Saturday digest

- I have to agree with this editorial which states that Hillary Clinton's position on the legality of torture is much more thought-out than John McCain's. I have long suspected that McCain doesn't care about logical consistency as long as it means a few headlines and pats on the back from independents.

- Tony Blair is walking a very delicate line these days. While I fully support him going to bat for the women of Islam, and I do believe that the veil is not only a barrier to effective interpersonal relations in addition to equality, I also don't think it's the place of the leader of a pluralistic, Western nation to come as close as Blair has in suggesting what people should and should not wear. (I did have the word "free" in that sentence before the world "people", but let's face it, a lot of Muslim women are far from free. However, I digress.) I'm a proud assimilationist when it comes to putting one's adopted country first ahead of the one they left behind - you find any sympathy for Lebanese dual citizens wanting a bailout during wartime here - but it's not right for leaders of free countries to go around telling people how to dress even if some choices of dress don't reflect mainstream standards of appropriateness. In other words, if they want to close themselves off from the mainstream, that's their choice because that's one of the priveleges that comes with liberty. And, perhaps as this commentator suggests, letting absorption take its course rather than stoking the fires of rebellious teen and twenty-something Muslims may be the best solution for long-term cohesion anyways.

- Turning inwards, a look at the sandbox called Ottawa shows it turns out senior Liberal members of Cabinet such as Martin Cauchon and Don Boudria were tipped off about the sponsorship scandal as early as 2002.

Absolutely scandalous.

Pols who knew about the Liberal party kickback scheme and did nothing about it while wrapping themselves in the Canadian flag to "defend Canada" should be put on trial for contempt of Parliament.

- The NDP: what's the point?

- Meanwhile, we have Canada's face to the world here, acting like a spurned teen in our seat of government.

What an embarassing farce of a man.

I never, ever liked him.