Milking it

Hmmm -- a low-key story in April about 17 Chinese cows with extra lysozyme enzymes in their milk has now morphed into a worldwide sensation about how a herd of 300 cloned cattle are producing near-human breast milk.
Is this a marvelous investment opportunity or what?

Two years?

In 2004, almost 5 million Canadians voted Liberal.
In 2011, only 2.7 million voted Liberal.
By the time Liberals finally choose a new leader in 2013, I wouldn't be surprised if there are at least another million Canadians can't remember who this party is or why they ever voted for them.
Why are they waiting so long? It seems because they're afraid of the Harper Conservatives:

They were persuaded [to wait] by former leader Stephane Dion, who reminded delegates of the hatchet jobs done on him and Ignatieff by relentless Tory attack ads. Liberals, he argued, must not choose a new leader until they've amassed the money and organization needed to fight back against the inevitable Tory onslaught . . . If Liberals choose a leader before undertaking any rebuilding, Dion said, "The leader will be without any protection facing the Conservatives."

And Dion also says:

"the only good news of this disastrous (election) result" is that Liberals have plenty of time to pull themselves back together.

How naive, to believe that Harper actually won't call another federal election until 2015.

Vancouver riot -- video game edition

The Tyee finds the most bizarre "coverage" of the Vancouver riot by the NMA News agency from Taiwan:

Great line of the day

New York State senator Roy MacDonald is one of the Republicans who is going to vote in support of gay marriage:

“You get to the point where you evolve in your life where everything isn't black and white, good and bad, and you try to do the right thing,” McDonald, 64, told reporters. “You might not like that. You might be very cynical about that. Well, fuck it, I don't care what you think. I'm trying to do the right thing.
“I'm tired of Republican-Democrat politics. They can take the job and shove it. I come from a blue-collar background. I'm trying to do the right thing, and that's where I'm going with this.”

Next year country

Thanks, Canucks, for giving us a great series.

Well, duh!

Missing Iraq money may have been stolen, auditors say.
A million here, a million there, pretty soon it adds up to some real money!

Nice to see

Nice to see the United States and Canada united at last -- in our hatred of the Miami Heat and our joy at the Mavericks win!

Great line of the day

Steve V writes about Harper's delusional foreign policy hubris:

Irrelevant on climate change, non existent at the United Nations, playing NO role in key diplomatic initiatives, retreating from traditional development and aid, apart from the military angle, we've fallen badly in the eyes of the world. . . . while Conservatives wave the flag at home, enamoured with our supposed international greatness, remember abroad that flag isn't placed so prominently on backpacks anymore, and that's far more telling than rhetoric.

Lighten up

Oh, come on, folks. He can't fly commercial, but if Stephen Harper wants to take his daughter to watch a Stanley Cup game, why shouldn't he?
If we had had the chance to do that with our kids, we would have done it in a heartbeat, and it would have been an unforgettable memory.
Just too bad it had to be THAT game.

Try to imagine how little I care

Some days its difficult to find something in the news I care about.
Because one thing I don't really care about very much is whether consenting adults have affairs, talk sexy on the phone, take sexy photos of themselves or their lovers, consume Viagra, bathe in green tea, advertise on Craigs List, or otherwise indulge themselves in odd or embarrassing scenarios.
As long as its not abusive or exploitative or illegal, their behaviour is really of concern only to the spouse and the children, even when its one of those awful erotic asphyxiation deaths.
That goes for Anthony Weiner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tiger Woods, John Edwards, George Rekers, Ted Haggard, Larry Craig, David Vittner, Bill O'Reilly, Bill Clinton, David Carradine, Sharon Smith, Princess Diana, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, Franklin Roosevelt . . .
Glenn Greenwald raises a good point about the Weiner media circus:

... the pretense of substantive relevance (which, lame though it was in prior scandals, was at least maintained) has been more or less brazenly dispensed with here. . . . This is just pure mucking around in the private, consensual, unquestionably legal private sexual affairs of someone for partisan gain, voyeuristic fun and the soothing fulfillment of judgmental condemnation. And in that regard, it sets a new standard: the private sexual activities of public figures -- down to the most intimate details -- are now inherently newsworthy, without the need for any pretense of other relevance.

