The story of the fake bomb at the Royal Ontario Museum has got me to thinking about modern or conceptual art.

Not surprisingly, my conclusion is that it is without redeeming value, but I'm going to try and go a bit deeper than that.

And in particular, I'm going to avoid simply calling Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson an idiot. Plenty of people are doing that already.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 01:03 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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OK, I have to admit, I didn't see this one coming at all. I fully expected that Karlheinz Schreiber would not say a word to the parliamentary ethics committee, even after all the political fireworks expended in getting him to Ottawa from Toronto, where he was awaiting extradition to Germany on charges of fraud and tax evasion.

But to then turn around and harshly slap the committee? Karlheinz Schreiber gives out a little bit of pleasure, then a little bit of pain, and the opposition members of the committee don't see just how disgusting this is becoming.

Many observers predicted a circus when Karlheinz Schreiber appeared. I'm not sure a circus is the right metaphor. The metaphor I'm thinking of involved whips and straps and chains and latex body suits.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 01:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Some Islamic scholars hold to the idea that there is no need for democracy. In an Islamic state, the law is the Sharia, handed down by Allah through the Prophet Mohammed. A democratic government is a means to developing laws by gathering input from the citizenry. But there is no need to consider the opinions of the citizens, since the body of laws is divine, perfect, and complete.

Interesting theory.

And complete nonsense. Not that I don't believe that the Sharia is a good basis for law. I don't but that's not my point. My point is that in countries that have adopted Sharia law, the rule of the mob is worse than in democracies.

Case in point: Sudan versus Gillian Gibbons in the case of the Teddy Bear Insult.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 12:42 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You know how they say no good deed goes unpunished? Justice Minister Rob Nicholson might turn out to be living proof of that. The opposition has succeeded at getting a Speaker's Warrant to compel Karlheinz Schreiber to testify in front of a parliamentary committee on ethics. But warrant or no warrant, Schreiber is already setting conditions and issuing demands, daring the the opposition to grow a backbone and send him back to Germany.

Rob Nicholson has a backbone, and made it clear he was not willing to lift a single finger to help Karlheinz Schreiber make a mockery of the government. Parliament, on the other hand, is being mocked at every turn as the committee shows its willingness to go to any length to have Schreiber appear. When the ethics committee asked Nicholson to use his powers to get Schreiber out of jail, he told them he couldn't. That might not have been technically correct, since experts seem to think he certainly could have. But he wouldn't do it.

I think he was trying do the committee a favour.

In return, the opposition members screamed contempt.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:37 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I don't write about the weird. I should do more. The stories always make me laugh. Call it a guilty pleasure. But I figure my readers like a certain kind of story -- serious attempts at moderately deep political analysis. Well, not this time. Dammit, this story just needs to be told.

It's got transvestites and tire irons and violence -- Quentin Tarantino will be turning this into a move soon.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:33 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Stephane Dion is isolated. No one in the Liberal Party will deal with him. He doesn't care though, since he never listened to anyone anyway. People in the party are praying for an election and a loss so that they can get rid of Stephane Dion, once and for all.

Is this the state of the Liberal Party today? According to insiders, that is exactly where things are.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 01:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party, has drawn Nazis into the debate over global warming. She has lumped Prime Minister Stephen Harper with Nazis because of his skepticism over global warming and what the right response would be.

And that makes Elizabeth May's chief ally, Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion, a remarkably lucky politician.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 12:37 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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We can't leave Afghanistan to the Taliban. This is not about today or tomorrow, but about generations of children raised in terror and violence turning into suicide bombers. In Sudan, a teacher will be lashed because she allowed the children in her charge express their love for the Prophet by naming a teddy bear Muhammad.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 08:18 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Karlheinz Schreiber is using the promise of revealing significant new information about his dealings with former prime minister Brian Mulroney and the Canadian government about the Airbus contract during the early 1990s as a way of avoiding extradition to Germany where he faces charges of tax evasion and fraud.

The problem for Schreiber is that if he is going to be questioned by two different judicial proceedings (a parliamentary committee this week and an inquiry in the future), he has to be careful that he tell the same credible story both times, or he could be hit with perjury charges, and end up in Germany anyway.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 09:11 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Wajid Khan, the former Liberal MP who now sits for the Conservatives, might or might not be in trouble with Elections Canada.

It is a bit confused right now.

