Prince Harry actually bagged 25 wogs

In 2012 I wrote a post called "Prince Harry bags a wog." That was prompted by a story in the Telegraph which implied that Harry had been "blooded" during his tour of Afghanistan in the British Army. In my round about way I was giving a shout-out to the traditions of the British Empire, in which Prince Harry is a player. That empire traditionally made sport of "flogging the wogs," as was often required to keep peace in the colonies. It was a nothing post, but I loved the title. Ten years later Harry releases his bio, and holy shit, Harry didn't bag a wog; he bagged over two dozen! I don't know how many the nancy-boy Prince William ever shot, but I'm pretty sure if the answer was a number higher than naught we would have heard about it. Therefore, it seems to me that the true inheritor of the mantle of Empire can only be Prince Harry. How can anyone pretend to lead the British Empire without at least some token wog-flogging on the CV, let alone actually bagging a wog, let alone BAGGING 25 WOGS! LONG LIVE KING HARRY!!!

Ambassador Kevin Vickers, action hero

You can't deny that Kevin Vickers is a man of action. In fact, he has proven himself to have a pair when pandemonium breaks out around him.

But I find his latest adventure a little less than convincing. Hey dude, the guy you collared wasn't waving a weapon or anything; why not let the security detail deal with him... and you're not the security detail; you're the Canadian ambassador!

And what the protester was protesting was Brit imperialism in Ireland. There's a very legit argument to be made that the ceremony the protester was protesting was a celebration of that imperialism.

Of course it was!

Is that what we want to be celebrating?

Anyway, the government of Israel likes him, for the most specious reasons, but let's not quibble over that now.

But please remember, Kevin, you're the ambassador now... not the security guard.

About the CBC and that African-Canadian war hero from 1857

HMCS William Hall named after first African Canadian to win Victoria Cross declares the headline at the CBC. It's all part of the Harper gang's program to reinvent Canada as a "warrior nation" by celebrating war heroes of the distant past.

We are celebrating Mr. Hall's exploits in 1857 by attaching his name to a not yet built ice-breaking vessel in the many times announced but not yet begun Arctic Patrol Vessel program. His name is to go on ship number four. Whether the Arctic Patrol Vessel program ever builds four ships is a matter of conjecture, but there's no denying that the selection of an "African Canadian" certainly underlines the fact that Canada is not only a Warrior Nation, but a diverse and inclusive one.

Whether it's kosher to call a man born 38 years before Confederation an "African Canadian" is a minor quibble at this remove. Seems to me there couldn't have been "Canadians" of any ethnicity before there was a Canada; we were just subjects of the British Empire; but let's get back to our Warrior Nation past...

1857 was a tense and trying time for the British Empire. Here in British North America the colonial government introduced the Civilization of Indian Tribes Act, the precursor to the Indian Act and the entire project of assimilation that was recently labelled cultural genocide by the Chief Justice of Canada's Supreme Court.

At the same time, in another part of the British Empire, those other Indians rose up against their colonial masters in what has become known as the Indian Mutiny of 1857. The uprising was ruthlessly suppressed by the colonial masters, and India remained a British colony for another 90 years.

It was in the context of suppressing that mutiny of the Indian people against their colonial oppressors that William Hall, an Able Seaman in the Royal Navy, was awarded the Victoria Cross.

That may say rather more about our glorious warrior past than the Harper clique intended.