And he waved a scarlet banner to and fro

I raised the Red Ensign before there was any formal association to go along with it, and I still stand by what I said at the time. It's good to see more and more have joined in since, those who - whatever disagreements we may have on every other topic - long for the days when Canada was actually a strong and capable world power, rather than an ineffectual and deluded grumbler. We used to sit with the United States and Britain on matters of global importance. But since those halcyon days, our largely Liberal leaders have decided it's better to throw tantrums and be relegated to the responsibility-free sanctuary of the kiddie table. The Red Ensign to me stand for that which came before the slide into decadence and irrelevance, and we should be proud to maintain respect for many (though, admittedly, not all) aspects of the nation that Canada used to be. Thus, I volunteered to host this edition of the bi-weekly group linkage. (Despite having three exams this week, plus the madness of a retail job in December. Such is blog-related hubris and the insatiable lust for traffic, no?) And so, in no particular order, but with those on breaks up first and themes grouped as much as possible, I present Volume X of the Red Ensign Standard. Though on a temporary break, Anthroblogogy has posted since the last Red Ensign Standard on creeping Communism in the EU: "Unfortunately, so often being a little bit Maoist or a little bit Communist, is a lot like being 'mildly corrosive' and/or, 'a little pregnant.'" Paul at Musings of a Canadian Slacker has similarly only commented once since the last occasion of Red Ensign linkage, on Pierre Berton's passing; he's conflicted between the man's methodology and what he represented, as many students of history are. Myrick has been spending some time in Borneo (a more exotic vacation from blogging than the other light bloggers, for certain!) but has since returned with some beautiful photos of his trip. Candepundit is also consumed with the vagaries of real life, and so still on a blog hiatus. So too seems to be Thomas, the Green Baron. Just Between Us Girls has likewise been distracted by real life, but is following with interest goings-on in Ukraine and the Netherlands. Shiny Happy Gulag is also AFK ATM. At BumfOnline, Huck rates the best albums of 2003 in preparation to do the same for 2004. In a related post, film critics both highbrow and lowbrow are praised for saving the writer $26. The killer post of the past two weeks, however, is The Broad Tent, in which the political ambiguity many of us hard-to-categorize types feel is summed up. ChrisCam also produces a mighty and inspiring list of reasons to be optimistic for Iraq, along with noticing that the New York Times continues to practice the world's oldest profession. Dana and Bob of Canadian Comment respectively question the motives and damn the ignorance of the against-everything crowd that converged on Ottawa. Bob also comments on the need for optimism and resolve in Iraq. Andrew of Bound By Gravity, a fellow inmate of the Home for the Emotionally Interesting that is our national capital, derides the anti-Bush protesters' lack of originality and feckless tactics, all the while savouring the notion of a straight-talking leader so unlike Prime Minister Martin or even Stephen Harper. Damian at Babbling Brooks witnessed the best dismissal of this past week's lunacy in Ottawa ever. He also makes a point of sniping at the high holiday of the selfsame cretins responsible for that juvenile madness. A new member of the Red Ensign Brigade at Hammer Into Anvil also gives his reasons for joining, and questions why the largely-underage crowd at the anti-Bush protests were out of school. (Short answer? Some of them were actually attending the demonstrations under school auspices, with activist social science teachers in the lead. Sad, but true.) Another Ottawan, Keith of Minority of One, mocks the minutiae our federal government tends to obsess over, and laments the responsibilities that prevented him from infiltrating the local moonbat hordes during their hatefest, like yours truly. I have to reproduce the key graf in full, it's so spot-on: Hey. Just saw a university student-protestor strolling along with his girlfriend. His sign, War is not a Canadian Value. Complete with, like, you know, the, like, peace sign, and flowers, and everything. Get that, all you veterans over there at that Legion Hall? Remember your war? Your fear? Your suffering? The cold and the hunger and the fatigue? The deaths of your comrades-in-arms and of your close friends? Remember the sailors who froze to death in minutes in the North Atlantic? Well, according to today's crop of Arts Faculty hangers-on (the one's whose education is heavily subsidized by taxpayers), you, and your comrades, were wrong to combat Nazism, Fascism and Communism. You were wrong to liberate the Nazi concentration camps. So there! Jay Jardine, no fan of George W. Bush, still found the protests mostly appalling. Like many, he also misses hockey, and places the blame for his passive jonesing squarely upon the shoulders of the bureaucrats in the league and player's association. Our resident MD, The Monger, witnessed the ghastly idiocies of the protesters and was reminded why he detests them. In other news, he also posts