November 6, 2009
When ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see some partisan hack in a tux on his way to a rich gala, does that resonate?
Liberals and NDPers seem to be reacting with similar disgust to the appalling spectacle last evening of Mike Duffy in a tuxedo, ostensibly gussied up for a Conservative gala, stopping by the CBC to offer up his pearls of partisan wisdom, which included a vague dissing of all things Progressive Conservative whilst shooting down the messenger of a recent NDP report on excessive Senate spending in the person of NDP MP Peter Stoffer.
Consider if you will, this new breed of Pseudo-Tory, starkly personified these days by his House of Lordship Senator Duffy. As you hearken back to the days of old, can you ever imagine an old PCer like Bob Stanfield behaving in such a rude, unseemly fashion? Boorishness, hypocrisy and partisan excess are the hallmarks of Harper's new Conservatism. Does that resonate with the unemployed? Imagine what ordinary Canadians must think about the $44,000 of taxpayer pork that's been blown during a three month spending spree on the gala gallavantings of just one newly-minted, entitled Conservative Senator alone?
Harper's New Foreign Policy: "At The End Of The Day It's Just Kind Of A Dick Move."
Polite no more, we're all just Canadian Iceholes now.
According to Stephen Colbert, Canada has denied the U.S. Speedskating team (sponsored by Colbert Nation) ice time on the Olympic oval, an uncharacteristic cheap move among friendly nations.
Why blame this on Harper you say? Well, the government sets the tone for the country and if the icehole fits...
November 5, 2009
Harper's H1N1 Strategy Straight Out Of "Airplane II"
In the immortal words of William Shatner, "Pretend nothing has happened and hope everything turns out alright in the morning."
November 4, 2009
I Sometimes Forget How Well I've Aged
Looking at this vintage CBC clip circa 1987, the first thing that pops to mind is "My God, eat something Ignatieff." Ah those crazy, hazy salad days when a young lad could eat like a maniac and never gain weight. If I had to do it all over again, I'd rethink the green tie but once again, this video only serves to solidify the superiority of my tresses.
November 2, 2009
Flashback to 1992: Let's Compare Ignatieff Versus Harper Quotes And See Who Comes Out Better
Apparently the Grand Poo Bah of Conservative Blogging is quoting some ancient nugget from the writings of Michael Ignatieff circa 1992 in reference to the forthcoming visit to Canada of the Prince of Wales.
Really? You want to go there? Fine, but let's also revisit what kind of interesting ideas Stephen Harper was spewing in the early 90s shall we? And how about this quote from Preston Manning circa 1992 and the Charlottetown Accord?
“At this point, I did not fully appreciate that while Stephen was a strong Reformer with respect to our economic, fiscal and constitutional positions, he had serious reservations about Reform’s and my belief in the value of grassroots consultation and participation in key decisions. . .”
Shall we continue to skip down memory lane and root around in the vaults for the many timeless gems Stephen Harper has uttered in his long and storied career, all in the service of his quest to become the self-serving-demagogue he is today. And we're not talking about original thought here. This is a man who never met an idea he couldn't steal and twist to his own distorted purpose. I'm quite sure no amount of Ignatieff quoting would ever compare to the volume of derivative right-wing drivel Harper has generated whilst creating his own plagiarized version of Banana Republicanism.
On a completely unrelated note, let me say, hands down, we all know who had better hair in 1992.
November 1, 2009
Letters To Ignatieff: "You Were An Educator. We Need To Hear More From You On Education."
Indeed. And so you shall. We need to make the connection between education and Canada's future prosperity in terms of the lives of individuals and the country as a whole. We need to change the way we think about education and make the connection between education and our personal happiness. Between education and our well-being. We need to revolutionize the very idea of what education is and what it means to our lives. Education is not a minimum 12 year prison sentence with early parole being an option for those who decide to drop out. What and how we learn shapes and guides our lives forever. Education should be every bit as engaging and essential to our life as food and water. It should nourish us, please us and help us thrive all through our lives. Each and every Canadian should have opportunities for education all through their lives. Education should be of prime importance to governments and citizens alike.
