Book Review: "The Bad Guys Won!" by Jeff Pearlman (2004)

One of the reads I took down to the beach with me last week was this look at the 1986 New York Mets. Subtitled "A Season of Brawling, Boozing, Bimbo Chasing, and Championship Baseball with Straw, Doc, Mookie, Nails, the Kid, and the Rest of the 1986 Mets, the Rowdiest Team Ever to Put on a New York Uniform - and Maybe the Best", it follows the destiny of Davey Johnson's crew as they brought the World Series trophy to Shea 17 years after the amazing 1969 season.

It's all here: the braggadocio, the womanizing, the appetite for substances of all kinds, and the petty jealousies among the teammates (Gary Carter in particular comes off looking like a chump). Life as a major league athlete in the 1980s was pretty much everything you thought it was if Pearlman's tale is any guide, and besides the lifestyle, one thing that I'm sure has changed over the last twenty years is how much the average player competed to win (on a $200,000 salary, no less) as opposed to now when crowning glories are the press conferences which accompany contract extensions and two million bucks won't even get you a half-decent long reliever.

Fun.

Overall rating: 8/10

DVD Review: "Bobby" (2007)

This pointless flop stars pretty much everyone under the sun in a look at what happened in the Ambassador Hotel the day that Robert F. Kennedy was shot (June 5, 1968). From extramarital affairs to acid-dropping campaign workers, hanging-on doormen to Latino kitchen laborers, several snippets are combined to give the film a "Crash"-like feel, but in the end, there is no overarching theme which unifies the disparate characters. Even at two hours, this film seems overly long, which is quite telling, and one is left to guess that writer/director Emilio Estevez is lamenting the absence of an RFK-esque figure in today's America; however, it's hard to take his plea seriously as he employs the vapid and empty Lindsay Lohan to portray the moral opposition to the Vietnam War in this meandering affair.

Overall rating: 4/10

Monday digest

- Climate change on Mars? That pesky sun just keeps getting in the way of the junk scientists' agenda. And, by the way, did Al Gore ask for UN approval before interfering in the politics of another sovereign country this past weekend?

- I recently reviewed a book on China (see below). Here's a shorter article which makes many of the same points, concluding that China is not nearly the threat it is often made out to be.

- Steyn.

- This spring's must-read is going to be George Tenet's book, even if there have been suggestions of inaccuracies.

- One of the most bogus pieces of conventional wisdom going today concerns the issue of equal pay for men and women. A common stat thrown around is that women make 77 cents to every buck a man makes, leaving the impression that women's labour isn't valued as much by employers as that of a man doing the same job. This isn't the case. What the statistic really points out is that among full-time workers overall, women make 3/4 of what men do, and as Stephen Chapman points out here, this has little to do with discrimination and more to do with things like maternity leave, hours spent at work, and other factors. Moreover, if employers were paying women 25% less, that would imply that if they were to fire all of their male employees and hire only women, they would shave a quarter from their labour bill and therefore be more able to make higher profits. Why isn't that happening? I guess the feminist crowd would say that misogyny beats self-interest in the boardroom, but I'm not buying it.

I'm back, baby

Mrs. H and I are back in Ottawa from our belated honeymoon in lovely St. Maarten. It was positively blissful and it's going to be a difficult return to the regular routine this week, that's for sure. I plowed through about seven books, drank a lot of girly drinks, ate far too much rich and unhealthy food, smoked a couple of cigars and sang karaoke at the one and only Sunset Beach Bar, where Julian Lennon was among the gathered throng whom I serenaded with tunes from Toby Keith and Ted Nugent in addition to a Kid Rock/Sheryl Crow duet with my wife.

Oh, and I discovered that I really don't care that much for people from Boston, although we met tons of warm and interesting people from places like New York, Philly, Atlantic City, New Jersey, Minneapolis, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, England and France.

See here for a tutorial on how to make a couple of beverages that, along with Malibu rum and Sprite, Heineken and Carib beer, were at the top of our drink list this week at the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort and Casino.

In any case, I was able to keep up a little bit on international news. Boris Yeltsin bought the farm, Vladimir Putin continued to demonstrate why he should be booted out of the G8, Sarko inched closer to the crown, John McCain officially announced his bid for the White House, Democrats debated in South Carolina as their Senate leadership inferred that American troops are a bunch of losers, Rosie O'Donnell got fired, Sheryl Crow tried pulling rank on Karl Rove, and there was continuing fallout from the Virginia Tech shooting. All this came in addition to the NFL draft (a collection of inarticulate and incoherent college "graduates" which would compare only with the NBA, but I'm not even sure most b-ballers even go on to finish their "degrees"), the NHL playoffs and, of course, the graduation of a fine buddy of mine from one of Canada's leading MBA programs.

Speaking of the Great White North, there was no Canadian news on offer in the Netherlands Antilles but I came home to find that Prime Minister Stephen Harper spent the weekend kissing quasi-separatist ass in Quebec (big surprise there) and opened my Maclean's to find an editorial which revealed that Amnesty International and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association are arguing that Taliban members captured by the Canadian military in Afghanistan ought to be granted protections under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

(I will follow the "if you can't say something nice, say nothing" rule about political discourse in my home on Native land for just this once.)

I won't be covering these or other issues from the last week in any depth from here forward but regular news, commentary, views and reviews will continue apace starting immediately.

Cheers.

(Oh - and if you're wondering why I didn't say why I was away or where I was going before I left, it's because just like ol' Stone Cold used to remind us rasslin' fans - "don't trust anyone".)

Short Absence

Howdy folks - just a short note to let everyone know that I'm not going to be able to issue any new posts until early next week. I've been unable to maintain my blog for the last few days, but I'll be back soon after I take care of a few things.

