And now . . . this - Feb. 3/05

There must be a quota system

An over-zealous policeman slapped a parking ticket on the windshield of a fellow officer's squad car while his colleagues were setting a radar trap to catch speeding motorists in a town in eastern Germany.

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I'll bet he was one of those kids who got beat up a lot in school, too.

Canada: Made in China

It's not often I'll agree with one of the N-dippies, but:

The Liberal government was condemned yesterday for hocking Canada's national emblem and buying plastic Maple Leaf lapel pins from China.

NDP MP Charlie Angus said it is unconscionable that Ottawa is purchasing six million flag lapel pins from China, accusing the Liberals of turning their backs on the Canadian-invented pin, which had been manufactured in Canada for 35 years until the government began to buy them abroad in 2003.

"Disney has the Mounties. They gave the Remembrance Day coin to Tim Hortons. Now they are giving the flag to China," Mr. Angus told the Commons. "They are selling off our cultural heritage like a bunch of roadside hucksters selling off hubcaps and velvet Elvis paintings."

[Full Story]

Hey, don't be dissing Tim Horton's. They're a Canadian institution, even if they are owned by an American hamburger company. (But seriously, whoever thought of giving them the distribution rights to the poppy quarters was a brilliant, since arguably more Canadians will step into a Timmy's in a day for their double-double than into a bank.)

Here's the offending lapel pin, at considerably larger than actual size. I have several; they're given away by MPs as goodwill tokens.