Tuesday digest

- First up, how to interpret the Quebec elections results last night? I would resist the urge to say that this sounds the death knell for separatism. Instead, I would boil it down to one conclusion: Andre Boisclair was not seen as materiel prime ministeriel by Quebecers. That's it. The nationalist "blueneck" vote couldn't bring themselves to support neither a gay cokehead nor a federalist - consider what would have happened if Gilles Duceppe was leading the PQ, for example.

As for Mario Dumont, he's only stated that he's not in favour of holding a referendum in the foreseeable future - not that he's opposed to the traditional "what have you done for me lately?" position of the elites in both of the traditional Quebec parties vis-a-vis the federal government, so don't expect the bribery to stop any time soon just because the separatists are in third place.

Looking at things on the small government vs. state intervention axis, considering any tax cuts that formed part of Charest's or Dumont's programs would have been paid for by the rest of Canada out of necessity, I'll reserve judgment on that until after we see what happens in the next provincial budget.

- Phrase of the day: climate porn.

- Are you a fan of high school football in Washington State? If so, you might not be allowed to boo this fall.

- Rosie O'Donnell has accused the US government of setting up the capture of the British soldiers in the Persian Gulf as a pretext to going to war with Iran.

The woman is clearly ill.