Jack Layton

[Jack Layton's final letter to Canadians can be found here: http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/jack-laytons-last-letter-to-canadians]


I started writing a long post tonight about how Jack Layton's anti-prorogation legislation was awesome and that the Conservatives brought it on themselves because Stephen Harper did it twice in a year. Personally, I think it's pretty reprehensible because it's the political equivalent of saying, "Screw you guys, I'm going home, and I'm taking my ball with me."

That wasn't good enough though. I got several paragraphs in and realized I was ranting about that actually being allowed rather than what I wanted to do, which was tell a decent story or two about a political leader I actually admired.

US Politics - 1 Year, 3 Months Before the 2012 Election

Hey, can the GOP just decide to go with a Perry/Bachmann ticket now? Let's get that country over with already. And honestly...think of the potential jokes!

"In accordance with their pro-life stance, President Rick Perry and VP Bachmann simultaneously orgasmed while throwing the switch on the nation's last remaining mentally challenged death row prisoner."

Headline: "America declared a flamboyantly "Gay-Free Zone" by Second Lady Marcus Bachmann.

Hypocrisy - Part 4: Your Day In Court

[Originally posted on March 6, 2008]

So here's how it ends:
"We find the defendant, blah blah blah, not guilty."


As with any problem, it's always easier if you start at the end. You see, before that end, there were endless hours of litigation, discussion, debate, and oration. There was one person desperately trying to put you down, and another intently holding you up. It was emotional.


As a natural skeptic and semi-caring small-'L' libertarian, I can see most of your defenses: "Prove it."


Prove I took that candy bar when I was 5. Prove I got in that fight in grade 6. Prove that I slandered that person at age 17 (five times), 18 (too many to count), and 19-26.


But they don't need to prove it.

Hypocrisy - Part 3

[Originally posted on March 3, 2008]


I mentioned I'd write about this a while ago. I think my exact words were, "I'll write about theologically-based states later. Needless to say, they've proven themselves to not work very well no matter where they are in the world, or what religion they're based on."

Guess I'll have to justify that. Remember, kids, there's nothing worse than having to make good on all the things you said when you were drinking. Pay attention to them, because they'll come back and bite you in the ass. In accordance with that tenant, I'll apparently also have to write about how Beyoncé Knowles and Jay-Z are in cahoots with Madonna and Tom Cruise to bring about the apocalypse through poor interpretation of the writings of James Hogan and/or Douglas Adams.

Hypocrisy - Part 2

[Originally posted on October 7, 2007]


This note will not be as long as the other note on hypocrisy. There will be more, but this one will be shorter because I don't have a huge amount of source material on this. I am Canadian, after all. The first note can be found here.

(Full disclosure: I have not seen Michael Moore's Sicko yet. I've read a few articles about it, both positive and negative, but the movie itself is not a source.)

How many of you have seen Boston Legal? It's hilarious. There's one thing about it that really impresses me though: their research is great. They take on a lot of social issues, and they research them well. One of the cases they showed had a lawyer suing an HMO because they had sent a woman to India to have her heart surgery. The HMO's defense was that it costs $90,000 to have heart surgery in the US, and $10,000 in India. The woman died on the operating table, but not because of unsanitary conditions or malpractice--she just didn't make it. And yet, there's a huge boost to patients' recoveries to be made from having family around.

Hypocrisy - Part 1

[Originally posted on September 11, 2007]

This is an article, quoted in its entirety, from the Calgary Herald in early August. Unfortunately I don't have the exact date:


"An Italian politician whose party represents Christian values has been embroiled in a scandal involving two prostitutes, a hotel room and a large amount of cocaine.
Cosimo Mele, 50, a Christian Democrat UDC MP, was caught out when he had to call an ambulance to the hotel in Rome after one of the girls suffered breathing problems.
The property entrepreneur, whose wife is pregnant with their fourth child, has now resigned from his party.
The scandal's timing is sensitive since the UDC party has been calling for all MPs to take voluntary drug tests.
Mele said: 'I did nothing other than go to dinner with a friend who introduced me to this girl. Since it was late, she came to bed with me. How many politicians go to bed with young girls?'
He said he had nothing to do with the other girl who had 'taken drugs or something else.' She felt ill and he had called reception.
He added: 'So politicians in the UDC do not make love? Of course I recognize Christian values. But what has that got to do with going with a prostitute? It is a personal matter.
'This affair has nothing to do with family values. I cannot be branded a bad father and a bad husband simply becaused after five or six days away from home an occasion presented itself.'"

3 Stories

[Originally posted on January 27, 2009]


This is from an email I wrote someone when I was in a drunk-and-talky mood. I was ranting for a bit about free will, and this is the second part of it. The first part will not be published. So this is on religion and about "if I can talk you out of it, you don't really believe it."

Enjoy:

I like talking religion with religious people, but it makes some of them uncomfortable. The ones it makes uncomfortable aren't that sure of their own positions, or they wouldn't worry. If I can talk you out of your faith, you don't have faith. One of the most interesting people I've ever spoken to is a friend of mine who's a Jehovah's Witness. She's done the house-to-house thing and everything (they call it "missionary work"). I asked her once, "do you think that soliciting at people's doors who don't want you there helps you score in God's great playbook?" She's both beautiful AND funny, and said, "Meh...can't hurt." I respect that, because she was actually following a belief rather than some inherited silliness.

Writing Miscellany

I haven't written for a while, so I figured I should do summa that. Also, I found a bunch of really cool articles and so rather than trying to force coherence on to some of my typical rambling blather, I'm going to talk about those. All of these are real articles, though I can't vouch for the sources because that would require research, and that doesn't seem like a thing that I'd do.