Tainted Glass

2010-06-26T10:18:00.002-04:00

Is signing a petition a matter of public record?

The supreme court in the States decided that it is. My general inclination is to support the right to be anonymous. Speech is not really all that free if we are always forced to attach our name to our opinions. A name is generally used for harassment or for some other ad hominem assault on the opinion. Even despicable opinions should be heard, and the strength of the opinion should stand or fall on its own, regardless of the authorship.

For example, if somebody wanted to anonymously write about the over-representation of jewish people in various roles, I might disagree, but I would not suddenly demand that they publish their name.

Petitions, however, are not issues of free speech. By signing a petition, the signatory is publicly proclaiming support for the opinion expressed by the petition. To be honest, I am flabbergasted that anybody thought that they could sign a petition and then somehow hide that fact.

The only concern I have is that some people could be forced to sign a petition against their will. Unlike voting, petitions are not signed in a controlled context (which, as a sidenote, makes petitions pretty much worthless). However, in the balance, there is no reasonable right to privacy when signing a public opinion document. People will just have to learn to be more careful.

2010-06-21T15:28:00.000-04:00

Recovered blog

Time to start posting again

2004-08-28T17:12:00.000-04:00

Kidnappers take hostage taking to the next level

Well, it seems like the Iraqi militants have now decided that hostage taking is a legitimate method for changing government policy, even if it is unrelated to Iraqi foreign policy. Specifically a group has kidnapped some French civilians and has given France 48 hrs to get rid of its ban on headscarves in public schools.

Now, everyone knows that the French like to capitulate in the face of even the smallest threat but one hopes that even they will not give in to demands such as that (even if I am personally opposed to the ban). I guess the good that will come out of this is that countries will finally realize that no one should EVER negotiate with kidnappers since it just encourages the practice

2004-08-11T14:58:00.000-04:00

You would think they would know what to do by now...

Spanish beaches were cleared after a bomb scare. The Spanish response to such a terrorist outrage is obvious... they should capitulate immediately. Obviously, if it wasn't for the continuous Spanish oppression of the Basque people (and their subsequent poverty) then the ETA would have no need to engage in terrorism. I look forward to welcoming the new country of Basque to the United Nations in the near future.

However, in the off chance that Spain does not in fact immediately allow the creation of a Basque country, then I propose that the UN form a special committee to discuss the Basque situation, or at least pass a few resolutions condemning Spain. I mean, if Spain wasn't guilty, then it wouldn't have to be worried about terrorism, right?

2004-08-11T12:54:00.000-04:00

Amusing Domain Names

Surprisingly, this one wasn't taken. I do not necessarily endorse the topic of the site, I just like the URL.

2004-08-10T14:25:00.000-04:00

Those crazy religious people

Paul over at Basically Nonsense likes to regularly review Jack Van Impe (or something to that effect). It amuses one and all because, well, some religious people simply don't make any sense at all. However, I think I have found somebody who takes religious dogma to new heights. Our winner is...

Jack T. Chick

Mr. Chick is an evangelical Christian, who, among other things, thinks that Roman Catholics, JW's, Muslims and pretty much everyone else is going to hell. Nothing too special there. However, he spices it up with a number of "tracts" that are drawn in a cartoon format, many of them designed for children.

I will excerpt a bit from two of the tracts. The first one is called "That Crazy Guy" and it discusses AIDS and HIV. Susan, the heroine of the story, has decided to meet up with Craig for a bit of premarital sex. Sure enough, he treats her like crap, but since she used a condom she is happy to discover that she is not actually pregnant... but then, she finds out that she has AIDS. The doctor starts off by giving Suzy a bit of medical advice:

Researchers have found holes in surgical gloves big enough to allow 10 AIDS viruses to pass through side by side, and most condoms are made of the same latex rubber!

And, now that we know that condoms can't possibly stop AIDS, the doctor decides to be a bit comforting

Suzi: So now that I've got AIDS, all I've got to look forward to is death, right?
Doctor: Wrong Susan! You'll soon face something far worse than AIDS...

Any guesses?

Doctor: If you were a true Christian, God's angels would be by your bedside... unfortunately, most people die in their sins, and their screaming souls are taken and thrown into that dark and uspeakably horrible place

Yup, not only is Suzi going to die young because of AIDS (that presumably pushed it's way through the leaky condom) but she is going to burn in hell because of it.

Ouch.

Later tonight, I will review one of my other favourites: Apes, Lies and Ms. Henn

2004-08-10T14:24:00.000-04:00

Summer Blogging

I can't seem to keep up the blogging well in the summer, I don't have air conditioning which really cuts into my computer time. Well, hopefully things cool down soon, there is a reason I love Canada, and it has nothing to do with the beer.

2004-07-30T15:27:00.000-04:00

Will the courts save us from the baby boomers?

There are two different types of pension plans that are popular these days. Defined benefit plans and defined contribution plans. I will briefly explain the difference:

Defined Benefit: The benefits of the plan are fixed, and are usually based upon years of service to the company. Usually these type of pension plans require some sort of public or private insurance just in case there are any unexpected shortfalls. These type of plans are very nice for baby boomers because they can contribute very little to the plan and then sock it to the next generation when they retire. The kids have to make up any shortfall in the pension that came about due to insufficient funding by the boomers.
Defined Contributions: The contributions to the plan are fixed, but the benefits are not. This type of plan can never have a shortfall because the pensions can just be cut to match the amount of money available. This sucks for the baby boomers who like to get things without actually paying for them. Under this plan, if they don't contribute enough, they simply won't get a nice pension.

Obviously, for our generation, defined benefits plans are one last big "screw you" from the baby boomers. However, a recent court ruling might be putting those type of plans in jeopardy:

Given the huge headaches and costs that may result from the ruling, many predicted employers will increasingly move to defined contribution plans or abandon pension plans altogether

Who cares about the reasoning behind the ruling and that the unions scored a victory. If the end result is the demise of the screw you pension plans, then that can only be a good thing.

2004-07-30T02:58:00.000-04:00

Middle East by the numbers

A cute (but rather biased) look at some of the interesting stats regarding the situation in the Middle East. I will excerpt some of the interesting points:

Number of times Jerusalem is mentioned in the Old Testament: over 700
Number of times Jerusalem is mentioned in the Koran: 0
Number of Arab refugees who fled the land that became Israel: approximately 600,000
Number of Jewish refugees who fled Arab countries: approximately 600,000
Number of U.N. agencies that deal only with Palestinian refugees: 1
Number of U.N. agencies that deal with all the other refugees in the world: 1
Number of Christian or Jewish prayer services allowed in Saudi Arabia: 0
Number of Muslim prayer services allowed in Israel: unlimited
Number of Arabs Israel allows to live in Arab settlements in Israel: 1,250,000
Number of Jews Palestinian Authority [would allow] to live in Jewish settlements [under] Palestinian Authority: 0

Some of his statistics are obviously facetious, but the ones I mentioned above are sufficiently interesting in their own right I believe...

