What's Wrong with Stephen Harper?

Why is Harper acting so strange?

My guess is that he has Tom Cruise Disease (previously reported by the Secretary of Snark).

Playing Nasty Tricks on Harper

This is hilarious.

Bwuh?

The commentary rather writes itself, doesn't it?

(I do wonder, though, when Scott Brison made the transition from opposing same-sex marriages during his bid for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party to calling it a matter of "human rights and equality" today.)

Rock and Roll Will Save the World

...When the government sends a fact-finding mission somewhere in the world, there's probably a good reason they don't send a delegation of rock stars.

Bono, 29 September 2004.

Yet, the big thing this summer in the entertainment world will be the series of Live 8 concerts. These concerts, aimed at reducing poverty in Africa, will be held on July 2nd in the world-class metropolises of London, Paris, Tokyo, Berlin, Rome, and Barrie, Ontario. As Bob Geldof, Live 8 organizer, explains,

Obligatory Smug Canadian Post

Everything you need to know about American politics:

1. Karl Rove proudly states, that in contrast to them liberal hippies, conservatives ain't seekin' to understand America's en'mies

2. The Democrats immediately repudiate Rove's remarks, and assert that they're just as interested in not understanding the Middle East as the Republicans are

So Katie Holmes is now marrying a historian

Psychiatry is a pseudoscience... you don't know the history of psychiatry. I do.

Tom Cruise, explaining why he does not believe in anti-depressant drugs or therapy of any kind.

A Straightforward Question Destined to Remain Unanswered

This post was supposed to have been made a couple of days ago, back before Liberal skullduggery made the question in question largely irrelevant, but this House was experiencing technical difficulties. However, I've never been one to shut up just because what I have to say no longer matters.

Giventhat the Bloc Québécois wishes to bring down the government and is willing to bring its full caucus to confidence votes to that end;

Given that David Kilgour and Pat O'Brien wish to bring down the government (the latter having been discovered by the general public and are willing to show up for confidence votes to this end;

Given that the total number of Bloc Québécois, Conservative, and anti-government independent MPs is 154;

Given that no motion against which 154 MPs vote can possibly pass;

Given that there will be a significant number of confidence votes coming before Parliament during the next several months;

And given that the Conservatives have repeatedly indicated that
i. there is sufficient information available to conclude that the Liberals are too corrupt to be permitted to govern and that they (the Conservatives) are prepared to form a government;

Why won't the Conservatives bring down the government?

A Very Bad Idea

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In response to Ms. Stronach's decision to cross the floor (a decision whose merits or lack thereof have been much debated in this house and elsewhere), the Member for Simcoe-Grey and the Member for Elgin-Middlesex-London have submitted Bill C-408.

This Bill is intended to require floor-crossers to submit to a by-election such that voters have the opportunity to approve or reject the individual's new party affiliation. This is stupid, obviously, since under the parliamentary system voters elect people, not parties (and we should all, Mr. Speaker, be most thankful for *that*).

But it also leads to some interesting implications, not the least of which is the fact that, if this Bill were to pass, party leaders, through their effective power to remove Members from parties, would develop the capacity to force any of "their" MPs to contest by-elections. The ability of MPs to defy party leadership on points of principle and in the service of their constituents would be all but lost. Even for those misguided souls who view the party system as the best and most effective route to democracy, this Bill is bad news: the internal debate and ferment which party advocates claim leads to parties being effective vehicles of change would be badly stifled.

It doesn't stop there, though. As Mustafa pointed out to me, employing his stories ability to detect the absurd in any piece of proposed policy, what happens if parties merge? We would, it seems to me, have seen a rather spectacular series of by-elections during the last Parliament after each Member of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservatives was forced to justify before the voters of his/her riding her/his decision to sit as a member of the new Conservative Party (or, in some cases, as a Liberal or Independent). In fact, such a possibility would inevitably serve to discourage party mergers.

This Bill, Mr. Speaker, proposes to retain and emphasize the many weaknesses of the party system, while abandoning its few strengths.

Infected!

As Mandos has previously noted, there is a plague spreading the internet known alternately as "book tag" or "book meme." Despite my best efforts to quarantine this blog, Rachel, David Johnson, and William McBeath have all managed to infect us. One day, they will all pay dearly. But not right now.

Stick to throwing footballs, Mr. Harper

It appears that the Conservatives were willing to allow quick passage of the budget in exchange for extending the time on same-sex marriage legislation. It's nice to see that the Boys in Blue stand on principle, as opposed to those power-hungry Liberals.

Target Practice

Mr. Speaker, when the alien invasion comes, the House can rest assured that I, for one, will welcome our new alien overlords.

Monte Python? Not Quite

Instead of calling the police they thought they would punish Gurmant by putting him in cabinet, and they may have a point there. They could put him on the Cabinet Treasury Board Committee (the one Paul never went to) with the world's smartest man, Reg Alcock. It wouldn't take long before Gurmant would throw himself off the Peace Tower.

