John Gormley's Blog
As usual, when something neat happens out doors I happen to be indoor so I missed last night's remarkable light show in the sky -- a big meteor event according to astronomers.
U of R astronomer Michael Beech tells our radio show that the likely site of the meteorite that may have come to earth is probably between Edmonton and Lloydminster. Why? Because in Lloyd, like here, the light show was in the western sky. In Edmonton, it was in the east.
Here is some great video from Edmonton:
In a "better late than never" book recommendation, I recently stumbled upon an excellent and thought-provoking good read.
It's a 2007 book from Silicon Valley insider and pundit Andrew Keen called “Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture”. It’s fascinating because much of it rings so true.
Keen compellingly argues that the Internet is not opening a cultural renaisssance and the digital revolution will not provide people with more viable avenues to become professional writers, musicians and film-makers. Most importantly, argues Keen, amateurism does not benefit mankind.
In reading "Cult of the Amateur" there was much to agree with, yet parts I disagreed with. And so it went, being torn one way and then the other.
Keen's book is a truly great polemic that attacks the amateurs, the technologically advanced who are armed with plenty of opinions, an inflated sense of self yet no life experience and little if any formal education.
These amateurs confuse social networking with true cohesion, democracy for merit, personal attacks for debate, opinion for fact. You get the idea.
Cult of the Amateur attacks Wikipedia (thank goodness – someone has to challenge this assortment of amateur-led distortion).
But Keen’s book also goes hard on the blogging citizen journalists who I think often do hold the mainstream media to account. I'm not quite so quick to dismiss the many brilliant thinkers whose analysis of the media is recasting how we consume information.
If the internet has you wondering about the future of our culture, our thought and our relationships – and it should – check out “Cult of the Amateur". It will make you think.
After a few days of R&R (where better for a US election hideout than John McCain's Arizona!) it's back home and on the radio show.
In no particular order, here are a few random musings:
- why is golf always played better (or at least scored better) when away from home on unfamiliar golf courses?
- sitting in the breakfast deli, was struck by the proprieter's sense of fair play. One day the TV was on CNN. The next day the execrable MSNBC. Then FOX News and so on. And for some reason breakfast always tastes better when it's with FOX.
- in an America that is more politically polarized than usual -- and that's saying something -- message to inimitable El Rushbo and Sean: I didn't like Barack Obama's campaign platform either but, geez, the guy isn't President yet. Judge him now on personnel choices, transition and the like. But for the big policy items, or lack thereof, wait 8 weeks, see what he does and then have at it.
- Obama's election means something -- about the politics of change, race and a great democracy prepared to see itself in the mirror differently than in the past.
- in a Rider Nation without boundaries, the texts started coming fast and furious from Mosaic Stadium. Only when the words "ass handed to us" showed up on my phone was it time to mourn. So, ruefully -- for just a few moments -- it was time for thoughts about the end of a 12-6 season, two years in a row with a home play-off game, a team with the heart and soul of winners, a macabre record-setting 8 broken legs in 19 games, a record number of home game sell outs, a record number of season tickets. And, yes, a bit of uncertainty about quarterbacks - but I trust real football experts (not fans) to make the right decisions on players. This entire thought process took about two minutes. This needn't take days - it really doesn't have to.
- and, caught the story on the Oxford English Dictionary's 10 most irritating phrases, the ones like "24/7" "at the end of the day" etc. While we're at it, how about "going forward"? The stock market meltdown may have hit us hard but we don't need to get continually hit by broker/analyst talk, going forward is. Would it actually be possibe "in the future" to be "going forward"? And, now that I'm in grouchy word mode, here are a couple of completely mis-used words, usually by people in the legal and political world who should be clever enough to know better. Penultimate does not mean the "most ultimate". It's a bit short of that actually. And fulsome is not a synonym for "fully". Never has been.
My buddy at the Edmonton Sun, Kerry Diotte, is a good pal. We regularly keep in touch, he comes to Saskatchewan to golf with me every summer and, when I'm back in Edmonton, Kerry and I always have a lot of laughs.
In his latest newspaper column, Kerry uses our friendship to weave a great story about a great province -- OURS!
Thanks, man.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/2008/10/26/7209571-sun.html
Nope. At least when you watch the delegates to the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour convention.
Who are these people? And why do they act this way?
By the way, best insult shouted at Labour Minister Rob Norris -- as overheard by a reporter --- "Gormley lover"!
