I received an email from Pandora, a streaming website, which allows people to build their own radio stations based on similar music. Considering the radio stations I've built are Sarah Maclachlan, Blue Rodeo, mostly Canadian content, I find this email a bit amusing...especially as it prevents me from accessing Pandora all based on my IP address.
Dear Pandora listener,
Today we have some extremely disappointing news to share with you. Due to international licensing constraints, we are deeply, deeply sorry to say that we must begin proactively preventing access to Pandora's streaming service from Canada. We began blocking access from almost all countries outside the U.S. last week and had originally hoped to maintain access to Canada. However, it has become clear in the last week that we just haven't been able to make enough progress to continue streaming.
It is difficult to convey just how disappointing this is for us. Our vision remains to eventually make Pandora a truly global service, but for the time being, we can no longer continue as we have been. As a small company, the best chance we have of realizing our dream of Pandora all around the world is to grow as the licensing landscape allows.
We show your IP address is xxx xxxx xxx, which indicates you are listening from Canada. If you believe you are seeing this by mistake, we offer our sincere apologies and ask that you please reply to this email.
Delivery of Pandora is based on proper licensing from the people who created the music - we have always believed in honoring the guidelines as determined by legislators and regulators, artists and songwriters, and the labels and publishers they work with. In the U.S. there is a federal statute that provides this license for all the music streamed on Pandora. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent license outside the U.S. and there is no global licensing organization to enable any webcaster to legitimately offer its service around the world. The volume of listening on Pandora makes it a very expensive service to run. Streaming costs are very high, and since our inception, we have been making publishing and performance royalty payments for every song we play.
Until last week, we have not been able to tell where a listener is based, relying only on zip code information provided upon registration. We are now able to recognize a listener's country of origin based on the IP address from which they are accessing the service. Consequently, on May 16th, we will begin blocking access to Pandora to listeners from Canada. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.
We will be posting updates on our blog regarding our ongoing effort to launch in other countries, so please stay in touch. We will keep a record of your existing stations and bookmarked artists and songs, so that when we are able to launch in your country, they will be waiting for you. We deeply share your sense of disappointment and greatly appreciate your understanding.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Eurovision Entry
Clive, my friend from the UK, has sent me another clip from Eurovision. Unfortunately the UK's entry was appalling, according to him. He did send this to me, this was the entry from Georgia on the Baltic coast. I rather like it!!
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Majority of Iraqi Lawmakers Reject the Occupation
According to Alternet.org...
Will the US ever leave Iraq?
Scarecrow doesn't think so.
According to Think Progress, Condi thinks the US is staying.
Richard Clarke is not optimistic, either.
...[o]n Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq's parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement, the nationalist Shia group that sponsored the petition.
It's a hugely significant development. Lawmakers demanding an end to the occupation now have the upper hand in the Iraqi legislature for the first time; previous attempts at a similar resolution fell just short of the 138 votes needed to pass (there are 275 members of the Iraqi parliament, but many have fled the country's civil conflict, and at times it's been difficult to arrive at a quorum).
Reached by phone in Baghdad on Tuesday, Al-Rubaie said that he would present the petition, which is nonbinding, to the speaker of the Iraqi parliament and demand that a binding measure be put to a vote. Under Iraqi law, the speaker must present a resolution that's called for by a majority of lawmakers, but there are significant loopholes and what will happen next is unclear.
Will the US ever leave Iraq?
Scarecrow doesn't think so.
"All this reminds us there is something seriously wrong with the Bush/Cheney logic and their strategic assessment. All that rhetoric about “them” “following us home” — what Richard Clarke calls the White House’s “puppy dog theory” — sounds pretty ludicrous, because it’s exactly backwards. Instead of worrying about al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia following us home, American policy should stop breeding wannabe terrorists here by what we’re doing there. We should worry that this Administration has an incoherent, and dangerously delusional understanding of the threat to America that bears no relationship to reality. And that’s the real danger to the country."
According to Think Progress, Condi thinks the US is staying.
In an interview last night on the Charlie Rose Show, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pointedly said, “[O]ur friends in the [Middle East] need to know and the Iraqis need to know that we are not looking to leave Iraq.” “Ever?” Rose asked. Rice responded, “We are not going to leave an Iraq that is not capable of defending itself and with a foundation for future reconciliation.”
Rose then asked Rice if she believed she’ll have the support of the American people to continue the war. Rice claimed the American people are looking for “progress.” Rose replied, “But nobody can answer the question: If it doesn’t happen, what?” Avoiding discussion of a Plan B, Rice answered, “Charlie, because as the President said to you, we’re focused on having it happen.”
In the interview, Rose also noted that Rice once worked for President George H.W. Bush, who was “famous for insisting there be an exit strategy. [But] no one seems to know what’s the exit strategy [now],” he said. Rice responded that Iraq is “a long-term proposition.”
Richard Clarke is not optimistic, either.
"For as long as I'm alive, there will be Iraqis who hate us," Clarke told about 300 people gathered in the Gaiser Hall Student Center.
In the "battle of ideas" crucial to U.S. success in the Middle East, "We're not only losing, we've never really started," he said.
In fact, al-Qaida terror cells have multiplied much faster since the 9/11 terror attacks and subsequent American offensive in Afghanistan, Clarke said. The United States let al-Qaida "off the ropes" to invade Iraq, he said.
That was one of many failures Clarke listed as he recounted steps before and after the Iraq invasion that have left many Americans numbed and millions of Muslims seething, he said.
"The question is, how quickly can we undo that mistake?" he asked.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Arctic Ice is Melting Three Times Faster Than Thought
According to this CNN story, Arctic ice is melting three times faster than previously believed.
We're screwed.
We're screwed.
There Is No Exit Plan...
...because the Bushies don't plan to ever leave.
"The United States maintains 737 military bases in 130 countries across the globe. They exist for the purpose of defending the economic interests of the United States, what is euphemistically called "national security." In order to secure favorable access to Iraq's vast reserves of light crude, the United States is spending billions on the construction of at least five large permanent military bases throughout that country.
A new Iraq oil law, largely written by the Coalition Provisional Authority, is planned for ratification by June. This law cedes control of Iraq's oil to western powers for 30 years. There is major opposition to the proposed law within Iraq, especially among the country's five trade union federations that represent hundreds of thousands of oil workers. The United States is working hard to surmount this opposition by appealing directly to the al-Maliki government in Iraq."
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Friday, April 27, 2007
The Devil and Kyoto
Let's start with the good news, what little there is, and give the devil his due: at least Harper and the Tories have done something on carbon emissions.
Mind you, it's very little and probably far too late, but at least it's something.
The bad news is that our Kyoto commitments will be not be met, in violation of international law, and there is no guarantee that the Tories' targets will result in emissions being reduced anyway.
By using intensity targets instead of hard caps, it will possible for industries to increase their emissions, yet still meet the Tories emission reduction targets. How's that for having it both ways?
And the ultimate kicker is that industries that can prove that they have no way of reducing their emissions, cement factories for instance, don't have to. That makes a lot of sense. I can prove that my industrial waste emissions, which are killing people and the planet, cannot be reduced in any way, therefore I should be allowed to continue to kill people and the planet with impunity. WTF???
The Tories worry that too much emission reduction will damage the economy. I wonder how much the economy will suffer when ocean levels rise in a couple of decades and Canada has a million former-residents of Vancouver as refugees. Of course, that sort of long-term thinking never enters the thoughts of most politicians.
The ultimate irony is that the Kyoto targets are only a start. They are only a small fraction of what needs to be done. Meeting Kyoto is only the beginning: the real hard cuts are yet to come.
If you hear any politician say that we can continue on our merry way and all we need to do change a few light bulbs and drive a little less and everything will be fine, he is woefully ill-informed. Or he is lying.
Vast societal changes are coming. But the politicians, like the rest of us, have their heads in the sand.
Mind you, it's very little and probably far too late, but at least it's something.
The bad news is that our Kyoto commitments will be not be met, in violation of international law, and there is no guarantee that the Tories' targets will result in emissions being reduced anyway.
By using intensity targets instead of hard caps, it will possible for industries to increase their emissions, yet still meet the Tories emission reduction targets. How's that for having it both ways?
And the ultimate kicker is that industries that can prove that they have no way of reducing their emissions, cement factories for instance, don't have to. That makes a lot of sense. I can prove that my industrial waste emissions, which are killing people and the planet, cannot be reduced in any way, therefore I should be allowed to continue to kill people and the planet with impunity. WTF???
The Tories worry that too much emission reduction will damage the economy. I wonder how much the economy will suffer when ocean levels rise in a couple of decades and Canada has a million former-residents of Vancouver as refugees. Of course, that sort of long-term thinking never enters the thoughts of most politicians.
The ultimate irony is that the Kyoto targets are only a start. They are only a small fraction of what needs to be done. Meeting Kyoto is only the beginning: the real hard cuts are yet to come.
If you hear any politician say that we can continue on our merry way and all we need to do change a few light bulbs and drive a little less and everything will be fine, he is woefully ill-informed. Or he is lying.
Vast societal changes are coming. But the politicians, like the rest of us, have their heads in the sand.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
The Long Recovery Week 22
Today was another Doctor appointment. My surgeon wanted another look-see.
After I stretched and move my arm and shoulder around, he said he was very pleased with my recovery. So pleased in fact that he doesn't want to see me again.
He said that I will probably never get full range back, especially when reaching straight up over my head. But the mobility that I have now is more than adequate to be described as functional. And as long as I use it, it will keep getting better, so working and stretching are still the keys.
He said that I had sustained a lot of damage and scarring, but he was quite happy with my recovery.
And so am I, of course. I thanked him, and left the hospital. Five months ago, my arm and shoulder were shattered. Now my arm works. What more can I ask for?
After I stretched and move my arm and shoulder around, he said he was very pleased with my recovery. So pleased in fact that he doesn't want to see me again.