2004-07-28T13:28:00.000-04:00

So, what does 1.5 billion dollars buy these days?

Either about half of google's IPO, or one beautiful missile defense system (among other things) to defend the Olympics from attacks.

The patriot missiles kinda amuse me. If I was a terrorist, a nice big truck bomb, some anthrax (not all that deadly but certainly paranoia inducing), or, best of all, some chemical weapons would be the best bet. Launching a missile from my home base in Cyprus wouldn't be very high up on my "practical ways to attack the Olympics" list.

(Of course, just like you can't spend too much on health care, you can't spend too much on security either. Even Wonderland now employs about 50 people at the front gates to check all bags, because nobody would think of tossing a weapon over the low fence to his buddy on the other side. In Greece, there are hundreds of ways to attack the athletes for a determined would-be terrorist. While I agree that it is important to stop the most obvious methods of attack, setting up a missile shield is tantamount to defending against ghosts and dreams.)

2004-07-26T22:53:00.000-04:00

Litmus test for the UN fast approaching

As we all know by now, the UN voted massively in favour of the latest anti-Israel resolution. The actual voting tally was:

For: 150
Against: 6
Abstain: 10

Now, we have a vote coming up to see if the UN will do anything about the impending (or possibly already occurring) genocide in Sudan. Will more than 6 people vote against that resolution? That would be fascinating. Here is my random prediction:

For: 102
Against: 28
Abstain: 36

Most importantly, I believe that more countries will vote in favour of a genocide in Sudan than voted to allow Israel to defend itself from suicide bombers. Am I wrong? Should I have more faith in the UN? Should I have less faith in the UN (after all, I still think the resolution will pass).

We shall see...

2004-07-26T15:13:00.000-04:00

The Assault on young people continues unabated

I will comment on this more later since I have to go, but restricting the freedom of segments of Canadian society based solely on their chronological age is completely unacceptable.

2004-07-26T13:44:00.000-04:00

Bush/Kerry Flash Humour

I think that it is moderately amusing, but you can judge for yourself. (3.7 Megs for those on dialup, so not for you guys).

2004-07-24T01:18:00.000-04:00

Religious Sensibilities

This is the story detailing (rather generally) how my younger brother got screwed over by the professed religious beliefs of some other people. He is a lifeguard at a pool, and the busiest day of the week is usually Saturday. There is a team of about 10 lifeguards or so (I'm a little hazy about the details, but the point will be valid) and, as a rule, none of them really want to work on Saturday. You spend more shifts on the chair, the shifts are more stressful, and it more or less just sucks.

The obviously fair solution to this dilemma is to rotate who has to work on Saturday. If 6 people are required to work every Saturday, then 4 people will get Saturday off every week, which seems mostly fair. However, no less than five of the lifeguards are Jewish people who are religious enough to not work on Saturday. They demand to have every Friday off (presumably so they can go pray in a specific place in the morning, because God doesn't listen to people at swimming pools). That leaves only 5 non-religious people to cover a shift that normally takes six people.

So, not only is my brother forced to work every single Saturday, but the pool has a lifeguard shortage during that day as well since they can't get enough staff to fill all the positions. As a result, he pretty much doesn't get any breaks during the day.

Offhand, this is completely unacceptable. Religion is a personal choice that you inflict upon your own life, not somebody else's. If those religious lifeguards felt that they would not be able to fulfill their duties (which includes being available on the busiest day of the week), then they should not have applied for the job. If they refuse to work on Saturday, they should be fired and alternate lifeguards should be found who would be willing to actually do the job that they were hired to do.

The same goes with any other religious beliefs. If you want to carry a dagger around with you, fantastic! However, don't apply to be a steward on a plane if they have a "no weapon" policy that you don't want to follow. If you need to get 5 breaks a day to pray, don't work on an assembly line that can't really handle that type of interruption. If God tells you that Sunday is a day of rest, don't work for an establishment that is open on Sunday. If your special holy book says that you need to wear a big black covering because men become sex-crazed animals if they see your naked face, then by all means wear it. However, don't join an organization that has uniforms and expect to be given special treatment.

If you have religious beliefs, then it is up to you to follow them while conforming to the rules of the job that you have freely chosen to undertake. It is not up to your employer to conform to you. Freedom of religion cuts both ways, you are free to do whatever you want in the name of your God, but don't expect me to change the rules for you.

2004-07-23T03:09:00.000-04:00

New Comments

In the spirit of things I have decided to try and use the blogger commenting system. We will see how it works. I saved my old template so I should be able to revert back to the old blog if need be.

2004-07-23T02:22:00.000-04:00

More Canadian Cabinet News: The important stuff!

There was a fascinating graphic in the Globe and Mail yesterday. First there was a breakdown of the ministers by Province of origin. Presumably the idea was to show how fair and balanced Paul Martin was in deciding the makeup of the Cabinet. But that wasn't the interesting part, the graphic also included a vital statistic, one that lets us know immediately if a cabinet is acceptable.

Gender.

That's right. Some minsters might have more experience than others, or they might possess special qualifications for the post. However, as we all know, none of that really matters. The worthiness of a federal Canadian cabinet is decided by the genitalia of its members. In particular, your grade is based on the number of female members.

Previous Cabinet: 11/38 = 29%
New Cabinet: 9/39 = 23%

As you can see, there was a shocking decline of 6%, which makes this cabinet racist, sexist, homophobic, disablephobic, maltaphobic, and, most important, discriminates against Ukrainians.

It seems that the idea is that the cabinet should reflect the population of Canada. For example, about 50% of our population is female, so 50% of the cabinet posts should go to women. In that spirit of things, therefore, I demand the following Cabinet makeup:

15 "real" Canadians
8 English Canadians
6 French Canadians
5 Irish Canadians
3 German Canadians
1 Italian Canadian
1 Chinese Canadian
1 Ukrainian Canadian

That is a cabinet of 40. I had to add one member to the Cabinet because I didn't want to leave the Ukrainian out, but unfortunately our "North American Indians" get screwed out of a Cabinet member. Perhaps they should procreate more. Jews don't even come close, we should probably get a quota system going to keep them out, since they are really overrepresented. Now, there should obviously be 4 male English Canadians, and 4 female English Canadians, but I'm not sure what to do about the Italian. Should it be a male or female Italian? Either way, about half a million Italians will be screwed out of their representation.

And, finally, my absolute pet peeve. How many cabinet members are under 30? Huh? And you call that representative?

Some people might say that ethnic origin doesn't matter, but I figure it matters just as much as gender. So, I leave it open to to everyone... either judge the minsters on their qualifications, or be consistent in your demands for a proportional cabinet.

2004-07-23T02:12:00.000-04:00

Coincidence or not?

Bill Graham is kicked out of the Foreign Affairs department, and Canada doesn't vote in favour of the latest anti-Israel UN Statement. Obviously, Canada should have joined Australia and voted against such an obviously flawed resolution, but we will take what we can get. Perhaps this is the start of a whole new international relationship...

