the blog quebecois

Great. The Internet would pick today to pitch a hissy-fit. I can't get through at all to Instapundit, Tim Blair, Vodkapundit, etc., etc. Someone fix this immediately.

Early exit polls showing Kerry leading by one in Florida. First exit poll in Ohio has Bush 49-41 over Kerry.

Good afternoon, ladies and germs!

Geddit? Ladies and germs! Ha ha! That's a little bit of humor, there, to "break the ice," as it were.

Turnout is very heavy, which spells good news for the Democrats, unless they're all Republicans, in which case it spells bad news for the Democrats.

Keep dropping by for incisive analysis such as that!

voices from nowhere
and voices from the larger towns
filled our head full of dreams
turned the world upside down

-- john mellencamp

So. The day arrives, and after some reflection I have decided to modify my prediction not one bit. Bush wins big.

I haven't based this on careful analysis of 20-year voting patterns or demographic shifts or anything like that. I don't pretend that I know what Ohioans or Michiganders (Michiganders? Michigoosians?) have in their hearts. I don't know what local issues will drive turnout .

No, this is from my gut. Some anecdotal observations:

1) Republicans traditionally underpoll by two or three points. I think the gap is going to be much larger this time.

2) Bush is picking up conservative black voters; and blacks in general don't seem too terribly enthused by Kerry.

3) Ditto for women. These are constituencies that he cannot afford to lose.

4) He lost me some time ago. I've never seen a more thoroughly unlikeable candidate for any office, anywhere.

But that's just me, and I don't get a vote anyway. Americans do, and I hope they use it well.

Exit polls trending heavily to Kerry, but it's early yet, folks.

QandO explains the essential unreliability of these.

Further on exit polls from the very informative Horserace Blog:

The raw numbers trickling out are just that...raw. Exit polling is heavily "scrubbed" at the end of the day to account for turnout in each precinct, to account for pre-existing demographic sensibilities (i.e. samples are re-jiggered for sex, race, income, etc). These raw numbers obviously cannot be scrubbed in this matter. This means that the MOE is so high for Bush and Kerry that they are basically useless. What's more...you don't know what kind of data out there is reliable or not -- it is all rumour and innuendo.

Via INDC Journal

And more from The Corner

There are media reports that we are behind in early exit polls. Here’s my sense of things. The early exit poll numbers are hard to make sense of right now, until we dissect and analyze them, which is being done even now. It’s of course still early, and it depends on where in the state the numbers are coming from. Much more importantly, our data also suggests what Drudge is reporting: the early samples are heavily weighted toward women (58 percent), which would of course give an artificial advantage to Senator Kerry. That imbalance will not hold up. Indeed, among men we are winning 53-45. To put it another way: if we’d one down in states with a sample that is heavily female, we’re in good shape with the overall population. To put it a third way: it looks like the first exit polls are a reflection of the composition of the electorate, not how the president is performing. Once those return to norm, the President should gain several points (2-3 pts) and Senator Kerry should lose several points (2-3 pts), giving the President the lead in a number of states.

Two hours until first polls close.

Instapundit, Power Line, Vodkapundit still down.

As a special treat, I will be keeping an eye on CBC's coverage. This is hazardous (for the TV, if I happen to start throwing things) duty, but someone has to do it.

I was going to add a bit of "color" to my posts by giving a bit of background on each of the states, something like:

Most people think that the state capitol of New York is New York City. Not so! You'll be surprised to learn that it's actually in scenic Upper Rutabaga, New Jersey. That's where Governor Jim Thorpe lives, in the magnificent Spindrell Castle. Actually most New Yorkers are surprised to learn this, too.

But then I discovered that there are something like eleventy jillion States, and that sounds like a lot of work. So screw it.

I'll just go with Dave Barry's observation on color commentary -- some guy who pops up randomly and says, "Boy, I'll say!"

Boy, I'll say!

John Fund calls it as

Popular vote: Bush 50.0%, Kerry 48.5%, Nader 1.0%, others 0.5%.

Electoral vote: Bush 296, Kerry 242.

