Cosh, Kinsella, and JFK

NatPost columnist Colby Cosh recently made the mistake of buying a new computer game which allows you to re-create the assasination of JFK, and made the further mistake of writing rather gleefully about the game on his blog:

You can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you, Mr. President

“With the “chaos level” of the motorcade increased in the game settings, shooting the driver can create what I am obliged to describe as frankly delightful pandemonium; sometimes his weight falls on the gas pedal and the limo shoots off crazily into the distance, hitting a tree or jumping General Lee-fashion over the entrance to the Triple Overpass. Often the passengers end up flying through the air like ragdolls and dying without having even been wounded. (The ballistics report that follows the gameplay is careful to fill you in on stuff like that.)”

Now, Cosh took an enormous risk in writing such a post when the forces of political correctness are forever thoroughly marauding the internet. I am speaking, of course, of Warren Kinsella:

“A Canadian newspaper columnist has purchased the infamous “game” in which players get to assassinate John F. Kennedy…A game in which you get to murder John F. Kennedy (or George W. Bush, for that matter) isn’t even remotely “funny.” That is so obvious it barely merits saying. What isn’t obvious is why the columnist in question is still employed by a reputable Canadian newspaper. If I ran it, he’d be gone, and pretty damn quick, too.”

In sum: In Warren Kinsella’s world, people are fired for playing video games. I’ve heard of hard-ass managers, but this is ridiculous.

And rather amusing given the pride with which Kinsella wears the label “liberal.” I visited the game’s site, and was frankly repelled. My fiance empathized with the pain that such a game would inflict upon the Kennedy family. Certainly, I would neither buy nor play it myself, but it does not follow from this that I think people who do so should be fired from their jobs. Tolerance, putting up with that which you hate, is apparently an aspect of liberalism that is lost on Kinsella.

Not that we should be suprised by this, given his difficulty in applying labels to himself. For example: Kinsella identifies himself with the “Albertan Diaspora” which apparently exists in Ottawa. Except that a diaspora consists not simply in displaced peoples, but in a cultural and sentimental attachment of those peoples to the “mother ship.” Obviously Kinsella, given his propensity to turn his back on his native province, has no such attachment to Alberta.

More chatter on Alberta politics

For political junkies, nothing rocks more than leadership politics. Which is why Alberta is going to be such a hot item of discussion for the next while.

Which brings us to two new items. First, Klein failed to appoint Ted Morton to his new cabinet. Second, he brought back Rod Love as his chief of staff. Seemingly unrelated, these two developments are strongly intertwined and good news for the leadership aspirations of Morton.
[Read more]

Ukraine’s Future

Adam Yoshida presents a negative, but intriguing, interpretation of the events unfolding in Ukraine:

Are We Back in 1938?

“My expectation is that, at the present time, President Putin is waiting for some pre-arranged signal. Probably rioting by opposition protestors which spins “out of control” which will be followed by a request for the assistance of Ukraine’s Russian allies in the restoration of order. Then the tanks will come to Kiev like they did into Prague in ’68 and Budapest in ’56. And they won’t go home.”

Reflections on the Alberta Election

Was I hasty in the last post on the Alberta Alliance? Yes indeed. But election night was full of interesting tid-bits anyway. Here are a few observations, listed in order of importance.