October 31, 2009
October 30, 2009
Nobody Puts Iggy In A Corner: 5 Life Lessons Learned From "Dirty Dancing"
1. It's just as well I never got that nose job. Put more value on what makes you unique than what people criticize you for.
2. Things aren't always what they seem. We're never as good or as bad as our press makes us out to be and we're all greater than the sum of our parts.
3. Life is a lot more complicated than it looks. Dig deeper.
4. Learning the steps is worth the pain. There are no shortcuts to learning the steps.
5. It ain't over till the final dance sequence so dance your ass off as long as you can.
October 29, 2009
Letters To Ignatieff: "We Hate You Because You're A Smarty Pants And You Think You're Better Than Us."
As you might imagine we get our fair share of daily hate mail but point of fact, the smarty pants aspect is purely subjective and in the eye of the beholder and it may surprise you to learn that we really don't think we're better than you. We don't even know you. We've never met you so how could we possibly judge our superiority to you, silly. But don't worry, we're not offended by the challenge and here's a though to ponder, if we were stuck in a lifeboat, the smarty pants is most likely the first person tossed overboard to conserve food and water. The person who knows CPR and basic first aid stands a better chance of survival in most any circumstance you can think of than does an academic. So from an end of the world survivalist perspective, those of us considered to be smarty pants are rather low on the food chain.
On the other hand one doesn't need to be an academic to be a smarty pants and human beings by their very nature are all quite clever, creative and resourceful in some way or another. Society doesn't always recognize that fact and we should endeavour to deconstruct the labels and elitism that seeks to put every one of us in tiny boxes. And thus why I welcome the challenge and extend another. Why should a smarty pants not be good with a hammer or excel at hockey? Look at Ken Dryden for example. He is the very antithesis of what most people believe a politician and a former athlete to be. He challenges the idea that a person can only be good at one thing, can only exist within the confines of a single stereotype.
Wouldn't the world would be a better place if we all spent less time in our respective boxes and more time pushing the limits of what is to be human? Building, creating, thinking, talking, singing, cooking, laughing, helping, learning, teaching and the list goes on indefinitely. Should we not all embrace our inner smarty pants? Should we not challenge the very concept of elitism, the idea that only a chosen few are smart or talented or worthy of admiration? We are each worthy and what makes us so is what we do with our lives. The smartest person on earth is as likely to live their life like an idiot as the reverse.
In the final analysis, it's not any special skills or talent you're born with that will allow you to reach your full potential in life, it's how hard you fight the odds and how willing you are to embrace the possibilities before you.
October 28, 2009
Letters To Ignatieff: "Can We Please Have More Cameras In The House of Commons?"
Dear Mr. Ignatieff,
Canadians are tired of missing out on all the disturbing Conservative heckling that we have heard goes on in Parliament. If you are elected, would you put more cameras in so we can see what the Tories are really like? I would especially enjoy watching Peter Van Loan's head explode or maybe even see John Baird twitching uncontrollably and foaming at the mouth. I've heard it's something to behold.
Sincerely,
Monica
That is a capital idea, Monica! We will have our new inner circle take it under advisement immediately.
Letters To Ignatieff: "Why Have You Not Responded To Our Twitter Petition On Electoral Reform?"
A Twitter Petition on the issue of electoral reform has recently come to our attention and perhaps it would be advisable to rise to the challenge and engage Canadians in a conversation on electoral reform because when one says they "need to be convinced" on an issue, that rather begs for some convincing to occur.
October 27, 2009
October 26, 2009
Let's Not Talk About Those Polls Shall We?
Instead, let's have a few words from our young friend Justin speaking about young Canadians and the politics of engagement.
October 25, 2009
If They Ever YouTube That Cameo I Did In "Antonia and Jane" I'm Sunk
Playing oneself in a movie seemed like a laugh at the time. Not so much in retrospect. Ah well, even so, at least it was the prime of our good hair days.
October 24, 2009
The First Annual Bionic Liberal Blog Awards: You Are A Winner Just Because We Say So!