Via Ace Of Spades

The dog that hasn't barked: 45 minutes until polls close in the East and Al Qaeda hasn't shown up to cause trouble. Keep fingers crossed.

Okay, let's check off my Blogger's Survival Kit.

Beer chilling -- check!

Guacamole corn chips with "authentic Mexican" dip -- check!

Go make Mr. Poopy -- check!

Sure, go ahead and laugh. But you'll be making Mr. Poopy in your pants when the Hildebeast leads the lesbian bayonet charge out of the Adirondack Mountains around midnight.

Here we go . . .

NBC has called Kentucky, Indiana and Georgia for Bush; Vermont for Kerry.

From Instapundit:

YOU ARE LUCKY TO BE READING THIS. And I’m lucky to post it. 601am says we’re under denial-of-service attack.

CBC scores it 34 Bush 3 Kerry.

Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina close at bottom of hour.

CNN calls West Virginia for Bush. 5 EC votes.

Ace Of Spades points to this:

About a half hour back, I posted word that a senior Bush campaign official was saying, "Ohio is won, Florida is won, and Pennsylvania is tied." Then Shannon Coffin noted a White House source saying, "Confident that Bush will win OH and FL, that he will roll in WVa (ten points?) and that Mel Martinez will carry Florida."

Ooooh. Check out C-Span's electoral map.

Looks as though New Hampshire is trending Kerry 61%-38% but that's with just with 3% of precincts reporting.

Bush leading 60-40 in N. Carolina. 52-48 in Ohio. Bush picks up one vote in Maine.

Bush is opening up a lead in Ohio 55-44 with about 24,000 votes counted.

New Jersey goes to Kerry. Bummer.

CBC has an EC score of Bush 95 Kerry 78.

Bush ahead in Florida by 100k votes with 9 percent counted.

With a quarter of the vote counted in Florida, Bush is over 1 million; Kerry 860,000

Uh-oh. Ohio has flipped. 83000 votes for Kerry 66000 for Bush. I've no idea what counties that represents, though.

CNN calls Virginia, S. Carolina for Bush.

Odd. CNN has Bush ahead 87-77 in the EC

CBC has it 108-78 Bush. I'm not sure what the discrepancy is.

North Carolina goes for Bush.

5,957,625 popular vote for Bush; 4,655,026 for Kerry.

New York, R.I. for Kerry. No surprise. Texas for Bush, ditto.

CNN now has Bush up 155 to 112 in the EC.

A real nailbiter in Ohio. Bush now leads 244,487 to 228,233.

Megapundit shows Michigan with a 54-45 Bush lead (only 1% of precincts reporting).

Florida is looking good for Bush. Pennsylvania isn't. Wisconsin 60-39 for Bush (just 1% of precincts reporting.)

Gawd, it's tough trying to write this. The numbers are always right on top of you and it's a struggle just to keep up with them, let alone speculate about what they mean.

I'm nevertheless quietly optimistic right now. I get the sense that a corner's been turned.

CBC just ran a short piece on blogs, mentioning the rumors that Instapundit, etc., had been taken down by a DoS attack.

From The Corner:

This conservative anti-Kerry Dem is feeling a whole lot better than I did a few minutes ago. W is right where he needs to be in Ohio. The bulk of the early returns (9pm) were in two of the most pro-Kerry counties in the state Cuyahoga and Trumbull. In the few rural and Columbus suburban counties W is right where he needs to be.

Bush still holding up in Ohio. 25% of precincts reporting, and Bush has 802,960 votes for 53%; Kerry with 718,185 for 47%.

Bush takes Arkansas. That ol' Bill Clinton magic didn't seem to take.

Montana and Missouri for Bush.

CBC has 196 Bush 112 Kerry. Don't know where that extra 3 points is coming from, but bless your confidence in a Bush victory.

New Hampshire might be in play after all. From The Kerry Spot:

Spoke w/ his people in NH. They think they're going to win. Bush surprisingly won 2 wards in heavily Democratic Manchester, and one in Nashua. Their vote total was much higher than expected in traditionally Democratic places, and the late returns in NH usually come from heavily GOP areas.

