Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada "Of Interest To Me" Oct16 -- Oct31, 2003
Email: mike -at- mikecampbell dot net
The opinions expressed on this website are those of the author alone, and are not necessarily those of his employer or any organization with which he is affiliated.
|
Reading
|
News Resources
Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
Dawson Speaks
Friday, October 31, 2003
Yes, Happy Hallowe'en to all.
Last year we had about 55 cute'n'fiendish trick-or-treaters. This year's candy store was increased in advance of possibly more kids. But we received but 23 all night -- 2 before 6pm, 18 between 6-7pm, a couple just after 7pm and one wee little (and very cute) fireman (with his Dad, of course) around 7:45pm. That was it. No one else came to the door. We didn't get any teenagers this year; it didn't even seem like anyone over 10. Weird.
Soo, not only was I breaking into the Hallowe'en candy since last week, there's a ton of it left. (Now that's scary!) OwwoooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Watched "Sleepy Hollow" (J.Depp) on tv - hadn't seen it before, pretty good Hallowe'enish fare.
I had meant to do something like this, but Instaguy linked to a ghoulishly great compendium of spooky and Hallowe'enish links at Blogcritics.
I guess it's fairly common knowledge that the Christian holy day of All Hallows Eve finds its origin in Celtic religion. Samhain, the autumnal festival, from the Scots Gaelic Samhuinn, meaning 'summer's end'. Hallowe'en is Oíche Shamhna -- the night of summer's end. The Celtic New Year. The Night of the Dead. The night when the veils between this world and the next are thinnest; when the Lands of the Sidhe are close. Costumes to ward off visiting spirits. I make it a point every Hallowe'en to stop for a moment, maybe look up at the moon and the clouds through some leafless old craggy tree, and allow myself, just for a moment, to believe.
11:59pm AST
Woman in clown suit robs bank in Virginia.
A clown in a bank? Who'd a thought?
7:29am AST
Canada's Night of the Living Dead may soon end.
7:25am AST
In some ghoulish economic news, Canada has dropped to 16th in terms of its economic competitiveness ranking. Boo!
7:11am AST
Thursday, October 30, 2003
Predicted new Dem battle-cry: The Bush economy is overheating!!
U.S. economic growth surged in the third quarter of 2003 to the fastest pace in nearly two decades, the government said Thursday, in a report that was much stronger than most economists expected.
5:07pm AST
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
CNN reports Israel and the U.S. are to spend at least $57 million for development of a laser cannon that can shoot down short-range missiles via the Nautilus laser weapons project.
Israel wants the Nautilus to help protect its northern border towns from Katyusha rockets, fired by the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah during Israel's 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in 2000. Israel claims that Hezbollah now has 11,000 rockets aimed at Israel. [...]
The Nautilus uses a high power radar to track and lock onto the incoming projectile. Then a Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser (MIRACL), which looks like a large spotlight, shoots out an intense beam that destroys the rocket.
Would it kill them to call it a phaser?
And, this is pretty wild -- the latest in urban warfare technology, a rifle that shoots at right angles.
|
|
Corner Shot said its new rifle is composed of two parts. The front, that can swivel from side to side, contains a pistol with a color camera mounted on top. The back section consists of the stock, trigger and a monitor. |
10:38pm AST
Canada ended its World Cup on a high note, with a 24-7 victory over Tonga. Sounds like the Tongans don't get this 'ruffian's sport played by gentlemen' stuff.
Canada ended their World Cup with a convincing 24-7 win over Tonga on Wednesday night in a bruising pool D match in Wollongong marred by a sickening injury to Al Charron.
The Canadian skipper, playing his 76th and final international before retiring, was carried off the field after being knocked out cold by a tackle from Tonga flyhalf Pierre Hola.
The Canadians complained to Irish referee Alain Rolland that the tackle was dangerous but the official disagreed, allowing play to continue once Charron had left the pitch.
Canada centre Marco di Girolamo also departed with blood streaming from his face after being accidentally stamped on, and Tonga replacement David Palu was sin-binned in the last minute for a shoulder charge on James Pritchard.
Some game pics.
Best wishes to Al Charron, Canada's most capped player and one of our best ever.
The US beat Japan on Monday, but has a tough task against France on Friday.
Charron returned to the team hotel from the hospital around midnight, sporting 16 stitches to his lower lip and gums. He walked into the hotel to a standing ovation from his teammates.
``I guess it's a good thing I'm married, because I'm not sporting the best of looks right now,'' he said.
Coach David Clark said he did not think the tackle was illegal, although he allowed it was ``probably a bit high.''
12:55pm AST
Instaguy posts on the reconstituted al-Qaeda training camps, now located in Mali's Sahara Desert, mainly in the north near the Algerian border.
Disturbing that they have reconstituted themselves. If they are indeed there, how long before they get blown to itty bitty pieces?
(Sounds like it would be a good CIA scam ~ start up some training camps, spread the word and see who shows up.)
Anyway, bye bye, training camps.
12:36pm AST
With respect to a major study that underlies the global warming argument, Dave has some very interesting info.
Their conclusion, after detailed study of the Mann et. al. data base, is that the “hockey stick” graph is an artefact of poor data handling, selective use of sources, reliance on obsolete versions of source data and erroneous statistical calculations. Correcting the copying errors and updating the source data yields the following revision to the original graph:
And here's the new graph. Ummmm.... where'd the global warming go? The FAQ section is kind of funny too, as the authors of this paper avoid saying that the reasons the errors were not reported was that the original paper gave the results everyone wanted to see, so why look further?
12:31pm AST
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
Jeffrey Meyers' essay in Reason outlines the writing of George Orwell.
