Heh

Bill Kristol gets busted on The Daily Show.

The Steam Room

Evening Dream’s record? “Unwitting trampled three at a state fair.”

A Vancouver Day in 60 Seconds

Nice time-lapse from this past weekend, complete with lightning and fireworks.

Good grief, another blistering hot stretch of days ahead…

In other news, it was a little cooler than usual in Minnesota over the last couple of weeks, so global warming is clearly a totally bogus hoax. I believe there may be an errant or poorly situated temperature gauge in Delisle, SK that also “proves” beyond any reasonable doubt whatsoever that AGW is nothing but a nefarious Communist wealth-redistribution scheme of planetary scope…

On Hiatus (Again!)

As mentioned, because the place I’m currently living at in Vancouver is being leveled “gentrified” into a spanky new “heritage” townhouse development at the end of the month, I’m going to be moving back to Victoria next week, so posting will likely be pretty much non-existent for a little while except for occasional comments and mundane Tweets.

Feel free to use this as an entirely unconstrained “open thread” if you like, or just aimlessly goof off trying your hand at the HTF Milk Pong Game…

The “Post-Industrial” Economy

That actually seems to be quite an apt term, all considered, but should the emerging system perhaps be more accurately described as “neo-feudalism” or “debt peonage” as so-called renegade economist Michael Hudson suggests?

On a semi-related note, let me highly recommend a book that I’m thoroughly enjoying at the moment — Après l’empire by Emmanuel Todd. It’s marvelously illuminating.

Tales of the Silly Season

No Vacation from Teh Stupid … Ever.

Undeterred by a complete lack of wit, levity or any innate comic facility whatsoever, Bloggin’ Tory co-founder and aspiring partisan hack Stephen Taylor nonetheless crudely soldiers on with a mirthless exercise that might best be described as the “enhanced interrogation” of something bearing slight resemblance to a “joke” (or so one generously presumes).

Being the type who would have his own passport stamped in the country of its issuance, Michael Ignatieff has been rumoured to be clearing customs at other ports of entry. Michael Ignatieff updated his twitter on July 17th and 18th to suggest that he’s been in Ottawa, at least recently, but many observers have noted that he hasn’t even been spotted on the hamburger circuit pressing the flesh with us regular folk besides his $40 a head, no hat, no cattle pancake breakfast fundraiser during Stampede. Instead of beating a party-building path flipping burgers and chewing the fat with the locals coast-to-coast, Ignatieff has been spotted in London giving a lecture on Liberalism and “tough times” to his friends who attended the Isaiah Berlin Lecture. This shouldn’t be so easily dismissed; this is a rare piece of work where the Liberal leader has mused openly about the economy, yet is characteristically light on what to do about it. His office has denied it, but besides London, Dr. Ignatieff has also been rumoured to be stimulating the economy in Provence, France, where his family has owned a villa for decades.

Are you still sensible after slogging through that unctuous pile of tripe? If so, we’ll attempt to address the core of Mr. Taylor’s facetious question quite simply with the following:

That actually came across the virtual transom just last night from Team Iggy.

To be honest, the video provoked little more than a cynical shrug from me at the time, but now serves a purpose here, I guess; for no other than being made vaguely aware of what “Dr. Ignatieff” has been up to in the past few days. Not that we were especially concerned about the matter one way or the other in the least bit, of course.

By the way, don’t you love the way Taylor snuck that “Dr.” appellation in there to cunningly imply that the Liberal leader is some kind of a despicable egghead? I’m sure Harper’s mentor Dr. Flanagan or even the esteemed Dr. Layton might both find that particular line of attack rather amusing.

Other cultural provocations such as the snide reference to a summer home in Provence that are sprinkled throughout Taylor’s post are similarly ham-fisted; indicative perhaps of some profound insecurity, resentfulness, or small-minded parochialism on the part of the writer.

h/t: CC (who wisely suggests that Mr. Taylor avoid any future attempts at humour).

The “Conservative” DNA

I’m shocked, shocked to find that “conservative” hypocrisy is going on here!

Whatever would Jabba the Roy think? Oh wait… scratch that.

Anyway, I believe Hayes may be onto something when he talks about this particular form of hypocrisy being “a profound part of the conservative DNA.” Indeed, we’ve seen the same thing in practice here at home — even before the Harper government’s economic recovery plan lurched into action — whereby so-called Conservative MPs scurry about the country doling out ceremonial cheques, making extravagant long-term funding announcements in their ridings throughout the summer months, dispensing untold millions of dollars in corporate welfare for the sake of “jobs, jobs, jobs” — all the while railing against government excess and preaching the gospel of fiscal conservatism.

Bonus Track: Selective amnesia may perhaps be part of the problem. Or, it could just be an inherent kind of douchebaggery at work…

Theory of Relativity

Glenn Beck, ladies and gentlemen — making Bill O’Reilly appear to be a thoughtful moderate by comparison.

Cute Things…

Can’t say I’m terribly fond of this Madness video, but the tune is brilliant. And yes, I heard it on Le Show this past weekend — haven’t been able to get it out of my head since…

Here’s something else that struck me as weirdly “cute” — Michael Showalter gets “married” at Grand Opening on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. There’s something wonderfully charming about this quirky project — performance art in absolutely top form.

Clown Hall

I almost feel sorry for Republican Congressman Mike Castle whose recent town hall meeting in Delaware was hijacked by an angry mob of deranged “birthers” demanding action to “take back” their country, and who then pressured everyone present into reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. Yikes.