lotusland - nervous politics from a laid-back city

usa, parrish, parrish, usa ... i see youve met before

first of all, i would like to declare this post your recommended reading for the day. a wonderful undoing of daniel drezner by the new republic's #1 fan.

ok. the thing with carolyn parrish and americans. ok. so she called them bastards, apologized, called them idiots, freaked out about getting in trouble, didn't apologize cos idiot is more benign than bastard. it's her opinion. we see politicians from all parties insulting groups all the time, it's a likely indicator of the state of canadian society. i'm sure it wouldn't make american news if the word 'idiots' didn't enter into the equation.

from the globe and mail:

Ms. Parrish belongs to a minority of Liberal MPs, and a minority of Canadians, who believe that the United States is an imperial power, and that Canada, a more virtuous country, should keep its distance, in particular by refusing to join the Americans in a continental missile-defence program.

[emphasis all mine.]

curious - the globe and mail effectively categorizes anti-americanism as a form of canadian nationalism. why can't they frame it as anti-americanism instead? canadian identity is in a shambles - someone find me a copy of reflections of a siamese twin - i need to be reassured.

more fun from the globe:

A small cottage industry has arisen dedicated to telling the Americans whenever a Canadian insults them, which invariably prompts some talk-show host to insult us back.

thank you, bloggers.

this is also cute: "She accused John McCallum, the Defence Minister, of 'farting around in Washington.' She denounced Liberal MPs who criticize Chretien anonymously as 'sneaking, sniveling shitheads.' She told the Mississauga News that she was 'tired of kissing ass up here (in Ottawa.)' ... She called seven members of the Liberal caucus 'toads, dull blunt clods' and 'desperate idiots' for being Martin supporters. The targets -- colleagues John Harvard, Diane Marleau, Stan Keyes, Nick Discepola, Joe Fontana, Rick Limoges, and Paul Bonwick -- showed class and maturity by refusing to descend to her gutter-sniping tactics."

is any of the stuff in that list really that bad? :)

and now for the best quote:
"In 1996, Parrish suggested that the Liberals have to buy off the vote in downtown Toronto: 'We're tired of sending money to downtown Toronto. The Liberals can't sit back and rely on their traditional ethnic support to carry the day anymore.' This comment is way off base; cash-strapped Toronto has been ignored by Ottawa for years because Liberals here are considered shoo-ins."

why isn't the journalist pointing out that "ethnic vote" side of the comment? oh wait, the point of this is to bemoan the way toronto is treated. yes, that is much more serious than her admission groups behave in this way.

here's a cuter bit of anti-americanism ... maybe this is all a dream. wow - my first dallas reference.

sushi vs starbucks!

i have spent the last few days at ubc subsisting on iced americanos, iced unsweetened black tea, avocado rolls, inari, and cucumber rolls in the ubc village, where 2 sushi places are across from the starbucks.

Vancouver's food obsessions

Sometimes it seems like we're overrun with Starbucks and sushi. How did we get that way -- and which one rules?

by Chad Skelton, Vancouver Sun

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Hidekazu Tojo, Vancouver's leading sushi chef and owner of Tojo's restaurant on West Broadway, goes back to Japan at least once a year. He has no doubt that people in Vancouver eat more sushi than anywhere else in North America.
But he thinks the city's sushi obsession is even bigger than that. Vancouver, he said, has become the sushi capital of the world.

"Vancouverites eat more sushi than Japanese people," he said.

Tojo is credited by many, including himself, with an innovation that turned sushi from an obscure ethnic food to mainstream fare: the inside-out roll. Traditional Japanese sushi is wrapped in nori -- thin seaweed paper -- with the rice and seafood inside. Tojo said he realized in the early 1970s that the nori was turning many white customers off sushi. "People hated sushi at that time [because] it looked like black paper," he said. "So I hid it." Tojo put the nori on the inside of the roll, wrapping the rice and filling around the outside -- the form used for most of the most popular rolls now, such as California rolls.
"When I did it inside out ... then it became very popular," he said. Tojo is also credited with inventing the B.C. Roll -- with barbequed salmon skin and cucumber -- one of the most popular rolls in the city.

When it comes to Vancouver's food obsessions, it's hard to compete with sushi. But right after our B.C. rolls, sashimi and bento boxes, there are few things Vancouverites love more than our tall lattes, espresso shots and Frappuccinos.
Vancouver's first Starbucks opened in 1987 in a small kiosk in the SeaBus terminal on Cordova. It was the first Starbucks outside of Seattle and only the ninth Starbucks ever. There are now more than 7,800 Starbucks in 34 countries.

So, of our twin obsessions, which one wins out? Which are there more of in our city: Sushi or Starbucks? Figuring that out is not an easy task.

While Starbucks knows how many stores it has in the Lower Mainland -- 121 -- no one keeps track of how many sushi restaurants there are. However, according to business listings, there are 175 restaurants in the Lower Mainland with the word "sushi" in their name -- from Ajisai Sushi Bar on West 42nd to Zero One Sushi on Bute. Another 138 restaurants have the word "Japanese" in their name. That works out to, at minimum, 313 sushi restaurants in the region -- more than twice the number of Starbucks and, incidentally, more than three times the number of McDonald's (99).

