R.E. XIV

Nathan is hosting the 14th Red Ensign Standard.

I gotta start posting more, or the Standard will begin to lap me round the circuit...

Belinda Stronach nude...hmmm. (Warning to all bloggers! This is what happens when you leave the keys to your blog to someone more publicly risque than you are!)

That might be worthy of some Canadian hit traffic!

"belinda stronach" nude

So I was browsing the Kraut's sitemeter logs and nearly fell off my chair I was laughing so hard. There it was, as plain as day, a Shaw subscriber from the Pacific time zone found their way to this blog Googling none other than....

"belinda stronach" nude

AND

A preview of the meeting of the big, bald, nasty bloggers...

ie. Chris Taylor, Nick Packwood, and myself...

When Chris Taylor suggests that you drink a specific type of Scotch or Bourbon, you do it! Trust me, the man knows his alcohol...

When Nick Packwood starts swearing and ranting and raving, you curse yourself for not bringing a tape recorder, as it is brilliant stuff.

Pictures will come as soon as I figure out how to drain the images off the SD card without an SD reader...And why do no internet cafe's have SD card readers?

More about that night later as the alcoholic haze is slowly fading from my brain and things said are becoming clearer. I only hope I didn't kiss anybody. No, no, that didn't happen, I'm sure...

The Return of the Kraut

So Ray has come back to the city...

On Saturday morning I waited in Kelowna's departure lounge, watching as flights to Vancouver and Seattle were cancelled due to fog. Waiting, waiting - then, finally the plane boards, does a short taxi, then leaps into the air smoothly, making my younger days' fear seem stupid.

But I also remember having more room to sit and the attendants not being so damn surly and cheap with the coffee.

Four and a half hours later we land in frigid, snowy Toronto. Thinking that not much has changed I realize that I'm walking through a totally new Terminal 1, all shiny, new and modern...Snazzy.

A cockup at the car rental desk and I'm cruising in an upgraded Monte Carlo at speeds of 20km/hour. Apparently Torontonians are having their annual bout of amnesia, in which they forget all knowledge of how to drive safely in the snow. People are whining about how slippery everything is and how stupid every OTHER driver is...

I'm thinking driving north to visit my brother is a BAD idea. I give it a few more miles. Once I get out of Brampton, the roads are miraculously clear of snow AND traffic. I gun the engine up to a slightly risky 80km and hope for the best. Apart from the occasional whiteout from blowing snow I have no problem until I catch up with other drivers who seem to have no concept of the uses of momentum in pushing through snowy patches.

Honestly...I believe that the inventions of traction control and anti-lock brakes have made Canadians worse drivers because they no longer have to think about wheel slippage or pumping the brakes so they don't lock up.

3 hours later and I get to my brother's place on Georgian Bay safely and have a short family reunion. On Sunday when I awake I'm treated to one of those beautiful sunny snow days that only seem to exist in southern Ontario. B.C.'s beautiful, but...different. 120km/hour flying down highway 10 and I'm on my way to drop the rental car, check in to the hotel and then off to dinner, drinks and political conquests with Mr. Taylor and the Flea.

Much drinkage and world domination talk will ensue. And much Kylie-talk.

But that's a story for another time (and I have pictures...)

Bluffing?

PM threatens election over same sex marriage



Somebody obviously thinks that they have enough cash in the coffers for another election.

I hope this bluff is called. Outside of a direct referendum on the issue, this would be the most democratic way of deciding the debate: a one-issue election, winner take all...

Raise, call, or fold?
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Oh and by the way, who the hell is editing CTV's news copy? Stephen Hamper instead of Harper, and is it Globe and Mail reporter Brian Laugh or Laghi? Talk about rushing your work.

Back to T.O.

I'm taking a trip to Toronto next week on business. It'll be seven months since we packed the kids, dog and home and headed west to B.C. It'll be good to see some old friends and meet some new ones from Blogland.

I wonder if anything's changed since I've been gone.

Lucky Thirteen

The 13th issue of the Red Ensign Standard is up at the Freeway to Serfdom. Jay Jardine does a great job of perusing the blogs and giving you the best of the last two weeks.

Because David Provided Women with Unrealistic Expectations

Because I promised I would get photos of the offending piece of public art I trudged through sub-zero temperatures sans-chapeau to give you, readers of Raging Kraut, a sneak peak at all the hullaballoo coming out of the Okanagan Valley. I therefore present to you:

Ugly non-fit Naked Old Guy Statue

From a distance he stands, naked, perched in majesty at the centre of a roundabout (was the city planner an ex-pat Brit, longing for the traffic-chaos of home? I mean, really, what the hell is a roundabout doing in Penticton anyway?) unafraid, unfit, uncaring about YOUR problems, for, you see, in brutal subtlety, he has baggage - figurative emotional baggage according to the artist, and actual real baggage strewn around him on the roundabout like so many serfs and peons paying tribute to their kings and betters...See! More pictures:



But Ugly non-fit Naked Old Guy Statue pays no heed to the waste luggage purchased using city money (or stolen from garage sales/garbage piles): he is greater than you or I, for see he is naked, and it is that nudity in -20 degree weather that makes him superior to you or I. He's there dammit, providing a service year-round, illustrating the effects of shrinkage on the modern male:



See, it's normal for it to do that when guys come out of the lake.

"Yes. Significant shrinkage."

The New David

Nude statue in B.C. traffic circle distracts drivers



I work a block away from this statue. I will have to remember my camera tomorrow...



Gotta remember my tape measure...

Wonder if our local MP, the biblically-minded Stockwell Day will leap into the fray soon. Now all we need is a good name for the scandal:

Wee-wee-gate?

Me Wants itsssss yesssss!

Damn Big TV

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I would never have to leave the house. The world would come to my room life-sized. Pornography would be life-sized.

Oh My God!

Nigella and Angelina would be life-sized...

Gotta go.