Banana Counting Monkey

Friday, December 27, 2002:

Canadian Dollar Update

$0.6376 USD, Down 0.0049

or, in other words, it takes $1.5683 Cdn to buy a real dollar.

But, you do understand that the Loonie is really worth around $0.80 USD. Chretien tells us so. It's all the fault of people on Wall Street wearing red suspenders. Johnny C wouldn't lie to us.


BCM // 1:18 PM

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Summary:Canada 2002

As per
Jonah Goldberg

Canada, once a staunch and valuable ally in war and peace, has been exposed to have the military might of the Rhode Island National Guard, thanks to a liberal government intent on impressing the United Nations by bad-mouthing the United States.


Did I mention that this is from Jonah's "Losers of 2002" list?

I really can't disagree. Canada has been intent on destroying its relationship with the US. Our government seems to believe that it can continue to spite the US and automatically gainsay every policy of the US without any sort of cost to us. I think I know where this particular breed of cluelessness comes from. It comes from the Canadian government's realtions with Quebec for the last thirty years.

For that entire time, the provincial government of Quebec spit in the eye of the Federal government, basing its decisions on the obsession of becoming a distinct society. Ever possible insult was offered, every nose turned, every ingratitude offered. And the government of Canada embraced it all. Every insult was taken as an opportunity for the Canadian govenment to examine root causes of sovereigntist anger and to offer danegeld. More powers, more money, more concessions and more power in the Canadian government. Consequences? Please, we're Canadian. We're all about reconcilliation and groveling for forgiveness.

Perhaps our government thought that what worked for the Quebecois would work for them.

Fortunately not. I have seen repeated indications that our nation's attitude is being noted down in Washington, and increasingly severe snubs are being returned in kind.

The dammed tragedy of this is that Canada is trading gold away for the approbation of fools and a suit of Emperor's new clothes.


BCM // 10:22 AM
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FREEDOM

Via
The Corner

CHRISTMAS CONFUSION IN MOSCOW [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Anne Applebaum from Russia: "The celebration of Western Christmas on Dec. 25 is a phenomenon purely of the most recent, post-Soviet decade. This week, a poll showed that 18 percent of Russians intend to celebrate on Dec. 25 (which remains a working day). Those who do so are, among other things, more likely to be well-off, more likely to be under the age of 25, and more likely to live in large cities. Some are Catholics -- there are about 500,000 in Russia -- but most are part of a new generation of Russians who identify themselves with the West and wish to celebrate in a Western way. Even among such people, there remains a good deal of confusion about what Christmas is actually about. One Russian friend explained with great confidence that 'Christmas is the day Jesus was crucified.'"


Remember, only fifteen years ago, what most Russians intended was only an academic concept.
BCM // 9:50 AM
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Dangerous Year in Journalism

67 Journalists and support staff killed doing their job this year.




BCM // 9:42 AM

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Harry Potter "Promotes Religious Hatred"

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian prosecutors have opened an investigation into whether the Harry Potter series of children's books incite religious hatred, an official said Wednesday.

The investigation was started at the request of a Moscow woman who was upset by the novels, said Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for the Moscow city prosecutor's office. Petrenko said she didn't know how long the investigation would take, but that it is required under law to be made when a request is filed.

When the investigation is completed, prosecutors will determine if any criminal charges will be filed, Petrenko said.

The Potter books have drawn similar complaints across the United States by parents who complain they promote wizardry as a religion.


Right. Harry Potter is a religion. Do people seriously think that their God is threatened by the adventures of a fictional teenaged wizard? Apparently they do. Oh ye of so little and fragile faith. The obvious point being that the only religious hatred the books promote is the reaction to them by these whining Moaning Myrtles.

If it makes the complainers feel any better, my pagan cousin is a witch and loathes the books for the portrayal of wizardry. Imagine, GodBods agreeing with a pagan. Such a pity that something so petty is all that's required to bring them together in spirit.

Y'know, as a Dungeons and Dragons player (for 15 years plus), I'm really starting to feel left out, yesterday's news, ignored&trade. I remember the good old days when it was Dungeons and Dragons that were going to lead all the kids Straight To Hell. When urban legends of D&D inspired suicides and games played for real in sewers were front page material. Rolling dice was going to insipre people like me to lose all track of reality and be unable to distinguish the game from everyday life.