He said that I will probably never get full range back, especially when reaching straight up over my head. But the mobility that I have now is more than adequate to be described as functional. And as long as I use it, it will keep getting better, so working and stretching are still the keys.
He said that I had sustained a lot of damage and scarring, but he was quite happy with my recovery.
And so am I, of course. I thanked him, and left the hospital. Five months ago, my arm and shoulder were shattered. Now my arm works. What more can I ask for?
Monday, April 23, 2007
Not Just on Earth Day
I've signed up for the Canadian Living magazine green challenge. Daily tips, so far I'm very impressed with how green I actually am.
Take the challenge....very interesting facts!
http://www.canadianliving.com/canadianliving/client/en/Health/SpecialDetailNews.asp?idNews=237205&idSm=517&special=1
Take the challenge....very interesting facts!
http://www.canadianliving.com/canadianliving/client/en/Health/SpecialDetailNews.asp?idNews=237205&idSm=517&special=1
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Thursday, April 12, 2007
So It Goes
Kurt Vonnegut picked my birthday yesterday to die.
What a pisser.
He was a literary giant; moreso, he was a literary giant who wrote science fiction.
Most famous for Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five, my first Vonnegut was Breakfast of Champions, a funny and sad novel that many of Vonnegut's regular cast of characters wandered through, including Kilgore Trout, a science fiction writer who toils away at his craft making no money and gaining no fame. But it is through Trout that Vonnegut answered that age old question.
It is Trout, while sitting in a men's room stall, who sees the question scrawled on the stall wall:
"Why are we here?"
Trout doesn't hesitate for a moment. He whips out a pen and replies:
"To be the eyes and the ears of the conscience of the universe."
And it is in Slaughterhouse-Five that Vonnegut becomes our conscience, bemoaning the madness of war and lives that spin out of control.
Another moment lost, another giant falls.
So it goes.
Hi ho.
The Works of Kurt Vonnegut
A recent Vonnegut Interview in Rolling Stone
An excerpt from his last book, A Man Without a Country: A Memoir of Life in George W. Bush's America
What a pisser.
He was a literary giant; moreso, he was a literary giant who wrote science fiction.
Most famous for Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five, my first Vonnegut was Breakfast of Champions, a funny and sad novel that many of Vonnegut's regular cast of characters wandered through, including Kilgore Trout, a science fiction writer who toils away at his craft making no money and gaining no fame. But it is through Trout that Vonnegut answered that age old question.
It is Trout, while sitting in a men's room stall, who sees the question scrawled on the stall wall:
"Why are we here?"
Trout doesn't hesitate for a moment. He whips out a pen and replies:
"To be the eyes and the ears of the conscience of the universe."
And it is in Slaughterhouse-Five that Vonnegut becomes our conscience, bemoaning the madness of war and lives that spin out of control.
Another moment lost, another giant falls.
So it goes.
Hi ho.
The Works of Kurt Vonnegut
A recent Vonnegut Interview in Rolling Stone
An excerpt from his last book, A Man Without a Country: A Memoir of Life in George W. Bush's America
Sunday, April 08, 2007
The Long Recovery Week 20
Despite my prediction in the last installment that it might be at least a month before I'd be back on the water or on my bike, a few days ago my physio-therapist gave me permission to kayak and ride again. So not being a person to let moss grow under my feet, mainly because then they smell icky and turn green, it was time to return to action with a short paddle at Elk Lake.
The Usual Gang showed up: Alison, Paula, Louise, Bernie, and myself. Even the elusive Dennis appeared.
My left arm is still weak, so getting in and out was a bit of a challenge. I tried a couple of times on land and it was doable. So I got into my kayak and Paula pushed me off.
And now, 161 days after my last paddle, I can only paraphrase Bill Murray from the film What About Bob?: I'm paddling! I'm paddling!
Louise soon hit the water, while Dennis decided to wave goodbye and go home. No, just kidding. It was good to have the gang out on the water again.
Bernie headed out.
Dennis decided that I was taking too many pictures of Bernie, so he made sure that Bernie's face was hidden in this picture.
It was busy out on the lake today... the rowing club was having a big celebration this weekend and was using much of the lake, but that was okay. We were just doing a small, short paddle today, because I didn't want to overdo it on my first paddle.
So we paddled gently and watched the races.
My shoulder survived reasonably well. It was sore and stiff, but not overly so. The hardest part was tying down the kayaks onto the van. Holding my arms up while tying off the straps took a lot of effort. But I did it! Or rather, we did it, as everyone was very keen to help. Afterwards, The Gang presented me with a Challenge Trophy, for overcoming a challenge!
Ah, bliss!
The Usual Gang showed up: Alison, Paula, Louise, Bernie, and myself. Even the elusive Dennis appeared.
My left arm is still weak, so getting in and out was a bit of a challenge. I tried a couple of times on land and it was doable. So I got into my kayak and Paula pushed me off.
And now, 161 days after my last paddle, I can only paraphrase Bill Murray from the film What About Bob?: I'm paddling! I'm paddling!
Louise soon hit the water, while Dennis decided to wave goodbye and go home. No, just kidding. It was good to have the gang out on the water again.
Bernie headed out.
Dennis decided that I was taking too many pictures of Bernie, so he made sure that Bernie's face was hidden in this picture.
It was busy out on the lake today... the rowing club was having a big celebration this weekend and was using much of the lake, but that was okay. We were just doing a small, short paddle today, because I didn't want to overdo it on my first paddle.
So we paddled gently and watched the races.
My shoulder survived reasonably well. It was sore and stiff, but not overly so. The hardest part was tying down the kayaks onto the van. Holding my arms up while tying off the straps took a lot of effort. But I did it! Or rather, we did it, as everyone was very keen to help. Afterwards, The Gang presented me with a Challenge Trophy, for overcoming a challenge!
Ah, bliss!
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Monday, March 26, 2007
The Long Recovery Week 18
Time munches on.
Now over four months after my bike accident, my once-broken arm and shoulder still have a road to travel before they could be said to be recovered.
That said, a lot of progress has been made over the last few weeks.
First, I have graduated to what is referred to in physio lingo as "resisted exercise." You and I call it pulling giant rubber bands. This is significant because my range of motion, while still not yet in the normal range (and may never fully be), is certainly in the range of motion for getting by. The problem is that I have no strength in the arm. In fact I have more range than strength. If I left up my left arm in front on me, I might get 130-135 degrees of rotation. But if I use my right arm to push my left arm up further, I'll get 175-180 degrees of rotation.
So now we're into strength building and re-activating the muscles that haven't had to work in months. Hence the rubber bands. I have eight exercises to do with the bands, plus one exercise with a free weight, a whopping three-pounder!
Other good news: I don't need to do stretches with a cane anymore. I'm flexible enough now that I can do some new stretches that do the job better and don't require the cane. And I'm now down to once-a-week visit to the physio dude.
So now the question is when do I get back on my bike and into my kayak? That remains to be seen. The Victoria Day weekend marks about six months since my accident, which was sort of the time frame mentioned by my surgeon, so that is a target that is on my mind. Sometime I feel that Canada Day is a more realistic time frame, but we'll have to wait and see. The point is that I WILL be back on my bike and on the water this summer.
Woo hoo!
Now over four months after my bike accident, my once-broken arm and shoulder still have a road to travel before they could be said to be recovered.
That said, a lot of progress has been made over the last few weeks.
First, I have graduated to what is referred to in physio lingo as "resisted exercise." You and I call it pulling giant rubber bands. This is significant because my range of motion, while still not yet in the normal range (and may never fully be), is certainly in the range of motion for getting by. The problem is that I have no strength in the arm. In fact I have more range than strength. If I left up my left arm in front on me, I might get 130-135 degrees of rotation. But if I use my right arm to push my left arm up further, I'll get 175-180 degrees of rotation.
So now we're into strength building and re-activating the muscles that haven't had to work in months. Hence the rubber bands. I have eight exercises to do with the bands, plus one exercise with a free weight, a whopping three-pounder!
Other good news: I don't need to do stretches with a cane anymore. I'm flexible enough now that I can do some new stretches that do the job better and don't require the cane. And I'm now down to once-a-week visit to the physio dude.
So now the question is when do I get back on my bike and into my kayak? That remains to be seen. The Victoria Day weekend marks about six months since my accident, which was sort of the time frame mentioned by my surgeon, so that is a target that is on my mind. Sometime I feel that Canada Day is a more realistic time frame, but we'll have to wait and see. The point is that I WILL be back on my bike and on the water this summer.
Woo hoo!
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Staying on Message
So I'm surfing for news, and surf on over to CNN.com.
I bookmarked the International edition of CNN over the domestic American version because its jingoism and utter disregard for any story that questioned the Bush regime during the run up to the Iraq made me sick, and its choice to wallow in the most trivial of non-stories (Jon-Benet as one example) has not improved over time.
But the International edition does have the occasional story of interest, and today was one of those days.
Here's the front page:
Al Gore is testifying in Congress and using the phrase "global planetary emergency"! Wow, that's big news. Maybe, finally, the Washington politcos will finally wake up. Maybe, finally, the major American media will stop following the Bush line and take climate change seriously.
Maybe, finally, the proven fact of human-caused climate change will get some serious face-time on American media.
Let's see what the domestic version of CNN has as their front page:
Shades of Jon-Benet. Okay, well, um, at least the front page mentions Gore testifying to Congress.
I think.
Somewhere.
Doesn't it?
There is an article entitled "Sceptics Frosty at Warming Warning." Wonder what we get if we click on that?
Wait a minute. This isn't anything like the International edition headline. What's going on here? Isn't the news the news? Isn't the truth the truth (even if inconvenient)?
How can the same news organization present the same set of facts with one slant for one market, and another slant for a different market?
They can't, of course. They have to stay on message. A single message.
And when I returned to the CNN International home page....
