be like for him. Keep her in your prayers.



But surely her spririts are lifted after a win like this. Way to go boys, we're all proud of you. Number One all the way!

MC Hammer

Has a freaking blog. Check it out.

I Told You So

Brad Gushue, Mark Nichols, Russ Howard, Jamie Korab and Mike Adam took the gold medal in Torino today for men's curling with a 10-4 victory over Finland. Attaboy, Brad. We'll meet you at the airport when you get back and hoist you on our shoulders. You did all of Newfoundland proud, as we knew you would. Way to go.



EDIT: George Street tonight is going to be off the hook.

Support for Denmark?

I was walking around campus today, and I noticed a guy ahead of me who had both a Canadian Flag patch and a Denmark Flag patch on his backpack.



Was he making a statement? Your guess is as good as mine. I wasn't about to go up to him and ask, "Pardon me sir, but do Islamofascist terrorists get your goat?"



In any event, that would be kind of a neat way to show solidarity with the Danes. Kind of a heart-on-your-sleeve thing (Heart on Your backpack?).

Some of Us Are More Equal Than Others

Get this:

CORNWALL, ON -- Shirley Ravary doesn't just cough when she catches a cold.



She hacks.



And after suffering a partial lung collapse a few years ago, a common cold doesn't just 'go away' after a few days for the 57-year-old Ontario woman; it gets progressively worse.



So after two weeks of suffering with flu-like symptoms, Ravary needed to see her family doctor. But as she soon found out, she picked the wrong day to drop in for a check-up.



That day, Ravary contacted her doctor's office and was told to visit a nearby community health centre, where he occasionally works.



When she arrived at the centre, she was greeted by a French-speaking receptionist who promptly informed her that the health clinic was exclusively for "French people."



"I said to her, 'that's discrimination,'" said Ravary, who was then told to visit her family doctor during his regular office hours, or visit another walk-in clinic. "I didn't get past the reception at the front."



Worse yet, nobody at the clinic even asked her whether her condition required immediate attention.



"It could have been chest pains," said Ravary. "It could have been anything."



Marc Bisson, the Executive Director of the Centre de Santé communautaire de L'estrie, where Ravary was refused service, defends his clinic's policy. Bisson says it's part of the centre's mandate to target the local French population.



"I don't think it's discrimination at all," said Bisson. "We have policies and a way to work here. Ninety-eight per cent of our clients are Francophone because it's our target population."



The clinic was established 15 years ago specifically to treat the nearly 10,000 Francophones in the small Ontario community, although everyone in the greater community helps fund it.



It turns out the Ontario provincial government agrees with the clinic's exclusive policy.



George Smitherman, Ontario's Health Minister, said in Toronto Tuesday, "We have something called Community Health Centres and they are designed to be community governed, targeting specific populations."



So the next time Ravary feels sick, she'll need to find another clinic for treatment.



Or learn French.

This is something that Tony Clement, our new health minister, should be pouncing on. This is a clear violation of the Canada Health Act. One of the tenets of the act is that every Canadian has the right to medical care. By denying her medical care, the clinic not only engaged in gross discrimination, they clearly violated the Canada Health Act.



Clement should come down on this disgusting liberal policy of discrimination like a metric ton of bricks.




Yeesh.

Holocaust Denier Pleads Guilty

This one's a pickle:

British historian David Irving pleaded guilty Monday to criminal charges of denying the Holocaust and conceded in court he erred in contending there were no Nazi gas chambers during the Second World War.

"I made a mistake when I said there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz," Irving told the court after his trial opened in Vienna. But he insisted he never wrote a book about the Holocaust, which he called "just a fragment of my area of interest."

"In no way did I deny the killings of millions of people by the Nazis," Irving testified. Earlier, he told journalists he considered it "ridiculous" that he was standing trial for remarks made 17 years ago.

Irving, handcuffed and wearing a navy blue suit, arrived at court carrying a copy of one of his most controversial books -- Hitler's War, which challenges the extent of the Holocaust.

