Sneak Peek #1

Here's the first sneak peek of my oh-so-exciting thesis for you guys. Basically I'm posting this up here because I don't have enough time for a regular post. Hah!

The second model, a preference analysis model, assesses the preference sets of each player, paying close attention to regional preferences, negotiation preferences, preference order, and strategies.

Within this model, the following terms have the following meanings:

∑ A player is one of the six countries formally involved in the Korean nuclear negotiations. They seek a resolution (agreement) to the dispute (North Korea’s possession of nuclear arms). The term external player indicates a player that is not North Korea.

∑ An interest is the root of what brings a player to the negotiation table, and what makes it desire a solution to the dispute. Interests are compound. For example, it is in the interest of all the external players to survive as nation-states; thus, they seek to maintain their national security. By extension, it is in their interest to limit other states’ possession of nuclear arms in their region if that possession threatens their national security, be it indirectly or directly. Thus, if the preceding statements apply, it is in their interest to seek the disarmament of North Korea.

∑ A preference is a real or imagined choice between alternatives made by a player that is put in the context of the negotiations. In other words, the preference is the interest operationalized toward a solution. It has two subcategories:

o A negotiation preference is a preference specific to the negotiations. In the case of North Korea, a common negotiation preference among the external players is the short-term freezing of North Korea’s nuclear facilities.

o A regional preference is a preference that a player does not bring to the table per se, but which affects its negotiation preferences. It is inclusive of a player’s geopolitical foreign policy and it greater national interest.

∑ A preference set is the combined preferences of a player, and denotes a specific order. For example, within one player’s preference set¸ the complete disarmament of North Korea may come before or after the freezing of North Korea’s plutonium facilities. The player prefers the first preference because it better serves its interests. The preference set provides the frame for a player’s negotiating strategy.

∑ A negotiation strategy is the precise way in which a player offers positive incentives and negative incentives so that its preferences are best served. This is inclusive of what trade-offs a player is willing to make so that it can come to a compromise on which of its preferences are met and what preferences are not met.

o A positive incentive is a means through which a player seeks to make an opposing player accept a solution that best serves its preferences by making an offer that it infers will satisfy one of the opposing players’ preferences. An example is the removal of sanctions on North Korea (incentive), in exchange for complete disarmament (preference).

o A negative incentive is similar to a positive incentive, but it instead threatens the opposing player’s preferences instead of serving them in the event that the opposing player resists making a trade-off. An example is the threat of invasion (incentive), in the absence of a nuclear freeze (preference).

o A trade-off is a compromise through which the preferences of two or more parties are met by mutual agreement. These are usually part of a solution. An example of a trade-off in the Korean case would be North Korea agreeing to freeze its Yongbyon reactor for a period of time in exchange for a limited aid package.

∑ A solution is an agreement between players to resolve the issue on terms that satisfy all the players’ preferences. An example of a solution in the Korean case is GAF.

When the going gets tough... I go indoors.

Y'all.... the thesis is going well and almost out the door. Well, except for frantic emails from my supervisor like this:

Chris. I think it is URGENT that we have another session. There are still far too many holes in what the thesis is saying. We have some patching to do. The
sooner the better.

So the roof is leaking, but hey... at least it's up. I think.

In other news...

• Cheers to Michael Valpy of The Globe and Mail. The paper ran a great piece by him on Liberal leadership frontrunner Michael Ignatieff in today's weekend edition. The sensational cover plug: "The Ruthless Path of Michael Ignatieff." Check it out on F1 ("focus") or online;

• Congrats to Laura, Rachel, Stu and Donald for successfully defending their MA theses and escaping the Dalhouise Dungeon... and congrats to Paul, Aimee, Malcolm and Dayna for deciding the Dungeon wasn't so bad after all (you'll never leave now, BTW, and the lot of you are doomed for eternity to see my waifish silhouette roaming the halls and be dagged into conversations you don't want to be in);
  

• Kudos to PBS for not sucking as much as it usually does.Conan O'Brien sat down for an hour with PBS broadcast hero Charlie Rose. Charlie, BTW, usually has great guests, and New York Times reporter Tom Friedman virutally lives on the set -- but this was a particularly good interview. Check out the online version here;
  

• Salutations to jailed Chinese dissidents for dishing it out and taking it. China has sentenced this dude for "fraud" and this dude for "damaging property and organising a mob to disturb traffic." In reality, of course, the former was originally charged with revealing state secrets to foreigners while he was doing his job as a reporter for the New York Times. The latter, Chen Guangcheng, a self-taught lawyer who is blind, campaigned against a series of forced abortions and sterilizations taking place in Shangdong province -- abortions and sterilizations that are illegal by China's own standards. Instead of investigating the issue or maintaining some semblance of transparency, authorities sentenced the blind Mr. Chen to four years in jail on trumped-up "disturbing traffic" charges. And let's not forget about this guy or this guy or this guy or these people.

