***Warning: This documentary contains some graphic war footage***

This is a fairly sympathetic portrait overall, but informative and thought provoking nonetheless. I’m not much of a news junkie but the Wikileaks story has been impossible to ignore for the last while. Tell me what you think in the comments section.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C-vmlh48xY

Other opinions:

Ezra Levant:
Wikileaks journalism: not wiki, not leaks, not journalism

Doug Wilson:
Rounding Into the Straight

Tim Challies:
A Wikileaks Society

Christopher Hitchens:
The WikiLeaks founder is an unscrupulous megalomaniac with a political agenda.

Doug Wilson again:

One of the characteristics of lust is that it hates to be constrained. This applies as much to political lusts as to sexual desire…

Those who are in favor of smaller government are, when this is translated, in favor of a smaller capacity for coercion. Those who are in favor of bigger government are in favor of increased opportunities for coercion.

The libido dominandi [lust for power] is therefore characteristic of those who want more access to coercive policies, and it is not characteristic of those who don’t want that.

Processing… I hadn’t thought of government size as a measure of coercion capacity before…

I’m going to put a few quotes here this week from Mark Steyn’s book “America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It”.  Amazon’s product description reads as follows:

“In this, his first major book, Mark Steyn–probably the most widely read, and wittiest, columnist in the English-speaking world–takes on the great poison of the twenty-first century: the anti-Americanism that fuels both Old Europe and radical Islam. America, Steyn argues, will have to stand alone. The world will be divided between America and the rest; and for our sake America had better win.”

In case you didn’t know, I am Canadian. Many Canadians are quite anti-American. I am not. I have a cousin, who used to be Canadian and is now a US citizen, that now hates Canada. This is a tad irritating and tends to drive even MORE people to hate America which, unfortunately, is the goal of some Americans. I’m not sure where the lack of mutual respect is greater – there or here.

Anyway, here’s the first quote from the book. Feel free to discuss. I am pulling interesting quotes, not necessarily ones I’m supporting, although there is much truth to this one:

“All dominant powers are hated – Britain was, and Rome – but they’re usually hated for the right reasons. The fanatical Muslims despise America because it’s all lap-dancing and gay porn; the secular Europeans despise America because it’s all born-again Christians hung up on abortion; the anti-Semites despise America because it’s controlled by Jews.

Too Jewish, too Christian, too godless, America is George Orwell’s Room 101: whatever your bugbear you will find it therein; whatever you’re against, America is a prime example of it.”

If you don’t get the “George Orwell’s Room 101″ reference, read this.

Kevin DeYoung offers some thoughts on Memorial Day – an American holiday that commemorates U.S. soldiers who died while in military service.

There are two points here I think throw a decent-sized wrench into pacifist theology, which is an area of struggle for me. So do leave your thoughts below and help me struggle through. DeYoung says:

Being a soldier is not a sub-Christian activity. In Luke 3, John the Baptist warns the people to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. The crowds respond favorably to his message and ask him, “What then shall we do?” John tells the rich man to share his tunics, the tax collectors to collect only what belongs to them, and the soldiers to stop their extortion.

If ever there was a time to tell the soldiers that true repentance meant resigning from the army, surely this was the time. And yet, John does not tell them that they must give up soldier-work to bear fruit, only that they need to be honest soldiers. The Centurion is even held up by Jesus as the best example of faith he’s seen in Israel (Luke 7:9).

Military service, when executed with integrity and in the Spirit of God, is a suitable vocation for the people of God.

And then a bit later…

Military service is one of the most common metaphors in the New Testament to describe the Christian life. We are to fight the good fight, put on the armor of God, and serve as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. When we remember the sacrifice, single-minded dedication, and discipline involved in the life of a soldier, we are calling to mind what we are supposed to be like as Christians in service to Christ.

There is a good amount of discussion at the bottom of DeYoung’s post as well that is worth reading.

