Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Merry Christmas From The Hype


Happy non-deist, pan-ethnic, global time of moral relativism - formerly known
as Christmas, and shall henceforth, be forever referred to as "the other, awful
C-word.".

I don't want to get into a 14 paragraph diatribe, trying to convince the people
who sniff glue and read Jimmy Carter books, that Christmas continues to be
under attack by the pod people at the ACLU, and the usual gang of bah-humbuggers.
As most people who work in office settings, or have children in school know,
Christmas is definitely the "holiday non grata".

Most of us have become accustomed to being asked, or ordered, to refrain
from any mention, or suggestion of Christmas, out of "respect" for those
who have different belief systems.

Let me say this so there is no ambiguity. When we coerce or force citizens
to refrain from showing symbols of Christmas, we are not respecting differing
belief systems-we are catering to their intolerance, and prejudices.

Anyway, I don't want to be a cranky curmudgeon on Christmas day. I ate so much
turkey last night, I thought someone would have to call Jerry Springer to
come saw a hole in the front of my house, and wheel me out on a fork lift.

Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas, and a blessed holiday season.

Cordially

Joe

Thursday, December 07, 2006

All Roads Lead To Friday


The weekend is upon us. Time to beckon your sommelier from the wine cellar,
and pick out the finest Macenudo from your humidor. Perhaps sit by a fire
and read a chapter from "God and Man at Yale". Or, if you're like me,
watch Cops while stuffing your face with Zesty Cheese Doritos.

Nothing too piquant to parlay to you this weekend. I have a rather lengthy
blog piece I'm working on regarding Quebec culture, or more precisely,
Quebec popular culture - so keep your eyes out for that.

On another note, the media's posthumous editorial castration of the newly
decomposing Mr Pinochet, wouldn't be so noteworthy, if it were not for the
gob-smacking hypocrisy, and the amped-up level of righteous indignation.
In the jaundiced eye of the far-left, there is but one standard for judging
evil, and that is being viewed by American conservative intellectuals
as having been a slightly more tolerable evil, than other evils. In the
eyes of the Keith Olbermann's of the world, there is no Gulag horrific enough
to shadow the horrors of having once had the marginal approval, of free market
reformers.

Anyway, tired of being a spectator? Want to be heard? Click on over to
Hype Nation,

Ghastly!

Cordially

Joe

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Michael Ignatieff - Pudding Time!


See that picture? Little weird isn't it? Kinda looks like
one of the "special people" from the care home down the street
who just found out that they were going to be serving
chocolate pudding for desert. If you listen closely, you can
almost here him screaming; "YAY POOODING! YAY POOODING".

The man in that picture is Michael Ignatieff, who recently
lost his bid to become the next leader of Canada's liberal party.
Now, Mr. Ignatieff is a talented writer, and a pretty smart guy, as
far as left-wing pseudo intellectuals go. The point of the stock
photo I pulled off of google images, is to illustrate just how
ill at ease Mr. Ignatieff seems to be in public.

Throughout the day on Saturday, the cameras would pan in on him,
and would always capture, without exception, a range of bizarre
expressions. Phony smiles, shoulder nudges followed by wide-eyed,
feigned surprise, and this weird thing he continued to do with his
eyebrows, cocking them upwards to the point that they appeared to
touch his hairline.

He seems to constantly have the look of man who walked in on
his elderly parents making love at a young age, and has been
trying in vein to erase the mental image from his head for decades.

Michael Ignatieff is indeed an Enigma. A person, who David Frum once
described as ..."a man without empathy trying to understand those who
possess it...a man who has arrogantly separated himself from the suffering
human race grappling with the realization that he belongs to it"

Ignatieff admitted as much in his novel "Scar Tissue", a memorable
piece of Canadian literature, perhaps even reaching brilliance.

I guess I'll avoid tripping into psycho babble trying to explain the
possible emotional motivations of a man who inexplicably thrusts himself
into the political spotlight to try and better a nation filled with
people that, who by his admission, he doesn't understand, and feels
alienated from.

There's an old quote about Neville Chamberlain, I forget who said it,
it went something along the lines of; "When Neville Chamberlain was alone
in a room, no one was there, not even Chamberlain". It spoke to Chamberlain's
utter lack of a sense of self, a sad comment on a man who mimicked emotions,
because he had no clear understanding of what they where. Ignatieff seems to
suffer from the same form of social retardation, only he lacks the skills
to fake it.

Anyway, looks like Michael Ignatieff won't be getting his pudding - Political,
or otherwise. YAY POOODING!

Cordially

Joe