  Whatever happened to trying to pressure the Middle Kingdom into developing a fair legal system instead of the straw house they have now? Oh, right, the human rights agenda fell off the stage when we started making money from the stagehand. The scary part is how inconsistent the PRC's legal wranglers are. Activist citizens who expose local corruption or criminal activity are sometimes made into heroes. Other times, they end up like Mr. Chen. Although the BBC reports reference some protest from the U.S. over Chen's arrest, I doubt anyone in the West who doesn't follow these things is paying much attention. All we seem to do these days is chastise our own coporations when they kowtow to the CCP's rules. Real productive.
  
  (Another note: I can't find the Chinese version of Chen's story on Xinhua, Shanghai Daily or the China Daily -- it has likely been burried or not run at all, which is uncharacteristic of Chinese media considering Chen got coverage when he was arrested in 2005. If you can find the story, do forward it me); and



• Thanks to everyone who submitted a Wisdom of the Week. If you haven't submitted yet, or want to submit again to improve your chances, the "contest" is still open.

That's it.
Back to the thesis.
再见。

我很忙。不好。

I am starting to get sick of writing about Juche. Here, read all about it.

In the meantime, I need a new "wisdom of the month" bit to put in the sidebar over there on your right.

I'm open to suggestions, and the "wisdom" can be anything.... Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Stephen Lewis, Anne Coulter, Kilgore Trout, Kim Jong-Il, Kim Il-Sung, Cream of Sum Yung Gai, whatever — everything goes.

And since I won't be updating this blog extensively until after the 8th of September (the day I die, er, my thesis deadline), why don't we consider this my "on hiatus contest" gift to you, my loyal two dozen or so readers. The prize: I'll mention whoever gets the winning quote in every post I make for a month.

...drop the wisdom to me via email or in the comments section below...

再见。

Crunch crunch crunch

Children:

I apologize for neglecting you! Please allow me to offer a few thoughts that may sway you over while I grind out my Master's thesis. Though I'm not sure what over you need be swayed, this is a rhetorical offer and you have no choice. On with the show!

1. Coffee is the greatest consumable non-beer liquid substance on earth. It is because I have decided so. I assume you have questions; here are the answers: yes, coffee is better than champagne. And if you are miffed about coffee's unquestionable superiority, think of this: you can always put a little alcohol in your coffee and, depending on how much you've dumped in, expect the same great coffee taste. You can't do the opposite. Nor can you readily eat champagne beans if you felt so inclined. A warning, though: avoid airplane coffee at all costs, or you may not shit straight for days.

2. HRM police seem to have run out of things to do and are now staking out Pizza Corner. En masse. And by 'en masse' I'm not talking French — I talking half a dozen officers on foot, street barricades, paddy wagons, cruisers, flashlights, drunk tanks, tasers, mace, bullet-proof vests and scary boots. The 40000% increase in police pizza presence isn't necessarily a bad thing, given that the average Pizza Corner altercation makes a strong case against classifying Halifax as part of "civilization" — but really, are there no more Dark Side murders to solve? Strip clubs to close? And what about policing all those vagrants who hang out around the Spring Garden McDonald's and make perfectly upstanding citizens like me uncomfortable?

3. I don't much care if John Mark Karr actually killed anyone or not — he needs to be arraigned on charges of excessive creepyness. Regardless.

