Michael Ignatieff thinks you're an idiot

Brian Topp, as usual, has the rights of it.

The Ignatieff Liberals are up to their usual tricks. Having done everything they could to sustain Stephen Harper in power, having supported massive and unsustainable corporate tax cuts, having ignored the brewing pension crisis, having conspired with the Tories to prevent any meaningful action on climate change, the Count and his court have completely reversed course and are trying to out NDP the NDP.

Of course, they do this every election. Indeed, pretending to oppose the policies they actually support has been the Liberal Party's standing operating procedure for the better part of a century.

"Conscription if necessary," said the principle-challenged Billy King in the 1940s, "but not necessarily conscription."

Followed up in the 1960s by Lester Pearson (the "defrocked Prince of Peace") with "Bomarc missiles if necessary, but not necessarily Bomarc missiles."

Then Pierre Tudeau's "wage and price controls if necessary, but not necessarily wage and price controls."

In the 1980s and 1990s, it was the John Turner / Jean Chretien two-fer of "Free Trade if necessary, but not necessarily Free Trade."

Now, the technical term for anyone who believed in 1988 that the Liberals would ever oppose any reciprocity agreement with the United States is "idiot." The Liberals had been the party of Free Trade for more than a century, and were again the party of Free Trade just as soon as their arses were safely ensconsed on the right of the House. To believe that, for a few brief weeks in the fall of 1988, the Liberals had completely reversed themselves on the defining issue of their party required a certain level of stupid. Of course, much of the CBC talking head elite fell into that category, as did Prominent Liberal Hack Basil Hargrove.

Now, in 2011, Count Ignatieff replays the Liberal meme; a more polished version of John Kerry's "I supported that before I was against it." (Or was that "I was against that before I was for it?")

If anyone is foolish enough to be considering a vote for the IggyLibs, I challenge you to count the number of times Liberal governments have delivered precisely the policies they pretended to oppose. Caution - you'll run out of fingers.

BZ

United States Marine Corps Commandant General James Amos was the only one of the service chiefs who actively opposed the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." However, he also said that, if it were repealed, the Marine Corps would "step out smartly" to implement the change.

In this video, General Amos - along with USMC Sergeant Major Carlton Kent - explains that the repeal will be implemented through effective leadership and calls on Marines at all levels to show the kind of leadership required.

"We are a nation of laws. We are committed through our oath and core values to abide by these laws. Our success as Marines has always been grounded in the quality of our leadership, from general officers to small unit leaders."

This, ladies and gentlemen, is integrity.

.

BRAVO ZULU!

"The high untrespassed sanctity of space"

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

A Trifecta of Celebration

Today is:

• The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle.

• The Birthday of Scotland's Poet, Rabbie Burns (my 6xgreat uncle).

• The Anniversary of Jack Layton's Leadership of the New Democratic Party.

Signed, sealed and delivered

As set out in my previous post, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Regina Daniel Bohan and Anglican Bishop of Qu'Appelle Gregory Kerr-Wilson have signed a Covenant committing the two dioceses to strengthen their common witness by worshiping together, by upholding each other in prayer, by working together on projects of common concern and by keeping communication open and intentional.

In this picture (Courtesy of the Saskatchewan Anglican), Bishop Greg and Archbishop Dan are signing the Covenant, assisted by Deacon Susan Page (Anglican) and Deacon Joe Lang (Roman Catholic).

The text of the document can be found here.

A Covenant worth supporting

No, dear readers. I haven't changed my mind. I still find +Rowan's proposed Anglican Covenant a silly idea, conceived in desperation, to replace authentic Anglicanism with a centralized, curial and authoritarian quasi-papacy.

But this afternoon, a more worthwhile Covenant will be signed between the Anglican Diocese of Qu'Appelle and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina. The text of the agreement can be found here, and the media advisory can be read here.

The Covenant comits the two dioceses to:

1. Hold a prayer service each year, ideally during the Easter season, alternating between the two cathedrals, with our bishops present. This would take the form of an annual service of reconciliation, with participants (planning, officiants, servers, lectors, choir, etc) from both churches.

2. Commit ourselves to regularly remembering the other church and its leaders, and our relations, in our intercessions at each Sunday eucharist.

3. Join together on a justice-related initiative locally and/or sponsor a justice-related project where our churches are working together in the developing world.

4. Hold joint meetings with First Nations elders in order to promote reconciliation and healing.

5. Commit ourselves to maintaining communication between us when any new development in one of our churches has implications or challenges for the other.

In addition, local parishes and congregations are encouraged to look for ways to live out this Covenant in their local communities.

One of the key people involved in developing this Covenant was Don Bolen, who has since become the Roman Catholic Bishop of Saskatoon. Don used to work at the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and is one of the Roman Catholic Church's recognized experts on relations with Anglicans. Two years ago, the Archbishop of Canterbury awarded him the Cross of St. Augustine in recognition of his work on Anglican - Roman Catholic relations.

The picture above (courtesy Archbishop Daniel's blog) shows then Monsignor Bolen with Anglican Bishop Greg Kerr-Wilson and Roman Catholic Archbishop Daniel Bohan at a service celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Anglican Diocese of Qu'Appelle in 2009.

It's cold here

I mean, really cold. This morning it was minus 45 Celsius with the wind chill. (For my Celsius challenged American readers, that's -49 Fahrenheit. It's also 228.15 Kelvin, 410.67 Rankine and -36 Reaumur. I've never even heard of those last two.)

Here's a more practical illustration:



Turns out the liquid doesn't even need to be near boiling:



Now, even though this is two years old and is actually about February: