Wines and Spirits

I just realized, I think I have a girl blogger crush on Sabina Becker.  Well, not really, I just admire her style and she makes me do a fist-pump-in-the-air.  Go read News of the Restless.  She's awesome!

30 chimpanzees escaped from their "Chimp Island" enclosure at a British zoo into a keeper area.  Yikes!

More than 5,000 visitors were asked to leave Chester Zoo, near Liverpool, shortly after the break-out as keepers rounded up the chimps.

"In the interests of public safety Chester Zoo was evacuated today, Sunday 5th July, as a precautionary measure. This decision was taken due to an escape of chimpanzees from Chimp Island into a keeper area," the zoo said.

Listen, I know they're cute and funny and all that.  But if you ever see an escaped chimp, run for your fucking life or shoot to kill if you're so equipped.  I'm not kidding.  

Hello to all and a howdy to the blond blogmistresses.

I have now caught up with my reading of the site. Whew ! I shouldn't stay away so long. I miss good stuff and juicy tidbits.

Howz it goin'!

I have no excuses or explanations for being away, I just didn't keep up. Oh yah - I did paint the outside of the house - but really how long could that take ? Three weeks ... which I blame on poor weather, a questionable work ethic and a bad attitude. I hate painting.

What does the title of this post refer to, you ask ?

I have made reference in the past to my being a flatlander. A born and bred Saskatchewanian. From down south east of Regina.

Well, just for the fun of it I thought I would prove it. I drove about 10 miles ( 16 kilometers ) north of my house and snapped these pictures. There are eight of them, North, NorthEast, East, SouthEast ... you get the idea. I could have taken the in between ones, NNE, ENE, ESE, and so on ... but jeez, what's the point eh ! They give a 360 degree panorama of the horizon. The paved road runs North to South. The big power line runs northwest to Regina.

Patience Dr. Prole counsels. MY ASS! was my response, there's no time for patience.

Well, Doc, there is time for patience - the international economy requires patience as it does nothing overnight (except sink alarmingly). The whole Israel/Palestine situation requires patience, and lots of it.

Iraq? We broke it, we must be responsible in handling it. Much patience should be used in dealing with that disaster. Afghanistan? Same thing - it's a delicate situation and it's our, self inflicted problem.

But there are some things for which patience is not a virtue and those things relate to the subject of Executive power and Obama's (un)willingness to relinquish it.

Glenn Greenwald again:

They are about 4 inches long, about 5/16 inch in diameter, they are often all white, but with a line or so close to one end. Sometimes they have a tan coloured end. That would be on the 'filter-tip' end. Most everyone smokes filter-tips, a few smoke 'tailor-made' unfiltered and I only know one guy that rolls his own cigs. No, he likely never rolled his own wacky tabacy, that's not where he learned to roll his own cigs.

This week is National Non-Smoking Week. It's been observed on the third week of January for more than thirty years. I'm thinking they picked late January to reinforce and grab again the people that had a New Year's resolution to quit. The non-smoking lobby know how to manipulate the public. 'Course, so do tobacco manufacturers. They are very good. I don't doubt that their profits have been good for years, in spite of the efforts of many to get people to quit smoking.

What's that line about smoking ? - Something like "It's the only legal product that when used, as per manufacturer's instructions, will kill 60 % of it's customers"

As expected Buckdog blogged this before I got around to it. Pale had mentioned before that the 'brown and white' dog is a goto site for perspective on the CWB.

The Canadian Wheat Board has just ran elections for 5 of 10 elected directors on the board. The remaining 5 directors ( for a total of 15 ) are appointed by the Federal Government. No surprise that the 5 gov't directors favour an open market for western wheat and barley.

The election yielded 4 of 5 seats to pro-single desk directors. That makes the overall split 8 / 7 favouring a single desk system ( the current status quo ).

To get a real feel for the election you should read the article in the Leader-Post by Bruce Johnson linked by Buckdog.
The juicy parts are as follows:

So, after having gotten excited about the prospect of a centre-left coalition taking power, I'm dejected today. I'm sure we all are.

I'm trying to figure out what the worst aspect of it is:

* Conservative. We seemed so close to actually having a progressive government take power. Instead... well, it might still happen, but for the next seven weeks at least we've got the reactionaries.

* Undemocratic. A party chosen by 37% of the people stays in power instead of a combination of parties chosen by 44% of the people endorsed by a combination of parties chosen by 61% of the people.

* Delay. At a time when an economic stimulus is urgently needed, there will be no parliament to authorize spending for another two months.

* Constitutional precedent. Every student of Canadian government learns in high school that the fundamental principle of our political system is Responsible Government: the government is responsible to the elected chamber of parliament. This principle is undermined by the precedent that avoiding facing a confidence vote is a legitimate exercise of executive prerogative.

Have I missed any other reasons to be unhappy about this decision?

Lumpy Rutherford is back.

Ah well. Let's hope he shuts his mouth on the NDP attacks this time. Gah. 

I think not.  This post is a superb myth-buster. 

The Bag points out an ugly progression.

So far, my tin foilish friends, many of the way out and far fetched theories and predictions have been born out.

What will be the extent of the coming cultural war if Obama wins? What will the soulless neocons and their useful idiots cook up?

The Hate Radio guys are pulling all the stops - calling Obama a communist, raising The Fairness Doctrine again, using race. They're actually saying (paraphrasing) that they'll be off the air in a year if their audience doesn't get out there and do something about it. Such blatant "throes" I've never witnessed.

My neighbor knocked on my door to thank me for the Obama/Biden signs in my front yard. She said she didn't "have the guts" (exact quote) to put one up.

What if he loses?

For this year's Hallowe'en party or parties.

Sure, it sounds easy but just don't do it.

Friends don't let friends be this simple and un-clever - drunk or sober.

(h/t - David Akin)

Gaaaaah! Perish the thought.

Don't imagine, though. Go here. Yes, now. Pass your cursor over the page and see and hear what happens.

How it may be possible to game the system at PB......noticed that one other blog is doing it.... to ensure that their posts stay at the top for a day, and get more votes?....Change the timestamps under the guise of an update.

And there ya go.
Some people just do not like to play fair hey?

Its ok. I wont need to do it again. Im not that needy.

You know ... that Federal election thing. The Regina Leader-Post had an opinion piece roughing out what various outcomes might mean for the overall good of Saskatchewan. It didn't deal with unlikely outcomes ( oddly it left out a Liberal minority supported by the Bloc - a likely outcome ). There was some strange statements and some dubious advantages. I though I would quote & comment.

Con Majority ( ewwwwww, but possible )

Advantages

"... the Conservatives moving on their long-standing pledge to end the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly over the export sale of wheat and barley for human consumption."

'Course there is a significant number of farmers that don't want to see this. Better would be to allow a clear plebiscite.

I'm a little late to this story. The folks at HarperIndex covered it yesterday and the CBC story ran August 30th.
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Canad's ewwww Government thinks you should have the right kind of "personal integrity" in order to get a loan or a grant from certain agencies of the Government.

What agencies ?? Well, Business Development Bank of Canada, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the Canadian Commercial Corporation and Export Development Canada, for starters.

So far no one is defining what that "personal integrity" should look like. Does it simply mean that if some government bureaucrat doesn't like the cut of your jib he can deny you a loan. Yup, it appears so.