People in the US Now Being Taught to be Terrified of Scarves!

In the latest episode of "How to Terrify and Subjugate the US Citizenry," Rachael Ray, the talk-show host, cookbook author and magazine editor, is being cast as a terrorist sympathizer because of a flowered scarf.

Dunkin' Donuts, for whom Ray is a spokesperson, is worried that its customers might think she is an "Arab Sypmathiser" so abruptly yanked an ad in which she wears a scarf that some genius says resembles a keffiyeh -- a traditional headdress worn by Arab men -- because conservative commentators became enraged by the ad and even threatened to boycott the company.

What? Fer god's sake, let 'em boycott! 60% of the population in the US is overweight and a huge (no pun intended) proportion of those are obese. let 'em boycott. It's better for their health! It might also improve their intelligence, which they're obviously without.

This is the dumbest thing ever. Seriously. Flowered paisley equals a Keffiya? I'm swearing in my head right now....

Remember about 10 years or so ago people stared wearing their underpants above their jeans and shortly people stopped being shocked at the site of underpants? Yeah. It's a scarf people. Get over it.

Those of us outside the US are laughing our butts off at how ridiculously afraid people in the US are of everything. They're like terrified little lemmings, starting at the smallest shadows, skittering off to grab their guns at the tinyest noise, sacrificing their children to fight the 'terrorists' thanks to endless lies!

Do USians not understand that their government has a plan to keep them poorly fed on cheap, crappy food, under educated and terrified of essentially nothing? Fat, stupid, terrified people are always ready and willing to defend themselves. It's just that, in this case, the terror is made up, manipulated and making a select few quite rich.

Good grief. In a country where everyone owns guns, where a person can get one with a car purchase or a bank account and where state administrators - or Hilary Clinton (AKA Annie Oakly) pose with guns for photos, I'd be far more terrified of my neighbour having a bad day and going all Yosemite Sam on me than of these nebulous 'terrorists.'

The terrorists are living in the White House and they're called Rice, Bush and Cheney, among a few. Good lord. USians are seriously nuts if they're worried about a flowered scarf worn by a mediocre cook promoting what can only be termed 'killer food.'

Even a recent Press Secretary has had it with the bullshit that pours out of the White House. Scott McClellan's new book, "What Happened," basically states that life in the US is pretty much based on a huge pack of lies. He's not very popular right now.

The border between us and the US is soooooo not big enough. Please will USians please build a dome over their country to protect the rest of us from such idiocy.

Speaking of idiocy, watch Idiocracy (Luke Wilson) to see how this story is going to play out. The entire film here on YouTube. Also via those lovely torrent sites everywhere.

Update: Julie Couillard Interview

Ms. Couillard answers the "who introduced you? question and speaks to the biker affiliations of her two previous relationships.

This woman was a realtor - and still holds an active license, she says.

As for how she met Bernier, she says she was approached by someone in politics about running for office. She was invited to a dinner and was told a minister would be present at that event, a minister whose brains she could pick about her possible entry into politics. That minister was Maxime Bernier.

There is an interesting moment at this point in the interview when she says that Bernier sat with her throughout the dinner and that, after dinner, she accompanied him back to his hotel, ostensibly for one more drink in the hotel bar. It seems quite odd that she would go back to the hotel of a relative stranger who is also a very public figure. That does not add up.

There's a second interesting moment where she almost uses the word "intimate," and gets the "in... " part out of her mouth but then changes her course. She's describing the first month of her relationship with Bernier.

I am probably quite naive on this subject, but I would say that a realtor with no political background would not usually be approached for office in national politics. Civic certainly; provincial conceivably but national? it's a stretch.

She says her background and her biker gang connections, which she describes as loose, were common knowledge and that nobody had a problem with it although she was alternately evasive and overly dismissive of her affiliations and those of her 'friends.'

That her background was not an issue is an unlikely possibility. Certainly her background was known, but also certainly that background would normally have precluded an invitation to political life. If her her affiliation with criminals is a problem now, it was a problem then, unless it was a useful detail for future use. It all smells like a setup.

Her anwers to many questions in this interview are evasive. She uses the term 'they' over often and the interviewer not once asks her "Who is 'they?'" nor does he ask her why she didn't just call Bernier to come pick up his documents. Watch the interview with the sound muted... body language is quite telling.

This 'scandal' is an engineered event. I suspect that this spectacle is a less damaging replacement for something else - perhaps relating to those leaked documents and the NAFTA-gate issue: better this minister is disgraced for something relatively minor than he - and the Conservative government - be exposed for something potentially far more damaging. The bottom line is that Bernier was a liability. Why, one can only speculate, but a liability that needed an expedient, effective solution.

Link to the interview here

Well that's convenient!...

Y'know, I often imagine that we Canadians don't have the political intrigue that we see in the US and in Britain but really, that's kinda a dumb mindset, especially given our very pro-US Prime Minister....

So, you'll remember that about a month ago, Ian Brodie, who is/was Stephen Harper's very out-of-the-limelight Chief of Staff, made an off the record comment about how the US Democratic candidates were batting the NAFTA thing about and how someone from down there called the PMO and said 'Don't fret, we're just politicing."

