My Very Very Melancholy Moment - Hallelujah

This song is so beautiful, I play it when I'm feeling particularly sad. I don't know why. It's just very raw and you connect to it immediately.

It's been a tough day politically. Lawrence Martin's column spelling out the death of democracy in Canada. Realizing that Stephen Harper's hidden agenda is no longer hidden and that he now has COMPLETE control of our country. Dealing with the reality that our government was complicit in torture and don't give a damn.

However, despite all of the above, it was a smaller story that has struck me down, because it sums up what politics are in Canada now.

It started with the photo shop contest on the Liberal website putting Stephen Harper anywhere but Copenhagen. It was supposed to be fun, and hopefully shame him into going. (He did go but only for the food)

One entry however, got the Reformers in a flap, because it was the Oswald shooting scene. It was only up for a very brief time until caught by the site's editors and immediately removed. However, someone must have been really keeping an eye on the entries because it immediately created a stir. (The Liberal Party have publicly apologized).

I'd never seen the photo until the National Post printed it and I visit the site regularly. To be honest at first glance it just looks like a scene from an old movie, so I probably would have gone right past it.

But now, obviously to take some pressure off the detainee issue, party supporters are milking it for all it's worth, prompting Liberal Blogger Jeff Jedras to post on the subject; fresh off a radio show where he was shouted down by some Neanderthal Conservative blogger I had never heard of, named Steve Janke. You can listen to it here.

You can also view the photo here. I don't see any blood and mayhem. Janke was a little over the top. It's a still photo in black and white.

Jedras spoke of the issue in his National Post column, and of course Janke blogged on Jeff's National Post column, and the entire thing is out of control.

I think what saddened me the most were some of the comments at the end of both articles. People have just become so visceral and cruel. It's 'left' this and 'right' that. Sadly, the result of four years of divisive politics; Canadians are now turning on each other.

When Jeff linked Janke's article, I couldn't resist. I may be feeling melancholy, but there's still a little fight left in me yet. So I went to Angry in the Great White North and left a response.

"I visit the Liberal site often and never saw the photo until it was printed in the NP. I thought it just looked like a scene from an old movie. It was tasteless however, and taken down.

But you are forgetting something. Conservative Gerry Ritz , after learning of another death due to Listeriosis, said "please tell me it was Wayne Easter". Mr. Easter has a family.

And referring to the deaths of Canadians as 'death by a thousand cold cuts'. I'm sure the families of the victims weren't laughing.

Or Pierre Poilievre on the aboriginals, wanting 'value' for systematic abuse.

Sometimes people do and say stupid things in the name of politics. They apologize and move on. The Liberals apologized, you need to move on."

Ah, now I'm feeling much better! Hallelujah!