Take care and thanks for stopping by.

Friday digest

- Loony left play of the day goes to Ottawa NDP city councillor Alex Cullen, who, along with his downtown socialist buddy Diane Holmes, wants to ban trans fats from the menus of restaurants in Canada's capital.

Although I resent having to subsidize people's poor lifestyle choices via my tax dollars under Canada's no-fault health care system, what upsets me even more are busybody politicians who would have bylaw officers monitoring my dinner plate to ensure what I food I stuff into my cakehole during a night out with my wife is acceptable to them.

I'm an individual and I'm fully capable of knowing what's best for me, thank you very much. None of us need some authoritarian know-it-all breathing down our necks telling us what choices to make and trying to protect us from the consequences of making poor ones.

See here for the point of view of someone else who feels the same way about these sort of things.

- Angry Left stalwart Alec Baldwin, a Hollywood liberal so unhinged that he was sent up in the uproarious "Team America: World Police" because of his persistent whining about George W. Bush, his theorizing about 9/11 and Iraq-related conspiracies and other outbursts such as calling for the stoning of Henry Hyde, has demonstrated that he has some major issues to deal with. Take a listen to this voice mail that he left for his daughter recently.

- Give what we now know about the Virginia Tech tragedy, I think it is fair to comment on it.

First off, a little context. While I am a strong supporter and admirer of the United States, I don't understand guns or gun culture. For instance, I've never been hunting, nor do I ever plan on going, so, that said, here are a few points.

Gun control is not a cure-all. The Virginia Tech campus deemed itself a "gun-free" zone a while back, and that didn't work out, did it? Closer to home, Canada's gun laws didn't stop the Dawson College massacre, the Toronto shootings in the summer of 2005, or lesser-profile incidents like Taber, Alberta and the OC Transpo massacre here in Ottawa back in 1999. However, we have reference checks, or guarantors, when we apply for a passport, so when someone like the killer in Virgina goes to buy a semi-automatic, shouldn't there be at least some kind of verification that the person who wants to purchase one is mentally stable? You won't be able to keep weaponry completely out of the hands of those who want to obtain them, but you can use basic common sense to reduce the ease by which they ARE obtained. It's now known that he spent some time in a psychiatric institution within the last couple of years. This is not the type of person who should be able to walk into a gun dealership, lay down a credit card and walk out with whatever he wants.

One of the commentators I regularly follow made an excellent point in the wake of the massacre. What if, in the classroom where everyone was lined up and executed, the gunman was not the only person who was armed? If one of the other people in that room was carrying, the carnage would have been reduced considerably because they would have been able to take the gunman out. Something to consider, I think. Our first instinct is to say that there needs to be more gun control, but I think there's a lot to be said for the notion that law-abiding, stable individuals should be able to protect themselves in situations like this one where authorities fail.

The manifesto issued by the killer was very edgy, containing resentment-filled and bitter language towards the wealthy. I recall in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombings that right-wing talk radio was blamed for fomenting cynicism about government. Funny how I haven't heard any one blame the class warfare crowd for egging on people who hate the rich.

The bottom line is that while I know those who think that society can be made into a perfectible utopia if only we try hard enough have trouble coming to grips with the reality that shit happens, the best we can do is mitigate - not eliminate - risk.

Thursday digest

- Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court upheld a ban on the grotesque practice of partial-birth abortions. If you're not sure what it is, I'm not going to describe it for you, but suffice it to say that one of my American heroes, the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) who also, by the way, happens to be Hillary Clinton's predecessor, once referred to it as "infanticide". Even if you're an ardent pro-choicer or take a position that's more along the lines of the moderate, Clintonesque "safe, legal and rare" perspective, if you've held a baby who is less than 24 hours old in your arms as I have had the privilege of doing (a shout-out to my nephew Loulou right there), you can't help but be against partial birth abortion.

At the risk of being called "anti-woman", I'll point out that there's no law against this in Canada. Anyone expect our so-called conservative PM, fresh off a love-in for Brian Mulroney last night, to even touch it during the upcoming election campaign?

- By the way, isn't it a little bit rich for Preston Manning to be selling his name and attaching it to a course in policy implementation considering the guy has never signed a bill into law?

- In a recent interview with Maclean's, former separatist premier of Quebec, Bernard Landry, said that "the PQ has never been about ethnic nationalism. Never. The PQ’s mission - since René Lévesque - has never been an ethnic one. It’s a national quest and the Quebec nation is not an ethnic one."

However, the preface to the article reveals that Landry only agreed to the interview on certain conditions - namely, that the journalist be un vrai Quebecois:

The election, he said, had left the province pockmarked - the result of an ugly “wave of Quebec-bashing” in the English-Canadian press. And before he was willing to talk about the election, he wanted to conduct an interview of his own.

“Did you follow the entire election?” he asked. “Do you live in Quebec? Have you spent your entire life here? Quebec politics aren’t new to you, are they?”

Once he had established he was speaking to a Quebecker, Landry agreed to discuss the election that saw the party he once led fall to an historic low in popular support - from the impact of the debate over religious accommodations to rival parties mining the Parti Québécois’s vote.

No ethnic element to the nationalist project, huh, Bern?

Spare me.

- Stick a fork in him: John McCain started singing the Beach Boys when asked about Iran, as in "bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran".

What an idiotic move.

- Despite a few chuckles here and there, I don't understand why people love Will Ferrell so much, especially after watching this supposedly hilarious video.

