Saturday, October 14, 2006

Random Thoughts on a Chilly Night

This week saw the first big snowstorm of the season in southern Ontario. At one point, over 300,000 people were living without electricity in the Niagara region of Ontario and New York. We had some brief flurries where I live, but nothing too bad.

Today is the 940th anniversary of the battle of Hastings. It's hard to believe that it has been nearly an entire millennium since the Normans successfully invaded England. It doesn't seem more than 800 years!

There is yet another scandal in the United States involving a Republican congressman. I can't wait to learn how the Democrats are behind this one.

Two more Canadian soldiers died in the line of duty in Afghanistan. They were building a road when they were ambushed by Taliban fighters. Ironically enough, many Canadians clamour for our forces to move from a combat to a provincial reconstruction role which involves building roads and schools and hospitals.

A recent poll has identified Bob Rae as the most popular candidate for the Liberal Party leadership. I know a lot of Ontarians still have bad feelings about his time in office and I wonder what impact that would have in a federal election. Perhaps the Conservatives would finally get their big breakthrough in Ontario.


The Edmonton Eskimos have failed to make the playoffs for the first time in 34 years, ending a North American professional sports record. This sounds really impressive until you realize that the CFL is so small that even teams with losing records have made it to the finals in the past.

A candidate claiming to be a "drunken pirate" is running for Congress in the United States. I know he is trying to prove a point, but I can't help but think that this is just another blow to the whole democractic process. Democracy is too important and under too much fire for people to be running gag campaigns. Sure, it may sound "cool" to vote for a drunken pirate or a rhinoceros or a monster raving looney, but a vote wasted on a parody candidate is a vote wasted.

I spent part of the evening watching Weird Al Yankovich videos on YouTube. I am simultaneously impressed with his wit and talent and chagrined by the fact that I will never get the time that I wasted back again.

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