The Corner:

"The mood just became sour. Everyone thinks Bush just swept Ohio, FL, and will be re-elected decisively based on readjusted exit polling."

What are you still doing here, loyal readers? Mark Steyn has a election page up and running.

Bush ahead in New Mexico and Colorado 53-46 in both states with 25% and 12% of the votes in respectively. Pennsylvania goes to Kerry, but I think it's too little, too late.

Looks like Kerry will take Iowa and Minnesota, but Bush grabs Michigan and Wisconsin.

CNN has Bush ahead 197-188, CBC 210-199 for Bush.

A bit late with the update. I think Bush has got it in the bag. Kerry would have to win pretty well everything from here, and I don't think that's going to happen.

James Zogby might want to update his prediction page.

Kerry's people have just about written off Florida, according to CNN's Judy Woodruff.

CBC has just given Florida to Bush. (11:41 pm) 237 Bush 199 Kerry.

Ohio still looking good. 1,833,998 votes to 1,705,873 for Bush. 64% of precincts reporting.

Carville and Begala on CNN presently. They know they're beaten.

Arizona for Bush. The gloom deepens in the Kerry camp.

Finally CNN calls Florida for Bush. It's all over but the shouting, folks.

Ohio tightens slightly. 51-48 Bush. 74% of precincts in.

It's the Witching Hour, and I think I'll wrap this up and have a good, stiff drink. Okay, another good, stiff drink.

Thanks for dropping by, and I hope you return some day.

My congratulations to the putative President-reelect George W. Bush and big thanks from north of the border.

God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. (I'd dig up an animated flag .gif, but I'm too tired to even start looking for one.)

Good night.

All times E.D.T.

Other bloggers covering election:

Please leave a link in the comments if you wish to be listed here.

Statistics from Wall Street Journal unless otherwise noted.

I confused pollster John Zogby with his Arab-activist brother James in this post below.

My apologies, and I understand they're changing their first names to "Jack" and "Jim," anyway.

I said I wasn't going to gloat. Well, maybe just a little.

Via Best of the Web:

"One day last May, I assigned the election to John Kerry. I said it early, and often. As I looked more, I saw that it shouldn't even be close. I said that in this space more than once. Now I am so sure that I am not even going to bother to watch the results tonight. I am going to bed early, for I must rise in the darkness and pursue immediately an exciting, overdue project. Besides, if I was up, so many people, upon seeing every word I said of this election coming true on television in front of them, would be kissing my hands and embarrassing me with outlandish praise."--Newsday columnist Jimmy Breslin, Nov. 2, 2004

Ahhhh, that felt good. How 'bout some of everybody's favorite moonbat, S. F. Chronicle "writer" Mark Morford:

You want to block it out. You want to rend your flesh and yank your hair and say no way in hell and lean out your window and scream into the Void and pray it will all be over soon, even though you know you're an atheist Buddhist Taoist Rosicrucian Zen Orgasmican and you don't normally pray to anything except maybe the gods of really exceptional sake and skin-tingling sex and maybe a few luminous transcendental deities that look remarkably like Jenna Jameson.

Ewww. That's just plain icky.

From an email to Dave Barry's blog:

This in itself has most flight attendants saying.... what? so now anyone can have their pet in their lap for emotional support through out the flight??? better yet... WHAT contstitutes an "Emotional Support Animal"... and what authorization does someone need to carry this "ESA" with them on flights. Remember we are not talking about Dogs for the Blind or Monkeys for the Paralized. Spefically noted in the Update Pigs and Small Horses are to be allowed on board planes.... YES ... SMALL HORSES?

I googled Emotional Support Animals + Airlines and sho' 'nuff (no direct link -- it's in a PDF file about in the middle of the page), from the F.A.A.'s own lips:

• Other unusual animals such as miniature horses, pigs and monkeys should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Factors to consider are the animal’s size, weight, state and foreign country restrictions, and whether or not the animal would pose a direct threat to the health or safety of others, or cause a fundamental alteration (significant disruption) in the cabin service. If none of these factors apply, the animal may accompany the passenger in the cabin.

