Begin Each Day As If It Were on Purpose

THIS BLOG HAS MOVED

2010-10-05T20:52:00.000-04:00

Rondi's Got a Brand New Blog

2010-08-29T15:33:00.000-04:00

Hey folks -- it's kind of exciting! I have a new site. My blog is there along with some other stuff...I'm being suitably vague, because the other stuff is still "under construction," but the blog is up and running!!! And that's where you should check for Wonkitties 2.0. This site will stay up and its archives are linked at my new space. I just thought it would be easier to have everything in one cyber-spot. So please join me at my new home on the internets. Special thanks to my sister for putting it all together.

Mad Men This Week

2010-08-24T20:33:00.001-04:00

Best line was from Roger, referring to the Japanese Honda executives visiting the SCDP office -- "They won't know it's over till you drop the big one. Twice." It reminded me of when I lived in Japan, and my father told me he would only ever visit me there "in a B-52."
Best exchange -- between Don and Faye (I actually liked her this episode).
Don: Why does everybody need to talk about everything?
Faye: I don't know but they do and no matter what happens when they're talking, when they're done they feel better.
Anachronism -- use of the word "inappropriately" in reference to Sally's, er, behaviour.
Thing that most disappoints me -- the writing for Betty. It seems pretty lazy to relegate her to harpy-ness.

Further to My Midlife Crisis

2010-08-24T20:24:00.001-04:00

Pirlo bum. (Rondi wanna pinch it.)

(*Pinches.*)

(Both pictures from Sunday's Luigi Berlusconi Trophy in Milan.)

You Had to Know This was Coming

2010-08-23T09:42:00.001-04:00

Of course, the Ground Zero Mosque is a Zionist conspiracy!

A number of Al Azhar ulema expressed their opposition to building a mosque near [where] the events of September 11 [occurred], convinced that it is “a conspiracy to confirm a clear connection between the strikes of September [11] and Islam.” Dr. ‘Abd al-Mu‘ti Bayumi, a member of the Islamic Research Academy [of Al Azhar] told Al Masry Al Youm that he rejects the building of any mosque in this area [Ground Zero], because the “devious mentality” desires to connect these events [of 9/11] with Islam, though he maintains that Islam is innocent of this accusation. Instead, it is a “Zionist conspiracy,” which many are making use of to harm the religion.

Blasé Feral

2010-08-23T09:38:00.001-04:00

Hey human, I see you...

...and you bore me.

Gorilla Plays Nintendo

2010-08-21T08:50:00.001-04:00

Recently, at the San Francisco Zoo...

A little boy accidentally dropped his Nintendo DSi XL game system into the Gorilla habitat, drawing considerable interest from the residents who did their best to figure the device out. You have to love how quickly the gorilla seemed to work out how to hold it correctly and even at one point raise it up to its eye like a camera.

Photos and a short video clip here and here.

(H/T, Laurel.)

Dowd is Not Always a Twithead

2010-08-18T10:53:00.000-04:00

She sure nails it here.

Let me be perfectly clear, Mr. Perfectly Unclear President: You cannot take such a stand on a matter of first principle and then take it back the next morning when, lo and behold, Harry Reid goes craven and the Republicans attack. What is so frightening about Fox News?

Some critics have said the ultimate victory for Osama and the 9/11 hijackers would be to allow a mosque to be built near ground zero.

Actually, the ultimate victory for Osama and the 9/11 hijackers is the moral timidity that would ban a mosque from that neighborhood.

Our enemies struck at our heart, but did they also warp our identity?

The war against the terrorists is not a war against Islam. In fact, you can’t have an effective war against the terrorists if it is a war on Islam.

George W. Bush understood this. And it is odd to see Barack Obama less clear about this matter than his predecessor. It’s time for W. to weigh in.

This — along with immigration reform and AIDS in Africa — was one of his points of light. As the man who twice went to war in the Muslim world, he has something of an obligation to add his anti-Islamophobia to this mosque madness. W. needs to get his bullhorn back out.

(Emphasis mine.) Kudos to Dowd for giving credit to Bush...though I disagree with her that it is "odd to see Barack Obama less clear about this matter than his predecessor." Obama is less clear about virtually everything than was his predecessor.

My Samson is Getting his Mojo Back

2010-08-17T22:18:00.001-04:00

Alright, so the boyfriend is away on a LONG business trip and my midlife crisis is ongoing and so I had nothing to do but google pictures of my alternate-universe-boyfriend, who is finally back in action after his injury which totally screwed up ~~that thing I prefer not to think about since Italy did so badly~~ World Cup for me (and for him, I imagine). And I found these pictures of his first game back (Friday, in Bari). Now tell me -- and please keep in mind the absence of the boyfriend as well as the midlife crisis -- is it wrong that I am totally turned on by Drea's forearms and thighs...

...as well as by his hair? Is that so wrong?

My New Favourite Song

2010-08-17T16:51:00.000-04:00

Obama's Teleprompter Says...

2010-08-17T10:59:00.000-04:00

...(on Twitter, that is)...

Big Guy doesn't want Israel bombing Iranian nuke site; supports building a synagogue within a block of it, instead.

Follow Barack's Teleprompter on Twitter.

QBVII

2010-08-17T10:37:00.001-04:00

What a fine series. I remember watching it as a kid with my parents and not understanding it. Well worth the grown-up viewing. In a plus ca change sort of way, there is a scene where Ben Gazzara (hunk), Lee Remick and Dan O'Herlihy are leaving QBVII, and they walk up to a news kiosk. The headlines of the day read "Guerrillas raid Israel: 9 dead, many wounded." It is 1972 and Palestinian terrorists are attacking Israel. The conversation goes like this:

O'Herlihy: I suppose if Israel responds she'll be guilty of aggression.
Remick: Can't the United Nations do something to help that situation?
Gazzara: Nobody's going to help Israel. They have no oil.

(Emphasis mine.) The more things change...(And I love Remick's character's naivete, which, unbelievably, lingers in many to this day.)

Ferals with Cute Noses

2010-08-16T20:46:00.001-04:00

Eating.

Sniffing my bag.

I Wish I Could Believe...

2010-08-16T15:55:00.000-04:00

...that this sort of thing will pay dividends:

A group of eight American Muslim leaders have visited the Dachau and Auschwitz concentration camps to learn more about the Holocaust and to pay respects to its victims.

The excursion, which ran from August 8 through August 10, was organized by Marshall Breger, an Orthodox Jew who served as a senior White House official under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. The trip was co-sponsored by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a German think tank, and the Center for Interreligious Understanding, a New Jersey-based interfaith dialogue group, the Jewish Daily Forward reported.

In theory, it's a great idea. But I wonder if any convinced denier can ever truly be open. I think when you've been raised on a steady diet of lies and hatred, it is a rare person indeed who can reject what they've been taught. And if you weren't raised to be a denier or reviser, and yet you are one due to your own paranoia or bigotry, I wonder if you are redeemable. I am not saying it can't happen -- I just think it unlikely.

Former Holocaust denier Yasir Qadhi, the dean of academics at Al Maghrib Institute in New Haven, Conn., said the trip was eye-opening.

"Anybody who is a Holocaust denier should deserve a free ticket to see Auschwitz and Birkenau," he told the Jewish Daily Forward, "because seeing is just not the same as reading about it."

I think, in these situations, people know how to spew the right platitudes. And note that the above platitude is rather non-committal.

Mad Men This Week: Freddy Rumsen was Right!

