Present, Sir. Do I have to give you 20 good ones now?

You are not a lurker, Hans. Coco Crisp is a lurker. Members of various governmental administrations not to mention a large number of Masonic types are lurkers.

Coco Crisp? The Coco Crisp? Wow!

Why would we not want a chamber of equal representation as well, so that the more populous regions do not ah, get ahold of Pam's boots with regard to the less-populous regions?

Why is the World Baseball Classic, which I generally think is a good idea, being held now? Why not in November? If any player gets seriously hurt during this thing, that'll be the end of it.

As a Red Sox fan, losing Varitek for up to 3 weeks when he should be in camp working with all the new pitchers, is not a fun prospect.

Chris: describe to me how "a region" relates to democracy and I might follow you. That is nothing but the treatment of Ontario as a cow for the benefit of lesser populations. If folk want constutional regionalism, merge your provinces, if you want the benefits of running your own show, then suck up the fact that 10% or 0.1% should not hold the majority hostage.

Alan: Surely I do not have to explain the role of provinces and municipalities to an officer of the court. The provinces do not have jurisdiction over federal matters, and thus they are not sufficient bulwarks. Some checks and balances within the federal government itself are not a bad idea.

Ah, you said regions. Provinces are not entities in the Federal system like they are in the US. The semi-sovereign provinces do not add up to create our Federal government. Our Federal government is semi-soverign and autonomous. The failure of the Senate in Canada is not because we do not like it, it is because it represents nothing. It does not represent the aristocracy as in the UK's House of Lords or the states as in the US Senate. It is a pointless vacuum of the over 30 and barely acred in property which costs a lot and provides nothing. Shifting now to give it actual powers based on some dreamy concept of regionalism that is distinct from provincial status is a western separatists firmest anti-democratic desire but it would be one more step to Ontarian separatism, more take and no give demanded by those that have but will not give.

I'm entirely in favour of Ontarian separatism, but that's another discussion.

Harper's plan is to elect Senators from each province. How does that fail the test of specific provincially-oriented representation, then?

If he follows through with the other two E's in the plan (equal, effective) then the Senate will indeed be a valuable part of the federal legislature.

And sorry I should have noted that I grasp the bit about semi-sovereign and autonomous... But wouldn't the third E (effective), combined with the first two, require us to endow the provinces with some kind of status within the federal government -- hence, provincially-elected senators?

It represents some half-wacked idea of province, neither by population or by sovereignty. The US system is honourable in the two seats each state gets. If you don't do that, then give Ontario 40% of the senate. Otherwise, it is a shell game to placate the 7% of Canada (Alberta Tories) that now make the think tank of the nation.

Roll call: present and accounted for, living in a barn for awhile.
Alan: First choice new neighborhood is CLEARLY anywhere within a stones throw of Purity Ice Cream. We shall see........

The provinces pretty clearly are part of the federal equation - else a unitarty state.

It is difficult to make a case for the Senate as presently consituted and appointed. Electing the Senators would be nice. But, in fact, what Harper is going to do is appoint senators who come at the top of the straw poll, or not. I can't imagine he'll be appointing a lot of Liberal and NDP Senators in his second term when each "Senate Election" will be a mini-referendum on his Premiership.

Were I an Ontarian, I would be inclined to say, "Oh elect Senators if you must; however, in exchange we want a proper seat distribution in the Commons. No more of this silly rural preference. Then we'll talk."

India is a great bet. Great people, open society, no old men censoring the net. Second largest Muslim population in the world. Huge and interesting economic growth without the Army and the Politbureau getting in the way. Long tradition of Anglo-Saxon common law. English as second language. India can and should be our friend.

I heard last night that the World Baseball Classic has not registered with fans from the US or Canada. Even with all that talent on the rosters, baseball pundits believe that the ratings will be low in the North American market.

They also mused that injuries could play a huge roll in whether or not fans will see the return of this classic or not.

I know I'll be watching. Not to mention, it is March and the madness is looming.

"If folk want constutional regionalism, merge your provinces, if you want the benefits of running your own show, then suck up the fact that 10% or 0.1% should not hold the majority hostage." ---His Lorship of Radio

This is why the bicameral sol'n us whacky 'Muricans came up with works so well. We get both(regionalism and populism). Strict parity between the states in the Senate(everyone gets two--regionalism). Population disparity being taken into account in the House of Reps(populism). Budgets typically start in the House. This seems to handle the situation you're talking about(balancing the two goods in this case: not trampling a minority while preventing a tyranny by the minority).

"India is a great bet. Great people, open society, no old men censoring the net. Second largest Muslim population in the world. Huge and interesting economic growth without the Army and the Politbureau getting in the way. Long tradition of Anglo-Saxon common law. English as second language. India can and should be our friend."
Adding to this: would India have joined the NPT protocol anyways? Doubtful. They've had 30 years to do so. Looking at papers from S. Asia and AFP and BBC quoting Indian nuc scientists they aren't real happy about the deal the US offered much less the NPT.
And NPT is a joke anyways. Iran's a signatory. Japan is a signatory, but they've got the capability to put a warhead together if they want inside a month. NPT's original deadline for elimination of nuc weap by those that already had them was 2000 but France, UK, US, Russ, China---signatories all---- still have stockpiles. NPT was a grandeous idea that never worked. It didn't halt proliferation at all(Libya had designs from China, Pakistan got help from outside, India's initial nuc program was aided heavily by JFK, and then there's Iran using decades of help to get its program off the ground and then saying, 'We want out. Sorry, but thanks for all the fish.').
This is more effective. We can't stop them, but we can bring them into the fold and ease them into the int'l order(can you imagine the size of a military India can field in 10 years? Wouldn't it be good to have it integrated into the G8 and working with us, on the same paths with the same goals, instead of treating them like a step child?).
There's upside to this. Big upside. But not if you like things being done by int'l committee.

Baseball: try ESPN if you get it Al. They had Taiwan(Taipei) vs. Korea this morning, and then a game of Japan vs. someone(didn't pay as much attention to that). ESPN2 had it. Didn't try ESPN radio(it's RADIO!), but I'm sure one of it's stations was covering the games.
I think right now is the best time for the CLassic. Gives a guy a whole season to recover from injury and be back for a pennant run and the playoffs. I don't generally buy the injury argument. If a guy gets hurt he gets hurt. His loss is just as big if it happens opening day(see M. Vick in the NFL.). This way the team gets a longer chance to find a working replacement.

Did someone mention ice cream?

cm--One must prioritize their ice cream habits. This current arctic weather pattern will soon be followed by the hot stuff, making large quantities of ice cream a neccessity. With chocolate. I want to live near a steady supply of both.

It's never too cold for ice cream. One Christmas my mother and I drove by a side-of-the-road snack bar noted for their ice cream; "I don't suppose they're open," she said.

cm-I went by an A and W ice cream stand the other day during a rather nasty snow storm, and not only was it open, there were a dozen cars out front. Hot fudge sundaes? Maybe just hot coffee or hot food?