Well apparently there was lots more to that story because then there was this whole leaked documents thing and claims that the Canadian government was meddling in the US election process... big stink.

So Brodie put in his resignation last week, which sucks, because I know him and, as much as I wish he were not Harper's man, he's totally committed to the cause. He eats, breathes and bathes in politics.

Despite that, there is, or was, until today, still a big stink going on about that whole leakage thing, where it came from and who did it.

Enter Maxim Bernier of the girlfriend-who (way back in her youth) dated-a-Hell's-Angel. Monsieur Bernier has not had a reputation for being super good at his job but Harper has been a staunch supporter and has said on many occasions that Bernier's personal life and the past of his girlfriend are nobody's buisness. I agree, especially when her past is waaayy past. Everybody does dumb shit in their youth and we all know how attractive "Bad Boys" can be.

Anyway, it seems that the 'crisis' that caused Bernier to put in his resignation was something to do with him having left some documents at his girlfriends house - government docs. She found them, called the RCMP, she says and was told they were property of the Government of Canada. That doesn't make sense to me. Why would she call the RCMP instead of just calling Bernier to come get his stuff. I think this part of the story is pretty much BS. I think she's been heavily coached.

Sidebar: in Ottawa, about a block from Parliament, there's a great pub called Darcy McGee's. It's very, very frequented by members of Parliament. There is no doubt at all that all sorts of stuff - documents, coats, hats, shoes, condoms, pot; you name it - is left there on a regular basis. For sure there's been a critical doc left behind in that place a time or two. I'm pretty sure that MPs take work home all the time and that they leave stuff there too... Anyway, it isn't like Bernier was the first MP in history who left docs laying about.

But, in this case, leaving those docs with his paramour caused him to have to tender his resignation. But I think this is all far too convenient.

This Bernier thing seems to have blown up at a pretty interesting time. I'm sure, thanks to this non-news that's been spun as essentially a sex-scandal that has jeopardised the country's security (such a load!), Ian Brodie's departure is no longer news and NAFTA-gate seems off the table today too. Why now? Why is this now-ex girlfriend doing TV interviews? That's just weird!

I would love to know who introduced Bernier to the now-ex? THAT really interests me.

It just all smells like a sacrifice. Or a coverup and now we're back to that NAFTA leak thingie.

It is sooo nice to have a little conspiracy happening up here!

Locking your garbage up?

Yesterday I witnessed an event that totally blew my mind.

Behind the studio my man works at is a covered parking area big enough to house a 4/6' garbage enclosure and four cars. A couple of homeless men take turns sleeping in small space near the very back corner wall, just behind one of those short, triangular cement parking abutments. We see those men occasionally and sometimes they wave at us, but for the most part, they don't talk, they don't make eye contact and they sure don't mingle.

Next to the studio is a Jenny Craig location - you know, the weight loss Jenny that Kirsty Ally called when she ate herself into 350 or so pounds of fat (I guess the 'church of scientology' isn't that good at the stuff they say they're good at, given how fat that chick was/is soon to be again)....

This Jenny location has a large, square, green garbage bin out in their parking lot. I don't think there's any food in this Jenny Craig location, but I haven't ever needed their services, so I have no clue. As such, I can't imagine what the business might be tossing in their trash, but it must be really valuable because they have a padlock on their bin.

Yesterday, as I drove by, a Jenny Craig employee - a middle-aged white woman - was standing at the other side of the alley way, yelling at one of these homeless guys. I take it from what happened next that he'd been rummaging in 'her' trash bin. She was chewin' the hell out of that guy.

She then turned on her heal, totally ignoring what he was saying to her (and I thought she should have listened because the man hardly ever speaks), stalked back to the bin and made a great show of locking it.

Who locks a garbage bin? There are no bears in the city and the coyotes can't lift bin lids, so what for the padlock? Like seriously folks, if it's valuable enough that you don't want it stolen, it doesn't belong in the trash.

I suppose it is possible that 'Jenny' had thrown out food but, if they didn't want it and if they'd trashed it, why couldn't that man have it? I seriously don't get why that woman was so annoyed and so aggressive towards this homeless guy.

As I drove by, I wasn't exactly sure what I was seeing but as I parked and waited for my man, I watched in the rear view and it dawned on me that all this aggression this middle-aged, white woman (who has a job and was decently dressed and had somewhere to live) was showering on that man was just so out of place, unnecessary and really just so mean.

I suppose that somewhere in her obviously tiny consciousness she might have had the "but for the grace of 'god' go I," but then, the fact that she was so bizarrely possessive of her garbage gives me to believe she keeps her heart and soul properly padlocked as well.

What really sucks is that I just sat there. I could have got out and said something but I just bloody sat there because of a totally stupid reason: that woman's actions and aggression towards a weaker person reminded me of a nasty, mean, terrible female boss I had a few years ago. Dumb hey!? I hate that part of myself that doesn't act due to an old fear that I've transferred to an unrelated situation.

That makes me way worse than her.