Disclaimer: Award winners will not be publicly named herein because true excellence is its own reward. You can see who the lucky winners are by clicking the category links. There are a lot of bloggers not included in the list that we enjoy and feel are also worthy of recognition but one only has so much brain power on a Saturday morning to come up with ideas for clever categories. Therefore we declare this to be an open source award and we offer it up to anyone who blogs. You showed up, you banged your keyboard, poured out your heart, your soul, your humour, your intelligence, your frustration, your very life essence. So give yourself an award. You deserve it. Feel free to grab the graphic and post it on your blog's sidebar. Give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done by linking your award graphic to the blog post you wrote this year that you're most proud of.
Now Without Further Adieu and in Random Order, We Present The Categories for the First Annual Bionic Liberal Blog Awards 2009:
NDP Blogger We'd Least Like To Kill
Best Blog Stalking A Public Intellectual
Blog Most Likely To Make You Worry About Picking Your Nose In Public
Blogger Most Deserving Of A Group Hug
Best Blog With The Word Moderate In The Title
Oldest Living Green Blogger
Blogger Least Likely To Suffer Fools Gladly
Blogger Most Likely To Kick Oppression's Ass
Best Blogger Sending Postcards From The Edge
Best Blog Using A Play On Words In The Title
Best Blogger Who Also Twitters
Best Blogger With Moving Parts
Blogger Who Most Reminds Us Of Our Favourite High School Social Studies Teacher
Blogger Most Likely To Play Nice With Others
Blogger Most Likely To Have A World View On Politics
Blogger Who Most Reminds Us Of A Comic Book Character
Best Blogger Who No Longer Blogs RIP Award
Blogger Who Most Reminds Us Of The Teacher Who Supervised Band Practice In High School
Blogger Most Unlikely To Waffle
Best Virtual Representation In Blog Form Of A Coffee Joint We've Actually Been To
Liberal Blogger Least likely To Be Influenced By Peer Group Pressure
Liberal Politician Most Likely To Blog About Something Meaningful
Blogger Most Likely To Write A Saucy Headline
Best Fake Politician Who Also Twitters
Best Blogger Who Doesn't Blog Enough
Blogger Most Skilled With Photoshop and YouTube
Least Annoying Blogging Pundit
Best Political Journalist Blogger Formerly At Macleans Now At The CBC Who Also Twitters
NDP Blogger Most Likely To Give Warren Kinsella A Blanket Party
Best Blog With The Word Cat In The Title
Best Blog With The Word Dog In The Title
Best New Blogger With A Minimalist Blog Interface
Blogger With The Most Entertaining Comments Section
Best TV Personality With Good Hair Who Also Blogs and Twitters
Best Blog By A Magazine Named After An Animal
Best Minimalist Blog Aggregator
And that, as they say, is that.
Congratulations, good luck and Godspeed!
October 23, 2009
Announcing The Bionic Liberal Blog Awards
There will be no nominations and no voting because that's how I roll. Nominations and voting only serve to make the losers more bitter and the winners more unbearably smug. No, none of that ego-damaging peer group popularity contest nonsense here at the Bionic Liberal Blog Awards. I'll just randomly choose the winners in categories I'll invent off the top of my head. Just because I can. Awards will be announced tomorrow. Sometime. Whenever I wake up and get myself together.
Stay tuned.
Stephen Harper, The Crybaby of Canadian Politics
Pity poor little Stephen Harper, so traumatized by his own Canadian media coverage that he can't bear to hear what Allan Greg says about him. My God, what an arse! Don't you know Jack Layton would sell his soul and his eye teeth to get a tiny fraction of the coverage you get? If our crybaby Prime Minister can't take the heat, perhaps he should let someone else take over the kitchen. In fact, there's at least one politician I can think of who takes daily drubbings in the press who would love to have your problems. If you can't handle the Canadian Media Steve, why don't you retire and get a job with Fox News? You'll never hear anything you don't like in that Republican bubble.
October 22, 2009
Rick Mercer Presents: A Sleeper Issue For The Next Election
Pierre Pollievre is the new Tory posterchild illustrating how the taxpayers of Canada provide better pension security for their MPs than what is provided for them by companies like Nortel. Thanks Rick, I needed that!
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