Interesting!

Check this out. People in Hong Kong Gym Generate Electricity While Exercising!  In other news, my sleep schedule is way out of whack. Pray for Cicero to survive his Monday!!

Celebrity

I need to chalk this post up directly to the Cicero in Pants summer vacation - because it isn't really about politics. But it is. Sort of.

 

I don't tend to be drawn in by the cult of celebrity at all but I do sympathise with celebrities.  I don't really understand why we think we are entitled to know their business. I do know that I find it disgusting.

 

What really caught my eye lately was the catch-22 in which Angelina Jolie  recently found herself. As you have probably read, her lawyers were looking to make media interviewers sign a contract in which they would agree not to ask Angelina Jolie questions about her personal life.  Her problems with her Dad, Jon Voigt for example. To put this in context, let's remember that Jolie has been asked such questions for years - and that when she goes to do press she sits in a room and every pess outlet in the world comes in for 10 minutes and asks her the same questions over and over again.  Picture yourself in the same situation being asked invasive questions about the things in your life and past that have cut deeply and stung hard.

 

 But "HAHA!" said the media types, "Your new movie, A Mighty Heart, is all about the importance of freedom of the press so arent you being a hypocrite..."  and that's just about when I started to puke.  Because that's about the point when entertainment journalists compared themselves to Daniel Pearl.

 

Look, "entertainment journalists". Let's come to grips with something, right. fucking. now.  You are NOT Daniel Pearl - and you shouldn't pretend to be.  Daniel Pearl was an incredibly brave foreign correspondent risking (and ultimately giving) his life to report on the 'on the ground' effects of the foreign policy of his government.   YOU are interviewing a pretty actress with a pretty actor boyfriend.  Do you see the difference?  There is a fundamental difference in your job and the job of Daniel Pearl. And not only because it isn't exactly likely that Angelina  will cut off your head - no matter how richly you might deserve it.

 

There is a distinction that we in the audience often fail to make. Just because someone is famous doesn't make them a "public figure".  A public figure is someone who's decisions will affect you - therefore providing you with a moral right to know who the hell they really are. A hollywood actress simply doesn't cross that threshold and has every moral right to her privacy.  To put it simply Angelina Jolie is not the king. She's the court jester.   And you are not the intrepid reporter uncovering watergate. YOU are mrs. mcgillicutty from next door all dressed up in curlers and peeking over the backyard fence to see what conclusions about your neighbor's sex life you can draw from the lingerie on the clothes line.  Nobody likes Mrs. McGillicutty. And I, in turn, don't like you.

 

Grow up - and while you're at it - get a real job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back from Newfoundland

I just got back from Newfoundland. What I learned in Newfoundland was this: Maybe the Beatles weren't more popular than Jesus but Premier Danny Williams certainly is. My friends would just start talking about the guy at random. Normally I have to ask questions about local politics. In this case they were gushing.  A friend there who always votes NDP will vote Tory in the next election. I sense from reading the editorials in the Telegram that people actually feel a bit of moral pressure not to say things that are "against Danny".  

 

I also learned that: 

• Rumors exist that Danny Williams is sleeping with a woman who used to sleep with his son. No one cares.
• There is a huge "sponsorship scandal" type scandal in Newfoundland based on improper oversight of MP constituency budgets and the like. Heads are rolling, but Williams is teflon.  
• That it is a very tough time to be a Federal Conservative MP from Newfoundland. Which makes me sad for my friend's dad who happens to be one of those MPs and is a genuinely decent thoughtful man.
• That Williams' strategy is spreading to Nova Scotia. Where Fiddler (take that anyway you like) Rodney has started howling at the Federal Budget.
• and that if I was Harper, I might feel compelled to get out in front on the equalization/atlantic accord issue and play some offence. Perhaps using the words "you can't have your cake and eat it too" a lot.  Now I'm not saying that will win him any votes in the east. But it might get him some compensatory votes from irritated Ontario's paying taxes in the 905.  (This note doesn't constitute me taking a stand on the whole atlantic accord issue by the way. Just the politics of it. I may comment on the substance of positions later but I'd have a lot more reading to do first. )
• And finally, that Newfoundlanders are awesome. Im a very lucky man to have so many Newfoundlander friends. That trip was *just* what the doctor ordered.

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Oh - and kudos to Colin Powell for his Guantanamo Bay comments this week. I'm a pretty hard nosed guy when it comes to security and the war on terrorism stuff. The opposite of the Bleeding Heart Liberal. But the way detainees are being held by the US is everything Powell said it was.  Bring back Habeas Corpus.

