The Point

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Sporno

Reason enough to watch the games? Tip of the hat to thesecretfee.

So, after having gone through all the trouble to reason out whether to watch the opening ceremonies for this year's Olympics or not, I slept through them, and woke up just in time to see the end of the athletes' march. And then I missed the repeats. Twice.

It just wasn't meant to be.

I blame it on the time difference... I'm back in Alberta visiting the fam for a few weeks, and got to fulfill my one aspiration in Calgary this summer: to watch the games with my grandpa in his authoritatively climate-controlled condo (he's way more serious about this than those officials in Beijing, I assure you) and eat cheese buns. My personal highlight, of course, has been the men's diving. Everything after this is just icing on the cake.

Hilariously, my grandpa actually bet that our-man-from-Laval Alexandre Despatie wouldn't even place because he did so poorly in the preliminaries. 'He got too fat,' he concluded. Well, Alex, I'll admit you've put on some muscle since you were *thirteen years old*, but I'd say you did pretty well for yourself. Thanks for a great show.

And it is all a show, of course... did anyone else read this headline? '77 applications, no protests at Beijing Games,' reports the always credible Xinhua news service from Beijing. Shockingly, they report that 74 of the applications to protest at the three Olympic venues pre-approved for demonstrations were 'withdrawn after amicable settlements between the parties and authorities.' Two others had some problem with their application, they say.

One, apparently, did not meet the proper criteria for government-sanctioned protest, for unexplained reasons. I wonder what they could be.

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posted by Christopher at 1:02 a.m. | link | 0 comments

Saturday, August 09, 2008

It has to be said... That's hot.

So my favourite thing in the news this week?

John McCain, trying his damndest to make Obama look unready for leadership, has put out an ad comparing the latter's fame to Paris Hilton's inexplicable celebrity status of her own. You'd expect the best response to come from the really rather eloquent, thoughtful Mr Obama. But you'd be wrong.

Perhaps the best thing Paris Hilton has ever done in her short, inexplicable life:

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posted by Christopher at 1:13 a.m. | link | 3 comments

Thursday, August 07, 2008

That Man











A different Emerson altogether, but the similarity in nose profile is striking, isn't it?

Does anyone else find it grossly embarassing a) that our new Foreign-Affairs-Minister-by-default-because-no-one-else-elected-was-available-
and-another-cabinet-appointment-might-make-for-bad-optics David Emerson is tripping all over himself this week to make sure Beijing is absolutely clear that Harper means no offense whatsoever by not attending the opening ceremonies and b) that his man holds a cabinet position at all?

I've got to admit, the Conservatives here have a knack for timing. Who else could have had the balls to use the almost unbelievably stupid affair with Maxime Bernier and the misplaced NATO briefing to slip in Emerson as his replacement without eliciting more than a peep of outrage? Surely there are others among us who remember that this is the same David Emerson who unabashedly crossed the floor immediately after being elected for the Liberals in 2006 for a bright new career with the Conservatives?

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posted by Christopher at 2:11 p.m. | link | 0 comments
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