2010-08-16T09:47:00.003-04:00

The best line last night had to be Alison's summing up of Don, "He's a drunk and they get away with murder because they forget everything." For those of us who have lived with and suffered at the hands of drunks...oh my, those words rang so true.
The best scene, I think, was that smile between Pete and Peggy when she was waiting for the elevator and he was schmoozing with clients on the other side of the glass (seriously, I got all teary as it was so beautifully done). They have a real bond and we saw it was still there when Peggy freaked over Trudy's pregnancy. (BTW, I love Trudy. What a great power wife!) I remember when Pete's father died, there was a moment when he looked longingly at Peggy across the office. It was obvious he wanted to talk to her, to go to her for comfort. But he choked and went to Don instead. (Going to Don Draper for comfort...bad move!) I don't think there's any romance down the line for Pete and Peggy -- at least I hope not because that would be too cheesy -- but I love that they have that closeness, in spite of everything.
Some other great scenes: 1) Peggy trying on Faye's engagement ring during the focus group...and Don noticing.
2) Freddy Rumsen being absolutely right (at least according to the SCDP focus group) -- after Peggy telling him his ideas were dated -- that women just want to get married and that this fact should be the spin used in the Pond's commercials.
3) Harry using a Yiddish word and Pete not understanding it. I gather Harry is learning these words from working in TV.
4) Pete paraphrasing LBJ.
Something becoming painfully clear: Faye is evil.

Irshad and Ayaan (and Fareed...)

2010-08-15T13:53:00.000-04:00

I'm not a Fareed Zakaria fan -- he is arrogant and overrated -- but he has Irshad Manji and Ayaan Hirsi Ali on his show RIGHT NOW. Put it on, if you are reading this!

What Divides Us

2010-08-13T12:36:00.000-04:00

I just found this -- it's from the G20 in June. I was so busy paying attention to my neighbourhood Starbucks being smashed by hippie idiots that I never noticed this photograph. It's hilarious -- talk about cultural differences. And of course, there is also the question of what the young woman is staring at...

Mad Men: Baby Boomer World View

2010-08-13T12:25:00.001-04:00

One thing I despise about the show -- the only thing -- is the ham-handed politics. I wrote about that here. I am finding it worse this season, and a perfect example could be found in the most recent episode, when Don and Anna are out with Stephanie, the hippie foreshadow/Berkeley undergrad. She briefly leaves the table and Anna says of her: "Young people are going to save us." Oh please! Knowing what we now know about the '60s and baby boomers all I could think was, "Au contraire, Anna. Young people are going to ruin us."
That said, there was one excellent exchange, where Stephanie, disgusted that Don works in advertising, says of what he produces, "It's pollution." Don replies, "So stop buying things."

Mad Men: "I Can't Fix Anything Else...

2010-08-09T13:25:00.000-04:00

...but I can fix this."
Thus spake Joan's husband last night -- the best line of the episode in my favourite scene from the episode.
One thing I appreciate about this show is that no one is entirely hateable. Just like real life (well, with some exceptions...). Joan's hubby had been portrayed as sort of a selfish sexist sort, previously, and also as an incompetent. But with that line he admitted his own shortcomings as well as his own desire to take care of his wife. (Plus, he proved competent at stitching up her hand.)

Law Would Ban Loveless Marriages

2010-08-08T17:37:00.000-04:00

Hilarious -- from the Onion, of course.

New Law Would Ban Marriages Between People Who Don't Love Each Other

Hope and Crosby, Prescient on Gay Marriage

2010-08-08T13:23:00.000-04:00

I'm watching the Road to Singapore. Hilarious. There's a great moment in the opening scene when Bing and Bob have the following exchange:

Bing: If the world was run right, only women would get married.
Bob: Yeah...Hey, can they do that?

Ground Zero Mosque

2010-08-08T10:28:00.001-04:00

Great piece by Tarek Fatah and Raheel Raza, in the Citizen.

New York currently boasts at least 30 mosques so it's not as if there is pressing need to find space for worshippers. The fact we Muslims know the idea behind the Ground Zero mosque is meant to be a deliberate provocation to thumb our noses at the infidel. The proposal has been made in bad faith and in Islamic parlance, such an act is referred to as "Fitna," meaning "mischief-making" that is clearly forbidden in the Koran.

(H/T, my sister.)
I like what Dennis Miller said the other night on O'Reilly. He said -- I'm paraphrasing -- that the fact that we will allow this mosque to be built says a lot about us, and the fact that the people behind this mosque want to build it says a lot about them.

Did the UN Just Pass Up on a Chance to Condemn Israel?

2010-08-04T11:57:00.000-04:00

There is hope, yet.
"Miracles will never cease. The United Nations, of all organizations, is actually backing Israel’s account of the border clash with Lebanese troops."
Time to buy a lottery ticket!

Mad Men: Freddy Rumsen is Back

2010-08-04T11:10:00.006-04:00

So glad to see Freddy Rumsen back on Mad Men this week. (I actually cried when he was fired from Sterling Cooper!) Hope he sticks around. My favourite part of this episode was the following exchange between Peggy and Freddy:

Peggy: I don't want to worry that every time I hurt your feelings you're going to start drinking again.
Freddy: Why don't you stop hurting my feelings?

I love their relationship.

This is a Bad Idea and I Blame Barack Obama

2010-08-03T20:59:00.000-04:00

It’s taken more than 60 years, but finally the U.S. government is sending a representative to the Hiroshima memorial service on August 6 in Japan. U.S. Ambassador John Roos will attend the event, along with diplomats from the United Kingdom and France, also a first.

On the surface, it is not a bad idea, actually. A healing gesture -- to use some smarmy lingo -- that honours -- more smarmy lingo -- the dead. But I think I know Japan well enough to know that this is going to be construed as an apology (one that is not owed). Unlike Germany, Japan has never owned its role in World War II -- and this will not nudge the country in that direction. This will be interpreted as a confirmation of the Japanese conviction that they were nothing more than victims of the war. And given that a certain American president sees fit to go around the world apologizing for stuff for which no apology is required (or for which it is not his place to apologize) I suspect he has had a hand in this decision. I am not impressed.

I Have New Respect for Elton John

2010-07-29T14:29:00.001-04:00

I'm so impressed. I mean, I used to think he was silly, because he is so over-the-top. Still, I figured he could be forgiven a lot because he wrote the music to The Lion King. But I've sold the guy short. First, he honours his concerts in Israel:

"Shalom, we are so happy to be back here! Ain't nothing gonna stop us from coming, baby," John said with a fist in the air.

The piano man then took a swipe at those artists, including Elvis Costello, Santana, the Pixies and Devendra Banhart, who have bailed on concerts in recent weeks.

"Musicians spread love and peace, and bring people together. That's what we do," he said. "We don't cherry-pick our conscience."

And now, he honours his concerts in Arizona:

Acts including Rage Against the Machine, Kanye West and Maroon 5 are all refusing to perform in the state until officials reverse the legislation, which gives Arizona police the power to arrest anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant.

But John has refused to join the protest - and he reportedly slammed the campaigners during a concert at the Tucson Arena in Arizona on Thursday.

According to the Arizona Daily Star, John told the crowd of 8,800: "We are all very pleased to be playing in Arizona. I have read that some of the artists won't come here. They are f**kwits! Let's face it: I still play in California, and as a gay man I have no legal rights whatsoever. So what's the f**k's with these people?"

Geez Louise -- time to download some Sir Elton onto my iPod (and not just The Lion King soundtrack).

