Woke up this morning to heavy (for Edmonton) snow: at least an inch had fallen all over when I went out to the car. Naturally traffic was horribly tied up, but in this one situation, Edmonton drivers do better than LA drivers. Although they're still all over the road, Edmonton drivers do not get so enthralled by the sight of falling snow that they drive right off the road, as has been known to happen in the 405 pass by the new Getty Center.

Yes, and the "splittist agenda"? Comes right out of a commie press release:

Zhu Weidong, assistant director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the US gesture has been played up by Chen to his self-interest.
"The election-minded Chen is cannily taking advantage of the US behaviour to campaign for his splittist agenda,'' he said.

Wanna hear it again? Here it is from The Financial Times:

Chinese state media on Wednesday quoted Wang Zaixi, vice-minister of the cabinet's Taiwan Affairs Office, as saying a referendum on constitutional reform would be "an extremely dangerous move".
"If the Taiwan authorities collude with all splittist forces to openly engage in pro-independence activities and challenge the mainland and the one-China principle, the use of force may become unavoidable," the official China Daily quoted Mr Wang as saying.

There's something unique about Communist rhetoric that creates these bizarre neologisms. The "revanchist" Germans; the running-dog capitalists; the pig-dogs, etc. I don't think the Nazis ever matched it (but perhaps I'm just not familiar enough with the oeuvre). The Islamists come close but they're too repetitive: "freeze the blood in their veins, etc. etc." -- you'd think we'd be suffering some ill effects from all the ice cubes in our aortas, but apparently we infidel just keep toolin' along.

Apparently I have nothing on the EU:

The European Court of Auditors refused to certify EU accounts for the ninth successive year, saying Brussels has failed to match reform rhetoric with a genuine change of culture. Abuse is said to be endemic in the Common Agricultural Policy, which still consumes almost half the £65 billion budget.

I had no idea that the last year the EU's accounts were certified for was 1993.