Segacs’s World I Know

Burnside has the secret to a long, healthy life: drink beer, avoid exercise:

Hermann Dornemann, the oldest man in Germany, celebrated his 111th birthday on Thursday. The secret of his longevity? Avoid exercise and drink lots of beer.

Health experts might be inclined to shake their heads in disapproval at Hermann Dornemann’s lifestyle, but his disavowal of all sporting activities and a taste for his home town’s local brew seem to have done the trick.

It’s the next Atkins diet! I think even I could get on board with this one.

A Ha’aretz editorial says Sharon’s leadership is over:

From a position of leadership, Sharon yesterday became a prisoner of his ministers, who undermined his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank.

The rebellion of four ministers – Benjamin Netanyahu, Limor Livnat, Silvan Shalom and Danny Naveh – who rejected even Sharon’s watered-down version of the plan left him lonely at the top. Sharon lacks political support for his preferred policy, and any attempt to present a mini-disengagement will lose him the support of the American administration. President George Bush offered extensive promises in advance to Sharon, who is now unable to fulfill his part of the bargain.

[ . . . ]

It seems that in order to take another step, it will be necessary to stake the whole pot and call elections.

Contrast this with the Jerusalem Post, which is calling for a unity government:

That the current political moment is of such magnitude goes without saying. The prospect of settlements being evacuated in general, and in the wake of a unilateral move in particular, makes the likelihood of civil strife high. This will be no time for Israel to be politically fractious. A government led by Ariel Sharon, Yosef (Tommy) Lapid and Shimon Peres will solidly represent the Israeli mainstream, and be difficult to delegitimize as it carries out tough policies.

[ . . . ]

With Labor alongside him not only will Sharon’s plan become easier to execute, it will also make Labor a partner in the unilateral vision, and thus passively concede that its peace-in-our-time rhetoric and policies of the 1990s have ended up in history’s dustbin.

So the rightist Jerusalem Post wants to avoid a far-right government by calling on the left-wing to join under Sharon’s leadership. And the leftist Ha’aretz wants to risk a far-right coalition government by calling for elections at a time when it knows Labor can’t win. Something seems backwards, no?

One thing both editorials have right is that disengagement from Gaza, while supported by a majority of Israelis in some form, won’t be an easy sell politically with such divided factions. In order to really accomplish change, some sort of uniting force will be necessary to bring together diverse political factions.

Meanwhile, Ariel Sharon is the cat with nine lives. He’s been branded as “finished in politics” countless times, and yet he always seems to survive. I don’t think that it’s so easy to dismiss him quite yet. He may appear to be fighting for his career now, but it wouldn’t be the first time.

People who know me know I’m not a woman who’s particularly obsessed with shoes. I haven’t bought a new pair in months, and I tend to wear my favourites into the ground, sometimes for years on end.

But the really great pairs of shoes are always the ones that are the hardest to part with or to replace.

About five years ago, I found the perfect pair of sandals. They cost next to nothing, were made of synthetic materials so I didn’t have to worry about getting them ruined. They had high heels but low enough to be comfortable. They dressed up virtually any skirt or pants enough to be able to go out in the evening, but were comfortable enough to walk long distances in. They matched every outfit and never seemed to go out of style.

Since then, they’ve been stepped on, had beer spilled on them, been packed in all sorts of bags, crushed, frozen, heated, and destroyed in any way you can think of. They survived most of this surprisingly well, but even the best shoes wear out eventually and these are starting to show their age. Threads are unravelling and the faux-leather isn’t looking quite as black as it used to.

The trouble is, I can’t seem to replace them. I’ve looked everywhere and been unable to find anything similar anywhere.

I wish I’d had known then that these were the perfect shoes. I would’ve bought two or three pairs and worn them forever. But for now, I just keep wearing the worn-out ones. Somewhere, the next pair of perfect shoes is waiting for me to find them. I wish I knew where.

I’ve maintained all along that one of the strongest arguments against the megacity – and, consequently, best reasons for demerger – is that the major unions would have less power and therefore wouldn’t be able to negotiate contracts that are ridiculously costly to the city.

Now it seems that the City of Montreal is trying to remove that incentive by hurrying to sign union contracts with city employees:

After all the delays in settling on new contracts, why the sudden rush now? At a minimum, any contracts signed in this uncertain period before demerger referendums should contain a clause exempting any boroughs that vote for independence on June 20.

Anything else risks locking any demerging boroughs into costly contracts that could, if city hall weakens, even include wasteful minimum-staffing clauses or the expensive four-day week.

[ . . . ]

The temptation to hog-tie any breakaway boroughs by trapping them into onerous contracts must be formidable. But if Tremblay thinks suburban voters are angry now, then he really doesn’t want to see their reaction to open-handed, hastily-signed new contracts.

I’ve lost count of the number of dirty tricks that the pro-mergerites have employed so far. Outdated registration lists containing names of people who’d been deceased for a decade, no door-to-door registration but door-to-door verification of list deletions, scare tactics and overly-biased campaign materials… not to mention the way the merger itself was carried out in the first place, as a steamroll over democracy.

Given all that, I find it hard to be surprised at this latest tactic. If Tremblay wants to cut off his left foot to avoid allowing citizens to demerge, then he’s a bigger fool than I thought. Unfortunately, it will once again be Montrealers who will pay.

The United States is seeking extradition of Abu Hamza al-Masri, a British imam charged with coordinating a hijaking in Yemen and trying to organize a terrorist training camp in Oregon. But Britain and Yemen both want to press charges against him too:

Eleven charges were announced Thursday by U.S. authorities against Abu Hamza al-Masri, whose real name is Mustafa Kamel Mustafa. He was arrested earlier in the day by British police and is being held in London pending extradition proceedings.