Mad Men

2010-07-28T17:50:00.002-04:00

I've already posted a couple of times on the return of Mad Men, but I neglected to mention the one thing that really impressed me on Sunday. Don Draper, we learn, knows how to sew a button back on a shirt. In a conversation with his son, Bobby (played by, like, the fourteenth actor to play Bobby Draper), in which the latter informs his father that a button has fallen off his pajamas, Don says, "I'll sew it on in the morning." Bobby, surprised, says, "Do you know how to sew?" "I can do a button," says Don. "I'll show you." I found this very touching, and like many things in Mad Men, I found it touching for personal reasons. When I was a tween, I had to live alone with my father, for various reasons having to do with my parents' marital strife. 'Twas, for the most part, not great fun for me. And one of the things I remember most clearly was that my father would barge into my room on certain mornings with one of his shirts and a wayward button and ask me to sew the button back on the shirt. He was ever shocked when I would inform him that I didn't know how (this conversation frequently recurred, largely because of my father's limited listening skills). He assumed that because I had a vagina, I could sew a button. At that age, I couldn't. (Now I can, and then some.) My father couldn't sew a button either, even though he was well into his 50s back then, and even though it was the freakin' '70s, people! So Don Draper, Renaissance man of the early '60s, I salute you. I salute you not just for knowing how to sew your own damned buttons, but for showing your son this basic survival skill, as well.

Charcoal Feral

2010-07-27T14:58:00.001-04:00

Isn't this guy great? Both shots are from Sunday night.

Changing my Mind Yet Again

2010-07-27T12:57:00.001-04:00

A while back I wrote about the G20 and face coverings. But I've been thinking about what I wrote and thinking I was wrong. Ski masks/balaclavas, some types of motorcycle helmets and so forth are worn by males and females, children and adults and only on specific occasions. Burqas and niqabs are worn only by women and all the time when a woman is in public. Seems there is rather a difference, and perhaps a good reason to ban them in some circumstances. (That said, I still think it is legitimate to ban any face coverings at a political protest.)

Spain Makes Progress

2010-07-27T10:07:00.000-04:00

Love this editorial about the sickness that is bullfighting...

But bullfighting is not really a sport. It is a bloody spectacle invented before people had better things to watch. And surely right now, during this glut of victories, the Spanish have never had so many better things to watch.
Why watch a team of glorified slaughtermen play the odds when you can watch Nadal beat them? Why watch a matador when you can watch a Contador? Why watch toros, when you have Torres?
The Spanish have just woken up. Now it is time for them to smell the coffee.

...published just hours before this potential watershed moment occurs:

Catalonia could become the first mainland Spanish region to ban bullfighting in a local parliamentary vote this Wednesday that has pitted animal rights activists against fans of the centuries-old national symbol.

It's funny -- I didn't want them to win the World Cup because of bullfighting. I just felt, "they don't deserve to win anything as long as they are doing that garbage." And then I found out that their big star, Carles Puyol, is an anti-bullfighting activist! And it didn't bother me so much that they won.

Mad Men Numbers

2010-07-27T09:54:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately, they are not that great. I am truly puzzled. It is the best thing on TV.

About 2.9 million people tuned into to the premiere of season four of AMC's "Mad Men" on Sunday night to see Don Draper struggle to answer the question "Who is Don Draper?"

Although that number is a record for an episode of "Mad Men," it is an increase of only about 130,000 viewers from the Season 3 debut. Given the heavy hype for the show, that seems a little soft. However, "Mad Men" also picks up a lot of viewers who record the series and watch it later, so a clearer picture of its audience size won't emerge from Nielsen until later in the week.

The numbers, while lesser than AMC might have hoped, are still strong enough to become fodder for negotiations between the cable network and Lions Gate, which produces the show. The current deal for "Mad Men" is up at the end of next season, but Lions Gate wants to wrap up an extension sooner rather than later, according to Variety.

Mad Men

2010-07-27T09:49:00.000-04:00

On Sunday's episode, the media played a big role. In the episode's last scene, Don Draper is interviewed by a Wall Street Journal reporter. The current WSJ has its say about that, suggests a few questions of their own for the Mad Man, and offers a hedcut of Draper.

Oy!

2010-07-25T17:04:00.002-04:00

I am not surprised that Oliver Stone is a bigoted twithead, but still, these comments -- via Norm Geras -- are distressing:

The 10-part documentary [which Stone is planning] will address Stalin and Hitler "in context", he says. "Hitler was a Frankenstein but there was also a Dr Frankenstein. German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support."
He also seeks to put his atrocities in proportion: "Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30m."
Why such a focus on the Holocaust then? "The Jewish domination of the media," he says. "There's a major lobby in the United States. They are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has f***** up United States foreign policy for years."

Words fail, really. You know, I learned in high school about Russian suffering during World War II, numbers and all. I guess the "Jewish lobby" didn't manage to "control" my high school history teachers. And of course, the horror of the Holocaust is not merely to be found in the numbers. But hey, at least Stone concedes that Jews are "hard workers!"

365 Project Updated: I Missed Some Days...

2010-07-25T15:37:00.000-04:00

...but not many. Here is the 365 page, and here is a photo that didn't make it. It's from Pride weekend and it is of the "misting station" provided by the TD Bank.

I have realized a few things, looking at my 365 pictures: 1) I love food. 2) I love my pets and other animals. 3) I love my boyfriend. 4) I am a lousy photographer and 5) My quotidian is pretty mundane, but that is okay.

Speer und Er

2010-07-24T14:43:00.001-04:00

Speer und Er is a lengthy (about five hours) docudrama (see its imdb entry here) about Albert Speer's relationship with Hitler. I saw it years ago on Canada's History Channel, was rather blown away by it, and have been desperately looking for a DVD version of it that works in North America ever since. To no avail. (Someone on eBay had an Australian version.) I have even gone so far as to send three (count 'em, three) emails to the History Channel asking them when they were going to run it again so that I might tape it. Did they even bother to answer my pitiful pleas? Nooooooo. And honestly, I'm surprised. I mean, I can't be the only person out there who wants to watch a five-hour docudrama about history's darkest moment, can I?
If any of you know where I can buy a watchable version, or if any of you have any pull with the History Channel, do let me know.
Update: Yes, I know it's on YouTube. But I was hoping for DVDs.

Mad Men

2010-07-24T10:52:00.000-04:00

I'm absolutely over-the-moon excited about the return of Mad Men tomorrow. Here, the Citizen presents what it deems the top twenty Mad Men quotes. Not sure I agree entirely with the selection, though some are good. But my favourite by far has been left out. It was out of the mouth of Roger Sterling's mother, who said, "Enjoy the world as it is, Margaret. They'll change it and never give you a reason."
So true.
(H/T, Laurel.)

Animals at Play

2010-07-24T10:34:00.000-04:00

This is sweet, but not surprising. They're so like us. It's only too bad we're not that attractive. I'll bet they're thinking about that when they look at us!

Orangutans in zoos may enjoy watching us as much as we enjoy watching them, scientists believe.
Researchers found that the apes appear to be stimulated by the sight of gawping humans outside their enclosures.
In fact, a study of orangutan behaviour suggests that just like many of us they regard 'people watching' as a fascinating way to while away their time.
The discovery was made after experiments with five orangutans at Australia's Melbourne Zoo.
In the tests, the viewing window onto their enclosure was either left completely open or half covered. This gave the apes the option of hiding behind the concealed part of the window if they wanted to protect their privacy.
But far from avoiding the prying eyes of the public, they preferred to sit in full view looking back at the humans.
Figures compiled by the University of Melbourne showed that they spent four times longer watching people than they did out of sight and looking the other way.

Also not surprising is this story, especially to someone who watches feral cats a couple of nights a week. They definitely have play-time. Heck, my own cats engage in what I call "kitty boxing."

Gorillas play "tag" in a similar way to humans, scientists have discovered.

By studying footage recorded in zoos, the team found that the great apes would hit a playmate and then run away, chased by the gorilla they had struck.

Occasionally, the roles would then reverse, with the chaser hitting back, and then getting chased.

(H/T, Laurel.)