What more needs to be said? A lot, actually, but I won’t say it all now. At this point I’m not on the “let’s join the military” bandwagon, but I’m also not a hardcore pacifist. A “pacifist with exceptions” is probably accurate.

What do you make of DeYoung’s two points?

Something has gone very wrong in America and in Eric S. Wyatt’s opinion manufactured fear, corruption, and excessive partisanship are to blame. “Facing the Coming Storm” is one citizen’s impassioned plea for a return to the fundamentals of the American experiment. Power, he says, needs to be removed from the hands of a class of political elites and returned to the hands of the American people.

In “real” America, it seems, politicians are considerably less virtuous and self-sacrificing than you might believe based on an average episode of The West Wing. In real life, too many politicians are like Barney Frank, who “cares not a wit about the public good, as long as he can scare up enough votes for reelection.”

Apathy and fear are the enemies here. The author’s passion is one that we assume he hopes will become the norm in American society. If anything good can come of this current crisis and political climate, at least apathy seems to be waning. But an uninformed involvement is no less destructive. “It is my desire,” Wyatt writes in the introduction, “to ignite a passion for further consideration in my friends, family, and anyone else who stumbles across these words.”

Wyatt’s writing is strong enough to get the point across without the moments of sarcastic cynicism but this cynicism is not without merit considering the many clear recent examples of the type of problems he examines.

And as an author, he passes where others fail by being equally critical of both the left and the right. The book is not an Anne Coulter-style screed against anyone who is a Democrat. Neither party is spared it rightful blame here for the state of the current ideological war in today’s American society.

He sees flaws in the current administration’s handling of the financial crisis, yes, but he wisely balances that by pointing out the many mishandlings by the previous administration as well. It is the political system itself, as well as the individual parties that have lost their way and caused the crisis we are facing today.

Government is most effective, he says, when it does less. Quoting Mark Skousen, he makes the point that, “Government should only do those things that private citizens can’t do for themselves.”

Whether or not you live in the same country the author does, “Facing the Coming Storm” is worth your time. Non-American citizens will gain a better understanding of the American political system and everyone will benefit from the chapters on protecting yourself from the financial disasters running rampant in today’s crisis.

Purchase at Amazon.com

To be honest, I have tried to like Rob Bell’s work many times without much luck.  That’s probably a bad way to start a review.

I’m not a Bell-basher, but I’m not a fan either; I understand his appeal, but it doesn’t appeal to me; I have been to his church, I know some people there, and I like them and have enjoyed worshiping at Mars Hill.

Many who haven’t read Rob Bell’s books are at least familiar with the phenomenally successful series of short films called Nooma (which are quite good). Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile is the third of his provocatively titled books – the previous two being Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith (my review) and Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality.

If you’ve ever heard Bell speak, it’s easy to hear his voice when you read his books – his pacing, pauses, and emphases are communicated well by the format of the text. The size and outside cover designs are clever and appealing, making them nice books to be seen with.

In Jesus Wants to Save Christians Bell uses the motif of exile to illustrate the condition of God’s people at present and in times past, drawing parallels between the two. Exile, by Bell’s definition, is “when you fail to convert your blessings into blessings for others… [and] when you find yourself a stranger to the purposes of God.”

Bell wisely recommends that, “a Christian should get very nervous when the flag and the Bible start holding hands. This is not a romance we want to encourage.”  And adds: “For a growing number of people in our world, it appears that many Christians support some of the very things Jesus came to set people free from.”

He does excel at delivering a concise synopsis of Old Testament Biblical events, but beyond that and into his interpretation of the events, I found little of value.  The book does not deliver on it’s promise.

In describing the new covenant Bell says: “No more fear, no more terror, no more thunder. That was the old way, the former thing, the first covenant.” In this new covenant, “the truth will be so deeply etched into people’s consciousness that they will naturally do the right thing.” There is a common thread in Bell’s work, one that is the cause of some accusations that he favors Universalism. There are certainly overtones of that soteriological view and it would be nice to hear Bell explain his thinking on the matter a bit more.

By challenging Bell’s allusions to Universalism, one is put into the position of having to answer questions like “Are you saying you DON’T want everyone to be saved?” That is not the point here. Of course everyone (except the most extreme hyper-Calvinist) DOES hope that all will be saved, but the likelihood of this goes against numerous passages of scripture.  Some will spend eternity separated from God; Bell would do well to mention this more often in his teaching – not as a gleeful condemnation, but as a plea for repentance.

The text on the back cover says the following:

“There is a church in our area that recently added an addition to their building which cost more than $20 million. Our local newspaper ran a front-page story not too long ago revealing that one in five people in our city lives in poverty. This is a book about those two numbers.”

That claim is not substantiated in the pages of JWTSC; it would have been a much better book if it had.

The tone and scope of JWTSC reminds me of two other titles I read. Neither one sold me completely on its thesis and both are secular in orientation, but they challenged my preconceptions more effectively. So if a vibrant screed against the culture of excessive consumption and affluence is what you’re after, you’re more likely to be inspired by reading Naomi Klein’s No Logo or Kalle Lasn’s Culture Jam: How to Reverse America’s Suicidal Consumer Binge–And Why We Must.

Here is the clip from tonight’s broadcast of CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC) where Ron MacLean interviews Helen Kennedy of Egale Canada over the use of the word “pansification” – a term used by HNIC commentator Mike Milbury, who coined the term to describe how the NHL would be softened should the league heed calls to ban fighting.

I have used the word “pansy” more than few times, but never once as a homophobic slur.  A pansy is a flower; flowers look nice but don’t do much else. When someone isn’t giving as much effort as they are capable of, I have been known on occasion to call such a person out as a “pansy.”Of course, some words gain and lose and change meanings over time. For example, “gay” once meant happy and “queer” once meant strange. “Pansy” may have at one time have been a more specifically derogatory term, but I don’t believe it has been for a long time.CBC spokesperson Jeff Keay’s response: “The point is, it was no way intended to be a reflection on or offensive to gay people. I think the colloquial use of the term was something they didn’t associate with gay people. The way the language evolves over time, 20 or 30 years ago it would have been seen, reasonably enough, as a direct slur against gay people.”What Egale Canada has done is re-entered this word into the lexicon of homophobic derogatory terms. For the most part, it had dropped off the radar as a homophobic slur – something we should all have been happy about.Now, it’s back on the radar, and those inclined to use homophobic slurs have another weapon in their arsenal.Agree or disagree?

1. I started dating Anne Marie when I was just short of my 15th birthday

2. I married Anne Marie when I was just short of my 20th birthday

3. In between those two dates, I didn’t always treat Anne Marie as well as could have. I hope I do a lot better now.

4. I get annoyed with people’s idiosyncrasies, and my own as well

5. I sometimes exclaim: “Man, I am SUCH a freak!”

6. I don’t think Johnny Cash really made that great a contribution

7. I demand too much of my little girls sometimes… but much was demanded of me when I was little and I’m now thankful for it

8. I haven’t written many new songs in the last few years and I sometimes worry that the gift is gone. If it is gone, it found it’s way to Shane. Shane writes good songs.

9. I can sleep anywhere… and it doesn’t have to be quiet either

10. I have wasted many years at my current job. I plan to fix that problem in the next couple of months

11. I once took too many free balloons from the grocery store. My mom made me take them back. I was frightened and humiliated and that day I learned a valuable lesson

12. Some things that I think are funny are actually mean (peace out Shane)

13. I sometimes shamelessly promote my blog

14. I cry almost every time I hear Counting Crows “Miami”

15. I cry when I watch that cheesy “You… complete me” scene in Jerry Maguire

16. I cried for about 10 minutes – actually I wept – after watching Charlize Theron in “Monster” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0340855/

17. I can’t find or imagine finding another family as knit together or unique as the Krahns.

18. I have three daughters and no desire to have a son

19. I don’t fear aging, in fact I’m looking fwd to it

20. A few years ago, I almost converted to Roman Catholicism.  I still consider Thomas Merton a mentor.

21. I like books

22. Sleep is a necessary evil

23. Jack Layton makes me nauseous

24. I have a lot of hope for Barack Obama, although I wish he’d change his views on abortion

25. If anything goes wrong in the USA, Jack Bauer can fix it with threats of violence… and violence.

NBC has reportedly rejected the following ad, saying that NBC and the NFL are not interested in advertisements involving “political advocacy or issues.”

What do you think?

Send feedback to NBC to: victoria.morgan AT nbc.com

I was asked the following question by a friend this morning: “In your experience do Christians believe in global warming?”

In the interest of a lively discussion, I’ll throw the question out here.

Go ahead, have at it. The guy who asked the question will be taking part in the discussion so feel free to ask him clarification questions.

When it comes to television, I’m a bit of a Luddite – and I like it that way.  We have rabbit ears, that’s it – no cable, no satellite.  There are only two shows we keep current on: 24 and LOST.

The West Wing is a show we’ve been watching recently and we just finished season two. This is a show that went seven or eight seasons and is already wrapped up.  The writing is superb and so is the acting. It stars Martin Sheen as a Democratic President and chronicles the life of a US President inside and outside the White House.

There have been a few touching moments, more than a few humorous moments, and some sad moments as well, but the finale of season two is something I’ve been thinking about for a few days now since I watched it.  I just went and grabbed the clip below off of YouTube and got a chill again as I watched it.

You have to know some of the backstory to understand this fully, but this is President Bartlett (Martin Sheen) at a low point emotionally and spiritually. He is in a cathedral for the funeral of a loved-one, he is about to announce to the American public that he has a degenerative disease, and he refers to a couple of tragic incidents from the past two years,  and because of these things he feels completely betrayed by God.

My question: is this a legitimate wrestling with God or is this blasphemy?

(I think it’s the Latin that gives me the chills…)

Let’s hear your opinions first and then I’ll post the text of this monologue and some thoughts from series creator Aaron Sorkin.

For those of you who don’t know, Rick Warren was asked to pray at Barack Obama’s inauguration. He closed his prayer “I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life—Yeshua, ‘Isa, Jesus [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus—who taught us to pray:” followed by The Lord’s Prayer.

Contrary to this report by Daniel Cordell which seems to be making the rounds, I spoke to a Muslim immigrant friend this morning and posed the question “Who is Isa?” Without hesitation, his immediate response was “That’s Jesus in Arabic. That’s the word used for Jesus in Arabic countries.”

This deserves more research, but one to one I think I’ll take the word of an observant Muslim immigrant on the issue.

In Arabic countries, Isa is the name for Jesus and Allah is the name for God. Without prompting, my Muslim friend also said that Christian preachers in the mid-east commonly use Isa and Allah to refer to Jesus and God, and when they do this their meaning is clear to both Christians and Muslims.
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Here is Mark Driscoll’s take on Warren’s Prayer.

What do you think?

These are from the post “Being Pro-Life Christians Under a Pro-Choice President” by John Piper:

1. Are you willing to explain why a baby’s right not to be killed is less important than a woman’s right not to be pregnant?
2. Or are you willing to explain why most cities have laws forbidding cruelty to animals, but you oppose laws forbidding cruelty to human fetuses? Are they not at least living animals?
3. Or are you willing to explain why government is unwilling to take away the so-called right to abortion on demand even though it harms the unborn child; yet government is increasingly willing to take away the right to smoke, precisely because it harms innocent non-smokers, killing 3,000 non-smokers a year from cancer and as many as 40,000 non-smokers a year from other diseases?
4. And if you say that everything hangs on whether the fetus is a human child, are you willing to go before national television in the oval office and defend your support for the “Freedom of Choice Act” by holding in your hand a 21 week old fetus and explaining why this little one does not have the fundamental, moral, and constitutional right to life? Are you willing to say to parents in this church who lost a child at that age and held him in their hands, this being in your hands is not and was not a child with any rights of its own under God or under law?

Read the entire post and comment there or comment below.

Update

Related content: this post by Justin Taylor 

Also this post re: Roe vs. Wade

What would you call it based on the coverage you watched or listened to?

When I find a worthy author I engage that author intensely and exhaustively until I can articulate what they are and are not about.  I’ve done this with CS Lewis, Thomas Merton, Marshall McLuhan, Mark Driscoll, Douglas Coupland, Madeleine L’engle, and I am now doing it with John Piper.  Many people sip on these authors and then quote them out of context to make a point that the authors themselves never would have made.  So you end up with people who are vehemently anti-Catholic quoting a high Anglican like Lewis, or more absurdly, they’ll quote GK Chesterton, who was a convert and great champion of Catholicism.  But quote Thomas Merton to them and they’ll point and cry “Anathema!” in your direction and then leave the room.

At any rate, Piper is the stream or phase you’ll find me in now, but by phase I do not mean fad.  None of the people I mention have been fads for me; they have been extended engagements that have turned into my foundations.

In time my focus on Piper will subside because he will take his place in my foundation, along with seemingly disparate others like Merton and L’engle.  How is this possible?  It’s not supposed to be… I guess that’s what makes me Emerging/Emergent to the extent that I am – I can live with the paradox and invite others to join me there..

So I don’t know what you’ve heard about Piper but I’ll vouch for him as one of the keenest expositors of scripture who also has a loving heart and a truth-hungry mind.  I don’t agree with everything he says but he has the following in common with all the other authors I mentioned: he lights up my brain, helps me to understand things I’ve struggled to understand for years.  He is far more compatible with my brand of Emergence than most suspect. He is sure of many things but unlike your typical American Baptist pastor he doesn’t attempt to snow you if he doesn’t know the answer.

This is a different conversation altogether, but I’ve come to believe that much of the Emergent movement grows not out of having read the Bible and found it lacking, but from not having read the Bible at all, or at least picking and choosing the passages that fit – which we all do, but I don’t see why it should be sanctioned in one movement and not the other.  The same goes for politics… Donald Miller stumps for Obama, and today Tony Jones (former national coordinator for Emergent Village) did a national interview promoting Obama.  I say that’s a double standard.

Anyway, I am not someone who buys someone else’s systematic theology and then tries to force it down other people’s throats.  I believe in reading widely and stopping for an extended examination of ideas when I come across something compelling.

Here’s a 5-minute Piper segment that illustrates my point.  The format is a daily Q&A podcast : audio or text transcript

Read the rest of the article here… Kruse makes a keen observation about emerging Evangelicals:

One of the most ironic things I’ve seen in this election is the broad embrace of Obama by so many Emergent or emerging church folks. The vary name “Emergent” comes from the philosophical notion of “emergence,” which Wikipedia explains refers to, “…the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions.” Thus, the emerging church resistance to hierarchical ecclesiastical structures and the cherished notion of generative communities giving witness against the Empire (in true Hauerwasian fashion) in their independent contexts, watching new ways of being spontaneously emerge and converge.

Yet when it comes to justice and governance, so many of this community warmly embrace repackaged modernist visions of perfectible humanity through government supported individualism, with its corresponding assault on the mediating institutions of society. Their idealistic quest for justice in the face the Empire places the populous evermore firmly into the grasp of a centralized empire.

I hadn’t thought of it that way. What do you think?

Jonathan Kay:

Four points need to be made here:

(1) Never have I been more grateful for this country’s prudent, risk-averse national character.

(2) Canadians are obsessed with their rank in the world. They should take a bow on this one. Surely this is more important than, say, junior hockey or the pommel horse.

