The lightning round

– I was a bit surprised to learn from CTV News last night that the provincial government paid $55,000 toward the current Muslims of Manitoba billboard campaign. Where do the Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Judaists and Wiccans line up for their funding? Do the Atheists get to run blank billboards? Geez, and I thought the Winnipeg Airport Authority billboards were a waste of money.

– Members of the media: Please note that U of M prof Rob Warren is not the only business expert in the province. Global News is particularly guilty of using Warren as their default business guy, regardless of whether the issue is retail sales, market performance, human resources, ethics or anything else. There are dozens of business profs at the universities, plus there’s always, you know, actual businesspeople. Try shaking things up a bit more in the future (Global’s Mike Brown, I’m talking to you).

– So the Mayor lost another advisor. Is anyone keeping track of how many hacks, wonks, and senior bureaucrats have cycled through City Hall’s starting rotation during Katz’s tenure? Seriously, what’s the problem here?

– Winnipeg Free Press: I like the changes you’ve been making to your website. Free content and archives are good, as are RSS feeds galore. However, don’t change a feed address without letting subscribers know in advance. Also, don’t replace a full text feed with a partial feed to force subscribers to visit your site and view your ads. These things piss people off.

– Let me get this straight. The federal government buys a bunch of planes from Boeing and Lockheed for $3 billion. Boeing and Lockheed can build the planes where they want, but are forced to spend $3 billion in Canada anyway, and are further required to spend minimum amounts in each region of the country. And this doesn’t violate any sort of trade agreement? Isn’t the end result that we pay way more for these planes than we should have?

– That Barack Obama is one funny dude. Check out the clip below from Monday’s South Carolina debate. He begins by giving a very eloquent statement about Bill Clinton’s affinity with African Americans, but earns some solid laughs at the end. (Time: 1:56)