jamon, jamon

By Andrew Potter - Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 11:17 PM - 0 Comments

This is pretty much it:

via xkcd

Can Saskatchewan be nationalist?

By Philippe Gohier - Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 7:18 PM - 0 Comments

It’s not often I find myself agreeing with Lawrence Martin, but I think he raises a few good points in his column in today’s Globe about the Tories’ decision to grant more economic autonomy to the provinces:

There’s plenty of room for cynicism. It’s well known that the PM will do anything to woo Quebec politically. Letting the province negotiate a unilateral labour-mobility agreement with France can be seen as some rather timely toadying. Shouldn’t he be doing more for labour mobility between Ontario and Quebec?

Extending his autonomy push to other regions smacks of smart politics as well. Headwaiter to the provinces? How about head cashier at the polling booths. Westerners will lovingly see it as a kick at the Toronto-Ottawa dictatorship. It’s gravy for la belle province and down East, loud guys like Danny Williams won’t be complaining.

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Megapundit Extra: The numbers game

By selley - Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 6:36 PM - 0 Comments

Dan Gardner’s Second Law of Crime Statistics holds that critics of the justice system treat rising crime numbers as “a perfectly accurate reflection of the frightening reality,” but falling crime numbers as “so transparently flawed that only fools, Liberals and criminologists would believe them.” Peter Worthington evinces a more complex tendency: he considers low or falling crime numbers accurate when they suit his argument, and wholly inadequate when they don’t.

Here he is on May 7, 1998, arguing that the Liberal gun registry was unnecessary and, ahem, would turn into a hideously costly boondoggle. (For obvious reasons, my intention here is not to take issue with his argument.)

Interpreting statistics to suit one’s individual (or collective) agenda is an ongoing phenomenon that’s unlikely to change. The Canadian Firearms Centre and its political masters in the justice department are committed to registering all firearms with an overall aim, one suspects, of confiscating them.

Take Canadian Crime Statistics 1996, issued by Statistics Canada: a grand total of 5.9% of all violent crimes in Canada in 1996 involved firearms – hardly a crime wave to justify the hundreds of millions – if not billions – of dollars gun registration will cost, not to mention eventual confiscation.

Of all violent gun incidents, 6.9% involved rifles or shotgun- – or less than one-half of 1% of all violent gun crimes. The overwhelming majority of violent firearms incidents — 74.9% — involved handguns, the majority of which were illegal.

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BTC: What may come

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 6:14 PM - 0 Comments

If the by-election in Guelph is any indication, a general election this fall could be among the most dispiriting in recent memory.

Doubt is the Rival

By John Parisella - Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 4:15 PM - 0 Comments

The latest tendency with pundits is to interpret Barack Obama’s tight lead as a sign of reluctance among Americans to buy into the senator’s message of hope and change. They go on to assert that this election is really a referendum on Obama. It is as if there is no one else on the ballot.

There is no doubt that Democrats will still control Congress after the November election. This has a lot to do with out-of-touch Republicans, corruption scandals, and general incompetence in dealing with the war effort and the economy. Additionally, Bush’s personal unpopularity adds to the voters’ disenchantment with the party that dominated Congress from 1994 to 2006. If Bush were on the ballot, Obama’s lead would be in double digits.

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Proper Use of YouTube

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 4:09 PM - 0 Comments

What can “RickRolling” teach us about the future of entertainment? To answer this totally not rhetorical question, let me back up a bit and talk about this week’s release of the insane, wonderful ’90s cartoon Freakazoid!. (Try it. It’s like a big-budget, funnier version of today’s Adult Swim cartoons.) I don’t know if the first season has sold well enough to bring about the release of the second and final season, but it seems to be doing surprisingly well at Amazon, among the top sellers in “kids’” DVDs and outselling a number of shows that were actually successful. And why have people heard about this show, even though it lasted only two seasons and hasn’t been rerun anywhere for several years?

YouTube. A bunch of people posted Freakazoid! cartoons on YouTube, teenagers and college kids found them there, liked them, even created a whole meme based on the “Candle Jack” cartoon. There is little question that if it wasn’t for YouTube, the DVD would be selling less than it is, because without YouTube, almost nobody would be able to see the show who didn’t see it in the ’90s.

Now RickRolling. Did Rick Astley object when his ’80s pop hit became the most inescapable internet meme of all time? Of course not; he thought it was amusing. And more importantly, it got his record back into print, and got people downloading and buying his music. (And let’s face it: that meme wouldn’t have become popular if that song hadn’t been so darn catchy. You’re humming it now. You are.) The rampant YouTube availability of the song did not detract from the ability of the artist to make money off the song, any more than playing songs on the radio hurts the sales of those same songs.