(3) A year ago, the only time anyone wrote about banks was when they were bitching about ATM fees. Time for some perspective: Go hug your banker. And the next time he charges you a buck-fifty for making a $200 withdrawal at someone else’s bank, don’t whine about it, ok?

(4) Stéphane Dion and Jack Layton: Aren’t you now even more ashamed now about your sky-is-falling panic-mongering?

Canada rated world’s soundest bank system: survey

Thu Oct 9, 2008 4:40am EDT

By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Canada has the world’s soundest banking system, closely followed by Sweden, Luxembourg and Australia, a survey by the World Economic Forum has found as financial crisis and bank failures shake world markets.

But Britain, which once ranked in the top five, has slipped to 44th place behind El Salvador and Peru, after a 50 billion pound ($86.5 billion) pledge this week by the government to bolster bank balance sheets.

The United States, where some of Wall Street’s biggest financial names have collapsed in recent weeks, rated only 40, just behind Germany at 39, and smaller states such as Barbados, Estonia and even Namibia, in southern Africa.

The United States was on Thursday considering buying a slice of debt-laden banks to inject trust back into lending between financial institutions now too wary of one another to lend.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report based its findings on opinions of executives, and handed banks a score between 1.0 (insolvent and possibly requiring a government bailout) and 7.0 (healthy, with sound balance sheets).

Canadian banks received 6.8, just ahead of Sweden (6.7), Luxembourg (6.7), Australia (6.7) and Denmark (6.7).

UK banks collectively scored 6.0, narrowly behind the United States, Germany and Botswana, all with 6.1. France, in 19th place, scored 6.5 for soundness, while Switzerland’s banking system scored the same in 16th place, as did Singapore (13th).

The ranking index was released as central banks in Europe, the United States, China, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland slashed interest rates in a bid to end to panic selling on markets and restore trust in the shaken banking system.

The Netherlands (6.7), Belgium (6.6), New Zealand (6.6), Malta (6.6) rounded out the WEF’s banking top 10 with Ireland, whose government unilaterally pledged last week to guarantee personal and corporate deposits at its six major banks.

Also scoring well were Chile (6.5, 18th) and Spain, South Africa, Norway, Hong Kong and Finland all ending up in the top 20.

At the bottom of the list was Algeria in 134th place, with its banks scoring 3.9 to be just below Libya (4.0), Lesotho (4.1), the Kyrgyz Republic (4.1) and both Argentina and East Timor (4.2).

RANKINGS

1. Canada

2. Sweden

3. Luxembourg

4. Australia

5. Denmark

6. Netherlands

7. Belgium

8. New Zealand

9. Ireland

10. Malta 11. Hong Kong

12. Finland

13. Singapore

14. Norway

15. South Africa

16. Switzerland

17. Namibia

18. Chile

19. France

20. Spain

(HT: Jonathan Kay – National Post)

I hadn’t planned on doing this… in fact, I’ve never live-blogged anything before.  And also, I kind of forgot the debate was going to be on so I didn’t prepare at all, but I found myself at the computer, watching TV and figured “Why not?”.

So I live micro-blogged via Twitter.  Here’s the transcript, including a few comments I received along the way:

Dion on the attack…. ooooooooo, it’s like being hit by a little girl.via Twitter - 9:07pm

Kim C. -Oh – so fast and swift and taken down unexpectantly? LOL

I like Layton… too bad he wants a socialist dictatorship.viaTwitter - 9:09pm

Go Harper… he’s mentoring them.via Twitter - 9:13pm 

Oh here we go… May is talking with about “rich people” – defined as “people with investments”. Woohoo – I guess I’m rich, I have an RRSP.via Twitter - 9:14pm

AnneMarie Krahn – If you’re rich why don’t I know about it?

