lotusland - nervous politics from a laid-back city

the pm will have a tall, extra hot, non-fat, 1 pump hazelnut, 2 pumps vanilla latte.

this document may shock you.  courtesy of dipper vigilante bza, i have obtained photographic evidence of harper enjoying a starbucks beverage. 

while harper may represent the t-ho crowd (as w. kinsella would lead us to believe), he seems to be in bed with the dark side.  as i go to ubc, which boasts more places to buy starbucks beverages than, say, books, i definitely recognize the starbucks cup, white lid and all.  if im not mistaken, that's a coffee sleeve encircling the base of the cup - one that uses 45% less paper than a double cup.  t-ho's kicks it old school and offers you the double cup if your fragile hands cant handle the scalding.  that blurry text on the side of the cup is definitely one of those friggin ridiculous "the way i see it" rants on the side.

eh, ive seen albertans drink starbucks before.  in fact, i believe it has "good coffee" status in the eyes of most wasp canadians, which is cute.

so, i guess this changing of the guard means the progressive bloggers will be the ones with all the OMFG SCANDAL updates.  i wonder if i should join them.  is it time?  should i be blogging about this instead of starbucks?  ugh, but the blogging tories all looked so stupid doing it and all they ended up with was a crappy minority government.

we'll see.

a woman's answer is vague and circular, so grab your beers and popcorn for this one.

maybe it's my age, but ive never heard this expression before.  ive always blamed my verbosity, fickle nature, and proclivity to  engage in non-linear argumentation on the fact im in political science.  should i be blaming my vagina?  the cbc seems to think this is a cheap ploy to score political points, which is kind of interesting.

moreover, youre not supposed to go around accusing voters of being negligent, fat, winos.  i dont know that being a statist makes you crazier than believing a devout consumerist - i dont advocate closing our critical eyes. honestly, though, martin probably buys a lot of beer and popcorn with the tax loopholes he makes himself.

homosexual sex marriage!

rob anders just keeps givin'er when it comes to his lifetime goal of tarding out all over the country.  its definitely a sign of the times (exam period) that i found out about this richmond event via some calgarian and not from, you know, being awake during normal hours and walking around and finding things out as i go about my business.  if i were an old person, id probably say its a sign of the times and the internet revolution and have you heard of blogs.  but im not.

this following bulleted list displays what rob anders *really* needed to ask richmond people.  i dont know why he had to send them one of these leaflets.  ok, thats a lie.  he sent that shit because he gets a budget from the house to send this kind of thing to his own constituents and he can even allocate a portion to out-of-riding spammage.  i guess when youve got a safe seat, the party kind of likes it when you send a bit of your party-affiliated paper stuff to a battleground riding.

• Do you like the way Paul Martin spends your taxes?
• Are the Liberals doing enough to fight crime?
• Do you support homosexual sex marriage?
• Do you think more should be spent on the military?

now most of that is standard fare, but wtf is  'homosexual sex marriage' .  i guess its parliaments next gay rights debate. now that the equal marriage legislation has gone through, theyll probably start demanding we recognize their "sex marriages," too.  this has gone too far.

now, maybe catholic school wasnt the best place for me to get my sex ed, but i heard that all good, christian marriages had sex in them.  im just blushing as i type this, but being the blossoming young woman that i am, i am certainly planning on having a heterosexual sex marriage now that ive found out that a sex marriage is some kind of different category. 

ok, ill stop making fun of his grammar.  really.  ill even get conspiratorial.  was the use of "homosexual sex" intentional to rile up people who are very disturbed by other people's freedom to engage in  consensual sex between adults?

i think some rob anders page should be #1 on google for the phrase "homosexual sex marriage" ...

how to demoralize your base in five easy steps

from bound by gravity (im sure youve all read it, but its worth reposting):

1. "Expose" scandal involving Liberal patronage appointment
2. Produce "facts" to back up claims of scandal
3. Make sure scandal is widely published
4. Encourage supporters to join in the pillorying of the accused
5. Shrug uncaringly when scandal turns out to be blown out of proportion

ive suspected this all along, but now i can confidently declare pallister is officially a complete wad.

bound by gravity thinks dingwall's speedy resignation is a tad suspicious.  personally, i dont blame anyone for getting the frig out of a job when it becomes a baseless witch hunt.  sorry liberals, but youve been there so damn long that the probability of someone in the ranks taking power for granted and engaging in unscrupulous behaviour is likely increasing.  throwing an obnoxious party over dingwalls exonoration isnt exactly the high road when youve got other trust issues on the public's radar.  sorry conservatives, but screaming every three seconds about every little thing is not exactly advisable if you want canadians to see you as a serious opposition party and a plausible replacement for the libs.

monte solberg had a dizzying bit of spin-o-rama on the issue.  look, mr solberg, i know how tempting it is (as a fellow geek) to spin everything into an ideological claim.  it happens.  still, it seems that the common sense thing to do would be to apologize to canadians for wasting our time with a poop-slinging show.  you can post on the evils of statism and liberal blame-dodging once you return to regularly scheduled blogging.  it's not like you're going to wake up in a canada that doesn't provide you with ridiculous amounts of blog fodder.