Book Review: "The Writing On the Wall: China and the West in the 21st Century" by Will Hutton (2007)

China, best described as "perplexing", is seen through the eyes of British journalist Will Hutton as neither a communist or a capitalist country but an authoritarian one where the ruling party dominates every sphere of activity. For Hutton, the potential for future Chinese economic growth is limited of a refusal to accept what he refers to as the values of the Enlightenment - the rule of law, an independent judiciary, a free press, and representative government. He says that these are not just Western values but are the values that underpin any society that successfully navigates through the tumult of the international financial system.

The price of the collectivization of agriculture under Mao - 37 million dead - and the accompanying Cultural Revolution, whereby up to half a million where slain due to insufficient loyalty to Marxism, is revealed along with the reformism of Deng Xiaoping, Tiananmen and Jiang Zemin, all of which lead us to today's China, which is a considerable player but a paper tiger under the surface. Hutton offers anecdotes to illustrate this, like the fact that the practice of bulldozing homes belonging to families who didn't adhere to the "one child" rule was only recently discontinued. This is a metaphor for China's limitations on a larger scale: the country does not allow for basic citizen participation within society. He argues that a pluralist market economy depends on the type of pluralist political institutions which Beijing consciously undermines. This has to change, or else in China's case, it will continue to be just one link of a vast global supply chain rather than an innovator in its own right, with those with Party connections at the top of the pyramid, those on the coast in the middle, and the vast majority of Chinese who live in the interior condemned to a life of poverty and hopelessness - a recipe for certain upheaval.

This is top-notch social science, even if the civil libertarian New Dealer Hutton does descend into a two-chapter long Krugmanesque pout towards the end of the book as he discusses what he considers to be the erosion of these Enlightenment values (which apparently includes not only a vigorous and emboldened trade unionism but also allowing convicted felons to vote) in America as of late. However, at the end of the day, he's an enthusiastic globalizer who takes an even-handed look at China and concludes that it is in the first world's interest to co-operate and help China reconcile its internal contradictions for the sake of international stability and prosperity.

Overall rating: 8/10

Wednesday digest

- Crucial details are still emerging about the Virginia Tech tragedy. While I have some strong views to share, I won't be posting them until later this week because I think it would be premature to draw conclusions right now.

- Do you not care for the John Lennon song "Imagine"? I don't either, and not just because it's not that catchy a tune. We're not alone. See here for another take on the hippie anthem. When I was in grade 9, my high school had some social(ist) justice-themed day and they played "Imagine" over the PA system while we all sat through homeroom like the gullible, malleable 14 year olds we were. That type of nonsense is probably still happening as it has for the last 35 years, which is 35 years too many in my books.

- What's the point of the NDP these days? The Mayor of Toronto, who has made no secret of his affiliation with the socialist party, has now left it. They're clearly sweating the emergence of the Green Party. Former party comms director Jamey Heath says it's time for a long look in the mirror. And, with hapless Trudeaupian Stephane Dion at the helm of the Liberal party, dyed-in-the-wool statists can be more than comfortable voting for it rather than risk splitting the anti-Conservative vote further.

(A note to readers from the US: be happy that the above passage makes no sense to you.)

- I've been calling for this for months now.

- Is American public opinion throwing out the Darfur baby with the Iraq bathwater? (That'd make a hell of an editorial cartoon, but I'm a terrible drawer.) Meanwhile, this writer suggests that Iran might be playing both sides off of each other in Iraq. Although I can't see any self-respecting Sunni terrorist insurgent accepting weaponry from Shi'a Iran, it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

- Here's a great piece which takes sends up those who are all aboard the global warming bandwagon but sheepishly clam up when it comes to talk about practical realities.

Some choice lines:

Katrina was the liberal equivalent of neoconservatives’ blaming Saddam for 9/11, a connect-the-dots opportunity too good to resist, even if it wasn’t true.

Americans have shown themselves willing to undertake epic battles against evil only when there’s somebody else to hold accountable—Nazis, communists, radical Islamists. But blaming and changing our own Homer Simpson–ish ways of life? We couldn’t even make Prohibition work.

Gore/Schwarzenegger, anybody?

- Finally, here's a piece on envy. In a time where generalized economic illiteracy is regularly mixed with populist, class-based rhetoric - thank you, Lou Dobbs - the cure could very well be worse than the disease.

- UPDATE: This is the real finally. Bruce Willis is reportedly dating Courtney Love. I know some people who would pay to see that, no questions asked.

Tuesday digest

- It's still very early days in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings, so I'm reluctant to comment at any length about it just yet. However, rather than react by assigning blame to lax gun control laws, slow-reacting campus security personnel, or American culture, my point of view is that the primary cause of yesterday's tragedy was the isolated actions taken by one very unhealthy and disturbed individual.

We live in an imperfect world, so trying to explain irrationality through the lens of rationality is pointless.

I will have more to say about this in the next couple of days.

- The other day, I said that one of the things that annoy me about living here is the constant bitching about minority language rights. After the board of directors of the University du Quebec en Outouais decided to phase out the English-language MBA program on Monday night, cries of linguistic cleansing have been heard. Gimme a break. There are English-language MBA programs at both of Ottawa's universities, Queen's has a satellite campus here, and Montreal, with both Concordia and McGill, are two hours away. If you want to live in a primarily francophone province, there are certain sacrifices that you have to be prepared to make. Stop complaining about it.

- Another group that needs to stop whining are the farmers of North America. In the United States, over 80,000 farmers earn more than $200,000 annually, and last year, net farm income totalled $60 billion. Farm subsidies ought to be massively scaled back because they are no longer necessary.

- Here's a thought-provoking piece on the dumbing down of serious and substantive discourse.

- The so-called Conservative government of Canada recently issued a food guide for indigeneous peoples.

