Caught a bit of CBC news last night, and nearly lost my dinner. People talk about George Bush’s smirk, but the Peter Mansbridge’s snarky self-satisfaction wouldn’t have been out of place in a grade school playground.
First off was a story about a battle in Afghanistan. I’ll paraphrase: “Coalition forces claimed to have destroyed a large group of Taliban crossing the border into Pakistan. However, reports say that the enemy death toll was much lower than claimed, because neanderthal western military types always exaggerate their victories, and the honest, decent, gay and feminist-loving Taliban would never lie to me.”
Next a story about the MP who, after a year of working closely with “Our Prime Minister Stephen” — as Anglicans and United churchies must refer to him weekly in prayer, no doubt with much gnashing of teeth — seems to have decided isn’t a rabid lunatic after all, and crossed the floor to join the evil Amerikkkan-loving Conservative Party. Turns out that he spent several tens of thousands of dollars recently on a 19-day diplomatic mission to the Middle East. “The government refuses to release the details of Mr. Kahn’s expenses.” And I’ve yet to stop beating my wife.
Last I heard, the Middle East is hardly the most popular venue for golfing junkets. Could it possibly be that he took a sizable entourage and perhaps hosted one or two diplomatic parties? I thought that we were supposed to be all about dialogue and friendliness with those strange brown people over there on the other side of the world. I guess it’s all right for a Governess-General to spend a mint bring artists for their play-dates with Nordic types, but sending a diplomat to find out more about a sensitive area of the world is downright irresponsible.