Idiocy: Government, opposition and media

What a scoop. The drive-home CBC radio newscasts in Nova Scotia yesterday led with a story on the Conservative government's announcement of an expanded pharmacare program. The story went something like this: the NDP says that according to government briefing notes, the program is being paid for by raiding daycare money. The premier responds that he doesn't want to ruin a good news story by worrying about where the money is coming from -- that's not what's important to the children of this province (the ones receiving pharmacare, presumably, as opposed to the ones needing daycare).

Finally, the story ends with the revelation that the government briefing notes were incorrect to begin with. In other words, no story here. Well, that's a bit embarrassing. I figured the story would last one newscast. But no. This morning the CBC radio news is still leading with it! And it gets good play on the website. (You know, for more information, visit our website -- which carries the same word-for-word reports as the radio.)

(The oh by-the-way story tacked on at the end of the newscast is that Iran is going to ignore the latest Security Council deadline.)

May spawns painful headlines

Long-time Sierra Club of Canada executive director Elizabeth May (who needs to update her website) has won the leadership of the Green Party of Canada, spawning one God-awful headline after another:

May's Day
May Day in August for Green Party
May Goes Green
Green Party is Entering Its Elizabethan Age
Green Party Turns Over New Leaf

and, my poetic favourite:
May's Faith Grows Ever Green

Bye-bye

I'm away from the computer for a week or so. See you when I'm back.

Spinning discs

Does every aging musician dream of being a radio dj?

Gotta love them academics

Two cases of academics who are trying to talk to a general public, but probably shouldn't be.

The local CBC Radio midday phone-in yesterday was on how couples divide up the household chores. The guests were three sociologists. I guess the conversation was just too accessible for one of them, because after some talk about who does what in the home, she interjected with (I'm paraphrasing): "But I think, as sociologists, we should be discussing the structural nature of negotiations."

Now there's someone with a talent for connecting with the little guy -- and exciting the interests of potential callers too, I'm sure.

Case #2 is from the September issue of Harper's Magazine. German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk holds forth on the World Cup. I've only ever encountered very few philosophers who can say anything original and non-pretentious about sports. This guy isn't one of them. He watches soccer as "a man interested in the archaeology of manliness." He has the wildly original thought that sports offers an outlet for men, whose hunter instincts have been suppressed for the last 7,000 years. And, as for soccer itself, "There is no other game in which our old proto-artillery feeling of hunt success can be so clearly imitated."

What? Has Peter Sloterdijk ever seen another game? American (or Canadian) football, say? Or hockey? Or Australian Rules Football? If you're looking for a sports equivalent to "strik[ing] prey with a ballistic object" I'd say firing a hockey puck comes a lot closer to it than anything you could do on a soccer field.

Biting the hand that blogs you

Is Google taking a page from the dreaded Microsoft's book? You know, the one that says your clients should do everything -- all the time -- with you?

I finally signed up for a Gmail account. I'd resisted until now, because I don't really need a Gmail account. But then I wanted to use the Picasa web albums feature, and the calendar program was pretty handy, and before I know it I'm signed in as soon as Firefox opens up, by default.

Well that's all fine until I try to use Blogger and my usual sign-in name is gone, replaced with my Gmail address. Blogger wants me to sign in using my Gmail account, which means I now have to rummage around to find my original username and password, since my browser is no longer remembering them for me (having been hijacked by the good folks at Google). Blogging is pretty easy, of course, but now it involves an extra -- and unwanted -- step. Thanks Google. Let's hope this isn't the start of a very ugly trend.

Let a museum smash up your art

Paris's renowned Centre Georges Pompidou -- one of the world's premiere contemporary and modern art destinations -- saw three works of art in a recent show fall from its walls. Two were smashed to bits, and a third damaged.

The museum has a great excuse for this. According to the LA Times:

"It's not our guilt," Catherine Grenier, who curated the show for the Pompidou, said from her Paris home. "For me, it's not a coincidence. These two works were made of the same materials, and made in the same period. And both were incredibly fragile."

Well naturally. A museum can't be expected to make sure fragile items don't fall off the walls. It must be the fault of the artists!

Full story here.

In a snit over Kate

What's with the otherwise excellent Tod Maffin getting his knickers in a knot at his Inside the CBC blog over the way the Globe and Mail -- and particularly Kate Taylor -- have been covering the state of the CBC?

Yes, the Globe is owned by Bell Globemedia, which also owns CTV. But to imply that Taylor's writing critically about the CBC because her paper's parent company owns a competing network strikes me as a bit ridiculous, and more than a bit sophomoric. Taylor is a savvy observer and strong supporter of Canadian culture. When I was editing Canadian Screenwriter magazine, I loved her; she was one of the few mainstream Canadian media voices who got it -- that Canadian film and television are important and need support.

And if Taylor and the Globe are going to come in for heavy criticism over their picking over the CBC and running repeated stories on the cancellation of the reality TV fiasco The One, then why not attack Antonia Zerbisias, over at the Toronto Star, whose most recent blog post on the CBC ends with the words "More fuel for its funeral pyre."

Last I checked, Torstar didn't own any competing TV properties.

Staying on message

Are Church leaders stupid? Or, how stupid can they be?

From the Associated Press:

"Madonna's plans to crucify herself on a mirrored cross during a Sunday concert in Rome have drawn fire from religious leaders.

The prospect of the scene taking place at the concert in Rome's Olympic stadium, some three kilometres from the Vatican, prompted Catholic officials to denounce the act as a publicity stunt in bad taste."

I'd like to have been in on the meeting where they discussed their public response: "It's a publicity stunt -- so let's walk right into it, denounce it, and give her more publicity."

I'm also curious about the significance of the proximity to the Vatican. Does the crucifixion become in better taste the farther Madonna gets from the Vatican? What if she's far from the Vatican but near another religious centre? Is the point of least bad taste midway between Rome and Salt Lake City?

Afghanistan is the new Nicaragua

I'm not talking about politics -- I'm talking pronunciation.

If you remember when the Sandinistas were the cause du jour, then you'll remember how it was de rigueur to pronounce Latin American names as though you were a native Spanish speaker. It started with activists, but quickly spread to the media. So it wasn't the imperialist pronunciation Nicaragua anymore, it was Nee-ka-ra-hua.

Have you noticed the same thing happening with Afghanistan? The vowel sounds have been getting longer, and the gh sound softer.

You could say it's better to pronounce place names the way the locals pronounce them. OK then. I'm hoping to get off to Ellatha next year, and if we fly to London, maybe we'll visit Tywysogaeth Cymru first. It would also be fun to go over land, maybe stopping off in Deutschland and Italia on the way.

Yeah, that'll make the language a lot more comprehensible.

A harmless little hobby.

William Lyttle, 75, has been forced out of his home in Hackney, a borough of London, poor man. You see, he's spent much of the last 40 years digging tunnels under the place, and now the local council is worried that it could collapse, taking part of the street with it. Apparently, he also has stuffed the house full of all kinds of old junk, including many fridges and beds.

Link here.

Very interesting little post here on the word hackney. Same word serves for both trite and unoriginal (hackneyed) and a taxi (hack).

Separated at birth?

Mel Gibson












Saddam Hussein












Only Mel looks a bit crazier.