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Shuts and Failures

by Michael Maiello

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History

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Blog Posts

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Portrait of the terrorist as a young man

by acanuck 8/12/2010 - 4:02 am   |

The jury has been selected, and the trial begins this morning: the first prosecution of a Guantanamo detainee since Obama instituted his new, improved, Supreme Court-compliant military-commission system. Not at all like Bush's, except for every important detail.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/and-then-there-were-7-the-jury-who-will-decide-omar-khadrs-fate/article1669446/ [Read more]

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Bohemian Rhapsodist: Tuli Kupferberg, 1923-2010

by acanuck 7/15/2010 - 1:58 am   |

Who the Fug? Yeah, that's the guy.

Some of you (probably most of you) are too young to recognize the name, but The Fugs were a seminal influence on music in the mid to late '60s. Sort of a Mothers of Invention without the musicality; a Velvet Underground without the polish. Protopunk, maybe ur-punk. The name derives from Norman Mailer's corruption of the word fuck in The Naked and the Dead. [Read more]

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IDF audio and anti-Semitic, anti-American activists

by acanuck 6/6/2010 - 1:57 am   |

It's no secret that I greet all information coming from the IDF skeptically. I expect bullshit, but I expect cleverly crafted, quasi-credible bullshit. So when I heard this 26-second audio clip from the flotilla encounter two days ago, I felt sure it was a scam -- a hoax by some nasty leftist agitators seeking to embarrass the Israeli military.

But no, there it was, reported straight-faced, on Drudge, on ynet, in the Jerusalem Post, in Yediot Ahronoth, even in much-respected Haaretz. Today, after the rest of the world stopped laughing, the IDF tried to restore its credibility: [Read more]

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I bought a toaster today

by acanuck 4/2/2010 - 2:16 am   |

I know, I know. Daglog is not Twitter. And as Joe Biden would say, big F-ing deal. It's just that I'm over 60 years old (there, I said it) and to the best of my recollection I have never before bought a toaster.

I've owned a toaster -- like, forever. Of course. Everyone owns a toaster. But when my toaster broke this week, I asked myself, "When did I buy this thing?" And I drew a complete blank. Maybe it was a hand-me-down from my dear departed mother, or an ex-girlfriend. Or maybe it was left behind in an apartment I once rented. All I know is I've had it longer than I've had children, and they are in their late 30s. So when it stopped working, it surprised the hell out of me. It had always worked. Why would it stop now? [Read more]

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Hey, Queen's University PC Nazis: Sumo suits are not racist instruments of oppression

by acanuck 3/29/2010 - 9:38 pm   |

The Alma Mater Society at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., has just cancelled a campus fundraiser for a local foodbank. The problem: the event would have involved students donning sumo suits and wrestling each other. A few similar events have already been staged at the university. Here are photos:

http://www.pbase.com/parpho/image/119537016 [Read more]

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Speaking truth to power, Canadian-style

by acanuck 3/29/2010 - 12:59 am   |

The Liberal Party, which ran Canada for most of the past half-century but recently has lost its resonance with voters, held a weekend policy symposium in Montreal. A featured guest was Robert Fowler, a now-retired top diplomat who advised every prime minister -- regardless of party -- for at least three decades.

After leaving Canada's foreign service, Fowler worked as a special envoy for the UN secretary-general -- a job that got him kidnapped by Islamist rebels in Niger. He spent five months as a guest of a nasty group called Al-Qa-'ida in the Mahgreb before his release. Less than a year later, he found himself addressing Canada's main opposition party. He didn't exactly tell them what they expected or wanted to hear: [Read more]

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The Decline, Fall, Plunge and Demise of Journalism

by acanuck 2/27/2010 - 2:38 pm   |

If you go to the Drudge Report right now, you'll see the teaser:

PAPER: Soros 'at center of hedge funds plot to cash in on demise of the euro'...

If you click on the link, you'll see the Mail Online headline:

Man who broke the Bank of England, George Soros, 'at centre of hedge funds plot to cash in on fall of the euro'

If you read the lead paragraph, you'll see:

A secretive group of Wall Street hedge fund bosses are said to be behind a plot to cash in on the decline of the euro.

And if you read the entire story, you'll see it is spun entirely around a private dinner meeting that Soros himself did not attend: [Read more]

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Olympic update: gut-check time

by acanuck 2/22/2010 - 5:23 pm   |

I'm not one of those who see the glass as seven-eighths empty. I see it, rather, as one-eighth full. So I'm not crying in my crisp, refreshing Canadian beer over last night's 5-3 loss to the United States in Olympic hockey.

No, there is an upside: Canada won't have to face Russia or Sweden in the gold-medal game next weekend. The downside is that we will have to beat both those powerhouse teams one-on-one to get within even sniffing distance of the podium. Assuming we can first dispatch Germany tomorrow night. [Read more]

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Big Olympic scandal: bogus flags on display!

by acanuck 2/20/2010 - 1:17 am   |

The Vancouver Olympic organizing committee has gotten a lot of unfair criticism, so I hate to pile on.
But I've watched quite a few medal presentation ceremonies over the past few days, and I'm now fairly positive: that is not Canada's flag on display.
Ours is a red maple leaf on a white central square, with two red bands half as wide on either side. Its proportions are therefore 1:2.
All the flags I see raised at the medal ceremonies appear to be 2:3. And I'm making allowances for camera angles.
That's fine for some countries -- like France, Italy or even Russia -- whose flags really have those proportions.
Not, I would argue, for Canada. [Read more]

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Now for something completely different: But nor ...

by acanuck 2/2/2010 - 1:02 am   |

OK, there's this nagging problem I have. Sort of an obsession. I push it to the back of my mind, where it stays quiescent for months, causing me no grief. Then it re-emerges, always re-emerges. Help me, dagblog community. HELP ME!

I blame Genghis for this latest relapse. In a comment to a post by Orlando (below), he wrote:

"A lying Mrs. Tebow would have no significance on the abortion debate. But nor would an honest Mrs. Tebow." [Read more]

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