2004-07-23T00:51:00.000-04:00

New Blogger System Sucks

Or at least that is what I think my evaluation is going to be. I was getting a good handle on the HTML required, but then they decided that HTML was too complicated for the would-be bloggers and now they have zapped my nice template in favour of this WYSIWYG stuff. Ah well, I will live and learn, at least until I figure out how to use Perl.

2004-07-12T22:58:00.000-04:00

The Phillipines contemplates Murder

A dark day in history. I have usually been impressed with the actions of Filipinos. They ousted a dictator, fashioned a democracy, kicked some terrorist ass in the South of their country, produced some lovely women one of whom I married, and then...

"In response to the demand by the group Khaled ibn al-Walid (Islamic army in Iraq), the Philippine government... will pull its humanitarian forces out of Iraq swiftly, in the time it takes to carry out the necessary preparation for their return to the Philippines," he said on al-Jazeera television

If they do pull out, it will be open season on foreign nationals in Iraq. Essentially, the Phillipines is saving one person while condemning possibly dozens or hundreds of others to death. It is the ultimate selfish act, and one that should be punished by the world through economic means.

Even Spain was not this direct, and their cowardly submission to terror is possibly a strong factor in the current round of beheadings. The Phillipines is not saving anyone. This is murder.

2004-07-10T02:06:00.000-04:00

The Fromage takes a stand!

France opposes UN Sudan sanctions

It almost sounds like a joke...

2004-07-10T01:17:00.000-04:00

The continuing saga of Jeremy Hinzman: Professional Deserter

As you may recall, Jeremy is an American who volunteered for the army and got paid heaps of money to do so. Then, upon finding out that he might have to *gasp* do army stuff like go to Iraq, he ran to Canada trying to claim refugee status.

They are now appearing before the Immigration and Refugee board to plead their case, and their lawyer's argument can be summarized as follows:

"If you send Jeremy home, that just proves that Canada is a chicken. Bwaaak! Bwaaak! Bwaaak! Oh, and if we lose, it was all political."

I stand by my original position. Hinzman should be forced to work in a coal mine until he earns enough money to pay for some bus fare, then he should be deported.

Others may disagree, and there is an official website pleading the poor boy's case. The FAQ is interesting, at least he tries to present his side.

2004-07-10T01:11:00.000-04:00

Inconsiderate Smoking

A brief point of interest. While I was in Mexico, the smoking was rampant. While that in itself is not especially unexpected, the degree of insensitivity shown by the smokers towards the nonsmokers was rather disturbing. In closed theatres, restaurants, and bus line-ups people would go through packs of cigarettes right next to other people.

In one particularly egregious event, I was sitting down, and a woman stood next to me with her cigarette dangling about 2 inches from my face. I coughed to indicate my displeasure, she looked at me and continued to leave the offending item inches from my face.

Since I was on vacation, I didn't bother pushing the matter farther...

This would never happen in Canada. I thank our culture and I thank our laws. At the very least, if people smoke here, they mostly just poison themselves, not others.

2004-07-10T00:15:00.000-04:00

Back from Cancun + extra rest

The sun it was shining
It was too hot to play
As we sweated in Mexico
For seven full days

We sweated in Mexico
We sweated we two
And we said,
"How we wish
we could find something cool"

To hot to swim 'round
To hot to play ball
So we sat in the air conditioning
And did nothing at all

And all we could do was
Sit
Sit
Sit
But we still loved it
Every little bit!

Chichen Itza was fantastic, we got to swim with Dolphins which was also fairly cool, and most importantly it gave me some time off which I certainly appreciated.

Back to blogging!

2004-06-26T13:08:00.000-04:00

Going to Cancun!

I will be back in a week. Some last minute quickies:

Later Fantino: The shmuck was against having cameras in police cars and wanted millions to buy the cops helicopters to fight a mythical crime wave. We won't miss him.

Prediction: Liberal minority with NDP. Almost the worst result possible

Get out and vote!: And, consider voting green. If you are a lefty, its the natural reaction. If you right wing or Libertarian, then read their platform, it makes sense

Daniel may write in the intervening time of course, but I'll be tanning. Try not to miss me too much.

2004-06-24T12:29:00.000-04:00

Canadians in Space

By now, everyone has heard about SpaceShipOne, the first manned private vessel to ever leave Earth's atmosphere. It is assumed by many that the project of Burt Rutan (and financed by rich Microsoft guy Paul Allen) will indeed win the Ansari X-Prize, however, one group that is in the running (and actually has a chance) is a Canadian group called the Da Vinci Project. Their idea sounds kinda cool, and it would be great if they won.

I wish them the best of luck.

2004-06-22T13:59:00.000-04:00

Quick Clarification

Child pornography is obviously wrong, essentially for the same reason that beastiality is wrong. Pornography requires that all participants be consenting adults. Children cannot consent, therefore their participation in such activities is both morally and legally wrong.

However, writing about criminal acts is not wrong. Many stories are written that contain many criminal acts such as murder, theft and rape. It is wrong to commit murder, but you are allowed to write about it if you so choose.

Frankly, I would probably not be very good friends with someone who was a full-time writer of erotic stories involving children. It repulses me. However, that doesn't mean that I would want to have such material censored.

2004-06-22T13:30:00.000-04:00

Our child porn shame goes international

It started off as one of the most asinine causal correlational mixups in the last year. The suspect in the Holly Jone's murder trial "admitted" that he viewed some child porn before committing his crime.

Michael Briere was a software programmer with no criminal record when he watched child pornography one drizzly evening in May 2003 - and within minutes, he'd snatched a 10-year-old girl from the street and then sexually assaulted, strangled and dismembered her

Beyond the obvious attempt to deflect blame for his actions (it wasn't me, it was the evil porn), that is like blaming the Columbine murders on bowling. Completely ridiculous.

Of course, we have all heard this type of stupidity before. Video games get blamed for school violence, violent movies get blamed for serial murders. MTV gets blamed for sexualized teenagers, and sex education gets blamed for teenage pregnancies. All of the above seem reasonable... to some people, but none of them have any data to back it up. In this case, the sample size is one, which of course makes it statistically irrelevant.

What makes this case worse? Our bickering politicians of course. The Conservatives decided to exploit this to accuse Martin of being soft on child porn. In a press release entitled "Paul Martin Supports Child Pornography?", they decided to go for the attack ads that the Liberals have favoured so much in the last few weeks.

"Paul Martin's record on child pornography is shameful and just another reason why his government must be defeated on June 28," Harper declared.

So, is Paul Martin really in favour of child pornography? It seems like a silly position for a politician to take. Of course, what Harper is really referring to is Bill C-12, the latest infringement on free speech. Formerly known as Bill C-20, it would abolish the "artistic merit" defense and replace it with "public good". Artist and writers would have to show that their works were made in the interest of public good to avoid censorship.

Frankly, I'm not even sure if Martin is opposed to C-12... but he should be. Our free speech laws are already fairly tenuous, the last thing we need is even further restrictions. Either way though, support for the artistic merit defense is hardly support for child pornography.