Charges outlined Thursday of providing assistance to terrorists could spark a 100-year prison sentence for Mr. al-Masri, 47. He could theoretically receive the death penalty on the hijacking charge, though the United States probably will have to foreswear that option before Britain, which has abolished capital punishment, will consider extraditing him.

Further complicating the case is the fact that Britain is already considering charges against Mr. al-Masri. Yemen is also seeking his extradition.

“This case could take months and months to sort out,” a senior British security source told Reuters.

This is not a nice guy. He held services at the same mosque that the Shoe Bomber and one of the September 11th hijackers attended. He’s also implicated in working directly with the Taliban and Al-Qua’eda in Afghanistan. Britain was so threatened by him that they’ve been trying to deport him… but now it seems like they want to keep him so they can put him on trial.

Al-Masri, for his part, is sure to do everything in his legal power to stay in Britain and avoid extradition to the U.S. He knows full well that sentencing will be lighter there, and media coverage much more favourable. He’s probably counting on becoming a “martyr” through media coverage and attention, and the British press is sure to oblige.

Yippee. I can’t wait.

Update: The nauseating “political-pawn” articles are already beginning.

I haven’t been able to post as much as I’d like to lately, due to being very preoccupied with work and with other stuff in my life. So in the meantime, here are some must-read links:

If you’re not reading Imshin, you should be. She has been blogging in her typically insightful fashion lately about Shavuot and Zionism’s true meaning, and about antisemitism at Berkeley.

LGF has the photo that proves just how little the UN can be trusted in the mideast. And Meryl has some biting commentary on the latest news emerging from Israel.

In Canadian news, the election talk that seems to be dominating the airwaves. But Damian Penny and David Janes have a disgusting story of racism interfering in custody cases that proves just how dangerous these “PC” policies can be for innocent children. As for the election, Paul Jané comments on the Liberals’ transparent scheme to make ridiculous healthcare promises at the eleventh hour that they clearly have no intention of keeping. (Anyone else remember the “no more GST” promise? Remind me again why I keep voting for these guys?)

4-1 Flames… WOOHOO! We need to bring the cup home to Canada. Go Flames Go!

The campaign has been unofficially happening for months, but now it’s official: It’s Election time again.

Let the attack ads, insults, and petty politics begin.

In the meantime, having recently moved out of the riding I’ve voted in my entire adult life, I’ve have been getting a crash course in the politics of my new riding, NDG/Lachine. It’s been educational, to say the least.

For one thing, I’ve discovered that the incumbent candidate is Marlene Jennings, who, from what I know about her, has been one of the Liberals whose views I’ve tended to respect.

Jennings is almost sure to win a third term in office. She is being challenged by candidates from the Bloc, the NDP, and the Green Party. There is no Conservative Party candidate running in my riding, interestingly enough. I’d never voted Conservative (in any of their previous incarnations) before, but if they really wanted me to consider voting for them this time, they should have at least run a candidate.

I still don’t know what I’m going to do come election day. Politically, I tend to diverge with all the major parties on at least some issues I consider critically important. Like a lot of Canadians I’m fed up with the Liberals. Even before the sponsorship scandal, I was getting sick of the waffling on important issues, the pandering to interest groups, the annoying way that the party assumed they were in power forever and didn’t actually have to do anything… But I don’t see too many viable alternatives out there.

I’m sure I’m far from the only person who’s annoyed that there are so few people to vote for. In provincial elections, I always hold my nose and vote Liberal because I’m a federalist and, well, that’s what federalists do. In federal elections, I liked the notion that there were more choices. But it’s starting to seem like the hold-nose-and-vote-Liberal-mantra is going to become more common in federal elections as well.

Somehow, it’s hard to get energized by such a meaningless vote.

Just in from my long weekend vacation to NYC. Had an amazing time.

Got my fix of cheesy American chains – both restaurants and stores – I have no idea why I love them so much but it’s probably just the fact that we don’t have them at home. I bet I’d be bored with the chains if we did have them here.

Also got a culture fix. The Met was awesome. So was randomly running smack into the middle of the Salute to Israel Parade on Fifth Avenue when we exited the museum after several hours of getting cultured. I knew I would be missing the March to Jerusalem here in Montreal yesterday in order to go on this trip… but I had no idea such a huge event was taking place in New York. Needless to say, when I saw the thousands of people wearing t-shirts and waving flags, the parade floats blasting Israeli music, the Israeli flags hanging from the lampposts… I caught on pretty quick.

Got my Broadway fix too. Avenue Q was the most genius thing since, well, Sesame Street itself. Words cannot describe the brilliance of this show.

What I love about New York is the contrast between areas only a few blocks away. Times Square, with all its commercialized glitz and glitter… the high style of the Upper East Side (with the awesome bakery/deli selling M&M-covered pretzels)… the green oasis of Central Park, complete with sunbathers missing only the beach… the laid-back edginess of the Village, Washington Square and the NYU area… and no, we did not go to Ground Zero, mainly because it was too far out of the way, but we did see a touching memorial set up at a Fire Station.

Weather much nicer there than apparently was here. Waits at the border long and frustrating, of course… made worse by the union strike tactics… though I wish I’d have known this. Driving otherwise uneventful. Have come to the conclusion that cheesy 80s compilation CDs make for the best driving music.

Road trips rule. Back to reality tomorrow. Oh well, there’s always next time.