Monthly Archives: December 2008
22 December 1808
Two hundred years ago, according to Wikipedia’s front page:
1808 – German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (pictured) premiered his Fifth Symphony, currently one of the most popular and well-known compositions in all of European classical music, at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
[Download]
I’m looking forward to…
…Google’s Chrome browser being available for the Mac. (~January 2009)
…seeing Obama’s inauguration and hearing his speech (Jan 20 2009)
…seeing the last episodes of Battlestar Galactica. (Jan-March 2009)
…seeing the new Star Trekmovie (May 2009)
…getting an iPhone (Jan-Jun 2009)
…seeing the Caprica series (Jan 2010)
JRS @ Hart House December 2008
Wednesday, December 3 2008
Hart House (Great Hall), 7 Hart House Circle
7:30pm
Tickets $12. Limited seating.
For tickets call: (416) 640-5836, buy online or visit the Refund’s desk at 214 College St.
A lecture.
In this startlingly original vision of Canada, thinker John Ralston Saul unveils 3 founding myths. Saul argues that the famous “peace, order, and good government” that supposedly defines [...]
Another White House Blow Job
The comment thread on the Globe and Mail’s story about a recording of Trudeau and Nixon contains this funny eye popper:
Salem Shaworski from Ottawa, Canada writes: In 30 years a tape will be released of Harper’s first meeting with Bush.
A brief few minutes of Harper’s sycophantic praise will be heard followed by the sound of [...]
The Fall of the Harper Government
Mentioned amidst some of the commentary was that the House was meant to be closed six days later anyway. Checking Parliament’s website, we see that the sitting days were to continue to December 12th, before breaking for the holidays. So the heavy-handed tactic of shutting down the House rather than face a vote he knew [...]
As exciting as Star Wars?
Reply from FlamingBagOfPoo:
As an American who lives in Canada, I find the whole thing utterly fascinating. Also, I think it’s brilliantly efficient. Look at how much waste is generated by a single political campaign in the US, where there are only two parties, which are really essentially just one party anyway. I love this [...]
Comment: On a Coalition Government
A Coalition Government
On the weekend I downloaded the results available at Elections Canada and did some number crunching. Thanks to the miracle of the spreadsheet, this was something that only took about a half-hour to do. The numbers remind us that the Conservatives only got 10.4 million votes, while the Liberals, NDP and the Bloc [...]
December 8 2008 Updated
On Saturday I wrote:
Monday December 8th 2008
Anticipated: The Fall of the Harper Government
Actual: Nothing
… well, as I’m writing this on Saturday the 6th, it may be too soon to tell.
It was too soon. Dion resigned today. Mr. Leblanc quits. On Don Newman’s Politics he says, “I concluded that I shouldn’t allow my personal ambition to [...]