Tuesday, May 01, 2007

They also want to know why Crawford picked Bourque in the '98 shoot-out

Gack! Even when I try for some leisure net browsing, I can't escape politics. I did about 5 double takes on NHL.com when I saw this headline:

Parliamentary committee summons Hockey Canada over Doan's captaincy

Good grief. Hopefully they'll also voice their displeasure over the starting goalie selection, penalty killing tactics, and line combinations being used...

Labels:

posted by calgarygrit at 7:49 p.m.

23 Comments:

  • I agree with you on this one CG...looks like the MPs have too much time on their hands and they just look like fools!

    By Blogger islandconservative, at 2:28 a.m.  

  • Hey CG, I just read your comment at Macleans on May's comparison of climate change deniers with Chamberlain, and I thought you should know that your Macleans comment was wack. Her comparison was politically foolish but not intellectually untenable. What did she do? As I read the reports, she compared people like Baird with Chamberlain (NOT with Nazis, as you claimed). Why? Because in the 1930s, the vast majority of British politicians and the British public wilfully ignored and/or misinterpreted clear evidence that the Nazis were not just another nasty fascist government but a regime determined to impose their hateful vision as far as possible, certainly throughout Europe, through military conquest. Churchill and his ilk were a small minority raising the alarm about the gravity of the situation, and much derided for it at the time. After Chamberlain went to Munich in 1938 and effectively agreed to Hitler's annexation of Czechoslovakia in return for a halt to any further Nazi expansionism and thus continued peace, he returned to rapturous acclaim in the UK, where he was greeted as "the prince of peace" and reached still-unmatched heights of popularity in the opinion polls (from Churchill to Blair, no other Prime Minister has come close). "Peace In Our Time" was the refrain.

    We know that the tiny Churchillian minority were right and the vast majority wrong, but that's not how people looked at it then. An entire generation of men had been slaughtered 20 years earlier, the UK was in the Depression, and no-one wanted to have another war. They didn't appreciate the uniquely evil nature of Nazism - how could they? Unique is unique, and since we base our reaction on prior knowledge, it is extremely difficult to realise when a phenomenon is qualitively different from all known facts.

    Global warming is qualitively different from all previously considered phenomena. It will require a great effort from everyone for us to minimise it. Hundreds of millions of lives, mostly those of poor dark-skinned peoples in the Southern Hemisphere, are at risk, as a result of a gas emitted by the societies of mostly rich lighter-skinned peoples in the Northern Hemisphere. Faced with this challenge, clearly moral and humanitarian as well as simply a technical policy problem, John Baird and those like him wish to declare pseudo half-measures as victory, "A Healthy Environment in Our Time", if you will.

    Just like the British political class and the public in the 1930s, many are still having trouble accepting and/or interpreting clear evidence of a qualitatively different threat which threatens the health and welfare of the world. Just as in the 1930s, this is understandable, as serious sacrifices will be required, and we all feel we've gone through enough already - didn't we just win the Cold War 16 years ago? Haven't we suffered through enough recessions? And as evidence of the threat becomes clearer, the public feels more disquiet, and some politicians try to come up with plans and agreements which purport to solve the problem but really just delay the inevitable required effort, only ensuring the future sacrifices will be that much worse. What if the UK & France had cracked down on Hitler years earlier, when German forces crossed the Rhine for example, as Churchill had demanded? What if past governments had acted when environmentalists had called upon them? How much better of would they have been in 1938-9, or we today?

    But instead, Baird, Bush, John Howard, etc., proclaim weak ill-considered plans as the solution, when it will take much much more.

