The Gods of the Copybook Headings

Monday Night - John Adams

Trudeaupia's Dead Hand

There's stupid and then there's official languages stupid:

The commissioner of official languages says federal ministers must tweet in both English and French.

A preliminary report from Graham Fraser concludes that former foreign affairs minister John Baird and Public Security Minister Steven Blaney violated the language laws with unilingual tweets.

Fraser's office says ministers don't have to be bilingual, but when they communicate with the public in their official capacities, they must use both official languages.

The commissioner's investigation followed several complaints.

By people who have nothing better to do with their time. 

Scenes From The Imperial Capital

And Then Salt The Earth

You may gloat:

A shrinking CBC is looking to sell its outsized downtown flagship headquarters in order to cut costs. 

But it’s not totally jumping ship — the public broadcaster hopes to stay on as a tenant.

Fred Mattocks, general manager for media operations and technology at CBC English services, said the building has outgrown the broadcaster, whose staff and budget have shrivelled considerably over the years.

In its heyday, the building held about 5,000 staff, Mattocks said. Now, it holds just half that. 

Executives have talked for a little while about selling the landmark Front St. headquarters, built for the broadcaster in 1992.

Friday Night - Evelyn Waugh

A Sucker Born Every Minute

Baby on board:

Erfolgswelle is firm devoted entirely to generating unique baby names. With 14 naming experts, four historians, and 12 translators on hand -- not to mention two trademark attorneys to ensure names don't conflict with companies and products -- the staff at Erfolgswelle will spend around 100 hours per client coming up with 15-25 possible names. 

For about $31,000, that is.

Scenes From The Imperial Capital

Your Tax Dollars At Work

The right word:

The Government of Canada is providing multi-year funding of $60,000 over the next two years ($30,000 in 2015–2016 and $30,000 in 2016–2017) through the Canada Arts Presentation Fund for the Chutzpah! Festival and its PLUS series. Wai Young, Member of Parliament (Vancouver South), announced this support today on behalf of the Honourable Shelly Glover, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages.

If there is any word that describes the vote buying activities of the Canadian government Chutzpah! is certainly it. 

Thursday Night - Thatcher on the Belgrano

Year Six and Counting

NRO:

Administration officials are basking in the falling unemployment rate, even as critics call the measure misleading or —  in the words of Gallup CEO Jim Clifton — “a lie.” These critics are technically wrong but qualitatively correct: The unemployment rate misses the 92 million Americans who have given up looking for work; the 7 million others who are involuntarily working only part-time; and the millions more who cannot find jobs whose skills and pay match their educational attainment.

Scenes From The Imperial Capital

Hate is Such a Strong Word

One of the strangest aspects of the Age of Harper is that whenever the PM says something blindingly obvious, akin to it's cold in February, it makes headline news:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says "a lot" of Radio-Canada employees "hate" conservative values.

Harper says those values that are loathed by many employees of CBC's French-language network are the same ones that he says are supported by a large number of Quebecers.

Harper made the comments during a French-language interview with Quebec City radio station FM93, conducted last Friday and aired today.

His remarks were described as "petty" by an NDP MP.

Though hardly untrue. Does anyone seriously believe, in 2015, that Radio-Canada is not a den of separatist and socialists, who are more often than not one and the same? The whole organization is a taxpayer subsidized propaganda machine for the PQ. Has been for more than forty years. The Pequistes boast about it. There's a revolving door between PQ caucus and Radio-Canada's on air personalities. Perhaps not so much as before, but that's only because the party of Levesque and Bouchard has seen better days. 

Harper's occasional boasts of the blindingly obvious are usually tempered by crude political calculation. The Badly Coiffed One went onto say:

"I remain convinced that Quebecers are not leftists, contrary to the image conveyed by some media or the opposition parties," Harper says in the interview.

I doubt he believes it. I doubt even small children in Saskatchewan believe this either. Finding an actual breathing conservative in La Belle Province is like hunting for pearls. There's a lotta clam chowder you have to go through first. 

 

Wednesday Night - Arsenic and Old Lace

The Greatest Italian of His Generation

A moment of chocolate flavoured silence for Michele Ferrero:

Michele Ferrero, the world's richest candy maker whose Nutella chocolate and hazlenut spread helped raise generations of Europeans and defined Italian sweets, died on Valentine's Day, the company said. He was 89.

[...]

Michele Ferrero developed Kinder chocolates in 1968, Tic Tacs a year later and Ferrero Rocher in 1982, according to a biography provided by the company. Eventually, Ferrero intruced the Ferrero Rocher chocolates in Europe and by 1985 began selling them in the United States, according to the company's website.

Scenes From The Imperial Capital