And the fun continues

Quite a good letter featured in today's paper about "Democracy at Work" with one paragraph in particular that tickled me.

It is a colossal mistake to believe that there should be a single, well-behaved model for government conduct. Government at its finest provides us a relatively cheap form of entertainment and diversion, and above all it keeps us free.

The Conservative party are backed into a corner and are fighting for their political life. That means they're going to play every dirty trick in the book and make up a few to survive. The Governor General is flying back early from a business trip. Will Harper ask her to suspend Parliament? Will she sit on her hands and "think about it" for enough time for the confidence vote to scupper the Tories? Will she say go ahead, bring em down but you have to call an election, not rule by coalition? The C's are trying to spin the situation, telling Canadians that the other three parties are ganging up on them like bullies, that they're undemocratic. yadda yadda yadda. But it *is* democracy at work. The ruling party can only rule if they have the confidence of the House and they don't. THey say "oh but we were elected!" So? As one newspaper article pointed out, we elect a Parliament, not a government. Harper whines that the Liberals are getting in bed with the Bloc Quebecois who want to break up Canada. Um. Hypocrite! He wanted to do the exact same thing a few years ago to try to topple the minority Liberal government. He says that forcing a confidence vote is just wrong. A few years ago he said just the opposite (when he was in the postition to bring down the Liberals). If Parliament gets prorogued until the end of January, expect a massive amount of PR from the Conservatives aimed at the coalition parties and trying to win over the public opinion to their side. Talk about Weapons of Mass Destruction!

We have as many opinions here at work about what will/should/might happen as we have people but we have good people and everyone respects each other's right to have their own opinion. I'm not a political junkie as a rule but i'll be following this one a little more closely than i usually do. Either way, I don't think PM Harper is going to have a very good Christmas.

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Can someone just remind me why i thought it was a good idea to be a java programmer?

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Yummy new recipe tried tonight. Sent to me by my mate Digger WINOLJ. It originates on the Kraftfoods.com site. Made as the recipe states, it'll serve 8. I halved the recipe and it made enough for probably 3 good sized servings for me. (or two servings and lunch!). It's vegetarian, as well and is probably something that you could chuck anything in really. Here's the recipe but remember, i measured out roughly half the quantities though i didn't skimp on the cheese. Also, you can use whatever strength/heat of salsa you prefer, and i used Monterray Jack cheese with hot peppers in it. Digger used a "nippy" mexican cheddar, preshredded from Asda/Walmart. I used bow shaped whole wheat pasta as that's what i had in.

Mexican Pasta Vegetable Bake.

3 - cups rotini pasta uncooked.
2 - 16 ounce (500ML) jars of chunky salsa
2 - cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1 - Cup light cottage cheese (could probably use ricotta)
1 - can (16 ounces, 500ml) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 - 10 ounce package of frozen corn, thawed and drained (I used about a cup and a half so judge accordingly)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Cook pasta and drain.

Mix pasta, salsa, 1 cup cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, beans and corn.
Spoon into 13x9 inch baking pan sprayed with cooking spray, top with the rest of the cheese
Bake at 375 F for 20 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Sprinkle with cilantro.
You can make it ahead, cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight, then bake uncovered.

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News conference tonight. Both politicos stating their side. Harper didn't say anything new that they've all be braying about for the last couple of days. Thundering about the Liberals cooperating with the party that wants to break up Canada. No word about what he plans to do, no word about what he'd do to solve the economic problems if he gets to stay in power. Stephan Dion sounded like he had a plan, didn't mention the Separatists and reminded viewers that he would be stepping down in the spring soon enough (because he's not that popular, which is why he didn't get elected as PM). Kept saying it was "your parliament" . I thought he sounded pretty adept at the message he was trying to get across including reassuring people that they have a plan to get the economy jump started. And if you think it was hard listening to Jean Cretien speaking English with his strong French accent, my god Dion is painful to listen to! The party leader of the BQ (who want to separate from Canada) was blunt. He castigated Harper and assured Quebecers that their party would still have their interests in mind and that the agreement would benefit Quebec which is why they are supporting it. The last leader, for the NDP, well... he's pretty much saying the same things. He made sure to mention that Harper was more concerned with his job than "your" jobs. i.e. he doesn't really care if anyone has lost their job or has any care to create new jobs. All we do know is that Harper seems set to ask the GG for a proroguation. Dunno if she even has the choice of saying no get stuffed or yeah, go on, off you go, Merry Christmas.

Marvellous stuff!