Great day for Stephen Harper

To provide some balance after a day of patriotic "support our troops" jingoism here are some words from Charlie Madison:

Charlie: I don’t trust people who make bitter reflections about war, Mrs. Barham. It’s always the generals with the bloodiest records who are the first to shout what a Hell it is. And it’s always the widows who lead the Memorial Day parades … we shall never end wars, Mrs. Barham, by blaming it on ministers and generals or warmongering imperialists or all the other banal bogies. It’s the rest of us who build statues to those generals and name boulevards after those ministers; the rest of us who make heroes of our dead and shrines of our battlefields. We wear our widows’ weeds like nuns and perpetuate war by exalting its sacrifices. My brother died at Anzio – an everyday soldier’s death, no special heroism involved. They buried what pieces they found of him. But my mother insists he died a brave death and pretends to be very proud.

Mrs. Barham: You’re very hard on your mother. It seems a harmless enough pretense to me.

Charlie: No, Mrs. Barham. No, you see, now my other brother can’t wait to reach enlistment age. That’ll be in September. May be ministers and generals who blunder us into wars, but the least the rest of us can do is to resist honoring the institution. What has my mother got for pretending bravery was admirable? She’s under constant sedation and terrified she may wake up one morning and find her last son has run off to be brave.

Charlie’s compelling speech is so stunning, so jarring, that Mrs. Barham snaps out of her delusional denial and admits aloud, for the first time, that her husband and son are dead.

Words by Paddy Chayefsky from the movie "The Americanization of Emily".


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Christopher Hitchens and Bill Maher

These two videos are a study of contrast. At left Christopher Hitchens, one of the more interesting journalists around, clashes with Charlie Rose. It's an ego contest each constantly talking over the other. I agree with most of Hitchens' views even as he slaggs Mother Theresa and religion in general. But his stubborn position on Iraq is disappointing. At right is a very civil, and equally good, interview with Bill Maher.
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Apathy and that low voter turnout

We live in a comfortable country. And in a country like Canada there is a tendency for voters to become complacent. People in this province seem to be content enough with the McGinty Liberals that they feel there is no great need for change. So a large part of the low voter turnout in the recent provincial election suggests they are happy enough with the status quo.

This whole thing about getting young people more involved in the political system has some serious faults. On a recent TVO Agenda program, hosted be Steve Paikin, many on a panel of mostly party hacks expressed the view that young people are disengaged in politics with the obvious assumption that getting involved in party politics, by young people, would be a good thing.

I've met and talked to young kids involved with political parties and I can tell you one thing for sure: it's no place for children (people under 30). Frankly, some of these kids really scare me. Kids today are busily involved in the world already. They're often brighter and better informed than many people over forty that I talk to who I find to be stubborn and pertinacious. Party hacks, like those on the 'Agenda', look to exploit unspoiled young adults as malleable targets for their often questionable ideologies and party dogma. They act like it's about religion and they're on an evangelical mission. There is no need to rush people in their teens and twenties into any official party system. We need them as fresh, less indoctrinated observers. We need to learn from them. And if they don't end up voting it kind of tells us something. Party politics, rightfully, should be for the old and, hopefully, wise.

The question of voter apathy is a more troubling matter. I will be marching in next Saturday's anti-war march in Toronto and I will be surprised if there are a thousand people in the street. Similar demonstrations in Montreal brings out crowds in the tens of thousands, while in Washington or London protesters number in the hundreds of thousands. Why are people in this city so unconcerned? This at a time when Dick Cheney seems determined to save the Bush administration's place in history, he thinks, by bombing Iran. And we carry on sacrificing the lives of Canadian soldiers in an un-winnable war that is mostly in support of Washington's failed and morally corrupt agenda. That's real apathy. Read More......

Better the enemy you know

As expected, John Tory's stubborn insistence on bringing up that faith based school funding issue proved to be the undoing of the Progressive Conservatives in yesterday's provincial election. I can just imagine the barrage of "I told you so's" he will have to endure, particularly within his own party. His too-late softening on the issue -- allowing members a free vote if the PC's won -- only worked to question his previously much vaulted leadership as well as his political instincts. It would appear he also suffers from that common conservative trait of irrational hubris. Early in the campaign Tory polled well compared to Liberal winner Dalton McGinty. Now Tory's survival as party leader is very much in question.

It's too bad. Better the enemy that you know. Tory is still broadly respected for his integrity and decency. He's no Mike Harris. And I feel that a government lead by John Tory would not be much worse than that of the McGinty's Liberals. He seems committed to the fight of hanging on as leader. I hope he survives the "long knives". Read More......

Stephen Colbert as himself

Another great Charlie Rose interview, this time with Stephen Colbert as himself in a rare out of character interview. Read More......

Mr. Ahmadinejad Visits New York

Can you imagine George Bush visiting Iran and give public speeches and also make himself available to the local media? Well that's what Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did in New York recently. I caught his full hour interview on Charlie Rose and found him, based on this interview, to be far from the loose tongued reactionary with a fanatical mindset that we are led to believe by a pathetically indoctrinated American media. Unfailingly polite and intelligent in his response to questions the Iranian leader proved to be a skillful politician deftly exhibiting the kind of spin that the likes of Ronald Reagan would have admired. He was always a step ahead of Charlie Rose who seamed unusually and surprisingly ill-prepared. Rose should know from years of interviewing American politicians that politics is all about spin. Watch the video and judge for yourself -- does this man seem like a threat to the free world? WATCH VIDEO Read More......