I suppose the champion of this race-specific publication, Health Minister Tony Clement, thinks that aboriginal Canadians wouldn't know how to eat properly without the state there to watch over their choices and make recommendations should they stray from civil servant-approved menus.

Isn't this the exact type of heavy-handed paternalism that condemned Canada's natives to soaring rates of alcoholism, poverty and dependence in the first place?

Ridiculous.

Monday digest

- According to Vancouver think tank the Fraser Institute, where I interned as a student, the cumulative total of federal and provincial income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, contributions to EI and CPP programs, investment taxes and those on gas, alcohol and cigarettes now account for 45% of the income of the average Canadian family.

Setting aside the issue of who should pay taxes for a moment, instead, ask yourself if the taxpayer, regardless of income, is getting value for that money. If your answer is yes, stop what you are doing immediately and make an appointment with your local mental health professional - if you can first get an appointment with your family physician, if you even have one, and can then get a referral. If your answer is no, then ask yourself what your elected representatives are doing about it.

- Giving street people money: it just makes things worse.

- Propagandist Michael Moore is sending some of New York’s first responders to Cuba to treat their post-9/11 health issues – that is, if he even bothers to pick them up at the airport after they've said all the right things on camera. I’m waiting for the day when Moore himself demonstrates his moral consistency by taking advantage of a $25 per week Havana physician, because as we know, Mikey not only talks the talk, he walks the ... oh, never mind.

- American sports columnist Jason Whitlock made some excellent points concerning the Imus affair last week, but went over the line when he called Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson ‘terrorists’.

- Despite being far from the perfect candidate, The Economist has endorsed Sarko for the presidency of France. Sadly, I think that means he’ll probably lose.

- Although I’m a staunch integrationist, I didn’t see how wearing a hijab was a safety hazard in a soccer game and I don’t see how it is dangerous to be wearing one during a tae-kwon-do match. Could it be that there are a disproportionate number of "bluenecks" who don’t like those who different than they are in the province of Quebec? Or is it that they are just less afraid of speaking out than others are across Canada, who may feel the same way?

- Read what the indispensable VDH has to say about resolve, here. His observations are very instructive in the face of recent developments concerning Iran and North Korea.

Friday digest

- As a resident of Canada's capital city - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada - there are three things that annoy the hell out of me. First is the winter that lasts from the Canadian Thanksgiving (second weekend in October) through to the Victoria Day weekend (Memorial Day in the States). Second is the hypersensitivity about minority language rights, on both sides of the Ottawa River. And finally, it's this town's half assed approach to getting the job done.

Take, for example, the headline in today's Ottawa Citizen, which says that NHL wunderkind Sidney Crosby ought not to be booed by Ottawa Senators fans during their Round 1 playoff series against Crosby's Pittsburgh Penguins. This is the frickin' Stanley Cup playoffs. We should be applauding anything that advances our local team towards the goal of victory including throwing the opposing team's best player off his game. Perhaps it's because this is a bloated government town which exists alongside a high-tech sector where you can show up with ripped jeans, a ball cap and four-day old growth on your face for a 10 AM Monday morning ping-pong game at the office, but good enough is always good enough.

Have you ever seen overrated pretty boy Wade Redden get mad about losing? I haven't. Have you ever seen any Senator, for that matter, break their stick on the bench after screwing up a play or refuse to talk to the media because he was too torn up about coming out on the wrong end of a crucial contest? Me neither. Now, we have the leading media outlet in the capital urging fans to sit on their hands instead of razzing the NHL's Art Ross Trophy winner because it's not nice or something.

If you want to know why I remain a staunch New Jersey Devils fan after having lived here for almost fifteen years instead of rooting for the Sens, here's your answer:

This team, like the town it plays in, embraces a second-place culture far too often.

- Neo-con svengali Paul Wolfowitz is in a heap of trouble for pulling a Valerie Plame and elevating his romantic partner to a high-profile gig at the World Bank.

A Vanity Fair spread is sure to follow.

-The old Gloria Steinem saying that "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" is frighteningly closer to reality as far as conception goes, as scientists are looking at ways to develop female sperm production.

Personally, I think that is really, really screwed up.

Thursday digest

- Apparently Oprah today featured members of the Rutgers basketball team.

Tomorrow's edition features the Duke lacrosse team.

- The more things change, the more they stay the same, in both the East and the West.

- Read this piece and tell me if you really think that Syria deserves to be treated as a credible actor in the Middle East by major powers. There will always be those who think that W. is a bigger threat to world peace than the likes of Bashar Assad, but come on.

- Meanwhile, al-Qaeda in Iraq blew up that country's parliament today with a suicide bombing. This is the enemy we are to run from? Not if you ask John McCain, every Democrat's favourite Republican.

- Newt: more useful on the outside?

- Did you really think that Oprah would have the Duke lacrosse team on her show?

You poor, naive soul.

- The next season of "24" will feature Quebec separatists as the bad guys. I can't wait to see Canada's political elites twist themselves into a knot over this one.

- When I was surfing Andrew Coyne's website and reading his take on the boom-bust-echo political career of Belinda Stronach, I came across some golden commentary on the much-hated Toronto Maple Leafs. From poster "GWGM":

Thank God the Islanders put a stake through the beast's heart.

By doing so, they spared the rest of us two full weeks of listening to sports phone-in shows featuring 'Tony from Woodbridge' swearing on the Virgin Mary that "We're goin' all da way."

40 years and counting. Talk about an enviable business plan. Freedom to suck beyond belief, and still be a cash cow.

Hmmm... would I like to pay to watch the Leafs figure skate for an hour, or take my wife on a holiday for a few days? But I guess no one really makes that decision. No one actually digs into their own jeans for Laugh tickets.

