I'm so PROUD to be a CANADIAN!!!!!

Tonight we did it! We beat the USA in Olympic men's hockey! And I swear, all of Canada was there with them, sharing in their fight. All I could see all over FB were people's status updates about how they were watching the game. It was like the whole country's attention was finely tuned onto this one issue! Never before have I seen a whole nation come together in solidarity to cheer for something they hold dear.

I mean, it was just so much more exciting than following the Afghan detainee fiasco--and I bet you'll be hard pressed to divert our attention from this win as quickly as we were diverted from that! I'm so glad that our Prime Minister unnecessarily shut down our government for months; that way, we had saved up enough energy to really root on our team to the win!!!

And man, people are so proud now! Everyone's talking about how proud they are to be a Canadian, and how awesome we are as a country. And that's exactly what we need right now, cuz people were starting to feel a little low about themselves when they found out that their brothers and sisters are dying overseas just to prop up a sham, theocratic dictatorship. But now we can sleep a little easier at night because we OWN THE PODIUM!!! :D

Sure, the euphoria will pass, and Monday morning will shake us all out of bed and nudge us out the door to work. But this Monday will be different. Because now, we don't have to feel bad that our Minister of Science and Technology is a freakin' creationist Chiropractor, that our governing party is focused on passing counterproductive legislation, and that the Prime Minister is secretive as hell and thinks it's cool to shut the government down whenever he damn well pleases.

That's right. Tomorrow will be different. Because now, we have something we can be really proud of!!!! Something we can all get excited about! GO CANADA!!!

I need to post more gay stuff...

...because all this politics is making me depressed.

h/t CC

"Thinking people need not apply"

Just yesterday I wrote a couple exams that required more preparation, blood, sweat, and tears, than any other exam of my life. They made the MCAT look like a 2nd grade spelling bee.

Now that that's all over with, I'm hoping that I can get back to blogging a little bit. Today we'll start things off easy (by letting someone else to all the writing). ;)

Via Canadian Cynic (who just recently linked to this blog, nearly making me crap my pants with excitement), Kathleen Parker of The Washington Post elaborates on how today's Republicans are more concerned with their outdated principles than adapting to the times.

My favourite part:

Most of us know that decisiveness isn't always a virtue, yet those pushing the purity test seem to view nuance as an enemy of conservatism. The old elite corps of the conservative movement, men such as William F. Buckley and Russell Kirk, undoubtedly would find this attitude both dangerous and bizarre. When did thinking go out of style?

Touché

Ummm....WHAT?

I seriously don't know what to say about this.

Under normal circumstances I'd say "too little, too late." But this is just so...shocking. I mean, can you think of anyone more Conservative than Dick Cheney? He's second only to Steven Colbert in being a parody of conservatism. And yet here he is, supporting marriage equality. It's like hearing a vegan say "You know what? Eating venison is no big deal..."

Whatever. If it can help convince a few more people that gay marriage isn't the end of the world, I'm all for it. :)

Ahhhh, I understand now

Here's a wonderful summary of all the stuff that's been going on in Canadian politics so far.

A little consistency, please

PM Harper then:

Rather than announcing a new approach, Mr. Harper's address restated his view that the proposed coalition is undemocratic and would be harmful for Canada during an economic downturn.

PM Harper now:

After a two-hour meeting yesterday at Rideau Hall, Governor General Michaëlle Jean granted Harper's request to prorogue Parliament, sparing him a confidence vote on Monday – and defeat for the minority Conservative government.

So...handing the government to the Coalition would be bad for Canada economically because of the period of instability for change over. But proroguing the government for a month and a half is apparently just peachy...

UPDATE: Harper gets a lesson in democracy. See my other post about misleading rhetoric.

UPDATE II: The New York Times have brought up a very good point, that I've been wondering about a lot: what's to stop any PM from now on from proroguing the government when he or she faces a confidence vote that is likely to topple the government? This isn't "my way or the highway," this is "my way or no way at all."