I wonder if my pet cobra would qualify? He usually only bites people who make sudden moves or noises.

i'm counting out time
got the whole thing down by numbers
all those numbers

-- genesis

This is a good idea, but I figure the poor guy's going to have the world's worst case of writer's cramp any minute now.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

John McCrae (1872-1918)

Hey, kids! Have you always wanted to leave comments on fine fora like Democratic Underground or Atrios but weren't sure what to say? Well, Sean Gleeson comes to the rescue with his Autorantic Virtual Moonbat generator!

Within minutes, you'll be cranking out quality foam-flecked screeds such as this!

Once again, the Nazis have STOLEN the so-called "election"!!! The henchmen of Karl Rove drugged minority voters in Florida!!!!!!!!! And their last-minute SCARE TACTICS of accusing John Kerry of being a crash test dummy, and trying to focus on the Constitution instead of REAL ISSUES like Vietnam were calculated to frighten so-called "men" into VOTING!!!! If you're not MOPEY about this, then you're a BIG IDIOT!

You'll fit right in with your new friends! And if you act now, Sean will send you FREE OF CHARGE a 12-piece set of "authentic" "bone-handle" "steak" knives!!!!

Via Tim Blair

You remember the Chickenman (I can't find a link for it, so I might have the name wrong) from a few months ago? That was the guy dressed in a ridiculous chicken outfit who would respond to commands that you typed in.

Meet the Virtual Bartender, who is much easier on the eyes. You can direct her to bring you a beer, dance, etc. You can even ask her to take off her clothes.

Not that I would try anything so crass, of course; and anyway, if you do, a large bouncer comes over and stands in front of you, kind of spoiling the view.

Or so I have heard.

Via The Presurfer, some of the other commands she responds to:

balls, belly, bend over, bottle, box, can, cowgirl, dance, dog, drink a beer, eat a banana, exercise, fight, give me your number, guitar, guys, hair, handstand, head, hey, hello, hummer, jiggle, jump, kiss a girl, laugh, lick, lie on the bar, light, lips, love, magic, model, muscle, party, phone, pillow fight, pitcher, playboy, pole dance, pour, pout, pushup, rap, remove shoes, rock, rope, rotate, serve, shake, sing, sleep, splits, stretch, surf, switch, talk, tap dance, tickle, tie shoes, wave, yoga.

Researchers have found a long-lost section of the Bayeux Tapestry, which, on examination, seems to contain a powerful antiwar message:

Make your own discoveries here.

I don't know what's wrong. Maybe it isn't his time yet. They keep on trying to put him in the ground, but the ground just spits him back up. Anyone have any theories?

My apologies for not maintaining my usual high rate of output the last few days, but I've been doing a lot of this lately. With some luck, things will be back to normal soon.

whisper in my ear
kicka pooka mok a wa wahini
are the words I long to hear

-- john prine

One of the great joys of my misspent youth was typing dirty words into various text-driven games (like King's Quest or Adventure) to see how the computer would respond.

(Hey, I told you it was a misspent youth.)

Anyway, here's a kindred spirit, who did the same thing with a lot of games; and better, got screen caps of them. (There are about five full pages -- click on "East" at the bottom of the page to display the next one.)

Work safe, assuming nobody looks at your screen too closely.

Via boingboing

so no one told you life was gonna be this way
your job's a joke, you're broke, your love life's D.O.A
it's like you're always stuck in second gear

-- the rembrandts

You might have heard of the sexual harassment suit filed by a woman who worked as an assistant to the writing staff on the TV show Friends.

The Guardian:

The case arose after a former writers' assistant on the show, Amaani Lyle, accused the creative team of sexual harassment, though none of the remarks she complains about had been directed at her.

Among the frequent discussions about sex that had formed part of the creative process for the show, she claimed the team talked about how one of the writers had missed an opportunity to sleep with Jennifer Aniston, who played Rachel, and had spoken pejoratively of part of Courteney Cox Arquette's (Monica) anatomy.

The writers admit they discussed their own sex lives and their fantasies about actors in the show, but argue she has no case for 'passive' sexual harassment.