4. Finally, this from Bourque.com's notes page. Warning: it's a bit old. Then again, the best ideas always are:

BREAKING: Bourque has learned that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and US President George Bush have agreed to swap Alaska for New Brunswick. The idea, first broached in Cancun two days ago by officials discussing bilateral trade issues, was said to have been well received by both leaders late Thursday as they sipped margaritas, dipped corn chips into spicy salsa, and contemplated the various merits of the deal. Sources inside the Prime Minister's Office indicated under condition of anonymity late Friday night that the plan would see the province of New Brunswick amalgamated into the State of Maine no later than April 8, 2010, in exchange for the state of Alaska, which would be amalgamated into the Yukon. "It makes eminent sense", said our source, who once attended a Harvard lecture given by the erudite Michael Ignatieff several years ago. "Both are marginal territories awkwardly placed in their respective countries", noted our source, "and both countries would be strengthened by this type of realignment". In fact, Bourque has confirmed through sources in Cancun that a secret task force has been struck to put together a plan of action based on sound strategic, geopolitical, commercial, and national security reasons strong enough to instigate successful votes in both Congress and Parliament no later than April 8, 2008. It remains unclear what, if any, say the citizens of Alaska and New Brunswick will have in the decision-making process, though it is understood that both the Governor of Alaska and the Premier of New Brunswick have been briefed and are on side. Developing...

Next up: PEI for Oregan!

谢谢，
再见。

...as the crunch continues

A few things to take my mind off of my thesis, and your mind off of thinking:

The liberal leadership circus, er, race is down one candidate to a slim total of ten candidates. So now each candidate gets 32 seconds to answer a debate question rather than 30 seconds. Hooray. Here's two more who should drop out so we can get that number up to a lofty 35.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi continues to piss off China, South Korea, Taiwan and the other half-dozen or so countries subjugated by Japan in World War II. Koizumi has once again visited Yasukuni Shrine, a Shinto homage to Japan's war dead that includes over 1,000 convicted WWII war criminals. In case you don't understand why this is offensive to the Chinese, do yourself a favour and perform a Wikipedia or Google search on "The Rape of Nanking." Or, perhaps, imagine how Western Europe and Israel might feel if leading German politicians regularly paid respects to Hitler, Goerring, Goebbels and the rest of the Nazi leadership, literally enshrined as martyrs in a Berlin church.
Koizumi usually defends his visits to the shrine by saying that he is doing so as a "private citizen," and not as Prime Minister. Frankly, worshipping war criminals is objectionable regardless of whether you do it on state dollars or not. Koizumi is normally a model world leader — he even loves Elvis — and his personal visits to the shrine probably won't cause World War III. But if North Korean madness or Taiwanese independence causes World War III, Koizumi's actions as a "private citizen" will hardly look innocent. And I wonder how he would deal, as both a "private citizen" and Prime Minister, with the millions of dead Japanese, Koreans and Chinese that would result.

Lastly, my friends Amy and Johann are in town. And it looks like we're drinking over here Friday. Anyone up for some Fri/Sat escapades -- Nadine? Neal? Riles? -- should gimme a ring on my "new" cell (War of 1812 cell) or send an email.

再见。

一些加拿大的大学是聪明

This is something many of us at Dalhousie feel has a been coming for a while... and it has been coming for a while....

...but better late than never...

Canadian Univeristies Withdraw from Maclean's Survey

(11 of the 15 Medical/Doctoral Universities are out, including Dal, U of T, UBC, U of O and UdeM... more analysis to come later)

Why don't we do it in the road, er, on my blog?

It's time for some blatant self-promotion. I will soon be starting part-time work for a local journalist/author named John MacIntyre, best known for his column "figuratively speaking," which is syndicated in more than 40 newspapers and magazines in the U.S. and Canada, including the Halifax Herald. My job should involve looking up stats for the column and editing/compiling bits of John's new book series, "The ___ Book of Everything." Do check them both out.

* * *

In other news, here's a bit of an oddity. Shanghai of China fame has decided to build a large theme park dedicated to... a Dane.

Figures forgotten by the selection committee apparently include Sun Yat Sen, the father of modern China; Deng Xiaoping, the father of China's economic renaissance; and Confucius, the founder of much of China's cultural heritage and social philosophy. Further to this, the park will not be dedicated to Sun Tzu, China's most famous military author; nor Mao Zedong, the CCP's longtime Chairman; nor anyone associated with the Communist Party. Nor can we include any of Ancient China's famous literary alumni on the roster: Luo Guanzhong (Romance of the Three Kingdoms), Cao Xueqin (A Dream of Red Mansions) and Wu Cheng'en (Journey to the West).