It's posts like this (Grewal and Unusual Punishment) that make Monte's blog so entertaining to read, Mme. Speaker, but I would ask the Prime Minister whether he has any comment on the (no doubt!) scurrilous allegation that Liberals killed the Conservative star (hat tip: William). This may be Question Period, Mme. Speaker, but this side of the House wants answers.

Pleased to meet you, ma'am

As Roman mentioned, Her Royal Highness recently visited Edmonton, the city of festivals, champions, and Points-of-Information staff members.

Regretfully, I missed all that -- which was a definite bummer. By stroke of fortune, though, Her Majesty decided to visit POI's branch office here in England. It was fun times as part of the sycophant masses, and I have the photos to prove it:

Yes, as part of the fawning multitudes, it was a little cheesy. But, Mr. Speaker, I'm all about the cheese. Good times.

2 Questions on the PPC to Intel Switch

1. What is Apple's opinion on stepping back from a 64 bit process to a 32 bit processor?
2. Considering Apple's obsession with the 128 bit velocity engine on PPC processors, how is it going to defend losing the velocity engine to all those Photoshop users?

All in all, I'm surprised Apple is going with the Pentium line instead of a 64 bit processor from Intel. I don't think this will be the disaster that some people are claiming it will be.

Another Switcher

And it's official: Apple is switching to Intel. More details to come from our correspondent in San Francisco.

Update: They'll be shipping Intel systems next year, with the transition complete by the end of 2007. (Mme. Speaker, I move that this House recognize SMS as being a wonderful invention.)

Update Prime: "All versions of OS X have all been compiled on Intel. He's demo[ing] a P4 right now."

Monogamy is shortlived in the world of politics

It appears that Liberal Pat O'Brien is leaving the party to sit as an Independent in the House of Commons. Like Belinda, he disagrees with his former party's stance on gay marriage. Like Belinda, he goes against previous statements of commitment to his party. And like Belinda, he is now in a position of greater power than he was previously. Should he be glorified as a principled hero simply because he has chosen to sit as an Independent, an Independent whose vote matters more than a cabinet minister's these days? His constituents, who desired a Liberal as their representative, will ultimately decide.

Mystery Revealed

Mme. Speaker, I'd like to rise to inform the House that all has become clear: Apple has announced that Pat O'Brien will be their sole source of CPUs, replacing Motorola and IBM; meanwhile, the voters of London-Fanshawe welcome Steve Jobs as their new MP and pledge fealty to Cupertino.

Or perhaps all has not become clear, Mme. Speaker. Perhaps Mr. Jobs' address to his fiefdom will explain.

Update: as it turns out, there's no wireless at the Keynote; our update from San Francisco will have to wait.

A Question Of Architecture

Mme. Speaker, there's lately been much controversy, including some in other Houses, concerning the question of Apple's perhaps moving from IBM's PowerPC architecture to one of Intel's architectures, most likely the Itanium.

While it strikes me as entirely plausible that Mr. Jobs would, in a fit of pique, convert Apple wholesale, I remain unconvinced that this is in fact what will be announced to-morrow. As an aside, Mme. Speaker, this House has one of its Members in San Francisco, and we hope to have reports of the Mr. Jobs' speech as it occurs.

Mme. Speaker, I suspect one of two things to happen: either Mr. Jobs will announce that Apple will be using Intel's chips in a new product — by which I mean not a replacement for one of Apple's current computers, but perhaps a Tablet or a video iPod, or second, that Intel will have licensed the PowerPC architecture from IBM and be producing PowerPCs for Apple.

This second prospect, I judge, is rather more likely, given IBM's licensing of the PowerPC architecture as a core. This would give, Mme. Speaker, Apple the best of all worlds: they would have three suppliers (the-spinoff-formerly-known-as Motorola for the low-end G4s, and then IBM and Intel for G5s) providing security of supply and competition amongst each other; there would be no need for a Great Recompilation (although, to be fair, given that XCode is built from GCC, it would not be especially difficult to build both PPC and x86 variants of each program simultaneously); and they would get the benefit of Intel's expertise in mobile processor design and experience with high clock speeds.

Mme. Speaker, this side of the House waits with bated breath for news of what is to come.

Eye yam

Mr. Speaker, I would like to disabuse the Honourable Member for Mustafa Hirji of the notion that I am not an Albertan. In fact, I am---I have the papers to prove it. Of course, there's the trivial detail that I have lived the majority of my life in Ontario (where I no longer live, by the way). But I remember Alberta and have visited it periodically to see relatives. So you can include me as an Albertan, albeit perhaps a wayward one.

Anyway, I will soon submit a membership application to the Ontario Blogs as well. Actually, I should start a group for expat Canadians. I know at least a handful of blogs that qualify including mine.

An Outpost for Change and Progress in Alberta

Mr. Speaker,

Excepting Mandos, we are all proud Albertans who wish that through blogging that we may bring positive change and progress to this province of Canada in its centennial year. In pursuit of this, it should please the House to learn that we have applied for membership as an official Alberta Blog.

UPDATE: Mandos corrects my ignorace of his Albertan birth.