I think I've watched one episode of Friends from start to finish, and it was competently done, but nothing that I cared to watch again. I do remember that the plot revolved around sex or something. There was some subplot involving . . . sex, I think. There were a lot of double entendres, and even more single entendres.

Call it a hunch, but I'll bet that the topic of . . . sex got batted around in the writers' bullpen from time to time.

Lyle admits she was warned conversations would be more explicit than in her previous job, working as a writers' assistant on the children's channel Nickelodeon. She was fired in 1999 for typing too slowly and went on to file a sexual harassment suit against the makers of the show, Warner Bros Television Productions Inc.

Hm-hmm. Anyone notice something of a pattern here?

Lyle, 31, is now in Germany with the US air force.

Consider this a heads-up, flyboys.

Why must we go on hating, why can`t we live in bliss
Cos out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again

-- cat stevens yusuf islam

TIWWWB:

In Rock Music theory there's a thing called an Encore (Fr: again(something like that) which is where the band come's back on to the stage for just one(1) more song(or more). Like when I went to see RUSH (Geddylee - #1 bass player alltime) in concert during the "Roll the bones" tour (the BEST)(opening: PRimus) they went off the stage and I was like "that's it let's go" but Pat and Stan were all "no, the encore". And they came back out and did some more! (Forget which son'gs/"YYZ"?(forget.)).

Well like RUSH here I am folk's!

Thank God he's back, apparently having reversed his decision to quit blogging. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend The Iraq War Was Wrong Blog. It's either the work of someone who got dropped on his head one too many times or the most sophisticated satire since the sadly-departed Allah.

I vote for the latter. It's just too funny to be accidental. And then there's his confession, recorded for posterity by the Unpopulist:

My Blogparents are Matthew Yglesias and Oliver Willis tied together in a Bloghomosexual civil union. (Indirectly, of course,) all of the following true: My style is from them. My wit is from them. My intelligence is from them. (There's some of me (no more then 98% or so) tossed into that mix as well (obviously)

That seals the deal. Go check it out (and also the commenters, about half of whom seem to get the joke).

if you can't dance
and you can't sing
you can join the Morris Ring

-- trad. (var.)

There's a famous maxim, "You should try everything once except incest and Morris dancing." It's not clear who first said it. This thread at Snopes.com lists some of the possibilities:

A quick web search suggests that Sir Thomas Beecham is the most popular candidate, but it's also attributed to Sir Malcolm Sargent, Sir Arnold Bax, Stephen Fry, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and WC Fields (as well as being referred to in the title of books by Jonathan Meades and Linzi Drew). And if I'd been asked before searching, I'd probably have said Noel Coward.

But whomever the author, this video confirms the wisdom of that adage, as the spawn of incestuous Morris dancers shows up to join in the revelry. Or possibly it's an aardvark.

Warning: Music.

Hmph. Jeff at Beautiful Atrocities has done gone and nominated yours truly for Best Canadian Blog in the 2004 Weblog Awards.

I have therefore reciprocated this hostile act by also nominating Jeff for Best Canadian Blog. Er, scratch that. He's not even Canadian, so I had to put him in the Best Culture Blog category. 'Cause Jeff is down with culture.

At least he demonstrates a disturbing familiarity with Days of Our Lives, which is "culture" of sorts, I guess. He probably even knows who Susan Lucci is. So there.

These are fightin' words (and assorted alphanumeric characters). There's (quite catchy) music by the German band Rammstein.

Via . . . um, somebody. (Forgot to tag the source when I ran across it a couple of days ago.)

An interesting review of the new Kennedy assassination game in Slate:

After playing JFK Reloaded for a couple of hours, I have to give Traffic credit for the game's unbelievably precise physics. Every bullet bounces around with a super-realistic trajectory, behaving in the incredibly complicated way that bullets do. Sometimes I'd hit the back of the limo and the bullet would careen forward, smashing the glass; other times it would embed itself in the metal. After each round, the game lets you view the scene in a dozen different ways, including the classic Zapruder film angle or even from the perspective of a camera mounted on the limo. Then you get a 3-D model of the limo that you can rotate however you want, with the bullet trajectories traced in freeze-frame. As a physics simulation, it's remarkable.

