Is it summer or fall? I have no idea. I put the furnace on last evening as much to deal with the damp from the rain. It worked. It worked without making a clang, a thump or a low grinding noise of any sort.
- This will likely be the news of the day as reported in the Times of India:
Islamabad’s delicate ties with the United States is threatening to come apart at the seams after it was revealed Thursday that the Bush administration threatened to bomb Pakistan into the ''stone age'' if it did not cooperate in the war on terror after 9/11.
If it actually was said, one has to admire what can only be a Frintstones reference working its way into global politics. Given that the government of Pakistan has now signed a cease-fire deal with Taliban militants in North Waziristan, one should pay attention to Pakistan’s military ruler Pervez Musharraf a little more closely than we may have been. - Last night, the Red Sox played the game that they wished they had played all year, beating Minnesota six to nuttin'. Big Papi got two homers and Josh Beckett was incredibly sharp for an eight-inning shutout performance. Beckett had the string on the ball thing happening, pulling inside fastballs back to just nick the plate.
- I want my roll-up computer monitor. Life will be better with a roll-up computer monitor.
- I think Steve did a good job:
The Prime Minister made the remarks yesterday during his maiden UN speech, which he also used to reinforce the challenges faced in rebuilding Afghanistan and rooting out the Taliban. He said the world community must stay united, lest division make the mission harder for Canada, which has 2,300 troops in the country and will soon have 2,500. "We have no illusions about the difficulties that still lie before us," Mr. Harper said. "Difficulties don't daunt us. But lack of common purpose and will in this body would."
Interesting to note the demand that everyone seems to have all of a sudden to make the UN work. So much for rejection of world order. Conversly, I had an Ezra Levant article imposed upon me in on of those legal trade magazines yesterday going on dopey-wise about how the supposedly successful Isreali battle in Lebanon this summer showed how international law and action is a fraud - no one told the nation apparently. I guess there was some delay between writing and publishing or maybe just a delay between brain and keyboard. But I suppose when you can come up with great junior-high phrases like "moral ghoulishness" and then build a political theory around it, you have to be given newspaper and magazine column space...right? This one is gold: "Are you a September 10th person or a September 11th person?" By this he clearly means do you agree with me or disagree with me but loads the latter with a truck load of moral superiority that cannot be questioned. Go ahead and question...and watch out for people who award themselves the moral gold star in any discussion. - Somewhere there is a scientist saying "why do magnets always get the rap? This had nothing to do with magnets yet there it is: Magnetic train crashes in Germany". Time we spoke out against the thin veneer that rests over the anti-magnetism we all share but speak not of.
Comments
gr - September 22, 2006 8:43 am
And that last empty bullet....?
cm - September 22, 2006 8:44 am
According to Canada Now's weather person, it's been fall since just after midnight. However, my quilt rack still features my summer quilt, as I'm waiting until tomorrow to make the switch.
Hans - September 22, 2006 8:45 am
I'm sick of Pakistan (in a geopolitical affairs sense). Why can't they get along with India? Why do they care so much about Kashmir? Why can't the find democracy? Why do they keep interfering with Afgahnistan? Maybe they should've bombed them back to the stone age....
Alan - September 22, 2006 8:50 am
Hans! Did you switcked from sliced banana to raspberries on your frootloops this morning? Bomb Pakistan, Pakistan bombs back and - <i>zoom</i> - we are all living in the wunderground caves in grey jumpsuits listening to the voice on the speakers within months.
gr - September 22, 2006 8:55 am
cm, we put the biggest quilt on last night, as temps got down to the 30s (single digit c?), but not the goose down, yet. That is for winter. I bet my tomato plants are unhappy, what is left after the slugs ate 90 % of the crop.
Pakistan is not one of those nice places. I wouldn't mind visiting Iceland some summer. They don't seem to argue with anybody.
Alan - September 22, 2006 9:01 am
You forget the Cod War.
cm - September 22, 2006 9:04 am
I stand corrected. According to this site, the equinox isn't until tomorrow.
Alan - September 22, 2006 10:03 am
I think it is tomorrow in Atlantic Canada and the eastern time zone. West of there it is today. Have I got that right?
Hans - September 22, 2006 10:20 am
According to Boomer the local PEI weather guy, the autumnal equinox happens in the wee hours of the 23rd. Plan your pagan rituals accordingly.
Alan - September 22, 2006 10:25 am
List of culturally appropriate Michaelmassy activities here.