Now, as a final bonus to Canada CNN has picked up on the story. The world vision of Canada will soon be that of Mad Cow, overreaction to SARS, and politicians bickering about child porn. Great.

2004-06-22T13:19:00.000-04:00

Rape Abortion Discussion

A fascinating discussion between two anti-abortionists, one of whom would prefer to make an exemption for the case of rape. Both interlocutors are exceptional writers. It is long, but it is worth the read.

2004-06-17T16:09:00.000-04:00

Free e-mail war heats up

This week Yahoo!Mail informed me, to my delight, that they would be increasing the size of my free e-mail account from 6MB to 100MB. This increase, while substantial, still puts it a 1 tenth of the size of the new google e-mail service which is offering a gigabyte.

All this crazy competition has made me wonder why it is that there is a competition to give out free e-mail out at all? Can they really make enough money from the ads to justify the costs? Not that I`m complaining of course...

In other news, turns out that some people are giving substantial offers in order to get a gmail account (look at the bottom of page 12). As someone who has the ability to invite other people to the service I could try to sell gmail accounts, instead I will offer them for free to any of our loyal readers who asks for one. Enjoy!

2004-06-16T13:55:00.000-04:00

One last quick thing

I found today's Boondocks to be very amusing. The rush to paint every leader that dies as a wonderful person is annoying. I'm glad at least one person agrees with me.

2004-06-16T13:45:00.000-04:00

Green Party Fever!

I have been talking to a number of people in my age cohort ( which I roughly describe as 24-35) and I have noticed something interesting. Among those who are voting, a good number are voting for the green party.

Probably a big part of the reason is the new funding rules:

Every Green Party vote truly counts in this federal election. Due to the new federal political financing rules, if the Green Party achieves at least 2% of the vote nationally, every vote will garner the party $1.75 per year until the next federal election; core funding that can help the federal party build, raise key issues and solutions, and offer Canada a new kind of politics.

I would never want the green party to actually be in power, but I think that they could provide a strong voice against some of the more egregious policies, like lowering gas taxes or other such nonsense.

And besides, the Greens are the only major party that isn't promoting health care as their central platform. In Ontario, the only real medical attention I ever got was eye exams and dental care, and in a few months, neither will be covered under medicare, so I really couldn't give a crap what else gets delisted.

I don't want to pay for baby boomer health care if they are not going to clear up the deficit they created or pay for my education.

2004-06-16T13:41:00.000-04:00

Blogging to resume shortly

I apologize for the brief hiatus. I'm currently working with students who were in a state of panic, exams coming up and all, so it left me a little drained in the creative blogging department. Besides, that's why I brought Daniel on board, and he didn't let me down, posting a bit to break up my absence.

I should resume blogging either immediately or in a few hours, depending on how I feel.

2004-06-10T14:26:00.000-04:00

Petty pandering to extremist settlers in Gaza

Sometimes Israel makes me feel less than proud to be pro-Zionist.

The latest example is Israel's decision to destroy the homes in the Gaza settlements when they are evacuated. This is a pointless move that will only be taken to assuage the feelings of settlers who should've known that Israel would not be able to stay in the strip indefinitely anyway.

2004-06-10T14:17:00.000-04:00

Bell Canada teams up with the Evil Empire

No, not the US. Bell Canada has joined forces with Microsoft to make a new website.

Now I have another reason for not getting Sympatico High Speed (besides the fact that I am cheap and the fact that I am concerned that I would spend too much time on the computer if I had a connection fast enough for Kazaa).

2004-06-09T23:53:00.000-04:00

Even right-wingers think that pot should be legalized!

A Fraser Institute report published recently suggests that for economic reasons pot should be legalized.

The reasons given are not new - the report discusses the futility of the attempt at repression, the lost tax revenue etc. - what is different is the fact the Fraser Institute is a notoriously right-wing organization. Now, being for the legalization of marijuana is certainly consistent with conservative principles. Unfortunately though in general I find that organizations tend to not support causes logically consistent with their principles if these causes are instinctively unpopular with the organization's supporters, as the legalization of drugs most certainly with the various alliance/conservative supporters in this country.

The organization that I find is most impressive in standing up to its principles is almost certainly the American Civil Liberties Union. They fight any infringement of civil liberties whether it is by Bush-like conservatives or well-intentioned left-wingers. My only regret is that they restrict their activities to the United States, and the supposed Canadian equivalent is both less powerful and less willing to defend all attacks on civil liberties.

2004-06-07T13:15:00.000-04:00

Gun Control Cartoon

I first noticed this guy at Salon.com, but you can get the animations from his own personal site.

2004-06-07T01:13:00.000-04:00

Won't somebody think of the children?

Civilization is crumbling again. Kids are running wild, disrespecting their elders and engaging in spontaneous fornication events. Proof of the catastrophe facing our youth is as follows:

1. Sex Bracelets
We all know that kids these days are having regular intercourse, despite our best efforts to keep them in the dark about the whole sex thing.

Now, in a bid to have even more sex, kids are wearing sex bracelets. The sexbracelets.com website strenuously objects to the idea that kids are using their bracelets, but we all know that they're lying.

2. Video Games
As usual, another high quality study was released connecting video games to terminal brain damage:

Meanwhile, a recent study that examined the brains of five video-game players of both sexes ages 8 to 13. In testimony before the U.S. Senate, Dr. John Murray reported that his study of video-game neurology demonstrates how the brain "treats entertainment violence as something real ..... [and] stores this violence as long-term memory."

That is one well-funded study. Five kids, what a sample size. I hope to God that no public money was spent on such stupidity.

3. Stuff by Duff

Well, ok, this just might really be one of the signs of the apocalypse... Mary Kate and Ashley have already brought us to the edge...

2004-06-04T00:45:00.000-04:00

Bloc breaks into the top 4 in polling!

They don't get a zero because they actually have something moderately intelligent to say about health care:

The party says the cuts are a direct hit to health research, which means there will be almost no development of new surgical techniques or treatments. The Bloc platform predicts that within a few years, health care costs will be at risk of spinning out of control because more efficient and less costly methods of medical intervention will not have been invented.

They are still a bunch of simpering simians, but at least they haven't gotten the NDP lobotomy, they actually have a policy that makes sense!

NDP would have lost points today for saying stupid things about wind farms, but they are already at zero. Maybe we could hook Layton up to a power generator, his hot air would at least then do something to ameliorate the energy crisis.

2004-06-03T13:23:00.000-04:00

Partial Birth Abortions: Ok for now

Attempts by the anti-choice groups in the States to limit abortion rights have been dealt a setback.

A federal judge in San Francisco on Tuesday declared unconstitutional a law banning what critics call "partial birth abortions," saying the measure was too vaguely worded and placed an undue burden on abortion rights

Unfortunately, this case will almost certainly go to the Supreme court. That is why it is so important that Bush and company lose the upcoming election. If he gets elected for another term, he will be able to fill the US Supreme court with Justices that are willing to kowtow to the anti-choice line.