In the downtown core alone, there are more than 50 sushi restaurants (see map). And both Starbucks and sushi continue to grow. Starbucks has opened 11 new Vancouver outlets in just the past year alone. And sushi restaurants keep on popping up across the city. For years, one block of Davie Street, from Thurlow to Bute, contained four sushi restaurants. Last fall, a longtime Korean restaurant in the same block closed down and reopened weeks later -- as the block's fifth sushi spot.

Will Vancouver reach a point where it cannot sustain any more Starbucks or sushi outlets? Is there a limit to how much caffeine and sticky rice we can consume? Tojo, for one, thinks Vancouver is reaching a sushi saturation point. "I think it's enough now," he said. As for Starbucks, Monachello said he can't say at what point Vancouver will have enough of them. "I don't think I could speculate where the limits are," he said.

sfu olympic oval ... R.I.P.

remembering better times for burnaby, it came as a shock when richmond was awarded the right to construct the olympic oval for the 2010 games.

reasons this is frustrating:

1. the sfu oval was part of the original bid and was one of the reasons burnaby was supportive.
2. simon fraser university would benefit from the infrastructure and use it better than the city of richmond, no matter how many trade shows they claim they will lure from bc place
3. richmond won on the basis of their cheaper bid and claims they wont have any cost overrun that will be covered by taxes. the people of montreal are laughing their arses off im sure.
4. theyre building it on the bloody waterfront, below sea level, the most dangerous part of an earthquake-prone area that is due for an earthquake.
5. sfu recently got direct skytrain access via the 145 bus at production way station and the 144 bus at sperling-burnaby lake station. richmond has the 98 b-line and crowded bridges and airport traffic. oh right - the rav line! the non-existent rav line! the imaginary rav line! the rav line i have seen no progress on whatsoever! the rav line that only makes headlines when it looks like herb dhaliwal's taxi company links make him look like he has a conflict of interest!
6. derek corrigan, oval-loser that he is, will probably be re-elected even though his failure to make the burnaby bid more attractive to the 2010 committee lost simon fraser a valuable asset.
7. the calgary oval is but 13 hours away, and that's where the national team is based. consequently, the proposals were evaluated with using the facility for something other than speed skating in mind. this relates to point 2.
8. richmond is closer to downtown, which means it's closer to a place that will be uber crowded during the games. spreading the masses out between vancouver, burnaby, and whistler might not be a bad idea at all.
9. the view of the city and the fjords from burnaby mountain vs the view from the richmond flatlands - what do we want to show the tourists?

athens 2004 and canada's medal count

why is that the bottom line?

the popularpierre bourque of bourque newswatch links to a table of athens 2004 medals per country with the phrase "CANADA: ONE MEASLY MEDAL"

im sure heymans and hartley would love to hear "ONE MEASLY MEDAL" in conjunction with their synchro diving bronze.

the canadians ive watched compete who have placed in the top ten have made me proud as a canadian and satisfied that the government has invested in amateur sport. it's obvious there can be more progress in funding for top athletes as canada was criticized by an aussie swim coach who described the effectiveness of merit-based funding as opposed to our current problem of spreading funding too thinly to help anyone.

it frustrates me to see people treat our athletes and coaches this way. they put enough pressure on themselves and the peanut gallery venting like this serves no real purpose. ive always been a dismal athlete and will always be so, no matter how often i go to the gym cos i have the coordination of a total drunk. i have nothing but respect for anyone who makes it to an olympic final. only three competitors medal in each event, and fractions of seconds/points/etc determine who comes 1-3.

(i believe machiavelli refers to this x-factor as fortuna.)

yes, medalling at the olympics has positive consequences for national morale and interest in amateur sport; however, i dont think canada's lack of medals should engender an national outcry or abandonment of amateur sport support. the olympics are a celebration of sport and international cooperation. we gather together to watch records being smashed and sport history being rewritten in real time. surely canadians can be a bit more cosmopolitan and just sit back and enjoy the games.

this country has contributed greatly to the history of sport and will continue to create legends if we establish solid support programs. this debate ought to be raging when funding is allocated and the house of commons is sitting, but it tends to be front page news mostly when the olympics are being televised.

blog culture: apparently it's a culture.

mr. warren kinsella had a lovely column in this weekend's national post (which he has posted on his blog for the post-deprived, warren-loving masses) about blogging culture.

like many canadians, i started this here thing during the federal election of 04. i noticed my web diary was weighed down by my little polemics, and some of my artsy friends were beginning to protest. livejournals, apparently, are not the proper vehicle for this sort of thing. to some, political rants are *more* unwelcome on their livejournal friends page than 'get to know you' surveys, personality tests, and other memes.

