HisSelf

Maybe he thought she'd be onside with oil extraction from ANWR? I agree. It's a strange choice. It's like he suddenly decided in the middle of the night that he needed a woman on the ticket.

A couple of interesting points I have gleaned from this story: - The US refused to allow our deli meat products to be imported some years back because of inadequate Listeria testing - the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued a warning some time ago saying Canadian deli meat products should not be served to seniors and pregnant women, and that retirement homes never received this warning - Maple Leaf Foods was following government testing protocols, which called for the re-swabbing of the line when listeria positive swabs were detected, but not for the testing of the product, whihc could be shipped if a second swab was negative (after significant sanitation) My takeaway is that government protocols were weak, and my guess is that this was a result of heavy industry lobbying. Somebody tell me otherwise....

Another movie that never gets a mention is The Chase (1966). This was a remarkable movie about mob violence and small town mentality. The cast was incredible: Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Angie Dickinson, Robert Duval, E.G. Marshall. Most of them unknown at the time. Brando was nominated for an academy award. He had previously won for Streetcar Named Desire but was disparangingly referred to as "tye mumbler" in spite of the award. Directed by Arthur Penn who later did Bonnie and Clyde. Nobody had heard of Redford at the time, nor Duvall. Fonda was just starting out and so was Dickinson. Very well done. Another movie I liked was "Day of the Jackal". Based on the Forsyth novel. Tense drama about a plot to assassinate DeGaulle. Very well done.

Read up on some of the Sudbury strikes. Teddy Boys on scooters. Yeah right. Anyways, I can appreciate your opinion about Clockwork Orange, given the additional comments you've made regarding its historical context, but that escaped me when I watched it and I just saw it as gratuitous violence. I've seen enough of this kind of thing and I do not find it entertaining. For my money, I'd say we should lower the rating for porno and jack it up big time for violence. At least porno has educational value.

Looks like you're back on ignore. This is the problem with you M.Dancer. When you have no cogent response, you sink to personal attack. That's why I ignore you.

And how did Putin get to be so powerful? The police become a power unto themselves in police states. How many political hacks end up as judges? Name names here, please. And especially regarding the Supreme Court. The politburo and Tammany are/were run by a committee of special interests who controlled the police and the judiciary. You place entirely too much faith in the intelligence of the police. I give you Craig Bromell. Would you want a guy like that picking our judges? How about Julian Fantino?

In the financial community, a 12.5 percent return would be considered a damned good year.

Yeah, well we have our own hoods. Ever live in a mining town? How do you think I know what a couple of kicks in the head can do?

This is a non sequiter, but one thing I like about American politics is that you get to see and hear the candidates live on TV discussing the issues. Up here all we get are a bunch of political hacks like Steven LeDrew and Tim whosit arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

Cat Ballou was a work of shear comedic genius, but I honestly have to tell you that A Clockwork Orange made me physicallly ill. Maybe you live in a safe environment in Forest Hill, M.Dancer, but there are some places in this world where getting kicked in the head is a life destroying event. YOu only have to see a beating like this once in your life to understand how violent this sort of thing is.

OK. You focussed on the movie rather than the issue. Easy out, M.Dancer! This is the common ground that the Arabs and Jews have to find. Their aspirations for their homeland. It may be the only thing they have in common.

How can you tell there's gonna be an election? Jim Flaherty suddenly finds a 1.5 billion surplus after announcing a two month defecit (now there's a novelty - a two month reporting period - who's ever done that before?). Imagine that. A finance minister who reports (but just this one time, mind you) that there was a deficit in the first two months of the quarter, and then finds a humungous surplus in the third month. Jeez, Jim. Did you ever work for Mike Harris? There is a job at Nortel for a guy just like you. Oh wait. The SEC... Ayuggah. Ayuggah! Dive! Dive! So lets' see. We have the In/Out election financing mess. We have some big by-elections caoming up. We have.... mmmm.. Harper in the North! Ha ha. Announcing things that were in the last budget. Ha ha. Ayuggah. Ayuggah. Dive! Dive!

There are a lot of food service companies that rely on suppliers so they can slap together a meal without doing any cooking, so I think this won't cover it. What I am seeing in the press right now is that the food safety protocols had vulnerabilities - sort of like those unlocked flight deck doors on 9/11. The vulnerability is that the protocol said that if listeria was found by swabbing THE EQUIPMENT, then THE EQUIPMENT should be sanitized and swabbed again. The protocols did not call for testing any PRODUCT that had come through the dirty line. I see dual fault here. Sure the fed protocol missed on this, but Maple Lef Foods have their own experts and they could have been more on the ball. Maybe there was a guy somehwre in the MLF system somewhere who hollered about this? I'm willing to bet there was one... I would not be at all surprised if this was a wake up call for a lot more players in our food industry than just Maple Lef Foods. I hope they survive. This could have happened to anybody and they have been an excellent supplier for 100 years. That's gotta count for something.

This is sort of what I was getting at. But even more, in any police state the biggest problem is the PO-LEECE! Look at the Stasi in East Germany. The Savak in Iran. The KGB in Russia. Oh I know, I'm being alarmist, but listen... Illegality is determined by parliament and the chamber of sober second thought is not the powerless senate (snore) even if they are elected. The chamber of sober second thought is the judiciary and the Supreme Court. The laws are drafted and passed by bureaucrats and politicians. The judiciary, on the other hand, are professionals, and the best we have in the legal realm. If you were sick, a doctor at this level would be the best you could ever want. If you had a retirement portfolio, an investment advisor at this level might very well secure your future. The police have an important role in the justice system, but if they have anything to say, they should be talking to our elected politicians and they should keep their paws off of the judicial process, thank you very much. Bk59's example speaks to part of the issue, but here is the other part: if the police have a hand in picking judges, then so should the bankers, real estate agents, mutual fund companies, telemarketers, landlords, mining companies... Sounds a lot like a Politburo maybe? Or maybe Tammany Hall? If the politicians cannot handle the problem of appointing judges on their own, then they are usurping their power in favour of one of their constituencies. Wrong, wrong, wrong....