No, it's mostly executives giving themselves perks under the pretense of doing business, leaving the burden of paying the tab to poor schmucks who never go to the games, via their taxes.

And would someone explain to me what's up with everyone kissing Sundin's backside in spite of him starting his spring suck-a-thon a month earlier than usual this year? He must be a better person than Ghandi because no one ever says a bad word about Captain Pants Load.

Hopefully, missing the playoffs yet again will cause some people to raise their expectations for this joke of an organization. But I won't hold my breath.

On the bright side, the heat is off Gord Stellick for being the worst GM in Laughs history.

Leafs Hater Nation, unite!

Wednesday digest

- As America's largest city is on track to have its coldest April on record, what's presumably more important are the views of decorated scientific researcher Madonna on the issue of climate change. I guess we should all fall in line now?

- I suggested yesterday that the Don Imus affair is about the symptom rather than the disease, which includes not only the coarseness of gangsta rap but the fact that young African-American youth are encouraged to look up to individuals like "Pacman" Jones, recently suspended by the NFL after being involved in a shoot-em up at a Las Vegas strip club. Thuggish behaviour shouldn't be tolerated because it is socially unacceptable and so I applaud the NFL for drawing a line in the sand. You know that so-called "community leaders" like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton sure won't because they're too busy peddling the white privilege line to be making any time for honesty.

- A hospital in England didn't serve hot cross buns to patients on Good Friday. You get three guesses why and the first two don't count. (H/T: Fred.)

- Well, the political career of one Belinda Stronach has come to an end after three years of utter inconsequence in terms of actual achievement. One of the fellas with whom I was watching the NHL playoffs tonight said it best, tongue planted firmly in cheek, of course:

"We'll miss her idealism."

I wish her luck with baking that bigger economic pie and all.

- Just when you think it can't get any worse, here's the latest disgrace from the Harper government: they've appointed an individual, who built a career on arguing that the federal government is illegitimate, to a lucrative contract in order to evaluate work carried out on behalf of the Crown, including sensitive issues management advice procured during the mid-1990s during the last Quebec referendum.

Nice work, if you can get it.

Tuesday digest

- I honestly like Hillary Clinton, and I think a lot of the abuse she takes from the Right is either mean-spirited or insubstantial, but the picture above was too good not to post.

Hey, Howard Dean said he wanted to make the Democrats the party of guys with pickup trucks and Dixie flags, so a downing couple of ales together at the shoe show in Manchester after a rip roaring New Hampshire primary debate would be sure to get the candidates a bit of positive ink, no?

(Maureen Dowd aside, of course.)

I bet Carville would go for it.

- A few facts about who pays what at tax time, here.

- Here's a fantastic piece of insight regarding the British sailor fiasco from John O'Sullivan.

- Why you, I or anyone else should give two craps about Don Imus and/or Al Sharpton, I can't quite answer. Everybody knows that there are bigger issues facing the black community than whether or not a radio host throws around the word 'ho' like he's the opening act at a 50 Cent or Ice Cube concert. And if folks were honest, they'd admit that the biggest issue of all is that one, right there.

- Speaking of telling it like it is when no one else will, I give you Ed Koch.

- As if the Pope mouthing Marxist platitudes last week wasn't bad enough, now we have a Catholic bishop in England saying that Mahmoud Ahmedinejad is actually a pretty decent guy.

I wish they would just stick to matters of spirituality instead of weighing in on economics and geopolitics.

Book Review: "What's Left? How Liberals Lost Their Way" by Nick Cohen (2007)

- From the introduction to "What's Left":

"Why is it that apologies for a militant Islam which stands for everything the liberal left is against come from the liberal left? Why will students hear a leftish postmodern theorist defend the exploitation of women in traditional cultures but not a crusty conservative don? After the American and British wars in Bosnia and Kosovo against Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic cleansers, why were men and women of the left denying the existence of Serb concentration camps? As important, why did a European Union that daily announces its commitment to the liberal principles of human rights and international law do nothing as crimes against humanity took place just over its borders? Why is Palestine a cause for the liberal left, but not China, Sudan, Zimbabwe, the Congo or North Korea? Why, even in the case of Palestine, can't those who say they support the Palestinian cause tell you what type of Palestine they would like to see? After the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington why were you as likely to read that a sinister conspiracy of Jews controlled American or British foreign policy in a superior literary journal as in a neo-Nazi hate sheet? And why after the 7/7 attacks on London did leftish rather than right-wing newspapers run pieces excusing suicide bombers who were inspired by a psychopathic theology from the ultra-right?"

"In short, why is the world upside down? In the past conservatives made excuses for fascism because they mistakenly saw it as a continuation of their democratic rightwing ideas. Now, overwhelmingly and every where, liberals and leftists are far more likely than conservatives to excuse fascistic governments and movements, with the exception of their native far-right parties. As long as local racists are white, they have no difficulty in opposing them in a manner that would have been recognisable to the traditional left. But give them a foreign far-right movement that is anti-Western and they treat it as at best a distraction and at worst an ally."

Four years ago today, a tyrannical, murderous dictator was felled in Baghdad, after which three elections followed in the country of Iraq. However, the overthrow of the fascist, sadistic Hussein regime continues to drive liberal-minded people positively insane to the point where life in Baghdad under Saddam is romanticized. In this book, Nick Cohen, a British leftist whose bona fides include growing up in a home where neither Florida nor Israeli oranges were purchased (due to the sins of Richard Nixon and the state of Israel, respectively) finds the Left's excuses, apologies and near-embrace of all far-right anti-Western movements, up to and including al-Qaeda itself, unacceptable, unjustifiable and in fact, morally bankrupt.

This is an absolutely essential tour de force which exposes the intellectual rot of the modern Left from within.

