Meanwhile, at the movies...

After a bit of a break, I finally got out to see a couple of movies over the last week.

First up: “Wedding Crashers” was hilarious. I had zero expectations for this (well, actually I thought everything funny was probably in the commercials, and the movie would be pretty lame), so I was pleasantly surprised. Very funny movie. Vince Vaughn plays, well, Vince Vaughn, but at least he does it convincingly, and I don’t think anyone is better at that smarmy rapid fire delivery he specializes in. Owen Wilson plays, well, Owen Wilson – but again, at least he does it effectively. May actually see this one again…

“The Island”. A Michael Bay film – need I say more? Creepy sci-fi movie for oh, a half hour or so, followed by two hours of car chases, car crashes, explosions (which apparently blew gaping holes in the plot), and Bay’s usual assortment of rock-video slo-mo sweeping, swirling camera shots. Honestly – I had put Bay’s previous work “Armageddon” as one of the worst movies in history…but I have to say, Mikey just about topped himself with this effort.

And just to note – I didn’t actually “choose” to see this film. I had sworn never to pay a dime to see a Michael Bay movie - it just so happened that ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ was sold out, and my girlfriend’s friend sort of panicked and got tickets to the next available flick that noone had seen – which happened to be “the Island”. Luckily it was a cheap matinee - $4.25 – but I still felt ripped off!

Parrish the thought...

So, it appears that Carolyn Parrish, about to welcomed back to the Liberal fold after a stint in the hinterlands as an Independent, just can’t keep her mouth shut. You may recall that she was exiled from Paul Martin’s caucus for crossing the line once to often in making disparaging remarks about Americans (in general) and George W (in particular)…well, actually it was probably for making nasty comments about PM’s circle of sycophants who tirelessly toiled to get their man the top job over the last, oh, ten years or so. But time heals all wounds, and the buzz is that she is about to become a proud Liberal again (since Paul still needs her vote to maintain his precious Minority).

Anyway…Ms. Parrish has never met a microphone she could resist, and so we were recently treated to her latest screed. And who was the target this time? None other than Chief of Defence Staff, General Rick Hillier. And what was Hillier’s crime? Why he dared to call the murderous scumbags Canadian troops will be hunting in Afghanistan, well, er, “murderous scumbags”. Perhaps he should have found some politically correct way to say this, but I thought his wording was pretty accurate. What else do you call people whose ideology is heavily tilted to the “kill the infidels and anyone remotely associated with them” side? Guess who the “infidels” are Carolyn? That’s right – you and me!

Parrish also had issue with the General’s comment that Canadian soldier’s job is to “kill” these murderous scumbags, rather than, say, invite them to tea. Sorry Carolyn, but what do you think soldiers are trained for? They are not, contrary to Liberal pieties (and the back of a $10 bill), social workers with guns. We give them the guns so that they can use them to shoot people – they are not props, for chrissakes. And in the kill or be killed situations we are potentially sending them into, well, I hope its our boys who are doing the killing – because the guys on the other side would certainly not hesitate to send a few body bags home to Canada.

Ms. Parrish also manages to look through her rose coloured glasses to see Canada’s “100 year tradition” of peace keeping. She must have read the official Liberal history of Canada or something, because obviously she has no idea about the actual history of the country. Never mind the fact that modern day “peace-keeping” was invented in 1957, but what did she think Canadian troops were doing in WWI, WWII, and Korea?? The “peacekeeping” we did then involved going over to Europe and Asia and sending many, many German, North Korean & Chinese soldiers to the grave. The point being that soldiers (including Canadian soldiers) are trained to kill – not to be a glorified boy scouts. When called upon, Canadian soldiers have done this job with distinction – and its high time the Libs canned all this warm & fuzzy “peace-keeping” b.s and acknowledged that the world is, in fact, still a dangerous place and sometimes we may still be required to take the fight to the enemy.

Like Patton said – the soldier’s job is not to die for your country, its “to make the other poor bastard die for his.”

Hear, hear!

Fonda to Speak out on War (oh lord, not again)

Memo to all the anti-war protesters, commentators, et all: Didn’t you see George’s speech a couple of years back – “Mission Accomplished”? Hey – the war is over!

