BumfOnline

For me it started back in the summer of 1997. I was volunteering in support of the USask first-year orientation program. To begin each morning session, we'd get the participants into the theatre and have them recite a "Pledge to the Maple Leaf". This was a few years before the Joe Canadian phenomena but it was along the same line: "I pledge allegiance to the Maple Leaf ... to the Stanley Cup ... to long, cold Saskatchewan winters ...", that sort of thing. The content wasn't as important as much as to wake the kids up in the early morning. It eventually ended off with this: "I am not an American! I am a Canadian!!!"

Yay.

I never quite understood why the former was included at the time -- I mean, we weren't Mexican either -- but during each orientation session the kids invariably believed the "I am not an American" bit to be the end of the skit and cheered loudly, forcing us leaders to quiet them down in order to let us finish it off.

So, I thought, that's it? That's all we got to offer? Hockey, good beer, and the fact we're not American? What the hell is wrong with us?

That was my epiphany, my moment of lucidity. I viewed things differently from then on. I now know that we as Canadians have a past worth celebrating which goes beyond Medicare and multiculturalism and socialism and anti-Americanism. Any nation who fought at Vimy Ridge and who could participate in the 1972 Summit Series wasn't merely a collection of "nice" and "considerate" individuals, but rather citizens with a proud and rich heritage willing to fight for it. I wanted to rediscover that Canada again, the one I grew up reading about in old history books, the one which saw John Diefenbaker fight to preserve the Red Ensign, not because he was a crotchety old Luddite, but because he knew the flag represented a glorious past worth celebrating.

And so goes my story. With that, I'll raise the Standard to those who are as perplexed as I am as to what our beloved dominion has become.

Are we forcing our top soldiers out of the Armed Forces? John at Castle Argghhh! continues his high-quality milblogging with his take on Maj-Gen Lewis MacKenzie's comments regarding the "plug and play" method of deploying our troops, to the detriment of us all.

Why stop at pit bulls? Why not Alberta? Alan's in a banning mood over at Occam's Carbuncle.

Aside from his regular Winston Review (which you really should be reading on your own), Nick, the Ghost of a Flea, has been researching the Italian film community and has concluded that Asia Argento is extremely sexy. You learn something new every day, don't you?

Paul Martin's been hanging out in Dr Monger's neck of the woods and feels his love.

But the doctor isn't finished. He's been having a compelling debate with Bob at Let It Bleed on the role of judicial activism: here, here, here, and finally, here. Trudeaupia's Kevin Jaeger also contributed to the debate, in the Western Standard Shotgun as well as at his own blog.

Toss some ibruprofen over to Alan of Gen-X at 40 as he's been drinking many, many beers. He's has also been diligent with a few solid posts in relation to the massacre at Beslan.

Speaking of Beslan, several of the Red Ensign bloggers have been covering the biggest story of the year. Kate, the Last Amazon, writes a terrific post on her feelings during the crisis and wonders when we, as Canadians, will wake up to reality. She also reminds us of the similarities between this atrocity and the one which occured at Ma'alot, Israel, in 1974.

Sanity is not statisitical at Minority of One: First, Keith dissects Putin's speech to the nation; he then captures some of the cynicism of it all.

The Canadian Slacker is slacking no more as Paul brings up the Ossentian and Ingush angle with respect to Chechnya.

Damian Brooks, on the other hand, observes the blame game over at Babbling Brooks.

Chris Taylor & Company vows the West will not lose this fight, not to scum like the Beslan monsters.

And Jason Hayes, of Musing fame, brings up the article written by the general manager of al-Arabiya news channel, follows up with the reaction by CAIR and other sources which fail to mention any Islamicist connection to the murders, covers the phrases used by journalists when describing terrorists, and discovers an act of heroism through what can only be described as a living nightmare.

Excellent blogging, people.

Closer to home, the London Fog delivers an all-too-typical story of municipal government at its best, then follows up with the inevitable conflict of interest connection.

Nicholas at Quotulatiousness posts a pair of pristine pieces on the ever-increasing restrictions of our basic fundamental rights by our own governments.

Our comrade at Shiny Happy Gulag, Jay Random, thinks of Paul Martin as an abstract piece of art. Seriously: You got to read this.

The Tiger in Winter always has a wide variety of topics posted, including these questions Ben discovered the other day, written to the anti-American Canadian.

If anyone here has had letters published in the Globe, our national "newspaper of record", on a regular basis, Paul at Ravishing Light might want a few words with you. I don't blame him.

Paul at AgitProp gives yet one more reason to scrap the UN and go back to more effective methods.

South of the border, Ith at Absinthe & Cookies is bored with the newest salvo the Dems are using against the Bush re-election campaign. Give her something she can react to, people.

New Red Ensign blogger, Candepundit, while agreeing the head scarf debate in France is nothing more than a make-work project for bureaucrats, still feels they can't give in to terrorist threats.

Ex-pat vote courting is an item ex-pat myrick has been looking into. In this case, the Singapore American Association has conducted several polls with their membership to see which way they're swaying for November. He also gave the first report I've seen regarding the bomb exploding in front of the Australian embassy in Jakarta today. If anyone will have the low-down on developments in Indonesia, it will be myrick.

Savage crushing of dissent is being threatened over at blogulaciousness. Be warned.

Not a trip through the blogosphere goes by without me stopping in to see what the Raging Kraut has to say. In this particular case, Ray comments on a plan to build a memorial to cowards in beautiful Nelson, BC. Only in Canada, eh?

We'll end it all with Jay Jardine, upon whose Freeway to Serfdom rolls three excellent posts in one: Would Bill have survived HillaryCare?; Unconditional support to a striking labour union, and; Some samples of Billy Beck's writing which cut to the bone.


I'm proud to have have the honour of hosting the fourth raising of the Red Ensign (preceded by Castle Argghh!, Raging Kraut, and the Last Amazon). I still haven't had any volunteers come forward for the September 23rd edition, so the position's open to anyone interested. I do have to say that this wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. More time consuming, if anything. I make my way through most of the blogs listed here on a semi-regular basis as it is, so it mostly just came down to spending an extra night reading instead of doing my own blogging. Let me know if you're interested, or else I'll volunteer someone myself this weekend. (Remember, the blog roll is growing every week; the sooner you do this, the less likely you'll have to read 100 blogs on your own.)

Enjoy!

UPDATE: Ben, the Tiger in Winter, has graciously offered to raise the standard on Sept 23rd. What a patriot!