Tuesday, May 11, 2004
For Christ's sake, Ralph, get up so I can kick you at some point other than when you're down
This space has managed to secure access to the paper that Premier wrote for Athabasca University on the 1973 Chilean coup by Augusto Pinochet. I'll not subject you to the whole thing, but the opening paragraph gives a pretty good indication of how the rest goes:
"The year was 1973, the date September 11. Although I cannot remember specifically what was happening in the newsroom at CFCN radio and television, it was no doubt a typical day."
It brings to mind Stephen Leacock's opening to his eleven page novel "Gertrude the Governess: or, Simple Seventeen" ("Synopsis of Previous Chapters: There are no Previous Chapters"):
"It was a wild and stormy night on the West coast of Scotland. This, however, is immaterial to the present story, as the scene is not laid in the West of Scotland. For the matter of that, the weather was just as bad on the East coast of Ireland. But the scene of this narrative is laid in the South of England."
At any rate, in addition to releasing this literary gem on an unsuspecting public, Klein clarified his earlier comments and committed to "biting [his] tongue" (Step 1: remove foot). It turns out that his "only purpose in making those remarks was to point out that socialism can often lead to unintended and negative repurcussions in society. Unfortunately, that's what happened in Chile."
While I would agree under normal circumstances, the Americans are presently rather busy in Iraq, and most analysts consider it unlikely that they would orchestrate a coup in Alberta if the latter were to take the clearly communist step of establishing a system of public auto insurance.
He concluded by noting, once again, that what really matters to him is the opinions of ordinary Albertans (as opposed to, you know, Albertans of the Chilean variety):
"If I can walk the street and not get spit on, and not get punched, and not get flipped the bird, and people still call me Ralph, then I feel good."
Yes. Being able to walk amongst your citizenry without fearing their open contempt is very important.
Augusto Pinochet knew that.
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This space has managed to secure access to the paper that Premier wrote for Athabasca University on the 1973 Chilean coup by Augusto Pinochet. I'll not subject you to the whole thing, but the opening paragraph gives a pretty good indication of how the rest goes:
"The year was 1973, the date September 11. Although I cannot remember specifically what was happening in the newsroom at CFCN radio and television, it was no doubt a typical day."
It brings to mind Stephen Leacock's opening to his eleven page novel "Gertrude the Governess: or, Simple Seventeen" ("Synopsis of Previous Chapters: There are no Previous Chapters"):
"It was a wild and stormy night on the West coast of Scotland. This, however, is immaterial to the present story, as the scene is not laid in the West of Scotland. For the matter of that, the weather was just as bad on the East coast of Ireland. But the scene of this narrative is laid in the South of England."
At any rate, in addition to releasing this literary gem on an unsuspecting public, Klein clarified his earlier comments and committed to "biting [his] tongue" (Step 1: remove foot). It turns out that his "only purpose in making those remarks was to point out that socialism can often lead to unintended and negative repurcussions in society. Unfortunately, that's what happened in Chile."
While I would agree under normal circumstances, the Americans are presently rather busy in Iraq, and most analysts consider it unlikely that they would orchestrate a coup in Alberta if the latter were to take the clearly communist step of establishing a system of public auto insurance.
He concluded by noting, once again, that what really matters to him is the opinions of ordinary Albertans (as opposed to, you know, Albertans of the Chilean variety):
"If I can walk the street and not get spit on, and not get punched, and not get flipped the bird, and people still call me Ralph, then I feel good."
Yes. Being able to walk amongst your citizenry without fearing their open contempt is very important.
Augusto Pinochet knew that.