No No No! The Police report to the civilian elected government. Get that straight. The judiciary does not report to the police. The police do not decide if the judiciary is right. The judiciary decides if the police are right. That is how the trial process works. The police do the scut work. If they have something to say THEY TALK TO THE POLITICIANS. THE POLITICIANS APPOINT JUDGES. THE POLITICIANS APPOINT THE POLICE. What sort of democracy do you believe in? Iran? China? The Philippines? Go live there and see what it's like. Even in the US, both judges and Police Chiefs are elected. Only in police states do the police pick the judges. I any case, and criminal law aside, what happens in matters of consitutional law? What happens if the government decides to suspend habeas corpus (as was done not so long ago by a certain government whose name we will not mention for fear of offending his mother MRS BUSH). Look for your name on a no-fly list any time... What do we do than? Who will come to our defence then if not the judiciary? Civilisation is a thin veneer, my friend. Do not forget it for a minute.

Exactamundo. Thanks for adding this very significant post.

I'm looking for Peter McKay to be shot out of the chicken cannon with a torch to light the olympic flame. Would certainly one-up the Spanish with their flaming arrow, no?

With respect to the weather, we need to pay attention to the Chinese obsession with superstition and the lucky number 8. Imagine a world power scheduling an event of this type because it start on an auspicious date 08-08-08. The people of Beijing refer to October as the 'Golden month' because the weather is fantastic and the leaves are turning colour. Scheduling the summer Olympics in the dog days of summer is like scheduling the winter olympics in May. I think this is one thing the CHinese screwed up. As far as the closing ceremonies, I had to wonder why the Brits picked Jimmy Page and not Clapton or McCartney. Maybe they couldn't afford the latter two. Hmmm. Hope they're not cutting corners. I wouldn't put it past them; they've a hard act to follow, and having Sporty Spice prance around is not gonna make a difference. Bravo for Beckham and that kick though. It was brilliant. If only the Chinese could have bonked a header back to him. That would have taken Spanish cojones maybe.

Reading DOP's response to M.Dancer, I am seeing Lawrence of Arabia, Casablanca and Mediterrano. Mediterrano is another brilliant one. And of course Cassablanca, whihc I think should be considered in light of the Sikh/Maru debate in other parts of this site. And I would like to add Captain Corelli's Mandolin. The play between Cage, the Italian fascist officer and Penelope Cruz. What man could resist falling in love with Penelope Cruz? The entire Greek resistance rendered in a simple human relationship. Brilliant. A fantasy perhaps, but so historically accurate. A big movie. Lawrence. Yes. But M. Dancer, do you see the implications of this in the Middle East regarding the aspirations Britain kindled for a pan-Arab state and the role of the Hashemites? I am taking you off of ignore because I would really like to hear your response to this.

Apparently there's a second season coming. Mark yer calendar!

I'm big on historical drama. Did anybody see the series "Rome" on the history channel? It sort of played fast a loose with historical fact, but it recreated the social ambience of ancient Rome so well. I thought it was terrific. Like DogOnPorch I really liked Once Upon a Time in America and Donny Brasco. Deer Hunter, Das Boot, Zulu, Apocalypse Now, Goodfellas. Godfather was bullshit as far as I am concerned. Trailer Park Boys is entertaining but really? Come on. The Gods Must Be Crazy. An extraordinary movie. Brilliant really. I mean really, really brilliant. One movie I haven't seen mentioned here is De Sica's "The Bicycle Thieves". A great essay on the aftermath of war. Another really brilliant movie. It made his reputation and well it should. Doesn't get enough credit IMHO. I'd love to see a Japanese equivalent. Grass' novel ' The Tin Drum' sort of gets there but De Sica did it so simply and so cleanly.

Certainly helps us understand your politics regarding the Middle East. Thanks for the info.

A biker spit on my imported car. I love it.

There were a number of island military outposts the Japanese held at the time these bombs had dropped. I think Truman should have dropped his first bomb on one of these - a little remote from Japan's civilian population. I think he should have then demanded surrender. If none were forthcoming, then he should have dropped another closer to Japan, but still on an island which was mostly a military holding. He should then have demanded surrender and told the Japanese that the next bomb would be on the mainland. To be charitable to Truman, I doubt he had an accurate mental image of what these weapons would do. After all, nobody had ever used them before. His decision may well have been infomed by the bombing of Dresden only 6 months before, a truly dreadful event desribed very well by Kurt Vonnegut who saw it first hand. Truman was not a very smart guy. He got the job done, but he was merely a bureacrat and may have very well been why Eisenhower warned us all about the military industrial complex..

I agree with you that the government owes the Jews an apology for closing the door to those fleeing the Holocaust. And many other governments do as well, including the almighty US of A, and, by the way, what have THEY apologized for recently? Huh? I do not agree with you at all about the central issue concerning the immigration of Sikhs to Canada. You can paint it in terms of their aspirations, but the real issue was what it means to be a citizen of the British Empire and the rampant discrimination that was applied to anybody who tried to claim their rights (such as the Brits so often liked to trumpet) as a citizen of said Empire. What is even more egregious is that Brits saw no shame in recruiting heavily in India in both World Wars. Many Indian, Nepali, etc. soldiers died in puttees during those wars and even today get only footnotes in history for their sacrifice. Gunga Din be damned. Here is the Wikipedia article on the event.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komagata_Maru