The Glob & Wail

5/31/2006

More New Species

I don't think that we have been cataloguing new species at this rate since the age of exploration. These new species were identified in a quarry in Israel.>>

5/30/2006

This song by an artist I won't name is another song that has stuck in my head since 1979. Every time I hear the thunder and the smell of the air changes to say "rain is coming", this song starts rolling.

I also did have a bamboo fishing pole when I was a little boy. It had a green cord attached to a red and white plastic bobble to let you know when you got a nip. I was pretty much a country boy until I moved to Toronto at 18.

I was taken by surprise by the thunder

Sit and stared out at the rain

Taken back, I was younger

In a vacant lot day

And the fall brought an Indian summer

And plenty of places to play

I can still hear 'em calling (far away)

I can hear thunder (far away)

Well the summers are hot and the winters get cold

Not a lot smarter, but another year old

Sometimes I'm still at the fishing hole

And you never needed bait where we used to go

Just a safety pin hook on a bamboo pole

Take the big ones home; let the little ones go (far away)

And I can hear thunder

Walking down the alley

And it's not as easy as it used to be

Finding time to let my mind wander

I can still hear 'em calling

Indian summer

Harping Bizarrely

Do you ever get a song stuck in your head so badly you want to sue the person who wrote it? I've had Elvis Costello's Harpies Bizarre running through my head all day.

Usually when a song is running in the background like that if I stop and think about I find there are some lyrics that apply to my life and mood or thoughts. In this case it just doesn't. In fact I couldn't tell you the words to it.

Very Interesting Proposal

Special people deserve special treatment (even if the citizens have to pay for it). Yes it's the royal treatment Harper style >>

5/29/2006

Week 4: Oregano Basil and Rosemary

You can follow the weekly progression of Oregano Basil and Rosemary from the link in the vertical right menu >>

5/28/2006

Short Story

The post I called A Short Story has turned into something else but I'm sticking with that name. I've given it it's own page and I've decided to present it as a string all on one page. There are two navigational links, one at the top that takes you to the latest installment and one at the bottom that takes you back to the beginning.

I want to keep this presentation because it reflects how the story is coming to me. If the story has nonlinear breaks then I may also make the navigation reflect that. There may be panels that are three aside rather than one after the other. We'll see. That's what makes it fun. It's an adventure I've set out on. Follow if you will. >>

Tweedledee or Tweedledum?

What do conservative or liberal mean? Conservative certainly doesn't mean 'an opposition to change' if you take a look at this National Review list of supposedly "Conservative" songs. If anything 'conservative' in its political sense seems to mean a kind of loosely associated set of prepackaged ideas. take the ideas as handed down and paste them over whatever cultural artifact you want and make it your own. The same could be said of 'liberal' of course" where 'pagans' eco-friendly? So that leaves the rest of us.

Real people are often faced with contradictions: Believing in freedom of choice but being against the morning after pill for instance. Loving where one lives but hating nationalism. Wearing a label like conservative or liberal can help a person gloss over these contradictions by providing a prepared set of responses to any given situation. Dialogue however must be avoided as it might reveal the contradictions that one has been trying to avoid.

One of the things these labels do very efficiently is negate the idea that common values exist between group A and B. Thus only conservatives can love small town life and only liberals appreciate the big city. It is through this polarizing technique that one can claim the songs "Small Town" John Cougar as being Conservative and the Pretenders "My City Was Gone". At the time of its release it was interpreted as a reaction against the devastation of Reagonomics on heartland America.

Said Chrissie Hynde that notorius vegan conservative:

I WENT BACK TO OHIO
BUT MY PRETTY COUNTRYSIDE
HAD BEEN PAVED DOWN THE MIDDLE
BY A GOVERNMENT THAT HAD NO PRIDE
THE FARMS OF OHIO
HAD BEEN REPLACED BY SHOPPING MALLS
AND MUZAK FILLED THE AIR
FROM SENECA TO CUYAHOGA FALLS

What the authour of the National Review piece points to but then walks away from is that their are contradictions to be found whenever experience is painted over in left or right colours. Maybe Chrissie Hynde is a Vegan conservative?

Does being against change make you a reactionary conservative or a luddite liberal? As if there were just those two choices. That's largely what we are offered however; by pundits, by writers, by journalists by people we interact with in every day life. Tweedledee or Tweedledum.

In the end these labels are not very useful when it comes to solving problems but they are a nice short cut if you don't want to think things through.

My Lovely Horse

Here is the video of My Lovely Horse that Leslie referred to in her earlier comment. It's from Father Ted and was Dougal and Ted's entry in the Eurovision song contest. Funny thing is it sounds like a Magnetic Fields song.

5/27/2006

We Are the Weiners

If you need a good belly laugh this performance by Lithuanias entry in Eurovision should do the trick

Defending Freedoms

Harper has had to back down on one of his recent Bushifications. Having placed a ban on allowing the press to record the repatriation of fallen Canadian soldiers, Harper has been publicly criticized by the families of some of those same slain soldiers. As a result the families will now be allowed to decide if they wish the press to be in attendance or not.

5/26/2006

Let's Just Join the States Stephen

Latest Harper harping is that we need to have fixed election dates every four years. To be set on a day in the fall. Jesus can it be any more obvious that he wants to be the President. It's embarrassing.

Canadian Media Landscape

Jeffrey Simpson is a longtime columnist with the Globe and Mail. While I don't always agree with everything he has to say I do find that he is not (as?) ideologically driven in his opnions like a lot of other opinion columnists. He tends to actually stop and think before he leaps.

Todays column is in reference to Stephen Harper's belief that "the media" (as if it were of one mind) is against him. Simpson correctly points out that the media bias is in fact more conservative than anything else >>

5/25/2006

A Short Story

Lloyd We Hardly Knew Yee

February 11, 1921 - May 23, 2006. A four-term United States senator from 1971 until 1993 for Texas. The Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in 1988. The man who let Dan Quayle do what he did best.

President Harper

Continuing his implementation of the Bush playbook Prime Minister Harper has decided that he will only speak to reporters that his staff chooses. As a result a number of reporters walked out of the press gallery in protest. Thankfully he still has to speak to the opposition in parliament.