Fred Thompson on Twitter

2010-07-21T14:26:00.001-04:00

I know I've said this before, but seriously, you need to follow him now.
This is hilarious.

Navy uses laser to shoot down drone. Obama to only authorize its use on terrorists for corrective eye surgery.

Gen X Midlife Crisis

2010-07-21T12:26:00.001-04:00

Apparently, my generation is in full midlife crisis. Of course, there is no evidence of this on this blog, is there now?

A Mel Gibson-Inspired Perfect Gift...

2010-07-21T11:46:00.000-04:00

...for that raging misogynist anti-Semitic drunk in your life!

Russian Spies

2010-07-21T10:41:00.000-04:00

As some of you may recall, Pushkin has been thrice convicted of spying for the Russians. And with all these reports of Russian spies being arrested, I am concerned. Pushkin seems pretty defiant, though.

"You'll never take me alive, copper!"

Write Your Own Academic Sentence

2010-07-20T12:53:00.000-04:00

This is hilarious. I could have used it as an undergrad. I would have got better grades. What I love is that the page includes a built-in Virtual Critic to automatically review your work, as well as a Virtual Academic to write the sentence for you in case you are too lazy (i.e., in case you are a tenured prof somewhere!). Here's my first attempt:

The linguistic construction of post-capitalist hegemony invests itself in the discourse of power/knowledge.

Here's what Smedley, the Virtual Critic, had to say about it:

Your painstaking examination of the discourse of power/knowledge is a testimony to your diligence, if not to your perspicuity.

You know, I am related to several people who make a living writing this kind of stuff!

Wine + Rondi + Late Night + Google...

2010-07-17T17:15:00.008-04:00

...equals more pictures of the second sexiest man alive. But don't worry -- I promise this is my last post about him. Really. But I just had to say something. I had to say, Andrea, I f*****g love you. Why in the hay don't men who look like this ever sit next to me on a plane? (It's always some fat, wheezing guy.) Don't you just love his expression? This is a picture from the team's flight to South Africa and you can just tell he's thinking, "Man, I am too old for this!" Don't you just want to grab him and comfort him and kiss him and tell him, "But you're not too old for me!"? I do.

And here he is in a funny hat, though he carries it, of course. On him it's very Medici. Don't you just want to grab him and invite him home and bake vegetarian lasagna for him and take a great bite out of him? I do.

Question for Legal Types

2010-07-17T13:03:00.000-04:00

The media are currently full of stories from the G20, including many from young hippie punks who are complaining because "no one read me my rights" when they were arrested. But is that not an American thing, the Miranda warning? I didn't think we had that bit of procedure in Canada -- it's just something we think we have because we see it on Law & Order, yes? Lawyers out there -- am I right?

The Few, The Good, The Animal Lovers

2010-07-17T12:07:00.000-04:00

U.S. Marines save kitties. So sweet.

The Darkling Thrush

2010-07-17T12:05:00.001-04:00

I have been feeling a little down -- not sure why. This Thomas Hardy poem is a remedy:

I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter’s dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.

The land’s sharp features seemed to be
The Century’s corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.

At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.

Friends of Israel Initiative

2010-07-17T12:03:00.000-04:00

I lurves me some Jose Maria Aznar. Read about what he and some other European statesmen have created -- the Friends of Israel Initiative.

Burchill Asks Good Questions

2010-07-17T11:58:00.000-04:00

And no, I am not suggesting -- nor is Burchill, I think -- that Gibson's girlfriend deserved to be spoken to so horribly. But this is fair:

I thought of this when the most recent unravelling of Mel Gibson's rep came to light last week. Of course, he shouldn't have called his gorgeous Russian girlfriend a fat pig who deserved to be sexually violated by racial minorities, but on the other hand, what was SHE doing hooking up with a man already revealed as a rabid anti-Semite? And similarly, how hypocritical do the showbiz pals now turning on him look for standing by the creep the first time he was caught out? Are we to assume that, as they now appear to object to racism against black people, then they must to some extent have shared his prejudices against a minority who it is now acceptable in certain liberal circles to abuse: the Jews?

(Emphasis mine.) I do find that odd.

Burqa Ban in France

2010-07-17T11:52:00.000-04:00

I have, in my life, been lectured about women's rights and women's issues by male relatives (siblings, father). Extremely annoying. And I've noticed that, in regards the burqa ban, men are always spouting off. It's a bit rich. And no, I'm not suggesting that men shouldn't have a say about it, anymore than I would say they should have no say about abortion. But...it's a bit rich, is all I'm saying. Of course, a lot of French men just voted in favour of a ban, and a lot of women are silent on the matter. But some aren't -- one thing I find noteworthy is how many Muslim women favour a ban on niqabs/burqas. Among them the ever-wonderful Mona Eltahawy:

The French ban has been condemned as anti-liberal and anti-feminist. Where were those howls when niqabs began appearing in European countries, where for years women fought for rights? A bizarre political correctness tied the tongues of those who would normally rally to defend women's rights.

In the aforequoted article, Eltahawy quotes a female Saudi blogger, who also supports the French ban:

When I read that the ban has gone through the French parliament with an overwhelming majority, I was unexpectedly ecstatic about it. I don’t live in France and I don’t even to plan to visit anytime soon and yet it made me happy that women there don’t have a choice. Yes this is one area where I’m anti-choice. Covering the face is the very essence of objectifying women. With her face covered, a woman is reduced to an object that needs to be protected by a male guardian. For every woman who truly chooses of her own freewill to cover her face, there are hundreds if not thousands forced and pressured to by the religious establishment, family and society. Who would you sacrifice, that one woman who can manage to find God in something else or those hundreds, so that one can liberally choose?

Bastille Day

2010-07-14T05:41:00.002-04:00

Charles Trenet sings Douce France. I guess it is from a televison appearance of his in the Netherlands because the lady introducing him is speaking Dutch (I'm fairly certain -- that language that sounds like an odd blend of German and Arabic can only be Dutch, yes?).

And here's the Rachid Taha version -- perhaps more a reflection of France in 2010.

Crazy Mel Gibson Quotes Brought to You by Adorable Kittens

2010-07-13T15:14:00.002-04:00

Creative minds at work on the internets. These are Mel-Gibson-Crazy-Quotes-Misogyny Edition, by the way, as opposed to Mel-Gibson-Crazy-Quotes-Anti-Semitism Edition.

If You're on Twitter...

2010-07-13T15:06:00.000-04:00

...you seriously need to follow Fred Thompson now. His tweets are the best.

Even the Great Windbag Ought to Know Better...

2010-07-13T12:06:00.000-04:00

...than to say something this dumb. Either he is a complete dolt or he has the most tin political ear ever:

During the interview Wednesday, when confronted with the anxiety that some Israelis feel toward him, Obama said that "some of it may just be the fact that my middle name is Hussein, and that creates suspicion."

You know, when I first heard that he had said this, I thought it had to be a joke. I mean, it had to be, right? I thought someone had heard wrong or transcribed wrong or...at any rate, I double and triple-checked and lo and behold, he actually did say it.
Yes, that's right -- Israelis feel anxiety about Obama, because of his middle name. Never mind that they share their country with over a million Arab Israelis and never mind that they have shared their country with Arab Israelis since its creation and never mind that those Arab Israelis have equal rights with Jews (and never mind that nearly half of Israel's Jews are Sephardic and that prior to the crumbling of the Soviet Union and the outflux of Soviet Jews the Sephardic Jews made up, in fact, the majority of Jews in Israel). Never mind all of that. It's about Obama's middle name. Israelis are that petty and rigid. It isn't about the contempt with which he has treated Israel's Prime Minister, it isn't about his fawning all over Israel's enemies, it isn't about his listening to an anti-Semitic preacher for 20 years or about his tepid "support" for the Jewish state.
Good Lord. Can he possibly truly believe such a thing? If he does, this certainly gives us some idea of the contempt in which he holds Israelis.
I love Fred Thompson's tweet the other day:

Obama: US and Israel share an "unbreakable" bond. Obama should know. He's been trying to break it for months.