I'm not a fan of partial birth abortions, it makes the anti-choice argument easier because of the gory pictures and colourful descriptions. However, the principal is clear. As long as the fetus is leading a parasitic existence inside a host, its rights cannot possibly compete with the host. End of story.

2004-06-02T23:39:00.000-04:00

Election Poll

Many things to write about, but I'm still recovering from a migraine so I can't spend that much time on the computer.

On the left is a new election poll. The sample size is a little small: one. Depending on what happens during the campaign, the percentages might go up and down. For example, the more the parties talk about giving money to the eternal sinkhole known as medicare, the less I want to vote for them.

Having a member of your party come out against abortion hurts you. Having a member of your party come out against reducing the deficit hurts you.

The reason that the marijuana party and the green party are given on the same line is that I will vote for the marijuana party if available (if that is my choice). Should there be no pot candidate in my riding, I would vote green.

The percentages reflect my likelihood of voting for a given party. Right after the federal budget, the liberals were standing at about 60% in my mind. They squandered much of that capital on health care. The conservatives picked up the slack but recently they have slipped, offering to toss money into other sinkholes such as the military.

Am I a bellweather individual? Probably not, but thats because most people are idiots.

2004-06-02T18:03:00.000-04:00

New Jersey bans ladies night

I guess at least one state believes that discrimination against men is wrong (even though a majority of men are probably going to be upset about this ruling because it means less drunk chicks in the bars)

2004-05-31T14:04:00.000-04:00

Another Computer Worm

I got hit with another worm last night. My computer was moving slowly so I called up the task manager (ctrl-alt-delete) to check out the processes that were running. One process called FVProtect.exe was consuming over half of my memory resources. I checked out what it was... and what do you know, its a worm. This one is called Netsky-P, and the bastard thing had created over 5000 files on my computer.

All I can say is thank God for TrendMicro, the company that offers the free Housecall internet-based virus checker.

I need to get rid of Outlook Express. The worm propagates simply by showing up in the preview pane... nothing to click on. It doesn't do any actual damage, though it takes up a big chunk of memory and leaves you vunerable to a malicious hacker. I don't see why Microsoft can't simply patch the holes in their software, its not like the vunerabilities are a big secret. Nothing should run automatically from email... nothing. If I want a video to play, ask me first before it plays. If I want a picture to appear, ask me before it appears. Automatic is nice, but it has outlived its purpose.

Anyhow, I'll get back to real blogging once I fix this mess up.

2004-05-29T23:35:00.000-04:00

Major Headache

I have some things I want to write about, but I can't look at a computer screen, my head is pounding. Hopefully a good night's sleep will do the trick.

As a filler, just to demonstrate that I discriminate equally against all religions, evidence that the jewish fanatics are just as bad as any other type of fanatic.

2004-05-28T11:02:00.000-04:00

Child Abuse! Child Abuse!

Some parents put out cigarettes on the bodies of their children. Others feed them Big Macs their entire lives. Broken bones are another mainstay of the child abuse crowd.

But Walter McKelvie has put all of these abusers to shame, concoting a plan of such nastiness that he should be locked away for life... or at least the 18 months that he might get for child abuse.

Walter McKelvie Jr., 43, of Vineland, N.J., was indicted Tuesday and charged with one count of child abuse and neglect. Authorities were alerted by the boy's mother, who has custody of the child but was not with him at the beach, prosecutor Meghan Hoerner said.

So, the custodial mother (which is kinda redundant, do mothers ever not get custody?) thinks that the guy she divorced is a bad guy. And what better way to hit him than to charge him with child abuse.

Oh wait, I forgot to say what this guy did:

...was charged with child abuse for not applying enough sunblock to his mentally disabled 12-year-old for a day at the beach.

By that standard, I have spent a lot of time abusing myself.

2004-05-28T01:12:00.000-04:00

And yet another page from the "Objective UN" file

A great photograph, I'll quote directly from the IDF website (link thanks to LGF):

Photographs taken at the Gaza Zeintun neighborhood about two weeks ago, on the same night the first APC was exploded, clearly show armed Palestinians boarding a UN-marked ambulance with a UN flag, and flee the scene.

So, not only does the UN go out of its way to regularly condemn Israel for a variety of transgressions (most notably: existing) but now it is providing transportation for Palestinian militants.

What's next, blue helmets for suicide bombers?

2004-05-26T12:20:00.000-04:00

Followup on the UN - the objective arbitrator

A neat little chart showing the organizational structure of the Human Rights apparatus.

The best part of course can be found in the bottom right corner of the diagram. A special committee created solely to discuss the greatest human right's abuser of all time.

2004-05-25T08:42:00.000-04:00

Blogspot Problem

Previously, a link that went to either of:

http://www.taintedglass.blogspot.com
http://taintedglass.blogspot.com

Would work and bring you to the correct site. However, it appears that the address with the "www" in front no longer works. If you click on a link, and it says "page not found" (The 404 error) and the address on top is "http://blogspot.blogger.com/" then you have almost certainly clicked on a link that points to www.taintedglass.blogspot.com

If your computer is infected with some error-catching spyware (like internet optimizer or the like), it will appear that you have failed to click through to the blog and have gone to some other random page. Click here to find out if you have some of this spyware on your computer (a Javascript program that does a quick check)

If you know of any locations with this faulty link, please give me a shout, thanks!

PS: As a bonus, for those infected with coolwebsearch, a page detailing all the variants of this insidious and nasty creature.

2004-05-24T19:52:00.000-04:00

Post-Modern Anti-Israel Criticism

God must certainly be a very ironic person to allow for a situation like this. where Zimbabwe criticizes Israel for its human rights record and gets positive coverage in a Chinese newspaper! I would find the hypocrisy laughable were it not for the fact that situations like this occur all the time, notably on the supposed human rights committee of the UN.

2004-05-21T00:59:00.000-04:00

Curves - legal discrimination

Well, not only is the discrimination by female-only fitness clubs rampant and accepted by our hypocritical society, but in some states it now enjoys special legal protection.

That's right, not only can you discriminate against white males through affirmative action, but you now get to discriminate against them legally!

Change "male" to "black" or even "female" and see how long people tolerate such an egregious injustice.

2004-05-20T14:49:00.000-04:00

Liberals desperately attempt to lose my vote

They have launced a series of attack ads, which insult Stephen Harper for a bit and then direct the viewers to www.StephenHarperSaid.ca.

In a nutshell, this is completely unacceptable, and I have already written a letter to the Liberal party explaining that if the aforementioned website is not taken down within a week, then they will lose my vote.

Segacs pointed out that the Conservatives have sunk to a similar low, with their own website called www.TeamMartinSaid.ca. However, if you actually go to the conservative website, they realize that this is unacceptable. The conservative website is not so much an attack ad as it is an attack on the attack ads.

