Two quick notes.

Two quick notes.

The Epoch times has been praising Harper for taking a hard-ish line on
China's lacklustre human rights record. Hu Jintao and Stephen Harper met for a
brief 15-minute chat in Hanoi this week, and apparently Canada has not been
making friends. Among our sins:

Canada is concerned with the case of Huseyincan Celil, a Canadian citizen and human rights activist who fled China in the 1990s and who is being held in a Chinese prison for alleged terrorism links.

Liu said the case was discussed by the leaders who reiterated their positions. China considers Huseyincan a Chinese citizen. In another potential strain to ties, Ottawa declined to renew the visa of a Chinese diplomat who was reported to have spied on followers of the Falun Gong religious sect in Canada.

In September, Canada granted honorary citizenship in September to the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader and a sworn enemy of Beijing for his
opposition to Chinese Communist rule in the remote, mountainous territory. (Epoch Times)

Even better, is the fact that the Japanese still don't want to go nuclear. Huzzah. Some 80% of over 1700 Japanese citizens interviewed responded that they were against nuclear armament. And on top of that, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged at APEC to keep Japan on the nuke-free path.

"Arafat is a slob. If he put on a suit he'd have a country by now."

Wanna see something funny?

Okay, so, APEC is gathering right now. They're in Hanoi, which I learned the other day got a stock market in the last couple of years, but that's not the point.

As part of APEC our great leaders all get together to take a family photo of sorts. It's a wonderful tradition. They get a chance to dress up in the colourful garb of foreign nations. We get to watch them trying not to look uncomfortable. Everybody gets to enjoy themselves a little bit.

They did it in Korea in 2005. Paul Martin is a pimp.



And of course they did it this year too. The traditional Vietnamese garb is not as black and pajama-like as G.B. Trudeau would have us think (Dad, at least, should know what I'm talking about. I hope). It actually looks quite good on, say, Hu Jintao. Vladimir Putin manages to pull it off even.

Harper not so much. He kind of looks like, maybe, an easter egg?