As the Liberal leadership race ends not with a bang but with a million whimpers, and Frank Bower muddies more water than a Vancouver rain storm, I wonder if the Liberal party needs a Harper-planted mole candidate such as him to crash and burn -- or whether it will do the job just as well on its own.

In case you're wondering, the painting above the bar is a detail of The Intervention of the Sabine Women by Jacques-Louis David (1748 – 1825). From Wikipedia:

The ancient Sabines were in Latium before Rome was founded. The legend says that Romans abducted Sabine women to populate the newly built town, resulting in conflict ended only by the women throwing themselves and their children between the armies of their fathers and their husbands. The kidnapping is a common motif in art; the women ending the war is a less frequent but still reappearing motif.

Somehow, a painting of "bitches" intervening felt appropriate.

10 Years Ago This Week: November 21, 2006
The grande finale of this four-part series featured a movie poster for 1996 Ontario Premier Mike Harris' cutback-fetish movie, Cuts, a rip-off of David Cronenberg's car-crash fetish movie, Crash (not to be confused with last year's Oscar-winning movie of the same name).

The reference to moms in the kitchen stems from a comment Harris made about single mothers on welfare having a "lifestyle problem." That reminds me of a comment last year by Scott Reid, then-Prime Minister Paul Martin's director of communications, in reference to now-Prime Minister Stephen Harper's cash-for-daycare plan: "Don't give people 25 bucks a week to blow on beer and popcorn. " Hmm. About ten years ago, Mike Harris removed a $26 monthly payment to pregnant mothers on welfare. His reason: "We want to make sure they're not spending it on beer." 25 bucks. 10 years. Zero change?