But seriously - what would you propose? It’s too late to put that genie back in the bottle. Iraq’s been invaded, army defeated and seeds of democracy planted…well, they did have an ‘election’ at least (and not one of Sadaam’s “vote for me or take a trip through the meat grinder” type of elections). If every American soldier was suddenly returned home (er, alive, and not in a body bag), do you think that somehow Iraq would return to its former state of pre-war tranquility and happiness (um, sans the murderous dictator)?

I was never a big fan of George W.’s Iraq policy (which seemed to consist of “we’re invading!” and little else in the way of planning), and I think the Americans have gone and stepped in a big pile of shite - stepped into a hornet’s nest etc, but what do you think they are supposed to do now? Just leave? Do you honestly think your beloved Iraqi’s would be better off if the US just up and left now? Do you think that the Islamofascist nutjobs who are blowing things up over there will take a deep breath and calm down if the evil Americans leave? Do you think that if the US pulls all their troops out of the country (evil occupiers that they are!) that Iraq will suddenly become a land of peaceful, happy “militants” and “insurgents”? If so, you need to up the dosage on your medication.

Remember, these are the brave “insurgents” who strike a fearsome blow for the Iraqi people by driving a car packed with explosives into a crowd of children. Remember that these are the people who, in striking a blow for their oppressed Muslim brothers, blow up, well, other Muslims. Hmmm…interesting way of expressing support.

Truth is, if it wasn’t for these morons and their jihad Iraq would be well on the road to reconstruction. It’s a little hard to rebuild key infrastructure if some asshole with a grudge and an ideology that doesn’t extend much past “blow somethin’ up”, keeps, well, blowing stuff up.

Anyway – while I agree that invading Iraq was a colossally bad idea, I think that it would be equally catastrophic to just cut and run now. It’s a case of “you broke it, you bought it” and unfortunately, there is no easy way out – despite what the anti-war crowd would have you believe.

So to all the Jane Fonda types out there proudly reliving the sixties and their anti-Viet Nam days – please, just shut the fuck up until you have something constructive to contribute.

Promises, promises....

Harris did not keep all his promises either (so there!)

And so, off we go on another merry trip into Toronto Star land, where the Liberal Faeries and elves shower their largesse across the country/province, forever stalked by the evil wicked Conservatives. Why, even when Dalton tries his darndest to buy some support with a goodie-goodie announcement (albeit in an altered form from what he “promised” during the election) the media keep labeling him as a ‘promise breaker.’ It just ever so sad.

And if those cute l’il Liberals go astray and do something, well, bad (like lying their asses off to get elected) – well, that can just be dismissed with a casual swipe at those pesky Conservatives –just start howiling that “they did it too!”.

This is the best the Star can trot out? Talk about damning with faint praise. When all else fails they go for the tried and true strategy of attacking Mike Harris. Um, memo to the Star - Mikey has been removed from the Ontario political scene for several years now…and isn’t that “well, they did it too!” line just about the weakest most feeble defense that can be offered? Honestly, do Star writers put their kids to bed with scary stories of the wicked ogre of North Bay – ooooooo –watch out for that scary Mike Harris – he could jump out from under the bed at any time! Oh , the hardship we lived under during his wicked rule. *sob*

But onward, ho! Columnist Ian Urquhart ties himself into knots to try and make it appear that Harris was somehow as big a fibber as McGuinty. Nevermind the fact that he undermines his own argument by noting that Harris’ Common Sense Revolution document made some 61 promises versus McGuinty’s 231 (231!!) promises made during the 2003 election campaign. Lets face it, Mcguinty’s Fiberals were quite obviously shoveling the shit in 2003 as fast as humanly possible in the classic “say anything to get elected” style of the Liberals. If they promised 231 things during the last election you can rest assured that 230 of them were bullshit, and the other one somehow slipped by their political consultants.

Who will ever forget Mcguinty staring into the camera with that dead fish gaze of his and promising “I won’t cut your taxes – but I won’t raise them either.” Must have set a record breaking that one.

Or his solemn declaration that he would halt building on the Oak Ridges Morraine – legal contracts be damned! Or ignored in this case, until those pesky courts intervened and said – don’t think so!

Isn’t it about time the folks at the Star realized that the reason that:

“Try as he might, Premier Dalton McGuinty and his Liberal government have found it impossible to escape the label of "promise breakers." “

is that, well, um, if the shoe fits…