Deliciously savage and brutally honest from one renegade thinker who is valiantly trying to reclaim his movement from those who regularly tolerate the most egregious of crimes as long as they aren't "imperialist".

Overall rating: 9.75/10

DVD Review: "The Good Shepherd" (2007)

Bobby DeNiro directs and appears in this cloak-and-dagger drama set just after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961. Told in a series of flashbacks, it outlines the life of an intelligence officer played by Matt Damon who was first brought into the business during World War II and found himself increasingly drawn into the web of the shadows of the early Cold War amid duplicity, betrayal and a shattered family life.

At 2 hours and 45 minutes, "The Good Shepherd" is lengthy, but I didn't find that to be a drawback. The script moves along nicely and with such a stellar cast, including not only Damon and DeNiro but Jolie, Baldwin, Pesci, Hurt, Hutton and Crudup, you know you can't go wrong. Critical acclaim was lukewarm, but I quite liked it.

It's very, very good if you are interested in this kind of thing, as I am, and definitely worth a look even if you're not.

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Monday digest

- The face of the blame America first crowd, above.

- More on the move in some British schools to drop the Holocaust from the curriculum, this time from Barry Rubin.

- Sensitivity for me, but not for you.

- This just in, from an MIT scientist: "Much of the alarm over climate change is based on ignorance of what is normal for weather and climate."

You don't say?

- Quiz time:

Who recently called Al Gore a "gross alarmist" on the issue of global warming?

A. Newt Gingrich, former Republican House speaker and potential Presidential candidate
B. Bill O'Reilly, populist Fox News talk show host
C. John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia
D. Dr. William Gray, emeritus professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University and closing speaker at this weekend's National Hurricane Conference in New Orleans

Answer here.

- I don't like it when politicians claim credit for a booming economy because I don't believe they can create growth, but instead, can only screw it up. That said, it's interesting to note that while unemployment in the United States right now is at 4.4%, a full percentage point lower than it was at the same point during the economic expansion of the Clinton years, the conventional wisdom is that President Bush is presiding over an almost-recessionary economy.

I wonder why that is. Could it be that economic literacy takes a back seat to good copy in the newsrooms of America?

And if you're going to play the income inequality/insecure middle class card, consider the story of this Georgia family, who takes home $850 per week and has to rely on government benefits to get by, notwithstanding the fact that they have a gas-guzzling minivan along with a pick-up truck in the driveway on top of cell phones and three kids (ages 6, 4, and 2 with another one on the way).

I'm not suggesting that the family mentioned above is typical or representative, but I think perhaps a hard-headed look at choices rather than circumstances would be advisable before wringing one's hands and pointing fingers in W's direction when worrying about how folks make ends meet.

- Iran has moved from arrogance to cockiness after Britain's limp-wristed performance concerning the captured sailors, and is brazenly sticking their finger in the West's eye concerning their nuclear program.

Surprised, anyone?

DVD Review: "Death of a President" (2007)

First, this movie is not an infomercial suggesting the President of the United States should be taken out, like many red-staters in the blogosphere and elsewhere have implied. While it is a tad sympathetic to the civil libertarian crowd, it also throws the Angry Left under the bus, so this is nothing like the silliness we've come to expect from the likes of the frothing-at-the-mouth, don't-let-the-facts-get-in-the-way-of-a-good-story Michael Moore-esque crowd. It's also much more substantial than the Jon Stewart level of political analysis, which I liken to current affairs commentary for people who don't read books.

Instead, this is a gripping, investigative "documentary" set six months into the future after President Bush gets gunned down in the lobby of a Chicago hotel. The ensuing fall out deals with the professionalism of the Secret Service, Muslim-Americans, disaffected Iraq veterans, and the fallibility of American justice. Nothing wrong with that. "Death of a President" doesn't take you on a guilt-trip for being a proud Westerner, nor does it hit you over the head and preach from the rarified air of the moral high ground - rather, the viewer is challenged with whispering subtlety to examine their own assumptions about America via this novel, thought-provoking and superb presentation.

CSI for politicos.

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Go Leafs Go

In almost twenty years I can't remember cheering against the New Jersey Devils like I did today. The best Easter gift possible came true as the Islanders defeated my boys from the Swamp to prevent the loathsome Toronto Maple Leafs from qualifying for the NHL post season - as if Montreal and their Eurotrash wannabe fans screwing up last night to finish out of the dance wasn't sweet enough.

I will also boldly predict that out of all the major metropolitan centres in Canada, the Golden Horseshoe area in and around Toronto will draw the lowest per capita viewership of this year's Stanley Cup playoffs because Leafs fans aren't hockey fans. They're Leafs fans.

See you out on the golf course, you bunch of no talent, couldn't get it done ham n' eggers.

Na na, hey hey, goodbye.

Saturday digest

- With about three inches of snow on the ground here in Ottawa this morning, the Saturday morning blogorama continues!

- Sounds like the British sailors were tortured after their capture. No doubt Amnesty International, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the editorial board of the New York Times are going to be outraged.

- Ian Bremmer, author of "The J Curve", says that sanctions haven't really undermined Iran, and so the choice is one of either a nuclear Iran or military action.

- Today's loony left play of the day comes to us from Michigan where some state Democrats have included a provision for every child in the state to receive a government-provided MP3 player.

CD/DVD Review: "Live at Massey Hall" - Neil Young (2007)

After last year's silly "Living with War", I had pretty much written Neil Young off, but he has completely, absolutely redeemed himself in my eyes with this release.