I bookmarked the International edition of CNN over the domestic American version because its jingoism and utter disregard for any story that questioned the Bush regime during the run up to the Iraq made me sick, and its choice to wallow in the most trivial of non-stories (Jon-Benet as one example) has not improved over time.
But the International edition does have the occasional story of interest, and today was one of those days.
Here's the front page:
Al Gore is testifying in Congress and using the phrase "global planetary emergency"! Wow, that's big news. Maybe, finally, the Washington politcos will finally wake up. Maybe, finally, the major American media will stop following the Bush line and take climate change seriously.
Maybe, finally, the proven fact of human-caused climate change will get some serious face-time on American media.
Let's see what the domestic version of CNN has as their front page:
Shades of Jon-Benet. Okay, well, um, at least the front page mentions Gore testifying to Congress.
I think.
Somewhere.
Doesn't it?
There is an article entitled "Sceptics Frosty at Warming Warning." Wonder what we get if we click on that?
Wait a minute. This isn't anything like the International edition headline. What's going on here? Isn't the news the news? Isn't the truth the truth (even if inconvenient)?
How can the same news organization present the same set of facts with one slant for one market, and another slant for a different market?
They can't, of course. They have to stay on message. A single message.
And when I returned to the CNN International home page....
Harper Pulls a Bush
Prime Minister Harper continues to use plays from "President" Bush's neocon handbook, using "hardball partisan politics."
Under fire from opposition MPs over erroneous statements by Defence Minister Gorodn O'Connor to the House of Commons concerning Afghan detainees, Harper responded by saying, "I can understand the passion that the leader of the Opposition and members of his party feel for Taliban prisoners. I just wish occasionally they would show the same passion for Canadian soldiers."
Needless to say, all the Opposition party leaders are outraged.
Harper is using an old Bush tactic, attacking the and patriotism and character of his criticizers instead of dealing with the criticism, in this case O'Connor's acknowledged misleading of the House of Commons two weeks ago by saying that the Red Cross would keep Canada informed about the condition of prisoners handed over to Afghan officials by Canadian soldiers. Earl er this week, O'Conner apologized to the House, admitting that the Red Cross is under no such obligation.
Harper would rather ignore the fact that a senior member of his cabinet mislead the House, and would rather insult the people who caught him at it.
That's misplaced priorities, and that's classic Bush.
Under fire from opposition MPs over erroneous statements by Defence Minister Gorodn O'Connor to the House of Commons concerning Afghan detainees, Harper responded by saying, "I can understand the passion that the leader of the Opposition and members of his party feel for Taliban prisoners. I just wish occasionally they would show the same passion for Canadian soldiers."
Needless to say, all the Opposition party leaders are outraged.
Harper is using an old Bush tactic, attacking the and patriotism and character of his criticizers instead of dealing with the criticism, in this case O'Connor's acknowledged misleading of the House of Commons two weeks ago by saying that the Red Cross would keep Canada informed about the condition of prisoners handed over to Afghan officials by Canadian soldiers. Earl er this week, O'Conner apologized to the House, admitting that the Red Cross is under no such obligation.
Harper would rather ignore the fact that a senior member of his cabinet mislead the House, and would rather insult the people who caught him at it.
That's misplaced priorities, and that's classic Bush.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Upcoming Book Tour - April 4th, 2007
From 28 March to 11 April, M. D. Benoit will be going on a virtual book tour to promote her upcoming alternate reality novel, Synergy. During that period, ten people (myself included) will host her on their blog for one day. There will be discussions on the book, interviews with the author, and so on. Every day during this period, on her own blog, Life’s Weirder than Fiction (http://mdbenoit.com/blog), she will announce where she will be that day, as well as talk a bit about her host.
Synergy’s Virtual Book Tour will culminate with a Virtual Book Launch, on 14-15 April (http://mdbenoit.com/synergy). M. D. can be contacted at mdbenoit (at) gmail (dot) com.
I'll be hosting the Benoit Virtual Book Tour April 4th. Please be sure to come by my blog on that day, as she will attempt to respond to whatever comments you leave on my blog that day.
Synergy’s Virtual Book Tour will culminate with a Virtual Book Launch, on 14-15 April (http://mdbenoit.com/synergy). M. D. can be contacted at mdbenoit (at) gmail (dot) com.
I'll be hosting the Benoit Virtual Book Tour April 4th. Please be sure to come by my blog on that day, as she will attempt to respond to whatever comments you leave on my blog that day.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
This is how you make a point
Welcome to the UK Home Shopping Network. Amazing what you can get, innit?
Stealth
Apparently these explosively formed penetrators are causing a certain amount of grief to the Amerikan troops overseas. Not hard to see why; they're formed out of plastic, filled with plastique, and have only a couple of metal bits, but are tremendously effective. This Discovery Channel vid raves about them (the hardon this guy gets from things that go boom is one of the reasons I don't watch FutureWeapons), but I have to say, this is the sort of thing that makes a large military force terribly vulnerable. The whole clip amounts to a sales/training manual for guerilla fighters.
Monday, March 12, 2007
They Report, We Deride
Welcome to Pottersville has posted a whole bunch of faux pas by Fox News. Most are deliberate, although I would hope that some of the most outlandish are mistakes.
But I doubt it.
Here's three of my favourites, click here for more of Fox's best moments.
But I doubt it.
Here's three of my favourites, click here for more of Fox's best moments.
The Tyee
Some articles of note in The Tyee today.
In the interests of fairness, a positive review of 24 and Jack Bauer--quite a bit different than my take on the series....
A savage review of 300--the new comic book treat in the vein of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorow.
"Some might say this policy is anti-women, anti-poor people and
anti-child. But I think this ignores the policy's subtle genius.
Finally, we have a conservative policy that is pro-environment."
An enraged article by Terry Glavin, I writer I deeply respect, defending the seal hunt. I must say, this gave me pause for thought. "It's long past time for conservationists to make a clean, clear, open
and unequivocal break with crystal-gazing animal-rights eccentrics and
all their camp followers. For them, the conservation of wild resources
was always just a flag of convenience. They're dead ballast, so over
the side with them."
And remember that day when the RCMP shut down th offices in the Legislature and cleaned out all those boxes of documents, arresting Basi, Virk, and Basi? Well, "In a nutshell, the defence has alleged that there was an internal
political decision by the B.C. Liberal government to "fix" a $1 billion
dollar deal and pay off the losing firm with another deal worth up to
$100 million. And it seeks internal RCMP and government information on
whether the B.C. Rail deal should have been rescinded." It looks like this might be a very interesting chapter in BC political history--and that's saying something!
And when it comes to a democratic deficit, there ain't any place that does it better than Alberta. Liberal leader Kevin Taft, another writer I very much respect, details many of the Alberta Conservative's scandals in his new book Democracy Derailed. Check out Jeremy Klaszus' review.
In the interests of fairness, a positive review of 24 and Jack Bauer--quite a bit different than my take on the series....
A savage review of 300--the new comic book treat in the vein of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorow.
"Some might say this policy is anti-women, anti-poor people and
anti-child. But I think this ignores the policy's subtle genius.
Finally, we have a conservative policy that is pro-environment."
An enraged article by Terry Glavin, I writer I deeply respect, defending the seal hunt. I must say, this gave me pause for thought. "It's long past time for conservationists to make a clean, clear, open
and unequivocal break with crystal-gazing animal-rights eccentrics and
all their camp followers. For them, the conservation of wild resources
was always just a flag of convenience. They're dead ballast, so over
the side with them."
And remember that day when the RCMP shut down th offices in the Legislature and cleaned out all those boxes of documents, arresting Basi, Virk, and Basi? Well, "In a nutshell, the defence has alleged that there was an internal
political decision by the B.C. Liberal government to "fix" a $1 billion
dollar deal and pay off the losing firm with another deal worth up to
$100 million. And it seeks internal RCMP and government information on
whether the B.C. Rail deal should have been rescinded." It looks like this might be a very interesting chapter in BC political history--and that's saying something!
And when it comes to a democratic deficit, there ain't any place that does it better than Alberta. Liberal leader Kevin Taft, another writer I very much respect, details many of the Alberta Conservative's scandals in his new book Democracy Derailed. Check out Jeremy Klaszus' review.
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Now THAT'S Different!
Israel is replacing its ambassador in El Salvador
after the current envoy was found in a street, drunk, wearing only
bondage gear, officials said.
Sad thing is, there's no pictures to accompany the BBC article....
after the current envoy was found in a street, drunk, wearing only
bondage gear, officials said.
Sad thing is, there's no pictures to accompany the BBC article....
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Sunday, March 11, 2007
Spin? Slant? Fear?
The shrub has been having a rough ride during his tour of South America, what with the thousands of demonstrators in each country, and Hugo Chavez dogging him. The BBC and CBC both cover Chavez's comments on the shrub and Amerika. Interesting how the Beeb is superficially harsher in its coverage, while the CBC is gentler on Bush, but adds more of Chavez's comments--which are far harsher than the one's in the Beeb report. I suspect this might reflect the underlying Canadian attitude towards Amerika: the visible appeasement of the bully masking a very critical and angry attitude.
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Friday, March 09, 2007
Why I Watch Stephen Colbert
This is a classic. Not only the Fox reaction to the death of Captian America, but listen for the last line of The Word; it sum things up exactly.
News Bites of the Day
Our asses are being handed to us on a plate:
European Union leaders have agreed to adopt a binding target on the use of renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, officials say.
The downside is the 10% biofuels target; yes, lower greenhouse gases, but even at current rates of biofuel conversion, we've seen an international rise in the price of cereal grains, making them less affordable for the poor around the world. Also, a lot of oil palms are being planted to be used for biofuels. And that process is neither environmentally sensitive nor carbon neutral. In a related bit of news, Bush is touring Latin America this week. His first stop is Brazil, which is the poster child for alternative fuels--specifically ethanol. But according to the Guardian, there is a bit of a dark side to this particular revolution.
