He Lives talks to the younger generation about church, rules and sticking it out.

Quantam Tea has a great physics abstract that will be published in an academic journal….how many coconuts fit in a BMW Z3?

Kyroisity struggles with developing a right attitude while with doing stupid jobs for an unappreciative boss.

Tolle, blogge has an interesting history of Iraq and the region posted. I’m going to stick my neck out here. What the US media fails to take into account is that the US does have Allies. What about the Australians? New Zealanders? Canadians? Canada is the second largest country geographically in the world, but, and I stress that word ‘but’ strongly, our population base is 1/10th that of our southern neighbours. Every US soldier in Afganistan will credit his Commonwealth comrades even though the US media gives them a pass. And it will be that way in Iraq this time. I know I completely deviated from the point of your post Tolle, blogge, but I feel better now. Still friends?

Oh Canada
I’m in a red and white frame of mind today.

Colby Cosh! Over here! I like your blog. I read your blog. How about a better linking ability for your posts? Source codes? I’m just a blogger. (sigh) Shoot, I’ll settle for being able to figure out how to get my sidebar link working properly.

Banana Counting Monkey responds to Cosh’s post on A Canadian Alliance Future. Cosh contends that poor showing of the Alliance east of Manitoba is anti-westernism. Banana Counting Monkey counters back.

I’ve never once heard any mention of antipathy to the West as being a reason for disliking the Alliance. What seems to jar people, especially women, is the image that the Alliance has been saddled with of being the party of the Religious right and a bunch of racist, homophobic bigots.

Who do I blame? Initially the party itself, but over time, the media more than anything else. In Ontario, there seems to me a general attitude towards the party that says that supporting it is one of those social faux pas that just isn’t done by, well, you know, civilized people.

As for the Tory party, it is dying. I used to be a Tory, and the last function I attended I was, at 25 or so, easily the youngest person in the room, probably by a decade. The majority of attendees were about the age of 60. The party organization that I last saw was seriously weak. The problem is the voters who are unwilling to give up voting Tory. The main reason they are unwilling is the stigma associated with voting Alliance.

I’m with The Banana Counting Monkey on this one. It wouldn’t make any difference if The Alliance had been formed in Nunavut or Cape Breton. It isn’t about being Westerners. It’s about a poor job of getting to the grass roots types from Ontario eastward. Better campaign strategy and use of resouces. Experience. What, the Toronto media is going to cut The Alliance some slack? Dream on. And since when is Alliance ’stigma’ worse than the actual shinanigans the Tories and Libs are so infamous for? Nope. Saying it’s a western thing doesn’t cut it for this easterner.

UPDATE: Cosh has already responded to Banana Counting Monkeys post. Man, I like the web.

(by the way, while at Colby Cosh’s blog, read his great piece: My Love Letter to Australia)