Before the trial began, Irving, 67, told reporters he now acknowledges the Nazis systematically slaughtered Jews during the war. "History is like a constantly changing tree," he said.

Irving has been in custody since his arrest in November on charges stemming from two speeches he gave in Austria in 1989 in which he was accused of denying the Nazis' extermination of six million Jews.

A verdict was expected later Monday, with a conviction almost certain because of Irving's guilty plea. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

This is a hard one to look at. As someone who studies history, it comes across to me that he is guilty of two things: one, of being incredibly, incredibly dumb for even suggesting in the first place that the Holocaust never occurred. Give me a break. How can anyone deny that such a massive and terrible tragedy as the Holocaust occurred? Were the gas chambers and crematoria built after the war by the "Elders of Zion?" Where did all the shoes in "Canada" come from? What about all the gold teeth and jewlery stolen from innocent murdered people? I guess all the testimony at Nuremburg, the transcripts of the Wannasee conference, the odd disappearance of six million Jews and six million other unwanted people after the war (including 3 million Soviet Pows and three million Slavic Polish Catholics) - all a giant hoax? I don't think so.



The second thing this fool is guilty of is something that any history professor would fail a student for: absolutely bad history. It's part of a historian's job to test our views of history, to look at things from a different perspective. Quite a few new things were discovered about our history that way, to say the least. But my history prof would fail him outright for such a ludicrous thesis - that the Jews died from typhus, and not, oh, massive quantities of Hydrogen Cyanide. If you want to propose a different historical thesis, you've got to be able to provide ample evidence for it. But if there is a massive documentative quantity of evidence suggesting otherwise (and the Nazis were very meticulous record-keepers), then you have no choice but to abandon this thesis. Apparently this flunky never caught on to that last part.



As for him standing trial for remarks made 17 years ago? Sure, it seems a little odd. Should he face ten years in prison for what amounts to nothing more than a bad thesis? I hope my history prof wouldn't be so harsh on me. But then again, I'm not a holocaust denier. I say give the fool a massive fine and force him to apologize and publicly acknowledge that the holocaust occurred. Or make him donate the fine to a Holocaust memorial institute like the Simon Wiesenthal centre. I think that would be a far more appropriate punishment.

Bin Laden Vows Never to be Taken Alive

Fine by me.

Our Supremes

...are not the sacrosanct unassailables some think they are. This is, of course, not news to conservatives. Ted Byfield of the Calgary Sun has a succinct and spot-on analysis of the true loyalties of court members.

Blogging Tories Posting Seems Down As of Late

I'm just as guilty of it as anyone else - but it seems that overall posting has declined a bit lately. Am I imagining things? For myself and many others, a mix of real-world responsibilities and the fact that we've now won the election and thus have nothing much to complain about has led to a slowdown in posting. Fear not fellow Blogging Tories: rest assured that as soon as parliament starts up we'll have plenty to discuss.



Another thing I'd like to point out is this: conservatives are notoriously principled - and that has both its benefits and its drawbacks. Sometimes we can be harder on our leaders than even the left can be - the recent brouhaha over Emerson and Fortier is evidence enough of that. I'd like to suggest that we not be our own worst enemies when parliament starts up. Have some faith in Harper and his cabinet and trust that they will not just simply latch on to whatever stance is popular (or allegedly so) like the Liberals did. The process of moving Canada to the right will take time and is best accomplished through baby steps. That being said, I'm not suggesting we become brainless cheerleaders - we must be critical of policies or actions that we don't like. But let's not crucify the party over it in the process. At the end of the day, they are our voice in Ottawa and they will not abandon Canada to the Liberals.

Philospher Kings

The Philosopher Kings back together again: yes. This is Awesome. Now all I need is for Oasis to start pumping out #1 hits again, and my dream of bringing back the '90s music scene will be complete.

