Thursday digest

- The chronically offended Rosie O'Donnell has once again demonstrated why she's considered one of the most irritating people in America by crying "homophobia" after Kelly Ripa (also irritating, but for different reasons) asked Clay Aiken to remove his hand from in front of her mouth on a recent "Live with Regis and Kelly" broadcast.

I'd suggest that if Rosie wasn't gay, she wouldn't even have a career anymore, but because her sexuality sets her apart and makes her a tad unconventional, she's got herself a handy little calling card in Hollywood long after her best-before date has passed.

- The loonie left play of the day today comes to us from socialist UN envoy Stephen Lewis (all pause and bow at the mention of His name), who says that Canada is in violation of international law because the Criminal Code allows for parents to spank their kids.

Father knows best, I suppose.

- Sticking with the UN, as former Canadian Supreme Court justice and UN human rights commissioner Louise Arbour points the finger at Israel exlusively for the flare-up in the Middle East (rather than the suicide bombers of Hezbollah and Hamas), there are rumblings that Jimmy Carter is going to pile on, too. Alan Dershowitz demonstrates why Carter's new book shows that he's the perfect man for the job.

A much less deluded man, VDH, scans the entire region while Michael Novak suggests that recent American reactions to difficulties in the Middle East may prove Osama bin Laden's prediction to be true: that the West is too bloated, self-absorbed and weak-kneed to see the battle through.

- A final word on the Michael Richards fiasco: some are saying that it's unfair that Richards is being made out to be a pariah while people like West Coast rapper Ice Cube get away with racism against whites all the time. My response to that is this: do you really want the behaviour of thugs like Ice Cube to be what establishes the bar for acceptable behaviour in society?

I don't.

- A great reality check, here.

- Finally, a word about this whole Quebec as a "nation" debate. As a political move, it's a smart one by the Prime Minister, who says that Quebec is indeed a "nation" but within a united Canada. He added, in English, that it doesn't mean and will never mean that Quebec is its own country and he also said that every Canadian deserves a say in the future of Canada. This is in stark contrast to the highly emotional Bloc MPs who jumped to their feet yesterday when Gilles Duceppe said yesterday that only Quebec would decide. Nice words from Harper, but I haven't had the chance to see if he said the same thing in French. (I would hope he did, but I'm doubtful.)

Some commentators have suggested that this is too dangerous a move by Harper because it allows separatists to twist his words and suggest that even the Prime Minister of Canada says that Quebec is a nation, all for the twenty federal seats that may be in play in that province. Perhaps. Although it's undoubtedly true that French-speaking Quebec is a nation in the sociological sense of the term, I would have preferred Harper to make it perfectly clear that recognizing Quebec as a nation, in Canada or not, would have no legal ramifications.

(My first vote was a proud "No" against Charlottetown in 1992.)

I also would have liked him to say that being a "nation" in the political sense implies borders, an army, and currency, to name but a few. (Anyone who has spent any time in that province knows that such possibilities are beyond laughable.) Also, it would have been nice to hear a word from Harper to imply that much-heralded Quebec social policy is due significantly to the generosity of the other provinces who continue to prop up the entire state apparatus of the place through transfer payments.

What it does remind us all that now, as forever, the status of Quebec is still the straw that stirs the Canadian drink. It also reminds us that the separatist movement, at its base, is and always will be an illiberal political project about establishing a racially pure home for Quebecois et Quebecoises, no matter how they may try to pretend differently.

You cannot tell me for one minute that if my bred-in-the-bone anglophone ass and my proud Quebecoise wife and I were to live there that I'd be considered as an equal. Much more likely is that I'd be looked at as a sort of second-class citizen, and not a "real" Quebecker. It's sort of like the old dictum that "I wouldn't want to join any club that would have me as a member", but turned on its ear.

More on this over the next few days.