 

Jesus. I can't believe I just had to write that last sentence. Bizarre times we do live in.

 

For the uninitiated: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus

Al Gore is running?

From the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-robinson/al-gore-is-running_b_50405.html 

 

It's really just a speculative article on the question. The most interesting part of the article is the comment section at the bottom. Decide for yourself.

In lieu of a new post - a bitch from Atlas Hugged about the fact that I'm not posting.

Got this in my email today. Love this guy. And yes - it won't be long now. My bile is rebuilding and work is cooling off. :)

--------------------------------------

Dear Mr. Pants:

As I sit here, in anguish, on yet another mindless conference call discussing the politics of climate change, and the poor decision making ability of those who have introduced yet another mindless form of carbon tax on manufacturers, I am dismayed – no angered – by the lack of new content on your site. Admittedly, I use you as a distraction as my colleagues in the industry mindlessly pontificate on the inside knowledge they profess to have. Like so many others, I know for a fact that the decision making chicken at the PMO doesn't cluck his insights to anyone before he clicks the panel for the seed.

While I generally disagree (out of habit, or out of my own self professed idiocy) with the content on your site, it has become habit forming – like the crack which is also bad for my intellect – and I mindless drift off to read it.

That said, you have an obligation to your loyal readers to continue to feed them the rich content they deserve. You cannot expect your followers to wait on your e-doorstep, hollowed by a lack of personal creativity, forced to seek out others to fill this void in their day, to continue to loyally read your tidbits, unless you actually give them something to read. Your little personal note that it is summer is of no value to those of us who don't work outside or play outside all the time – or to those of us who use their personal mobile devices to keep up with the things that they know and love. Unless this trend is immediately reversed, yours will fall out of this moderately selective category along with DEVO, Hillwatch, and Mr. Boisclair's Re-election site.

With mindless spite and vile, I wish you a good day.

Mr. Hugged.

Ok Ok some politics. Gives a whole new meaning to Dick Cheney.

This link to Wonkette is funny. It involves Cheney and the DC Madam hooker list. Enjoy.

 

(Facebookers as usual, click through to my blog to see the link)

The Cicero In Pants Summer Vacation

Ive been quiet on this blog lately. Why? Well, first because work is busy and life gets fun in summer. But also largely because politics is boring the hell out of me lately.

Look. I know stuff is going on. We are all going to pillory the Defense Minister because of the Afghanistan Torture. There seems to be a race among all jurisdictions to pass the best global warming law conforming to the graph below,

and somebody knew somethin' and didnt tell somebody else in the air india disaster. And Andre "I really suck at this whole politics thing" Boisclair is leaving - shock of shocks.

But by and large, I'm still bored. And I never really want my blog to just be a "read the paper. Comment on the day" type thing. I generally try to speak up if I think I can say something that others arent quite saying (at least not in the way I would) and that cant happen when whats happening in the paper just feels like more of the same old same old. All of this is to say that






Cicero in Pants is Going in to Summer Vacation Mode!





Does this mean I won't write? No!!! It means Im going to loosen my politics and policy only rule. If Paul Wells can write about jazz and I dont care but read him, and Kinsella can write about punk and I dont care but read him, then the 30 or 40 kind souls who read my stuff every day can surely grant me some latitude. So stay tuned to hear me bitch about the transformers movie... or something. After all, I need to write. It is my hunger. ;-) I'll still write politics if something happens to turn my crank though. I promise. I'll even title it Politics: so you junkies can otherwise ignore me.

In the meantime here's some predictions to tide you over: the Tories will be in power for another year and will go to the polls after the next budget which will cut our taxes. At that point they will have closed the "loan as donation" loophole that makes the new election spending law a farce, but it won't matter because by then the liberals will have mastered the art of soliciting for small donations like the tories do (what did you think there was some kind of magic secret formula to it?) so Jason Cherniak can quit whining. And Al Gore won't announce he's running for president until after the summer. The Daily Show and Colbert are going to be less funny for a while because there isnt much to make fun of, and people will go to a lot of summer blockbuster movies and walk out saying that the script sucks!

Anyway - if you are reading this, get outside and drink some sangria on a patio. We live in Canada. You don't wanna be wasting days like this. Now shoo.

PS. Yes, Spider-man 3 was a great big jumbled clusterflick. I enjoyed it anyway. But only because I'd been warned that it was awful. And because Im the kind of guy who might just wear spider-man pajamas to the office if they let me. Just sayin'.