Awwwwhhhhhh

Had to post this. This little guy is just too cute. (And yes, it remains true: Dr J just cannot resist a warm, adorable *cough, cough*).

Let A Man Come Through

      Some might call it "the dissociation of sensibility."

^~~We're Too Sexy For This Continent, Too Sexy For This...^~~

      Yeah, baby, we real coooooool. Just dig our trustworthy Canadian accents... At a time like this, there's only one thing to do: [pause, as music gathers in the background] Strut.

And I Remember Everything

She: "You make me want to be a better person."
He: [regaining his composure, and searching for wit] "Yeah, I saw As Good As It Gets, too."
[they still understand one another]

      JL, I would, I wish I could, find a way.

You remain rhododendrons. Would only I'd ever told you so.

(This extends Dr. J's V-Day memorial, of course, a day after. No more, save to say, J, wherever you are: thanks. You'll never know how much you rocked my soul.)

The Turning of the Magi

This blog received this from RK today and is astounded. This blog will uncharacteristically keep its cool on this matter (i.e., it won't go off on a rant, as it is quite frankly prone to do at the moment), and simply respond to it with these brief, brief words: "Come. On...."

The Three Fairly Sagacious Persons
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
(Filed: 10/02/2004)

The Three Wise Men who brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the infant Jesus may not have been particularly wise and could have been women, the Church of England has ruled.

A committee revising new short prayers, or "collects", for the Church's latest prayer book, Common Worship, said the term "magi" was a transliteration of the name of officials at the Persian court and the possibility that they were female could not be dismissed.

The General Synod approved the new prayers yesterday at the opening of its week-long meeting in London but some members privately complained that the Church was becoming obsessed with politically correct language.

One said: "They are so eager to avoid upsetting the feminists that they will drop anything they think could be deemed offensive to the feminists."

Today the Synod is debating a motion to replace references to chairmen with the term "chair". A spokesman conceded it was anxious to avoid sexist language but said the ruling on the magi was consistent with the biblical texts.

The committee was responding to pleas to replace "magi" with "wise men" in one of the collects on the grounds that the term would be more easily recognised.

In the King James Bible, which until relatively recently was the authoritative English translation, Matthew 2:1 reads: "There came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying, where is he who is born King of the Jews?"

The committee, chaired by the Bishop of Sheffield, the Rt Rev Jack Nicholls, said recent scholarship suggested that Matthew "deliberately used an exotic word to emphasise the visitors' exotic nature". It added: "To translate the term into something more universally understood is to miss the point being made."

Although the Persians were unlikely to have been women, the possibility could not be excluded. So the committee had retained magi "on the grounds that the visitors were not necessarily wise and not necessarily men".

(from the Daily Telegraph website)

Doctor J is technically an Anglican, though in fact more of a dyslexic, agnostic, insomniac (who lays in bed at night wondering if there's a dog), but this is the sort galling stupidity that makes even the most liberal of us cringe in disbelief. (Doctor J also can't help but wonder what his aunt might think of this, who used to be a nun with the Anglican church for the better part of thirty-five years. Somehow, Dr J suspects she's not pleased, either.)

"My Goodness, What Magnificent Sheep"

      Oh, sometimes it's only in Welsh that a columnist's true opinion of his audience comes out.

Thou Shalt Have No Ironists Before Me

      This discovery, of course, just had to happen on the day before Valentine's Day. God, we get it: you are the Master. Crystal clear. And further proof: a burnt-out star really is a girl's best friend, thus also explaining Mick Jagger. Rock of ages, rock of freakin' ages....

      As for that rotten day that commences in a few hours, this blog has two words: Bah lovebug! (Does anyone out there remember the old Herbie The Love Bug movies? Er, I really am [carbon-]dating myself...)

Puppetry of the Pea-Brained

      Oy effing vey Part Two. Gawd save us from the humourless. And Alexa McDonough: get a life.

