Wednesday digest

- Former Labour MP George Galloway, friend of the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, CUPE and the Canadian Islamic Congress, has been booted out of the British House of Commons for taking oil-for-food money from Saddam Hussein and using it to fund campaigns against both sanctions and an invasion of Iraq. Short story here, long story here.

- Al-Qaeda has established a beachhead in northwestern Pakistan.

I think it's time for a fly-over.

- I'm 32 years of age. The good thing about that is that I'm perfectly positioned to make a fair bit of cake during my prime earning years. The bad thing is that the welfare state is going to take an increasing chunk of that income - who knows how much? - because we haven't reformed entitlement spending.

Meanwhile, it looks like Norwegians are about to launch a tax revolt of their own.

- Yesterday, I blogged about the declining consumption of newspapers, and commented that I think it's a generally negative trend. More on that subject here.

- If some Americans don't want to buy health insurance, why should they have to?

- Last summer, I warned my female readers about wearing those massive Nicole Richie-type sunglasses because in fifteen years, you'll look back on pictures of yourself and cringe. This summer, I have to say the same thing about crocs. And while I'm on the subject of things I don't "get", how about Harry Potter? (Then again, I once said about ten years ago that there would never be a country CD in my player, ever, and look at how that turned out.)

- Here's a sensible article for Ottawa readers concerning what to do with the soon-to-number two empty stadiums in town.