Europe's food watchdog is to assess whether meat and dairy products from cloned animals are safe to eat.
Of course, the FDA in the US has already concluded that it is, but considering that the FDA is now run by Cargill, Monsanto and other food manufacturing concerns, they really don't have a lot of credibility, do they?
It is likely--or at least possible--that the EU will use the results of this study to restrict imports of EU produced meats (much as they have done with GMO cereals and oilseeds), but I certainly can't say that's a wrong thing. Carbon neutrality demands the reduction of food imports and a rise in local production for local consumption. Andrew Nikiforuk's new book Pandemodium details many of the biological costs of our international trade--particularly in food, animals, and plants.
An internal justice department investigation has documented multiple abuses by the FBI in obtaining the private records of U.S. residents.
I guess that it's not really news when a department dedicated to control of a population and the maintenance of the current order goes beyond what is legal. But it is still disturbing to me, which is why I think CSIS and the RCMP both need strict non-political civilian oversight.
It's nice to know that Bush still has God on his side. Hate to think what would happen if it was the Great Liar whispering in his ear.
Microsoft said it will not issue its scheduled monthly software security fixes in March after a report said its security suite ranked last of 17 tested. Man, ain''t that a kick in the slats? An Austrian project found that Microsoft's Windows Live OneCare security suite didn't meet the minimum standards to even be included in the testing regime. Wonder why the majority of software on my machines is open source? Look no further....
The cost of justice is beyond the reach of many middle-class Canadians, the chief justice of the Supreme Court said Thursday. That would be chief justice Beverley McLachlin. She makes a number of points about the current status of the justice system in Canada. Who can use it, who gets screwed, and who shouldn't be involved in the first place. A short but interesting report on her talk.
With the increased number of women serving in the US military, something else is on the rise too: rape and sexual assault by their male comrades. I'm really not suprised. There's something wrong with the way we train and treat our soldiers. I'm not sure what it is, but I keep looking at the Dutch military and admiring them for at least trying to change things.
European Union leaders have agreed to adopt a binding target on the use of renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, officials say.
The downside is the 10% biofuels target; yes, lower greenhouse gases, but even at current rates of biofuel conversion, we've seen an international rise in the price of cereal grains, making them less affordable for the poor around the world. Also, a lot of oil palms are being planted to be used for biofuels. And that process is neither environmentally sensitive nor carbon neutral. In a related bit of news, Bush is touring Latin America this week. His first stop is Brazil, which is the poster child for alternative fuels--specifically ethanol. But according to the Guardian, there is a bit of a dark side to this particular revolution.
Europe's food watchdog is to assess whether meat and dairy products from cloned animals are safe to eat.
Of course, the FDA in the US has already concluded that it is, but considering that the FDA is now run by Cargill, Monsanto and other food manufacturing concerns, they really don't have a lot of credibility, do they?
It is likely--or at least possible--that the EU will use the results of this study to restrict imports of EU produced meats (much as they have done with GMO cereals and oilseeds), but I certainly can't say that's a wrong thing. Carbon neutrality demands the reduction of food imports and a rise in local production for local consumption. Andrew Nikiforuk's new book Pandemodium details many of the biological costs of our international trade--particularly in food, animals, and plants.
An internal justice department investigation has documented multiple abuses by the FBI in obtaining the private records of U.S. residents.
I guess that it's not really news when a department dedicated to control of a population and the maintenance of the current order goes beyond what is legal. But it is still disturbing to me, which is why I think CSIS and the RCMP both need strict non-political civilian oversight.
It's nice to know that Bush still has God on his side. Hate to think what would happen if it was the Great Liar whispering in his ear.
Microsoft said it will not issue its scheduled monthly software security fixes in March after a report said its security suite ranked last of 17 tested. Man, ain''t that a kick in the slats? An Austrian project found that Microsoft's Windows Live OneCare security suite didn't meet the minimum standards to even be included in the testing regime. Wonder why the majority of software on my machines is open source? Look no further....
The cost of justice is beyond the reach of many middle-class Canadians, the chief justice of the Supreme Court said Thursday. That would be chief justice Beverley McLachlin. She makes a number of points about the current status of the justice system in Canada. Who can use it, who gets screwed, and who shouldn't be involved in the first place. A short but interesting report on her talk.
With the increased number of women serving in the US military, something else is on the rise too: rape and sexual assault by their male comrades. I'm really not suprised. There's something wrong with the way we train and treat our soldiers. I'm not sure what it is, but I keep looking at the Dutch military and admiring them for at least trying to change things.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Don't you love Ann Coulter calling John Edwards a faggot? And don't you love that her new BFF is Cpl. Matt Sanchez--oh wait. Isn't that Rod Majors from Glory Holes of Fame 3 and Donkey Dick? Or Pierre LaBranche from Jawbreaker, where his "11-inch uncut monster cock" earned him legions of fans? (Okay, the photos show a much more reasonable 8"). Why, yes it is! They're all the same guy!(totally NSFW!) It's Jeff Gannon all over again--including the escort business!
Pretty Big Brother
AT&T, of course. The deathstar is back after being forcibly broken up in the seventies. IANd the payback for being allowed to re-assemble?
"In the name of fighting the "war on terror," the Bush Administration has secretly enlisted the help of telecommunications agencies across the nation to do "datamining" -- using pre-programmed criteria to sift through the private information of Americans on the web and telephone lines in search of clues." Check out the story and video.
"In the name of fighting the "war on terror," the Bush Administration has secretly enlisted the help of telecommunications agencies across the nation to do "datamining" -- using pre-programmed criteria to sift through the private information of Americans on the web and telephone lines in search of clues." Check out the story and video.
New World Order
I think it is symptomatic of the rapid re-arrangement of the world order that while Amerika released it's worldwide human right report this week and, as is usual, targeted China as a major offender, China is feeling strong enough to call Amerika on it's own record.
"Relying on its strong military power, the United States has trespassed on the sovereignty of other countries and violated human rights in other countries," Xinhua quoted the document as saying, released by the State Council, or cabinet.
It cited foreign media reports in detailing the number of civilian deaths in Iraq.
"The document says the United States has a flagrant record of violating the Geneva Convention in systematically abusing prisoners during the Iraqi war and the war in Afghanistan," Xinhua said.
(Reuters news agency)
"Relying on its strong military power, the United States has trespassed on the sovereignty of other countries and violated human rights in other countries," Xinhua quoted the document as saying, released by the State Council, or cabinet.
It cited foreign media reports in detailing the number of civilian deaths in Iraq.
"The document says the United States has a flagrant record of violating the Geneva Convention in systematically abusing prisoners during the Iraqi war and the war in Afghanistan," Xinhua said.
(Reuters news agency)
More Evidence That Amerika is a Failed State
As if you need it.... Attorney general Alberto Gonzales is under pressure for his firings of several US attourneys last December. Of course it turns out that they are attorneys who have either prosecuted Republican corruption, failed to deliver indictments against Dems early enough to influence the November elections, or in the case of the US attorney in Arkansas, "was thrown out to make room for a crony of Karl Rove who specializes in opposition research. (Could that possibly be related to the presidential candidacy of a certain former Arkansas resident?)" Check out the Truthdig article....
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Wednesday, March 07, 2007
A Coalition of the Unwilling
Over at Truthdig, Sarah Stillman confronts her American ignorance on climate change. "Why," she asks, "are the Brits kicking our [American] arse on climate change awarenness?" The resulting article is interesting and informative, and well worth a read.
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Tuesday, March 06, 2007
We're Number One! We Are! Really!
According to this BBC poll, Canada was viewed as having a positive influence in the world by 54% of the respondents, top in the poll. Japan was also viewed as having a positive influence by 54% of the repsondents, but Japan also had a slightly higher number of people who said that it had a negative influence, 20% to Canada's 14% negative influence score, the lowest in the poll.
At the other end, The United States had a postive rating of only 30% and a negative rating of 51%. Only Iran (54%) and Israel (56%) had lower negative scores, with North Korea close behind (48%). Israel also had the lowest postive influence score at 17%.
At the other end, The United States had a postive rating of only 30% and a negative rating of 51%. Only Iran (54%) and Israel (56%) had lower negative scores, with North Korea close behind (48%). Israel also had the lowest postive influence score at 17%.
The Long Recovery Week 15
It's hard to believe that 15 weeks ago, almost four months, I was just coming out of surgery on my shoulder. Range of motion is still an issue, and as yet I'm still not doing any real strength training, but that should start any time now.
Today my doctor said that everything was as it should be. He ordered up another set of xrays, but he figures this will be the last set because the bone and the titanium look good. Now it's just a question of how well the soft tissue comes back.
Here's one of today's x-rays. This is from the side -- a profile shot, if you like.
Man, that's a lot of titanium.
Today my doctor said that everything was as it should be. He ordered up another set of xrays, but he figures this will be the last set because the bone and the titanium look good. Now it's just a question of how well the soft tissue comes back.
Here's one of today's x-rays. This is from the side -- a profile shot, if you like.
Man, that's a lot of titanium.
Happy Birthday, Mr. President
Very funny and sharply satirical video on Susie Bright's blogsite. You have to go about halfway down the page to find it (sorry I couldn't link directly to it...), but it's definitely workth watching. Oh, the video is probably not work safe, eh?
Of course, the rest of the site contains some pretty good reading as well.
Of course, the rest of the site contains some pretty good reading as well.
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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder....
I recently read in Boulevard Magazine and interesting bit of news. Something I do every day but didn't really think about. I look in a mirror daily...so what..only what I am seeing is not what others see. I don't really see "myself". The image is reversed....how in the future this may change and I will truly see myself. How? By looking into a true mirror....read below from the site I found on the True Mirror.