Despite their freak-out over Napster and other Napster-ish things, music labels seem to have a better understanding of the uses of YouTube than other media producers; music videos do get pulled, but some of Continue…

BTC: Transcription

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 3:59 PM - 0 Comments

As Paul notes, “fish or cut bait” is the headline—the Globe, the Post (whose Don Martin got the gist a day early), the Star, the Citizen all lead with the line. And as our astute readers noted, it’s a line the Prime Minister tried nearly ten months ago. And as I’ll note—if only to make myself somewhat useful—it’s a line Mr. Dion’s already responded to.

Kudos then are surely due to the Prime Minister’s braintrust. His new press secretary must be realizing the job is far easier than one might presume.

While we wait to see if the Liberal leader will re-respond to Harper’s re-challenge, conceivably compelling the morning paper’s to re-report the whole thing, a few notes on what was actually otherwise an interesting speech for the PM. Continue…

Megapundit: The firewalls cometh

By selley - Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 2:53 PM - 0 Comments

Must-reads: Vaughn Palmer on the Sea-to-Sky saga; Don Martin on the Afghan opium crop.

Mmmm… a nation of dutchies
Oh wait, sorry, duchies. That’s much less delicious.

Accusations of directionless “plotting and plodding” against the Tories are unfounded, Lawrence Martin argues in The Globe and Mail. In fact, he says, their vision of a more economically and politically autonomous Quebec is their vision for Canada as a whole—a “nation of duchies.” This will “drive Canadian traditionalists bananas,” says Martin, but the fact is, Canada has grown beyond the phase where its component jurisdictions need coddling and protection from Ottawa. “Not to say that a balkanization of the federation is in order,” of course, but Martin calls for “a recognition of modern realities,” and to reserve judgment on Stephen “firewall guy” Harper’s plans until we know more about them.

It looks like Canada and the United States will escape a full-blown recession, L. Ian MacDonald argues in the Montreal Gazette, and unemployment numbers across the Dominion are in historically good shape—especially in traditional laggard provinces like Nova Scotia and Quebec. Nevertheless, he expects Conservatives gathering in Lévis this week to devote a fair chunk of their discussion to avoiding a deficit, which is, as MacDonald says, “no longer an acceptable political outcome” in Canada. “If the fiscal framework were to fall back into a deficit on the Conservatives’ watch,” he says—particularly given their decision to cut the GST—”it would reflect very badly on their competence.”

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Layers of disingenuity

By Paul Wells - Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 11:42 AM - 0 Comments

From AP by way of Talkingpointsmemo:

Democrat Barack Obama, the first black candidate with a shot at winning the White House, says John McCain and his Republican allies will try to scare them by saying Obama “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”

Obama didn’t make clear what distinctions McCain was likely to raise regarding the presidents on U.S. currency, men who are white and, for the most part, much older than Obama when they were elected. McCain has not raised Obama’s race as an issue in the campaign, though he has said that Obama lacks experience.

Stumping in an economically challenged battleground state, Obama argued Wednesday that President Bush and McCain will resort to scare tactics to maintain their hold on the White House because they have little else to offer voters.

“Nobody thinks that Bush and McCain have a real answer to the challenges we face. So what they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me,” Obama said. “You know, he’s not patriotic enough, he’s got a funny name, you know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”

The McCain campaign did not have an immediate comment when asked Thursday about Obama’s remarks.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the senator was not referring to race.

“What Barack Obama was talking about was that he didn’t get here after spending decades in Washington,” Gibbs said Thursday. “There is nothing more to this than the fact that he was describing that he was new to the political scene. He was referring to the fact that he didn’t come into the race with the history of others. It is not about race.”

Oh, please. Of course Obama was referring to race.

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Score!

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 11:22 AM - 0 Comments

I’m a month late in linking to this, but Alan Sepinwall’s article on two TV composers, Michael Giacchino of Lost and Bear McCreary of Battlestar Galactica, has not yet been rendered obsolete.

As I’ve said elsewhere, network TV shows probably have more music now than they ever did; shows that don’t use background scores, like The Office and The Wire, are deliberately different from the norm. Even a show like Grey’s Anatomy, which uses a ton of popular music, often uses original music to underscore the scenes that don’t have songs in them; many TV producers are nervous about letting moments go by without Continue…

Canuck in DC Watch: Romeo Dallaire

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 10:18 AM - 0 Comments

From his press release: “While the Canadian government remains shamefully silent on the issue, Senator Roméo Dallaire (Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda) is working to boost support for former child soldier Omar Khadr in Washington, where several members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, have called for the closure of the detention centre in Guantánamo Bay.

While on Capitol Hill, Senator Dallaire met with several senior members of Congress and administration officials to discuss Mr. Khadr’s case, Representative William Delahunt, Chair of the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight, and Representative Jerrold Nadler, Chairman of the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Subcommittee…”

Microsoft thinks you’re stupid

By Colin Campbell - Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 10:12 AM - 0 Comments

In an effort to prove to the world that its Vista operating system doesn’t suck, Microsoft has a new marketing campaign called the Mojave Experiment.