When I Said Close Your Mouth

...that's not exactly what I meant:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Saddam Hussein returned to trial on Tuesday saying he and seven co-defendants had been staging a hunger strike to protest their treatment by the court.

"We have been on a hunger strike for three days in protest against the treatment from you and your masters," he said, a reference to the U.S. occupation of Iraq...Trying to restore order, Abdel-Rahman banged his gavel.

"Take that hammer and knock it on your own head," Hussein shot back.

I'm getting a little tired of this tin-pot criminal being allowed to run amok at his trial. Defendants in Western courts would never be allowed this outrageous behaviour. This childish thug should be muzzled and chained until it is his turn to speak. He should pay for his crimes against innocent Iraqi men, women and children.

Gee, How I Do Love Traitors...

Billy Zane - American Taliban:

ISTANBUL The crowd cheered, clapped and whistled as the Turkish agent plunged the knife into the chest of the enemy commander.

"Valley of the Wolves - Iraq," which opened last week in movie theaters in Turkey, Austria and Germany, is a Rambo-like action story involving, in this case, Turkish gunmen who seek revenge against a tyrannical occupying army.

But in this version, the most expensive movie ever made in Turkey, the enemy is no oppressive third-world dictatorship. The commander's name is "Sam" - as in Uncle - and the opposing forces are Americans, who are being punished for offenses against Turkish as well as Iraqi pride and honor.

Sam William Marshall, played by Billy Zane, is portrayed as a sociopath, killing people without a second thought and claiming that he is doing God's will, a thinly veiled reference to statements by President George W. Bush about America's "crusade" for democracy in Iraq and the Middle East..."I acted in this movie because I'm a pacifist," he said in a televised interview. "I'm against all kinds of war."

Really? And all along I thought it was because they gave him a big bag of money. But what do I know? Oh, and for all you people who think Zane did the right thing by starring in this movie, there's a little kicker at the end of the article for you. Something about Turkey's new favorite book...

Hitler's "Mein Kampf" became a best seller last year.

Lovely. Yeesh...

Happy Valentine's Day!

It seems like it's the trend lately. Like others I'll be very busy over the next little while (We should see other people) and blogging will be light (We need a break). Rest assured though, I'll still be delivering my fair share of witty and inrreverent commentary on worldy matters right to your local conservative blog aggregator (It's not you, it's me).



P.S. Happy Valentine's Day!

Some U-Turns are Right Turns

...And this is one of them:

Jyllands-Posten, the Danish daily that published the controversial Muhammad drawings, has made a dramatic U-turn on comments an executive made about using Holocaust caricatures.

The paper said it would under no circumstances publish the Holocaust cartoons that an Iranian newspaper, Hamshari, is planning to commission.

Damn right. I originally sat down to write about how disgusted I was with the original decision and while searching for an online article to quote I came up with this piece of pleasant news.



For Jyllands-Posten to even consider publishing cartoons about the Holocaust, especially in light of the wholesale murder of Danish Jews during the Second World War is just unbelievable. When I read they were considering it in the local paper, my jaw dropped. Such an action, in itself a complete surrender to the despicable anti-Semitic Mullahs of Iran, makes no sense whatesoever. Why on earth would Jyllands-Posten want to enagage in horrid anti-Semitism to placate these criminals? Why did Flemming Rose (the Culture editor who made the decision) decide "Let's offend an already beaten-down religion in order to placate a violent sect of another? Let's do all their hateful work for them!"



This is Europe, people. This is where the Holocaust occured, not more than 61 years ago. The Holocaust defines the very context of every inter-European relationship. It is inescapable. For those of you who haven't been there, Europe is extremely sensitive about what happened to the Jews. This is tantamount to the Chicago Tribune printing hardcore racist cartoons about the lynching of blacks. This is vile, vile, vile.



Thankfully, someone at Jyllands-Posten discovered their damn backbone. And I'm glad they did too. There will be no great surrender, no placation of these murderous "religious" fanatics. I say fire Flemming Rose.