That's all a load of BS, and as I told my folks at the time, I'd Fireball anyone who said so for 10D6 damage with no saving throw. So there.


BCM // 8:54 AM
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Tuesday, December 24, 2002:

Merry Christmas!


BCM // 11:20 AM

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Petty Discontent


I'm Canadian, therefore I must have petty discontents which I pretend are earth shattering profoundities and shocking injustices which Must! Must! be rectified by Liberal government legislation or "soft power".

My petty discontent today? That
CNN.com has so much better a news page than FOXnews.com.

That just cheeses me off. I root for FOX mainly because they are open about their slant and put opinion pieces on the front page. Oh- and they have given bloggers great breaks over the last year. I always go to FOX news first, but if I get wind of a more obscure story on the tv, then I go to CNN. For example, the Guliani story in the previous post.


BCM // 11:03 AM
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Giuliani unhappy with trade center proposals

Understandable. Most of the designs I've seen have been absolute crap. It seems as if on one hand you have the original towers, which were booooooring, and on the other hand architecture of the "look at me! I'm so clever!" school of freakishness. Can't there be something reasonable inbetween?

In a few articles about the proposals, I've seen concerns about the towers being attacked again. There's a way to ensure that any such attack in the future will come to be seen by americans as an opportunity to ponder "root causes" and work with the other nations of the world yadda, yadda, yadda.

Relocate the UN to the lowest floors and basement of the new WTC buildings.

It's perfect. The UN already wants new buildings and expects the US to pay for them. If the new WTC gets attacked and falls, the UN immediately get buried, leaving the US free to do what needs to be done.

Then again, if the UN was destroyed as a consequence of the attack, I predict that a great many of the US population would be deeply ambivalent about the whole thing, and would restrain the US from going on an Imperialistic quest for vengeance.

See? Perfect!

Except the UN would want to be on top of the new towers. Unacceptable, for equally symbollic reasons.





BCM // 10:35 AM

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North Korea warns of an "uncontrollable catastrophe"

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin Powell spent a fourth straight day talking to North Korea's neighbors about a growing nuclear crisis as Pyongyang warned of "an uncontrollable catastrophe" if Washington maintains a hostile policy.



As opposed to a controlled catastrophe, something that North Korea has been for years.

Y'know, it's all the fault of that Bond movie. If it wasn't for that Bond movie, N.Korea would never have invaded South Korea, never have starved its people or been reduced to beggardom. After all, it takes a lot to sabotage the cornucopia of prosperity that the Dear Leader's Guidance and Superlative Wisom! has unleased through the gift of eternal communism!



BCM // 9:56 AM
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In honor of the Holiday season, I will not be taking time off blogging. I will post regularly! Really!

The proof, as they say, will be in the pudding. Christmas pudding.


BCM // 9:26 AM

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Monday, December 23, 2002:

In a continuing quest to Re-BlogStart....

Well, I still don't know that much HTML. At this rate I will have mastered it sometime about when it comes to be regarded as BASIC is. In other words, useless and obsolete.

Y'know, several years ago, as I was putting myself through university, I was manager of an ice cream operation at an amusement park. I was in charge of hiring new people to hawk ice cream at inflated prices. One of the candidates was the sorriest sack I've ever met. He was the avatar, the paragon of unemployable. He

  1. didn't wash (Did I mention just how small my office was?)

  2. wore a shirt that had been used for other things than covering oneself

  3. proceeded to complain about how difficult it was to get by and how he needed a job to make ends meet after the cuts to welfare payments (anyone who knows me can guess how unmoved this left me. Gee- cutting welfare works!)

  4. complain how difficult it was to get time on the library's computer to make his resume.



But the resume- ah, there was the rub. Spelling and grammar had nothing to do with this document. The kicker though was in his "skills" category. "HTML i am teaching myself html very slowly."

Yeah, well at least I can spell.

Oh yeah- and can someone tell me how the hell to get the links column back to an original size?

BCM // 12:56 PM
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