24 August 2007

Friday Soundbites

The federal surplus for the last quarter is large enough to support several billion-dollar boondoggles. I'll give this government some credit: while it has been pathetic in demonstrating its support and commitment to Afghanistan and very lax on a number of other issues, they've been top-notch at avoiding fiscal mismanagement. That said, since this is a conservative Conservative government, when can we expect the tax cuts?

Michael Ware, CNN Correspondent, gave a brutally bleak assessment of the prospects of the Iraqi government under Nouri al-Maliki. This is clearly not what anybody had in mind when they talked about replacing Saddam with a democratic government in Iraq. I've even heard that there's some generals who favour putting in, on a temporary basis, some sort of strongman to guide Iraq. The problem with strongmen--inter alia--is that they don't tend to accept the "temporary" part of their designation.

One of Andrea Dworkin's most famous statements was that all she really wanted from men was a 24-hour truce in which men didn't rape any women. The news this afternoon alone demonstrates that men have no desire to agree to such a break in hostilities, and that some will just stand around and watch while a man sexually assaults a woman. And others, of course, will put it up on YouTube. (OK the YouTube part isn't actually from today...rather, it hasn't been reported today)

Thumbs up to the Ontario government for listening to the wishes of regular people who wanted to have a section of Hwy 401 renamed the "Highway of Heroes" in honour of Canadian Forces members who were killed in Afghanistan, and travel that stretch of road after leaving CFB Trenton. It's a class move.

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