Something frightens me though: this whole affair is another battle in the culture war between Islam in the Third World and the West. These intolerant bigots are trying to force their violent brand of Islam upon the free world; that is their goal. Something written in Jyllands-Posten seems to me to be a portent of things to come:

"We apologise for the great misunderstanding generated by the publication of the caricatures that showed the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and created aggressive feelings towards Denmark and calls for boycotts against Danish goods," the paper said.

Emphasis mine. Can you imagine Hamshari prefacing an article about Christ by referring to him as the Son of God? I think not. Already, western cowards are learning their place and prostrating themselves before the mullahs. I expect they'll soon be carrying around their own copies of the Koran and reciting from it daily in an effort to educate us all about how "righteous" these fanatics really are. Has Europe learned nothing from the policies of appeasement?



Denmark, you don't have to live by the rules or customs of these intolerant fanatics. You are in your country and you are living by your rules. If throngs of Muslims don't like what you've done, tough beans. They'll simply have to get used to it. If the Western World needs any indication that political correctness has gone too far, this is one hell of a glaring wake-up call. It is a fallacy to consider that these societies are better than ours simply by the virtue of their exotic nature. We don't have to placate them. They should be the ones apologizing to us for burning western embassies, inciting volence, and most of all for their unbridled hatred and arrogance.



One of these days, something will happen that will push these people farther than we have ever seen. The riots in France were the first pages in the newest chapter of Islamic violence and I fear that the last words in it will be ones of untold bloodshed and tragedy. The Islamic world has seen how the West works and have learned how to manipulate it. Unless we put our collective feet down, and soon, we will lose our cherished freedoms.

Just Wanted to Point Out

That U2 won five, count 'em, five Grammys last night, bringing their total Grammy count to 20. Damn straight. Way to go, boys.

The Difference Between the West and the Middle East

Western women wouldn't be caught dead wearing the same outfit as some other woman. I guess they don't mind it as much over there.

Caught this gem from CNN:

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- About half a million Muslims turned a Beirut religious
ceremony into a peaceful protest against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, as
Iran and Syria rejected U.S. accusations they were inciting anger over the
caricatures.
Unlike Sunday, when protesters torched the building housing the
Danish Consulate, there were no signs of violence in Thursday's march in the
Lebanese capital, Reuters reported.
"At your service, oh Mohammed, at your
service, oh Prophet of God," the crowds chanted with fists raised. "Death to America, Death to Israel." [my emphasis]

Oh, but there's more:

"No dignity to a nation whose prophet is insulted," one sign read. "What comes after insulting sacred values?" another asked.

I'm guessing blowing people up in a Tel Aviv cafe for being 'Zionist Swine.' What other peaceful things did they say?

"Today, we are defending the dignity of our prophet with a word, a demonstration," Reuters quoted Nasrallah as telling the crows.

"But let (U.S. President) George Bush and the arrogant world know that if we have to ... we will defend our prophet with our blood, not our voices.

"Defending the prophet should continue worldwide, let (U.S. Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice, Bush and all the tyrants shut up. We are a nation that can't forgive, be silent or ease up when they insult our prophet and our sacred values," Nasrallah said.

Charming.



Listen dear readers, did I miss the meeting where death threats were switched over to the "peaceful protest" list? I probably missed the memo about it, right? Sigh.



I am going to have to have a talk with that secratary. Yeesh.

Caption Contest!

Babe-Magnet Michael Aubie (Michael? What am I, his mom?) has a neat little caption/photoshopping contest over at Morally Tory that you definitely want to check out. By the way, he's not kidding when he talks about the crazy weekend we all had. In any event, after the guys corrupted my mortal soul, we had some pizza. I suppose I came out ahead. You know, Pizza, right?

