It is interesting that the very thing that would influence an American voter, does the opposite for a Canadian.
This recent poll doesn’t mean much. American-Canadian relationships have always been far more interesting to Canadians than to their American counterparts. I have found that when I ask someone why they just said they don’t like Americans, it is often based more on image than it is on substance.
Maybe it’s that smug little smile. His penchant for fantastically expensive military photo-ops. Or the swaggering, belt-hitching walk that cries out for a pair of swinging saloon doors. And though, God knows, we have too many of our own syntactically challenged politicians to be casting stones, shouldn’t the leader of the free world know that “misunderestimate” isn’t a word? Yes, we’re cavilling, but clearly there is something about George W. Bush that gets under the skin of Canadians. After all, vehemently disagreeing with the policies of American presidents is almost a national pastime. There has to be another explanation for our extreme reaction, the desire afoot in the land to see him turfed from office. That and the unprintable sentiment about him and the horse he rode in on. Even before we know whom he will be running against this fall, Canadians have made their decision. Only 15 per cent, according to an exclusive new Maclean’s poll, would definitely cast a ballot for Bush if they had the opportunity. And if Americans remain almost evenly divided — some 50 per cent approve of his performance in the White House and he’s running neck and neck with his likely Democratic challengers — there is no such dithering on this side of the border. Just 12 per cent of us feel Canada is better off since he took office, and only a third of respondents will admit to liking the world’s most powerful man, even just a little bit.
On a political level, we find it easier to identify with Democrats.
But who the heck cares who we’d vote for?
Within a few months we’ll be having our own federal election called, and it’ll be an election in name only.
If an election were held tonight in the US, the top job would be up for grabs, and that is more than what we can say north of the 49th.
But Canadians have never been that comfortable with the type of cowboys who take the law into their own hands. Our frontier heroes were the scarlet-clad North West Mounted Police, not lone gunslingers. In a pre-9/11 world, when Bush was vowing to be a domestic-policy president, it didn’t seem to matter that much. But over the past 2 1/2 years, his muscular commitment to protecting and advancing U.S. interests abroad — unilaterally if allies and international bodies such as the UN fail to sign on — has unsettled many around the world. There is a burgeoning cottage industry of writers and analysts exploring the underpinnings and fallout of this new American “imperialism.” In Canada, a country that has always fretted about being swallowed up, either territorially or culturally, by the behemoth to the south, the spectre of an expanding American Empire feeds a deep-seated paranoia. At least for some.
WMD’s
The UK is holding an inquiry. The US is holding an inquiry.
My prediction: Both enquiries will essentially come up with the same conclusions. Fallout: Tony Blair is finished. George W. Bush will be re-elected.
Ricin
I’m wondering why the fact a ricin laced letter sent a few months ago in the US didn’t make the media. The latest one sent to the Senate majority leader emptied three Senate buildings.
Ricin was found a year ago in an apartment in London. It was found by troops in Afghanistan. And it has been found in the hands of US extremist groups. It also became well known during the cold war.
A product of castor beans, it is what is called a ‘Class B’ agent. It can be inhaled, ingested or injected. Because of it’s make up, it is not easy to use to kill large numbers of people.
Officials are wondering if this latest letter is tied in with a letter found in South Carolina in October targeting the US Department of Transportation.
Unbalanced
What drives a person to stage their own kidnapping?
Sometimes it is greed as in the case of this minister.
Sometimes the reasons are more elusive as in the case of this Alberta politican. Although, they both wound up at gambling venues…the minister at a casino and Heatherington in Las Vegas.
Avian Flu and SARS
While we here in the west amuse ourselves with Super Bowl shenanigans, chickens are continuing to cause upheaval in Asia.
The dead birds have in fact achieved what the platoon of human-rights activists and champions of democracy here have failed to do - force the government on to the defensive and bring into relief how a lack of openness can have disastrous consequences to society.
