NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image of the Apollo 11 landing site.
Images located here

Simon Walter has finally arrived on the 17th.! Mrs. Evil, I and Simon are tired but doing well! I believe I shall call him..... Mini-Me..... :) Photo after the cut.

Ok, I know, I know, any day there's one less Tory sitting in a legislature is a good day. That being said, there is not much that the Calgary-Glenmore by-election will actually change, despite the many bloggers stating otherwise. There will be no change in the direction of the Alberta Government for one simple reason, they have nothing to worry about.

Harper takes a salute meant for the Governor General. Reality to Harper – you are the head of government, not chief of state and hence not entitled to such an honour.

Ok, the political scientist in me is screaming. Over at Challenging the Common Place and Stageleft there is a discussion on how centralized our government should be. A fair enough discussion. What's bugging me is the complete mangling of government types. So as a public service, a brief description of the difference between republics, monarchies, federal, confederal and unitary systems.

There are continuing signs of disenchantment with Stephen Harper amongst conservatives. Last Saturday in the Calgary Herald, a paper well known for it's unquestioning support for all things Tory, published a report card on various party leaders and ministers. Now one can debate the usefulness of such report cards, but in this instance it is very interesting. Amongst the trio of Harper, Ignatieff and Layton, Harper garners a C behind both Ignatieff (B) and Layton (C+). Note that Harper's grade is missing from the on-line version of the story.

Harper, stick a fork in him, he's done.

As Don Martin points out, this isn't someone the neo-con kool-aid drinkers can just brush off as "the Liberal media". This was Harper's mentor and still one of the leading North American neo-con thinkers. Nothing says you're a Conservative in trouble quite like Tom Flanagan, Don Martin and the Calgary Herald.

Now I don't mean in his patented angry white guy way during question period. I mean that he seems to be losing not only his grip on his ministers and party, but the message the media is sending about him and his party as well. Harper has spent much of his time in power controlling his ministers, caucus and party with an iron fist and pretty much trying the same thing with the media.

So there I am at the annual Battle of the Atlantic commemoration ceremony yesterday as is my habit as a naval reserve officer. Time comes for the laying of the wreaths. Now by protocol the governments of Canada, Alberta and the City of Calgary lay wreaths, just like on Remembrance Day. However, these levels of governments couldn't be bothered to send representatives. So out of eight MP's, 21 MLA's and 15 aldermen, not ONE could find a couple of hours on a Sunday to come and represent any level of our government at a ceremony commemorating the sacrifice of Canadian naval and merchant navy personnel. Given Calgary's penchant for electing Conservatives, you'd think that a party so gung-ho about "supporting the troops" could show up for an annual veterans' event.

Last Saturday Michael Coren opened his word processor and came up with this piece of utter drivel. Apparently the fact that a young woman had the intestinal fortitude to do a job that Coren isn't brave enough to do himself is making him uncomfortable. What's the matter Michael, feeling less a man because of that?