Well, That Took a Bit of Tinkering

...And now I feel unquestionably silly. For the longest time, I've been irked by the fact that many of my sidebar images don't show up unless you visit the main site at http://www.uncommontruths.blogspot.com. I haven't really attempted to fix it up until now, and I just spent an hour trying to tinker with the html in the sidebar in an attempt to get them to show up. Well, it turns out that after the completely invasive surgery I just performed on my sidebar, all I needed to do was delete the "mainorarchive" tags. And here I was thinking those tags allowed things to show up in the sidebar for individual posts. And now I just feel very, very silly.



Sigh. The things I do for you people. Yeesh :D

Emerson Strikes Back

Minister of International Trade David Emerson lashed back at his Liberal critics today, angrily denouncing calls for him to return $96,755 to the Liberal riding association in Vancouver-Kingsway:

Emerson shot back that he had raised tens of thousands of dollars for the Liberal Party in B.C. and across Canada -- and had left at least $80,000 in the riding association's coffers thanks to his efforts.



"I challenge them publicly with me and my wife present to demonstrate they are not better off as a result of the fundraising activities we have undertaken," Emerson fumed.



"This is one of the things that had bothered me about the Liberal Party. I felt that the Liberal Party of Canada -- in B.C. in particular -- had looked at me as a cash cow to raise money from the business community...For them to somehow suggest I am shortchanging them -- it's breathtaking in its audacity," he seethed.

We'll keep watching to see where this one goes. H/T to Neale News.

Surprise Surprise

It's day three of the Harper Government and we still haven't had a nuclear war or American takeover.



Personally, I hope that all the leftist drama queens in this Great Country of ours are holding their collective breaths for it. Although for many of them I'm not sure there's enough grey matter up there to damage in the first place.



EDIT: Although if there was, House MD could repair it. That man is a misanthropic genius.

Useful Idiots

From a comment I left over at Antonia Zerbisias' "blog". H/T to everyone's favorite Relapsed Catholic. Don't worry, Kathy dear. We all still love you despite the Moonbat Parade outside.

Wow...you insulted Michelle Malkin's weight. That was classy, Zerb. Classy. What next, an attack on people who wear glasses?



The reason so many bloggers are posting these cartoons is fundamentally important: people don't actually know what they look like. Describing them is not good enough. people need to see them in order to understand what the fuss is about - which is, of course, nothing at all. I'm willing to place a large bet with all of you that most of the rioting Muslims out there haven't even seen the damn cartoons in the first place. "What? Excuse to riot against the West, upon whom we blame all our societal ills? Count me in!"



The people in that part of the world will riot against the west given any excuse. A fictional story about disrespect towards the Koran resulted in many deaths during riots last year...ironically, all of them were Muslims.



What it boils down to is the fact that these people are rioting over CARTOONS, Zerb. Cartoons. Not all of which can even be considered disrespectful (and portraying Mohammed is not taboo, it's been done countless times in Islamic art throughout the ages). Rioting over a cartoon is stupid, especially in light of the fact that middle eastern newspapers often publish Anti-Semitic cartoons that would make Hitler blush.



These people need to lose their medieval attitudes and stop trying to force their narrow-minded culture upon us. This is the West, not the middle east. We don't have to live according to their values, and for them to presume that we must is laughable and insolent. When Andres Serrano put a crucifix in a bottle of urine and called it art, did you see Western Christians rioting and burning embassies?



I Didn't think so.


The people in that part of the world have to give up their medieval attitudes and acknowledge that other people in the world are different from them - it's okay to be different.



And people like you need to stop defending them. Lenin had a particular term for those in the west who supported bolshevism. Look it up, because I think it applies quite wholeheartedly to individuals such as yourself.

Note: For that term, see the title of this post. By the way, if you want to go find Zerbisias' blog, Google it. I'm not giving her the traffic.

It's Because I'm a Conservative, Isn't it?