But as an experience? It's nauseating.

Like the writer, I don't have a problem with shoot-'em-ups (apart from being generally lousy at playing them) but I think I'll be passing on this one.

Via Waxy.org

One of the things that writers aim for is a strong opening sentence or paragraph that immediately engages the reader. Fiction writers refer to it as the "hook"; newspaper or magazine writers as the "lede."

Here's a good example of the latter:

It has been revealed a Hamilton woman was so angry about police taking her three preserved snakes that she stormed into the station and threw a jar of pickled kittens at the counter.

This instantly provokes the reader's curiosity:

What? Pickled kittens? In a jar?

I don't mean to cast aspersions, but this woman is obviously low-rent trailer trash.

Pickled kittens are properly stored only in aged oaken barrels; and if you must transport them to hurl at police officers, then Louis Vuitton sells a quite attractive Suhali leather and canvas ammo belt specifically for that purpose.

But you of course already knew that. Sheesh.

Via Dave Barry

The Commissar's spies have uncovered secret Amerikan map of Iraqi quagmire. Go see.

Time for the obligatory post wishing Americans a Happy Thanksgiving.

Eh, that's rather lame, isn't it? So I'll just say that, if you're in the mood for a holiday turkey, John Podhoretz serves up a lovely one in The Corner:

Oliver Stone's Alexander, which opens today, isn't just bad. It's Springtime for Hitler bad. I haven't guffawed this hard since I saw Airplane for the first time 24 years ago. This is one of the colossal catastrophes of all time. At a screening on Monday night, during the death scene of Alexander's lover Hephaiston, people were screaming with laughter as Alexander made a big speech while, behind him in soft focus, Hephaiston went into a conniption fit and croaked. Plus, Angelina Jolie plays Alexander's mother like she was Natasha from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. It's almost worth seeing, but don't, because if you're like me and want to see Oliver Stone utterly destroyed for his artistic and political crimes, you will make sure not to contribute to the box-office coffers of what is sure to go down in the annals of moviedom as Heaven's Gate with rampaging evil elephants (no, I'm not kidding).

I think I'll wait for it to come out on video.

If Tim Blair is the answer, the question isn't worth asking. I had a certain amount of time for him until not that long ago, but no longer. . . .

And although I've indulged momentarily in that sort of nonsense myself (blog bile awards before I got bored by the concept), what I really think is that awards are contrary to the whole spirit of blogging.

This is from a post on Tim Blair's blog a couple of days ago and is a quote from another Australian blogger named Ken Parish, who sounds like a preemptively-sore loser, if you ask me. (When someone says, "It's not about the awards," it's about the awards.) I've taken the liberty of eliding Mr. Parish's remarks, as he tends to use bad words. You can read the original here.

What caught my attention, though, was an update that Tim made to the post:

Why is Hedy Fry posting at Ken's site as Dude?

This will take a bit of explanation for non-Canadian readers. Hedy Fry (webpage here) was a cabinet minister in the Chrétien government (Secretary of State for Status of Women and Multiculturalism -- a politically-correct hack, in other words) who racked up six bumbling years in that position before being demoted to the backbench for one particularly egregious piece of race-baiting in March of 2001. I'll leave it to Herman Goodden of the London Free Press to summarize:

Fry's latest remarks were deliberately planned as an answer to a staged question in Parliament which was lobbed her way by an obedient Liberal backbencher. The point of that exchange was to elicit a sort of summation from our minister of multiculturalism on the state of the nation, bigotry-wise, as the world marked that special and joyous holiday (which, I must admit, I'd never heard of before and haven't bothered flagging for celebration next year) called International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (IDFERD).

Instead of blandly extending "Season's Greetings" or "Happy IDFERD" to Canadians everywhere," Fry donned her very haughtiest demeanour and said:

"Mr. Speaker, we only have to look around the world today at Kosovo, at Macedonia, at Northern Ireland to know that people are still discriminated against in the world because of their race, their religion and their culture. We do not have to go too far. We can just go to British Columbia in Prince George where crosses are being burned on lawns as we speak."