For all of our history, when people think they see themselves, they are always seeing themselves reflected backwards. Recently, with cameras and video, they can get a sense of what they look like forwards, but its a static or non-eye to eye view. However, as it turns out, the backward images and person we see in a mirror is profoundly different from what is real. The backwardsness distorts not just our features, but the information in our faces and personalities as well. No wonder we see ourselves differetnly than others see us!
A True Mirror is surprisingly more than an amazing novelty. We are excited to promote as a new source of self-discovery and enlightenment.
The introspective use of the True Mirror can be an important boost towards your own self-acceptance and greater self-esteem. This happens by authenticating your own actual image and expressions as you exist in real life, and as your are seen by everyone else.
In contrast, the incorrect view seen in a traditional mirror can be major source of self-doubt and self-criticism - simply because it is not the "real you" when your eyes meet in the mirror. How can you understand yourself, your emotions and your expressions when there is such distortion?
We've discovered some fascinating aspects of human nature that arise when people see their true appearance. Because it is very challenging to confront new information about one's self, the responses are usually very dramatic...some love it, some hate it, and some will not even look! But we feel its just a matter of time to become familiar with the new image, and most people will begin to prefer the new look. Its natural, after all.
www.truemirror.com
the photo attached at the top of this post are comments from people who have truly seen themselves....A True Mirror is surprisingly more than an amazing novelty. We are excited to promote as a new source of self-discovery and enlightenment.
The introspective use of the True Mirror can be an important boost towards your own self-acceptance and greater self-esteem. This happens by authenticating your own actual image and expressions as you exist in real life, and as your are seen by everyone else.
In contrast, the incorrect view seen in a traditional mirror can be major source of self-doubt and self-criticism - simply because it is not the "real you" when your eyes meet in the mirror. How can you understand yourself, your emotions and your expressions when there is such distortion?
We've discovered some fascinating aspects of human nature that arise when people see their true appearance. Because it is very challenging to confront new information about one's self, the responses are usually very dramatic...some love it, some hate it, and some will not even look! But we feel its just a matter of time to become familiar with the new image, and most people will begin to prefer the new look. Its natural, after all.
www.truemirror.com
The world's largest nation...
is expanding outward. Talk about your "Great Leap Forward," China figures to have a man on the moon in 15 years. The future just keeps looking more radically different than ever, doesn't it?
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I'm not sure what this means
....but I'm pretty sure it isn't good.
"Industrial pollution coming from Asia is having a
wider effect on global weather and climate than previously realised,
research suggests."
But what it does tell me clearly is that nobody lives alone on this planet. We're all connected in the most unexpected ways.
"Industrial pollution coming from Asia is having a
wider effect on global weather and climate than previously realised,
research suggests."
But what it does tell me clearly is that nobody lives alone on this planet. We're all connected in the most unexpected ways.
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Monday, March 05, 2007
The More You Know, The Worse It Gets
If you're not regularly reading George Monbiot, you should be. The smell of bullshit drives him crazy, and he's willing to do the legwork to show exactly how the power structure is lying to us. Back in December, he pointed out just how Amerika is torturing Jose Padilla, and how that torture is used in Amerikan civilian prisons as well. Horrifying? Yes. But essential to know what the future looks like for all of us unless we manage a revolution of democracy both here and in the rest of the world. With Amerika now heading down a path that is taking it back to pre-Copernician times, we should all be digging in to defend modernity.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Is Progress Possible?
Jeffrey Feldman writes about Dinesh D'Souza's latest book, The Enemy at Home, and discusses the pressure on the Right in Amerika to recognize Osama bin Laden's allies in Amerika--the progressive Left--and to begin the taking up of arms against them.
"While he never comes right out and says that Americans should kill liberals, D'Souza's book shuttles his reader swiftly to that conclusion. By defining liberals as a "hidden" second front of terrorism, D'Souza's book invokes a very simple, widely held idea in America: that "War on Terror" means first and foremost, "kill terrorists." Thus, The Enemy at Home gives intellectual legitimacy to a widely accepted, rapidly growing Republican tendency to frame national security in terms of killing Democrats."
What Feldman mentions, but fails to see, is D'Souza's linkage between "traditional" cultures around the world and what he wants to see again in Amerika; the return to an unquestioned faith in external authority.
"From the American founding until World War II, there was a widespread belief in this country that there is a moral order in the universe that makes claims on us. This belief was not unique to Americans. It was shared by Europeans since the very beginning of Western civilization, and it is held even today by all the traditional cultures of the world. The basic notion is that morality is external to us, and it is binding on us. In the past, Americans and Europeans, being for the most part Christian, might disagree with Hindus and Muslims about the exact source of this moral order, its precise content, or how a society should convert its moral beliefs into legal and social practice. But there was little doubt across the civilizations of the world about the existence of such an order. Moreover laws and social norms typically reflected this moral consensus. During the first half of the twentieth-century, the moral order generated some clear American social norms: Go to church. Be faithful to your wife. Support your children. Go when your country calls. And so on. The point is not that everyone lived up to the dictates of the moral code, but that it supplied a standard, accepted virtually throughout society, for how one should act." (The Enemy at Home, Introduction)
That history can be seen as the struggle against such imposed authority is so far out of view as to be invisible. That this struggle against imposed authority is the foundation of democracy, self-determination, and individual freedom is equally ignored by D'Souza and missed by Feldman. But the discussion of the book and the social climate in which it has appeared is very interesting. Definitely worth a read.
"While he never comes right out and says that Americans should kill liberals, D'Souza's book shuttles his reader swiftly to that conclusion. By defining liberals as a "hidden" second front of terrorism, D'Souza's book invokes a very simple, widely held idea in America: that "War on Terror" means first and foremost, "kill terrorists." Thus, The Enemy at Home gives intellectual legitimacy to a widely accepted, rapidly growing Republican tendency to frame national security in terms of killing Democrats."
What Feldman mentions, but fails to see, is D'Souza's linkage between "traditional" cultures around the world and what he wants to see again in Amerika; the return to an unquestioned faith in external authority.
"From the American founding until World War II, there was a widespread belief in this country that there is a moral order in the universe that makes claims on us. This belief was not unique to Americans. It was shared by Europeans since the very beginning of Western civilization, and it is held even today by all the traditional cultures of the world. The basic notion is that morality is external to us, and it is binding on us. In the past, Americans and Europeans, being for the most part Christian, might disagree with Hindus and Muslims about the exact source of this moral order, its precise content, or how a society should convert its moral beliefs into legal and social practice. But there was little doubt across the civilizations of the world about the existence of such an order. Moreover laws and social norms typically reflected this moral consensus. During the first half of the twentieth-century, the moral order generated some clear American social norms: Go to church. Be faithful to your wife. Support your children. Go when your country calls. And so on. The point is not that everyone lived up to the dictates of the moral code, but that it supplied a standard, accepted virtually throughout society, for how one should act." (The Enemy at Home, Introduction)
That history can be seen as the struggle against such imposed authority is so far out of view as to be invisible. That this struggle against imposed authority is the foundation of democracy, self-determination, and individual freedom is equally ignored by D'Souza and missed by Feldman. But the discussion of the book and the social climate in which it has appeared is very interesting. Definitely worth a read.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
In Search of Cheney's Brain
The Vice-President, Dick Cheney, spoke to members of the American media on Air Force Two during his recent Middle East visit. But he insisted that he would speak only as long as he was indentified just as a "Senior Administration Official," not as "The Vice-President." Apparently he doesn't want to be associated with his own quotes.
However, the ploy backfired because he identified himself, and then spoke of himself in the first person during his opening statement, pretty much destroying his attempt at being anonymous:
Why Cheney, who has always spoken on the record as the Vice-President since February 2001, now wants to be an anonymous Senior Administration Official, is unknown, although there probably have been many times in the last six years when Bush had wished that Cheney had spoken anonymously.
Jeffery Feldman comments more on this story here, and the offical White House version (of an Interview with a Senior Official, released by the Office of the Vice-President no less) is here.
However, the ploy backfired because he identified himself, and then spoke of himself in the first person during his opening statement, pretty much destroying his attempt at being anonymous:
"Let me just make one editorial comment here. I've seen some press reporting says, "Cheney went in to beat up on them, threaten them." That's not the way I work. I don't know who writes that, or maybe somebody gets it from some source who doesn't know what I'm doing, or isn't involved in it. But the idea that I'd go in and threaten someone is an invalid misreading of the way I do business."
Why Cheney, who has always spoken on the record as the Vice-President since February 2001, now wants to be an anonymous Senior Administration Official, is unknown, although there probably have been many times in the last six years when Bush had wished that Cheney had spoken anonymously.
Jeffery Feldman comments more on this story here, and the offical White House version (of an Interview with a Senior Official, released by the Office of the Vice-President no less) is here.
Friday, March 02, 2007
viral advertisment
Okay, this is one of the wierder things I've seen. Check it out at your own risk.
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Thursday, March 01, 2007
O Sinnerman
I cannot say how strongly this video affected me this morning. My only wish is that the message spelled out was something less US-centric and a little more globally aplicable, but that's a small caveat. The music and pictures work well together. I highly recommend it.
O Sinnerman, where you gonna run to? Better than the B5 use of the song.
O Sinnerman, where you gonna run to? Better than the B5 use of the song.
Something Ugly?
It looks like something ugly is going on--more than just an illegal and immoral war based on lies. A year and a half ago, a 19-year-old Florissant woman became the first female from Missouri to die during the Iraq war. Now questions are being raised about how she died, and it looks like the Amerikan military is covering up a rape and murder.
After two WaPo (Washington Post) writers exposed the truly horrific conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Army brass responded with the application of a lot of white paint. Seriously, a whitewash.
And then the responses to the story. Check out this bit of lunacy--why did it take so long for reporters to become aware of the conditions at WRAMC? Because they had to figure out (or be told) that they could "attack this administration from the right." (approximate quote). Really. Check out the video. It can't be an incompetent administration, so it has to be the fault of the reporters for reporting the story.
