This is somewhere in the East Village, New York City Sept. 2009. I appreciate the work someone put into these hand-made signs. And into those mustard loops.

Mormon munch?

Did he used to be really heavy-set?

Oh my!

I kind of like this. Canada needs to be knocked off its high horse, especially 'round these here parts, where mediocrity is the only way to the top!

British Diplomat Scorns Canada

"Anyone who is even moderately good at what they do - in literature, the theatre, skiing or whatever - tends to become a national figure. And anyone who stands out at all from the crowd tends to be praised to the skies and given the Order of Canada at once..."

(I hear that! You don't even have to stand out, in fact, the opposite is best! The modern-day Canadian word for slightly-above average is 'amazing'. We're big believers in the self-esteem movement. It's like persistently using exclamation points! to make everyone believe that something is really, REALLY important! when it's really, really not!)

But at least we're not Nicaragua!

From Weehawken, N.J. New York is great, you should go. Make more time for the East Village...I didn't but I wish I had.

For the past seven months, I've been doing a radio show on Regina community radio called Mouth Radio. It actuallly started as Dead Blog Collective but I changed it a few months in, no doubt earning me high maintenance status. I also started from 8-10 p.m. then changed to 8:30-10 p.m. because two hours required too much prep work. Now, as of Oct. 20, I move to 7-8 p.m. on Tuesdays, which, in a way, feels like my real first day. Tuesday was my first request starting out, but the manager wanted to put me on Thursdays. It was fine, but Thursday is good TV night, and I get too busy near the end of the week with everything I put off earlier.

I feel more likely to play kids songs during 7-8 p.m. It just feels cleaner, fresher. I'm happy about it. Is good. http://www.cjtr.ca/webcast

Just spent six fab days in New York City, including one brief 'n blustery afternoon at Coney Island. Already scheming on return viz.

Bible-belt Saskatchewan attitude (Wait till the very end. So funny.)

This is it.

I think it's tyme we all stopped worrying so much about juice-monkeys like Alex Rodriguez and creeps like Roberto Alomar and more about the best hitter in baseball, Mr. Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals:

This was my favourite thing about the Internet in 2008:

Stuff White People Like.

The whole list. Every one. Esp. the one about dinner parties. White people dinner parties make me furious.

Canada is changing governments. If this was the United States, the situation would be as follows:

Your House of Representatives numbers 538; half of that, a "majority" is 269 + 1 (270). Now, imagine you had no individually-elected president and no elected Senate, and your House party leaders were the candidates to become president. And then imagine you had a third (Green) or fourth (Libertarian) party that actually won seats.

Now imagine you had an election and the Republicans won only 250 seats in the House (20 shy of a majority), the Democrats won 200 seats, the Greens won 48 and the Libertarians won 40 seats.

In Canada's Parliamentary system, the Republicans would be declared the winners of a "minority" government--a government that would last only as long as it retained the confidence of the House through some type of coalition or agreement of at least 270 members. (In Canada, when you win an outright majority, 270 seats or more, you govern untouched for up to five years.)

What's going on right now is that in October 2008's sudden, unnecessary election, Canada's Repubs, the Conservative Party, managed only 143 seats in Parliament. With 308 seats in the Canadian House of Commons, a party needs 155 for a majority government. So the Conservatives fell short.

The opposition parties, the Liberals (77), Bloc Quebecois (49), New Democratic Party (37) and Independents (2) won the rest (165).

What's happened in Canada now is that the minority Conservatives have failed to retain the confidence of a majority of House members, and the opposition has agreed to a coalition deal in which they all unite to vote the Conservatives down and out of office on Monday, December 8. The three opposition parties will then form a new, coalition government. The Liberals (77) and NDP (37) (114 seats total) will be the principles in this coalition government, splitting up cabinet positions, and will be supported by but-not-formally-coalesced-to the separatist Bloc Quebecois.

(This happens all the time in Europe.)

The Liberals and NDP Have agreed to remain united for 30 months, until June 2011, while the Bloc has agreed to support them for 12 months. The Liberal-NDP coalition, however, is only guaranteed for 12 months then, as the Conservatives' 143 members will be more than enough to vote the coalition down once they no longer enjoy the support of the Bloc's 49 members 12 months from now. (So we'll probably need to have a new election at that point, in January 2010.)

The coalition government in technically unelected, in that whomever leads becomes the new Prime Minister and gets his own portrait in the Prime Minister's Portrait Gallery sometime in the future. (It's made up of second, third and fourth place parties.)

On the other hand, you could say the new coalition Prime Minister has more of a mandate, in that he's supported by a majority of the House members, unlike the previous minority-but-technically elected Prime Minister.

What it comes down to is, Canada sports a very sophisticated system that no one since 1926 (the last time a similar event happened) has ever had to worry about figuring out (Canada became a country in 1867), but this is how our system works.

Essentially, when Canadians elect a minority government, it's because, collectively, they don't trust that party enough with an untouchable majority. Effectively, what they say through minorities is: your mandate is not to go-it-alone and weild power like you're untouchable; your mandate is to cooperate with the other parties, work together, compromise and make things happen.

Because the minority Conservatives refused to play ball, the opposition agreed to kick them out.

If the Conservative Party of Canada was a person, it would be called sociopathic/anti-social/insane, or, in other words, Vice President Dick Cheney.

Blogging is dead. You let it die.

"94% of blogs are dormant."

http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2008/11/who_killed_the.php

Blogging seems to have entered its midlife crisis, with much existential gnashing-of-teeth about the state and fate of a literary form that once seemed new and fresh and now seems familiar and tired. And there's good reason for the teeth-gnashing. While there continue to be many blogs, including a lot of very good ones, it seems to me that one would be hard pressed to make the case that there's still a "blogosphere."

