Stephen Harper, it is now known, will visit the Governor General tomorrow morning. It is expected that Harper will ask her to prorogue Parliament (which is just a fancy way to say he will ask her to end the session). She should say 'no'. |
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I've been watching events this last week or so with keen interest. In part, of course, because I think that the proposed Liberal/NDP Coalition should happen - that it is very important that it does happen. But I've also been interested because two very important points have gotten lost in Harper's lies. |
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We've known that it is coming for a couple of weeks, but now it is official - there will be an election on October 14. While I'm always excited about elections, and I'm confidant my own party (the NDP) will do very well, I regret the basis on which the election was called by Stephen Harper. |
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It has been making news for weeks, but is now official: Buzz Hargrove has been replaced as President of the CAW today. |
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I was out for a short hike with a friend on the weekend and experienced a couple of interesting coincidences. |
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We are very often told about the importance of backing up your data. Like most people, I've relied on 20 years of experience which tells me that hard drives are very reliable and rarely fail. In fact, I've never seen a hardware failure in a drive during those twenty years. Until now. |
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Searching for political humour tonight, I found this video comparing the rhetorical skills of George Bush today and 10 years ago. There is a striking difference - he actually appeared to have something to say 10 years ago. He could speak English. The video suggests that he suffers from presenile dementia, and that this condition is responsible for his declining speaking ability. There is a longer article about it here. This would explain so much. |
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I've been hearing about a video Tom Cruise apparently did for the Church of Scientology, and decided to find it on YouTube. You can watch it here. Cruise is talking a lot of criticism for the video. Now I don't know much about Scientology, but I have to say that Cruise doesn't do a very good job selling it. If this was supposed to be a recruiting video, it misses the mark. His odd slightly psychotic laugh alone would send me running. And if mentions the words "scientology" or "scientology" even one more time. Having said that... His criticism, near the end, of prescription-crazy psychiatrists isn't entirely wrong. I'm not suggesting dianetics as an alternative, nor am I suggesting that medication isn't sometimes prudent and necessary, but psychiatrists can be too quick to medicate minor psychologist problems when other alternatives exist. |
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I've been paying more attention than I generally do to the American Primary elections, mainly those for the Democratic Party. As I've previously mentioned, I was disappointed to see Dennis Kucinich drop out so early. However, his leaving caused me to turn my attention to the other candidates. There appears to be a real surge in support for Barack Obama. Yesterday's endorsement from Ted Kennedy is a real sign of this surge - I would have expected him to endorse Clinton. I wonder if Kennedy's decision is about seeing a real opportunity for change in Obama - perhaps even a renewal in American politics that could erase some of the cynicism of the last couple of decades. Is Kennedy passing Obama the keys to camelot? I disagree with Obama on a lot of issues (though this is true of every remaining candidate for either party - they are all too "right" for me). However, if Obama can really incite the kind of change people are talking about - if he is the "real deal" - then that is a possibility worth getting excited about. Maybe Neal Young had it right. |
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As an alternative to traditional news sources, I've been watching The Real News Network for the last few months. |
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