But occasionally the chickens come home to roost (and I don't mean 9-11). Sam Fox would like to be this administration's appointment to the post of ambassador to Belgium. To achieve this, he has to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and answer a few questions about his suitability. No big, eh? Except that after the last election, it happens that Barack Obama is chairing the meeting, and Fox has to face questions from John Kerry. Particularly questions about how Fox had given $50K to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to disseminate lies about....John Kerry. Depending on which side of the room you're sitting on, this can be, or won't be, a whole lot of fun.
Meanwhile, over at the Guardian:
"An elite team of officers advising the US commander, General David Petraeus, in Baghdad has concluded that they have six months to win the war in Iraq - or face a Vietnam-style collapse in political and public support that could force the military into a hasty retreat."
The fact that once again the US military has faced a Viet Nam, not in public or political support, but in defeat by a vastly less-well-equipped foe, seems to be going un-noticed. Like the British in India, the Amerikans can be defeated. Guerilla tactics work against the US military (and, as Afghanistan showed, the Russian military as well), because the majority of the Amerikan public have no stomach for wars of empire. And, like Viet Nam, Iraq bids fair to finally have a chance at creating its own destiny free from Amerikan imperialist involvement albeit at the cost of a million or more dead and the complete destruction of its infrastructure. If only Canada had the same opportunity, just without the death or destruction. Hell, if only the nations of the world had the same opportunity, free of any imperialist interference from any country. Self-determination could be the rallying cry for a better, or at least freer, world.
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After two WaPo (Washington Post) writers exposed the truly horrific conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Army brass responded with the application of a lot of white paint. Seriously, a whitewash.
And then the responses to the story. Check out this bit of lunacy--why did it take so long for reporters to become aware of the conditions at WRAMC? Because they had to figure out (or be told) that they could "attack this administration from the right." (approximate quote). Really. Check out the video. It can't be an incompetent administration, so it has to be the fault of the reporters for reporting the story.
But occasionally the chickens come home to roost (and I don't mean 9-11). Sam Fox would like to be this administration's appointment to the post of ambassador to Belgium. To achieve this, he has to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and answer a few questions about his suitability. No big, eh? Except that after the last election, it happens that Barack Obama is chairing the meeting, and Fox has to face questions from John Kerry. Particularly questions about how Fox had given $50K to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to disseminate lies about....John Kerry. Depending on which side of the room you're sitting on, this can be, or won't be, a whole lot of fun.
Meanwhile, over at the Guardian:
"An elite team of officers advising the US commander, General David Petraeus, in Baghdad has concluded that they have six months to win the war in Iraq - or face a Vietnam-style collapse in political and public support that could force the military into a hasty retreat."
The fact that once again the US military has faced a Viet Nam, not in public or political support, but in defeat by a vastly less-well-equipped foe, seems to be going un-noticed. Like the British in India, the Amerikans can be defeated. Guerilla tactics work against the US military (and, as Afghanistan showed, the Russian military as well), because the majority of the Amerikan public have no stomach for wars of empire. And, like Viet Nam, Iraq bids fair to finally have a chance at creating its own destiny free from Amerikan imperialist involvement albeit at the cost of a million or more dead and the complete destruction of its infrastructure. If only Canada had the same opportunity, just without the death or destruction. Hell, if only the nations of the world had the same opportunity, free of any imperialist interference from any country. Self-determination could be the rallying cry for a better, or at least freer, world.
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Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Commencement Address at Rockford College in Rockford, Illinois
This transcript is fascinating, as it also transcribes the catcalls, heckling and horn-blowing(??? Who takes a horn to a commencement?). What becomes clear is a total inability on the part of the graduating hecklers to understand a nuanced arguement. Clearly detailing the inellectual arridity of the Christian Right and its footsoldiers in Amerika, Hedges words would be taken as boringly mainstream anywhere else in the world.
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Chris Hedges
Chris Hedges is the author of American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, and has been getting a lot pf press recently. Understandably so--here's
a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School calling the leaders of the
Christian Right in Amerika non-Christians (okay, maybe a no-brainer for
anyone with some non-Amerikan theological training, but still
remarkable for being don "in-house"). This interview (available in both mp3 and transcript), is an interesting introduction to his arguments.
a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School calling the leaders of the
Christian Right in Amerika non-Christians (okay, maybe a no-brainer for
anyone with some non-Amerikan theological training, but still
remarkable for being don "in-house"). This interview (available in both mp3 and transcript), is an interesting introduction to his arguments.
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a failure to grasp the value of democratic oversight
Simon Jenkins, an insider and former member of the board of British Rail, discusses the limits and problems of privatizing public companies. What makes this interesting is that he's a strong supporter of privatization.
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Wolf as Underdog
That would be Josh Wolf, a blogger and indie journalist in the states, targeted by the Bush administration. He's been locked up for six months now--the longest any journalist has ever been jailed in the US for refusing to comly with a subpoena. Amy Goodman, the Democracy Now journalist and author, writes about the case over at Truthdig.
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Democracy Now
You don;'t even have to download the show, you can just read the transcript of the interview. Chalmers Johnson raises the question "do you have to sacrifice democracy to maintain empire?"
AMY GOODMAN: Today, we spend the hour with the former CIA
consultant, distinguished scholar, best-selling author, Chalmers
Johnson. He's just published a new book. It's called Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic. It's the last volume in his trilogy, which began with Blowback, went onto The Sorrows of Empire.
In those two, Johnson argued American clandestine and military activity
has led to unintended but direct disaster here in the United States. In
his new book, Johnson argues that US military and economic overreach
may actually lead to the nation's collapse as a constitutional republic.
AMY GOODMAN: Today, we spend the hour with the former CIA
consultant, distinguished scholar, best-selling author, Chalmers
Johnson. He's just published a new book. It's called Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic. It's the last volume in his trilogy, which began with Blowback, went onto The Sorrows of Empire.
In those two, Johnson argued American clandestine and military activity
has led to unintended but direct disaster here in the United States. In
his new book, Johnson argues that US military and economic overreach
may actually lead to the nation's collapse as a constitutional republic.
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Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Working Class Bitch
So I was terminated February 5, picked myself up enough to start visiting personnel agencies on February 12, started a well-paid temp job at $21 an hour on February 15, was interviewed February 16, and hired February 21--a mere week and a half after beginning to submit my resume--and began work yesterday as an Executive Assistant to a VP at a large corporation. What a wonderful thing it is to be in a hot job market, to be sure! I was a little nervous, since EA positions don't come open as much as regular admin positions, but obviously I needn't have worried so much. Something in me that had been twisted very tightly began to loosen the day I got hired.
It's been interesting seeing what large corporations offer their employees to retain them right now. Salaries are only the beginning. The place where I temped offered employees a flexible work week which allows them one Friday off a month, and I was told that Shell Canada offers its people 17 flex days a year at present, to help retain them during negotiations with Royal Dutch Shell. 17 days--the mind boggles, not to mention envies. On the other hand, I became familiar with the people at Shell through my old position, and while I know nothing against them, I didn't want to risk meeting former colleagues through the connection. Oh well!
My place offers free coffee...and free pastries Monday and Wednesday, and free fruit on Tuesday and Thursday, at least on my floor. I get substantial discounts on the company's retail offerings (I heard 50%, but haven't seen the package yet), I will get my benefits on March 1st instead of having to wait till I am done probation--they don't even call it probation any more, but "an introductory period". The perqs vary from company to company, but there are some very sweet deals out there, to be sure. I'm happy, though, with a boss who seems like a decent person and in a company that has cheerful, helpful people working for it. Of course, there are some mistakes I plan never to make again...when all is said and done, I'm still just a working class bitch.
It's been interesting seeing what large corporations offer their employees to retain them right now. Salaries are only the beginning. The place where I temped offered employees a flexible work week which allows them one Friday off a month, and I was told that Shell Canada offers its people 17 flex days a year at present, to help retain them during negotiations with Royal Dutch Shell. 17 days--the mind boggles, not to mention envies. On the other hand, I became familiar with the people at Shell through my old position, and while I know nothing against them, I didn't want to risk meeting former colleagues through the connection. Oh well!
My place offers free coffee...and free pastries Monday and Wednesday, and free fruit on Tuesday and Thursday, at least on my floor. I get substantial discounts on the company's retail offerings (I heard 50%, but haven't seen the package yet), I will get my benefits on March 1st instead of having to wait till I am done probation--they don't even call it probation any more, but "an introductory period". The perqs vary from company to company, but there are some very sweet deals out there, to be sure. I'm happy, though, with a boss who seems like a decent person and in a company that has cheerful, helpful people working for it. Of course, there are some mistakes I plan never to make again...when all is said and done, I'm still just a working class bitch.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
The Long Recovery Week 14
Clearly, things are looking up -- last night I went through the drive-in at Wendy's.
Now before you get yer garters in an uproar about global cow warming and all that, consider this: I drove up to the order window, wound open my own window, and passed out money, then took back my change then took in my drink and meal.
I did it all with my left arm.
Slowly, very slowly, my shoulder is getting better.
It's still very weak, and mobility is still limited, but it is coming back. I keep finding myself able to do things that a week or two ago I couldn't.
And I must be feeling optimistic about my eventual return to the kayaking -- yesterday I ordered a waterproof VHF radio.
Now before you get yer garters in an uproar about global cow warming and all that, consider this: I drove up to the order window, wound open my own window, and passed out money, then took back my change then took in my drink and meal.
I did it all with my left arm.
Slowly, very slowly, my shoulder is getting better.
It's still very weak, and mobility is still limited, but it is coming back. I keep finding myself able to do things that a week or two ago I couldn't.
And I must be feeling optimistic about my eventual return to the kayaking -- yesterday I ordered a waterproof VHF radio.
Friday, February 23, 2007
They call it Colossal....
'cause you can't say big f**ker on tv.
Thanks to Lila for pointing out the footage.