Consider it the answer to a future trivia question: what does Stephane Dion have in common with Edward Blake? Blake – who was Canada's Liberal leader from 1880 to 1887 – is the only Liberal leader until now NOT to have become Prime Minister (interim leaders excepted, of course).
This is a stunning record that bears out why the Liberals are, indeed, Canada's Natural Governing Party -- win the leader gig and you're virtually guaranteed a spot in the history books and a bed at 24 Sussex Drive.
Sensibly, after last week's election result, Dion has announced that he’s stepping down as Liberal leader once his party has chosen a successor, likely in late spring.
Unlike the spin from media horse race watchers and ambitious Grit politicos, Dion doesn't need to leave immediately -- exorcised like some demon haunting the Liberals. He is fully capable of leading his party for the next 6 or 7 months.
The Liberal party -- always chock full to the gunwales of wannabe Judges, ambassadors, Senators and every other type of political appointee – has far bigger problems at present than Dion.
Out of money and millions in debt, the Liberals have been outflanked on the left by the NDP and on the right by Stephen Harper. And, having received just 26 percent of the popular vote in last week's election, this is the lowest percentage of the vote for Liberals in 140 years of Canadian history.
Often content to make up policy as they go -- campaign from the Left and govern from the Right the old Liberal campaign mantra went -- Liberals in recent generations are usually not too burdened down by the principles and exactitude that deep policy formulation carries.
But now they may actually need a defining vision, something that distinguishes the Liberal brand from others. And this is going to take some doing.
So, Conservative PM Stephen Harper returns. He got the "strengthened mandate" that he asked for -- but it wasn't majority-strong. But with twenty more seats and a Liberal collapse, Harper will have a mandate to govern decisively.
The only positive sign last night, amidst the leaders' speeches, was the general sense that -- at least for now -- they want to get along, to cooperate, to make Parliament work. Let's see how long this lasts.
In no particular order, here are a few thoughts:
Tory gains in Ontario and BC were helpful to Harper. Newfoundland isn't necessary to form government, so Danny Millions can have his ABC. But, a saw-off in the Atlantic must mean growth in Quebec seats. This didn't happen. The words "arts" and "young offenders" have something to do with this. More on our talk show today.
For the first time in history, Saskatchewan has completely shut-out the NDP three times in a row. Even with the Liberal collapse, resulting in some two-party races, some of us thought that the NDP could pick up as many as three seats. But none. Nada. Zilch. The same socialist party that is struggling for relevance in a new found boom province is going to need some critical self-examinaton.
And in the one riding that the NDP had thrown everything at, Saskatoon Rosetown Biggar, the now three times in a row NDP loser Nettie Weibe fell short by a couple of hundred votes. At the same time, the Green Party candidate polled 1,200 votes. The NDP self-examination may require some talking with the Greens.
54% of Saskatchewan voters picked the Tories. 26% voted for the NDP. The Liberals and Greens added up just got over the 20% line. So, what does this tell us about last week's Angus Reid poll that suggested the Conservatives were polling at 40% and the NDP at 35% among decided voters? Obviously the big "undecided category" wasn't undecided as much as "not telling".
Gerry Ritz, the hardworking, capable -- and self destructively quipping - Battlefords Lloydminister MP was re-elected handily despite the national furor over his listeriosis foot in mouth. Will Ritz survive in Cabinet or does the PM have his eye on newcomer Ray Boughen, the class-act former Moose Jaw Mayor, or Lynn Yellich, the steady and effective MP from Blackstrap?
Just a few thoughts that we'll broach on today's John Gormley Live!
Well, Canada's version of C-SPAN, the Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC) came into our radio studios and, as always, it was good fun. While their crew (and ours) worked seamlessly to integrate a radio show into a television feature, the ability to take listeners' calls from around the country adds a good bit to pre-election debate.
And, by the way, it takes only one of these shows every couple of years to re-affirm my respect for television performers. Sheesh. Now I know, besides the face for radio part, why I like what I do!
On matters political, our News Talk 650/980 CKOM/CJME provincial poll is out this morning. To no one's surprise it shows (a) a Tory lead and (b) the opposition to the Conservatives coalescing around the NDP. Look for at least a couple of existing Conservative seats to be in play on election night.
And, in my newspaper column today, in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, I do a quick re-cap and suggest that Prime Minister Harper has let the economy become an issue that's driving him, not the other way around. Also, although it's early, there might be more than one party talking leadership in the next few weeks. Here's my column:
Have a good weekend.