As the bird flu continues to spread in domestic bird populations in 13 countries, medical detectives are scrambling to trace back cases of the illness. It is possible the outbreak began in China last year. And it is possible, though not proven, that human to human transmission has occurred in Viet Nam.
Scientific American is reporting that the Chinese have traced the evolution of the SARS virus, and the news isn’t good. Essentially the virus is doing what viruses do…mutating and evolving to adapt to and attack it’s host.
Researchers with the Chinese SARS Molecular Epidemiology Consortium analyzed the genomes of 63 samples of the SARS virus collected from patients infected at different times during last year’s epidemic. The team determined that the two virus genomes that caused the earliest infections in people–11 seemingly independent cases in China’s Guangdong Province–were identical to strains found in animal hosts. In the middle phase, which began with a so-called super-spreader event in a Guangzhou hospital, a strain missing 29 nucleotides became dominant. The scientists also found changes that caused alterations to amino acids of the virus spike protein, which allows the virus to adhere to host cells.
This ‘up’ side of this discovery is that researchers may get clues to help them develop potential treatments.
Gender again?
This kind of discussion gives me a headache. Literally. As in a ‘dull behind the eyes,’ ‘are we still on this topic’, ‘using the bible to thump others again’ kind of headache. The, ‘okay, I’m clicking out of here and going for a walk’ kind of headache. The ‘I cannot believe this nonsense’ kind of headache.
The ‘oh no, here we go’ kind of headache.
The ‘I really need to get out of your space’ kind of headache.
As usual, it is mostly men stating their position. And they are stating it because a female blogger stated hers. It has brought out the rigid, legalistic, nit-picking obsessive types that cause one to cringe when they hear the word ‘Christian.’
It’s enough to make a preacher weep.
Gentlemen, could you please get over yourselves?
God bless the men and women who hang around churches and who patiently deal with this attitude, most of us would, er, get a headache. Or leave.
Blessed are the meek.
I’m am so sick of the power trips some of the commenters are on, and the reality is, they aren’t going away. Right now, neither is the headache.
I say
I completely agree with Ian McKenzie on this one. No one should be gobsmacked that connexions got a well deserved wibbie. I think all connexions readers are chuffed, bobs your uncle.:^)
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How ironic, women in leadership was the sermon I heard today. And frankly, how much more could there be said on this topic?
Heatherington falls into the same category of “the ‘oh no, here we go’ kind of headache.” We’d all like to forget about her already.
Bene:
I must have the same headache. I’m weary of the discussion too. Somewhere along the line, we forgot how to listen and respect each other, not to mention how goofy we really are sometimes.
Congratulations on the Top Blog award, by the way!
Taking it to the extreme is the problem! Ok, certainly gender can be an issue and there are differences and yes we can work through all of that fine stuff… but all the beating, thrashing, and tearing people down and all of the extremes that people go to in discussing this issues seems more damaging than the issue itself. In my opinion. But I could be wrong.
I feel with you Bene. I just read through the comments thread over at signposts. Tiring, isn’t it? Sometimes I think the surest sign that God is doing something real with people is the fact that so many women and gays (and racial minorities too!) still want to be part of the Church that has beat the crap out of them for so long…
I checked the link and read “Dan’s” essay. Regrettably, with all that talk of her vital leadership, she never names Christ or His Will for her in the essay.
It’s like this: Years ago (as in 30+ years), the African American writer who penned “The Color Purple” wrote a really thought provoking article about achieving racial equality. She realized that there was a danger that once persons of color became “free and equal,” they might just slip into all the ruts and traps that have ensnared white people. She tried to envision her hard working mother sitting down to watch black soap operas. It was a ghastly image.
Dittos on the women in church leadership deal. The Bible is pretty clear that church leadership (in the sense of the teachers/elders) must be patriarchal. Now was Paul writing in terms of his culture? Or was it a law for all time?
I don’t even care. I haven’t come this far just to stick the word “Reverand” in front of my name so I can collect a paycheck like so many male ministers do.