I would like to thank Bush/Cheney for eight exciting-if-dreary-and-terrifying years; we've all come so far and grown so much. What disappoints was the lack of reaction--the Vietnam era only lasted about 6 years ('65 to '71) before 70s self-indulgence displaced anger and outrage. Outrage to Bush never really got off the ground, despite everything.

From Paul Krugman:

Last night wasn’t just a victory for tolerance; it wasn’t just a mandate for progressive change; it was also, I hope, the end of the monster years.

What I mean by that is that for the past 14 years America’s political life has been largely dominated by, well, monsters. Monsters like Tom DeLay, who suggested that the shootings at Columbine happened because schools teach students the theory of evolution. Monsters like Karl Rove, who declared that liberals wanted to offer “therapy and understanding” to terrorists. Monsters like Dick Cheney, who saw 9/11 as an opportunity to start torturing people.

And in our national discourse, we pretended that these monsters were reasonable, respectable people. To point out that the monsters were, in fact, monsters, was “shrill.”

Four years ago it seemed as if the monsters would dominate American politics for a long time to come. But for now, at least, they’ve been banished to the wilderness.

Yes! I'm actually feeling pre-9/11 for the first time since before Sept. 11. A weight has been lifted! It's all over, baby blue. Life can return to normal...a smart, principled man will return to the White House.

Of course, I'd take this chance to vote Nader, but whatever. I'm good either way.

What's really interesting about US politics that Canadians don't experience is the ballot measures thing. In 2000 and 2004, ballot questions were a great way for the Republicans to get their vote out. It may not have been enough to vote FOR Greorge Bush, but if you get to vote Bush and against gay people, it sweetens the pot and makes the day worthwhile.

Don't think third tyme's going to be the charm for McCain, though.

...to have this over with.

My life of irritability started in 1999 when this obvious f*ckwit of a hand-me-down ignoramus named Bush started making overtures towards the Republican nomination for president. (It's so unlikely and long ago now, it feels like it was in 1977.)

As a Canadian with a burgeoning interest in the spectacle of politics in the Internet age, and a background coming-of-age in the era of corrupt/sleazy/incompetent rightwing politicians (1980s), my witness of Bush-rising filled me with vaudevillian horror as if I was in the French surrealist's real-time dada Hitlerian spoof of the 1930's, in a little bit No Country for Old Men landscape and orange and brown A&W greasy burger and cigarette pall on my skin.

In 2000, I paid as much attention to Bush/Gore as most people are NOW paying to Obama (Okay, I guess I was ahead of my time...tho what we really have in 2008 is a boring '96 Clinton vs. Bob Dole BLOW-OUT on our hands, tho Dems and progressives SHOULD be basking in this landslide Obama win. I am, we deserve it, it's so long overdue, and it's so necessary.)

Then, whatever, bullshit went down, the Repub majority on the Supreme Court stopped the recount and awarded the presidency to Bush. Then:

2001: Bush proves an early disappointment, languishes as 50% approval on Sept. 10; then, terrorists strike. He becomes a hero, Repub war/pr machine creates fear, then harnesses it for political gain.

2002: Snipers shoot people, anthrax hits the U.S. postal service, and Bush goes to war in Afghan.

2003: Bush goes to war in Iraq. Shuttle explodes. Nothing good happens.

2004: Bush gets re-elected.

2005: I don't even remember 2005. I saw Paul Westerberg in Vancouver and San Francisco. Looked ahead to 2009.

2006: Democrats reclaim Senate, House. Cheney shoots his friend in the face.

2007: Reality about Bush/Cheney sinks in.

2008: Market meltdown. America elects Obama/Biden: civility, calm, stability is restored in America. Obama gets to work struggling to restore America's place in vastly-changed, Asian/Middle Eastern-dominated world.

Somewhere in there, cell phones, Facebook, etc., Generation Y went mainstream, people lost the ability to trust/talk to eachother, the news media went full-on infotainment, etc.

It's been a very weird time. I increased by 33% in age, compared to 2000. I finished two degrees, I drive the same car (which I'm proud of), I stayed roughly the same weight, kept all my hairs, travelled overseas twice and to Hawaii twice, started several different websites and, later, blogs (this is my second LJ), had three different Prime Ministers and four federal Canadian elections to America's two, seen the Canadian dollar go from 60 cents US to 1.10, and now back down to 83 cents, oil from $10 to $140 and back down to $65...I'm just tired of it. I'm ready for socialism.

I want to meet Susan Bonner. She's the hottest journalist in Canada.

Man, this is so good, and I'm totally add-ic-ted to it: Mojadara.

I recommend halving the salt, and forgoing the whole fried onion thing. I whip it up using red lentils at least once a week and just eat it all up, usually with plain yogourt on top. I also cut down on the olive oil a little bit. I usually eat it with shrimp, last night Tandoori shrimp. 

It's just about the best damn thing going...

Mojadara

1 cup brown lentils, washed
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup long-grain rice, washed
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 1/2 cups warm water
4 large onions, sliced
Vegetable oil (for deep-frying)
Plain yogurt

In large saucepan with water, bring lentils to boil. Remove pan from heat and let lentils sit 10 minutes, covered. Transfer to colander; rinse under running water and drain thoroughly.

In heavy pan, heat oil. Saut? rice and lentils over medium heat for 2 minutes, until grains are well coated. Add salt, pepper, cumin, turmeric and warm water. Bring to boil over high heat, stirring occasionally.

Reduce heat, cover pan tightly, and leave on low heat for 10 minutes.

Deep-fry sliced onion in 2 batches in hot oil until caramelized, stirring occasionally and watching carefully so onions don't burn; this will take about half an hour.

Serve fried onions as garnish over rice.

Serve with yogurt on the side.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.