So the last few weeks have been an utter bonanza for political types, such as myself (and some of you as well). Because both the U.S. and Canadian federal elections are in full swing. Last week I made sure to catch the American Presidential Nominees debate between John McCain and Barrack Obama, which was an interesting match-up. Who won depends on who you ask.

But now my heart hath been rent in two! For it turns out that the Canadian Leaders' Debate in on Thusday at 6PM PST, the same time as the U.S. Vice Presidential Debate.

Under normal circumstances, I could give a rat's ass about the U.S. VeeP debate. However, if her recent CBS interview is any indication, Sarah Palin is going to make a complete ass of herself, and I want to be there to watch the train wreck with morbid fascination.

Naturally, my first duty is to my Country and my own democratic civil responsibilities. But I think I'm going to have to record the U.S. VeeP debate for later watching, or at least catch all the highlights on YouTube.

Posted at 01:19 PM | Comments (3)

Bill Saporito of Time magazine argues that the recent US government bailouts of major financial institutions embodies the kind of economic coddling exercised by France: the nation that economic conservatives love to hate. Delicious.

Posted at 03:38 PM | Comments (1)

Time to write stuff again.

I'm reading Dune right now. To be honest, the book has been in my awareness for quite some time, but I scoffed at it because of the reputedly horrible 1980's film. Now that I've managed to finally flounder past the halfway point of the novel, I find it baffling that anyone could cram this dense story into a 177 minute movie.

Dune is riveting and thematically packed. It's a cohesive universe and the Sci-Fi is so fresh and timeless that its hard to fathom that the novel was written in the 1960s. I'm definitely enjoying it. Perhaps, some director will eventually make a film long enough to do the story justice. Hopefully two films.

Posted at 09:28 AM | Comments (5)

As requested by Angela...

Posted at 10:03 AM | Comments (2)

If anyone feels like giving me an extravagant birthday present, you can fly me down to Los Angeles to see LA Opera's production of Howard Shore's The Fly.

Yeah, that would be cool.

Posted at 01:58 PM | Comments (1)

So it's to be yet another federal election. Whoopty-do. I doubt that this one will accomplish much more than the last. I've frequently stated the opinion that Canadian politicians simply need to DEAL (in both senses of the world) when it comes to minority governments. Compromising the views of all Canadians to come up with federal policy and laws that work well for everyone is good government and good democracy. But apparently the federal parties in Canada are more interested in dragging Canadians through another election than in sitting down and talking like adults.

In any case, one of the aspects making a bit of news is the Green Party. This election, the Liberals have decided not run a candidate in the riding of Green Party leader Elizabeth May, giving her a better chance of election. The Greens were insistent that May be allowed to participate in the televised leaders' debate. However, this idea was scrapped when Stephen Harper, Jack Layton, and Giles Duceppe all stated that they would boycott the debate if May was allowed to participate.

This is a story that's bound to be a contentious subject among Canadians. And while I'm really on the fence, I feel that the outcome is actually a good thing.

Do not misinterpret, but I feel that political diversity is a good thing. Within reason, more parties is good for Canadians. However, until a party has elected an MP on its own merits, it has not yet EARNED the right to participate in the leaders' debate. Otherwise, there's very little to stop someone from arguing that the leader of Canada's Marxist-Leninist party shouldn't be allowed to participate in the debates (one of their candidates did very well in the last election). The leaders' debate is a debate of Canada's political leaders, it is not a tool to promote disadvantaged political parties. When the Green Party elects its first MP, I will gladly call for the Greens to be included in a debate, but not before.

Posted at 08:53 AM | Comments (0)

So last week, John McCain announced his running mate, Sarah Palin, the Governor of Alaska. This move by the McCain camp was to provide the Republican ticket with an experienced politician and public servant and not at all a shameless, pathetic, transparent attempt to pander to the disgruntled "we-wanted-Hillary-for-president" camp.

Yeah.

So the Republican party has now spent the last several days generously patting their own backs while railing against the evils of the Democrats. It's sad. SAD, when the only mud the awful, liberal-biased media can sling against the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate is her short term in public office and her pregnant teenage daughter! It must be because of the rampant sexism in our society promulgated by... well, certainly not Republicans, right?

Right.

Maybe John Stewart can help us sort out all the specious hypocrisy of this situation? Oh, I think so.

Posted at 11:04 AM | Comments (4)

Well, I'm back.

In case you didn't actually realize that I was gone, allow me to explain. Thursday - Saturday of last week were spent on a trip through the Okanagan valley. A WINE TRIP. We stayed with Angela's grandparents in Summerland, but most of our time was spent visiting just a fraction of the may various wineries in the region.

We started off with a trip to Summerland Sweets: which makes, among other items, delicious fruit-based syrups which go great on pancakes, ice cream, etc. Coincidentally, they have just started their own fruit winery: Sleeping Giant Vineyards. From them I got many sweet treats and two bottles of a delicious Strawberry-Rhubarb wine. I've had strawberry wine before, and though it sounds like a good idea it generally comes out ridiculously sweet. Sleeping Giant's Strawberry-Rhubarb was balanced out by the tart rhubarb. Very good.

Because we couldn't avoid the novelty factor, our next stop was just down the road. It turns out Summerland once hosted a Chinese laundry which was actually a front for a brothel ("Ancient Chinese secret, huh?"). So the vineyard which is now located there is called (wait for it) Dirty Laundry. Ba-doom-boom, ching. They had an excellent not-too-sweet rosé which was sold to me in a white paper bag with a clothespin. As we enjoyed their vine-covered patio, an old steam engine tour-train passed by downhill. Nice.

We moved on to Naramata (across the lake), so we could stop in at Elephant Island Orchard, another fruit winery. The property was beautiful and we sat on the patio while we tried a bit of every one of their wines that was available. Excuse the cliché, but they've taken fruit wine to the next level. My purchase there was a dark, peppery blackcurrant wine, which I feel will go great with a steak and some roasted pepper at some time in the future.

We stopped briefly to have lunch in "downtown" Naramata. We also walked along a bit of the trail that used to be the Kettle Valley railroad. And I got that song stuck in my head, which no doubt annoyed Angela because I whistled it endlessly as I drove.

I learned from a Naramata pamphlet that Stone Hill Wines had a distillery on site, so I had to visit. They didn't have any spirits on sale, but used wine-based brandy to fortify their line of ports. The ports were amazing, and included a Gewürtztraminer white port that was delicious. We took some home with us and entered a contest to win a case. Then we decided to call it quits for the day before we spent any more money.

On Saturday, we ventured down to the Oliver-Osoyoos area. We visited Inniskillin, which was somewhat less impressive than I'd hoped. In any case, the whole trip was really just an excuse to see the main attraction: Burrowing Owl Vineyards.

The property alone was worth the trip: Gorgeous rolling hills of grape vines and other beautiful scenery. The place was packed: more packed that any other winery we'd visited. We went on a tour of their winemaking facilities. Tasting cost $2 per person, but unlike some other wineries I shall not name, BOV donates the money to the Burrowing Owl Recovery Society. The wines were amazing. They dismissively noted that their Merlot was only a few weeks old, and was still immature. Nevertheless, it was smoother yet bolder than any red I've had recently, and had an amazing armoa of chestnut wood.

It was an expensive trip, both in terms of gas and wine. But it was SO very fulfilling. We visited only a fraction of the wineries in the area, a surprising number of which were fruit wineries. I could easily make the trip again. I recommend it to anyone who loves wine and is willing to endure a long-ish drive to enjoy great wines and breathtaking scenery.

Cheers!

UPDATE: There are now some pictures.

Posted at 09:10 AM | Comments (0)