Reading is Hard, Let Us Watch YouTube
A few YouTube summer political classics for your consumption. They were supposed to embed themselves into my post like a grown-up blog but… we’re not there yet. First, a subtle artistic rendition of a nuanced debate. Big ups to Liam for the link. of \"We\'ve Got to Stop the Mosque at Ground Zero\" Finally, a viral hit from the 2010 primaries. This video was been around for ages and I didn’t write about it before because I figured everyone had seen it on Colbert or some other show. Then I remembered, the Polonoscopy audience is heavily made up with a) foreigners b) people without televisions and c) people who don’t follow politics and just expect me to show them the (*cough*) important bits....
Read MoreSquishy Mao
It’s difficult to find a story about Chinese politics that doesn’t make me angry. It try really hard to post about the Chinese, I read all kind of stories, but after the initial black out I always come to to find my modem covered in bite marks and my fists full of my own hair. So yessss… pretty dangerous. I actually liked this story though, because it helps me to believe that China is once again ruled by an evil royal dynasty. Knowing what I do about the Chinese Communist Party, I can’t help but feel nostalgic for the relatively benign rule of the Qing Empress Dowager Cixi and her jade barge full of severed penises. Instead we have tubby Mao Xinyu, Mao Zedong ‘s only living grandson. He is 40 years old, he...
Read MoreThe Political Holiday Photo Album
I’ve been writing about political holidays a lot recently and there is a reason for that. It’s pretty much all anyone is doing these days. So let’s not fight it, and go through some of this year’s best political holiday photographs, and some of our old favourites. Just so you know, I tried to format these things so that I could have pictures attached to commentary in a clean, linear fashion, but it just doesn’t want to happen. I don’t know if you know this, but computers hate me, and I get angry all I want, but ultimately take their shit because computers always win and I need them more then they need me. It’s a very unhealthy relationship. Seeing as how my web-designer is currently on holidays...
Read MoreSo This Works, Apparently
How to you rehabilitate the image of your stuffy, intellectual, furrowed, Toronto-born, Oxford-bred party leader into a likable dude with a common touch? Why you put him in a pair of jeans of course!! No seriously, what are we going to do about Micheal Ignatieff’s image? I told you, blue jeans… and some burgers. Beer too, also… baseball cap. Hockey. Tim Hortons. DO IT!! While it may seem like hopping on the a well decorated locomotive to feel the wounds of the people is better suited to reelect R.B. Bennett in the great campaign of 1935 (“I hear you folks have been suffering a depression out here, well I say that’s terrible, just terrible” he would cry from a caboose covered in streamers) it turns out,...
Read MoreTony on a Short Leash
Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is in high campaign mode against the newly enthroned Prime Minister Julia Gillard. The stakes are high, Gillard is Australia’s first female PM, and she may very well get Kim Campbell-ed by Abbott’s Liberals (who are actually the more conservative party in Australia). This all depends on the Liberal’s ability to contain the Father Tony’s frequent outbursts of misogyny, homophobia, stupidity, and well, honesty. The Australian Daily Telegraph has very amusing article by Claire Harvey about the lengths the Liberals go to contain their candidate, the 52 year old former priest who allows the spittle to fly freely during political speeches, who loves any occasion to take off his...
Read More“Iron Lady” Biopic to Portray Thatcher as Demented Softie
Some call it propaganda, I call it lazy sexism, but very few people have anything good to say about the Margaret Thatcher Biopic that has recently gone into pre-production “The Iron Lady” (brought to you by the director of Mamma Mia!) According to The Telegraph the screenplay of The Iron Lady depicts Baroness Thatcher as an elderly dementia-sufferer looking back on her career with sadness. She is shown talking to herself and unaware that her husband, Sir Denis Thatcher, has died. “It is a film about power and the price that is paid for power. In that sense, it is the story of every person who has ever had to balance their private life with their public career.” Thatcher’s children have gone as far as to...
Read MoreAbout the Site
Polonoscopy is a site devoted to political fluff. While I do appreciate that there are important issues out there… with respect… eh… don’t really care. Not here anyway, not now, that is not what Polonoscopy is about. Fluff. It’s all about image and perception in politics. Rather than vote for someone based on a record of public service and commitment to the meaningful issues of the day, wouldn’t you rather vote for someone who’s personality seems similar if only slightly more impressive then your own? Of course, we all would.