Carnival of the Canucks
is up over at Circadian Shift and for the second week one of my posts is included...
Thank you Jen.
My Canada Includes Accordian Guy
After reading both articles, Joey's and Mark Wegierski's I have to say I'm torn: Some of the things Wegierski says should be discussed - and on some I agree with Joey's "F you!"
With what is probably the most extensive system of bureaucracy and inverted preferment in world-history, any talk of "competitiveness" in Canada is plainly comical. For the past three decades, Canadians have been utterly content in selling primary products and non-renewable natural resources to maintain, for the vast majority of the population, what -- in the context of the planet today, and the rest of human history -- is a grotesquely inflated lifestyle. Indeed, there seems to be nothing to Canada today but the continued maintenance of a high standard of living and the vaunted social programs (especially the healthcare system); and the proclaimed right of anyone living or arriving here to enjoy all these benefits without one iota of responsibilities.
A lot of that I can't argue with and I do believe that a lot of our history has been wrung through the "PC filter." I remember being in Vancouver in 1992, the 200th anniversary of George Vancouver's surveying expedition to the Strait of Georgia, and being struck by how Captain Vancouver's acheivements were downplayed (fer Christsake's they named the city after him after all!) with several groups calling him an Imperialist or Nazi etc. etc. This historic anniversary died without much celebration in the city named after him.
The English-Canadians of those days certainly did not fight with the image of a multicultural Toronto of the 1990s -- where their male descendants would be subject to formal discrimination in employment, and be the victims of constant jibes in the mass-culture -- in their hearts and minds. Nor, one doubts, even today, would Canadian troops (the overwhelming majority of whom are either English or French) be willing to die for the sake of all of Canada becoming another region of the Third World.
Well that's a bit of a stretch! Official multiculturalism as practised by the Federal Government, warts and all, does not drag us down into Third World status. It could stand some improving, but just because an immigrant here isn't British doesn't mean the whole country is going to hell. It might go to hell for many other reasons but pining for "Old Canada" isn't the way to solve many of them.
For the record, I'm first generation Canadian, born of Central European parents.
When my parents immigrated in the 50's they were called the "trash of Europe" and were asked why they didn't just stay "over there where they belonged." One such opinioner was a beauracrat that assigned my mother to work washing up in a TB hospital in Montreal where she caught - ding! - Tuberculosis. My dad they sent into the deepest woods in Quebec to chop them down.
Both of them loved this country more than any other and would die for it.
And neither of them were British. And neither am I. But I am Canadian.
Since Everybody else is doing this quiz...
You are a GRAMMAR GOD!
If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!
How grammatically sound are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Fall on your knees before me, useless knaves!
Via so many sources I can't even begin to name...
Well, if you can't bomb Paris
...just send your businesses in to take over.
Some telling comments from the fray:
From Starbuck's CEO:
"Our success in other countries does not provide us with an entitlement to be successful in France," Schultz said.
Quite a refreshing attitude. But in private I'm sure they're already planning their next steps after crushing the competition.
From the competition:
"Starbucks is not going to compete with the French cafe," he said. "The cafe isn't just somewhere to drink coffee, it's a place where people go for social contact. In a big place with hundreds of customers that's more difficult."
And I thought that the two Starbucks on opposite corners of Burrard and Robson St in downtown Vancouver was a really stupid idea too. Until I found out those locations were the highest grossing for the chain.
I think the French are about to undergo yet another American marketing assault.
Some are realists though:
But he cheerfully accepts that the coming of the global coffee behemoth could spell the most serious threat so far to his company's decade-long existence.
"It's a bit like going into a nuclear war with a knife," he said of the competition.
"It's a bit like going into a nuclear war with a knife," he said of the competition.
Blogrolling
When is Blogrolling EVER coming back online?
I'm noticing a pickup in traffic lately- either people are enjoying my neuroses or it could have something to do with the shameless use of the words "paris" and "hilton" in earlier postings - whatever the reasons I want to use Blogrolling to see if anyone has linked to me...but it's down and has been for some time. I hadn't realized how many times I used their search functions in a week...
So if anyone's linked to me in the past few weeks, please drop me a line via the comments to this entry or via the email link top right of this page and say hello- that includes you Typepad people too! Does anyone know if Typepad has a link-tracking search like Blogrolling does? When it's working, I mean.
Facelift
Thought I'd give the blog a new look...
I've adopted a new patron saint for Raging Kraut: the ragingest Kraut of all Otto von Bismarck, Germany's Iron Chancellor.
He will see your words and judge your worthiness...
Glossary
Samizdata has put up a snazzy glossary of blogging terms for the uninitiated (and the somewhat initiated).
I'm still wondering how to pronounce "meme" though. Is it "me me" or "meem"? How stupid do I sound asking the question?
Is there such a thing as Blog-narcissism?
I find myself gazing at my blog full of wonder, thinking what if I changed that greenish background to be slightly more yellow? What about my font? Is it cool enough for me?
And I won't tell you how many different title graphics I've cycled through in the last five days.
And the funny thing is that all of this decorating has come at the expense of any good entries that I might've put out in the time it took me to figure out the most rudimentary Photoshop commands...
Style over substance indeed! Oh well, back to looking for things that piss me off...
The Flea has moved
Ghost of a Flea has a new home. Go say hello.
Hopefully the archives will move over too!
Yet another site moving onto Moveable Type. 'tis a stampede!
More Changes
Time for some changes to the ol' blog...
More Rage
More Kraut
Baby stuff is good, but really doesn't generate much rage. Something stupid WILL eventually happen that WILL piss me off. That much is a given...
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Gross Display of Most Naked Capitalism
Blogroll
Red Ensign Blogs for Victory!
-- One of the Original Red Ensigns carried by the Penticton 1st Volunteers. It was present at Vimy Ridge when our little Dominion stood up and became a nation worth fighting for...
And Lastly...