1. Ralph Klein won a massive majority government, four in a row. No matter what wet blanket election-night commentators could find to toss on that accomplishment, it remains a remarkable one. As the Globe headlined the next day, “Klein goes out a winner.”
2. Ted Morton was elected for the first time with a massive lead in Foothills-Rockyview, the first step in his leadership campaign. We’ll see if Klein lands him a cabinet position.
3. Mark Norris was a frequently-mentioned potential successor to Klein. He was the only cabinet minister dumped. Too bad, one less challenger to Morton.
4. Of the three remaining candidates, Morton and Gary Mar are on their way to the Legislature. But where was Jim Dinning last night? Oh, thats right, Mr. Dinning does not need to earn the trust of the electors of any particular riding before he benevolently graces us with his leadership. Upon the given hour, he will ascend the premiership without having dirtied his hands in any sort of mucky democratic contest. How very, very lucky for us.
5. The two most prominent members of the Alberta “Firewalls Committee,” which masterfully stonewalled public consultations and rejected the Alberta Agenda recommendations, were dumped. So long Ian McClelland and Jon Lord. Maybe the Reform Party and Calgary municipal council respectively will have you chumps back.
6. Outside of Edmonton and Calgary, a transformation of the Alberta party system is occurring. In most cases, the Tories came in first and the Alberta Alliance came in second. The Liberals and New Democrats weren’t on the map. The Alliance won a single seat (in Cardston, suprise!) but were competitive in many more, particularly in Dunvegan.
7. The Liberals and the NDP increased their seat shares. In particular, the Liberals cleaned up in Calgary’s inner city ridings (with the exception of the downtown Buffalo riding) and took the Varsity university riding, which suprised Klein. With typical Liberal humility and virtue, the Liberal victor in Varsity celebrated his win by criticizing Klein for sitting down during the past leaders debate. Then again, who cares what the Alberta Liberals and NDs do.
8. Kevin Taft has one evil smile, but thats OK. The funniest moment of the night was during his speech when he was listing off the victorious Liberal candidates (the fact that he could do so in a reasonably short span of time is in itself fairly funny) and suddenly shouted, “MEEEEEEE!” before letting loose with one helluva cackle.

Parrish Gets Pruned

So finally Parrish gets a thigh strapping for her idiocy and leftist emotional anti-USA rants. It’s about time, talk about a loser statesman. It seems the only feat of political ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ this ridiculous mouthpiece has ever had is, well, her Bush bashing. ‘Lord, please give us some originality,’ some may pray, but they won’t find any in her. While her vocal disapproval of this subject is vilified by a good number of Canadians already, her comments on Kim Jong and Saddam seem to be muffled as I heard nothing of those.
[Read more]

UPDATE: Alberta Election Results

11 minutes after the polls close, and the CBC is showing an Alberta Alliance sweep!

Oh, those mischevious Medicine Hatters…

UPDATE: OK, that was fun. The first poll to report was one from Medicine Hat, and the Alliance was in front. In the meantime, the Tories have surged ahead and the Liberals have around four seats. But the Alliance has held on to Medicine Hat, and not by a slim margin. The Alliance has 150 votes to the NDP’s 20 and the Liberals’ 1. The Tories are not yet on the board. Is this just a deviant poll?

Probably, but it was fun while it lasted.

Beer Brouhaha

Platt provides an excellent, if crude, example of the organic culture that has developed in Alberta. Thousands of Albertan families, including my own, share in the folklore of the National Energy Program, which informs the thoughts and behaviors of Albertans to this day:

Beer brouhaha

“The mid-’80s were grim in this province, with crashing oil prices combining with fallout from the notorious National Energy Program to steal jobs, homes and businesses…

So here we are, nearly 20 years later, and Alberta is the envy of Canada, with plenty of good jobs, and workers who can afford any beer they want — beer that tastes even better with the spectre of layoffs gone.

Big Rock, the company that took a chance when most wouldn’t, offering jobs when others were handing out pink slips, is thriving too.”

Stewant and the Daily Show Whine like School Girls

Jon Stewart and his crew of fake newscasters over at Comedy Central’s, the Daily Show, have shown their true colours. I was able to ignore the show’s partisan bias previous to the US presidential campaign as they were generally doing some funny satirical comedy, but unfortunately Stewart and his band of democratic lackeys have picked the wrong horse and now they’re bitching and whining like a bunch of school-girls who didn’t get picked for the prom. Its a pathetic gesture from a group that has everything to lose by opening participating in partisan events.

No kidding, Stewart down over vote

Having voted for Sen. John Kerry, America’s most-trusted name in fake news couldn’t conceal his disappointment Tuesday night when he arrived at Comedy Central’s “Indecision 2004″ party at The Park.

Stewart had suggested last week that Bush, rather than Kerry, would give his show more material. But “Daily Show” correspondent Steven Colbert told us: “It’s not worth it. I’d happily be dull for four years instead.”

I’ll never watch the show again, will you?

Update:

Here is another perfect example of parody/satire crossing the line into partisanship.