Layton attacks Dion. Not nice Jack… shouldn’t pick on little girls.via Twitter - 9:20pm

Duceppe just asked about “reimborasabull” for “da turd time” – must be important.via Twitter - 9:23pm

Patrick F:

“Duceppe is doing it for the terd time”

Those jobs ARE going elsewhere Jack… but we’ve gained 100,000 new jobs… where’s the problem?via Twitter - 9:29pm

Marc M at 9:30pm October 2 -
We really need to abandon our senses and fully embrace Euro-liberalism. Pot, abortions, teen sex, gay sex, porn, gambling, draining taxes from hard-working citizens to fund nanny-state government schemes, violence and depravity in media, persecuting Christians, global-warming-Chicken-Little…all things that traditionally make the… the world a better place. Get a lobotomy, vote liberal like a good Canucklehead.

Dion: “Where… am I?”.via Twitter - 9:30pm

Duceppe, you’re not a party.. you’re a killjoy.via Twitter -9:34pm -

Harper sounds sane… but that haircut has to go.via Twitter -9:35pm -

May – Sweden, Germany, the Green Party, sounds like she lives on the wrong continent.via Twitter - 9:39pm 

Quick poll for those listening: Who will the new Liberal leader be after the election? Rae or Iggy?via Twitter - 9:42pm

May spoke and didn’t mention Sweden or Germany… progress.via Twitter - 9:44pm

Switch Dion and May… they’re heading the wrong parties.viaTwitter - 9:46pm

Layton is playing “Weekend at Bernie’s” with the corpse of Tommy Douglas. Psssst, Jack, we know…via Twitter - 9:52pm

Stephane “Afterthought” Dion – they wait for him to finish, and then move on.via Twitter - 9:55pm

May agrees with Harper about Jack using the private clinic.viaTwitter - 9:56pm

Deceppe def’n: The number of people in a country is that country’s “bobalashun”.via Twitter - 9:58pm

May, the “Creative Class”… mmmmmmm, elitism anyone?viaTwitter - 10:00pm

Layton: “The arts is important to I.”.via Twitter - 10:03pm

AnneMarie Krahn
I think that education should be important to him…specifically the grammar part.

Dion: “Its not the job of politicians to decide who will be helped by the government.” What? Really?via Twitter - 10:05pm

May: “mean-spirited cuts to artists.” When it involves artists, there are no other kind.via Twitter - 10:07pm

How can you accuse someone of making decisions based on their ideology? Is there any other way?via Twitter - 10:09pm

I may have to add a Green lawn sign beside my Conservative one. Is that allowed?via Twitter - 10:13pm 

Dion – Gotta get tough on the causes of crime: poverty, addiction, and mental illness.via Twitter - 10:14pm

Another cause of violence: competent leaders waiting in the wings watching current leader flush party down toilet.via Twitter -10:15pm -

May: literacy = no crime. Tell that to the white-collar criminals.via Twitter - 10:17pm

Layton is too patronizing sometimes… a little cheezy.via Twitter -10:19pm -

Layton: $400 per child per year will help families “get the right start in life.” That’s some frugal people.via Twitter - 10:19pm

Pete O
we get more than that right now with the conservatives

Harper is explaining the following to Dion: “Politics for Dummies”.via Twitter - 10:20pm -

Duceppe shouldn’t be allowed to speak on any issues that don’t involve Quebec.via Twitter - 10:29pm

I repeat: Steve Pakin is very good.via Twitter - 10:36pm

Layton wants Harper to guarantee that no one will lose their house or job. Can YOU promise that, Jack?via Twitter - 10:39pm

May on politics: spoken like someone who’s never been in power. Great aspirations but significantly more complicated than that.via Twitter - 10:50pm

I like May… it was the right decision to have her on… performing much better than Dion, Layton, and that guy who wants to leave the country …via Twitter - 10:54pm

Dion is so easily pushed around.. they’re toying with him.viaTwitter - 10:57pm

Good debate… I make a lot of fun of Dion but a person of his many weaknesses should not be the leader of a national party.via Twitter- 10:59pm -

CBC television just spent time analyzing Twitter updates during the debate. Interesting.via Twitter - 11:44pm

Follow me on Twitter.
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