It goes like this: A focus group is filmed talking about their negative views of Vista.  They are then asked to try a new system, called Mojave. They love it.  Then they’re informed that Mojave is actually just Vista. Gotcha!

The ad ends with the kicker: “Now decide for yourself.”  Ok then… We’ve decided it’s a horribly misguided gimmick in which Microsoft seems to be shifting blame for its bad PR problems over to their customers. The message: you’re stupid for not liking Vista and for trusting the reviews.

Really, the only thing to take away from this campaign is that the Vista name is mud and Microsoft needs to change it, fast. When you start attacking and insulting your own customers, it’s a sign of desperation.

Quebec City: linguistic and real-estate notes

By Paul Wells - Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 9:01 AM - 0 Comments

So as I prepare to leave Quebec City (later than planned: thanks, Air Canada!), here are a few notes from the Conservative caucus meeting in nearby Lévis.

(a) Lévis is not nearby. The maps are deceptive. Note to Accounting: mondo taxi bills on the way.

(b) Actual dialogue with a member of the Conservative caucus last night:

MP: “So the headline is fish or cut bait?”

PW: “Yeah.”

MP: “Did he actually say that?” (Note: weak amplification in the arena at St. Agapit was the only flaw in an otherwise well-executed rally.)

PW: “Yup. ‘Fish or cut bait,’ in the text.” (Note: PMO gave us the text of the speech two hours before the PM opened his mouth. Glasnost!)

MP: “Did he say it in English? I wonder how you say that in French.”

PW: (shrugs)

Cut to this morning’s Le Soleil, with this pull quote: “M. Dion doit décider s’il part à la pèche ou s’il retire l’appât.”

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Green IQ Quiz

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Click here to take the quiz.

you make the call (and then i ignore the call)

By Scott Feschuk - Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 6:15 AM - 0 Comments

This blog now embarks on its usual August siesta – a month devoted to using the latest in vacation technology (ie. beer) to wipe the mind clean of celebrity detritus, including the names of Brangelina’s children and the fact of Heidi Montag’s existence.

Speaking of Heidi… I am beginning to think that a man of my age probably should not actually know who she is, or why she’s semi-famous, or how last week her garbage cans were crammed with nothing but used teeth-whitening strips, empty wine coolers and puppy skulls.

Assuming this blog returns in September, the topic may change. But to what? Politics? Bigfoot sightings? The rising menace of killer robots that will one day enslave and slaughter us all in a blood-soaked robocalypse? A pan-cultural history of flans?

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michael jackson is trying not to draw attention to himself by going out in the middle of the day in PJs (worst. recluse. ever.)

By Scott Feschuk - Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 8:24 PM - 0 Comments

Michael Jackson seems frailer of health than ever – and his sense of style ain’t exactly in fine fettle, either.

Jackson – long ago deposed as King of Pop, but still recognized by most governments as Mayor of Crazytown and the Seventh Earl of Caucasian – was spotted recently being wheeled into a Las Vegas bookstore in pajamas, a doctor’s mask and a very garish trucker hat. For a second there I thought Ashton Kutcher had joined the cast of ER.

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BTC: Read his lips

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 7:46 PM - 0 Comments

Perhaps in hopes of reminding the Prime Minister when he might muster excitement, his speechwriters sprinkled exclamation points throughout tonight’s text. The words Mr. Harper was prompted to hit with particular enthusiasm were as follows: Done! Quebeckers! Government! Debt! Predators! Forever! Opposition! Word! Percent! Pensioners! Office! Trudeau! Claims! Taxes!

The most inspiring of these is surely that last one, Taxes! As in, “As long as I will be Prime Minister, as long as I have MPs like Jacques Gourde, there will be no new taxes.”

Thus does the PM’s pep rally climax. And thus does he make history, becoming surely the first politician to make a promise he’s already publicly broken. Continue…

Tapping the keg of outrage… again

By selley - Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 7:13 PM - 0 Comments

Few object to the way alcoholic beverages are sold in Ontario more than I do, as pretty much anyone who knows me can attest. From the endless queues to the clueless staff to the pitiful selection to the price, there’s very little that goes on at the LCBO and The American-, Belgian- and Japanese-Owned Beer Store (as I now call it, at the Toronto Star‘s suggestion) that hasn’t gotten me angry at some point or another. But I can honestly claim never to have been enraged by the simple question, “Do you have Air Miles?”