The Liberals have Conservative quotations. We have Liberal quotations. We won't bother to spend millions and clutter the television airwaves with the stuff we've dug up. When we say "Demand Better," that's what we mean - Canadians are demanding better than US-style attack ads that offer nothing substantive to the public debate

Well said.

2004-05-20T00:21:00.000-04:00

The Hypocrisy of the UN

An abstention by the US has allowed the UN security council to condemn Israel for bulldozing a number of houses in the Gaza Strip.

Now, if the UN routinely discussed and condemned countries around the world for questionable activities that adversely affect civilian populations than I wouldn't necessarily have a big problem with this action. However, once again for political reasons the UN condemns Israel while completely ignoring other potentially rights violating countries. Thailand, and its clearly excessive and harsh attack on Muslim youth in the south comes to mind, but Sudan, Russia, and Nigeria would all have been excellent candidates for condemnation if the UN's purpose was really to try and reduce human suffering. Instead Israel, partly because of its relative strategic and financial unimportance and partly because it has no natural ethnic/religious allies gets continually battered while the real offenders look on with glee.

2004-05-19T12:37:00.000-04:00

David's Fables: The Beast Within

Cindy, a young woman from Iowa, has a problem. She has been feeling very nauseous for the last few weeks. She has tried to ignore it, but it has gotten worse, so Cindy has decided that she is going to have to visit a doctor.

Cindy: "I've been feeling nauseous"
Doctor: "No problem, we have a test to find out whats going on"

The doctor fiddles and foddles around a bit, and a short time later comes back with the test results:

Doctor: "Your test came back positive. Deep inside your womb a creature is growing"
Cindy: "What will happen?"
Doctor: "Unless we stop it, it will continue to grow over the next few months. If that happens, there is a reasonable chance that it could kill you."

Cindy ponders this for a few microseconds...

Cindy: "I'm convinced, how do we get rid of this thing?"
Doctor: "Well, its not that easy, the Hippocratic Oath forbids me from killing another human being"
Cindy: Excuse me? It also says that you can't perform surgery.
Doctor: Whatever, point is I won't kill a human.
Cindy: I never asked you to kill me.
Doctor: I'm talking about the life in your womb
Cindy: Are you joking? Its not at all human, its just a bunch of cells.
Doctor: It has human DNA
Cindy: So does my skin, watch me kill a few million of those guys.

Cindy proceeds to scratch her arm a bit

Doctor (fairly nonplussed): Your skin has the same DNA as the rest of you. The life in your womb has different DNA.
Cindy: It still has mostly my DNA.
Doctor: True, but its not the same, so you don't have the right to kill it.
Cindy: But its my body, don't I have the right to decide what happens to my body?
Doctor: Of course you do, unless I disagree with your decision. I can't abide a murder, so I'm afraid that you have to let the life in your womb grow.
Cindy: But you said it might kill me
Doctor: It might, but if we balance your possible death against the certain death of the life in your womb should we kill it, well, it's a no-brainer.

Cindy, a little flabbergasted, pauses for a bit

Cindy: Screw this, I'm leaving to find a doctor who will help me.

After a little bit of internet searching (ah, the modern age of medicine) Cindy finds a clinic that will help her out. Sadly, when she goes to the clinic, she finds a bunch of protesters hanging around, waving placards, chanting slogans, and generally making asses of themselves.

Protestor: Don't go in there! Look at what you are killing!

The protestor waves a blob of fleshy mass in poor Cindy's face

Protestor#2: And look, the operation is disgusting!

This protestor has some nice colour photographs of the surgery Cindy is about to undergo. (editor's note: the picture turns out to be one of liposuction, but facts rarely get in the way of a good gross picture).

Cindy: Why can't you guys just leave me alone?
Protestor: It is our duty to stop you from doing the wrong thing
Cindy: Who the hell are you to say that what I'm doing is wrong?
Protestor: (pulls out a copy of "Hanks Words, as dictated by Karl") it says so right here.
Cindy: I don't believe in that book
Protestor: I know, that's why you are going to hell.
Cindy: I can deal with that
Protestor: But why condemn the life inside you? What wrong has it ever done?

The police finally show up and escort Cindy into the clinic. The surgery is successful and Cindy is relieved to know that she has been cured of uterine cancer.

Nine months later, a protestor shows up at Cindy's doorstep and shoots her in the head with a shotgun in retaliation for killing the life that was inside her.

(Inspired by: Kissing Hank's Ass, a Religious Satire, can be found at the bottom of the page)

2004-05-18T21:02:00.000-04:00

Counter Fun

Bravenet, who are nice enough to provide a free counter, decided that it was too pretty, so they uglified it a bit. In return, I dumped it to the bottom of my attribution links. While I was at it, I decided to include one of the better quotes in literary history:

Naked force has settled more issues in history than any other factor. The contrary opinion 'violence never solves anything' is wishful thinking at its worst. People who forget that always pay... They pay with their lives and their freedom." - Starship Troopers

Cheesy movie perhaps (though I liked it!), but a great book and the quote is dead on.

2004-05-17T10:54:00.000-04:00

Arab media takes the moral high ground

The arab media is fairly upset about the Berg execution:

Firstly, the beheading of Berg has eclipsed the shame and failure of the US and its allies over the Abu Ghraib scandal. Berg's self-appointed executioners appear to have been oblivious to the fact that a public relations disaster for the US' Middle East policies was a prime opportunity for the Arab and Muslim worlds to push Washington for a new, just approach to the region. Instead, they sabotaged this unique opportunity.

They eventually give the obligatory "yeah, it sucks that a civilian had to die", but I think its fairly clear what the real problem is to these people.

Well... except Hamas of course:

Osama Hamdan, Hamas' representative in Lebanon, denounced both Berg's killers and US President George W. Bush in the same breath.
"I condemn this brutal act and sympathise with the family of the slain American man, who I consider a victim of the wrong US policies in the region," Hamdan said

The other anti-American standard: equivocation. After all, humiliation and murder are just two sides of the same coin.

Next time somebody insults me in the street, I'm going to hit them with a hatchet.

2004-05-15T19:46:00.000-04:00

Kenya Tourist Video

WARNING! Unserious content!

2004-05-15T01:07:00.000-04:00

Worst Rottentomatoes Review Ever

Wow. The recent movie Envy got 5% positive reviews from the group of all reviewers and a stunning 0% from the Cream of the Crop (i.e. the real reviewers). I have never seen a major release with that low a rating.

2004-05-14T15:06:00.000-04:00

Meanwhile, back in Nigeria...

While the world is occupied by the thoughts of humiliated Iraqi prisoners and one beheaded American, over a thousand people have been killed and tens of thousands have been displaced.

Seems like activists, pundits and journalists, both left-wing and right-wing, don't really care about innocent victims of brutal murder (there's talk of such atrocities as children burned alive and pregnant women ripped open) if the colour of their skin is black.