Thanks to Lila for pointing out the footage.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
I Love This Woman!
Susie Bright, that is. this woman is the Molly Ivins of sex, the original Dan Savage. She regularly kicks ass and takes names. Today, she's talking about the use of the word scrotum in chlidren's books.
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George Takei
This freaking rocks! This is the way to deal with these redneck homophobic assholes! Joke 'em if they can't take a fuck!
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Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Hey! There She Is!
Heather Mallick, of course. Her As If column in the Globe was the best thing about saturdays last year. Now she's gone, and I've been wondering what she's been up to. Well, here she is! And boy does she sum up my impressions of 24.
And if you don't know who she is, here's her bio off the CBC site:
Heather Mallick has a nice old-fashioned M.A. in English literature from the University of Toronto. She has worked as a reporter, copy editor and book review editor at various Toronto newspapers and most recently wrote a column called As If for the Globe and Mail. She has won National Newspaper Awards for critical writing and feature writing. Heather writes a political column for the New York Times Syndication Service that runs internationally. Her first book, Pearls in Vinegar, based on an ancient Japanese form of diary, appeared in 2004. Her second, an essay collection called Cake or Death: The Excruciating Choices of Everyday Life, will be published by Knopf in April 2007.
And if you don't know who she is, here's her bio off the CBC site:
Heather Mallick has a nice old-fashioned M.A. in English literature from the University of Toronto. She has worked as a reporter, copy editor and book review editor at various Toronto newspapers and most recently wrote a column called As If for the Globe and Mail. She has won National Newspaper Awards for critical writing and feature writing. Heather writes a political column for the New York Times Syndication Service that runs internationally. Her first book, Pearls in Vinegar, based on an ancient Japanese form of diary, appeared in 2004. Her second, an essay collection called Cake or Death: The Excruciating Choices of Everyday Life, will be published by Knopf in April 2007.
TILMA?
Yeah, Tilma. The Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) agreement between Alberta and BC comes into effect this April Fool's Day--and bids fair to make an april fool out of BC's premier Gordon Campbell's recent green conversion. Murray Dobbin writes a very interesting piece in The Tyee.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Other Blogs
In searching Food TV Canada, I noticed Canadian Food Blogs listed, which lead to Kayaksoup, which lead to Wild Coyote....and Wild Coyote's post. I don't know who made up the list, considering my bookcase a lot of books I own are not listed.
Here are the instructions:
Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a 10 foot pole, put a cross in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk* the ones you’ve never heard of.
1. +The Da Vinci Code(Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Predjudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. +The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. +Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. +Angels and Demons(Dan Brown)
13. +Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. +A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. +Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. +Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. +Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. +Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. +The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) and the other four volumes in the trilogy.
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The lion, the witch and the Wardrobe
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. +The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. *The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True ( Wally Lamb)
39. +The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. +The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43.+ Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44.+The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible (parts of it)
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. +Angelas Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. *Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. +Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. +The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. +Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. +Bridget Jones Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. +Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88.+ The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89.* Blindness(Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel(Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Michael Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. +The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)
Here are the instructions:
Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a 10 foot pole, put a cross in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk* the ones you’ve never heard of.
1. +The Da Vinci Code(Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Predjudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. +The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. +Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. +Angels and Demons(Dan Brown)
13. +Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. +A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. +Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. +Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. +Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. +Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. +The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) and the other four volumes in the trilogy.
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The lion, the witch and the Wardrobe
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. +The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. *The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True ( Wally Lamb)
39. +The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. +The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43.+ Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44.+The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible (parts of it)
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. +Angelas Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. *Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. +Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. +The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. +Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. +Bridget Jones Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. +Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88.+ The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89.* Blindness(Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel(Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Michael Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. +The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)
Lily Allen & a vid from England
Sent to mefrom my pal Clive. A little British music...catchy tune and hilarious vid....
Thursday, February 15, 2007
The Long Recovery Week 12
This was a week of firsts.
Monday, I had my first bath. I decided that it was time to try to get in and out of the tub. Getting in was okay, but getting out still remains a little haphazard. However, I didn't fall, and it was very relaxing. Heck, I may even have another one tonight. (Long-time followers of my misadventure will recall that due to the tinyness of my bathroom and the awkwardness of my injury, I was forced to pee in the sink for a short while after my release from the hospital. I would like to state for the record that for some time I have been able to pee in the usual manner and into the usual bathrrom fixture, although I still occasionally pee into the sink because I am a lazy and gross bastard.)
Tuesday, I tied my shoelaces for the first time in three months. After getting home from my accident, the first phone call I made was to my niece who works in a discount shoe store to ask her if they had any sneakers with velcro instead of laces. And lo, they did, and they were delivered unto me, and I've been wearing them ever since. But after a recent long walk, I discovered that discount shoes aren't designed to be walked in over a lengthy distance, and since my plan is to walk home when I return to work, it was time for more comfy (and more expensive) shoes. And so it was that on Tuesday morn, I took my old expensive sneaks out of the closet, placed them on my feet and tied the laces with no discomfort in my battered left shoulder. Huzzah, huzzah.
And today another first: my first day back at work. What a, er, um, thrill it was to be back. Makes one hanker for the days when I could just sit home, rest, watch tv and get paid. And that was just last week!
Actually, it felt good to be back, if for no other reason than it represents another small step along The Long Road Back. The shoulder seemed to survive the day fairly well. And when I did my exercises in the evening, it seemed a lot less tighter than usual. Perhaps being back at work did it some good.
I stuck up a copy of my x-ray in my cubicle. Most people were shocked at the amount of metal in my arm.
"Is that permanent?" they gasped.
"Yes," I replied, "until someone figures that the going rate for titanium is worth digging up my cold and rotting corpse for."
I walked home, as per my plan, and although I was jealous of every bike rider that passed me and every kayaker in the harbour (there was only one, and he had to be crazy to be out on a stormy day like today), at the end of the day I feel a little more confident that one day soon I'll be back on my bike and in my kayak.
Monday, I had my first bath. I decided that it was time to try to get in and out of the tub. Getting in was okay, but getting out still remains a little haphazard. However, I didn't fall, and it was very relaxing. Heck, I may even have another one tonight. (Long-time followers of my misadventure will recall that due to the tinyness of my bathroom and the awkwardness of my injury, I was forced to pee in the sink for a short while after my release from the hospital. I would like to state for the record that for some time I have been able to pee in the usual manner and into the usual bathrrom fixture, although I still occasionally pee into the sink because I am a lazy and gross bastard.)
Tuesday, I tied my shoelaces for the first time in three months. After getting home from my accident, the first phone call I made was to my niece who works in a discount shoe store to ask her if they had any sneakers with velcro instead of laces. And lo, they did, and they were delivered unto me, and I've been wearing them ever since. But after a recent long walk, I discovered that discount shoes aren't designed to be walked in over a lengthy distance, and since my plan is to walk home when I return to work, it was time for more comfy (and more expensive) shoes. And so it was that on Tuesday morn, I took my old expensive sneaks out of the closet, placed them on my feet and tied the laces with no discomfort in my battered left shoulder. Huzzah, huzzah.
And today another first: my first day back at work. What a, er, um, thrill it was to be back. Makes one hanker for the days when I could just sit home, rest, watch tv and get paid. And that was just last week!
Actually, it felt good to be back, if for no other reason than it represents another small step along The Long Road Back. The shoulder seemed to survive the day fairly well. And when I did my exercises in the evening, it seemed a lot less tighter than usual. Perhaps being back at work did it some good.
I stuck up a copy of my x-ray in my cubicle. Most people were shocked at the amount of metal in my arm.
"Is that permanent?" they gasped.
"Yes," I replied, "until someone figures that the going rate for titanium is worth digging up my cold and rotting corpse for."
I walked home, as per my plan, and although I was jealous of every bike rider that passed me and every kayaker in the harbour (there was only one, and he had to be crazy to be out on a stormy day like today), at the end of the day I feel a little more confident that one day soon I'll be back on my bike and in my kayak.
Friday, February 09, 2007
Because It Wasn't Enough Fun Before
I got a note from my doctor while still on stress leave, saying I was cleared to return to work without limitations. I brought it in to the nice lady in HR at 8:00 am this Monday morning. She checked it, ushered me into theoffice of the Vice President of HR, and scuttered away while he terminated me for reasons that he said he would not be discussing with me.
Terminated. With a whole extra week of severance pay because I signed the agreement saying I wouldn't sue their asses off. I've met their pet lawyers...trust me, I wouldn't be suing anyhow, because I am sure if I did I would find myself in far worse trouble, and none of it illegal...just slimy.
I have revised my resume and my references, and have three personnel agency interviews lined up for next week so they can start telling new companies how fabulous I am. But I still think somebody deserves a punch in the head. For all I know, it could even be me...for trusting my former company to play fair....
Terminated. With a whole extra week of severance pay because I signed the agreement saying I wouldn't sue their asses off. I've met their pet lawyers...trust me, I wouldn't be suing anyhow, because I am sure if I did I would find myself in far worse trouble, and none of it illegal...just slimy.
I have revised my resume and my references, and have three personnel agency interviews lined up for next week so they can start telling new companies how fabulous I am. But I still think somebody deserves a punch in the head. For all I know, it could even be me...for trusting my former company to play fair....
Even Our Thoughts Are No Longer Private
This report in the Guardian newspaper details how scientists can now (allegedly) divine your intentions from your thoughts. Are you lying? a racist? this new technique claims to be able to be able to distinguish your intentions by scanning the activity in your brain. So even the privacy of our own skulls has been breached--soon to be owned by a major corporation near you.....
One Way To Quit
The only thing I can think is that Bart Jones has decided to quit--or maybe the managing editor has decided to. How else to explain this reasonable and balanced piece of reporting on Hugo Chavez in an Amerikan newspaper?
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Would I want these assholes on my street?
Check out this through-the-window video of a humvee negotiating the streets of Baghdad. This alone would make me start looking for a gun. Typical arrogance of the triumphalist invader.