Political reporters constantly employ the word “Orwellian.” Though it stands for the kind of oppressive totalitarian regime he created in Nineteen Eighty-Four, it is now used chiefly to mean political manipulation of language to deceive the public. But we need to reclaim the term’s positive meaning, to suggest the bravery and idealism, the stubborn effort to be honest, in Orwell’s life and art. For him serious writing had two essential aspects. First, an individual writer (like Winston Smith) sits down alone—with courage and an optimistic belief in his own ideas—to communicate his most secret thoughts to an unknown future reader. Second, his dedication to truth, the product of independent thought, has the power to improve society. In our time, we desperately need Orwell’s clear language, his commitment to aesthetic as well as moral responsibility.
I've read Animal Farm and 1984; Animal Farm more recently, and 1984 in high school. I'd like to reread it soon. Homage to Catalonia was great, and Orwell's Collected Essays was quite possibly the most interesting, well-written stuff I've ever read.
(via AL Daily) 8:43pm ADT
Canadian wins Rock-Paper-Scissors championship. Yessssss!
8:09pm ADT
When Lori married me, she had no idea that one day we'd be moving to Henderson, Nevada.
Some pics are here, and a virtual tour can be found here.
7:12pm ADT
Monday, October 27, 2003
Sunday, October 26, 2003
Peaktalk points out that things can be rough near the center of American politics, particularly for figures like John McCain and Joe Lieberman.
... McCain dragging his feet over a lease deal that the Pentagon has negotiated with Boeing appear to be valid, but to write-off McCain just because of that is going a bit too far and I would be interested what else caused people to become so disenchanted with him. At least he has voted against a pay-rise for senators and his concerns over the way in which troops are deployed in Iraq bespeak reasonable analysis. Interestingly, there may be other reasons why some are becoming irritated with the Arizona Senator.
Pieter links to an Iain Murray story which criticizes McCain for dragging his heals on replacing the Air Force's aging tanker fleet. The Air Force estimate that the fleet is ok for now is discounted, but why would the USAF take risks with its people, equipment and capability? Canadians were all too familiar with calling for replacement of aging military equipment, but I don't think asking for more info is too damning at this point.
I like John McCain (or, at least, liked him, having not heard much about him lately). I'm quite sure that my vote would have gone to him during the 2000 Republican primary, and in the Presidential race, had he been the Republican nominee or had he run as an Independent. I think he would have won the White House as the Republican candidate in 2000, and received a majority, gobbling up all those old Reagan Democrats.
Criticized by the party establishment, McCain does have a strong conservative voting record in Congress (if I recall correctly reading that somewhere). He seems loyal to certain ideals of the Republicans ~ "the party of Lincoln", "the party of Ronald Reagan". Bush was anointed by the party establishment very early on in the primary process, which I thought was unfortunate. In terms of the war on terror, I don't think McCain would have done anything much different than Bush.
I have a lot of respect for the guy, having read his "Faith of My Fathers" memoir. He went through hell in Vietnam, and I enjoyed his telling of the naval careers of his father and grandfather, particularly his grandfather.
10:29pm ADT
Encouraging news from Pyongyang, although we should all know enough to not hold our breath.
North Korea, brightening prospects for ending a nuclear stalemate, said yesterday it will consider President Bush's offer of written security guarantees in return for dismantling its nuclear-weapons program.
It was the latest about-face by North Korea, which had called the offer "laughable" and "not worth considering" and has been unclear about its actions and plans during the yearlong dispute over its atomic ambitions.
Still, the abrupt shift raised hope of resuming six-nation talks aimed at ending the standoff, though Pyongyang said it may be premature to talk about another round of conferences.
Read more about The Bloody Record of An Extermination Camp.
The detention camps are places where lives are drawn out on 20-30 pieces of corn and salt per meal. They are places where people slave for 15 hours a day in mines; where guards can shoot inmates dead at their discretion, or beat or starve them; where the bodies of inmates are dragged like animals to be buried. They are places where death is a matter-of-course. It wouldn't seem so wrong if these people had been dragged off because they'd actually committed a crime. Instead, most of the crimes were things like being the child of a landowner, an expatriate from Japan or damaging a picture of Kim Il-sung. And it wasn't just the alleged perpetrator who got dragged off. Even innocent family members right up to the second and third generation, including children and babies still on the breast, have been taken to the camps and lost their lives. That's because Kim Il-sung and Kim Jung-il's doctrine to "terminate three generations of the seed of reactionaries" is taken literally.
Here is an Excellent, if a bit old, summary of human suffering in North Korea.
Since 1995, North Korea has received $600m in food aid from the United States, more than any other country. During that same period, 2 million North Koreans starved to death. NK has also imported $400m worth of weapons over the past 5 years, including $60m in weapons last year from China, Russia, Germany, Slovakia and Austria. $110m in Scud missile and missile accessories were exported over the past 3 years, mainly to Middle East countries, including Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan and Iran.
10:06am ADT
Saturday, October 25, 2003
Damian (via Colby) blogs about the freshness of Tim Horton's donuts.
I don't eat them, so I really don't care about freshness. But, it did make me think about a photo I saw last week of a yacht owned by Ron Joyce (Tim Horton's co-founder).
The "Destination Fox Harb'r" is an amazing 40m sloop, designed by Dubois Naval Architects and built in Auckland. It simply dwarfs all other boats at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron.
Where is Fox Harb'r? It's Joyce's exclusive 27 hole golf course at Wallace, Nova Scotia, overlooking the Northumberland Strait. It was Golf Digest's Best New Course for 2001. Guests of Member green fees are C$250.00 for non-overnight guests. Saving my pennies, and snooping around to make friends with a member.