Hans - September 22, 2006 10:25 am
Re Pakistan again: I'm confident the US military could bomb them back to the stone age in shorter order and so severely that they could not retaliate against anything but military targets nearby. Even if they were able to get a volley off, it would surely be directed at Washington or Nevada or Colorado and not my little corner of the world. We might have a few days without electricity, but I'm willing to risk it.
Hans - September 22, 2006 10:30 am
Thanks for the link Al. That's helpful cuz initially I was going to celebrate by sacrificing a virgin, but you know, this being Charlottetown on a Friday.... [cue snare drum-bass drum-crash cymbal]
Matt Fletcher - September 22, 2006 10:36 am
Inability to tell the difference between summer and fall is a tell-tale sign of the changeable weather of fall. Regardless of when the equinox is if you can't tell wether its summer or fall, its fall.
Alan - September 22, 2006 10:57 am
Hey! Tis the day of the wickerman:<blockquote class="smalltext">At this time of the year, the ancient Celts conducted a mock sacrifice of a large wicker-work figure which represented the vegetation spirit. </blockquote>Where's Britt? [P'raps beware that link as it may link to links.]
Marian - September 22, 2006 1:08 pm
Since you said please... I'm busy covering the Budapest riots. The fate of Hungary may depend on my blog, I'll have you know.
Of course, anyone interested in the Budapest riots can read about them here: http://www.the-internationalist.blogspot.com
gr - September 22, 2006 1:21 pm
OH HAPPY DAY! Marian is back!!!!! You have been missed.
Alan - September 22, 2006 1:26 pm
Yes, Marian and I have been working on the protocol on politeness through off-line sessions and I have been working on the application of the protocol. I still have three non-complinancies and two of them are not to be removed from the protocol's exclusions nor any replicants of their kind. Other than that I am sunny as the day and bright as a button from here on out.
Marian - September 22, 2006 2:41 pm
Very well then, I won't trouble you with my news.
Alan - September 22, 2006 2:51 pm
What? What news? What have I done? I have entirely bent to your will and then publicly acknowledged it. My supplications are complete. What?
Marian - September 22, 2006 2:59 pm
I assumed that any reference to politeness was my cue to shove off. You mean it wasn't?
Marian - September 22, 2006 3:02 pm
Could you translate this?
"Yes, Marian and I have been working on the protocol on politeness through off-line sessions and I have been working on the application of the protocol. I still have three non-complinancies and two of them are not to be removed from the protocol's exclusions nor any replicants of their kind. Other than that I am sunny as the day and bright as a button from here on out."
I have no idea what you're talking about here.
Alan - September 22, 2006 3:02 pm
I bow like the willow tree to your demand for consistency in nice-i-ness. When I tell people to shove off, I tell them to shove off. If I look like I am playing, that is an invitation to play.
So what is your news?
Alan - September 22, 2006 3:04 pm
Translation: you said I am rude when I want to be. You pointed to an instance I will not identify. You were right. I admit there are three people on the internet I cannot bear. I will try to bear or avoid the one I identified to you. The other two are still on "delete all" due to track records.
None of these people are you. Gary needs you. I need you. You are our only link to Hungary.
What is the news?
T-Bo - September 22, 2006 3:15 pm
The Stone Age reference has been around for a bit. I remember when my brother and his best frend were in law school, and I was in my radio days, the three of us would make up "Morrisville Messages" broadsheets (in honor of our home town, Morrisville, N.Y., population 2,500, more or less, SA-LUTE!). Anyway, one time my brother's freind wrote that a mutual friend, known for being drunk most of the time, had been named Defense Secretary while the Iranian hosage crisis was ongoing. His solution? "I'm going to blast those (obscenity) (ethnic slur) back into the Stone Age." That was the first I'd heard of it. It was funny then.
Marian - September 22, 2006 4:29 pm
My news is that I am saving Hungary from certain doom. Don't you read my blog? Sheesh.
gr - September 22, 2006 5:06 pm
Marian, as we said in kindergarten: 'you show me yours and I'll show you mine'. BLOGS, of course.
http://grpottersblog.blogspot.com/ <have a look
Really did miss you, Marian.
Now I am off to read the Internationalist, and also, hello to T-bo, who is another person I appreciate hanging around. (and yes, I did cut out of work very early today, but the boss, me, is unlikely to fire me)
Marian - September 24, 2006 9:17 am
Thanks Gary. I will check on your blog anon.