Three things...

I've been busy and sick this week, so not much time to post. I did want to make a quick comment on 3 things, though:

• Unless you live under a rock, you should by now know that the infamous cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad have been printed in the upcoming issue of the Western Standard. I had refrained from commenting on it earlier because, frankly, I didn't want to touch the subject. I was, at first, happy that Canadian media chose not to reprint the cartoons. In defending his decision to publish them, though, Western Standard Publisher Ezra Levant made some very good points. I'm now firmly undecided on the issue. Whatever peoples' stance is, I think we can all be glad that Canada's Muslim community has reacted in a relatively calm manner.

• Who the hell cares? I mean, really. Yes, its very unfortunate that the Vice President accidentally shot a friend and we're all glad he's ok... but where does the media get off bitching that Cheney didn't tell the media soon enough. If I were out hunting and accidentally shot my friend, my first thoughts wouldn't be "geez, I should get the press release started... I wonder how we're gonna spin this"... I think they would be more along the lines of "holy crap I just shot my buddy, God let us save him". Sure, he's the Vice President of the United States... but when it comes to personal things like this I think people would do well to be reminded that he's still human and that he still drinks beer out of the same hand that you and I do.

• Most importantly, though, a patriarch of my family was laid to rest in Sudbury today. My great uncle Rene Boucher succumbed to a long illness this past Saturday. He was a wonderful man with a fabulous sense of humour and musical talent to match. We all had the chance to see him in October when he was let out of hospital so he could be with us at my grandmother's (his sister) funeral and get once last chat with him. I'll sure miss the guitar at family reunions, but i'm sure that the jam session "upstairs" just got a whole lot more entertaining! Bon voyage mon oncle... votre repos est bien mérité!