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Archive for September 21st, 2007

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On this date in 1937, JRR Rolkien published The Hobbit. Yes, the Middle Earth crew is now a connivial 70.

Now, I like The Hobbit. But it’s definitely not my favourite. However, without The Hobbit there would’ve been no Lord of the Rings, which kicks all kinds of ass.

Tolkien himself had a softspot for his Hobbit characters:

“I am in fact a hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefrigerated)….”

Love that unrefrigerated food. This also sheds some light on a recently re-discovered unpublished chapter from The Two Towers- “Aragorn eats some bad Egg Salad”.

September 21st, 2007 by graeme | | 1 comment »

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Dion is done like dinner

He’s a nice guy. A smart guy. You want to like him. But man alive, is Stephane Dion on course for a spectacular flame-out.

The clearest sign yet is his frank admission that, in the wake of the Libs’ punishing by-election losses, his image may need a makeover. Well, duh.

Said Dion:

“I’ll do so and my party is going to help me, so that you meet the real Stéphane Dion … by really putting forth my personality and explaining what I am. People have to know me.”

Too late, Dion. In modern politics once you recognize the need for a makeover, you’re already dead. Once you allow your opponents to define you (think: not a leader), you’ve lost the ability to define yourself.

The examples are clear. John Kerry was characterized as a flip-flopper, then ’swiftboated’. He never recovered. The last two UK Labour Party victories came after the party aggressively and persistently defined Conservative Party leaders William Hague and Michael Howard as ‘old guard’ Tories, ‘wallies’, and so on.

The image of an ineffectual Dion is now burned in the minds of the Canadian public. And Dion doesn’t have the public chops to remove it. Sorry, Libs. You lost this battle. Time to turn your attention to losing the next election and finding a leader who can stand up to the Tory branding machine.