4:39pm ADT
Hooray, Nova Scotia once again takes its first timid steps out of the retail Dark Ages and agrees to permit Sunday shopping. The (minority) governing Tories reached an agreement with the NDP.
The New Democrats sided Friday with the Tory government on changes to the legislation that will increase protection for workers. The NDP wanted the government to give labour inspectors the power to reinstate a worker who is fired for refusing to work on Sundays. As well, employees with sick children or parents can have up to three days unpaid leave to care for them.
The government plans to hold a plebiscite on Sunday shopping next year. Given the large number and wide range of businesses that are already provided the economic freedom to open on Sundays, the choice should be clear.
4:21pm ADT
Stephen Cooke writes on the new dvd release of Pink Floyd's "Live at Pompeii".
But before Dr. Frank N. Furter became the king (or rather, queen) of late night matinees, Pink Floyd at Pompeii was one of the prime staples of after hours viewing in downtown theatres and on college campuses, turning the band's turn up, tune in, drop out brand of headphone rock into a communal big screen experience.
Now director Adrian Maben has gussied up the film in a new director's cut that expands the original hour-long concert document into a 90-minute feature that includes rare footage of Pink Floyd eating beans on toast in the Abbey Road cafeteria while working on Dark Side of the Moon and sucking back oysters at Studio Europasonor in Paris while mixing the sound for the concert film.
While the rare footage of the band will no doubt be welcome news to fans, Maben inserts jarring computer graphics of outer space and modern day location footage - the minivans on Abbey Road are a dead giveaway - that clash with the austere beauty of Pompeii and the sight of Pink Floyd playing to an audience of ancient ghosts.
Purists will be happy to know the original version is also on the DVD for comparison, where you can see how sequences are edited differently, along with other extras like photos, posters, album graphics and an interview with Maben where he describes dilemmas like the realization that there was no electricity in the crumbling Roman amphitheatre.
I seem to recall a line from that film: We're really not a drug-oriented band.
4:15pm ADT
This pic of Namibia fullback Ronaldo Pedro symbolizes the thrashing his side took against World Cup host and defending champion Australia today. Wanting to rest some key players for their next game against Romania, Namibia paid the price, being completely shredded 142-0 at the hands of the Wallabies. It was the biggest winning margin in World Cup history. Boos to Namibia for not fielding their best players during a World Cup match ~ the Aussies were right to thrash them.
The Campblog is disappointed with Scotland's decisive 51-9 loss to France. The Scots will have to win against a tough Fijian side if they want to advance.
Wales came through against Italy, 27-15, clinching a spot in the World Cup quarter finals.
Big game for Ireland against Argentina tomorrow.
4:03pm ADT
Paula sends a link to her site, which feature lots of pics relating to Hurricane Juan, including pics from Point Pleasant Park from last weekend when it was open to the public (I couldn't make it - d'oh!). Check out PointPleasant.ca.
12:35pm ADT
Friday, October 24, 2003
My Celtic blood stirs. Wow, the Flea posts info on an upcoming King Arthur film ~ the film and the Flea's post both feature the lovely Keira Knightley, with Ms. Knightley playing the role of Guinevere. Also, check out Absinthe & Cookies. Lots more pics starting here.
This looks like a dark adventure film, to match the dark age that it portrays.
The site Flea quotes mentions that 'historical accuracy' may have been sacrificed from time to time in making the film. I wonder what history they're talking about. I would think, though, that we're talking about the modern myth of King Arthur perhaps being sacrificed, if anything. Shining armour; chivalrous knights; ladies in clean, flowing robes. Not in this movie. That's a good thing.
These were the Dark Ages. Life (I imagine) was mean and dirty. Arthur may well have lived, but was likely a minor Briton or Welsh chieftain. Arthur's mythological importance, and that of his knights and the Grail Quest, comes to us from much later literary portrayals. If this film appears to be doing anything, it is to ground the legend in a realistic telling.
I had read before that the Clan Campbell claims descent from Arthur on its Briton side. The King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table page has more info.
Cumbrian King
The Clan Campbell trace their tribal pedigree back to one Arthur ic Uibar: the Arthur son of Uther of tradition. Norma Lorre Goodrich uses this fact to argue that Arthur was a "Man of the North". This idea was first proposed by the Victorian Antiquary, W.F.Skene, and there is some evidence to recommend it, especially the possible northern location of Nennius' twelve battles.
William and Harry, though, needn't worry about any attempt at usurpation from me ~ I'm quite happy in my life as a commoner.
Very pleased to see Ray Winstone is playing Sir Bors. Winstone played Jimmy's rocker friend in "Quadrophenia", and did a tremendous job playing Wil "Scarlet" Scathlocke in "Robin of Sherwood". Also, Welsh actor Ioan "Hornblower" Gruffudd plays Lancelot.
A minor connection for Winstone comes in the Robin of Sherood episode, "The Inheritance". Robin and friends are called across England to aid an old man who is steward at an almost-abandoned castle at a place called Caerleon-upon-Usk. The steward's daughter stands by his side. A bunch of mercenaries has learned that a great treasure, possibly the greatest in all of England, is hidden in the castle at Caerleon. They attack as the steward's daughter, Robin and friends defend. The mercenaries break through, but Robin carries the day, with the help of the castle's treasure itself. The mercenary leader learns too late that the treasure is actually the old, large, round wooden table that sits in the castle's dusty dining hall. For Caerleon had another name once: Camelot. The villagers knew ~ they awaited 'the King that was, the King who shall be'. The table remains and acts as a link, binding Arthur and the knights to the people of Britain. (Bloody good episode.)