Uncommon Truths apologizes for the inconvenience. I had a beautifully crafted post about my feelings on the Emerson Appointment in which I expressed, after some more careful thought, new ideas. And just as I was moving the mouse to click "Publish," the computer I'm using in my university's 'Information Commons' gives me the blue screen of death. There's a secret CFS office in Toronto monitoring computer activity here, I just know it. Anyhow, Check back tonight for the post, when I have the time and patience to re-write it.

Danté is Disappointed in You, Mr. Harper

So, we've got a new streamlined cabinet - 27 members (including Harper) now instead of the 37 in Martin's cabinet. I'm pleased that Loyola Hearn was given the post of Fisheries Minister. Mr. Hearn is a very competent man who will do very well with his portfolio (make sure to thank him for his considerable role in Uniting the Canadian Right). There are a lot of happy Newfoundlanders and Labradorians today.



But I'm not one of them.



I'll tell you why, even though you've likely already guessed: what with the news of the appointment of an unelected official, Michael Fortier, to the Public Works Portfolio via an appointment to the senate and the surpise defection of David Emerson - likely in exchange for a cabinet post - the Tories are not looking good on their promises for accountability, honesty and transparency in government.



My gut instinct is to feel disgusted - more by Emerson's defection than by Fortier's appointment. We howled and raged at how Stronach betrayed the Conservatives in the spring of 2005 after leaving for a juicy cabinet post under Martin's administration. Honestly, I can't justify this new defection in any way. Part of me wants to cheer and say, "alright, one more seat!" But I can't do that, because then I'd be condoning the sort of behaviour that I railed against while the Liberals were in power. This kind of thing is shady and I don't like it.



As for Fortier, well, I agree with most of you. The man wasn't elected, and for Harper to place him in the cabinet after appointing him to the senate - and keep in mind, senate reform was a priority of Harper's - well, this just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.



So that's my initial reaction to these events. However, before we all wonder when we adopted the ethics of the Liberal Party, there seems to also be some very good reasons for Emerson's cabinet appointment. Look at it this way: there is going to be a shortage of experienced people in Harper's cabinet. That's to be expected after thirteen years in opposition. Emerson has much needed governmental experience, so his addition to the Cabinet will undoubtedly be a good thing. As for Fortier, perhaps his addition will mean a greater voice for Quebec and will help extinguish the fires of separatism in La Belle Province.



I couldn't help but laugh at Bill Graham's comments though:

"Mr. Harper ran a campaign which emphasized accountability and ethical behaviour by Canadians and by parliamentarians," said Liberal Opposition Leader Bill Graham.

"I have to say, therefore, that I am concerned, given Mr. Harper's past statements, that he's decided to put into his cabinet a non-elected minister of public works," Graham said of Fortier.

Graham also blasted Harper's decision to appoint Emerson, particularly because of the criticism Martin faced.

"I was in the House of Commons when Mr. Harper vigorously criticized Mr. Martin for including Ms. Stronach in the cabinet, and now, before he has even been appointed prime minister of Canada, he has already negotiated to have someone come over to his cabinet from the other side," Graham said in French.

Graham said Stronach left the Tories over matters of policy, and that Emerson's defection is not comparable.

Bill, even the press laughed when Martin announced that Stronach's defection had nothing to do with the vote of confidence last spring - and Brison defected and was given the Public Works portfolio prior to the 2004 election. You really can't complain on this one. Nevertheless, I don't agree with what has been done. We're better than that. We're not the Liberals.



I'm not going to lie to you. This still doesn't look good.

The AGWN Fatwa!

Steve at Angry in the Great White North had a good idea: In support of freedom of speech, place one of the cartoons that have so offended Muslim religious extremists everywhere on your blog. Sounds good to me. I fully expect a Fatwa to be issued against me any day now.

I Have Decided Against Running for the Liberal "Leadership"

I made my announcement yesterday, but no one showed up at the press conference. So I harangued the janitor at the back of the room while he swept up for about half an hour on the dangers of gingivitis instead. I think I got through to him.



(From a comment I left over at Angry In the Great White North.)