Quotes of the week

They said what?!?  

Do these framed views of the Canadian landscape collectively represent a link that mystically connects us all together producing the kinds of simultaneity and visibility that characterize a coherent nation? The answer is, of course, no.

Josh Nodelman, Professor, University of Alberta, bullshits about the Trans-Canada Highway

Big things on the side of the road . . . do potentially create new places of aesthetic awe, new articulations of a constantly malleable narrative that is the highway landscape.

Tonya Davidson, University of Alberta doctoral candidate, bullshits about roadside monuments

It may be necessary to ground or flight restrict the operating envelope of the CP 140 fleet in order to minimize the risk to the aircrew while special inspections are developed and carried out.

Defence Department report bullshits about the broken Aurora airplane fleet

There are competitions that are fair, and there are competitions with unknown outcomes.

Anonymous “industry insider” bullshits about Defence Department contracts to supply new airplanes

Although Muslims worldwide are faced with globalization and modernization, young Muslims growing up in secular Western societies in which Islam is just one more religious and cultural movement are much more acutely confronted with problems of existential and religious orientation.

CSIS report bullshits about terrorism arrests in Toronto

We know that 99.9% of our forces conduct themselves in an exemplary manner and we also know that, in conflicts, things that shouldn’t happen do happen.

Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defense, bullshits about atrocities in Haditha, Iraq, and inadvertently admits that up to 500 US soldiers are guilty of war crimes

When you go into a country, you always have some issue that people don’t like. Maybe it is noise, an extension of an airport, a road, or anything.

Rene Fasel, chair of Vancouver 2010 Coordination Commission, bullshits about the utter destruction of Eagleridge Bluffs to build a developer-friendly highway vaguely related to the Olympics

We have cases of white Anglo-Saxon male Protestants converting to the most radical forms of Islam. These are people who blend in with us and our neighbours.

Jack Hooper, CSIS official, bullshits about terrorist threats