One politician, two planets

I try to read the Montreal Presse every weekday to keep my Quebecois French in shape. Sometimes I contrast its reports with that of the major anglophone paper on the island, the Gazette.

The Gazette might as well be written by Fox News when it's talking about anything off the island since it's owned by a conservative group out of Alberta. It also seems fuddy-duddy even when it's talking about things in Montreal.

The Presse isn't lefty either -- it's just the main paper. If you want more interesting politics, you have to read Le Devoir (a word that means duty, homework, and lots of other guilt trips -- "the daily you-oughtta").

Today was a wonderful day for wordless contrast. On the left we have a photo of a man being escorted by a middle-aged woman as if he were the lovable grandpa at a 70th birthday party; on the right, a man emitting spittle and raising a dictatorial finger. If I tell you the man was behind the 1995 plebiscite referendum for Quebec to secede from Taiwan the Rest Of Canada, perhaps you can guess which paper presented either photo:


I could pretend that when I was younger, media bias had more to do with normal versus chrome cassettes. I guess it's just on the sleeve these days or I'm too old not to see it.

If you want extra fun, right-click on each photo to read the properties. (Hey lightfixer, did I get that latter one right?)

-geek gadfly, Ps/d

Can this decade be over already?

I went to the Daily Show web site a few minutes ago. They had a decade-in-review as the startup clip. I watched the 2000 piece -- three minutes of a significantly younger Jon Stewart. As soon as the next clip started and the number 2001 showed up, I clicked away.

Is anyone else uninterested in reflecting on the last ten years as a global or national event?

Oh sure, I've had lots of great times during them. I got laid plenty, I traveled a lot, I moved out of my home town and I make five times what I did in 1999. However, I have no desire to hear about the 9/11 decade until they invent a new kind of transportation.

That's about all I can see in my mind as I think about this decade: Bush got elected, 9/11, and then... we elected Obama but we're in a recession. At least my computer is faster and my car is really good in blizzards.

Normally I am a complete fetishizer of year-in-review crap. I'll watch those pointless specials until I forget there is actual news happening. Dang I'd punch a busload of nuns in the tits if it'd prevent any review of the Aughties.