2004-05-14T01:21:00.000-04:00

Heroism: Canadian-style

Some people dive into frozen lakes to save babies, others get heart attacks in donut shops while wearing a uniform. However, I think we have found ourselves a true hero:

Terry Blake is so angry about high gas prices, he's willing to go to jail over the issue... The Port Ryerse, Ont. man filled his car at an Esso station in Simcoe with $25 worth of fuel. He paid the attendant what he considered to be "the fair price" -- $20 in cash -- and drove off.

Thats right Terry, rising crude oil prices and diminished refinery reserves have absolutely nothing to do with the pump price. Besides, it is your God-given right to have cheap gasoline, correct?

2004-05-13T20:30:00.000-04:00

The great taboo: desecration of human remains

The bodies of the six dead Israeli soldiers have now been returned, though not without a fight.

This disgusting display of disrespect for dead human beings has once again made me question why it is I (as well as all human cultures I know of, its even a subject found in Greek Mythology) find the desecration of human bodies to be so appalling.

In theory, it shouldn't matter. Once a person is dead their body ceases to have real significance beyond the emotional ties that other living people attach to it (i.e. friends and family). Even religious people should in theory not really care too much about the body since the soul has left the body (for heaven, hell, reincarnation, Valhalla or whatever).

What is it that ties us to these useless things? Given the universality of the taboo there is clearly an area of the brain associated with it. What would be the evolutionary advantage of such an instinct?

I really don't know the answer, do you?

2004-05-12T23:01:00.000-04:00

Beheading

I wasn't going to post this, but I think that censorship is a private decision, so make your own choice.

An American was beheaded, and the video was released on the internet. I don't feel like checking the arab media or left-wing blogs, the lack of condemnation is going to bother me.

Edit: The full (unedited) video. Also can be found on Salon.com

2004-05-12T14:04:00.000-04:00

Protest Warriors Video

The latest Protest Warrior Video can be found on their website. The latest one is not as nicely polished as the last few they have made, and it is rather long (about 35 minutes, 185MB download if you want to avoid buffering delays).

At around 30 minutes there is an interesting "video diary", but unfortunately if you are streaming the video I don't think you can jump ahead to that point...

2004-05-12T14:02:00.000-04:00

Folding Fun

Three simple steps for folding a T-shirt, and I can't duplicate what she is doing... its so frustrating!

2004-05-11T21:56:00.000-04:00

Secret Google Feature

Turns out that google has a hidden calculator on its main search page which you can not only use for simple things like addition and subtraction but also unit conversions!!! What will they think of next...

2004-05-09T23:26:00.000-04:00

Survivor All Stars - and the loser is....

Lex, by a mile. While I understand that some people take these type of games seriously, I have never seen someone give such a display of immaturity months after the game ended.

Anyhow, the audience gets to "vote" for another millionaire. I figure I'll vote for Shii-Ann, but as long as Rupert and Jenna don't win, I'll be happy. I would add Lex and Kathy to that list, but I'm not especially worried about either of them taking the audience prize.

2004-05-08T12:10:00.000-04:00

Lynndie England: Grade A moron

You have to wonder about someone who not only decides to disgustingly humiliate prisoners of war but does so for the camera!!! At first I thought that maybe she didn't realize that she was being photographed but this photo reveals otherwise.

The American government should definitely enforce an intelligence / judgment test on everyone in the army in politically sensitive positions such as prison guards (it wouldn't be needed for example to be an army chef...)

2004-05-06T13:54:00.000-04:00

God's Blog

I didn't write it, but it was amusing, I wish I could post this below my Iraq stuff though, stupid reverse order blogs.

A religious satire (ignore the movie review on top)

God's Blog

And thanks to Paul for finding it...

2004-05-06T13:39:00.000-04:00

Petty thieves, Corrupt Cops, Oppressive Regimes

Three hypothetical situations:

A slightly demented man walks into a local McDonald's, takes out a gun, and kills 20 customers

A cop, who turns out to be a closet white supremacist, walks into a local McDonald's, takes out a gun, and kills 20 black people

A soldier, serving in Farofistan, walks into a local McDonald's, takes out a gun, and kills 20 customers

An authorized government commando team enters a local McDonald's, and, after securing the perimeter, kills 20 customers.

End result? 20 dead people in all situations.

Are all the crimes the same though? Obviously not, despite the identical consequences, all of the crimes have different meanings attached to them and require appropriate action. I would suggest that the response to the above crimes should be (respectively):

Take the guy, and throw him into jail for the rest of his life, preferably with some hard labour to boot

Take the cop, and throw him into jail for the rest of his life, preferably with some hard labour to boot. Furthermore, as a precaution, take steps to minimize the number of white supremacists on the force. Do not disband the police force.

Take the soldier, and throw him into jail for the rest of his life, preferably with some hard labour to boot. Furthermore, as a precaution, take steps to minimize the number of idiots in the army. Do not withdraw from Farofistan

A very serious problem! Do whatever you can!

What is the point of all this? Obviously it has to do with the recent revelations that some soldiers were abusing prisoners in Iraq.

The pictures being displayed in the media right now are despicable. The soldiers involved should be heavily punished, and I expect that they will be. However, neither the American leadership, nor the American public, nor the American military supports the actions of these soldiers. That is a huge point that is being overlooked, and it impacts heavily on the situation. It makes the difference between situation #3 and situation #4.

Does the public ever support atrocities? Sure, just take a look at the support Hamas gets over in the West Bank and Gaza for the atrocities it commits regularly against Israeli civilians... except of course that Hamas doesn't humiliate civilians, they just kill'em.

2004-05-06T12:53:00.000-04:00

Context Forgery

Photographs of deceased members of the Shuttle Columbia are being portrayed as American soldiers killed in Iraq.

"Many news organizations across the country are mistakenly identifying the flag-draped caskets of the space shuttle Columbia's crew as those of war casualties from Iraq," NASA said.

We are rapidly approaching the point where a picture is not even worth half a dozen words.

2004-05-05T00:50:00.000-04:00

Dealing with ~~Iraq~~ Toronto Police - Left-Wing style

Sadly, a number of Toronto area cops have been charged with a variety of crimes.

I suggest therefore that the entire concept of police working in the Toronto area is flawed, and I propose that we disband the police force and let some local drug lords take over.

2004-05-04T03:48:00.000-04:00

Perspective

From the mouth of babes, a noble Iraqi in this case:

DHIA AL-SHWEIRI spent several stints in Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison, twice under Saddam Hussein's rule and once under American. He said in Najaf yesterday he preferred Saddam's torture to the humiliation of being stripped by his U.S. guards

Obviously they have different norms over there in Iraq. I'm not in any way trying to condone the recent actions of some renegade elements of the US military, but seriously, "the torture was better than the humiliation?".

Of course, this guy has some other problems to work out:

"They wanted us to feel as though we were women ... and this is the worst insult, to feel like a woman."

I'm sure that female Iraqis can't wait until the Americans leave and people like this guy take over the country.

2004-05-04T03:38:00.000-04:00

Killed in the line of duty

A cover story in Toronto's daily rag proclaimed how "Ontario salutes fallen officers". There is a memorial that enshrines the memory of these brave men and women who have given their lives in the pursuit of liberty, justice...

