Top of the B-List
The Economist conducted its yearly survey and the green land of my birth, Ireland, comes out first for quality of life. Now, the UN usually does its own polls and Canada usually comes out on top. So the question is, do I move back? Lucky me. I guess I could escape the frigid Canadian winters in drizzly Ireland and come back to Canada for the summers.
P.S. Gentle American friends, the U.S. placed 13th. When are you coming up?
Back in September, Brooke and I spent a week in Washington state and dropped into the Democratic Party headquarters in Walla Walla to express our support. The guys seemed eager to talk and we ended up spending about half an hour with them. We joked that if Bush won again, they should all come to Canada and claim refugee status.
Marry An American has a slightly different plan. They’re signing up single Canadians to marry liberal Americans so that they can escape Bush’s America. If I wasn’t already married, I might be willing to help out! That would certainly be bigamy (get it? bigamy, big of me? it’s funny!).
(via ericalucci)
SPOILER: The site is actually satirical and sponsored by Canada’s lefty THIS Magazine, which has a pretty nifty blog.
My playlist for today, set on repeat…
Calling all rednecks to put down their sluggers
Turn their attention from beating the buggers
Pick up machine guns and kill camel fuckers
Backwoods nation…
Calling all doctors of spin and the smoke screen
To whip the new hate riots into a frenzy
Of good versus evil ignoring the history
Of the Backwoods Nation
Ain’t it a shame
When due process
Stands in the way of swift justice
Calling all frat’ boys
To trade in their hazing
Their keggers and cocaine
And casual date raping
For cabinet appointments
And rose-garden tapings
Backwoods, backwoods, backwoods……nation
(Note: this song was written by a fellow evangelical Christian, proving we’re not as monolithic, or neolithic, as some might think.)
I don’t mean to be vulgar, or seem combative. But seriously, folks. People lining up for six to eight hours to vote? In the world’s most powerful nation? Shameful. How many of those people got fed up and just went home? We’ll never know. No matter what side of the political fence you’re on, the US electoral process is broken and subject to abuse, corruption, and technological failure. But I doubt there’s any political will to fix things. As far as I know, there weren’t excessive waits or ballot shortages in the “nice” parts of town.
Nelson is no more. In the fall of 1990, two neurotic bachelors bought a cat to chase the bugs out of their apartment. Nelson became much like the two of us: slovenly, loyal, cranky, desperate to be loved. Yesterday, Brent told me that Nelson hadn’t been eating much in the last few days and that he was taking him to the vet. Nelson has never been to the vet, not once, so I knew this was serious. It turned out that there was some fluid and possibly tumours bloating his body, and so the decision was pretty easy. I only regret that I wasn’t there with him. His passing is more than just the loss of a friend. It feels like the passing of a whole era in my life. At my wedding two years ago, Brent even based his riotously funny speech on the concept of Nelson as our love child. The child is gone, but the love remains.
By the way, did I tell you that I’m not a “cat person”?
