NO, IT'S NOT MY FAULT THE PREVIOUS ENTRY

has no paragraph breaks. Blogspot has decided to disallow them, it seems.

WHAT'S ALL THIS BITCHING

about how unhappy Canadians supposedly are that we are going to have a federal election soon? In the first place, I just can't believe that we are all such a bunch of whiners that an opportunity to exercise what precious little democracy we have is considered an insurmountable burden. What is the problem? Is it the arduous walk (or drive) to the polling station? Don't sweat it. We need the exercise. Is it the cost? Well, the 2006 election cost $270 million dollars, according to the CBC. Divide that up amongst the 34 million of us and it's less than 8 bucks a citizen. If you factor in that not all citizens are voters or taxpayers, it comes to somewhat more than that, I would suppose. Who knows, it might even be enough for an inexpensive dinner and a drink. Well, boo-hoo-hoo. In other countries people get shot by the police for just asking for democracy, let alone practicing it. But we need more cheeseburgers, eh? Maybe the supposed problem with having an election is listening to the coverage of it in the mass media. But I think the very people most likely to find this a reason not to have an election are the very people most able to simply tune out what they don't want to hear. They will go back to sleep soon enough. But I have my doubts that people in this country are so reluctant to have a chance to vote. I suspect the mass media have some patronizing image of "Joe Sixpack" in their heads they like to peddle: "you don't like elections, do you Joe Sixpack? There's a good Joe Sixpack. You just want a beer and a movie and a tax cut, don't you, Joe Sixpack? There's a good fellow..."

GEORGE ORWELL -- QUOTE OF THE DAY

"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them."

George Orwell, "Notes on Nationalism," 1945

LIBYA

Why aren't we helping? Why does the West have billions of dollars and thousands of soldiers' lives to piss away fucking over Iraq and Afghanistan, year after year trying to "liberate" them, and nothing for Libya?

Not so much as a no-fly zone.

Where there are people who really want our help, it is nowhere to be found.

ERICH FROMM

"Quite in contrast to the frequently uttered cliche that Marx and other socialists taught that the desire for maximal material gain was the most fundamental human drive . . . socialists believed that it is the very structure of capitalist society which makes material interest the deepest motive, and that socialism would permit nonmaterial motives to assert themselves and free man from his servitude to material interests. (It is a sad commentary on man's capacity for inconsistency that people condemn socialism for its alleged 'materialism,' and at the same time criticize it with the argument that only the 'profit motive' can motivate man to do his best.)"

Erich Fromm "Let Man Prevail" (1960)

A LITTLE CELEBRITY MATH

Don Cherry: high six-figure parasite feeding off Canadian taxpayers for a part-time job yacking about hockey -- and all 'round proud-to-be-an-ignorant-jackass type . . .

PLUS

Samuel Johnson: much smarter and classier than Cherry (which isn't saying much) but still a gasbag of the keep-the-rabble-in-their-place variety . . .

EQUALS (drum roll, maestro, if you please . . .)

Rex Murphy

YES, I'M STILL BREATHING

So please don't abandon me. Just too busy to post much of anything lately but that will change, eventually.