Times Colonist (Victoria, British Columbia)
April 25, 2004 Sunday Final Edition

Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down

THUMBS UP – To MPs who passed a motion condemning “the Armenian
genocide of 1915.” It may have ruffled a few Turkish feathers and
gone against official Canadian policy, but our elected
representatives must be able to express popular outrage, even if they
can’t change history.

THUMBS UP – To Puretracks.com for allowing Canadians to download the
theme song from Hockey Night in Canada. The playoffs have been pushed
off the Saturday night slot into the afternoon by U.S. television
moguls, but we can still pretend — it’s our game, after all.

THUMBS DOWN – To CBS television for broadcasting photos of Princess
Diana slumped in the car in which she died moments later, after
crashing in a Paris tunnel in 1997. The broadcasting of the pictures
“sickened” her family and outraged people around the world.

THUMBS UP – To German Defence Minister Peter Struck for announcing
German soldiers, male and female, heterosexual and homosexual, will
be able to sleep together in barracks on foreign missions. It’s silly
that armies, like ours, say that even married couples can’t cuddle on
missions — as if that would sap their will to fight.

THUMBS DOWN – To Monrovia Nursery in Azusa, Calif., for exporting
camellias to B.C. nurseries that are suspected of carrying a disease
which is fatal to our precious Garry oaks. And please don’t say that
when they’re all gone there’ll be no more Garry oak meadows to stand
in the way of developments.

THUMBS DOWN – To Tokyo University scientists who have found a way for
female mice to reproduce without the need for male mates. We won’t go
into the revolting details, but as a blow to the ego of males
everywhere, this takes the cheese.