Exceptionalism

Sometimes I find if very hard to understand Americans.

Why wouldn't they take this man's death seriously? Do they really believe that "you can just go to the emergency room" to get healthcare? Are they so terribly afraid of giving something "free" to supposedly "undeserving" people -- blacks, latinos, poor people -- that they won't set up their own health care system so it can care for their own citizens?
I hear a lot of chat about American exceptionalism -- well, I certainly hope so. I hope this callous attitude is not the norm among civilized nations.

They should be ashamed of themselves.

UPDATE: From Roy:

Forget the Gettysburg Address, forget even "Tear down this wall"; the progress of the modern Republican Party is the progress from "You lie!" to "Let him die!

Your lying eyes

Alison has posted a brilliant Colbert Report video about the 9/ll conspiracy theory.
Basically, we have always been at war with East Asia.

Update: corrected -- thanks, Purple, I hadn't read Alison's reference correctly.

Shooting themselves in the foot?

If the NDP pick Brian Topp for their new leader, a man who has never run for public office, are they shooting themselves in the foot?
Well... yesterday he compared himself to Brian Mulroney.
Yes, that will be a winning message, won't it.

Perspective. Now you have it

Twenty-one-million years ago, a star exploded, turned spectacular, and faded out. And we are now watching it go.

Sorry

Echo seems to be eating my comments tonight -- hopefully it will fix itself by tomorrow.

911 stories

I dreaded the media approach to the tenth anniversary of 9/11 because in 2001 it took me weeks to stop seeing the towers fall every time I closed my eyes.
And I am now getting increasingly snitty about how we mis-remember that day -- I read about "seeing the first tower hit" when there was actually no real-time coverage at all of that terrible moment -- videos of the first hit were accidental, and were not found and broadcast until hours or days later. Even the TV coverage I saw of the second hit was from across the river, so it wasn't very clear at first what had happened.
And I am also now getting increasingly worried about how our politicians continue to use the attack as an excuse to abuse our civil rights and drive a religious wedge between east and west.
But, in spite of all that, there are some amazing stories now being told about courage, fortitude and sacrifice on that day:
F-16 pilot was ready to give her life on Sept. 11

The story behind the Falling Man photo

The hated, the hater and 9/11

Mexican firefighter ran into the twin towers

World Trade Centre survivor emerged from wrecked tower, but never left it behind

9/11 Remembered

and 9/11 rescue dogs

They're baaaaak!

27-7 in the Labour Day Classic. Good on ya, boys.

Great line of the day

Its a beautiful fall day here today, and my husband described it this way:

It lets us know that God hasn't forgotten us just yet.

Unprecedented?

The Toronto Police Board has taken the "unprecedented" step of refusing to promote nine officers who had removed their name tags during the G20 protests in June of 2010.
Well, arresting and jailing a thousand Canadians without cause was unprecedented, too.
Tit for tat.

Go here for the photos from the G20 Justice website showing Toronto police without name badges.

How refreshing!

Stephen Harper's new spokesperson Angelo Persichilli has vowed to treat Quebeckers with "utmost respect".
Well, that will be a nice change from his former approach, and I'm sure Quebecers will deeply appreciate it.

Looking for leadership

With both parties looking for leaders, Liberals and NDP have an historic opportunity right now to choose individuals who will cooperate for the good of the country, either informally or formally.
Will they see this opportunity? Will they take it?
I'm not optimistic -- the NDP are likely still feeling their oats as the Official Opposition ; they will want to see whether they can find another 40 or 50 seats on their own at the next election. And I doubt that the Liberals have realized that Quebec is not likely to return to their fold, even though Layton is gone. So maybe we'll have to wait until they both lose ground in 2016.

By that time, Harper will have fired another several dozen outstanding civil servants, dismantled another batch of important government programs, trashed more of Canada's reputation abroad and thrown many of Canada's "liberal" traditions into the dustbin.
But stay tuned...

We hear you now

Jackman Chiu

As well as his profoundly inspirational legacy, Jack Layton's death also served another purpose this week -- one I think he would have approved of.
His passing was such big news that newspaper columnists, bloggers, and broadcast pundits across the country all just had to write SOMETHING about their reaction to his death and their analysis of the nationwide grief it provoked.

And all this off-the-cuff pontificating gave us a rare opportunity to find out just what our media pundits are really made of -- profound and eloquent, or shallow and mean-spirited?

Some rose to the challenge; others painfully flubbed it, and their failure will not be forgotten.
Basically, most of our newspapers and broadcast pundits -- even here and here -- reacted thoughtfully to the death of Jack Layton, showing respect to his legacy and to the grief felt by hundreds of thousands of Canadian.

But some came up painfully short -- they just couldn't resist taking cheap shots, playing political games, jeering at our grief, feeling sorry for themselves and trying to trash Layton's legacy. In other words, acting like jerks.

H/T Dawg and Alison

UPDATE: Ezra Levant also shows his true colours.

It's officially fall

Dr. Grumpy has posted his annual nightmare at Staples post:

When Mrs. Grumpy was wondering when she'd have time to get the school supplies, I volunteered. I figured "How hard can it be? Hell, it's just some pencils and a bottle of glue". DUMBASS!!! . . .
An African street bazaar is an orderly affair compared to this! Deranged parents running on caffeine! Kids running amok! Store clerks running for their lives! And all the crazed parents are trying to read off a list, push a cart, yell at kids, text, and scream into a cell phone at the same time.

I guess they just can't help it

Every time I start to think that maybe Stephen Harper's government has grown up and become a real Canadian government instead of short-sighted incompetents, we get something like this -- yesterday's idiotic announcement that Canada is too poor to put up a pavilion at next year's Expo in Korea. We're the only G20 country that won't be there.

Really, Steve? This is what you guys think is appropriate for Canada to announce to the world? Just when we're trying to convince the world that we're a sophisticated and cosmopolitan kind of place to invest money, we start talking poor-mouth and looking cheap. What a ridiculous international embarrassment

Hey, I've got an idea -- if we're so broke, maybe Gerry Ritz shouldn't be spending a million dollars shutting down the Wheat Board? Maybe we shouldn't be building new prisons or buying jets?
Of course, the Canadian pavilion at the Olympics was a "$10 million dud" and nobody at the UN was impressed by Harper's Mounties and maple syrup campaign and the Harperites don't think its their job to protect Canadian citizens when they get in trouble overseas, so maybe the Harper Conservatives really don't have the chops to keep up with the big boys abroad.

Oh, please...

Do you think you guys could wait a day or two, maybe until after Jack Layton's funeral, before you start speculating about improbable leadership candidates and concern-trolling the end of the NDP?