Blog about politics (mideast and pro-Israel, Canadian and local Montreal), world events, and random thoughts.

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The World I Know is updated on a semi-regular basis by segacs.

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Comments are open and unmoderated, although obscene or abusive remarks may be deleted. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of segacs's world i know.

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11:12 AM
Imperfection

I guess it was unrealistic to expect the Habs to win every single game from now until the playoffs. But last night's loss to the Sens was just plain ugly. We're going to need to turn things around, starting with tonight's match-up against the league-leading Sabres, if we expect to make it to the post-season. We're still in this, let's not lose focus!

Update: It was a bit of a nail-biter against Buffalo tonight, but a win nonetheless. Way to go, Les Boys!

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8:23 PM
Great travel blog

The Age has a fantastic backpackers travel blog, full of the kind of stories that make those of us who are backpacking junkies laugh out loud. Add a dash of sarcastic Australian wit, and you've got reading material that will make you want to jump on the next plane to wherever. Recommended.

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7:04 PM
Concordia's up to its old tricks again

It's been nearly five years since I graduated, and since then, it appears that CSU politics at Concordia haven't improved by much:

For the second year running, copies of Concordia University’s student newspaper, The Link, vanished overnight at the height of the campaign for a new student government. And while editor-in-chief Misha Warbanski doesn’t know who to blame, she’s sure of one thing -- this is no coincidence.

Back when I was a student there, the Link was blatantly biased, being controlled by pro-Palestinian students who would get involved in the paper with an eye towards influencing campus politics through the media. I don't know the current landscape, but if today's campus politics are anything like what they were then, the things reported by the campus and mainstream media are only the tips of the iceberg. Corruption, dirty tricks, propaganda, "joke slates" designed to slander the opposition, and the ever-present ripping down posters are just some of the things that students seem to confuse with democracy.

I must say I'm glad to be out of there.

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12:19 AM
La Belle Élection

So by now everyone pretty much knows that today's provincial election has resulted in a minority Liberal government.

Final results: 48 seats for the Liberals, 41 for the ADQ, and 36 for the PQ.

There's no doubt that Mario Dumont's ADQ is the big winner tonight, going from 5 seats to a whopping 41, and capturing the balance of power. Charest's Liberals were reduced to minority status, and Charest himself only narrowly won his own seat. As for Boisclair's PQ, after widely being expected to achieve sweeping victory only a few months ago, they were just plain embarrassed. Boisclair's days in provincial politics are surely numbered - most likely in the single-digits.

Then again, in the popular vote, the Liberals lost 13 percentage points, compared to the PQ who only lost 5. Arguably, it's the Liberals who lost out in terms of mandate - if not in terms of seats. A lot of people in "safe" Liberal ridings were casting protest votes this time around, which may have accounted for this seeming discrepancy.

And my own riding? As expected, Liberal incumbent Lawrence Bergman sailed to victory with over 84% of the vote, but second place went not to one of the other major parties but to the Greens, with just over 6.5%. Not much of a contest here, but I voted anyway, ever the dutiful citizen. I still maintain that if you don't vote, you can't bitch about it later.

What will this mean for Quebec? In the immediate term, it means no referendum, anyway. It also means that the Liberals have lost their mandate to govern. The ADQ is going to get a lot more of a say in how things are run in the province. And we're probably looking at another election in about 18 months. And the PQ may be down right now, but don't count them out; under new leadership, they could still come back to threaten for victory the next time around. Let's just hope that support for sovereignty continues to ebb in the interim, because I'd kinda like my country to stay together for a while.

All in all, though, a minority government might not be the worst thing in the world. It's not as though the Liberals were doing a whole lot with their hands untied, before.

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1:12 AM
Good news for chocoholics

As a self-described chocolate junkie, I feel it my civic duty to share this news. Now we can all feel better about our addiction.

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12:33 AM
Speaking of sports

Thousands of crazy English football fans descended on Israel this week to watch... a whole lot of nothing. It sometimes baffles me how a sport where teams can kick around a ball without scoring for 90 minutes has become the world's most popular. But anyway.

Oh well, at least the fans seemed to be enjoying their stay - that is, once they managed to get there. From a tourism point of view, this was probably win-win... though this guy probably didn't do much to beautify the Tel Aviv boardwalk. (Hat tip: Allison).

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12:25 AM
Winning ain't everything...

It's the only thing... keeping us in the playoff race, that is.

But even the Habs' winning streak - 6 out of the last 7 - may not be enough. So far, we've kept pace but we haven't advanced into the magic Top 8. Even a perfect record won't get us a playoff spot if the Rangers, Isles, 'Canes, Bolts and Leafs (especially the Leafs) don't start choking, soon.

It's the home stretch now, Les Boys. Every game's a must-win. Can we pull it off? Stay tuned.

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12:22 AM
Double-minority?

After Monday, if the polls hold, we could have a newly-minted minority government here in Quebec, alongside the existing federal minority government.

As far as I'm concerned, minority governments are a good thing. The less a government is able to do while in power, the better.

And, memo to Jean Charest: I'm voting for you, but I'm still waiting for my tax cut.

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12:11 AM
UN slaps Iran's wrist, Iran yawns

Another day at the U.N., another toothless move to try to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions:

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday to impose new sanctions on Iran for its nuclear ambitions by targeting Tehran's arms exports, state-owned bank and elite Revolutionary Guards.

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki immediately rejected the council's demand to suspend uranium enrichment, which can be used for making bombs and to general electricity. He maintained Iran's program was for peaceful purposes.

It's almost like watching paint dry, seeing the predictable moves play out. This is a game the U.N. has no desire to play, and Ahmadinejad knows it full well. He's already concluded that there is nothing the world can do to stop him from going nuclear, and that by pressing the U.N.'s buttons like this, he's only exposing its weaknesses further.

And with the United States tied up in Iraq, Israel facing an existential threat if it attempts to thwart Iran, and the rest of the world casually indifferent, the outcome of this game has been determined months ago. And even the best-case endgame scenario here is pretty damn frightening.

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