Nope, no, nadda. Instead, Shanghai is pandering to the tiny, 4-million-person Danish vote by building a USD $12.5 million park dedicated to Pastry author Hans Christian Andersen. You know, the tall, blonde Scandinavian dude who famously wrote "The Ugly Duckling," "The Princess and the Pea," "The Emperor's Clothes" and "The Little Mermaid."

The reason for the park:

[Project developers] said they chose Andersen because of the "impressiveness" of his stories and his "hardworking" background.

Perhaps Chinese officials felt they weren't attracting enough, uh, hardworking Danish tourists? In any case, the park will open by the end of the year. Danes, be sure to bring your kids and get your "impressive" face on. Oh wait. The park is more than 10,000km from your homeland. Uh, sorry about that.

再见。

A Few Thoughts...

-A short one: why, oh why, would people ever complain about having to throw out $35 worth of makeup when the possible alternative is death by incineration at 32,000 feet? If you're flying, you're already part of the rich, white, privileged world. Give it a rest and throw out your makeup already.

-A shorter one: Canada does not need a colour-coded terror level assessment device. In my view, all these crayon step-ladders do is inspire endemic fear and paranoia — precisely what a terrorist wants to inspire if he or she can't produce any dead bodies for CNN. The importance in a terror alert is that the people who work in targeted industries — transportation, government, law enforcement — understand that they should be on guard. I don’t think we need a kaleidoscopic public alarm to make that happen.

-And a long one: my friend Riley Hennessey often tries to convince me that we're in a World War III, of sorts, that has indeterminate sides (although they can be drafted loosely around 'terrorists' and 'the free world') and indeterminate battlegrounds — although yesterday that battleground was most certainly the Western airport.

Until now, I've been fairly resistant to his argument for a few reasons: to me, casting the contemporary world in a "war" with "two sides" seems to be an awfully simplistic lighting scheme, particularly when you think about what's actually going on -- a struggle with an 'ism' that neither has geographic boundaries nor aspires to have them. I may be completely misinterpreting Riley's argument, of course. But I have my reasons for skepticism. For one, a tiny minority of the Islamic civilization, not the whole thing, perpetrates terrorism. For two, if you will, more people die in intra-civilizational strife each year than do in terrorist attacks. In fact, domestic violence in Sub-Saharan African countries and even Latin America's favelas account for the vast majority of the world’s combat deaths. So much for the Clash of Civilizations.

In light of the recent plane explosion bust, however, I’m willing to give Riley’s World War thesis a chance. I've cleared out my ears, put on a new thinking cap, and I've come to the conclusion that we are in war.

And it's "us" against "them."

The problem is I’m not sure if anyone knows precisely what that means.

As Riley has noted, the international community seems to be "mobilizing" against something: there are more books about intrastate/transnational conflict than ever before; there is more talk about personal security than ever before; and there is more money being spent on conflict prevention than ever before.

And so on.

As we mobilize to face Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein or Kim Jong-Il or whomever, though, I am tempted to ask a question whose answer may be absolutely vital to our survival. It is:

Are we doing precisely what the French did in the last World War — mobilizing antiquated technology against a threat that will come from an entirely different direction?

I bring this up only because media coverage of the "foiled" airplane explosion plot seems to be missing a major point: we can never win a war against terrorism simply by foiling plots and killing terrorists. "Terrorism" is not a nation or even a group of people -- it is an idea, just like fascism, communism, capitalism, and commercialism. And, like some of those ideas, it can only really be defeated once it has been discredited to the point where it no longer carries such an appeal that persons, here or there, actually want to become terrorists.

Instead of dealing with governmental models, or financial systems, or the arrangement of the human soul, terrorism instead concerns itself with death, terror, and the achievement of social psychological ends. By this account, a "foiled" terrorism plot isn't necessary an unsuccessful one. After all, such a “foiled plot” puts us in the West on edge, does it not?

Dreams of death in airplanes make us yearn for larger defence budgets. They make us want to increase security, exponentially. They give us brief reprieve when they are foiled, of course -- but they then reminds us that we cannot take afford reprieve while on the terrorism watch.

Yesterday, my TV broadcast images of guns with people attached to them marching around in airports and barking orders at unarmed civilians. I was glad a terrorist plot had been prevented before taking its gruesome course. But the images also reminded me of something more stark than an exploding airplane: the paranoid police state in Orwell's 1984. "Foiled" terrorism plots, you see, may eventually reduce us to a paranoid, security-driven police state if we let them. And it seems like, slowly but surely, we are.