10:24pm ADT
Switching to Glide is still down/inaccessible for me. A reader has also notified me that it's been down.
I suspect an al-Qaeda DOS attack. ... They'll pay for this.
10:14pm ADT
While there have been no new acquisitions to report lately, the library has retrieved a shipment from the parental unit book depository. I haven't laid eyes on these in quite a while.
The lot includes a number of Star Trek related books. Four are novelizations of TOS episodes by a chap named James Blish. These began to be first printed in 1967, but the ones I have are 75-76ish.
Star Trek 1 -- TOS episodes Charlie's Law, Dagger of the Mind, The Unreal McCoy, Balance of Terror, The Naked Time, Miri, and The Conscience of the King
Nobody had ever seen a live Romulan. It was very certain that "Romulan" was not their name for themselves, for such fragmentary evidence as had been pieced together from wrecks, after they had erupted from the Romulus-Remus system so bloodily a good seventy-five years ago, suggested that they'd not even been native to the planet, let alone a race that could have shared Earthly conventions of nomenclature. A very few bloated bodies recovered from space during that war had proved to be humanoid, but of the hawklike Vulcanite type rather than the Earthly anthropoid. The experts had guessed that the Romulans had once settled on their adopted planet as a splinter group from some mass migration, thrown off, rejected by their less militaristic fellows as they passed to some more peaceful settling, to some less demanding kind of new world. Neither Romulus nor Remus, twin planets whirling around a common center in a Trojan relationship to a white-dwarf sun, could have proved attractive to any race that did not love hardships for their own sakes. (Balance of Terror)
Star Trek 3 -- TOS episodes The Trouble With Tribbles, The Last Gunfight, The Doomsday Machine, Assignment Earth, Mirror, Mirror, Friday's Child, Amok Time
Star Trek 5 -- TOS episodes Whom Gods Destroy, The Tholian Web, Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, This Side of Paradise, Turnabout Intruder, Requiem for Methuselah, The Way to Eden
Star Trek 10 -- TOS episodes The Alternative Factor, The Empath, The Galileo Seven, Is There In Truth No Beauty?, A Private Little War, The Omega Glory
The inside front and back covers of these paperbacks are covered with Star Trek stickers (Paramount Productions 1976). They were found in Topps chewing gum packs, I believe. They're TOS pics or busts of Star Trek characters with wording across the bottom: The Starship Enterprise; James Kirk; Lieutenant Uhura; The Parallel Spock; Engineer Scott; Evil Klingon Kang; Dr. "Bones" McCoy; Mr. Spock - Unearthly!; Commander Balok; Lal, The Interrogator; Spock Forever!; and, Spock Lives!
Another one is a 1976 paperback titled "Star Trek: The New Voyages", a collection of "8 original Star Trek stories never seen on the screen". (Three decades later, they've yet to be seen on the screen.)
Also retrieved is a 1973 David Gerrold (author of "Tribbles") book called "The World of Star Trek" (1976 paperback) which features lots of insider info on the series, as well as some pics.
A sticky-fingered childhood friend 'borrowed' a similar book called, "The Making of Star Trek", which I liked better than Gerrold's book, and still has it. You know who you are! (I remember it contained a list of the 12 starships in the fleet at that time ~ very important info to an 11 year old!) The perp also still has a Sesame Street Grover fridge magnet, lifted from the Campbell family fridge. And where did that rugby ball get to?
Kids in my neighbourhood had a Kender-like view of private property.
Also retrieved was a paperback called "The Mists of Doom", #1 in the series of Robert E. Howard's "other great hero" (the main one being Conan), Cormac Mac Art ~ basically an Irish Conan. I think I had read a few of these ones.
9:54pm ADT
Rumsfeld responds re: the leaked memo, and a number of security issues.
The memo was intended to "inject a sense of urgency" into top leadership, Mr. Rumsfeld said.
"It is human nature to have your mind focused by fear or necessity for a period — necessity is the mother of invention and fear focuses the mind. Both are true — and then time passes," he said. "And there's a danger that that sense of urgency can ease and relax."
The memo was meant to inspire war fighters and defense officials to consider what is lacking. Mr. Rumsfeld said he hopes they will start asking themselves: "Are there things we aren't doing that we might be doing?"
From James Lileks' Thursday column:
The Rummymemo flap is depressing on a number of levels. Oh, in one respect, it’s heartening; you could take it to mean “okay, we’ve conquered Afghanistan and Iraq; is there anything else we should be doing?” - a sentiment which would have seemed quite reassuring to some after 9/11. (And horrifying to others, who hoped that having been knocked flat by a sucker punch, we would crawl back to our corner, spit into the bucket, and request permission from the French and German judges to declare the bout a draw.) It’s not an “admission of failure, ” as Daschle put it - hell, the administration could put Osama’s head on a stick in the Rose Garden, and Daschle would call it an admission of failure that they hadn’t located the torso. I will never trust these people with national security again. Never, never, never. We’re in the fight of our lives, and all they can do is carp and bitch and piss and moan, because - as was the case with many conservatives in the Bosnian conflict - it’s not their war.
But in another respect, the memo gives you a sick sinking feeling. Why do we need to be asking these questions now? Shouldn’t these things be obvious? And of course they are to Rumsfeld, but not to many in the great immovable bureaucracy that apparently regards national defense as a 9 to 5 job whose purpose is a pension, not the survival of liberal democracy. You’d like to think that everyone in the Defense establishment has walked at a quicker pace in the last two years. Taken shorter lunches. Cut to the chase. You’d like to think that from the janitor to the Joint Chiefs, the mood was simple to describe: urgency.
