Half Past Noon

Stumbled across this fantastic article yesterday encouraging everyone to talk to strangers. My favourite bit:

People don’t usually go around telling strangers stuff – it’s why God invented talk radio – and that’s why you have to ask them questions. When people start their answer, those first few clacks of the tongue will reveal an ocean of information: where their grandparents’ grandparents’ came from; whether they smoke and drink whiskey; whether or not they’ve chipped any teeth after falling against a table-edge or shoreline rock; whether they prefer garlic or curry; whether they are grateful that you asked or annoyed that you bothered them.

And you know, those answers are the stuff of life. So go get some.

Philip Marchand has a fascinating article here (National Post – The Afterword blog) where he argues that Michael Jackson “had a grudge against adulthood” and actually lived out the “American man-child” stereotype found in many classic American novels (from Catcher in the Rye to Moby Dick).

An excerpt:

When Michael Jackson told Oprah Winfrey that he liked to tuck children into bed and that it was all innocent and sweet, viewers no doubt snickered in disbelief. Yet Jackson could have cited, as precedent, Ishmael’s relationship with the cannibal harpooner Queequeg. In Melville’s novel, the two share a bed, and Ishmael proclaims, “In our hearts’ honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg — a cosy, loving pair.” Even with Queequeg’s “now and then affectionately throwing his brown tattooed legs over mine, and then drawing them back,” Ishmael would be horrified to think others might label this as homosexuality. It was all sweet and innocent.

The National Post has an interview with Iggy Pop about choosing a Canadian act to cover one of his songs for a new charity album (War Child presents Heroes). And it’s actually a fun read. I’ve never listened to Iggy (at least, not deliberately), but he displays that rock’n'roll “I’m gonna say what I think and to hell with consequences” attitude. Some highlights:

Q Were you nervous about the album? There’s covers of lots of your cronies — Blondie, The Ramones, The Clash. Did kids like TV on the Radio, Beck and The Hold Steady do justice to your peers?

A The Yeah Yeah Yeahs did good with The Ramones’ tune, but they still can’t quite get it. It showed what a melodic singer Joey Ramone was. When they were at their peak, he wasn’t spotted for that and she can’t quite carry the melody where he could. I love Duffy’s cover of Live and Let Die.

Q What did you think about Franz Ferdinand doing Blondie?

A Who? Franz Ferdinand. They’re Scottish dance rock.

Q Franz Ferdinand…good, good. Who did [Roxy Music's] The Strand?

A That’s the Scissor Sisters, a gay dance act from New York. It probably sounds good at an evil nightclub at four in the morning.

Today is the 104th birthday of Theodore Seuss Geisel. Not an auspicious anniversary by any means, but The Afterword (book blog of the National Post) is celebrating by offering five little-known facts about the beloved Dr. Seuss. I’m going to spoil it and give you #1, but if you’ve ever read and loved the dear Doctor, go and read the rest.

1: Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat was born as a response to an article which was published in Life Magazine in 1954,. The piece criticized American school primers as intensely boring, unchallenging to readers and responsible for causing harm to children’s literacy. The article called for more primers to up the excitement by energizing the language and including drawings like those of “imaginative geniuses among children’s illustrators, Tenniel, Howard Pyle, Theodor S. Geisel.” Using the piece as a call to action, Geisel and his publisher came up with a list of 400 “exciting” words, which Seuss than narrowed down for the book, and included 13 more of his own. The final product is 1626 words in length and uses a total vocabulary of 236 words.

I don’t follow political/economic blogs or thinkers like Davey does, so it could just be that I haven’t looked in the right places. However, it appears that the mainstream US media is ignoring the protectionism hidden inside Obama’s gargantuan stimulus package. (I always knew that it would pay off to read non-American media—thank God for the National Post.) A quote from my beloved Canadians:

An $819-billion version of the stimulus bill, passed last week in the House of Representatives, bans foreign iron and steel from being used in projects launched under the stimulus plan.

The more expensive Senate version, however, goes even further. It currently includes language requiring that all stimulus-related projects use only American-made goods.

Whoa! (Read the entire article here.) Why isn’t CNN, Fox News, or Drudge talking about this?

Some economists have already offered helpful editorials on the problem with protectionism and Obama’s economic strategies. Let me propose another way of looking at this situation.