Here's a novelty: we're actually in a war of ideas, not sides. We’re in, as Benjamin Barber once said on the cover a book, a Jihad vs. McWorld; a conflict of the tribal versus the global. The inevitable result of Rosenau's fragmegration — the simultaneous regionalization, decentralization, globalization and centralization of the power structures of global finance, culture, society, and thought — is the need for ideational coexistence.

Some ideas, it seems, do not want to coexist with ours.

Hence our war.

Here's another novelty: has anyone out there bothered to think beyond the barrel of the gun and find out how we can mobilize in a war of ideas? Or how we can even combat an idea that isn’t tied to economic prowess?

If someone has, I certainly haven't heard it spoken loud enough. Ralston Saul, Said, Friedman, Ignatieff; plenty of public intellectuals have explored this territory. But academic exploration and public policy don’t seem to be friends. And at the rate we’re going I get the feeling they’ll both be up shit creek — or on an exploding airplane — before they get a chance to share candy.

The sheer simplicity of the latest plot — 200ml of liquid explosives plus a disposable camera — reminds us that no matter how tight our security, terrorists will finds ways around it. We have two moves available to us: play turtle, protect the King and lock Western society up into a tight little nightmarish dystopia, or take terrorism head on, recognizing it as an idea that, much like fascism, communism and other fanaticisms, must not survive the coming global dawn.

Milleniwhack

Well look at that, I've reached 1,000 visits since June 26, 2006. 太好了！

And now for something completely different。 很好！

Which Programming Language are You?

Only in Japan (日本 vol. 2)

Contemporary Japan is the world's greatest post-modern, post-materialist, post-everything experiment. It houses a society that, even by its own Confucian standards, is both sane and insane at once; a country where if the subway runs late, you are given an excuse form to take to your employer so you won't get in trouble; a country where countless plasma screens, neon lights, and concrete high-rises overlap with the most ultimate of minimalisms: Sushi, Zen, austere interior design and, the penultimate, Japanese etiquette.

A lot goes unspoken in Japan, but very little goes unseen. Trains run on time but are often delayed by earthquakes; salesmen are honest but never charge less than a mint; anything can be bought out of a vending machine, including sex; and almost everything harkens to the future in some way.

And what a bizarre, multi-coloured future it is.

The latest from the land of the rising sun:

Rail companies in Tokyo are handing out badges to pregnant women in the hope they prompt commuters to give up their seats on the capital's crowded trains.

The badges come in pink and blue and have the words "There is a baby in my stomach" printed on them.

... versus, say, the esophagus, liver, or kidney, of course — though I wouldn't be surprised if Tokyoites presume that the badges are simply a new way for police to combat recent waves of Asian crazed baby-eating cannibalism. I can see the ungrammatical Engrish logo now: Eat a baby, get rabelled!.

ありがとう!

Ever wonder...

... what others in the LaRoche clan look like? Well, it's a large clan (my great-grandfather Georges had 16 kids). So the answer is: collectively, the hundred-or-so of us look like pretty much anything and anyone you can imagine. Individually, of course, we're unique.

One of those uniques, my always -enthusiastic uncle François, set up this dandy of a page, chroncling the LaRoche history (back to 1646, might I add), complete with recent pictures of the family reunion, a small thumbnail profile of my sister (among others), and a slideshow of my grandparents (whom both passed away, sadly, before I was 10, and whom apparently looked like 1950s movie stars). The site is also a good way to brush up on your French!

Ancêtre français: Innocent

Naissance :1646

Lieu : St-Martin, arr. de Montmorency, Val d’Oise (nord de Paris), France

Enjoy. (And make sure to check out Nadine's mug at the 'Blogue').

Confessions of a Mildly Amused Mind

In an attempt to keep this blog updated at least more than once a week, I've decided to make a small post about my life. Drum roll: here's a small post about my life.

First, it's that time of year again... 24-hour, coffee-machine-in-room essay writing crunch time. Previous to now I was under the sincere impression that this sort of last-minute keyboard/thinking nonsense would be over since I am no longer in any classes. Not so. Between now and August 15, in fact, I have to write some 60 pages of IR goodness. I say "August 15" because that's the date I've randomly chosen for myself — neither of my supervisors have responded to my emails in a month. Dr. Harvey, Dr. Davis, if either of you are reading this, please email me. Soon. I am going to suffer a horrible graduate student demise. And I am too young to die.