My Team May Have Bombed at World Cup...

2010-07-11T13:24:00.003-04:00

...but my team is still WAY HOTTER THAN YOUR TEAM.

You know of what the photograph above (of gli Azzurri arriving in South Africa) reminds me? (Ain't nothin' but a heartache!) Compare and contrast:

Diego Forlan

2010-07-10T14:20:00.000-04:00

Are my boyfriend and I the only ones who suspect Diego Forlan is the grandson of a Nazi war criminal? (Btw, Forlan was born on the exact same date as the second sexiest man alive.)

Weekly Groceries Around the World

2010-07-10T13:33:00.000-04:00

I think this (which is making the Twitter rounds) is supposed to make us feel guilty about being fat white people. And indeed, when one sees what a family in Chad spends and eats, it is shaming. That said, what struck me most about this comparison was which families ate the most fresh fruit and vegetables -- some of the poorer people do, making them, in my books, better off in one way. (And no, I'm not romanticizing poverty. Just making an observation about health and diet around the world.) Of course, some people from wealthier countries eat lots of produce as well -- Italians, for example, and Kuwaitis.

Equalizing

2010-07-10T12:57:00.001-04:00

I don't think Canada's hate speech laws are necessarily that great a concept (charging someone because of their thoughts seems odd and difficult to enforce), but at least the love is getting spread around a little more fairly these days.

Over the past three years, Salman Hossain has openly called for terrorist attacks in Canada, cheered the killing of Canadian troops in Afghanistan and urged fellow Muslims to “exterminate” Canada’s Jewish population.

When police started showing up at his suburban home in Mississauga, Ont., in 2007, he was not chastened. He wrote that he “honestly got a kick out of pissing off the RCMP.... HAHAHA.... You can’t charge me for possessing a thought.”

Canadian authorities have apparently heard enough of Mr. Hossain’s thoughts. Ontario Provincial Police have scheduled a news conference for Thursday afternoon to announce the results of a lengthy investigation into the young extremist.

He is expected to face charges of promoting hatred and, quite possibly, advocating a genocide. If so, it would mark the first time an advocating genocide charge has been prosecuted in Canada. The charges relate to hundreds of racist comments Mr. Hossain has posted on the Internet.

I am concerned about giving smug little losers like this legitimacy through such charges and attention, but on the other hand, my wells of sympathy for this punk run rather dry.
Read the story.

I'm Not Entirely Sure, but...

2010-07-10T12:50:00.000-04:00

...I think Sean is happy about the new Kylie Minogue album. You see? That's what makes him happy and this is what makes me happy.

Hellooooo Ladies!

2010-07-10T12:46:00.001-04:00

I told you I had my ovaries peeled for crotch shots of the second sexiest man alive. This is also from a Dolce shoot.

Training Day

2010-07-08T14:42:00.003-04:00

Here's the second sexiest man alive training for the Italy-Slovakia match. (Picture was taken in South Africa just over two weeks ago.) Yes, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "I still can't believe Slovakia beat Italy." You may also be thinking, "This is a crotch shot, Rondi." Why yes, it is. I've had my ovaries peeled for one for a few days now.
Sigh.

Just When you think Judy Rebick Couldn't be More of a Twit...

2010-07-08T14:33:00.000-04:00

...she writes this:

My heart was breaking this morning reading the report on Omar Khadr's decision to fire his lawyers in protest over the horrors he is being subject to in what he considers to be a rigged trial...
I am hopeful that Omar Khadar will emerge from this nightmare as a strong and powerful figure along the lines of Nelson Mandela...
In any case I will give a shout out for him on Saturday, for his suffering and for his courage and dignity in face of the most unimaginable abuse and horror.

Robert Byrd: Who Knew?

2010-07-08T14:29:00.001-04:00

He was a passionate defender of animals. May he rest in peace.

Unseen Great Escape Drawings Discovered

2010-07-08T14:24:00.000-04:00

These previously unseen cartoons form an amazing day-to-day diary of life in the Prisoner of War camp immortalised in the Hollywood classic The Great Escape.
They were drawn in 1944 by an American air force serviceman being held in Germany's 'escape proof' Stalag Luft III.
And they formed part of a war time log compiled just weeks after 50 allied POWs were executed on the orders of Hitler for staging the breakout which was later featured in the 1963 Steve McQueen movie...

The pencil and crayon drawings along with pages of poetry were written by 2nd Lt John M Bridges of Alabama who was captured by the Luftwaffe after being shot down over Germany.
The journal was acquired by a former WW2 Polish navigator after the war ended in 1945 and was found during a house clearance in Oxfordshire.
It is now due to go under the hammer at Frank Marshalls auctioneers in Knutsford, Cheshire, on July 6 with a guide price of between £1,000 and £1,500.
Nick Hall, principal auctioneer and valuer, said today: 'This journal gives a fascinating glimpse into what life was like in one of history's most notorious prisoner of war camps. It showed how humdrum life must have been in the camp but made far worse by the fact the inmates knew their comrades had been murdered by the Nazis.
'The cartoons illustrate the amazing resilience and humour of those POWs despite knowing what happened after the Great Escape. It is often said the British has a stiff upper lip during that era but the content of this journal showed the Americans had an element of that too.'
Lt Bridges began writing in his journal after being given the book with the permission of the Nazis by a YMCA aid group which helped POWs cope inside the camps during WW2.
In an accompanying letter saying: 'Dear Friend', the YMCA said: 'This is intended to be kept as a permanent souvenir of the present unpleasantness.

(Emphasis mine.) The present unpleasantness. You have to love that. Read the story and have a look at some of the drawings.

Naked Face

2010-07-07T10:58:00.001-04:00

I came to one sure conclusion after the G20 -- I wrote about it for Libertas Post.

Is This Much Pretty in One PIcture even Legal?

2010-07-04T18:38:00.000-04:00

Yet another photo of the second sexiest man alive, this time from a 2008 Dolce & Gabbana calendar that featured Italian soccer hunks.
(He's the one on the left. Alberto Gilardino, the fellow next to him, ain't shabby either.)

July 4th

2010-07-04T17:53:00.001-04:00

Listen to Walt Whitman's voice for Independence Day! Seriously -- apparently this is him reading a few lines from "America."

Idiot CP-24 Commentators

2010-07-04T15:38:00.000-04:00

They're hosting the Pride Parade and their two anchors are discussing -- to the best of their limited intellectual abilities -- the debate about having Queers Against Israeli "Apartheid" present. "Israel," they both take turns saying, "is one of the few countries in the Middle East where something like this parade could take place." I believe the female anchor said, "Israel is one of the few, if not the only..." (Emphasis mine.) I suppose the latter comment is slightly less moronic but I'd like to ask them to name the other Middle Eastern countries where a Pride Parade would be allowed.

I Don't Know Exactly What He is Saying, but I Want to Console Him

2010-07-02T14:22:00.001-04:00

I understand about 70% of this. But mostly what I understand are his doe eyes...The second sexiest man alive -- my boyfriend is first -- talks about Italy's defeat last week. He looks so sad, poor baby.