7:51am ADT
On the good side of this story, 13 year old Sam Bernard should be commended for rescuing a poor cat from being tortured, and going so far as to give the cat, which was foaming at the mouth at the time, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
And, thanks to Sam, Joey the cat survived the ordeal.
[I actually typed the post title in sarcasm regarding the two pieces of work mentioned below, but Sam Bernard does seem like a good nominee indeed!]
What ordeal? Torture and strangulation by a couple of brothers, aged 14 and 16, in the Cole Harbour area of Halifax/Dartmouth last year.
The teen and his 14-year-old brother were charged last July with dragging Joey the cat by a cord, torturing it and leaving it to dangle from a stick in a wooded area of Cole Harbour, near Halifax.
The 16 year old, who was just convicted yesterday, had already spent 6 months in the correctional center at Shelburne. Why was he there?
Last November, the 16-year old was convicted of causing a horrific train wreck in Stewiacke. The teen tampered with a switch, which caused the Via Rail passenger train to derail. Twenty-three people were injured.
The teen was on probation last July when he came across Joey the cat.
The 16-year old told the court he didn't hang the cat, and later helped Bernard untie the cord.
But Williams said she believed the teen had thought about the crime and developed a plan before carrying it out.
The teen's 14-year-old brother has taken the blame, pleading guilty earlier this month to charges of animal cruelty.
Send them to the Acid Mines!
7:20am ADT
Thursday, October 23, 2003
While the campaign was unsuccessful last year, Geist magazine is once again pushing Stan Rogers for induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Hopefully, he'll make it in 2004.
As I said to myself last year, you may be saying to yourself, "WTF, he's not in there already??" Nope.
So, join Colin James, Great Big Sea, Bill Henderson & Chilliwack, Spirit of the West, Shari Ulrich, the Guess Who's Bill Wallace, Bruce Guthro, the Barney Bentall Band, Prairie Oyster and Sylvia Tyson ... and me, and sign the Petition.
Check out this cool Stan Rogers map of Canada.
ps -- had trouble posting to/viewing STG today.
10:29pm ADT
Wednesday, October 22, 2003
Reader Geoff Matthews provides this link to this post at A Good Oman
TONY BLAIR AND WINSTON CHURCHILL: I ran across the following story yesterday. During World War II, Churchill and De Gaulle were having an argument about some dispute between De Gaulle and Eisenhower. Churchill told De Gaulle:
In our history Britain has always faced the choice between Europe and the open sea. When I am given that choice, I will always choose the open sea. If I am forced to choose between you [i.e. De Gaulle] and Roosevelt, I will always choose Roosevelt.
A remarkably clear and pithy account of at least one view of Britian's policies and interests. The event was apparently one that deeply influenced De Gaulle, who in later years would tell the story again and again to explain French policy and its ambivalent relationship with the great north Atlantic alliance.
Interesting stuff (to me, anyway). The relationship between Churchill and De Gaulle was always complex and interesting. Churchill actually liked the French very much, and I think he respected De Gaulle very much. Wouldn't say he liked him. Churchill's most difficult, painful decision of the war (he called it "a hateful decision") was to order the destruction of the French fleet at Oran.
Still, Churchill would always look West. He had certain knowledge that the war could not be won without the United States entering on Britain's side against Hitler. Still, without this, Churchill had his American blood, his love of the American democracy, his interest in American history, and his important personal relationship with Roosevelt.
I'll dig up some more background on Churchill and De Gaulle over the next few days.
'Night.
10:52pm ADT
Peaktalk has some interesting commentary on Israel's security perimeter fence construction. As per previous comments I've made here, I must agree. Keep on building it.
... the UN General Assembly voted 144-2 demanding that Israel stop the construction of its Security Wall as it was deemed to be in contravention of international law. Gillerman called the proceeding "a humiliating farce" and berated the European Union governments supporting a resolution that implies that Israel's security measures are far graver than the terror attacks perpetrated by Palestinian terrorist groups. Again Gillerman:
"As long as the majority in this assembly will pander and tolerate these rituals, no one should wonder why the victims of terrorism and those who hope for peace look elsewhere for guidance, protection and inspiration," Gillerman said.
The critics have a point when they argue that the wall allows Israel to add some territory to Israel proper. But if my neighbour enters my property on a regular basis to trash my house I will probably build a wall in a manner that does not interfere with the full and unfettered enjoyment of my property and yes, that would mean building it on his land, allowing him to do whatever he wants to do on his territory without violating my rights. That scenario would also prevent me from doing what I would like on his territory and the security wall may be a precursor to the isolation and potential end of Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands. Has the UN General Assembly taken that into consideration when it was doing its analysis?
If there is one parallel with the Berlin Wall, it is that it will not be there forever. For now, it is a necessary measure.
10:35pm ADT
This ain't good. The Washington Times is reporting that Pakistan has concluded a 'secret' agreement with Saudi Arabia to supply the Saudis with nuclear weapons technology in exchange for cheap oil. (After all, it's all about oil.)
Saudi just doesn't give a shit, does it? This paunchy kleptocracy has to feel that its power in the region has begun to wane. U.S. troops have withdrawn from Saudi bases. Iraq will become a new hopefully democratic anchor in the region. So, now, it appears to be trying to go nuclear (although the article points out that the Saudis have been trying to get there for years).
Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, the pro-American defense minister who is next in line to the throne after the crown prince, was not part of the delegation.
"It will be vehemently denied by both countries," said the Pakistani source, whose information has proven reliable for more than a decade, "but future events will confirm that Pakistan has agreed to provide [Saudi Arabia] with the wherewithal for a nuclear deterrent."
