h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

just to stir the pot a bit there are a pair of interesting pieces on the Toronto Star site today, especially for fans of the 'do yanks hate canucks' thread.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035781048560&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467 and a more analytical piece
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035781029989&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467

as for the our indians comment - where did I put my asbestos longjohns?

concerning the Toronto Star bits:

did any Canadians apart from Mulroney and a few CEO's actually want the Free Trade agreement in the first place?

And it strikes me that the differences between Canada and the U. S. have been around forever. It's just that an American administration is finally noticing them.

Well, its like the editorial cartoon I saw in the final days of the Mulrooney reign. A half a dozen panels show various people from all walks of Canadian life saying 'no' 'non' 'absolutely not' etc, followed by final panel with an interviewer saying 'well, four years ago Brian Mulroney polled the most votes of any Prime Minister ever elected - today we can't find any of the people who cast them'

The second election Lyin' Brian won by a landslide was fought on the free trade agreement. Okay it was fought against John Turner so maybe it wasn't a fair fight, but somebody must have voted for it. I know I didn't. And all the things that were promised by both sides have come true....
'Give us ten years and you won't recognize this country' - Brian Mulroney

plus he dismantled the Progressive Conservative Party! (not that I mind that so much, except that it made room for that other bunch.)

dismantling the oxymoronic (and you know where the emphasis there goes) Progressive Conservative party is one of the only things for which we own Mulroney a debt of gratitude. The other bunch, whatever they are named this month, have about as much chance of forming a national government as the PQ

Just heard the Canucks held on to force game seven - huzzah!

Just heard the Canucks held on to force game seven - huzzah!

Hi from Ottawa...

I have been enjoying the banter here and just wanted to add something.

I have sort of steadfastly avoided reading or watching the news, only monitoring it on a "need to know basis". I think after having lived thru the "Cold War", Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, and Gulf War (acckkk! am I THAT old???) I have become rather sceptical of the media's ability to give an unbiased view of world events.

I pretty well stopped listening the day Bush made his declaration of war.

Just after the PM finally made his announcement that Canada wouldn't be putting its lot in with the US, there was a letter in the Ottawa Citizen that Canada should support the US in its attack because "otherwise they will march into Canada".

I have never understood the concept of supporting someone (or a nation) right or wrong, just so they won't beat the cr@p out of you... It doesn't work in the schoolyard and it doesn't work in international affairs.

Actually, I forgot to mention....

When I read the topic of this thread, it reminded me of a rather sad but funny experience I had a number of years ago.

Back in 1982 or so, I went out to Oregon to visit family. My brother worked at the University of Oregon and took me there to show me around. He took me into the library because he thought I might be interested in this special exhibit they had there.

He proudly took me over to these two glass-topped tables in which someone had done a display of books and materials about Canada. It really was nicely laid out and there were some maps, some posters, and a few books.

However, what particularily caught my eye was the fact that someone had placed all these little Canadian flags around the showcase.... each and evey one of which was upside down!

I said "Wow! That's really nice... but why are the flags all upside down?"

"What do you mean?" he asks and then looks closer and starts laughing..... "Hey! Your right. Man! That's pretty funny!"

"Well, it might be funny to you, but do you think you'd be so thrilled if they were little US flags?" I asked.

He agreed he probably wouldn't and went and got one of the librarians. "My sister's from Canada. She has a couple of comments about the display... ".

I pointed out the flags and said I just wanted to let them know that someone had put all the flags in upside down.....

"Flags?" says the librarian.... "I thought they were just decorations...."!

Sad, but true, obviously this guy hadn't bothered to actually read anything about Canada before putting the display together.....

I can remember back in the run-up to the last Quebec referendum or maybe the Meech Lake referendum, they had an honor guard of U.S. Marines at a Blue Jays game (maybe a world's series game?) that flew the Canadian flag upside down as they marched on for the national anthems....much was made of the fact that flying a flag upside down is apparently considered a type of distress call.