THE MOVIE IS ABOUT PENGUINS, PEOPLE

ok.  when i was in new mexico, everyone couldnt shut up about that stupid penguin movie and how someone cried while watching it, etc.  i thought it was a new mexico thing.  vancouvers obsessed and the whole damn continent is paying $10 to see a bunch of penguins for a few hours.  this, my friends, is messed. 

what is even more messed is the stuff people are reading into the penguin movie.

One Christian organisation, the 153 House Churches Network, raves over the film as proof of the glory of God. It is organising workshops in which families are invited to homes and cinemas to see the film.

Christians can be inspired by exemplary "dedication, cooperation and affection" between the mating penguins and the loyalty and perseverance of the father, says Mari Helms, reviewing the movie on www.christiananswers.net.

Rich Lowry, editor of the right-wing publication the National Review, urged young conservatives to check out the documentary.

"It is an amazing movie. And I have to say, penguins are the really ideal example of monogamy," he said last month.

Anti-abortionist campaigner Jill Stanek says the nurturing penguins were a stinging lesson to women who contemplated a pregnancy termination.

"I remembered last year's March for Women's Lives in Washington, DC, when pro-aborts gathered to bolster their right to kill babies," says Stanek, in a column on WorldNetDdaily.com. "I thought maybe a penguin movie analogy would help people understand."

holy crap.  literally, ha.  but seriously, people, this is a movie about penguins.  get over it...

kim campbell and her russian boyfriend

im sure we've all heard about the new mulroney bedtime stories. im still giggling over his assertion that kim campbell lost cos she was too busy screwing around with her russian boyfriend.  russian boyfriends will be the fall of mankind as we know it, surely. 

in my experience, russian boyfriends are very low maintenance and can amuse themselves for hours on end if theyre supplied with meat-containing food, a palm with chess on it, black tea, a lot of books, and an internet connection.

tierney shows us the truth is for pussies

hat tippage to crooked timber for this sparkling gem:

Tierney, of the Institute of World Politics, identified five groups: ANSWER, Not in Our Name, Code Pink, United for Peace and Justice, and MoveOn.org. He said these groups "come from the Workers World Party" and are an "umbrella" for smaller groups, such as the "Communist Party of Kansas City" and the "Socialist Revolutionary Movement of the Upper Mississippi." Of the last two, he said, "I'm just making these up."

tierney's institute is an umbrella for the nazi party of milwaukee and the white power association of eastern washington.  yeah, im just making those up, but you know what i mean because im basically pulling stuff out of my ass that reinforces your simplistic worldview of conflating extremist politics with democracy-oriented political activism.

maybe they're reform party fans?

britney spears and her husband want to name their baby boy preston. 

calgarygrit webpoll HYSTERIA!

im going to paste a comment i saw on cg's webpoll:

This blog-poll is a leading indicator of what will transpire in February.

Of course, Trudeau should win, hands down.  But there are no militants out there supporting him.  meanwhile, righties are chomping at the bit to beat him down.

In February, Liberals supporters will stay home.  Tory supporters will climb walls to cast a ballot.

I think the Liberals should be planning a leadership campaign, beginning March: who's going to face down Prime Minister Harper?

ps.  I voted for Trudeau.  I could never cast a ballot for the idiot "non-aligned", "harper is scary" Joe Clark.

so-called "righties" (ugh, yay for friendly-sounding pseudonyms) are "chomping at the bit" (curious invocation of rabid dog imagery) to defeat the martin government.  case in point? 

TRUDEAU IS LOSING THE WEB POLL!

truly, the methodology behind his conclusions is amazing.  the definition of the word militant that he employs in his study is compelling and timely.  from now on, a militant will be defined as someone who will go to great lengths to defend their cause, specifically defined as reading blogs and voting in webpolls.  hardcore militants use proxy isp's.

conservative transit policy

ok, so i feel bad for my previous piss-taking entry on the conservatives.  so im going to give them some props for a good idea:  the transit income tax deduction thingy.

ok, so given my u-pass status (and who knows if the upass program, with its $200ish figure as part of ubc tuition/ams fees, will qualify), id save around $42.  people who buy translink monthly passes, or westcoast express tickets, would save much more. 

good idea, yes.  poorly executed, yes.  i say poorly executed cos i dont like the way this has been framed.  they stress that this transit rebate is a "Made-in-Canada!!!!" approach.  i think by this, they mean "unlike that kyoto thingy rick mercer keeps plugging."  the way theyre selling it has left a vile taste in my mouth i cant quite blame on the putrid instant coffee ive been drinking.  i really get the feeling the conservatives want to pursue a few small initiatives without assuming the responsibility the kyoto protocol places on us.  did you know everything could be solved with tax breaks?

it's a great idea, but they should stop framing it as more than what it is.

the upass is a financial incentive for ubc students to take transit.  at $22/month, its exponentially cheaper than driving to school for most kids.  there's been a distinct increase in ridership, so it is effective.  still, i dont know that this kind of initiative addresses the whole problem of emissions reduction.