As predicted, Saudi Arabia — which has faced strong international suspicion for years that it was seeking a nuclear capability through Pakistan — strongly denied the claim.
The Pakistanis are nuts to get involved in this, if you ask me, not to mention reprehensible. Proliferation of nuclear weapons technology to a country with at least a strong wing that remains hostile to the U.S. and the West, not to mention Israel. Now, of course Kim Jong Il is nuts. Don't these folks know that if a nuclear weapon that they've supplied is used to attack the United States or one of its allies, then the U.S. is going to come a-knockin' at that attacker's door, and, just maybe, the country that armed the attacker?
9:09pm ADT
Anne Applebaum, an expert on the Soviet gulags, writes on newly published photos of North Korea's own gulag system.
Stories of human rights violations, if they filter back into the country after being published abroad, will not cause this dictatorship or any other to collapse overnight. Yet they will make it more difficult for North Korean leaders and North Korean police to justify what they do, both to themselves and their families, and more difficult to claim that they bear no responsibility for what is happening in their country. Pictures and testimony will also help to chip away at whatever support, feigned or genuine, remains for Kim Jong Il's government.
No regime can remain legitimate indefinitely if its citizens know that thousands of their compatriots are being unjustly tortured.
Pictures and testimony are also important to collect now because they will, eventually, become part of whatever recovery process North Korea goes through, if and when its totalitarian system ever collapses. In recent years, documents testifying to past human rights abuses have played a role in the collapse of dictatorships and the restoration of more open societies in Russia, Serbia, South Africa, Argentina and Cambodia -- and in all of these places, even today, there are still people who feel that more information, more testimony, more public knowledge, would improve matters further.
Via Instapundit, who has comments on the world's ignorance of North Korea's crimes.
9:05pm ADT
Dave has more on why I probably won't read them.
5:29pm ADT
Damian and David have coverage of the Tories' win in Newfoundland and Labrador. And coverage of the coverage.
5:19pm ADT
A few years ago, Entertainment Weekly presented its list of the 100 Greatest Album Covers. I had the pull-out clear-mounted and it hangs in my basement.
A great album cover doesn't just grab you by the eyeballs. It transmits the essence of the music within: the phallic smirk of the Velvet Underground, the rococo spires of Yes, the mad-city conflagration of X.
The Top 100 included Steve Winwood's "Arc of a Diver", U2's "War", Madness' "One Step Beyond", "Never Mind the Bollocks", "London Calling", and older classics like "Rumors", "Born to Run", "Hotel California", "Exile on Main Street", the White album, and "Led Zeppelin".
Yesterday, some of the 'worst' came around via email. Here are a few of the Best/Worst. "Transmits the essence of the music within" -- hmm, in that sense, perhaps these should also be considered among the Greatest.
|
|
Not to be hard
on Joyce, here -- I mean, I'm sure she's a talented artist -- but,
sorry, this album cover does not make me want to buy this album. Sorry, Joyce. |
|
Here we have
the cover for Millie Jackson's "E.S.P." -- which stands for Extra
Sexual Persuasion, naturally. She does look shocked at whatever she's seeing in her crystal ball ... her future album sales possibly. |
|
|
|
Ah, the
Seventies. What were they thinking? This is the cover for Orleans' "Waking and Dreaming" album. Hey, Linda Ronstadt sang on this album -- so why not on the cover?? |
Can anyone else suggest their own 'Worst Album Cover' list? Or 'Best'?
Come to think of it, as a young lad, examining my parents' record collection, I always did pay a lot of attention to album covers, certain ones anyway.
4:39pm ADT
Monday, October 20, 2003
The show, that is. Now, I have outed myself as a Coronation Street fan on this blog some time ago. I'm comfortable with my Corrie-fan-ness. My wife and I watch it every Sunday morning on CBC. Started watching maybe less than two years ago. Generally speaking, it is just a great show -- well written, well acted, well cast. And funny. Nice time to relax, enjoy coffee and peruse the paper. I've seen bits of American soaps from time to time, and they all seem so lame ~ those awful pregnant pauses, inane conversations and story-lines. Coronation Street just comes across as being 'real', which is a great tribute to all the talent and hard work that goes into it.
Just recently (Canadian viewers are 6 months behind the show's actual Brit broadcast), there ended one of the most interesting dramatic threads that I've seen on television. Period. I'm talking about the reign of terror by financial planner/businessman Richard Hillman (played so deliciously by Brian Capron). Family man, good neighbour, seemingly all round good guy, Hillman proceeds to dig himself deeper and deeper into a pit of theft, embezzlement, lies, deceit and multiple murder. Like his character, Capron is an excellent actor. Hillman was almost caught so many times, but always came up with an excuse or an alibi at the last second. His mother-in-law, Audrey Roberts (played by Sue Nicholls) is the first to see though him, and Hillman almost takes her out a few times. In an amazing scene, with family members of the dead Maxine unable to speak at her funeral, Hillman is asked to say a few words and gets up there and gives the eulogy for the young mother whom he's just murdered a few days before.
Hillman got what he had coming, but I'm sorry he's gone.
There, I've nowt more to say. But I'll tell you summot, I say, I'll tell you summot -- you won't regret paying this show some attention. Running since the early 60s, it ain't the world's most popular soap for nothing.
8:16pm ADT
Too bad more world leaders weren't rebuking Mahathir's comments about Jews.