Righto... second, has anyone noticed that the CBC, after doing some really stupid things, has totally redeemed itself by playing some of the best movies ever* at all sorts of odd hours? Today the venerable network broadcasted Head of State with Chris Rock. It sucked, of course, but not as much as the usual odd-hour Canadian fare. Other movies they've put up on the colourful tube include Godzilla (see this post), Old School, Jaws, Master and Commander... the list goes on. Kudos to the CBC; they've improved my summer. And even though the decision to air American movies on what is essentially Canada's national "Cancon" fortress comes as a bit of a sell-out, it's not like the CBC had much soul left to sign away anyway. Especially after the George Stroumboulopoulos/The One fiasco.

Third, as some of you know, I am a complete Buffy the Vampire Slayer freak and, in general, a bit of a vampire cinéfile. Buffy is both a retarded show (awful special effects, idiotic plotlines, and an obvious casting-choice pander to the opposite sex) and a very intelligent one, sort of like The Simpsons (obscure pop culture references, non-obscure pop culture reference, curious spoofs and lots of horror-genre satire... plus, the eye candy helps).

So it's no surprise that I've been watching Spike TV's new series Blade. The Blade movies weren't super, and, at first glance, neither is the show. The actor chosen to play Blade is not Wesley Snipes (he turned down the offer), nor is he much of an actor. Thankfully, the script only really calls for him to sneer and beat people up — but neither of which make for a very good show.

So why am I still watching?

Blade has none of the tongue-in-cheek quirkiness of BtVS, none of its panache, and takes itself very seriously. But the non-Blade characters are actually quite entertaining, ranging from Marcus, a snobby vampire overlord from Britain who is now stationed in shit-tastic Detroit and is determined to kill Blade; to Krista (played by Jill Wagner), a newly 'sired' babe vamp working for Marcus but giving his secrets to Blade on the side, probably because Marcus is repulsive (think Frasier's effeminate brother turned into testy vamp CEO); to Chase, Marcus' right-hand woman, a blonde British femme fatale-type who is jealous of Krista and quite obviously wants to jump Marcus' blood-sucking bones. And by 'entertaining' I mean in the soap-opera, laugh-at-it-from-the-outside sort of 'entertaining'. Immortals, it seems, are usually rather depressed, probably because they must spend eternity wandering around gloomy night cityscapes looking for junkie blood (presume you need blood for a moment; would you suck it out of an STD-ridden drug addict? Yikes...). Like Interview with the Vampire, it's trashy, fun, and occassionally brilliant. Kudos to Spike TV. My VCR is set.

(Plus, the eye candy helps.)

;)

再见。

*by "best movies ever" I mean in a loosey-goosey, beer-drinkin', popcorn-eatin' "Top Gun, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Highlander are the best movies ever" kind of sense... not the more respectable 'real art' "Citizen Kane, Schindler's List and Lawrence of Arabia are the best movies ever" sense, which, of course, would be a vastly more commendable and becoming-of-me choice, but also a hell of a lot less entertaining one... and who in his or her right mind would take an old, dying Orson Welles having fits about a giant crummy mansion over a half-naked Tom Cruise putting the sausage in his superior officer while 'Take My Breath Away' pulses its synthy goodness in the background? No one. Unless you're stupid. Or a heterosexual male, I suppose. I always did have more of a thing for Goose, though, so I think I'm OK. Really. Ashlee Simpson is kinda hot. Except for the nose job. But then, when was the last time you made out with a nose?

Only in Japan...

In an attempt to fix my sleeping schedule so that I wake up sometime before 3:00 p.m., I've decided to stay up all night, collect a few news items, and share my thoughts; my vapid, pre-morning-delirium imaginations.

Enjoy!

The Power of Regionalism, er...
First up to bat, it seems Prime Minister Harper has been losing ground in Québec over, among other things, his alleged pro-Israel attitude. Although I'm not very trusting of polls — and even less trusting of CTV — this hardly surprises me, especially considering Harper's ability to pick up seats in Québec was built on the strength of what, one key issue? Regionalism? Distaste for Liberal blood and/or Adscam dollars?

(Or so we are told to think...)

The belief in the power of Adscam to make people vote blue only continues to amaze, surprise, and disquiet me. If, by 'Adscam', we actually mean 'general disgust with the fat, bloated federal Liberal party', that is.