Recorded in stripped-down fashion in January 1971 at Toronto's venerable Massey Hall, a 25-year old Young, accompanied by only an acoustic guitar and piano, plays a number of new tracks from the as-yet-unreleased "Harvest" album like "Old Man" and "Needle and the Damage Done" along with older tunes from his burgeoning solo career and also a couple from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Neil also puts it out there with the stage banter, talking about how he recently bought a ranch, giving the patrons a hard time for taking pictures when he's trying to play, and talking about how when you move to the States, you start noticing that one by one, people you know start dying off because of heroin overdoses. I haven't heard something as intimate as this in a very long time.

The DVD is full of grainy footage of the performance interspersed with home videos and the like, along with newspaper clippings, FM radio interviews taken from Neil years later, looking back on the era (his observations about how the women's libbers never got after him about "A Man Needs a Maid are gold), and other memorabilia that fans like myself who weren't even born at the time really appreciate.

Absolutely beautiful and about as real as it possibly gets.

Overall rating: 9.5/10

DVD Review: "Children of Men" (2007)

"Children of Men" is a challenging look at a futuristic, xenophobic London, set in a world where an epidemic of female infertility has brought out the worst in the human race. It's a bit all over the place, but Owen's performance along with the amusing Michael Caine on top of technically brilliant shooting will keep you watching.

Fans of "V for Vendetta" will really like this one. Stick with it.

Overall rating: 6.75/10

CD Review: "The Dio Years" - Black Sabbath (2007)

Hot on the heels of last month's Canadian tour, this release captures the best of Black Sabbath 's output when Ronnie James Dio fronted them, offering up a total of 16 tracks from three different decades. The older tracks are remastered and sound much clearer (e.g. Falling Off the Edge of the World and Turn Up the Night) and the live version of "Children of the Sea" is incredible, showing why anyone who dismisses Ronnie as a second-rate substitute for original lead singer Ozzy is either not paying attention or is about as likely to live in a state of reality as is the average Toronto Maple Leafs fan. The three new tracks are far from throwaways, either.

A great introduction to some of the most criminally overlooked rock n' roll ever.

Overall rating: 9.5/10

DVD Review: "The Pursuit of Happyness" (2007)

This is a great little flick for which producer and star Will Smith was nominated for an Oscar. Everyone is familiar with the premise of this film which is based on a true story, so I won't recount it in depth here, but will just say that the values of hard work, sacrifice, persistence, character and fatherhood are rightly celebrated. Refreshingly, the business tycoon comes off as a good guy here, while the taxman, the day care provider and the women's shelter, not as much - quite the departure for typical Hollywood fare, and nor are racism or Reaganomics ever faulted.

Imagine that.

Thumbs up in particular go to Smith's real-life son who is pretty impressive here.

This should be mandatory viewing for every single grade nine social studies across North America for a look at what happens if you refuse to play the victim in tough circumstances, and instead, put your head down and dig deep.

Overall rating: 9.25/10

Friday digest

- The Wall St. Journal issues the definitive piece on Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria, here.

- A sampling of quotations on the release of the British sailors taken hostage by Iran:

"The Islamic Republic wants a Khomeinist Middle East. The “Infidel” want a democratic, pro-West Middle East. The two visions are incompatible. Eventually, one must win as the other loses. As the British celebrate the return of their hostages they would do well to decide which vision deserves support." - Amir Taheri

"The capture and release of the British hostages illustrate once again the fatuousness of the "international community" and its great institutions. You want your people back? Go to the European Union and get stiffed. Go to the Security Council and get a statement that refuses even to "deplore" this act of piracy. (You settle for a humiliating expression of "grave concern.") Then turn to the despised Americans. They'll deal some cards and bail you out." - Charles Krauthammer

"Prime Minister Blair's lame response to a serious act of aggression against Britain's navy has certainly provided Iran an incentive to kidnap and hold more hostages. Diplomacy via kidnapping and blackmail is, lest anyone forget, an art Iran developed in 1979–81, in the infamous 444 days it held American diplomats blindfolded and shackled, and during the 1980s, when its proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, kidnapped and imprisoned Americans and Britons in underground dark rooms for years.

When the dust settles, one hopes two things will happen: Ms. Pelosi will show she has returned to Washington with more than beatific smiles and new additions to her expensive wardrobe, as Mr. Assad & Co. plot their next nefarious deed. And that a British military commission will rethink the training of British soldiers in order to discover what is it in their discipline that makes it perfectly all right to cave in just two days after capture and shower the enemy with lavish praise and thanks." - Youssef Ibrahim

"The footage of the British hostages thanking Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his hospitality and forgiveness, like the footage of Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi covering her head in a scarf while on a visit to Damascus, was enough to make you sick. Must we lose this war?" - Caroline Glick

- Hey, are you looking for new and effective ways to combat global warming? TIME magazine suggests planning out your driving route so that you won't need to make any left turns.

Are we supposed to take this advice seriously?

- From "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" file, we have this article about universal health care.

- Conservative party rationalizations for doing absolutely nothing to roll back the size of government are at the point where they're issued almost daily. Today, we have Monte Solberg saying that the $51 billion surplus in the EI fund is no big deal.

So much for principles.

- Bruce Bartlett says we're all supply-siders now - the aforementioned Mr. Solberg and his Prime Minister excluded, of course.

Thursday digest II

- After criticising the Harper government for its big government buy off of Quebec last month, National Citizens' Coalition chair Gerry Nicholls, Harper's successor at the organization, has been fired.

This is another example why rock-ribbed movement conservatives who believe in smaller government and interprovincial fairness, not to mention basic integrity, ought to distance themselves from the federal Tories.

- So much for leaving to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, as the Pope has given Karl Marx a pat on the back and delivered a healthy dose of pulpit socialism just in time for Easter.

- There is hope: Al Gore got called out at a Canadian university this week - in Quebec, no less.