7:56pm ADT
While Sportsnet advertises Canada's match against Italy as a "must win" game, I'm not sure how that's so. Canada has lost two games now -- to Wales and New Zealand -- and has two remaining. Wales has two wins, including the one against Canada. Maybe in case of ties they don't consider whether you won the game against the side with whom you're tied. One of those mathematical possibilities perhaps. Anyway, looks like the All Blacks and Wales moving through Pool D.
Scotland downed the United States today, 39-16. Tough one next for the Scots on October 25th against France.
In perhaps the best match of the Pool round, England defeated South Africa 25-6 on Saturday.
Finally, it is with great regret and a heavy heart that I announce the dark decision that has cast a terrible shadow over the 2003 World Cup of Rugby. In what can only be considered as a crime against rugby -- nay, a crime against humanity -- nay nay, a crime against life itself -- World Cup organizers have banned the bagpipes from Scotland's games!!
Scottish rugby fans are up in arms after learning that they will not be allowed to pipe their team on to the pitch for the Rugby World Cup match against the United States in Brisbane tonight.
The Courier-Mail reported that World Cup organisers had ruled that the din would give the Scots an unfair advantage in a game they are already hot favourites to win.
Boo hoo! I'd love to hear who was behind this decision. It's not like the pipes are even playing during the game -- they were to be played before the game! God, you might as well ban the Haka!
Nonplussed, the local Ipswich Thistle Pipe Band has decided to set up base camp outside Lang Park two hours before the evening kick-off and let rip.
Band member Joe McGhee said the skirl of the pipes would not necessarily have given the Scots a psychological advantage.
"The bagpipes is not really an offensive weapon ... It depends who's playing it," he explained.
This is almost too much to bear. Before last week's game against Japan, Scotland fans were barred from wearing the sgian dhu ceremonial dagger. What did they think the fans were gonna do, stab someone with ... oh yeah.
7:26pm ADT
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A grizzly bear with a chainsaw -- now there's a killing machine.
-- Homer J.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had been out of blog-range for a number of days last week when the story of the merger/agreement broke.
Certainly not surprised to see Orchard and friends fussing over it, but I was surprised to see former PM and PC Party leader Joe Clark come out against it. Strange position to take from a guy whose party had nothing to offer policy-wise in contrast to the governing Liberals. Globe & Mail columnist Murray Dobbin recently compared Paul Martin to Brian Mulroney, concluding that Martin was indeed to the right of Mulroney. Would a Peter MacKay-run, David Orchard-fettered Progressive Conservative Party be any further right than Mulroney? Not likely; so, Joe, you're trying to build a Party on memories of past glory and hope that voters will enjoy a blue over red colour change. John Ibbitson has more.
Naturally, everyone is earnestly peering into crystal balls to see which side will dominate at the outset -- the mostly Western Canadian Alliance bunch or the mostly Eastern and possibly Ontario-based Progressive Conservative bunch. I wouldn't really care either way. Just as the direction of the Liberal Party has swung in the past, so too would the Conservative Party -- Harris or Klein-ish at one point, Clark or MacKay-ish at another point. As Ontario holds the key to power, I would guess the more PC types would hold sway if it looked like they could actually make a move in Ontario.
But, what of the merger and its effects?
My first initial reaction was satisfaction/relief. I'm glad that the fractured right appears to be pulling themselves together. It's a healthy move for a Canadian democracy that was hurtling toward the obviously unhealthy Japanese model, with one party ruling decade after decade and various factions within the party vying for power and control. Plus, it does make things more interesting.
That being said, I doubted very much the new party having any impact against a Paul Martin government, particularly with the timing of the merger vis a vis the next election.
Then, Friday's Globe & Mail pointed out how the merger effected the seats in the House of Commons, something I really hadn't considered -- taking the Liberals from having a large majority, to a much smaller one. Currently, 15 PC + 63 CA = 78 C vs. 170 Liberal seats in the House. There were also three of four Independent seats that could go Conservative (elected Canadian Alliance members who bailed), but never mind them. There were 35 seats from the last federal election where the combined PC+CA vote exceeded the winning Liberal candidate's vote.
All things being equal (which of course, they won't be next time; still it's an interesting exercise), this would make the situation 113 seats for the Conservatives against 135 Liberals.
This makes things a lot closer, within the realm of the reachable for the Conservatives. Over the past decade, how many center/right voters didn't bother, knowing that neither of the two "right-wing" parties had a hope in hell of forming a government? Conversely though, how many people who may have voted Liberal didn't bother because they knew it was in the bag?
Again, the voting situation was entirely different last time compared to next time. There are different parties, different leaders, different candidates and different political/economic/social realities. There's nothing to say that anything like these figures will hold.
Of minor importance, perhaps, to the PCs and CAs, the merger effectively eliminates the possibility of the Bloc or the NDP from grabbing Official Opposition Status in the House, at least for the time being.
The Conservative presence, coupled with a Paul Martin Liberal Party, may score points in the electorate for the NDP, as well. Or will it? If a center/left Liberal voter was considering voting for the NDP or another party and dropping Martin, would they reconsider, preferring to bolster the Liberals against the Conservatives?
I think it will take them a while to pull it together. I think Martin is pretty safe, particularly against a thrust from the right. I would guess that the drastic split in the Liberal Party and the resulting transference of power has sort of precluded a 'throw the bums out' reaction in the next election.
(Although I always wonder about the penchant for voters to go one way provincially and the other way federally ~ does this really happen very often, or is it just my imagination?)
As they say, I dunno.
5:43pm ADT
Michael Ledeen writes that fascism is back, big-time.