There are some truths here, and let's be honest. A latté-sipping Habitant Mr. Harper is not. Same-sex marriage? Social welfare? Les Sepératistes? By some accounts, disenfranchised Liberal voters were more likely to vote Green in 2006 than Conservative. And what a great and uniquely Canadian misfortune it was to behold the Liberal party losing seats in Québec because it tried too hard to include Québec in the Grand Liberal Canadian dream.

But they didn't, and Harper rightly looked more like a reasonable alternative to the Big Red Machine than anything 'scary'. So Québecois voted for him in droves, and thus here we are with another misfortune on our bloody federal hands. A poll that says that Québec voters thrive on Ottawa's calamities; a poll that says that while disgust over the sponsorship scandal helped deliver Québec to Harper, Adscam's reduced profile is now delivering Harper to Québec. And by that I mean the "real" Harper — the one that supposedly isn't in tune with Québec's left-wing social and political agendas. Wither Lebanon. And wither Harper's elusive majority.

*cough*

The real meaning of this poll, if it is at all true, should be clear and present. Québecois don't see a political alternative to the Liberals in separation. They chose Harper over Duceppe by a fair margin, and they chose either over the Liberals by a landslide. There is room for a centrist party in Québec — Harper is a slight mismatch for Québec's left-wing social and political views. But who, WHO, will step in?

(This is rhetorical. On an aside, am I the only one who is reminded of something vaguely incestuous when I see Harper getting cozy with Quebec's premier? (Having just seen Superman Returns, I cannot resist: it's a Liberal — it's a Conservative — no, no, it's just an obese Jean Charest. *cough*)


Wikipedia is a legitimate source of information... so says CP. Uh, WTF?
Second up is the Canadian Press's use of Wikipedia as a source for Liberal leadership tallies. I have written on this blog and elsewhere that I think Wikipedia is a novel idea and well worth checking out when it comes to researching general information and imprecise overviews of fairly well-known subjects.

(When it comes to all else, check the sources).

I never thought, however, that I would see Wikipedia being sourced in a major news story written by a major news organization, especially in regards to specific information compiled about one of the least-known subjects on earth: Liberal Party of Canada politics. But when it comes to the Liberal race, Wikipedia is actually none too ill-suited. It is comprehensive (there are 12 candidates), can be updated on the fly (CPAC, though it is a 24-hours news channel, really only broadcasts new content for 6 of them), and is subject to vigorous VSOP debating which, we all know, means that Volpé-donating children of bodom — er, internet users — won't be able to troll all that effectively.

(Yes, I strongly support condemning Volpé and his cadre to the underbelly of a decrepit bridge, where, lacking both the organizational skills needed to escape their watery prison and the cognitive diarrhea necessary to decipher Joe's third-person ranting, the Volpé team will be unable to further harm to the Canadian public beyond scaring passers-by into dropping their wallets and screaming at the ghastly, cavernous landscape that is Volpé's mug.)

The exact quote:

A rough gauge of ex-officio support can be gleaned from Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, which is keeping tabs on the public endorsements received by each of the 11 leadership contenders.

Makes you wish CTV would compile a report in which the "real, non-free" media would "keep tabs" on things such as "democracy," "freedom," or, perhaps, "the Liberal purse."

I will Frog your Piano into submission!
Last up is this little gem from BBC.com. I knew Condi Rice could speak four languages, used to be the provost at Stanford U, and is generally regarded as an expert on Russian politics — but piano virtuoso? She's outdone herself. No, wait, the Japanese outdid herself. Er, themselves. Er...

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso sported an overcoat and hat to perform in a sketch featuring cartoon characters such as giant frogs, a Power Ranger and a mutant lobster.

Wondering about Canada?

The Canadians put on football outfits and mocked up a Canada-Asean football match, which ended in a Zidane-style head butt and a red card.

Right, here's a great idea folks: we've been invited to a meeting organized by our soon-to-be-most-important-allies and one of the key economic and political regions of the world... to show our thanks, let's all dress up in jerseys and Zidane those Asian bastards into submission!!!

...let's also hope this doesn't reflect actual policies coming down the tube...

The Chinese group formed a choir and sang a song, while the Russians performed a sketch in which Asean became the world's only superpower.

Uh, scratch that last one. ;)

再见。