No Foolish Consistency Here

Andrew Coyne on Stephane Dion,

"The message one hopes public figures would wish to send is this: that Canadian citizenship is a precious thing; that it is not only a gift, but a vow; that we are a nation, or must be if we hope to amount to much -- a compact, if you like, binding all 32 million of us to each other in common cause. We do not merely populate this half of the continent; we are, rather, engaged in a great collective venture, the construction of a society based on justice and committed to do its part in advancing the human prospect."

Such powerful words, let's bind all 32 million Canadians in a common cause - oh wait, sorry, would you settle for 31,999,999 Canadians?

Andrew Coyne on Conrad Black,

"To be sure, the first Lord Black of Crossharbour has had a famously complicated relationship with his country of birth, even renouncing his citizenship when forced to choose -- a peerage for a passport. But if he has sometimes sounded angry with his country, these were clearly the cries of a wounded lover. We disappointed him, and he was not too shy to let us know it."

While on the topic of Conrad Black (sucks to be you Conrad!), I find it mysterious that right-wing folks are all so keen to rush in and defend him. I guess Occam's razor suggests that it's just because left-wingers have taken such glee in his downfall and right-wingers hate to see left-wingers happy, so there's not much point reading more into it, but still, it makes you wonder how much of a scum someone would have to be before right-wingers would refuse to defend them.

I mean, he was expelled from school for cheating, he was forced in court to return money he stole from the pensions of his employees and now he's been arrested and thrown in jail for fraud and obstructing justice. Yet the 'law and order' crowd just says poor old misunderstood Conrad.

Speaking of the law and order crowd, crime hits a 25 year low - if only the word 'crime' didn't rhyme with 'time' maybe demagogic politicians would stop trying to play the fear card and do something sensible like legalizing marijuana.