BUSH-bashing cartoonist Garry Trudeau is in danger of having his “Doonesbury” comic strip dropped by papers across the country as he gets increasingly partisan. In the Oct. 30 strip, Trudeau had Vice President Dick Cheney say, “Tell him to go [bleep] himself,” an echo of the remark he made to Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy in June. Newspaper editors complained that neither Trudeau nor Universal Press Syndicate warned them about the line in advance. Some 20 papers pulled the strip, and some are considering killing “Doonesbury” altogether.

Last summer, a consortium of 38 newspapers decided to drop “Doonesbury” because its Republican-bashing generated so many complaints.

Out-of-step Americans

Paul Martin today called a caucus meeting and warned his minions against making “incendiary” statements in the wake of the US election result. “I know this sucks, but let’s just make the best of it, OK?” Way to go Paul, except that Carolyn Parrish skipped the meeting and, a few moments after its conclusion, traipsed into the House to deliver a “Member’s Statement” on the US election results:

Parrish: U.S. voters ‘out of step’

Now, “Member’s Statements” is usually a joyous time in the House, where MPs can congratulate pee wee hockey tournament winners and outstanding contributions to cheese festivals and other wonderful happenings in their ridings. Sometimes an MP will rise to say something to the effect of, “members opposite are nothing short of corrupt bandits and home-wreckers,” or, “members opposite are nothing short of sexless religious fanatics,” etc. etc.. But they are generally party-poopers; partisanship is on tap for Question Period, which immediately follows the statements.
[Read more]

Bush Supporters Lied to Save Skin During Election

Bush wins as Kerry finally (and thankfully) concedes. Now, a lot of people have been making noise over the extremely inaccurate results first reported from the exit polls early yesterday morning. Early in the day, the exit polls had pegged Kerry an easy win, but as the day fell to night, those exit poll results become more and more questionable. While I’m not here to preach to you the evils of conducting exit polls, I am however going to explain why those polls were so inaccurate and why Bush seemed to buck the losing trend.

First of all, the antics and the attitudes of many of the radical Democrats/Bush-haters, the Michael Moores of the world, Bruce Springsteen, Hollywood etc, had made the environment in many of the battle ground states nearly intolerable for anyone considering a vote for Bush. For an example of what I mean, look at what happened in New York and Milwaukee,

Leftist Violence Mars GOP Convention in New York City

Protesters were arrested for spitting on delegates as they entered the convention. A 63 year-old delegate from Mississippi told the New York Post he was physically blocked from entering the convention by protesters. “I don’t mind them demonstrating, but to spit on people is unbelievable,” he told The Post, after himself being spit on.

Vandals slash tires of 20 GOP vehicles

Milwaukee police were looking for a young white male suspected of slashing the tires on 20 cars and vans rented by Republicans to get out the vote.

And, in another case of vandalism, a wall at the Wisconsin GOP headquarters building in Madison was spray-painted with the words “Illegitmate Democracy” twice, a Republican official said.

These were not isolated cases – the hatred and vitriol levelled at President Bush and his core supporters is well documented (particularly in urban areas) and is certainly not hard to find while strolling the streets or reading the editorial page of your local newspaper. Imagine you’re considering voting for Bush while most of those around you have nothing but contempt for such a move. How likely are you to speak up if the perception of a vote for Bush is a vote for ignorance and backwardness? I’m not saying that these perceptions are true – they are obviously not – but for many, saying one thing (I’m voting for Kerry) and doing another (actually voting for Bush), was simply a way of avoiding the potentially embarrassing and often threatening attacks from Kerry supporters.

This is why many of those individuals who emerged from their polling stations yesterday openly lied to the exit pollers, who incidentally were more than eager to fill their predetermined media bias for Kerry, and chose to vote for President Bush. I suspect that many of these soft Republicans (and the undecided voter) when faced with the reality of four years of Kerry went with the gut feeling and voted Bush. They might not have admitted it to the exit pollers or even to their friends and family, but their choice is now clear: Bush easily won the popular vote – 51% to 48%.

Maybe now, after the dust of the election finally settles they’ll have the courage to admit to it.

Next Page »