Not so the Dominion Institute’s Rudyard Griffiths. Time was, he wrote in yesterday’s National Post, he’d just politely decline. Now, he’s considering tattooing “I DO NOT COLLECT AIR MILES!” on his forehead. “It is bad enough that we can’t buy liquor and beer at the corner store like most Canadians,” he fumes*. “But to have a state-run company use its monopoly powers to market the product of a for-profit American business is deeply irksome.” He’s referring to whatever amount the LCBO pays Air Miles’ Dallas-based parent company to use it as a marketing gimmick—buy a bottle of Plonque Estates Pinot Noir and get 20 bonus miles, for example. (Griffiths says the figure is $20 million annually, an oft-quoted figure that’s just as oft-disputed by the LCBO’s friendly media people.)

On many levels, Griffiths is quite right. As he says, “it’s not as if the LCBO is competing with another booze retailer, heaven forbid, who is going to woo away its customers away by providing Air Miles.” Similar arguments were voiced in 1997 when Brewers Retail—now The American-, Belgian- and Japanese-Owned Beer Store—hired John Ratzenberger and George Wendt (pictured above right), at great cost, in a futile attempt to expand its monopoly. But the Air Miles arrangement is just a symptom of the LCBO’s most basic, bedrock absurdity: its mandate is essentially to sell as much alcohol to Ontarians as possible while preventing them from drinking too much of it. All the lesser absurdities are anchored in that bedrock, the way I see it, and I can’t really get too excited about them. Plus, I collect Air Miles.

But the really weird thing about Griffiths’ complaint is the fact that the Star ran a nearly word-for-word identical piece from him… a year ago to the day! Continue…

Oops! He did it again

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 6:51 PM - 0 Comments

John McCain continues his why-is-my-opponent-so-popular theme:

UPDATE: This return fire from Obama may yet turn out to be more significant, because I think the week has seen two competing memes, either of which could do serious damage if it takes hold: Presumptuous Obama vs., um, Really Bad Liar McCain. This ad feeds both (Who thinks it’s a good idea to tag the ads “Barack Obama. President.”?), but obviously it’s designed to push the second closer to a tipping point.

Incidentally it’s pretty clear the Obama camp turned their ad around in a lot less than a day. Who’s going to be agile enough to move that quickly in the next Canadian election cycle?

BTC: Summer reading

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 4:26 PM - 0 Comments

From McCain’s Promise by David Foster Wallace.

“Going Negative is risky. Polls have shown that most voters find Negativity big-time distasteful, and if a candidate is perceived as getting nasty, it usually costs him. So the techs all agree that the first big question is why Bush2000 started playing the Negativity card. One possible explanation is that the Shrub was so personally shocked and scared by McCain’s win in New Hampshire that he’s now lashing out like a spoiled child and trying to hurt McCain however he can. The techs reject this, though. Spoiled child or not, Governor Bush is a creature of his campaign advisors, and these advisors are the best that $70,000,000 and the full faith and credit of the GOP Establishment can buy, and they are not spoiled children but seasoned tactical pros, and if Bush2000 has gone Negative there must be solid political logic behind the move… Continue…

Ottawa buys up Washington

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 3:28 PM - 0 Comments

Just noticed on a local real estate blog that the Canadian government is taking advantage of the US real estate downturn to go on a little shopping spree in town — to the tune of one house and five condos apparently. This 4 bdrm/4bath 3,515 square foot house in leafy upper North West for $1.475 million had been assessed at over $2 million. And how could Ottawa resist: it’s located on Quebec Street.

Media funnies for a slow news day, Vol. I

By selley - Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 3:26 PM - 0 Comments

My old pal Sean, a Canadian expatriate in Budapest, logged onto CNN this morning to find Serb ultra-nationalists inexplicably venting their fury on the streets of Hungary’s beautiful capital city. Had they swum up the Danube under cover of night? Had Balkan politics, against all odds, just become even more complex? Thankfully, no—the riot was in Belgrade, just where it should have been. It was simply an editing-room mixup, as Sean documents for us below:

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The Icarus Principle at work!

By kadyomalley - Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 3:21 PM - 0 Comments

From the depths of the caucus stakeout in Quebec comes word that congratulations are in order for our favorite Conservative party spokesparrow:

From: Chelsie McIntee
To: Chelsie McIntee
Sent: Wed Jul 30 15:26:24 2008
Subject: Notice of Appointments / Avis de nominations

Doug Finley, Director of Political Operations for the Conservative Party of Canada, is pleased to announce the following appointments:

Effective July 1^st, Ryan Sparrow has been appointed Director of Communication for the Conservative Party.

Effective August 1^st, Geoff Donald has been appointed Deputy Director, Political Operations.

We wish both individuals great success in their new positions.

Best Regards,

Doug Finley

Director, Political Operations

National Campaign Director

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Dion gets in tank

By Mitchel Raphael - Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 2:46 PM - 0 Comments

Liberel leader Stéphane Dion checked out the Calgary Stampede fairgrounds.

Dion was with his wife Janine Krieber, who went as an all-black cowgirl.

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