That's not the only potentially confusing element of this story.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 09:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Anglican Church in Canada is on the verge of formal split over same-sex marriage and other liberal changes in Church teaching and practise. The charges flying back and forth on questions of theological correctness are sharp and emotionally charged. But like any divorce, the argument over whose fault this was will seem like children playing happily in a playground compared to what happens once the two sides start fighting over money.

And that's when I expect organizations will jump in to use this fight to promote their own agendas.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 12:00 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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People can hold very strong views on the death penalty. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has set government policy that Canadians abroad who are convicted in a fair trial and sentenced to death can't depend on the Canadian government to plead for mercy.

That has the Liberals enraged, and this is more about genuine philosophical differences rather than cheap political points. And despite that, Stephane Dion has managed to keep to a promise he made a year ago to not embarrass the Canadian government abroad.

Good for him. He could have scored points with his constituency. They would not have cared about his promise. But apparently Stephane Dion does. That deserves to be recognized.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:24 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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In what I see as a curious turn of events, Karlheinz Schreiber has issued a press release today. The contents are not remarkable -- the release concerns the question of his pending extradition to Germany -- but the name of the lawyer is.

Given that the release is about the extradition fight, you would expect to see the names of the lawyers fighting that case, Edward and Brian Greenspan, to be listed as the contacts for questions.

Instead, the lawyer is Alexander Sennecke, a partner in the firm handling an entirely different case, that being the lawsuit Schreiber filed against Brian Mulroney to recover the $300,000 payment Schreiber made to Mulroney in 1993 and 1994.

Of course, the two cases are linked politically. The government is under pressure to put off the extradition in order to allow Schreiber to testify in an inquiry into these payments. But legally, these two matters have always been treated as separate and unrelated, to the point of having two different legal teams.

But now this curious crossover.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 01:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion's numbers continue to hemorrhage. An Angus-Reid Poll just released that compares the opposition leaders against each other has awful news for Stephane Dion, and by association, Elizabeth May of the Green Party. Jack Layton of the NDP, on the other hand, must be very pleased.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Bob Rae must be enjoying his role as foreign affairs critic. Not elected to the House of Commons, Bob Rae can issue insults and undermine Canadian sovereignty with near impunity, not being subjected to the give and take that his elected colleagues have to put up with when considering what to say during Question Period.

How else would you explain his willingness to agree with a European busybody who likens Canadian politicians to murderers?

Posted by: Steve Janke at 07:50 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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If you abuse your children, the State will take them away. Forcibly breaking up a family is probably the most violent act the State can commit, and it is only done to prevent a more violent act from being committed on a child.

So when the Nova Scotia town of Wolfville bans smoking in vehicles when a child is present, I get very nervous. It is the first step to fulfilling the wish of many anti-smoking zealots of making smoking a form of child abuse. Once you've gotten to that point, all bets are off. If smokers think they have it tough now, they are wrong.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 03:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Some people are seeing signs that not only is the Karlheinz Schreiber controversy not connecting with Canadians, who by and large aren't buying into the Liberal argument that this is a scandal that involves the current government, but they are also seeing signs that Stephane Dion's Liberals might find themselves embroiled in scandal instead.

I'm not sure that it can go that far, but I'm pretty sure that if there is any blowback at all, Stephane Dion is finished. The Liberal Party can put up with only so much incompetence.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 11:05 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I've said it before and I'll say it again. By lowering the level of lethality, tasers have the effect of increasing the number of violent confrontations with police. If police won't use tasers the way they were meant to be used, tasers should be taken away.

The bottom line is this. You use a taser when you are willing to kill a suspect.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion has outlined his opinion about what an investigation into Karlheinz Schreiber's dealing with Brian Mulroney ought to cover.

Karl Schreiber? Check.

Brian Mulroney? Check.

Stephen Harper and everything ever done anywhere by his government on any subject? Check.

I bet you noticed the same thing I did. Stephane Dion, while trying to apply some constraint to the powers of an inquiry, has potentially crippled it.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 12:32 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Brian Mulroney has refused to explain the details behind the $300,000 payment he received from Karlheinz Schreiber that is now the centre of a growing political firestorm in Ottawa.

Brian Mulroney is not being evasive for the sake of being evasive. Remember that this $300,000 payment is the subject of a lawsuit filed by Schreiber against Mulroney. Brian Mulroney can't really talk much about it right now.

It might be nice to remember that once in a while, instead of making it seem like a reason to be immediately suspicious of Brian Mulroney.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 01:09 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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