Via rfmcdpei comes word that Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada, is quite the cat fancier , fostering many cats "at their Ottawa home", which I can only presume means 24 Sussex Drive. I'd have figured he'd be a dog fancier - after all, dogs generally do what you tell them to.

This is based in part on a comment I made on rfmcdpei 's journal a few weeks back. In thinking about blogging, and the kinds of blogs or blog entries that are out there, I've decided that there are effectively three main kinds of blog entries. "Dear Diary" entries, where someone talks about what's going on in their life. "What I did last weekend", for example. "Slashdot wanna-be" entries...

I'm back. Have three weeks of collected links! Cool or important stuff * Krugman (and 9 page Kenneth Arrow PDF) on why markets fail at health care . * Jimmy Carter breaks with Baptists over gender equality. He's for it. * Yet another article on the plural 'they' . This one is new in describing whom to blame for the idea that it's bad. * Racial whitewashing of covers . * House of Representatives...

Today's big accomplishments: 1) Proving that I can not only put eyedrops into my eye without a mirror, but that I can do it in a moving vehicle at the same time. 2) Finally getting a replacement battery for my laptop - it is now slowly discharging to calibrate on my lap, far away from the plugs in the room (and in a much better spot for wireless signal from Atria!). 3) Getting a lot of work done...

* Two items on how cell phones effect plots: James and John . Cell phones and third world poverty ; getting commodity prices at range is old news to me, but not the phone banking. * Sweden has been at peace for the past 195 years, after they conquered Norway. Mind you they helped the Nazis somewhat , though they also helped the Allies. But they didn't get bombed or attacked. Norway... I assume...

rfmcdpei (I believe) had previously linked to an article about the possibility of American cities such as Flint being "pruned" to account for declining population - a reversal of urban sprawl, effectively. Unfortunately, I can't find a link to his posting on it. Now there's talk that they may expand the program from Flint to fifty "rust belt" cities. This is an interesting model of urbanization...

* Haruhi Suzumiya in the Palestinian territories * Bert and Osama * Failure of US rail. Slower than it was in the 1920s. * Liberals and conservatives have different reactions to authority and disgust . * Marijuana legalization bill! ** Ambiguity about Obama's enforcement * Closing of the Canadian border * Newsweek criticizes Oprah's gullibility * Republican car dealerships * Long...

Must read * Letter from an ex-slave to his master . A thing of beauty. ** Tolkien's reply to Nazi Aryan inquiries * Girly editions of Scrabble, Monopoly, Uno et al. History * 25 May was the 40th anniversary of the decriminalization of gay sex in Canada . ** Like Orson Scott Card, John Wright apparently misses those days . Reality's liberal bias * Chairman of the Joint Chiefs (appointed...

Has anyone heard or seen anything about the ongoing Tamil protest at Queen's Park? I took some video of it and posted it at my blog, here .

Depressing * Troops weren't deployed to help with Katrina * Systematic child abuse in Irish reform schools * Obama seeking indefinite detentions * Blackwater tries to rebrand as "Xe" * Creepy Bible briefings , the better to manipulate Bush with. * Steele's latest brainstorm for opposing gay marriage: it'll cost small business money . Unlike, say, hetero employees getting married. Will the...