The Rhythm Of The Saint

      Oy effing vey. Sometimes, I'm so glad I'm on the outside.

But Will They Start Making Foreign Wars?

      Wow. The Canadian political scene really is beginning to look like a revision of Richard II. Paul 'Bolingbroke' Martin is now making sure that not only is Jean 'Richard' Chretien is out of office, but he will do everything he can to discredit his predecessor completely, in large part, it seems, to defend himself. We now know, though, who Bushy, Bagot, and Green will be in this nasty reenactment: Gagliano, Ouellet, and Pelletier. Jeffrey Simpson's column in today's Globe seems to me right on the money: what began as a usurpation and reconsolidation of power under a new regime has threatened to burgeon into all-out political civil war within the Liberal Party. For the record, Simpson is right: Chretien won't stay silent on this; and it wouldn't surprise me if JC has a political move up his sleeve that could be the right-bower to everyone else's trump. See also this piece from John Ibbitson, someone I of whom I seldom think much, but who seems here to be on the right track. Regardless, this blog imagines that Paul Martin, Sr., Pierre Trudeau, and Lester Pearson are now rolling over in their respective graves.

      The big winner to be in all this? Jack Layton, for the moment. The new Conservatives are still a mess and leaderless. As much as Martin tries to position himself as the 'I didn't do it' boy, no one it seems is willing to believe him completely, and so he's taking a pretty severe hit to his credibility, despite calling an inquiry. There's nothing for the Bloc to gain from all this, at least not that I can see. If the Conservatives can get their act together (not likely at this point), they might be able to gain from this. Layton's the only one in place, and he's the only one who has been emphasizing Liberal corruption (particularly in relation to Mr. Martin, and the CSL fiasco). He's the only who seems to be gaining anything in all this. As much as I don't particularly like any of the political alternatives at this point, I think the Liberals need to learn a lesson in humility. And decorum. Surrender them all to the electorate and let God sort them out. ;-)

      Ironic, though, isn't it? What not too long ago seemed like a transfer of power from one wing of the party to another, with one's victory and another's concession, has become one of the, if not the, meanest, ugliest, most protracted political battles in Canadian history, rife with sore winners and spiteful losers. Mr. Martin, we were told, was supposed to be the uniter and not the divider. Hmmm. Reminds me of someone else who made that promise, too...

Addendum: I don't particularly like that the only two articles I'm citing here are from The Globe, but it seems the more tempered source than those in other major outlets. The Toronto Star, a longtime mouthpiece for the Liberal party, is desperately trying to minimze the damage. The National Post is not to be trusted, either, with its longtime desire to attack the government on anything it says or does (as is the case with the Sun). The Globe stands curiously in the position of reason. Strange, eh? Eh? EH? Welcome to Politics Night In Canada. And it's a MASSIVE body-check to Chretien in the corner! And he's down on the ground! And the ref is NOT calling a penalty! Oh, look at the anger in Chretien's eyes! He's moving, he's moving... Stay tuned.

The Shipping News

      If this doesn't scare the hell out of you....

      (If "Osama's Armada" sounds odd to you, this blog can only assure you that it sounds only slightly less ridiculous than "Canada's Armada." Gee, it seems Osama's been lading.)

Fearful Symmetry

      President Bush's numbers are sliding in the polls after a major military victory in Iraq while the economy struggles. The Democratic nominees are hashing it out, with a once-ruled-out nominee, a man of coiffed steel-wool hair, suddenly burgeoning to the top of the list. Then comes the allegation that said nominee is being investigated for infidelity. Question: 1992 or 2004? The similarities are just too eerie. Can't you just see the "Kerry On" puns waiting in the wings?