It's the same kind of insensitivity that wraps the stars and stripes around Saddam's sculptural head. It's the same kind of insensitivity that is considered a part of Imperialism in most of the world.

Exactly....

Recently, of course, it has been revealed that in the last hours before they disappeared over the border to Syria, some of the Iraqui regime looted the museum collections of valuable pieces of art and artifacts. They also destroyed what they couldn't take.

Many of the people who spent their lives looking after these artifacts were devastated, as was a fairly significant part of the Iraqui people.

Needless to say, there were the usual letters and editorials from people who see concern over "mere objects" as an eclipsing of the loss of life or limb.

What they do not see is that, to a people who have lost so much, in terms of lives, livelyhood, esteem, etc., the one thing they will say is "They may break our bones, they may bomb us, even kill us, but we are a people still. We still have our history and our country."

When they see the destruction of even that, they have lost everything.

Invaders and despots know this, and one of the first and last targets of oppression, repression, and despotism, is the destruction of culture and history, and the relics thereof. It is the enemy's (even if they are the enimy from within) way of making a people without a past and to undermine that which holds them together.

It happened in Russia to a certain extent, in China in successive regimes. Cambodia is the worst example. Anything that had any value either in fact or as a point of reference to the people was eradicated. It happened in Bosnia and Serbia.

On October 18th, during the pre-game ceremony for the second game of the 1992 World Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Atlanta Braves, a U.S. Marine Corps colour guard mistakenly presented the Canadian flag upside-down. The Toronto Blue Jays went on to win the game 5-4 to even the series at one game each.

Source: Yahoo News

http://www.distant.ca/UselessFacts/fact.asp?ID=144

I remember it well. I wonder how US teams would react to an upside down *Old Glory*. Might give the Canucks a better chance....hmmmm....

Makes me feel less guilty about the olympic loonie at centre ice.

I love that story. I just don't like that people might interpret it as an unfair advantage.

btw, not knowing - is the Toronto Star quoted above a rag or not?

It depends on your definition of "a rag".....

"The Sun" and its tabloid ilk are rags, and "The Toronto Star" is the main daily for the GTO (Greater Toronto area) and Southern Ontario. The Globe and Mail is sort of the "New York Times" of Canadian papers and is the major Canadian daily. "The National Post" TRIES to be the main rival to the Globe but fails miserably, in my opinion.

They try, but they can't even GIVE it away... Since it is (was?) owned by millionaire Conrad Black who, not content with owning just about every daily newspaper in Canada, started The National Post.

He finally left Canada in a gigantic huff because he had manouvered himself into a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth, which our PM nixxed on the grounds that ..... what WERE the grounds?... Who cares... Conrad took all his toys and went off to England. That is all that counts.

This after somehow bullying his way into being "Honorary Colonel" of the Governor General's Footguards (the first time anyone other than a Governor General acted in that capacity).

For an excellent satire on Conrad and The National Post check the following: http://www.blackenvy.8m.com/

No one misses him or his egoism. They just wish that he would take his horrible right-wing, Barbara Ameil, with him.

Oh, found the reasons for the PM objecting to his knighthood...

http://www.geocities.com/monarchist_ottawa/May2001.html

The Nickle resolution, which was much in the news when the Prime Minister invoked it to prevent Conrad Black from receiving a British peerage, was in fact not an Act of Parliament and did not receive Royal Assent. It is used, or not used, at the preference of the Prime Minister and is not legally binding (some Prime Ministers since then have refused to approve British honours, others have not). The Resolution itself came about as a result of wide- spread cynicism about the large number of Knighthoods and other honours bestowed during the First World War, and in fact refers to "foreign" honours, at a time when British honours were not considered to be foreign.

Ummm. I *was* born here and I don't live under a rock, but thankyou for the information....I think. I just didn't know about the *Star*.

Sorry, I thought you meant that you didn't...

No probs. Nice to see another Canuckistanian here.

from the left coast!