test blog 5

If you link to wmtc, could you please take a minute and update your link so it points to the new URL? I would appreciate it. Thank you.

This happened to an American citizen. Make this first on my list, here . Many thanks to Orc of This Space for Rent . I didn't know where to start.

Only five months after we moved to Canada, Paul Martin was unseated as prime minister. Watching the proceedings as the government fell was fascinating. No matter how many times the Parliamentary system had been explained to me, I never really understood it until I saw it work. Then we experienced our first campaign and our first election. Both were fascinating, both for themselves and for Canadians' reactions to them. Our points of reference being American, the campaigns were intelligent and substantive. Also soon after we moved here, a new Governor General was appointed. I didn't even know the GG existed, never mind what the position was . Now we'll soon have another election. That alone is so new and noteworthy to me. We've lived here less than two years and we're already seeing our second election! I like it. Dion's election and his debut as Leader in the House of Commons, along with Harper revisiting the same-sex marriage debate, had Allan and I talking a l...

I will be glad when this ridiculous charade is over with. I've see on many blogs and websites that same-sex couples in the US are watching anxiously, as if Canada might actually rescind the right of same-sex couples to marry. I wish they realized that this bill has virtually no chance of passing. Another reason to dislike Stephen Harper? Sure. A reason to worry about Canada's future? Definitely not.

We had dinner with Nick and Mason last night, our first visit to Chez LWB. Their house is fabulous - a beautiful house in a terrific neighbourhood (my favourite part of Toronto), and gorgeously decorated. And I thought we settled in quickly! These guys look like they've lived here for years. Their place has that rich, warm, cluttered feel; it's beautiful and very inviting. The company was great, the house was great, but it won't surprise you to learn that the highlight of the evening, for us, was finally meeting the kids: Athena and Cian, Nick and Mason's two German Shepherds. When we're around dogs like that, Allan and I have to remember to pay attention to the humans. Spending time with Athena and Cian confirms for me why I want another dog. We've enjoyed this last year with only Cody (although I feel weird saying that: how I could enjoy something that happened because of Buster's death?). Life with our one no-maintenance dog has been so relaxed and eas...

The Husky rescue group from which we're adopting Tala hadn't put her on their "hold" list. More than a week after we met Tala, she was still listed as adoptable. I suspected RP ("rescue person") simply hadn't gotten around to it. Animal-rescue people are always stretched so thin. Even so, we were concerned. We're already in love with Tala. What if she went to someone else? I tried to be patient, but finally emailed RP. So, it's confirmed: Tala is ours! Yay! RP must have used this as opportunity to update her website, because the "hold" and "adoptable" lists are completely different today. RP and her husband also sent the photos they took the day we met Tala. I've added a few to Tala's Flickr set , including shots of their license plates , which she sent at my request. I like that bumpersticker: My parrot is smarter than your honor student.

From the New York Times Book Review . To the Editor: It was heartening to see Michael Kinsley give America's flawed election system the attention it deserves (" Election Day ," Nov. 5). However, when discussing "Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen? Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official Count," of which I am a co-author, Kinsley writes that "the authors offer no particular reason to believe the random exit polls and disbelieve the actual vote." Kinsley apparently associates "random" with meaningless, when in fact randomly selected samples are a fundamental principle of statistical inference. The 2004 national exit poll sampled more than 100,000 respondents. The sampling error on such a poll is well under plus or minus 1 percent. Our book is a systematic investigation of the only two hypotheses that could explain the seven-percentage-point (nine-million-vote) disparity between the exit poll results and the official count. Either B...