Cue violins…and pass the champagne.

What do Maude Barlow and Gollum have in common?

The ubiquitous Ms. Barlow in the Globe and Mail : [my comments in red]

As a new year and a new decade begin, it is time to accept an unpleasant reality: Canada's international reputation as a progressive middle power is gone. [woohoo!!] Instead, our country is increasingly seen as a human-rights-denying eco-outlaw [if bloody only! Maybe nixing the CHRC would clinch that...] that has lost its way and its special status as a standard bearer for a better world. This change is largely the doing of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the ideology that has motivated him and his mentors for decades. [remind me to vote for that man!]

“Standard bearer for a better world”?? Ye gods, that might have come straight from the screenplay of  The Lord of the Rings Meets Monsters Incorporated.

To wit: “Mr. Harper's government continues to promote unlimited growth in the Alberta oil sands – Canada's Mordor.” Mwa ha ha! Does that make Mr. Harper Sauron? Where is the White Wizard Al Gore-dolph when we need him? What part in "Lord of The National Angst" does Ms. Barlow play?  Legolas? Gimli?  Or maybe Gollum. He’s the only non-hypocrite environmentalist that has ever existed: is not averse to  living naked on a rock and eating his food raw.

Barlow again: “I am personally ashamed of my country as I travel internationally.” (Cue violins) Boo hoo!  Most of us are too busy working for a living to “travel internationally.” And if you’re flying, Maude, I do hope it’s by Air Nazgul. (They scream something terrible, but except for the occasional unfortunate gastric emission, are fairly carbon neutral.)

image: http://www.lordotrings.com/tour/nazgul.asp

Further: Kathy Shaidle answers the old “Maple-Leaf-on-the-backpack thing.” Lawks, she makes me laugh. "Dear grey haired old farts: some of us are sick of your unexamined liberal wisdom and 1970s (upper) middle class cliches."



Thanks to SteynOnline for the link.