The Gazette Nails it

2010-07-01T17:45:00.001-04:00

The Montreal Gazette nails it about the G20 nonsense:

But we saw no police over-reaction. It was stupid for the Ontario cabinet furtively to authorize extraordinary police powers, and we're glad the Canadian Civil Liberties Association will challenge the decision, though it has now expired. But police comported themselves well, as far as we could tell. They did arrest 900, but almost all were released without charge. A Toronto columnist quoted one arrested protester heard on CBC Radio complaining that she'd been given only inferior "bread with a piece of cheese, which proves to me I live in a fascist police state." Oh yes? What would she call Iran, then? Another complained that there was no vegan food in jail.

I took many pictures of the damange in my 'hood. One of the "peaceful protesters" left their deep and meaningful sign next to the fruits of their actions -- and yes, I think the "peaceful protesters" were complicit with those who actually bashed in windows. They certainly provided them cover, didn't stop them (in spite of their overwhelming numbers) and in some cases apparently egged them on. So I would say this was all done "in their name."

Ferals for Canada Day

2010-07-01T17:37:00.001-04:00

Some cool Canuck cats for July 1st. (That's my backpack behind the first guy.)

Police Brutality in Toronto

2010-06-29T15:24:00.001-04:00

I didn't want to believe it, but oh, the humanity! Yes, it's true, in our fair city, police bru...well, it's brutality, that is for sure. But I think it's from the "protesters" (protesting what, exactly?) towards the cops. Absurd. These are kids with too much spare time and not enough worries, wasting the time of cops and citizens who aren't morons. Gen Y-ers, mostly (from the looks of them), likely raised by the equally odious Boomers.

Back at the Helm

2010-06-29T10:26:00.001-04:00

Sorry folks -- between mourning gli Azzurri and answering the many (all nice, for a change) emails I got for my recent story and then dealing with the G20 idiot protesters nonsense and then dealing with a migraine I got Sunday (which is now dissipating, thankfully), I have not been blogging. Hope to be back later today or at the latest, tomorrow morning. I have some weekend pictures of the damage inflicted on this city by the hippie punks, for starters. In the meantime, here is a tribute -- for I grieve still -- to the very-missed Italian soccer hunks. (None of them are as hunky as the also-Italian beau, of course, but they sure made World Cup more, er, watch-able.)

Andrea, We Hardly Saw Ye

2010-06-25T18:56:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. I have been too sad.

My Latest

2010-06-21T14:32:00.001-04:00

...at the National Post.
The saddest sight for me at the recent, dopey pro-Hamas rally in TO was this -- the Turkish flag.

Men in Kneesocks

2010-06-21T11:46:00.002-04:00

The one thing I'll take away from the World Cup is that if a grown man's thighs are sufficiently magnificent, not only can he get away with kneesocks, he can make them look fab. (Don't try this look at home, non-high calibre soccer playing men. Believe me -- with the exception of bagpipe players, none of you can work kneesocks.)
See below Italy's Andrea Pirlo, the man who, after my boyfriend, is the hunkiest man in the universe. (If the bf dumps me I may have to start stalking Pirlo.) Pirlo is currently sidelined with an injury, though the Italian coach may bring him back for Thursday's game, given how poorly Italia has been performing without him.

One thing that could improve this look? Shorter shorts...but again, only on players of high calibre soccer.

C'est Tellement Français

2010-06-21T09:40:00.002-04:00

This is so French -- the big, silly, moody, babyish hissy fit they're having smack dab in the middle of the World Cup. It involves swearing at each other and throwing badges to the ground and the stamping of the feet and people resigning "in disgust" and players refusing to practice and...ah, que c'est Français. Mais c'est l'absurde!
I imagine these kinds of things go on all the time at international sporting events, but the French, of course, have managed to turn it into headlines.

Meow Mix Commercial?

2010-06-19T14:11:00.000-04:00

One of the ferals positions himself by the food. I guess he didn't feel I was getting his dinner quickly enough and wanted to drop a (heavy) hint.

Some Spaniards Have Balls

2010-06-19T08:41:00.000-04:00

And I don't mean the World Cup team. I mean José Maria Aznar:

In an ideal world, no state, let alone a recent ally of Israel such as Turkey, would have sponsored and organised a flotilla whose sole purpose was to create an impossible situation for Israel: making it choose between giving up its security policy and the naval blockade, or risking the wrath of the world.

In our dealings with Israel, we must blow away the red mists of anger that too often cloud our judgment. A reasonable and balanced approach should encapsulate the following realities: first, the state of Israel was created by a decision of the UN. Its legitimacy, therefore, should not be in question. Israel is a nation with deeply rooted democratic institutions. It is a dynamic and open society that has repeatedly excelled in culture, science and technology.

Second, owing to its roots, history, and values, Israel is a fully fledged Western nation. Indeed, it is a normal Western nation, but one confronted by abnormal circumstances.

And I mean Pilar Rahola:

Why is the left in Europe and around the world obsessed with the two most solid democracies, the United States and Israel, and not with the worst dictatorships on the planet? The two most solid democracies, which have suffered the bloodiest attacks of terrorism, and the left doesn’t care.

Appel du 18 Juin

2010-06-18T13:12:00.001-04:00

It is the 70th anniversary of that historic call to arms. I learned about it not in school in Canada, but from my little charges when I was an au pair in Paris. I have TV5 on right now and the French are having a ceremony -- they are quite good at this -- and Sarko is out and about.
The actual appel was not taped, unfortunately, but here is de Gaulle about a month later, making a similar attempt to encourage bravery and decency from the French. (Goodness, French is lovely when spoken properly.) I prefer to think of de Gaulle this way, rather than the way he was in the 1960s.

World Cup

2010-06-18T12:24:00.000-04:00

I love the hunky men (there is something to be said for non-bagpiping adult men who can get away with kneesocks), and am hoping for a swarthy final. Of course I'm rooting for Italy, but failing that, other hunky teams will do. The brilliant folks over at Stuff White People Like have their say about white fondness for the World Cup, and the Onion has a great take on the vuvuzela.

Members of the South Africa Vuvuzela Philharmonic Orchestra, widely considered to be among the best large-scale monotonic wind instrument ensembles in the world, told reporters Friday they were furious over the recent outbreaks of international soccer matches during their traditional outdoor concerts.

"I cannot imagine what is getting into these football teams that they would suddenly begin full-scale international competition just when we are beginning our 2010 concert series," said Dr. Stefan Coetzee, the Philharmonic's program and concert director. "It is disrespectful to the performers, it is disrespectful to the music itself, and by extension, it is disrespectful to the great nation of South Africa."

Spontaneous high-caliber soccer games have thus far plagued every orchestral vuvuzela performance of the season, which opened June 11 at Cape Town Stadium. As musicians took their places in the stands and began warming up for the evening's performance of lighter pieces by post-minimalist composers, they noticed the audience was not sitting in its traditional place in the stadium's central area.

These People Need to Buy Dictionaries

2010-06-18T09:58:00.000-04:00

As 23 recipients of various awards and honours from Pride Toronto over the years, we have gathered today in protest against their decision to effectively ban the queer human rights group ‘Queers Against Israeli Apartheid’ from marching in the parade.

We are returning our various awards and honours in protest of this ban and of censorship. We will accept them back when Pride Toronto rescinds the ban and returns Pride to the free speech traditions upon which it was founded.

This is not "censorship." Censorship is when the government prevents something from being said/written/shown or prevents someone from speaking. This is an organization saying that a certain group can't march in their parade. There is no one preventing the Queers Against Israeli Apartheid from standing two feet away from the parade spouting their nonsense.
(I really tire of this argument -- I hear it from certain people when I delete their comments from my Facebook page or from my blog. "You are censoring me," they will whine. No I'm not. I'm editing them off my page. I am not preventing them from saying whatever the hell they want on their own page or blog or elsewhere.)
What I find rich is James Loney, who had been held hostage in Iraq, joining up with these clowns.

