ed_rex

First of all, in case you've been distracted and so gotten sucked in by all of those articles wondering why "those" muslims are so irrational and upset about a lousy video, please read this analysis by Ray McGovern for a much-needed reality-check via Alternet.org.

And if you just need some prejudice reinforcement, cracked.com to the rescue!

As somebody or other once said (and which — I apologize — has been repeated nearly so often as Swift's remark about the prospect of a hanging focussing one's attention), a week can be a long time in politics. Two weeks is an eternity.

Just about two weeks ago, I was working on a new entry of Droz Report, in which I intended to explain why the NDP would never replace Canada's Liberal party as an alternative to the ruling Conservatives.

I began with the following sub-hed,

NPD's struggle to replace the Liberals is failing as a tactic and betrays a strategic and philosophical emptiness at the heart of the Party that once claimed to be the conscience of the nation

As those of you paying any attention know very well, since I penned those (not-so) wise, wise words, the New Democrats have risen in the polls like a political rocket and are now scoring only a few points behind the Harper Conservatives. As I put in my quickly-written Droz Report posted yesterday, "... it's just (barely) possible that Monday night will see Layton elected Prime Minister of Canada." (Don't believe me? Check out The Toronto Star's endorsement.)

Anyway, I was saved from that humiliation because of some pretty awful, though now resolved, personal drama between Raven and I. No details; I've lost the stomach for living my personal life in public (or even "public"), so I'll just say it was awful while it lasted and I was useless for getting any work done and, much more, I am very glad that we've worked things out.

Anyway. The NDP. Canada's new centrist and/or left-of-centre national party? Maybe so and, if so, it still leaves part of my aforementioned thesis standing.

Namely, that this country (hell, any country!) needs a robust left-wing alternative to its centre and right-centre mainstream politics. It was largely due to the then-frankly-Socialist NDP that we got a national, public health care system. They did not have a hope of gaining power, but they had enough support to push the ruling Liberals to the left, to actual progressive policies which, if they didn't revolutionize our society made life one hell of a lot better for an awful lot of very real people.

But that's an essay for another time.

In other news, the long-delayed book project should really be going to the printer this week. Last (I hope!) proof is supposed to arrive on Monday. My writing project is a little, but not a lot, behind, and I've got more layout work coming up.

I'm cautiously optimistic, not only that I'm getting more organized, but that I'm getting more organized to the point where I'll be able to start, once more, blogging more regularly to boot. (But you've all heard that before, I know. We'll see.)

Right then, enough blathering.

But please, if you're eligible to vote in Canada, cast your ballot for however it is that has the best chance of beating your local Harper Conservative candidate. In this anti-Christ first-past-the-post system, there's no guarantee an NDP surge won't split the vote in such a way as to give the Harperites a Parliamentary majority — and then things would get ugly indeed.

 

Kim Campbell's revenge

 

 

(Nothing new in the boys' room)

 

After two debates and an in-person attendance at a rally, I'm finding myself kind of depressed about the election, enervated instead of energized. Though I still think the choices facing us are important — Very Bad versus Not Very Good — it's not easy to get excited by the latter.

And it's not easy to get excited by canned rhetoric, by half-truths contending with lies, lies with half-truths, or by the fact the most inspirational actor in either the French- or the English-language debate was a separatist whose primary goal is to destroy the most successful and successfully complex civilization in the history of the world (ask me what's good about Canada some day!).

Tuesday and Wednesday nights saw me staring at the television, and Wednesday morning hopping on my bike for a hurried ride into downtown Ottawa, where Jack Layton was holding court at a Bank Street eatery at the ungodly hour of 8:00 o'clock in the morning.

Layton was introduced by my local MP who got predictable cheers for asking the partisan crowd of maybe 150 people who won the previous evening's debate.

Layton himself was, more or less, the same as what I've seen on television. Clear and concise, kind of funny, and a just a little stiff, as if even after decades in politics he's still not entirely comfortable speaking to a crowd. He stuck very close to his script; aside from a joke about the political points to be made from kissing "ma blonde" after the debate, I had already heard everything he said at breakfast almost verbatim on Tuesday night.

The NDP, it seems, is pro-family and pro-small business, anti-Senate and anti-credit card companies; pro-environment and pro-health care, against over-paid bank CEOs and, er, Stephen Harper — the rhetorical specifics are already fading, as are those from the "debates" themselves.

So I'd best get on with it. Click here for more if you're up for some ennui. I'll try to keep it short.