on unacknowledged biases in academia. Ben of The Tiger in Winter is also annoyed by aspects of academia, but in methodology rather than ideology. He also writes a very interesting survey of grad student life at Harvard. New brigade member Tipperography, has some more thoughts on the politicization of academia, citing some very convincing evidence. Amen to that; the sooner it's shown that bias isn't a right-wing fantasy, the better. A very distressing and ignorant local editorial arguing for immediate withdrawal from Iraq is also neatly rebutted. Another new member, All Things Canadian gives a cogent explanation of why the Red Ensign, and why now, as well as disclosing the reason for the NDP failure to win real elections as soundly as in the vote for The Greatest Canadian. At Musing, Jason Hayes reveals the dirty (not-so-) little secret behind the efficacy of environmental legislation in Washington. He also notes the positive side-effects of minority government and exactly where Dan Rather's political sympathies seem to lie. At Doxology, Rebecca too watched the confabulations in Ottawa, and the result is sapping her optimism for Canada's fate in the near future. She also brilliantly puts the infamously paranoid and deluded anti-Red Ensign loon in his place. Darcey at dustmybroom.com does the same, discussing importance of national symbols and listing with honour his relatives that served and died under the Red Ensign He also has several handy link roundups concerning Bush's Canadian tour. John Hamilton at Hypothesis.ca has been reading up on Canada lately, and defends the tight-knit community of the Kingston Ghetto near Queen's. Over at Absinthe & Cookies, Ith has invented a delicious new holiday cocktail. The joys of moving up in the blogosphere ecosystem are also discussed. At the eponymous Castle Argghhh!, John of Argghhh explains the curious history of the 3-inch ordnance rifle, praises historic arms dealers, and has hit upon the perfect armoury design to house his vast collection of firepower. Despite the geographical location of Nathan's Updates from Seoul, Nathan has had some correspondence with Arthur Chrenkoff on the topic of Canadian politics, and a reply. However, he continues to serve up fascinating experiences of living and teaching in the Republic of Korea, such as a field trip with adult students. At North Western Winds, Curt wonders where Stockwell Day's head is in sending out cryptic, easily-demonized press releases. It's too easy already, he argues, for conservatives to be ridiculed and pigeonholed by hostile political elites and academia; there's no need to do their own jobs for them. Alan of Occam's Carbuncle similarly demands some more common sense from the Tories, but extends his bemused wrath to encompass the most churlish of ideologues on both sides of the gay marriage debate. Before a long night in the lab, Stephen Taylor wandered through Google Scholar, and turned up a number of remarkably silly academic journal articles. He also considers if traditional Liberal Party strategy will survive the current zeitgeist, something of which I'm not at all certain either. Chris Taylor brings up the CIBC Fax Scandal with a lovely shot of the Victorian stolidity of what I assume to be a Toronto branch, and tales of IT security problems far more complex than a simple typo. He also ruminates on Christmas shopping, and the hazards of procrastination relating thereto for those in the white-collar world. Kate at The Last Amazon has several things to say about the Toronto Star, and sees war with Iran on the horizon. At Quotulatiousness, Nicholas ponders the problem of violent crime in a judicial system gone mad, and the potential repercussions of the ascent of Google. On a lighter note, however, the self-described "techno-peasant" goes out questing for an MP3 player, seeking advice for buying the same. Ray of Raging Kraut thinks Uma Thurman has ugly feet, something of an unpleasant sight. But, in exchange, he does participate in The Flea's Male Objectification Week. This week at Right Jab, Great Smokers in History are fairly lionized. The oddity of unclaimed public funds is also noted. Lisa of The London Fog covers London, Ontario so well I sometimes start to feel jealous that municipal politics around here aren't quite as awful-slash-entertaining. A road closure, pit bulls, and liquor licenses have all been covered par excellence recently. At All AgitProp, all the Time..., Paul Jané gives a well-deserved smackdown to imbeciles of various stripes, and demands a far more effective government index of dangerous persons than the federal gun registry. Jaeger at Trudeaupia has some more pertinent questions on gun crime in Toronto, and wonders why Liberals and liberals alike seem reluctant to promote the spread of democracy and freedom around the world, especially considering what the federal government does promote. Temujin of West Coast Chaos has an experience with our vaunted health care system provoke considerations of the dreaded "2-Tier" option, and finely fisks the arguments of a spineless US Army deserter for being granted asylum in Canada. Wow, that took longer than I thought. If any more start flying the Red Ensign, this is going to have to be turned into a monthly rather than bi-weekly link roundup. Would that everyone had the problem of growing popularity, huh?