On Stephen Miller and Glue Eating

There has been much ridicule directed at Trump adviser Stephen Miller for an alleged childhood habit of drying glue on his arm, and then eating it .  Obviously, I disagree with the guy's politics but many people don't realize that glue is just full of glucose (sugar), and therefore mildly sweet in flavor.  As for the arm thing, well, it can be prepared in many different ways.

And there is a certain amount of class hate in the criticism.  Most people have no idea what its like to hear their mom say, "The horses didn't pay off this week, kid, so there's no money for noodles.  Here's a bottle of Elmer's multi-purpose.  Just take tiny sips." 

Mind you I hear Miller's folks were loaded, so he clearly has other problems.  

Doug Ford Shits The Bed

And its not just the nation as a whole that thinks he's a right douche-bag.  It's here in Ontario:

In Ontario Doug Ford is 24% positive – 51% negative (-27).

Once a star, Doug Ford is now a case.  It happens to all leaders, but as it ever happened as fast??

Corbella Column Pulled

This morning The Calgary Herald published a story by  Licia Corbella, entitled "Family of jailed Saudi blogger angry over Trudeau".  In it Corbella criticized government's twitter diplomacy efforts in the Raif Badawi case, directly quoting members of the man's family.  As you will note by clicking through the link above, that column is now gone.  Mr. Badawi's wife, in  a series of tweets early this afternoon, called the story "fake news".  Those tweets are also gone, as is all reference to the story in Ms. Corbella's twitter feed.  I contacted The Herald and asked if they had yanked the piece, and they responded as below:

The column has been removed at the request of Ensaf Haidar (wife of imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi) due to the sensitive nature of the family's situation.

— Calgary Herald (@calgaryherald) August 14, 2018

So there appears to have been a severe cock-up on the journalism front by Ms. Corbella, the precise details of which remain obscure.  It wouldn't be the first time.

Life In Scarborough: Gulls Before A Storm

So the wife and I spent our evening  on the balcony of our condo unit drinking a bottle of wine.  We noticed a flock of  gulls in the air, surfing the turbulence in advance of a line of storm clouds.  These were  the same gulls that usually inhabit the roof of a Metro across the parking lot from us, standing in their 100s in the shallow puddles that form after a rain.  Normally you imagine them groundlings, begging for a wedge fry from people going to and from their cars.

But tonight they had all taken to the air. And they were like a mob of kids on their skate-boards.  This was not about looking for a meal.  It was all about skidding sideways like the guys in Tokyo Drift, but through the sky, and diving and darting and pulling a rivals tail-feathers in full flight and swooping low and then sailing 100% vertical on a hot  current.

And their squawking seemed exultant, not at all like the sound they make fighting over the spilled guts of a squirrel someone has run over with their car.

Its nice to watch animals "having fun".  They are always so into it.

Ontario Election Leadership Debate Analysis

I didn't watch it.  I was eating wings in my favorite wings place watching a hockey game.  But I was checking my twitter feed occasionally, and this is what I gleaned from it.

1) Kathleen Wynne's opening pitch speech was good.  Something about yeah you hate me but you like my policies sorry sorry sorry yada yada.  She got a few good jabs in later against Doug Ford.

2) Doug Ford fumbled the Nazi meme thing.  "You are all motherfuckin' Nazis," he said of the NDP.  He also looked "stiff".  Which, if you've ever met the guy...you can mistake him for a cardboard cutout of himself.

3) Andrea Horwath didn't say anything worth noting, as far as I can tell.  But she didn't get trapped into anything either.  So for her that's a win.

So maybe a 0-0-0 draw, or  0-0 negative 1 score for Mr. Ford for misplaying the Nazi card.

Doug Ford Shouldn't Let Andrew Lawton Run For PCPO Nomination in London

Andrew Lawton is running for  the Ontario PC party’s nomination in London West.  Doug Ford should not let him.

For many reasons, but this one is my favorite.  Back in 2010 Andrew and some buddies wanted to bring alt-right notable Mark Steyn to London (Ontario).  First to the  University of Western Ontario and then, when that fell through, to the London  Convention Center.  But it all went South on them at the LCC as well, and they blamed Islam.  From Andrew's old blog, which doesn't appear to exist anymore:

“The reason offered by the LCC [in a Tuesday morning phone call] was that they had received pressure from local Islamic groups, and they didn’t want to alienate their Muslim clients. It’s interesting to note that the LCC is owned by the City of London, and is therefore a government operation,” wrote Strictly Right’s Andrew Lawton at the website.

But as I argue here, Andrew's explanation doesn't work.  Basically, the site for Steyn's speech had already changed once, and it would have been impossible for any of these "Islamic groups" to have known which new potential venue to threaten.

Andrew actually responded to my argument in the comments, and pretty much admitted the major points of it.  As I wrote at the time:

Andrew,

So will you acknowledge that, whatever you might have been told by the LCC, it would have been impossible for local "Islamic Groups" to have had any real influence on their decision. This is not to say anything about the LCCs decision making processes, which may well have involved considerations about what how their Muslim clients might have reacted to Steyn's appearance.

So, in short, Andrew Lawton tried to arrange to have an alt-right lunatic speak at the LCC, bunged it up, and blamed Muslims.  If Doug Ford wants to convince Ontarians he isn't a Trump clone, one way to do it  would be to kibosh this nomination run.

Caroline Mulroney: Off To A Grand Start!

Caroline Mulroney defined energy poverty at #MNC2018 as only an elitist can.

"People are living in energy poverty, people have to choose between buying hockey equipment or going out to dinner with their families"https://t.co/AF582tnkGo#PCPO #PCPOLdr pic.twitter.com/RSMtT9dUSm

— JohnToryWatch (@JohnToryWatch) February 10, 2018

Serious, though, this is the kind of thing that makes Doug Ford PCPO leader.