America Christo-Fascism
We must attend to growing social and economic inequities in order to stop the most dangerous mass movement in American history -- or face a future of fascism under the guise of Christian values.
Dr. James Luther Adams, my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School, told his students that when we were his age -- he was then close to 80 -- we would all be fighting the "Christian fascists."
So writes Chris Hedges over on Alternet, and I believe him. If it's not too late already. This doesn't just concern Amerika, but after an experience I had in Mississauga this summer, it's clear that Canadians have a great deal to worry about also--and not just the "world's longest undefended border."
Dr. James Luther Adams, my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School, told his students that when we were his age -- he was then close to 80 -- we would all be fighting the "Christian fascists."
So writes Chris Hedges over on Alternet, and I believe him. If it's not too late already. This doesn't just concern Amerika, but after an experience I had in Mississauga this summer, it's clear that Canadians have a great deal to worry about also--and not just the "world's longest undefended border."
Are you fucking kidding me?!
12 BILLION dollars--that's the amount of money that disappeared from the CPA in Bahgdad. Check out the Guardian story here.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
The Long Recovery Week 10
It's funny how I can suddenly discover that I can do something without even thinking about it, or that I can still find that there are very simple tasks that I cannot do.
For instance, last week after physio, I ran for the bus. Not that the running itself was a surprising thing -- I'm not much of a jogger, but up until my accident I was riding my bike five days a week, so I was in shape enough to run if need be -- but the fact that I was running and my shoulder seemed pretty okay with it was an unexpected surprise. It wasn't until I got on the bus that I realized that I had run a couple of hundred metres with little discomfort.
Mind you, later that day I couldn't get my socks off. As I stood in front of the laundry hamper, I decided that the socks I was currently wearing were due a wash. So, still standing, I bent my left knee, lifted my left foot, reached down with my right hand and pulled my sock off. After lowering my left foot, I lifted my right foot and without thinking reached down with my left hand and did not have the strength to take off my right sock.
The good news is that I am feeling more and more human and I'm venturing out more. Here's me last week at Gyro Park. Dig the "physio beard."
For instance, last week after physio, I ran for the bus. Not that the running itself was a surprising thing -- I'm not much of a jogger, but up until my accident I was riding my bike five days a week, so I was in shape enough to run if need be -- but the fact that I was running and my shoulder seemed pretty okay with it was an unexpected surprise. It wasn't until I got on the bus that I realized that I had run a couple of hundred metres with little discomfort.
Mind you, later that day I couldn't get my socks off. As I stood in front of the laundry hamper, I decided that the socks I was currently wearing were due a wash. So, still standing, I bent my left knee, lifted my left foot, reached down with my right hand and pulled my sock off. After lowering my left foot, I lifted my right foot and without thinking reached down with my left hand and did not have the strength to take off my right sock.
The good news is that I am feeling more and more human and I'm venturing out more. Here's me last week at Gyro Park. Dig the "physio beard."
Monday, February 05, 2007
Battlestar Galacticons
Here's a great article on Neocons who use sci-fi and fantasy analogies, and how many of them are upset at the third season of Battlestar Galactica which depicts many of the Galactica crew as insurgents against a Cylon occupying force even going so far as to use suicide bombers against the first graduating class of human security forces police recruited by the Cylons:
The article goes on to mention further sci-fi allusions, including a writer who thought that:
National Review’s Jonah Goldberg, who writes regularly about Galactica’s politics on NRO’s group blog, The Corner, also picked up on parallels between the show and the war on terror. Goldberg took particular glee in attacking Galactica’s anti-war movement, which he said consisted of “radical peaceniks” and “peace-terrorists” who “are clearly a collection of whack jobs, fifth columnists and idiots.” Goldberg also praised several characters for trying to rig a presidential election. “I liked that the good guys wanted to steal the election and, it turns out, they were right to want to,” wrote Goldberg. Stolen elections, evil robots, crazed hippies … what more could a socially inept right-winger want from a show?
But alas, this love affair between Galactica and the right was not to last: in its third season, the show has morphed into a stinging allegorical critique of America’s three-year occupation of Iraq. The trouble started at the end of the second season, when humanity briefly escaped the Cylons and settled down on the tiny planet of New Caprica. The Cylons soon returned and quickly conquered the defenseless humans. But instead of slaughtering everyone, the Cylons decided to take a more enlightened path by “benevolently occupying” the planet and imposing their preferred way of life by gunpoint. The humans were predictably not enthused about their allegedly altruistic rulers, and they immediately launched an insurgency against them using improvised explosive devices and suicide bombers. Needless to say, this did not go over very well in the Galacticon camp.
“The whole suicide bombing thing … made comparisons to Iraq incredibly ham-fisted,” wrote a frustrated Goldberg, who had hoped the struggle against the Cylons would look more like Le Resistance than the Iraqi insurgency. “The French resistance vibe … is part of what makes the Iraq comparison so offensive. It’s a one-step remove from comparing the Iraqi insurgency to the (romanticized) French resistance.”
The article goes on to mention further sci-fi allusions, including a writer who thought that:
“[i]t’s time to institute Disintegration Chambers in our major American cities,” he said, referring to a Star Trek episode that featured two tribes who preferred to fight wars by disintegrating their own people rather than sending them into live combat. Even though the episode was actually an allegory about the perverse methods governments use to shield their people from the brutal costs of war, he took quite a fancy to the idea of forced disintegration, especially for his ideological foes.
“Here’s the deal,” he wrote. “We decide what constitutes torture, and identify it as the following: insufficient air conditioning, excess air conditioning, sleep deprivation, being chained to the floor, and other forms of psychological stress … Those who disagree with these techniques must sign a record that registers their complaints. When a terrorist finally spills the details on a forthcoming attack on, say, Chicago, the people who signed the register and live in Chicago are required to report to the disintegration chamber.”
Friday, February 02, 2007
Climate Change Unstoppable
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations issued a their latest report today, conclding that global warming is "unequivocal" and that human activity is the main driver, "very likely" causing most of the rise in temperatures since 1950. [See here, here, and here.]
The report, using their strongest language yet on the issue, said now that the world has begun to warm, hotter temperatures and rises in sea level "would continue for centuries," no matter how much humans control their pollution. "The observed widespread warming of the atmosphere and ocean, together with ice-mass loss, support the conclusion that it is extremely unlikely that global climate change of the past 50 years can be explained without external forcing, and very likely that is not due to known natural causes alone," said the report.
The report finds that sea levels will rise between 7 and 23 inches by 2100, and it also concluded that seas would continue to rise, and crowded coasts retreat, for at least 1,000 years to come (by comparison, seas rose about 6 to 9 inches in the 20th century).
The report also finds a new wrinkle in the climate change story: a drop in the pH of seawater as oceans absorb billions of tons of carbon dioxide, which forms carbonic acid when partly dissolved. Marine biologists have said that could imperil some kinds of corals and plankton.
The President of the United States said, “This generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through . . . a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.”
Oh, sorry. That wasn't the current President speaking.
It was President Lyndon Johnson.
In 1965.
Living in his own private reality bubble, the current President, "President" Bush, is rejecting mandatory carbon caps, but likes the idea of giant space mirrors.
The report, using their strongest language yet on the issue, said now that the world has begun to warm, hotter temperatures and rises in sea level "would continue for centuries," no matter how much humans control their pollution. "The observed widespread warming of the atmosphere and ocean, together with ice-mass loss, support the conclusion that it is extremely unlikely that global climate change of the past 50 years can be explained without external forcing, and very likely that is not due to known natural causes alone," said the report.
The report finds that sea levels will rise between 7 and 23 inches by 2100, and it also concluded that seas would continue to rise, and crowded coasts retreat, for at least 1,000 years to come (by comparison, seas rose about 6 to 9 inches in the 20th century).
The report also finds a new wrinkle in the climate change story: a drop in the pH of seawater as oceans absorb billions of tons of carbon dioxide, which forms carbonic acid when partly dissolved. Marine biologists have said that could imperil some kinds of corals and plankton.
The President of the United States said, “This generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through . . . a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.”
Oh, sorry. That wasn't the current President speaking.
It was President Lyndon Johnson.
In 1965.
Living in his own private reality bubble, the current President, "President" Bush, is rejecting mandatory carbon caps, but likes the idea of giant space mirrors.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Does Losing Mean Waking Up?
In a blog post on Alternet, Jan Frel raises some interesting questions about just what it might mean if Amerika acknowledged that it has lost in Iraq. He seems to suggest that people might recognize that the American government is broken and there might be no way to fix it. Don't really know why it should--after all, after their defeat in Viet Nam, the fact that no matter who occupied the White House, the rulers remained the same group of Fascist monsters certainly seemed to disappear from public discourse. ML King noticed, but they shot him and his successors decided to shut the hell up.
Weatherman decided "got to revolution, got to revolution," but funny, they found that the citizens weren't really behind them. And, as the Airplane said, "one generation got old/one generation got sold/this generation got no destination to hold" which is as true as it's ever been. No, any talk of revolution is now and only ever will be "sound[ing] like a whisper" south of the border. No, the way I see it, it's up to the rest of the civilized world to just wall off this cancerous tumour, and let it fester until they've finished eating their own young and sending each other to the ovens. Then we can salt the earth behind them and get on with our own unfinished revolutions--like democracy.
Weatherman decided "got to revolution, got to revolution," but funny, they found that the citizens weren't really behind them. And, as the Airplane said, "one generation got old/one generation got sold/this generation got no destination to hold" which is as true as it's ever been. No, any talk of revolution is now and only ever will be "sound[ing] like a whisper" south of the border. No, the way I see it, it's up to the rest of the civilized world to just wall off this cancerous tumour, and let it fester until they've finished eating their own young and sending each other to the ovens. Then we can salt the earth behind them and get on with our own unfinished revolutions--like democracy.
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