I heard on NPR today the Queen is visiting Ireland. I know just enough to know this could be contentious so I turned up the radio, but alas I didn’t gleen much during my early morning drive to Starbucks (for grounds). So I’m home waiting for the pot to finish and I thought I’d do some quick research. Continue reading
Politics
Somewhere in Iowa, likely in an cluster of temporary offices that once housed a Circuit City, Mitt Romney’s staffers are no doubt breathing a little easier today. Elsewhere, in his underground lair, Roger Ailes’ nightly glass of immigrant tears probably tastes just a little cleaner this evening.
That’s because Mike Huckabee announced on his show Saturday night that he will not seek the 2012 Republican nomination. Continue reading
Newt Gingrich is the first Republican to officially announce his run for the 2012 Presidential nomination and this presents a potential problem for the Democratic election machine. If they are very lucky, the folks vying for the nomination will take care of Newt for them. If not, they will need to come to terms with the impeachment of President Clinton. Continue reading

The political world of France was hit with an unexpected scandal today as news emerged of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s arrest by NYPD late last night on charges of attempted rape.
Strauss-Kahn, a former French Finance Minister and member of the Socialist Party of France, has been serving as the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund since 2007. Responsible for the French economic turn-a-round in the the 90s that ensured the country’s entry into the EU, Strauss-Kahn was nonetheless forced to resign as Finance Minister amongst accusations of corruption relating to a fraud investigation into Elf Aquitaine, a French oil company, although he was later acquitted.
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AP has an excellent article up detailing the incestuous relationship between Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and the government regulators that were supposed to be keeping a watchful eye on the industry.
Once upon a time, in April of 2010, author and screenwriter Neil Gaiman was approached by the good folks at Stillwater, Minnesota’s library to come and speak, presumably about writing and the like. While he has been known to speak publicly from time to time, he’d much rather spend his days writing, so his agency asked for a kingly sum.
This will be the first in a multi-part series in Dispatches from Canada about how we organize our country politically, and how we operate our system of parliamentary democracy. This post is going to be about the fundamentals, with the more esoteric stuff saved for later posts. Think of this as a foundation for the posts that come later.

Arnold “I never groped that gal” Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver call it quits.
Maria was a fool to leave the family manse. Never give up the house gals! Throw HIS ass out. Oh and Maria? Eat something.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Both the book and its two movie counterparts have many perceived villains. But, when you think about it, none of them are actually villains in the first place. Slugworth, the obvious culprit, is actually just a moral test placed in the children’s way by Willy Wonka. You could also consider Willy Wonka a villain; but in the end he is just trying to find an heir to his empire. The true villain in the series is Grandpa Joe.

We already know that Sarah Palin is an Internet troll, but it sure does feel nice to have a journalist confirm it. According to today’s piece in The Atlantic, Palin “obsessed over her image” and “orchestrated a campaign to inundate newspapers with phony letters praising her.” A particularly odd obsession, considering that she actually got stuff done for Alaska.