“Please help me feel safe in this city again”

The Morden inquiry into the G20 debacle is going to be the only official public review we will ever have about what happened in Toronto a year ago.

The review, launched by the police services board last September, aims to tackle questions that remain on the minds of many Torontonians almost a year after the summit last June: Who gave the orders that led to the “kettling” of peaceful protesters at Queen St. and Spadina Ave.? Why did police disperse demonstrators from the designated “Free Speech Zone” at Queen’s Park? Who is responsible for the miscommunication of the so-called five-metre fence law?
It will also examine the issue of officers removing badges, the conditions at the temporary G20 jail on Eastern Ave., and the police board’s role in planning and oversight of police operations for other large-scale events.

Just so nobody forgets what it was like:

And how terrified the police were of the DFHs:

Thanks for the teeth

I have finally found the man I owe my teeth to.
He was Dr. Irwin Mandel, who just died in New York at age 89.
I was one of those kids who always had cavities. We didn't know anything about flossing when I grew up, and the first time I ever heard of teeth cleaning I was in my 20s. In spite of having had braces, so at least my teeth were straight, I continued getting cavities all the time and I was certain that I was just going to lose my teeth when I was 55, like my Dad did, and have to wear dentures ever after.
But a dentist convinced me that if I really tried to take care of my teeth -- flossing, regular cleaning, etc -- then I could keep them forever. He turned out to be right. I have a few crowns now, as my filling-filled molars wear out, but no plates and no dentures.
I have always wondered where this good advice came from and now I have found out the source -- it was Dr. Mandel whose research into preventive dentistry was the beginning of it all.
Thanks, Dr. Mandel, for saving my mouth.

About protest

Johann Hari writes about the proof that protest works: :

The first ever attempt to hold a Gay Pride rally in Trafalgar Square was in 1965. Two dozen people turned up – and they were mostly beaten by the police and arrested. Gay people were imprisoned for having sex, and even the most compassionate defense of gay people offered in public life was that they should be pitied for being mentally ill.
Imagine if you had stood in Trafalgar Square that day and told those two dozen brave men and women: “Forty-five years from now, they will stop the traffic in Central London for a Gay Pride parade on this very spot, and it will be attended by hundreds of thousands of people. There will be married gay couples, and representatives of every political party, and openly gay soldiers and government ministers and huge numbers of straight supporters – and it will be the homophobes who are regarded as freaks.” It would have seemed like a preposterous statement of science fiction. But it happened. It happened in one lifetime. Why? Not because the people in power spontaneously realized that millennia of persecuting gay people had been wrong, but because determined ordinary citizens banded together and demanded justice.
If that cause can be achieved, through persistent democratic pressure, anything can.

(Via)

D-I-S-R-E-S-P-E-C-T

The general opinion of the throne speech was ho-hum, enlivened by Brigette DePape's politely disrespectful protest:

In response to the pearl-clutching about how awfully disrespectful Brigette was of the dignity of Parliament, somewhere Michael Ignatieff is laughing.
Impolitical reminds us who started this pissing contest:

Not caring that one of your ministers inserts a "not" after a document had been signed by others, for example. Not respecting members of parliament who ask the government for the most basic of financial information supporting billions in purchases the government seeks to make. Making light of an historic contempt verdict . . .Breed disrespect, reap protest.

Next year, Harper will have all the pages strip-searched before they enter the Chamber.

Some days, all you've got is your dog

Like Mickey Rourke said.
So check out the dog which is now wandering here and there on my sidebar -- its a gadget from aBowman and he'll chase the ball, scoop up the treats, chew on the bone, follow the cursor, sit and lie down. And sleep.