Looking over the big bag of news I have gathered from today’s Twitter tide, I can’t help but see that this is a pretty good day for those of us in the reality-based community here on the left.

First up, great news from Japan (for a change) for us in the gay lesbian bisexual trans whatever community : Japan’s first openly gay candidate won his election in Tokyo.

This is the first time in Japanese history that an openly gay candidate has won public office in Japan, making this man, Taiga Ishikawa, sort of Japan’s Harvey Milk.

But hopefully, with a better life span. Watch out for crazy conservatives whacked out on Twinkies, Taiga!

If you are like me, your first reaction to this story might have been “Really? This is their first? In 2011? Really, Japan? I thought you were cooler than that!”.

I mean, this is the country that beats all others hands down (and tied to the bedpost with its own panties) when it comes to freaky, fucked-up pornography of every single possible description and some which defy definition by even the most insane topographers. And they are just getting around to electing their first gay dude to public office now? WTF, Japan?

But I suspect that social progress and reform moves at an entirely different pace, tempo, and trajectory in Asian countries as compared to us in the West, and we can’t judge them by our example.

Moving over to the always rich and satisfying world of conservative follies, we have this marvelous tale of an asshole conservative getting busted for pot.

Now any time a conservative gets nailed for pot possession, it’s fiesta time, but what makes this one a particularly juicy source of schadenfreude delights is that this asshole, Robert A. Watson (R) of Rhode Island, once made himself quite infamous by making the following statement at, of all places, a Chamber of Commerce meeting in Providence :

“I suppose if you’re a gay man from Guatemala who gambles and smokes pot, you probably think that we’re onto some good ideas here.”

He was quickly forced to apologize, according to the KOS story.

But he still said it, so for this yobbo to now get busted for pot on a routine traffic stop is nothing short of magnificent. Well done, Irony! You took down another one of these bastards. That will teach them the harsh lesson that those who ignore their sense of the absurd are doomed to to absurd things.

For his sake, I hope he’s at least a libertarian Republican, because as we all know, libertarian has come to mean “everything that is bad about hippies without their naive charm and good intentions to compensate”. Libertarian types are allowed to be pro-marijuana, although, of course, that means they will never get anywhere in the Party because the major GOP’s libertarianism extends only to taxes for the rich and would never get in the way of their desire to tell everybody else how to live their lives.

But by far the most marvelous news for us on the left here in Canada is that the latest polls show the NDP surging ahead in leaps and bounds.

The story even states that the NDP could take as many as 100 seats in the election next Monday. This, of course, would make me insanely happy, especially if this also means that Steven Harper and his smugly evil fucking Conservatives go down in flames.

I would say that I wished them the biggest electoral defeat in Canadian history, but that honor already went to another group of Conservatives in the glorious year of 1988, when Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives (same party minus the redneck) lost every single seat but two.

So that’s the record to beat, Stevie. Come on, do Mulroney proud and lose every seat period, or all but one. After all, that would just prove how right you are, right?

Nothing could make me happier than Harper’s government getting a vigorous shellacking from the forces of good as represented by the Liberals and the New Democratic Party. I have been saying for years that my ideal government would be a Liberal minority government with the NDP holding the trigger. ^[1] The Liberals obviously need extra strong incentive to be, you know, actually liberal, instead of just “marginally to the left of the Conservatives, maybe, sorta, some of the time. ”

This news has given me a fresh enthusiasm for next Monday. Bring it on!