Peppered with questions after that session of Parliament, Fry insisted the mayor of Prince George had sent her a letter requesting her personal help with these demonstrations of racial hatred. Yet Mayor Colin Kinsley of Prince George and that town's RCMP unit denied any such incidents, or that they'd made any overtures to Fry for help.

Interestingly, Fry had made an equally groundless claim four years earlier about cross burnings in Kamloops, has repeatedly claimed that the western provinces are being flooded with Ku Klux Klan-style groups with "a very well organized strategic plan" to establish a "white homeland," and has characterized Canadian history overall as one long litany of "colonial racism and intolerance."

After a couple of weeks of steadily-growing outrage, Chrétien reluctantly dumped her and I hadn't given her another thought until I saw Tim's mention. Following the link he gave, we come to this:

Tim Blair No 1

rant,rant,rant,rant,rant,rant,rant,rant,rant,rant,
rant,rant, pause, rant,rant,rant,

And sure enough, rolling the cursor over "Dude" turns up Fry.H@parl.gc.ca, Fry's Parliamentary email address.

Now of course it could be the case that someone's trying to embarrass Fry; but I doubt she's easily embarrassed. It's funny, too, to think that left to her own devices, all she's capable of is posting incoherent drivel on someone's blog.

Correction:

My memory failed me (but that's what Google's for). I thought Fry was gone from cabinet shortly after that speech, but she lingered on like a bad smell for awhile. Sure enough, she was around to disgrace the country after 9/11:

Peter O'Neil
Vancouver Sun
Tuesday, October 02, 2001

OTTAWA -- A B.C. feminist told a cheering audience here that the United
States government is more threatening to the world than international terrorism.

Sunera Thobani received several standing ovations from about 500 delegates attending the Women's Resistance Conference on Monday.

Her comments caused a political uproar, with opposition MPs condemning
Secretary of State Hedy Fry for sitting silently as Thobani spoke. MPs called on
the government to fire Fry, charging that she should have immediately condemned Thobani's statements.

"Today in the world the United States is the most dangerous and the most
powerful global force unleashing horrific levels of violence," said Thobani, a
women's studies professor at the University of British Columbia and former
head of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women.

Even with this, Fry wasn't canned by the dithering Chrétien until January of 2002.

The Buick Terraza (yes, I know it's actually a minivan).

Still time to get your nominations in for the 2004 Weblog Awards (they shut down at midnight EDT tonight). Voting should begin on Dec. 1 or thereabouts.

You don't have to be a blogger, and you can nominate anyone you want, including yourself (if you are a blogger). And you can use a pseudonym if you feel like it.

I myself am up for Best Canadian Blog, which is kind of funny, in a pathetic, tragic sort of way. I mean, last year I was nominated in one of the lower-ranking Ecosystem categories and finished 11th or 12th. How I'll do against the likes of Colby Cosh and Damian Penny is not something I'm terribly optimistic about.

Just in case, sure, I got a permit for the victory parade and I've booked the banquet room at Karl's Kwality Pizza Emporium, but it's really just a lot of false bravado. I wonder if those deposit fees are refundable?

I haven't read Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird for a long time, and it's surprising how much of the plot I'd forgotten.

Especially the burning shark, the pirates and the flying galleons. You doubt me?

Warning: SFX and general zaniness.

Via memepool

You know when someone asks you a question and you don't know or aren't sure about the answer? So you go, "hmmm."

You know how sometimes you go to a room in the house looking for something, but all of a sudden you can't remember what it is you were looking for? So you go, "hmmm."

You know when you're looking in the refrigerator for something to eat, but you can't decide what you want? So you go, "hmmm."

like a criminal
did you think it could be like on tv?
where you could be big in your own movie?

-- john lydon

I came across this recently by accident, but I remember reading about it at the time -- it happened quite a few years ago and I thought it was funny enough to clip and enter into a database (sadly, now irretrievably corrupted) that I was using at the time.

Stettler is a small town in Alberta, about midway between Edmonton and Calgary.