    Having lived in the UK for a couple of years, I can tell you that the Munich analogy is frequently evoked when it's believed someone has achieved a pyrrhic victory and is touting it as a great achievement. As CP-Macleans recognised:
    http://www.macleans.ca/canada/wire/article.jsp?content=n0501132A

    All that said, while there is nothing wrong with the analogy she used on the facts, she should have known that given Canadians' poor grasp of history and the bad faith and hence bad spin of the chattering classes, she would be seen as equating climate change denial/minimisation with a pro-Nazi-like outlook. It may be that the parishioners in the church understood the analogy in its full context, but when you're a political leader, you've got to expect any public remark you make will become widely known and if is at all possible, the media, for ratings' sake, and your adversaries, for their own sakes, will twist and contort your message to produce the most negative, hyperbolic spin possible. The same thing happened to Igniatieff with his "not losing sleep" comment, which, when seen within the context of its paragraph, was not the cold-heartedly boorish comment quoted by the media & his opponents. But as Iggy said at the time, he was responsible for the words and should have known how it would be reported and was wrong for saying it. Ditto for May. She should either say the same thing and apologise, or stand by her words and try to change Canada's vile "gotcha!" culture. I admire her if she tries to continue to do the latter, but usually, given the same media that misrepresented the initial analogy will be presenting subsequent historical expositions and explanations, she might be best to remember that discretion is the better part of valour or as the Brits said in the Peninsular War: "Run, run, run away, to fight again another day".

    By Blogger Eugene Forsey Liberal, at 2:31 a.m.  

  • At the time, did Churchill villify and ridicule Chamberlain by comparing him to dimwits of their past? No - it was the other way around. In that respect, May is more like Chamberlain.

    May should be building bridges, not trying to score political points. Applaud the steps they are taking, and encourage them to take more.

    In my mind, her support for trading off lower CO2 emissions for higher mercury in our land and water shows that she has taken leave of her senses (the light bulb ban).

    Speaking of which, the Bloc has taken leave of theirs. Shane Doan is widely acknowledged as being of very high character, never a bad word to say about any nationality. The NHL launched a full investigation and he was cleared of any racial slur.

    There are enough real racists around, there is no need for the Bloc to go around creating one out of disproven allegations.

    By Blogger Robert Vollman, at 12:14 p.m.  

  • Well I for one still want to know what Crawford was thinking.

    By Blogger Gayle, at 12:36 p.m.  

  • Yeah this is goofy. But that's political correctness for you.

    By Blogger ALW, at 12:57 p.m.  

  • This is the most ridiculous thing I have seen yet in this Parliament... and that's saying something.

    Anyone of us who hold a membership card in any party should be ashamed right now.

    By Blogger BR, at 1:10 p.m.  

  • I still don't understand what the committee was even talking about re: Doan and hockey. Huh?

    By Blogger Jacques Beau Vert, at 2:20 p.m.  

  • At the time, did Churchill villify and ridicule Chamberlain by comparing him to dimwits of their past? No - it was the other way around. In that respect, May is more like Chamberlain.

    May should be building bridges, not trying to score political points.

    Exactly. She really sucks like a Hoover. So does Layton and Dion -- I think the majority of the Canadian left has turned lunatic, the same that the Canadian right did in the 90s. Somehow, the tables have turned.

    At least there's still Bob Rae talking a sensible game. And Broadbent's still got a pulse.

    By Blogger Jacques Beau Vert, at 2:22 p.m.  

  • Lots of guts there CG going into the corners with the backbenchers but shying away from your Leader's chippy play:

    Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said the Tories’ silence on the issue was “shocking”

    Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe admonished the government for not taking a stand on an issue that he said was disrespectful to francophones.

    NDP Leader Jack Layton said Doan’s captaincy would “cast a shadow” on Canada’s participation in the tournament.

    Hockey or Troops or whatever. These thugs seem to only kone know one game. Then they cry bully.

    Don't get me started on May.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:10 p.m.  

  • I see Dryden's had the guts to question wtf that committee is up to.

    Likewise he ignores Leader's antics.

    I see one writers calling them the Dion, Duceppe, and Layton the Three Stooges.

    Quick Poll. Is your guy Larry, Curly or Moe?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:17 p.m.  

  • jason said

    "Exactly. She really sucks like a Hoover"

    Gentlemen, gentlemen!

    What's the matter? Why the hate for a chubby ex-NGO person? May is a sincere green advocate which baird/harper are not

    Is it possible that May's barb about appeasement has hit too close to home?