It's hard to see fascism plain, because many of its essential features are obscured by its most infamous variation: German National Socialism. Hardly anybody knows that fascism had already been in power in Italy for more than a decade when Hitler seized Germany, and fewer still are aware that, in the late Twenties and early Thirties, there were so many fascist movements — from Latin America to Western, Central and Eastern Europe, from Great Britain to the Middle East — that Mussolini could realistically dream of organizing a fascist "international." Most of the fascist leaders who looked to Rome for inspiration were not racists, and did not share the Nazis' vision of a great empire ruled by a single führer. They were intensely nationalistic, and believed that each national unit would develop its own unique form of fascism, which they saw as a "third way" between capitalism and bolshevism, both of which they despised. [...]
Thankfully we never got to see what fascism's second generation would look like (although I have suggested that the People's Republic of China is the world's first mature fascist state).
Hmm, interesting point.
But we know enough about fascism's first wave to recognize it today among the terrorists we are currently fighting. Two of the most important terrorist leaders are classic examples of the genre: Osama bin Laden and the Ayatollah Khomeini.
6:10am ADT
Sunday, October 19, 2003
Tis with a great sense of excitement and anticipation that I pick up "Return of the King" once again. Read "Fellowship" around Christmas '01 and "Two Towers" in the fall of '02. Now, the end game.
From Shakespeare's "Henry V", Act 4, Scene 0. Chorus:
Now entertain conjecture of a time
When creeping murmur and the poring dark
Fills the wide vessel of the universe.
From camp to camp through the foul womb of night
The hum of either army stilly sounds,
That the fixed sentinels almost receive
The secret whispers of each other's watch.
Fire answers fire, and through their paly flames
Each battle sees the other's umbered face.
Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs
Piercing the night's dull ear, and from the tents
The armourers, accomplishing the knights,
With busy hammers closing rivets up,
Give dreadful note of preparation.
On September 2, 1898, as a young cavalry officer, Churchill took part in the British Empire's last great cavalry charge at the Battle of Omdurman in the Sudan. That day at Omdurman, an Anglo-Egyptian army of 23,000 under Kitchener defeated the Mahdi's 50,000-strong Dervish army.
From "The River War":
The bugles all over the camp by the river began to sound at half-past four. Then it grew gradually lighter, and cavalry mounted their horses, the infantry stood to their arms, and the gunners went to their batteries; while the sun, rising over the Nile, revealed the wide plain, the dark rocky hills, and the waiting army. [...]
It was a quarter to six. The light was dim, but growing stronger every minute. There in the plains lay the enemy, their numbers unaltered, their confidence and intentions apparently unshaken. Their front was now nearly five miles long, and composed of great masses of men joined together by thinner lines. Behind and to the flanks were large reserves. From the ridge they looked dark blurs and streaks, relieved and diversified with an odd-looking shimmer of light from the spear-points. At about ten minutes to six it was evident that the masses were in motion and advancing swiftly. Their Emirs galloped about and before their ranks. Scouts and patrols scattered themselves all over the front. Then they began to cheer. They were still a mile away from the hill, and were concealed from the Sirdar's army by the folds of the ground. The noise of the shouting was heard, albeit faintly, by the troops down by the river. But to those watching on the hill a tremendous roar came up in waves of intense sound, like the tumult of the rising wind and sea before a storm. [...]
Although the Dervishes were steadily advancing, a belief that their musketry was inferior encouraged a nearer view, and we trotted round the south-west slopes of Surgham Hill until we reached the sandhills on the enemy's side, among which the regiment had waited the day before. Thence the whole array was visible in minute detail. It seemed that every single man of all the thousands could be examined separately. The pace of their march was fast and steady, and it was evident that it would not be safe to wait long among the sandhills. Yet the wonder of the scene exercised a dangerous fascination, and for a while we tarried. [...]
All the pride and might of the Dervish Empire were massed on this last great day of its existence. ... all marched, inspired by the memories of former triumphs and embittered by the knowledge of late defeats, to chastise the impudent and accursed invaders.
The advance continued ... The right pursued a line of advance south of (Kerreri) hill. This mass of men were the most striking of all. They could not have mustered fewer than 6,000. Their array was perfect. They displayed a great number of flags -- perhaps 500 -- which looked at the distance white, though they were really covered with texts from the Koran, and which by their admirable alignment made this division of the Khalifa's army look like the old representation of the Crusaders in the Bayeux tapestry.
Ghost of a flea is also re-reading LotR.
Tolkien's language never ceases to move me. What is more, I must have read the book twenty times and am always surprised by new detail.
And, from Tolkien's "Return of The King",
Imrahil suddenly laughed aloud.
'Surely', he cried, 'this is the greatest jest in all the history of Gondor: that we should ride with seven thousands, scarce as many as the vanguard of its army in the days of its power, to assail the mountains and the impenetrable gate of the Black Land! So might a child threaten a mail-clad knight with a bow of string and green willow! If the Dark Lord knows so much as you say, Mithrandir, will he not rather smile than fear, and with his little finger crush us like a fly that tries to sting him?'
'No, he will try to trap the fly and take the sting,' said Gandalf. 'And there are names among us that are worth more than a thousand mail-clad knights apiece. No, he will not smile.'
'Neither shall we', said Aragorn. 'If this be jest, then it is too bitter for laughter. Nay, it is the last move in a great jeopardy, and for one side or the other it will bring the end of the game.' Then he drew Anduril and held it up glittering in the sun. 'You shall not be sheathed again until the last battle is fought,' he said.
Tolkien gets downright Churchillian here. At the news of Pearl Harbor, Churchill set forth across the Atlantic to meet with FDR at Washington. Churchill's historic address of December 26, 1941, to a Joint Session of Congress, included this line,
"...the United States, united as never before, have drawn the sword for freedom and cast away the scabbard."
8:23pm ADT