- Quiz time: Who recently said the following?

"Bush and Dr. Rice made so many mistakes in the Middle East. Just look at Palestinian clashes and Iraq. But I think some changes are happening for the Bush administration's foreign policy because of the hand of Nancy Pelosi. I think the Democratic Party can do things the best. ... Pelosi is going down a good road by this policy of dialogue."

A) Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Sen. John Kerry
B) Lou Dobbs, anti-globalist and CNN host
C) Nathalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks
D) Islamic Jihad spokesperson Khaled al-Batch

Answer here.

- The sailors are free, but one has to wonder - at what price?

Thursday digest

- I am willing to bet anyone right now that the bureaucrat who decided that the Jays commercial featuring Frank Thomas promotes child abuse is a regular donor to the NDP.

- A day care in east-end Montreal is refusing to leave pork off a Muslim kid's lunch plate. I'm all for assimilation, but in this case, I think the issue has more to do with the day care being run by a blueneck who, like a disproportionate number of Quebecois, don't really care for people who don't look and/or speak the same way they do.

- Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says that corner store owners can't be trusted to sell beer and wine after the recent lottery scandal - but supposedly smokes, a cornerstone of both the underground economy and organized crime, don't pose a problem for McGuinty? Admit it, Dalton - you need the revenue that the government-owned liquor stores in Ontario bring in, that's all.

- Damn that Mahmoud Ahmedinejad for screwing up the latest O'Donnell conspiracy theory.

- More on the ideological constraints of the modern university, here.

Film Review: "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" (2006)

Here's a half-decent flick that recounts the post-World War One birth of the Irish Republican Army. The first half is a little dull, and I spent most of my time trying to get my ear accustomed to the accents, but the second half moves quickly, in fact, so much so that I didn't even realize that two of the main characters were brothers until there was only half an hour left. Authentically awkward performances, and visually appealing cinematography along with a refreshing lack of over-the-top violence add to the credibility of this effort, but unless you're into historical dramas, you probably won't care for this one.

On another note, I also saw former Canadian prime minister Joe Clark at the theatre and, in a suprising outbreak of self-control, refrained from indulging in my long-held fantasy of kicking him in the balls.

Overall rating: 6.5/10

Tuesday digest

- With this interview, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones has topped every disclosure I've ever heard regarding excessive rock star behaviour, including the one about Chuck Berry in Lonn Friend's "Life on Planet Rock".

Even biting the head off a bat now has to be considered child's play.

- A principal at a Toronto school has pleaded guilty to assault charges stemming from an incident last June where she threw poop at a student.

What's scarier is that nineteen of her staff members signed a letter in support of her.

Is this what public education has come to in the province of Ontario?

- A massive thumbs down tonight to the members of the Congressional delegation led by Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) who are sitting across the table from terrorist proxy Syria this week, conferring legitimacy on Iran's errand boy Bashar Assad.

Hey, as long as it makes the President look bad, right Nance? Perhaps she can get a word in about the British hostages being held in Iran - sorry, make that "victims of a misunderstanding that could be resolved" according to England's weak-kneed foreign policy establishment.

- A former adherent takes on Islam here, laying significant blame at the feet of Western multiculturalists.

- Next time you hear some talking head blathering on about how women only make $0.77 to every $1.00 a man does, think about this article and shrug accordingly.

Monday digest

- Imagine what would happen to the likes of this pop culture icon and apologist for terror if she was living in an Islamic country - let's say, for instance, American "ally" Saudi Arabia or the one ruled by the hostage-takers she defends in the clip I've linked to above.

She'd be hanging upside down, all right, wouldn't she?

For some reason, I don't think the likes of O'Donnell and the far left, Hollywood liberal crowd are going to get as revved up about Iran's blatant violation of the Geneva Conventions as they do when American soldiers put panties on an al-Qaeda members' head.

But don't dare call them unpatriotic ... right?

- Some British schools have removed the Holocaust from the curriculum for fear of provoking Muslim students.

Please tell me this is an April Fool's joke, because if it's not, I'm laughing through tears.

- Speaking of April Fool's Day, news aggregator National Newswatch said yesterday that Ben Mulroney was going to run for the Conservatives in a Montreal-area riding. It was all a prank, of course, but after Harper's party blew almost a billion in corporate welfare today in the heart of that same city, would it be really all that surprising considering how it feels like 1987 all over again?

Golden comment on the announcement from a McGill management prof in this piece: "It kind of reflects a more Conservative economic philosophy". Could his observation have been more equivocal? It sounds like what he's saying is that a Paul Martin Liberal government would have done exactly the same thing.

The redistributionist, statist, big-government, tax-and-spend Trudeaupian ethic, complete with pandering to Quebec, continues apace.

This complete and total sell-out is thoroughly disgusting, and any conservative who isn't, at the very least, uneasy with this government's moves thus far is nothing more than a partisan hack.

I am very much looking forward to donning my old Reform party baseball cap, going down to the polling station, and spoiling my ballot come the next federal election.

- How much of a jerk do you have to be to send in fraudulent claims for damages that you didn't suffer during Hurricane Katrina?

- Between December and February, the number of deaths due to violence in Baghdad dropped by almost 2/3.

- More about intellectual dishonesty on campus, here.

Album Review: "Let It Go" - Tim McGraw (2007)

This disappointing effort from country star Tim McGraw contains only two essential tracks: the 70's-ish "Suspicions" and the duet with wife Faith Hill titled "I Need You". The rest, including current single "Last Dollar (Fly Away)" with its hokey ending, is either sub-par or outright filler.

A step down from previous efforts like "Set This Circus Down" and "Live Like You Were Dying".

Overall rating: 4/10