Revolutionary Moderation

News from around the globe



Israel says its bombing run into Syria Monday was to strike at "terrorist camps". That claim may be 100% true, and yet Israel has already proven itself almost Bush-like in its desire to err on the side of destruction. What - Bulldozing the West Bank and putting up a giant wall wasn't good enough for you people?



Now Syria is promising military retaliation if it happens again. Now, let's be honest, that particular war will be somewhat one-sided, with Syria on the losing end. It speaks to Syria's desperation that it would make these sorts of threats, because it can't easily back down from them.



In only slightly-related news, Israel lost its most prominent Canadian supporter in Izzy Asper yesterday. I had a lot of respect for Izzy: remaining in Winnipeg and running his media empire from there, and not being nearly so overbearing as Conrad Black when it came to pushing a political agenda through his newspapers. Sure, Global's kind of a trashy network, but isn't it better for the country to have a third network to compete with CTV and CBC? Thank Izzy for that.



Heading west, Saskatchewan is going to the polls, and the hardest thing for the current NDP government to survive will be the barnacles that accumulate on any government after a dozen governing years. Plus, now that Grant Devine's cabinet has mostly done their time, they'll have their ballots back, and will probably be voting for the Saskatchewan Party.



Here in Alberta, a major report on fixing the public school system has been released, with ninety-five recommendations. Frank Brusaker, the head of the ATA, likes ninety-four of them, but doesn't want school administration (principals and vice-principals) to be removed from the ATA. Frank, a word of advice: if you try to cherry-pick these recommendations with that sort of NIMBY request, the government will use that as an excuse to pick and choose more widely. Sure, they'll give you your administrators back, but imagine what you're going to lose in the exchange. Decide if it's worth it.



And all of this is to point out what should be obvious. To people around the world, to people in Canada, to people anywhere but in the State of California, more pertinent things have been happening than the election of a gun-wielding, Humvee-driving robot to Governor.