for some reason, others liked reading my posts on the big vote. two admitted my livejournal rants were their sole portal to the debates which were erupting outside the parameters of a typical twentysomething existence (mr kinsella says "politics is showbiz for ugly people" - id like to expand said definition to encompass "old" and "nerdy" people as well. indie rock is showbiz for the young and perilously cool, but i digress). others explicitly asked me to tell them how i think they should cast their ballots - apparently the ability to churn out a few impassioned rants, combined with my credentials (ha!) as a political science student meant i knew how to do that whole voting thing better than someone who doesnt feel the need to rant.

naturally, this scared me a bit. why on earth did these rants give me any modicum of credibility? i didnt want to be obeyed, i wanted to stir the pot. i started a typepad blog in order to join the exchange between other politically-minded bloggers which didn't exist on livejournal, even in the canpolitik community (with the exception of contributions by a user called manitoblog, a vociferous principled conservative.)

so do i feel truly part of this portion of the public sphere yet? er... yes and no.

since starting my blog, ive been lucky enough to get reciprocal links from many of the excellent blogs in my sidebar (path of the paddle, revmod, sinister thoughts, vanramblings, guêpe, and saving the best for last, detached observer), exposure on urban vancouver, and trackback hits from the public eye, on the fence, and andrew coyne. nevertheless, the scant amount of comments i receive makes me think this exercise is as masturbatory as blog-haters claim. (i used to be a blog-hater!)

well, perhaps it is masturbatory, but whether we are comfortable enough to admit it or not, there is a hedonist lurking deep within all of us that lovingly reflects on the fact there isnt any shame in an occasional wank.

as for mr kinsella's claim that blogging is the new gutenberg press ... sure, but you dont have to go that far back - blogging harkens back to a time when politics was conducted via pamphleteering and bills posted in public areas. perhaps these opinion-driven agents will polarize the public as web users selectively tap into like-minded blogs. conversely, this return to the grassroots may engender a more inclusive public sphere free from the vicelike grip of political correctness the mainstream media likes to parade around as objectivity.

(funny how the first scenario describes the result of fox news while the second was basically the right-wing network's raison d'être. that was totally unintentional. at any rate, watch outfoxed.)

oh, burnaby, why...

remember, a few posts back, i declared burnaby was exciting again cos someone was going to challenge mr calendino for the provincial nomination.

really, burnaby has been exciting since 1979, and we have this chap to thank.

young liberals and their press releases...

firstly, id like to remark that way more people are reading this terrible little blog than id anticipated. exciting. people find their way here from better blogs and google searches. the most intriguing by far is "chantal hebert" lover ...

a most distinguished kingstonian forwarded me a press release announcing the decoration of hec clouthier, leonard hopkins, and sean conway with the much-coveted renfrew-nipissing-pembroke young liberals honourary life membership. says the email,

Media are welcome to attend the awards presentation and are reminded that Mr. Hopkins' and Mr. Clouthier's presentations are a surprise to them both.

im sure the media showed up in droves.

why snail mail is more fun

these postal experiments are hilarious.

The Postal Service appears to be amazingly tolerant of the foibles of its public and seems occasionally willing to relax specific postal regulations ... First, this experiment yielded a 64% delivery rate (18/28), an almost two-thirds success rate. (For our purposes, "delivery" constituted some type of independent handling by the USPS and subsequent contact regarding the object, regardless of whether we got to see or keep the object or whether it arrived whole.) This is astounding, considering the nature of some of the items sent. This compares with a 0% rate of receipt of fully wrapped packages from certain countries of the developing world, such as Peru, Turkey, and Egypt. Admittedly, those were international mailings, and thus not totally comparable; nevertheless, the disparity is striking.

Second, the delivery involved the collusion of sequences of postal workers, not simply lone operatives. The USPS appears to have some collective sense of humor, and might in fact here be displaying the rudiments of organic bureaucratic intelligence.

Finally, our investigation team felt remorse for some of its experimental efforts, most particularly the category "Disgusting," after the good faith of the USPS in its delivery efforts. We sought out as many of the USPS employees who had (involuntarily) been involved in the experiment as we could identify, and gave them each a small box of chocolate.

We, and all scientists, owe a debt of gratitude to these civil servants. Without them, we would have had but little success in pushing the envelope.

president bush on depression medication?

“President Bush is an untreated alcoholic with paranoid and megalomaniac tendencies,” says capitol hill blue, which claims bush is on depression meds.

since every 2nd ad on american tv is about prescription drugs, who's even surprised.

postmodernism, the game.

the best postmodern flash game on the face of the earth... dedicated to gallo, for obvious reasons. if you are writing a paper and you have writer's block and you haven't slept more than six hours in two days, i would definitely play it. it's so pleasant!

if you see me doing something besides schoolwork, any of you, please spray me with bear mace and throw me into the koerner library stacks with bic lead pencils, an 80 pg notebook, triplus fineliners in all the colours, 2.5 cm paper post-it flags, and my green schoolbag with all the books in it, not my book bag... don't even look in my book bag. yes.