The saying is wrong

It should be, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and Lance Armstrong."

Walking close to the edge

"Bernanke may have been aiming his remarks at a U.S. audience. But the whole world was listening... and with good reason. The general consensus seems to be that if the Americans don't figure out a way of avoiding the cliff, the potential damage caused by that failure on the Canadian and the global economy could be huge"

More at CBC

Well, that was a bit of a

but not as much as many had expected.

Just a few random thoughts.

As someone who sits on the left of the political spectrum, I found the idea of Romney as president worrisome. What he would do internally wouldn't have much effect on me, but his foreign policy and his world view and that of his advisers is another matter.

The dichotomy in American politics seemed even more pronounced this time. Perhaps it's because there appear to be no moderate Republicans, at least to the outsider, just tea party and their ilk. Or if there are moderates their voices were drowned out by the rhetoric. A year or so ago I had a cousin from Michigan ask me if I could do an internet search to find Obama's real birth certificate, because, "You know, right, he was born in Kenya." Now this person is not some backwoods hick. He is well-educated, a business owner who benefited from the auto bailout. And yet he took this seriously, as I am sure many others did and continue to do.

Is the issue of race ever far from the surface? The posts on Facebook about putting the white back in White House were a symptom. Is it a real issue or is Ann Coulter right that racism ended in the mid-60's? Perhaps institutionalized racism did, and that's debatable, but on a day-to-day basis is it still there?

As an outsider I risk being told that I don't understand and that I should tend to my own house. I'll take that chance. I don't pretend that Canada doesn't have its problems, but that's for another post.

Decision day

As Canadians, why should we care who gets elected in the U.S.?

History and proximity are hard to ignore. We've fought a war against the U.S. and more than one with them. We've struggled through the Dirty Thirties together and all the other dirty years that followed. But we've celebrated their greatness as well. Martin Luther King, Neil Armstrong, JFK. Many of us have family living in the U.S. It's estimated that there are a million Americans living in Canada and an equal number of Canadians in the U.S. As far back as 1850, there were 148,000 of us there, even though they would not be technically Canadians until 1867.

So, yes, we care. We watch from the sidelines, wondering if the choices they make will be the right ones, both for themselves and, somewhat selfishly, for us.

"Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies. Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunder. What unites us is far greater than what divides us."

John F. Kennedy

"Living next to you is like sleeping with an elephant; no matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt."

Pierre Elliott Trudeau

What's to come

"David Wilkins, the U.S. ambassador to Canada under President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2009, says it's a relationship that is vital on both sides of the border.

"'Seventy per cent of Canadian exports go to the U. S.,' he observed, in an interview from Greenville, S.C. 'We're important to Canada. Canada's important to us. We need to do all we can to enhance the relationship.'

"Here's a look at the issues he and other Canada-U.S. watchers feel will land on the big desk in the Oval Office in the months and years to come."

The complete article is on CBC