welcome to downtown coolsville

Pat Robertson just gets classier every year!

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Luckily, Raymond Joseph is here to deliver a most righteous smackdown.

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I just realized that I haven't commented yet on the current political situation in Canada. (Which is where I live, just for the record.)

For those who don't know and don't want to bother clicking the link, here's the skinny: the Conservatives currently have a minority government, which means that they were voted in by less than 50%. [Edit: To be more, um, true, it means they have the most MPs but not enough to make 50%. Thanks, six_crazy_guys!] This has made a lot of people very angry and is generally considered to be a bad move. Such a bad move, in fact, that the Liberals (a centrist party) and the NDP (New Democratic Party, further to the left) have decided they are going to form a coalition (with the approval of the Bloc Quebecois, which is basically a separatist-but-not-really-all-that-angry-about-it-anymore party from Quebec- yes, Canada has a lot of parties, and they get way weirder*) and bring down the Harper government. (Which, despite Harper's protests to the contrary, is legal.) They would do this with a confidence vote, which is basically a Parliamentary way of saying "OH NO YOU DI'INT" real, real loud, except awesome.

Got that? I might have gotten some stuff wrong- if I have I'm sure montrealais will school me. He's knowledgeable like that.

Many people are pretty upset about this proposed coalition, because of the economic crisis and because we just had an election and because a lot of (anglophone) Canadians are worried that if the Bloc Quebecois has too much veto power they will turn us all into baguettes or something. I, however, am not! Here's why:

1) I am an NDP supporter. Have been since I was a wee!Ish. Under this coalition agreement they would hold 25% of the spots in cabinet. This would make it one of the most progressive cabinets in... well, ever.

2) Stephen Harper is an evil, evil man. I don't use the word "evil" lightly- actually that's a lie, I use it all the time, but that doesn't mean it's not true in this case. He is staunchly anti-immigration rights, has voted against pro-queer legislation (and lied about it afterward), including the legalization of gay marriage, was real, real cozy with George W. Bush, has cut funding to arts programs and women's shelters. He was one of the founding members of this party. My ex-Political Science teacher referred to him only as "that awful man." HE IS NOT A GOOD DUDE. He has fucked this country over and over again and it is high time he got the boot.

3) OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT. \m/

The End!

* The Natural Law Party is still my favourite.

I voted today.

\o/

Sarah Palin: totally okay with charging victims for rape kits!

Obviously if you don't have $1200 just kind of lying around you shouldn't have gone and gotten yourself raped in the first place. THINK AHEAD, PEOPLE.

*seethes*

Yesterday, while on a Very Exciting Mission to find birthday presents for Things One through Two, I walked into a chain store and found a rack full of yellow "Support Our Troops" bumper stickers.

Then, when I went outside to catch the bus, I discovered that it had a yellow "Support Our Troops" ribbon painted on the side.

Then, while on a bus ride that took me to the other side of the harbor and back (but not, unsurprisingly, to where I needed to go), I passed a store front with a yellow "Support Our Troops" ribbon painted on the window.

Then, when I got off the bus at the bottom of West Street to catch a bus that would (hopefully) take me home, I saw that someone had apparently decided all the other "Support Our Troops" ribbons weren't tacky enough and had affixed the trees all around the War Memorial with little yellow ribbons, too.

And THEN, when I got on the bus that I was supposed to be on, I realized that in my consternation I'd left my bags on the first bus, which was now locked up for the driver's lunch break.

I've decided to blame Stephen Harper.

Bart: Nothing you say can upset us. We're the MTV generation.
Lisa: We feel neither highs nor lows.
Homer: Really? What's it like?
Lisa: *shrugs* Meh.

Today's Spud of Wisdom: Student unions are anti-democracy.

In other news, I have decided that the pinnacle of luxury is cereal, with milk. In a bowl. With a spoon.

Three questions.

1) Assume you're making two mix tapes, one themed "Winter" and one themed "Women and Robots." Theoretically, what songs would you put on each?

2) I've noticed that when a lot of Americans on the left side of the spectrum rant about American politics, they tend to preface everything that they say with "I love America, BUT..." or something along those lines. I've noticed far fewer Canadians doing this- maybe because we normally don't express much feeling for our country at all other than mild exasperation. Is this a nationalist thing, or do you just honestly love your country way more than the rest of the world loves theirs?

3) Clementine from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sam from Garden State, and Gretchen from Donnie Darko. Shag, Marry, Push Off A Cliff?

(This applies only to the people on my flist who like girls, of course. The rest of you... um, Watch A Movie, Go To Disneyworld, Punch In The Face?)