Politics

[lance_sibley]

My friendslist seems to be rather politics-heavy tonight. Not that I mind, being something of a political junkie.

1. Fox News airs footage of Sex Power God
   
   
   brendan_moody's school's Queer Alliance held a party this past Saturday night, which was infiltrated by a cameraman from Fox News. Bill O'Reilly is going apopleptic over the "debauchery" which took place there, claiming that the party was paid for by Brown University from student fees. In actual fact, the party was paid for by Queer Alliance fundraising.
   
   O'Reilly's mole referred to the party as "the wildest party [he'd] ever been to," with "guys kissing guys and girls making out with girls." God forbid that young adults should engage in sexual activity - particularly of the same-sex variety. I'm guessing that he didn't attend too many parties when he was in university, and furthermore that he wasn't in a fraternity. Now there's an interesting question - why doesn't he turn some of his umbrage on fraternities, which are tied more directly to universities and which sponsor "debauchery" on a regular basis? Let me guess... hm. Ah, here it is - "guys kissing guys and girls making out with girls." I'm surprised he didn't videotape the girls.




2. Baptists protest gay store - and this time, it wasn't even the Westboro Baptist "Church." (That's Fred Phelps' outfit, for those who aren't aware.)
   
   Apparently the right to protest now includes waving signs around that say "Fags Die, God Laughs." Three things stood out in my mind from this report:
   
   
   1. From the article: "About 25 members of the Old Paths Baptist Church protested Monday afternoon [...] Though the group has been to IU many times in the past few years, Monday's demonstration was larger than usual, complete with children playing instruments and singing songs beside the sign-wielding adults."
      
      If 25 people was the best they could do, I don't think we have a whole lot to worry about. I'm more concerned with the fact that children are being taught that it's all right to hate.
   
   
   
   2. Protestor Grady Styles said he joined in because "the gay community in Bloomington is so strong."
      
      And our strength scares them, evidently. Though this comment smacks of "mob mentality" to me. "Oh, I didn't have anything to do, and this parade came along, so I thought I'd join in as it looked like good fun and I was bored."
   
   
   
   3. This protest came less than a month after two minors stole and burned a version of the New Glory that had been hanging outside The Inner Chef's storefront. The minors admitted to stealing the flag Oct. 8 because they thought it was "unpatriotic."
      
      Hm. I'm forced to ask myself whether anything was done about this admitted act of theft. Probably not. After all, the cops only showed up to make sure that the protest "didn't get out of hand" - meaning that nobody got lynched, I guess. Burning a stolen Pride flag (or at least attempting to) counts as good clean fun.
   
   
   
3. The new face of separatism in Quebec is a cute one.
   
   Andre Boisclair has been elected leader of the Parti Quebecois. This is notable mainly because he's admitted to having used cocaine in the past while a member of the Cabinet, and yet the party was willing to look past that in an attempt to woo the youth vote by electing a man my age - he's 16 months older than I am - to the top position.
   
   This is quite interesting. Not only because he's a gay man - Quebec is notable for being much more open-minded than many jurisdictions - but because of the cocaine issue and his youth. I'm actually amazed that he won 53% of the vote on the first ballot - I expected it to take a few ballots to decide on a winner, and I honestly thought it would be someone else. I've read a number of newspaper accounts of the campaign, and I don't ever recall him putting forth any positions. Every article focused on his being criticized by his competitors over his cocaine use (except for the one article about the Press Gallery Dinner in Ottawa, at which Governor-General Michaelle Jean made wisecracks about serving "sandwiches with Coke").
   
   Now, it's quite possible that he did put forth some good ideas, and the media just chose to ignore them for the much sexier angle (no pun intended ;) ). My understanding, however, is that Premier Jean Charest is not doing too well in the current opinion polls, meaning that Boisclair could be Premier of Quebec before too long. It would be nice to know something about his positions.
   
   Interestingly, Wikipedia is right up to date on the whole thing...



4. The game of political chicken in Ottawa continues...
   
   It amazes me that the leaders of the opposition parties can claim with a straight face that they don't want to force a Christmas election, and that it will be Paul Martin's fault if we find ourselves heading to the polls on our way to our turkey dinners. Stephen Harper claims that he's not campaigning, and in fact is criticizing the Liberal government for issuing a financial statement which he claims is a thinly-disguised set of campaign promises, but according to the CBC, the Conservatives have already raised $21 million towards the expected campaign. (I love how the website puts it: "Through the first three quarters of 2005 the Conservatives received almost $11 million more than twice that raised by the Liberals who collected $5,161,813; and four times the New Democrats' $2,416,181." They make it sound like a grade 11 algebra problem.) How dare Harper criticize the Liberals for campaiging when that's exactly what he's been doing for the last few months.
   
   If an election is held over Christmas, I find it hard to believe that Canadians will magically forget who forced it. Yes, the Liberals may have acted in a corrupt fashion, although Gomery absolved Paul Martin of any blame in the sponsorship scandal. But Martin has promised to call an election by the beginning of March, after the second part of Gomery's report is issued. Harper's eagerness to gain power is scary; he can't even wait one extra month for the election that's already been promised. We're not going to forget about the scandal; other than the usual American news headlines that we're frequently inundated with, there's been nothing else in the news here for well over a year - or has it been two, or three now? It seems like it's been in the news forever.
   
   We get it. Chretien and his cronies in the Liberal Party did bad things. Martin was Chretien's Finance Minister for much of his tenure, but as Gomery pointed out, the sponsorship scandal was directed out of Chretien's office. Most of the guilty parties are out of government. Harper's not doing himself any favours when he tries to shift the blame to Martin in an attempt to gain power for himself.
   
   And - even if he does win - it's not going to be by a majority, not by a long shot. And what's he going to do? I haven't heard one good idea come from him that isn't just "we'll do the same thing the Liberals are doing, except without corruption." Which I doubt - it'll just be a different kind of corruption. Furthermore, the Liberals have announced their intention to cut taxes pretty much across the board. Our economy is good. Why punish Martin for Chretien's sins?


Wow, that was a long rant...

In other news: Boston Legal rocked tonight. Candice Bergen was amazing, and they actually gave Rene Auberjonois something to do this week (though still not enough). The relationship between Alan Shore and Denny Crane continues to progress nicely. Alan's confession that he suffers from night terrors, and his asking Denny to sleep with him to make sure that he doesn't hurt himself in the night was priceless. Denny continues to think that Alan's coming on to him.

House was good as well, though the medical mystery wasn't nearly as compelling as usual. I enjoyed seeing House go to the therapy session and get into an argument with Mark (the actor playing Mark, BTW, seems to be from Hamilton, ON), and seeing Tom Lenk as House's clinic patient was fun. (Okay, I think Tom Lenk is cute. Sue me.)

I missed much of Bones because I was trying to make dinner after the water came back, unfortunately. I'll catch it in reruns, I guess.

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[montrealais.livejournal.com]

The Scandinavian economies that rely on corporate taxation to finance their generous (and successful) welfare states have some of the most competitive economies in the world. Simple rate of taxation is not the only determinant that corporations use in determining where to set up shop. A healthy, well-educated, peaceful, motivated, and non-criminal populace is an important determining factor, because the workers are more productive and the company needs to outlay less for training and benefits.