More EU Vote Fallout

Patrick Ruffini, always a pleasure to link to this dude, has the definitive summation of the French EU vote yesterday. Entitled "The Red Sea: France decides to remain French; Rejects European Constitution" is a hilarious - and downright eerie red/blue map of the non vote. Fantastic stuff.

And really could Reason's Hit & Run post headliner, "I am very surprised because normally French are cowards," be any better? Non. Thank you Matt Welch.

Let the eat cake

So, the French have voted no to the EU Constitution. Rarely do I throw my hat in with a bunch of anti-Americans and commies, but really, France has done Europe a great service today. The Chicago Boyz gets it pitch perfect, "How about something different for Europe than a gray, lifeless, undemocratic, unaccountable bureaucracy lodged in Brussels sucking what life remains out of the old continent?"

And that giant sucking sound you hear, is the Constitution with 441 more articles than the perfectly good one used in America has (George Will, you rock my world). The irony of the vote taking place on Patrick Henry's birthday has not been lost on some.

Sorry about the window

The NY Mets latest campaign, by Olgilvy, uses decals that look like a baseball has smashed through your winshield. They also feature some pretty funny notes from Met's players apologizing. One of the notes, from #16 Doug Mientkiewicz reads: "I guess you noticed the broken windshield. My bad. I'm used to the Green Monster holding in my homeruns. Come out to Shea and I'll try and hit another one out for you." (Via Media Post)

Old Fashioned Players

I've read to really good baseball articles this morning. The first is a short one on John Olerud, who I mentioned yesterday. The fact that press in New York are still thinking about what Johnny O's glove can do for the New York teams says alot about a player.

The other is a nice little ditty about the 5th best pinch hitter all-time, Dave Hansen. There is something particularly nice about classy ballplayers willing to keep swinging away, even if they only come off the bench to face 97-mph heat. It's also nice to read about that such classy ballplayers in general still exist.

Welcome Back

I can't believe I haven't posted a single word in the past three weeks. Sure I missed my chances to blog about the elections here in BC - where the Liberals were reelected. I missed the biggest political showdown in my lifetime in Ottawa too. That one even had my former choice to lead the Conservatives leaving the party and joining the government. Thanks alot Belinda. That was a bad day.

But there is just too much great stuff to write about. Seriously - the first baseball game of the year I get to watch on TV and Boston is destroying the Yankees 17-1. Don't think I didn't notice that John Olerud is back in the bigs, playing for Boston, and going 3-6 either. And when you read that Fred Thompson seems to be back on the political radar for 2008 and life is good. And if that smörgåsbord of goodness wasn't enough to get this blog back to life, thinking that France might actually vote no in the European constitution is, well, just sauce for the goose.

Hitler Dead

This was the Globe and Mail front page from 60 years ago.

Sixty Years On

Sixty years ago the top story in the papers was that Hilter was dead. Of course, that news was coupled with the daily casualties of Canadian troops fighting - for that same day 72 Canadians died, and 168 more were wounded.

Of course with this week's lead up to VE celebrations it makes interesting reading. But then to compare that to the story that our Minister of Veteran Affairs has to return from Europe to help prop up this sinking government is weak - especially that the Prime Minister already cancelled. The whole situation is pretty weak.

Then it gets even worse. Today on the oped page of the Globe is an outrageous article demaning that Canada's new War Museum should also celebrate peacemakers. Nhung Thuy Hoang writes, "I want to see something more positive that just got to war to resolve conflicts. How about compromise? How about dialogue? How about talks?" I have nothing against celebrating the peacemakers, but really are you kidding me? This is a war museum lady, if you want a peace museum then go build your own.

I was going to comment on this yesterday, when I read something over at Small Dead Animals, but felt I should leave it alone. The reality is that we shouldn't glorify war, but that doesn't mean we should be ashamed of the brave things Canadian soldiers have done around the world to protect freedom.

A Unique 2-Hour Hell

I can't believe I liked this film. A movie set at the U.N. and co-starring Sean Penn? I know! If there is a unique 2-hour hell for me, this sounds like at least one circle of it. But I actually really enjoyed The Interpreter.

Sean Penn, yes him, was excellent. Nicole Kidman on the huge screen is about as close to a legitimate old fashioned movie star as you're likely to find. And Sydney Pollack's filming of New York and the U.N. is utterly gorgeous.

A New Hope for the Star Wars Franchise?

A spoiler rich love fest from director Kevin Smith on Episode III. (Warning: Spoilers in that there link! Be warned) But damned if I'm not curious about it now. Maybe I'm just in one of those forgiving moods - the first new episode of Family Guy was probably enough to do it - but I even enjoyed reading about Lucas and what happens next to his Lucasfilm empire after the movies are over (See "Is There Life After 'Star Wars' for Lucasfilm?" in today's New York Times).

As a side note, how cool is it that Lucasfilm is moving into the Presidio? Best. Location Ever.

Sweet Robinson

I was reading the latest Vanity Fair a few minutes ago, and really enjoyed the article about Jackie Robinson's son David and his Sweet Unity Farms coffee company. I've always liked stories about generations of families, and learning that Jackie Robinson's son is trying to do something like creating a coffee farm collective in Tanzania. Now, lets be honest, I'm not really interested collective farms and that kind of hippy action fair trade stuff, well, I don't think about when I'm having my Venti Mocha at Starbucks.

But, it's still very cool that the L.A. Dodgers are now serving the coffee at Chavez Ravine 58 years after Jackie broke the color barrier.