Women have been propping up the church and moving it forward into good works for centuries. I hope we are spared the so-called “leadership” roles that have created so much division, pomposity, and sheer boring sermons. Oh, and let’s not forget all the honorary doctorates that float around some segments of Christianity. Thank God women have been left out of this circus until now.
No human being atoned for by Christ needs to aspire any higher than to serve and to have fellowship with God. When a woman knows her Savior well and has the power of God on her life and ministry, she does not need the recognition of men. She will accomplish the exact task that God appoints for her. I think it’s heart breaking to see women stoop to what men have been doing for years–quarreling and quibbling for power and title.
I run the BLOG ONTHE LILLYPAD site and for three years I have been confronting the corruption in Christian Fundamentalism that remains unchallenged and unacknowledged by preachers. I don’t need a title to say the truth. I don’t need a title to have the power to persuade others to demand accountability in pulpits. All I need is the word of my Savior to say the truth about the child abuse, sodomy, and child molesting that has gun unchallenged.
Formal, conventional Leadership among God’s people right now is so impotent, political, and even corrupt that whether or not women get it makes no difference whatsoever. It’s a failed vehicle of authority, and only repentance before God and the forsaking of this world’s love of power and authority will straighten it out. AT THAT POINT, we might get some clarity about changing women’s roles. But for right now, it seems to me that Dan may just want a right to go swirling down a bowl with the rest of so-called Christian leadership. A title of “Reverand” or “Pastor” just sanctifies it in some way.
Reading that comment section reminded me why philosophers fill ninety percent of their books with defining terms.
Thanks for wasting my time Bene
I guess the idea of someone “teaching” Jesus was sort of funny though, so it wasn’t all bad.
And by “teaching” I mean transferring information that was hitherto unknown to the listener, and by “Jesus” I mean God. I define the word “the” as in…
Amazing how comment sections take on a life of their own isn’t it?
I find it funny/sad, not funny/ha ha.
Every generation seems to go through this.
I have no problem with someone seriously questioning what they have been taught.
I really have a problem with the bible thumpers though. I don’t know how we can learn anything if we don’t listen. There is a frantic anger to legalism.
Interesting way to waste some time eh, William.;^)
Jeri: If you read Signposts regularly, you’ll see both Dan and Phil know Christ and seek His will.
A lot of posts don’t lend themselves to religious language, and some posts draws all types of individuals. My irritation was initially with Repent.
I wonder with Jonathan why anyone shut out by denominations hang in there.
Bene, What the Lord decrees for Dan will be what’s accomplished. What He gives her is what she’ll keep. Maybe she has to learn for herself that the calling of God doesn’t rest on the power of mankind but on God. But if she struggles and argues to grasp a title, she is saying by her own actions that she does not have it. Well does she or doesn’t she? Does she have the calling of God or not? If the Lord has vindicated her claim to church office, why struggle? Do the Lord’s work.
She (and anybody in Christendom motivated by fear of losing position) has to get clear of what we do and do not have. What we have in Christ we have. What we reach for in and of ourselves, we don’t have, and we hinder what we are meant to enjoy by struggling to get what is not ours.
A Christian minister needs to have more faith than those who deride him or her. A Christian minister has to be mature and focused on the purpose and direction of the Gospel and live by the model of Christ. So enough of broadcast messages that a Christian minister uses to make herself known. It’s not consistent with the office of the Christian minister. If she speaks of Christ so well that people are converted or encouraged or answered, then there’s no other power required to keep her in her office.
Whatever side of the question each of us takes, let’s remember that the Christian faith moves forward BY FAITH IN CHRIST. She’s going to have to walk by faith in her calling. Struggle will not give her anything but struggle.
Jeri
Jeri:
I have no idea if Dan has a theological degree and is ordained.
I’ve never asked.
I don’t even remember what denomination Dan and Phil are in although I’ve probably read it somewhere on their blog.
It doesn’t matter.
I’ve been reading their blog from the start and have learned a great deal. Yes, I agree with you. God has His hand in their lives, and what He degrees will be accomplished.:^)