"It's Like An Ass-Sniffing Thing"

      Much has been made in Canada about Conan O'Brien's stint in Toronto, and I have to say, the press seems to be worth it. O'Brien seems wonderfully energized by the whole experience, and his engagement of Canadian-Content has been gleefully irreverent. It is a bit of a shame that American audiences aren't appreciating the Canadian humour as much as the hometown audiences, but it's apparent O'Brien is having a grand old time and the laughs indeed are there. Watching Conan stare with temptation at the face of Scott Thompson at Toronto City Hall, both pondering marriage: hilarious. A mud-wrestling match between the CN Tower and the Seattle Space needle? Beautifully bizarre but very, very funny. Conan is usually a fairly funny guy, but watching him in Toronto, the audiences rooting for him as if he were the Canadian Olympic Hockey Team, you can see he's positively electrified, and he's never been better. Great to see. And great to see, too, two Americans talking about the Canadian sponsorship scandal. LOL. You won't see that on Leno. Or even CNN. Kudos to Conan.

^~~They Paved Paradise...^~~

      Joni Mitchell never imagined this.

The Lap of Luxury

      Now this is what I call "room service." This blog can't resists titterting at the word "surge" in this article. Puerile? Yes. But this blog doesn't pretend to be anything else. :-)

Passing Through The Devil's Anus?

      Alas, ladies and gentlemen, The Literature Exam From Hell has actually elicited answers! For your edification, or for your prognosis on whether or not the respondents should be stoned or not, here are Doctor J's answers and RK's answers. As only Satan himself can finally assess our worthiness, we'll have to wait for Mr. Limbaugh's evaluations to know our fates.

      (Those of you wondering about the title of this entry: see the end of Dante's Inferno.)

Insidious Intent

      This blog doesn't want to say too much about this debacle, but it does feel the need to suggest that one does not get to the position Mr. Martin now occupies without knowing where the bodies are buried. Does anyone out there, by the way, remember when a scandal of this magnitude would have toppled a government? Alas, no more. This blog smells something very, very fishy in all this-- not just in the scandal itself, but in the timing and release of the scandal.

"I'll Have What She's Having"

      This blog understands that if you're not "there" in 30 minutes, it's free.

And People Wonder Why I'm Cynical...

      This just makes me sick. Sure, most of us saw this coming. Let's face it, though, this was grandstanding no different than that which she criticized. God-- or Darwin or Marx, Groucho or Karl-- save us from such people. Ah, Groucho, my mind sighs to think what ye'd have said about this woman. Probably something about never forgetting a face, but in this woman's case making an exception.

      Sometimes I am indeed inclined to cultivate my garden of misanthropy.

A Shot At Redemption

      Given the disappointing Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, Ewan McGregor's promise that Episode III of the Star Wars films will tie everything up nicely smacks of wishful thinking. It's obvious: George Lucas just isn't fundamentally interested in his characters this time around. Hell, it's obvious Lucas really isn't that interested in the parts of movie-making outside of special effects. I've said it time and time again, though, that Lucas, if he truly wants to end Episode III properly, to end it with a level of poignance or significance, there is only one thing he can do, that he really ought to do. It means raiding the archival footage from the very first Star Wars. It means ending Episode III with a shot of the late Alec Guinness, walking alone into the desert, and accepting his inevitable exile. If the series is going to make any genuine pull on the heartstrings, if it's going to have to be in resignation and defeat (and aging) of Ben Kenobi. This can probably be done fairly easily, as I'm sure there's unused footage from the first film, with Guinness carrying himself through the Tunisian sands. It would return audiences where they need to go, to 1977, to the time and place from where it all began, and only Guinness' visage can convey with sufficient dramatic force the loss of the good-guys at the end of the prequels. Picture it: the sight of the long-unseen Guinness, now gone, appearing briefly like a chimera doomed to wait for a shot at redemption; picture it, and tell me, too, that even the most cynical among you wouldn't have a shiver running down your spine at such an image.... It could be that such an image might indeed be the prequels' only shot at redemption, too, at reclaiming the heart that, when it all came down to dust, made the first three films. The first three films were all heart, something we've not seen at all in the first two of the prequels. A shame, really.