Blog No. 1

I guess it's time I started one of these, bandwagon jumping though it is. I wander by enough political blogs that the idea has caught my interest. I expect all of two people to ever actually read the thing, but whatever. An online diary isn't my story really, but I do this stuff on message boards all the time, ironic when I remember that I dropped a course on internet communication third year University ten years ago because I couldn't figure out what the hell hyperlinking was. In my defence, the prof never actually explained hyperlinking, just described us and told us to write an assignment with links in it.

Anyways, I'll see if I actually keep this up at all, and then move it somewhere Canadian like. I guess I'm thinking mostly of Canadian politics with the odd bit of sports thrown in for good measure. Highly original I'll grant you, but so what?

Politically, I tend to be left of centre. Political Right wingers irritate me. I understand that, to some degree at least, politics are based on beliefs systems about one's fellow man, the role of families and so on, but I can't help but think a great number of them don't have a great deal in the way of brains. In any case, conservatives (the generic kind) tend to structure their political beliefs around the Strict Father model proposed by George Lakoff; not really my story. The Nurturant Parent is more my speed, but the designation Liberal doesn't quite get me either. If I'd been born 50 years ago, I'd probably have been a Red Tory, but I'm not religious, don't care about the monarchy, and believe that individualism has its uses. At the end of the day, I don't think an idea is valid because it comes from a particular political leaning or party, but whether or not it makes sense, is good for society, and is just. I vote NDP, but I don't think the Liberals are evil or anything, even though they have far too many links to "business first" types. At the end of the day, the Liberals, at least in their current incarnation, are at least willing to defend the federation, and that'll always get them brownie points from me.

Which leads me to the other thing that will probably distinguish my posts. I'm a Canadian Nationalist. What I mean by this is that my loyalty is to the political nation of Canada, not to any provinces, certainly not to any other countries. I agree, the Quebecois have their own nation, but I hope they won't bail. If we have to change the distribution of powers around a bit to make Canada more stable, that's good with me. I'm not anti-American, though I think their current government is bollocks and I like when we do things to differentiate ourselves from them. Americans are people like anyone else, though, granted, those who are evangelists and warhawks are particularly loathsome.

Kay, I think I'll start blogging now.