Flit

A couple things that need saying

(Post to be edited as I think of addenda.)

Before I wander off (see post above), a couple things that need saying.

Americans, seriously, if you don't elect Obama this fall your country will deserve the worst that history's luck can offer. He's the kind of leader that comes along maybe once in a generation. You may not agree with every position in his platform, and he would have to be superhuman to live up to the promise he's displayed, but sometimes you really need to opt for the man of the times over regular human mediocrity. This is that moment.

If Governor-General Jean were to go all King-Byng and ask Dion-Layton to form a government should the PM pull the plug this week, rather than put Canadians into yet another unwanted election, I would personally have no problem with that.

Aug. 29 update: The Palin VP pick may only demonstrate once again the fundamental contempt the Republican Party holds the average American voter in (the "look at all the stupid people falling for a celebrity" attack line being heretofore the most obvious exemplar) but all it does for me is remind me of that classic 1980s Doonesbury punchline on the occasion of a previous VP pick, "It's, it's an Irish setter... no, it's Senator Dan Quayle!" Remembering of course that it was none other than John McCain himself who said on the occasion of the Quayle pick, "I can't believe a guy that handsome wouldn't have some impact." Second time as farce, etc.

Aug. 30: I want to live in a Canada that includes both Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn, regardless of what they might say about Muslims, and hell, even the Rev. Stephen Boissoin, too. I demand the freedom to read, if I choose, whatever hateful words people wish to write, on any subject. I reject all efforts by our non-elected "human rights commissions" to limit Canadians' fundamental right of free speech. Whatever other mediating influence they might wish to exert on our society, in the area of work grievances, etc., speech choice cannot ever be the realm of the censorcrats in a free society.

(As an perhaps unnecessary addendum to the above, I do support those self-regulating industry efforts, such as the MPAA's, to label potentially offensive content, when aimed at the average consumer. People have a right to know whether a movie will give their kids nightmares before they take them, or a computer game will mess with their heads before they view it. Description is not censorship. Neither, for that matter, is the withdrawal of government funding from art that voters might find distasteful. But I digress.)