Cuz agreeing with conservatives makes people itch.

L. Ian MacDonald, a freelance writer with a semi-regular small-c conservative column in the Montréal Gazette, had a few interesting points to make the other day. In an article entitled "Tory B team back in charge," MacDonald, a big-c Conservative supporter, highlights just how badly the Tories dropped the ball last week:

The Conservatives, who looked so competent during the campaign, have looked incompetent during their first week in office. In order to get the message out, there first has to be a message. The absence of a message is even worse than being off message.

The full text of the article is here (will launch a new browser window).

Between Harper's controversial cabinet picks and his refusal to accept that his life is now public property, the Tory leader has demonstrated just how ill-prepared he was for his new job.

While I'd be much happier seeing Smilin' Jack sitting at the PM's desk, we have to make do with what we've got (at least for now) and I'm willing to give Harper a chance. The least he could do is meet me halfway.

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This is so fucking awesome I'm speechless. From the artists' statement:

Rotterdam-based photographer Ari Versluis and stylist Ellie Uyttenbroek have worked together since October 1994. Inspired by a shared interest in the striking dress codes of various social groups, they have systematically documented numerous identities over the last 8 years. Rotterdam's heterogeneous, multicultural street scene remains a major source of inspiration for Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek, although since 1998 they have also worked in cities abroad.

They call their series Exactitudes: a contraction of exact and attitude. By registering their subjects in an identical framework, with similar poses and a strictly observed dress code, Versluis and Uyttenbroek provide an almost scientific, anthropological record of people's attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming a group identity. The apparent contradiction between individuality and uniformity is, however, taken to such extremes in their arresting objective-looking photographic viewpoint and stylistic analysis that the artistic aspect clearly dominates the purely documentary element.

Check it out. No, seriously -- check it out.