I think it safe to claim that the USA holds the most responsibility for the global economic crisis, if only because they are the global economic leaders. (Blame and responsibility can definitely be doled out all around, but since America is the greatest global power, she ought to buck up and take the responsibility that comes with that position.) If America tries to save herself by enacting “Buy America” policies for all stimulus spending, it sends an appalling message to the rest of the world. How will the rest of the world recover if America refuses to take care of anyone except its own?

America already has a terrible reputation abroad. Some of it is undeserved, and some if it is envy. But an action like this—an action that can only be described as “selfish”—will give the entire world justification for hating the USA.

This is not an endorsement of the stimulus package—I remain as “free market” as ever, and I really wish the government would stop trying to solve the problem by printing more and more money. That said, if money is going to be dished out (which is inevitable at this point), it needs to be dished out in a helpful way. The “Buy America” part may be just one of many flaws with the stimulus package, but it’s the one that will matter to everyone who doesn’t live in America and whose lives will be made harder because of it.

This is not a good time to be Canadian.

In a nutshell, the three leftist parties in Canada—the Liberals (mainstream left-wing), the New Democrat Party (all gung-ho for socialism), and the Bloc Quebecois (the Quebec separatists)—have formed a coalition to usurp the government of Canada. They are bypassing the results of October’s election. They are taking power without any consent of the people, though it’s hard to imagine that Canadians will actually see the evil being done to them. And worst, it’s all technically legal, which means that they can get away with it.

I’ll be honest: this infuriates me. I want to fight this with letters, with blog posts, with protests, with every peaceful means available. This is unjust. This is wrong. And it is being done to my home and native land. But of course, I’m powerless. I have no authority, no presence, certainly no wisdom to lead such a fight.

But I will not give up hope. Because when evil men band together to wreak havoc and persecute those who are good, they always stand as a house divided. Evil men backstab, look for their own advancement, and are blinded by their own greed and lust for power. More importantly, because they refuse to acknowledge who gave them that power, they will fall even more violently than they rose.

I will not give up hope because God is laughing at the Liberals, at the New Democrats, and (I think) especially at the Bloc Quebecois.

I will not give up hope because there are things beyond the control and power of these vile men. And that gives me cause to laugh, because I know how much that will enrage them.

I will not give up hope because in the darkest moment, God delivers.

Don’t know if you have seen/been following this story, but a huge Saudi oil tanker was seized by Somali pirates recently. Yes, piracy is still strong. Weird, eh?

Apparently, things are progressing, but not towards a solution. An Indian warship has destroyed a pirate vessel, while the pirates have gone ahead and seized two more ships.

I doubt any of these pirates are as good-willed or amusing as Johnny Depp, but still—there’s got to be a good story in there.

The National Post has a story about a tragic and bloody weekend in the city of Toronto, primarily focusing on the death of a twenty-four-year-old woman who was killed when a man opened up fire in a bar.

According to the Post,

Mayor David Miller spoke out yesterday, repeating his call for tougher gun control. He said despite this weekend’s violence, gun crime is down in Toronto from previous years.

I just don’t know what to say to that. Particularly when, earlier in the article, the man who opened fire in the bar was described thus:

Police yesterday issued an arrest warrant for second-degree murder for 24-year-old Kyle Weese.

Detectives told a press conference that Mr. Weese has an “extensive” criminal record and is well-known to the officers in the area.

“This is an extremely violent man with an extremely violent history,” Det. Sgt. Gary Giroux said. “My concern is not only for the citizens of the city but for our uniformed police officers… He should be considered armed and extremely dangerous.”

I can only shake my head about this. Sadly, I see these kinds of stories at the Post time and time again. And it makes me wonder, just what can we do about it? Will we ever be able to dig past all the political BS and actually get somewhere where we learn to treat criminals as criminals and not merely as naughty toddlers? Don’t call me idealistic. Something must be done, and I don’t intend to stop mulling this over anytime soon.

Another gem for those who hate American health care.

Just how much are you willing to hate?

Some scientists at the University of Toronto (yay Canada!) think they may have discovered a new plant with “a mass eight times larger than our solar system’s largest planet.” Far out, huh? Check out the National Post article (with links to the scientists’ official paper).