    By Blogger JimTan, at 5:35 p.m.  

  • OMG!

    The latest Decima Poll shows the LPC pulling ahead in Ontario and back ahead of the CPC in Quebec.

    Is this the beginning of a trend?

    By Blogger JimTan, at 5:53 p.m.  

  • okay, I confess, the Neville Chamberlain thing did hit close to home. I have a secret shrine to the man in a closet in the basement.

    By Blogger Tarkwell Robotico, at 8:48 p.m.  

  • chucker said

    "I have a secret shrine to the man in a closet in the basement."

    Chuckle! Chuckle!

    This might play well in Nova Scotia where they have long memories.

    Anyway, we are doing this for our children. Right?

    By Blogger JimTan, at 10:57 p.m.  

  • "May is a sincere green advocate which baird/harper are not"

    I dispute the former. I don't think she's sincere at all. She's more about politics than being green. She chooses politics over green every time. She's not as bad as Al Gore, but bad enough.

    As for the latter, well at least Baird and Harper don't pretend to be Green when they're not. They're honest about it.

    By Blogger Robert Vollman, at 10:24 a.m.  

  • Is this the beginning of a trend?

    Don't get your hopes up too much. Take a gander at this column by L Ian Macdonald of The Gazette. A Crop poll just released of 1000 Quebec voters on federal voting intentions give the following results: Bloc 28%, CPC 26%, LPC 22%, NDP 15%.

    By Blogger Brian in Calgary, at 1:12 p.m.  

  • brian said

    "A Crop poll just released of 1000 Quebec voters on federal voting intentions give the following results: Bloc 28%, CPC 26%, LPC 22%, NDP 15%."

    Each polling company has a different bias. The key issue is momentum.

    What is the difference between this poll and the previous poll?

    By Blogger JimTan, at 5:47 p.m.  

  • Since brian in calgary isn’t around, let’s analyze the CROP poll.

    The difference in Quebec between CPC and LPC in this poll is 4%. The difference in the 2006 elections was 4%. Both the CPC and LPC are up only 2%. So, there has been no momentum since the last general elections. It’s the NDP that has doubled its share of the vote.

    This is the important part. From the Gazette L Ian Macdonald

    “With 1,000 respondents from April 19 to 29, CROP saw 28 per cent of Quebecers …”
    .
    Decima poll conducted April 26 to 29

    “The poll of just over 1,000 Canadians was conducted Thursday through Sunday and is considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points 19 times in 20.”

    So which is up to date with reference to the prisoner controversy? We must read the product labels if we don’t want to make fools of ourselves!

    By Blogger JimTan, at 6:30 p.m.  

  • coach outlet
    coach factory outlet
    ugg outlet
    ugg boots
    arizona cardinals jerseys
    hugo boss sale
    ecco outlet
    michael kors handbags
    moncler jackets

    By Blogger raybanoutlet001, at 9:32 p.m.  

  • qzz0713
    birkenstock sandals
    canada goose outlet
    fitflops
    ecco shoes
    canada goose outlet
    guess factory
    polo ralph lauren
    toms shoes
    moncler outlet
    magic jerseys

    By Blogger Unknown, at 1:48 a.m.  

  • www0727


    nike factory store
    nike outlet store
    nike outlet
    nike outlet store
    nike outlet
    oakley sunglasses wholesale
    oakley sunglasses
    oakley sunglasses wholesale
    oakley sunglasses
    oakley sunglasses wholesale





    By Blogger Unknown, at 3:12 a.m.  

  • I just started dating and well, dating is a very exciting experience. I just love to date women** all bare footrunning genuine

    By Anonymous all bare footrunning genuine, at 5:32 a.m.  

  • An interesting discussion may be valued at comment. I do believe that you can write much more about this topic, it will not certainly be a taboo subject but usually people are insufficient to speak on such topics. An additional. Cheers expert fiscal

    By Anonymous expert fiscal, at 9:55 a.m.  

Post a Comment

<< Home