My partner Dan and I received the Pride theme award in 2006, Fearless, just three months after my return from Iraq where I had been taken hostage by Iraqi insurgents in the course of doing human rights work in Iraq and held for four months. One of my biggest fears was that my captors would discover my sexual orientation. If they had, it is very possible I would not be standing here in front of you today. To ensure that did not happen, Dan had to become invisible and silent. He describes it as an excruciating experience, being unable to speak for me, having to hide this vital part of his identity, living with the constant fear that our relationship might be discovered.

(Emphasis mine.) Does Loney see no irony here? Had he been held hostage by Israelis, he would not have had to hide his orientation. But of course, he never would have been held hostage by Israelis.
What a twit. A twit among many other twits.

Fox News North

2010-06-16T13:41:00.000-04:00

It seems to me there are two main arguments being bandied about against Pierre Karl Peladeau's proposed SunTV/Fox News North station.
1) "There is no audience for it." So what? There is no audience for the CBC either. Our public broadcaster gets lousy ratings. No one watches (yet we are forced to pay).
2) "Canadians would never be capable of making a station like that." This is being said in the "positive" sense -- i.e., no Canadians could be aggressive and ranting a la Glenn Beck, blah blah. Nonsense. Plenty of leftists in this country are aggressive and ranting a la Glenn Back. Further, I think this criticism is true in another sense, a more negative sense. I think Canadians are indeed not capable of putting something like Fox together, because we don't have it in us to be as professional and impressive as the teams at any of the U.S. networks or cable stations. Even their worst offerings are better than our best. I've been on both U.S. and Canuckistan TV and radio and I can tell you that the differences are like night and day, professional operations versus Mickey Mouse/kiddy operations.

Such Lovely People

2010-06-16T08:58:00.000-04:00

I can see why the left has adopted them as their cause celebre.
Two Somali football fans have been killed by Islamic militants after being caught watching World Cup matches.

The deaths happened on Saturday near the capital Mogadishu when members of the Hizbul Islam group stormed a house where people were watching Nigeria play Argentina.

A further 10 people were arrested by the group, which has imposed a strict version of Islam in the areas they control in southern and central Somalia.
The following night, another 30 people including a 15-year-old boy were arrested as the watched the Germany-Australia game in two private homes in the town of Afgoye.

A spokesman for the group, Sheikh Mohamed Abdi Aros, said the rest of Somalia should respect their ban on the World Cup – the first to be hosted in Africa – and focus instead on "pursuing holy jihad".

I Should Try This

2010-06-16T08:55:00.001-04:00

Blackmail always seems to work for certain people. I could threaten to blockade one square foot of Bloor Street or something.

The federal government is set to give aboriginals a major concession on Ontario’s new harmonized sales tax, amid threats that protesters will “shut down the country” when it plays host to world leaders at the coming G8 and G20 summits.

Until this month, Ottawa had ignored natives’ pleas for a provincewide point-of-sale exemption from the HST after it takes effect on July 1. But with native leaders set to plan protests that could include outright blockades, federal and provincial officials engaged in a frantic round of negotiations.

Sources say that an 11th-hour deal to give aboriginals the exemption is now imminent, and that it was the spectre of major disruptions that forced Stephen Harper’s government to come to the table.

How Cute is this Fella?

2010-06-16T08:46:00.000-04:00

Beyond cute. He is blind in his wonky eye, but the vet insists the eye doesn't cause him physical pain. I love this guy.

Bob Rae has his Moments

2010-06-15T14:44:00.000-04:00

Too bad he doesn't have more of them and too bad he insists on supporting the U.S. war deserters. But this is excellent:

The comments of Ms. Davies are more than just a ‘serious mistake,’ as the Leader of the NDP now maintains. To deny the State of Israel’s right to exist and to propose an international campaign of boycotts, divestments and sanctions against a legitimate member of the world community for over sixty years is to reveal a level of hostility and ignorance that is truly breathtaking.

These are not the off-the-cuff ramblings of any ill-informed or biased person. Ms. Davies is the Deputy Leader of a political party that aspires to reflect and represent the views of Canada on the international stage. In this role, fully cognizant of her responsibilities, she stated that Israel has been occupying territories since 1948, the year of its independence. The logical implication of these comments is that Israel has no right to exist.

She called this ‘the longest occupation in the world.’ That is simply untrue, and reflects a complete disregard for the facts.

This is a position that is more than just ‘unacceptable.’ This rhetoric is responsible for more than ‘confusion,’ and an ‘inadvertent error,' as Ms. Davies now suggests.

The appropriate decision, given her stature and responsibilities with the NDP, is for Mr. Layton to ask for her resignation as Deputy Leader and for Ms. Davies to issue an apology to all Canadians. Nothing short of that will do.

Novel Approach

2010-06-15T09:28:00.000-04:00

Saw this sign in Kensington the other night. I hope this person finds love. Actually, I wish that for everyone. (Except really bad people.)

Birds Moult, Cats Shed

2010-06-14T21:40:00.000-04:00

I was talking to someone about one of the ferals, commenting that she was having difficulting moulting. I was told that birds moult, cats shed. Ok. But this poor old girl below is having a heck of a time ~~moulting~~ shedding her winter coat! She is one of my favourites, so we're keeping our eye on her and if she still looks this bad in a couple of days we'll try and trap her and have her groomed. She won't like the process but she'll like the outcome.

Here she is enjoying her dinner and giving me a great glare.

Munk Debates

2010-06-14T21:18:00.001-04:00

I attended the Munk Debate last week. (I get to go to these things because my boyfriend is one of the organizers. Otherwise I would have stayed home and watched the Bachelorette.) It was a great night, much better than the one where that odious Elizabeth May made a fool of herself (though I did enjoy watching her fury as her mic was turned off). The four gentlemen on stage were all that -- gentlemen --- and they were all experts in their field. I learned a lot. I also played Spot the Canadian "Celebrity" with the people next to me. We spotted my close personal friend Steve Paikin! Very exciting. He snubbed me at the reception, though. I waved at him and he walked away. Of course it is possible he didn't see me, but it's more entertaining for blog purposes to assume the worst. (Notice also in this picture another Canadian "celebrity" -- Allan Gotlieb.)

See how good my seat was? I was right above the stage. I had a great view of the debaters' backs. All the guys had nicely ironed jackets. That's important in a debate.

365 Project Updated: I Missed a Day

2010-06-14T16:28:00.001-04:00

Darn. I missed May 29. I don't know why. I just forgot to take a picture that day. But the rest are all up, including this picture from June 2nd. I decided, after the Mavi Marmara incident, to make a point of wearing my Israel t-shirt -- as well as my IDF t-shirt -- to the gym as frequently as possible.
My 365 page is here.

This Should Feed the 9-11 Conspiracy Nuts

2010-06-14T11:56:00.001-04:00

Afghanistan has nearly one trillion dollars in mineral deposits, according to a US study, but there are doubts the war-torn and graft-prone country can manage the windfall offered by the untapped riches.
President Hamid Karzai said in January that the deposits could help the war-ravaged nation become one of the richest in the world, based on preliminary findings of the United States Geological Survey.
The final results, reported in the New York Times Monday, found previously unknown reserves of lithium, iron, gold, niobium, cobalt and other minerals that the paper said could transform Afghanistan into a global mining hub.

Already, one of my nuttily-inclined Facebook friends has stated that the United States must have known about this prior to 9-11. Get it? GET IT?? That means the U.S. had a hand in 9-11, because they wanted a pretext to...
Good Lord. How can people be so stupid? Well, many of them are, and this news will surely feed them. Yikes.

Musicians in Israel

2010-06-14T11:49:00.001-04:00

I posted a while back about Elvis Costello cancelling his concerts in Israel. Interestingly, his wife has not yet cancelled her concerts in Israel in August.

