Bootwhistle
Yawn, kind of tired today. Some idiots went around campus pulling fire alarms so had to evacuate building at 2 am, the fire department was pretty annoyed and we had to wait about an hour before going back to our rooms. If those idiots are caught by any of the residents I'm sure they would get the crap kicked out of them then stuffed down their throats and kicked out again. Also I hear they might be expelled... personally I like the crap kicking better.
There is so much that is just too incredibly stupid in the world that its hard to figure out what pisses me off more. From the list of 'Greatest Canadians' , the French ban on religious symbols, US election (or just US in general), the lemon submarines, kidnappings in Iraq, the British, and latest the flu vaccine shortage (insert scream of horrow).
Honestly this probably makes the least sense to me (though that doesn't say too much), why is this such a big deal? According to news reports, there are people from the States panicing and racing across the border to buy the flu shot from Canadian pharmacies, are people really sitting around fearing the flu and paralyzed with fear that they will be stricken down by this yearly plague if they don't get the shot? Well, maybe for old people who have to worry about lower imune systems but the average person really shouldn't have to worry. Unfortunately the Americans are so used to living in fear that any threat "real or imagined" is blown out of proportion and causes a group stupidity - the same thing that led people to duct tape their hopes and stock up with supplies for the "Y2K".
I think the main factor behind this is a dangerous combination of ignorance and an aversion to questioning assumptions. Ignorance in itself isn't too bad since if you have ask questions one eventually learns more about a situation. The average american is practically dumb as a stump when it comes to seeing what's going around them and when something bad happens they just listen to the loudest idiot on a soapbox and accept their counsel. I'm beginning to wonder if people are really deserving of democracy, honestly the system only works if people are informed and engaged with issues and concerned about more than sports and their own lives. Actually that's a good idea for a thesis... Democracy the way to choose a kingly successor (president)amoung the royalty (upper-class society), and maybe that isn't really a bad thing, actually its worse than a real monarchy since the elected monarch has to pay attetion to the drivel of idiots (public) who don't their ass from their elbow... well I may not be giving the masses enough credit, but honestly they haven't earned any.

Bootwhistle

Head scarf ban in France damn those Frenchies
Troops from britain to Iraq -elections
Bush - off target yet firm.
Martin - is he alive?
Don Cherry - Greatest Canadian top 10? WTF!
Kerry - Lesser of two evils?

Bootwhistle
Midterms are piling up, but the weather is nice. Uhm, getting back to important matters - there is actually a lot to complain about today. My fist beef is with the "Greatest Canadian" contest/poll run by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), while a lot of the people deserve the honor I'm a little confused by the order. On is that Avril Lavigne is 48 and Rick Mercer is #50. I don't feel like explaining who either of them is at the moment (I might edit later), well simply Lavigne-pop singer, Mercer-Political Satirist. Maybe this goes to what the definition of Greatest Canadian should be... seriously I believe that a great Canadian is someone who enhances Canadian culture (I wonder if that's an oxymoron) or lets say makes us think about our Country. While Avril is popular (actually not so much anymore) she is more a part of the american music industry than a reflection of Canada. Now Rick Mercer is an experct at taking accurate and hilarious jabs at the Countries political leaders and questioning the events in our Country (kind of like Daily show with more satire less shtick), when he started a petition to have Stockwell Day legally change his name to Doris Day.. that was priceless (the petition has the required number of applicants but for some reason Day didn't comply). So from my perspective something is really wrong with that list... the problem is popularity does not equate to greatness.

Bootwhistle
Well its been a few days (15) since my last post, though I did try a week ago but the 'special' computers at campus ate my blog entry. Actually it isn't too bad living without a home computer.. the only downside I suppose is that you can't look at internet porn (just kidding... maybe). Anyway there has been quite a lot stuff in the news, probably the most relevant to Canada is the fire on the 'new' submarine we bought from England. The fire resulted in the death of a crewmember and injured several others, and this was equivalent to take a new car from the lot to drive home and it exploding before you get two blocks away. As I recall there have been quite a few problems with these submarines, even a couple of years ago they found a phonebook size dent in one of the hulls which meant that it could go very far under water without risking the hull buckling. Actually now that I think about it Why in gods name does Canada need a submarine? Sure, it can be used to capture the odd drunken fisherman or to start another war with Spain over turbots (some kind of flat fish, eh). When they were first built submarines main purpose was to destroy ships... then we got the fancy nuclear missile subs the 'moving silos'. I seem to have lost my point... so to conclud we should just sell the subs to West Edmonton Mall, and use the money to build a big slingshot off Newfoundland.

Bootwhistle
I actually did blog before this but unfortunately (or fortunately as the blog was extremely incoherent) it was obliterated by the marvel of technology. There hasn't been a lot to talk about in Canadian politics that I noticed, though honestly compared the fun the americans are having politics here seems pretty boring. Seriously while I abhor the thought,having a prime minister that would single handedly decide to invade other countries for resources would be a lot to talk about er aboot. I've comes to terms with it though, so Canadian politicians aren't exactly up to the world threatening level of the US but some of them can be just as entertaining. Probably the most entertaining would have been Pierre Trudeau, in all the clips from that era, he seemed to have an aura of self confidence and arrogance that was hard to ignore... but when you think about it Ol' George kind of has the same image. Granted Trudeau could run intellectual circles around Bush, but the same charisma is there.
Hmm, its been known that Trudeau got around quite a bit... hmm, naw, though you never know... eh.