The action by the Pixies comes in the wake of Elvis Costello's recent cancellation of a concert in Israel, objecting to the country's treatment of Palestinians. Costello's wife, Canadian jazz pianist Diana Krall, is still expected to perform in Israel this August.
Other artists, including Rod Stewart and Elton John, are still planning to go ahead with their Israeli concerts this summer.

(Emphasis mine.) Who in the hay are the Pixies?
I hope Krall doesn't behave like a Canadian twithead and follow her husband's lead. I would be very pleased if she turned out to be way too good for him. She's certainly too attractive for him, and I think probably too talented, as well. She hasn't built her career on contempt for the opposite gender, which Costello certainly has (this is why men love him). Except for "New Amsterdam," I don't think he has written anything worth one's time.

Libby Davies: Wow...Just...Wow

2010-06-10T15:56:00.000-04:00

Is she related to Helen Thomas? Good Lord -- stupidity and hatred from Libby Davies, federal MP for Vancouver East. Davies is NDP -- I would caution the Liberals to think very carefully about hooking up with a party where such a clown feels at home.
This interview took place on June 5th at an anti-Israel protest in Vancouver. The sound isn't great, but Davies says at the start of the interview that she believes the "occupation" of "Palestine" by the Jews began in 1948, not 1967. She also goes on to reveal, not surprisingly, that she knows little about the issue. Watch how defensive she gets with the journalist, who is merely asking her valid questions given that she attended this silly protest in the first place.

Fukuyama: Obama Misunderstood his Mandate

2010-06-09T11:51:00.001-04:00

I just finished editing a speech Francis Fukuyama gave in Toronto last week. Here's a timely quote:

I think that it’s gotten worse [polarization of debate] since Obama was elected because I think he fundamentally misinterpreted the meaning of the election in 2008. And I have to admit that I also was victim of the same kind of illusion because I thought, we’re coming to the end of a long period of conservative Republican hegemony, we are exiting it in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and therefore, like the 1932 election that brought Roosevelt to power, this is going to be one of these big realigning elections where the whole country is going to swing to the left.
It turns out that was completely wrong.
In fact, Karl Rove at the time of the election said America is still a centre-right country and he was correct. In retrospect, if you look at Obama’s margin and who voted for him it was not based on the mobilization of any new voters. It was all independents and centrists that were sick of George W. Bush. They were not voting a mandate for a big swing in a progressive direction but I think that’s the way Obama interpreted it.

Today's WSJ has an oped from Dorothy Rabinowitz saying virtually the same thing:

Those qualities to be expected in a president were never about rhetoric; Mr. Obama had proved himself a dab hand at that on the campaign trail. They were a matter of identification with the nation and to all that binds its people together in pride and allegiance. These are feelings held deep in American hearts, unvoiced mostly, but unmistakably there and not only on the Fourth of July.
A great part of America now understands that this president's sense of identification lies elsewhere, and is in profound ways unlike theirs. He is hard put to sound convincingly like the leader of the nation, because he is, at heart and by instinct, the voice mainly of his ideological class. He is the alien in the White House, a matter having nothing to do with delusions about his birthplace cherished by the demented fringe.

If Obama were as smart as Bill Clinton, he could self-correct, as Clinton did after the 1994 mid-terms. But I'm not convinced he is.

Helen Thomas Retires...

2010-06-07T12:38:00.000-04:00

...many years too late. I stole that. Shortly after Arafat died, the Oxblog, I believe, posted the headline, "Arafat dies 50 years too late" or something very close to that.

Helen Thomas: Wow...Just...Wow

2010-06-07T10:04:00.000-04:00

Maybe she should go back to Tripoli? (Shall I go "back" to Offaly?)
Apart from the odiousness and hatefulness of this comment, there is, of course, extreme stupidity...and just for the record, until the Soviet Union opened up, the majority of Jews in Israel were Sephardic. Should they go back to Morocco, Syria, Libya, Tunisia...gosh, Helen might find herself living side-by-side with one of them if she went back to Tripoli! I'm sure she'd love that.

D-Day

2010-06-06T18:43:00.000-04:00

For my uncle and all the other heroes:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

2010-06-06T17:19:00.001-04:00

I recently read Flight of the Intellectuals, by Paul Berman, which focuses on the questionable treatment by Western intellectuals of two prominent Muslims: Tariq Ramadan and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. That treatment has been too fawning in regards the former and cynical and dismissive in regards the latter. Some painful examples of how true Berman's argument is in Hirsi Ali's: 1) a Toronto Star article in which Hirsi Ali is described as "recklessly determined to speak out" (in other words, if she gets killed by a jihadi it will be her fault), in which her boyfriend Niall Ferguson is described as a "right-wing historian" (um yeah, that's right, didn't he write that ten volume defence of Hitler?) and in which she is criticized for not being sufficiently critical of fundamentalist Christians (as though they are on par in terms of behaviour with fundamentalist Muslims). Please. 2) a New York Times review of Hirsi Ali's new book in which Nick Kristof describes her criticism of Islam as "strident" and which is taken apart by historian Andrew Roberts here.
Of course, were Hirsi Ali attacking Christianity, both the Star writer and Nick Kristof would call her "brave," rather than "reckless" and "strident," even though there is no bravery required in attacking Christianity.

Sir Paul, You're a Twit

2010-06-05T12:22:00.000-04:00

I used to admire Paul McCartney, because he does so much good work for animal welfare. But he has revealed himself to be not just a twit, but a rude twit, to boot. After receiving a prestigious music award at the White House, he said the following: "After the last eight years, it's great to have a president who knows what a library is."
Oh for God's sake. First of all, George Bush knows what a library is.

...the former Beatle does not have a degree, whereas the former president took an MBA at Harvard, and married a librarian.
Despite his occasional habit of mangling words, Mr Bush was reportedly a voracious reader in the White House, particularly of biography and history.

Second of all, was such a comment really necessary? When does it let up? Of course, McCartney is an Obama-fawner:

When accepting his award, Sir Paul 67, was unable to express fully his emotions. "Getting this prize would just be good enough, but getting it from this president..." he said, trailing off.
"I don't think there could be anything more special than to play here," he said.

Oh please.

Krauthammer on the Flotilla

2010-06-05T12:13:00.000-04:00

As usual, Charles Krauthammer brings common sense to the table. (For the record, my first thought, on hearing of the Mavi Marmara incident, was of the Cuban Missile Crisis -- are those who condemn Israel for protecting its citizens ready to say JFK was in the wrong in 1962? Krauthammer's column touches on that and more.) Money paragraphs:

But as Leslie Gelb, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, writes, the blockade is not just perfectly rational, it is perfectly legal. Gaza under Hamas is a self-declared enemy of Israel -- a declaration backed up by more than 4,000 rockets fired at Israeli civilian territory. Yet having pledged itself to unceasing belligerency, Hamas claims victimhood when Israel imposes a blockade to prevent Hamas from arming itself with still more rockets.

In World War II, with full international legality, the United States blockaded Germany and Japan. And during the October 1962 missile crisis, we blockaded ("quarantined") Cuba. Arms-bearing Russian ships headed to Cuba turned back because the Soviets knew that the U.S. Navy would either board them or sink them. Yet Israel is accused of international criminality for doing precisely what John Kennedy did: impose a naval blockade to prevent a hostile state from acquiring lethal weaponry.

Oh, but weren't the Gaza-bound ships on a mission of humanitarian relief? No. Otherwise they would have accepted Israel's offer to bring their supplies to an Israeli port, be inspected for military materiel and have the rest trucked by Israel into Gaza -- as every week 10,000 tons of food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies are sent by Israel to Gaza.