Shrive, 49, an OPP officer in Renfrew, west of Ottawa, was killed last May. He was making a U-turn to catch a traffic violator on Hwy. 17 when his cruiser was broadsided by a transport truck.

(sigh)

Not to sound cold, but I file this under the category of "bad things happen". Some people who use cars in the course of their work tend to die in car accidents. So do thousands of people who drive to work, are they any less noble?

However, at least Shrive was nominally doing something duty-like when he got killed, not so Fred Bingley, also honoured yesterday:

On Oct. 4, 1929, a 39-year-old constable named Fred Bingley died of a fractured skull after being tossed from his motorcycle as it rounded a curve near Caledonia

Unlike Shrive, Bingley wasn't even involved in a police chase of some sort, he just happened to die while in uniform.

What is the problem with honouring people who die in accidents? Simple, it cheapens the expression "killed in the line of duty". Being a police officer is purportedly a dangerous job, and some police officers do indeed get killed while interacting with some of the least desirable elements of our society. Those police should be honoured, for they were killed while performing a valuable service to society and, more importantly, directly because they were performing this service.

A soldier who dies in battle could be said to have died in the line of duty and because of his duty. A soldier who dies because he trips and cracks his skull back in the base died in the line duty, but not because of the line of duty. These two soldiers should not be honoured in the same way.

It is the same thing with police officers. Some die because of their job, others die during their job. There's a difference.

2004-04-30T15:01:00.000-04:00

What the hell do they want with Iraq?

Consider this a preview for an upcoming blog entry, (since I have to leave now but I'm annoyed enough to want to write something to remind myself at how annoyed I was). I read blogs from all ends of the spectrum, and I don't understand what the left wingers want with Iraq. I get the impression that they want the US to leave Iraq so that the country can fall apart, and then the lefties will be able to blame Bush for leaving Iraq.

The sad thing is, they will probably get their wish.

2004-04-30T03:08:00.000-04:00

Insulting the president

A T-shirt was being sold in Seattle that had a slightly ambiguous message on the label. Of course, being good capitalists, they decided to print a T-shirt with the label enlarged and printed on the front. It reads:

Nous somme desoles que notre president soit un idiot. Nous n'avons pas vote pour lui.

The company apparantly is going for strategic ambiguity:

While our best guess here at Tom Bihn is that this was a prank meant to poke fun at the company's founder and president, Tom Bihn himself, many have assumed that this is about another president.

Uh-huh, sure thing buddies. CEO's are generally voted in, right?

2004-04-29T01:59:00.000-04:00

Funny Ebay Auctions

Most of these are funny because of the text that accompanies the item:

Somebody was unhappy with their table, so they sold it on ebay.

A wedding dress sold by a bitter husband, auction had about 6 million views which is pretty hefty for ebay. Asking price was $1200, and he got over $3000... some people have too much money

A book from Amazon.com (not Ebay) with a sure cure to depression.

I think the trick to making big money on ebay is to write a good description, I'm going to try and make up a good sob story one day and see if I can cash in.

2004-04-28T13:26:00.000-04:00

Abortion: Autonomy

In a followup to my previous post, I decided that I would clarify my position on abortion, with a quick review as to some of the principals involved.

Autonomy
This is the most important core principal to the abortion debate. All human have a right to autonomy that pretty much supersedes all other considerations. When one person's right to autonomy would violate the rights of someone else, we have a conflict of rights. Can the right to autonomy ever be lost? Possibly yes, but it should be a solution of the last resort.

In terms of medicine, the right to medical autonomy is very strong in the Western world. Medical autonomy is why Jehovah's Witness' are not forced to receive transfusions against their will. Autonomy is why anyone can refuse the treatment prescribed by a doctor. Autonomy is the driving force behind DNR orders.

In the abortion debate, the pro-choice side believes that the autonomy of the mother is an important principle, while the anti-abortion side believes that the fetus has some rights to autonomy.

2004-04-28T13:25:00.000-04:00

Abortion: Child as maximum

Anti-abortionists often claim that the pro-choice side believes that the fetus is just a blob of tissue with absolutely no rights at all. This is not necessarily true. The idea of abortion is not inconsistent with granting any rights to the fetus. One early consideration is the "child as maximum" principle, which I discussed about a month ago with regards to the Utah case, where a woman was charged for not submitting to a C-section against her will.

A quick summary of the "child as maximum" principle:

b. our obligation to ensure the fetus's welfare can equal but not exceed our obligation to a born child
c. child as a maximum principle emphasizes that our duties to a born child constitute an upper bound for our duties to a fetus rather than a strict equivalent, because the potential for wronging one person (mother) in effort to aid another (fetus) will be greater

As I explained this principle previously:

An easier way to think of it would be to ask what a father would be expected to do for his born child. If it is acceptable to force a father to undergo surgery against his will for a live child, then it might be acceptable to do so for a fetus. You can't even think about charging a mother for drinking during pregnancy unless you are willing to charge a father for drinking around his born children.

Some people don't believe in this principle at all, I was having an argument on another blog and I asked, somewhat rhetorically, if a father should be forced to donate a kidney to his daughter (to save her life) if it was against his will. The answer was surprising:

We generally require parents to take affirmative acts to protect their children. So sure

I suspect/hope that this guy was posturing for the sake of his anti-abortion position.

When I look at the abortion debate, the child as maximum principal impacts very strongly upon my views. I look at the obligations of a mother to her born child, and I take great efforts to ensure that the obligations of a mother to her fetus do not exceed her obligation to the child when it is born.

(to be continued later on tonight)

2004-04-27T20:06:00.000-04:00

Why committees shouldn't choose flags

So the new Iraqi Flag is available for all to see, and its a real stinker! What an ugly combination of colours and shapes, the old flag (without the Koran reference) was way nicer. On the bizarre side though,the article mentions that some people have accused the flagmaker of choosing colours to match the Israeli flag's colours (specifically the light blue on white background). Seems like people can find a way of blaming the Jews no matter the actual reality of the situation.

2004-04-26T02:25:00.000-04:00

Abortion: Rape and Incest

I have often found myself embroiled in abortion debates. To put it mildly, I am pro-choice, and I consider it a duty to try and convince the anti-abortion side that their position is misguided and injust.

Normally, I start off every argument by seeking to find a common ground, discussing the principles that apply to that common ground, and then expanding those principles to encompass other situations. My normal common ground is the case of abortion when a woman has been raped. Once the anti-abortionist agreed that an exception needed to be made there, it was often easy to move the discussion to more interesting cases.

But... sometimes the common ground is harder to find.

A surprisingly large number of people believe that abortion should not even be allowed in the case of rape or incest. While that article is pretty light in terms of real arguments, others really take a strong stance:

Allowing abortion for cases of rape or incest effectively blames the preborn for another's (i.e. the father) crime. Killing a preborn because his or her father is a rapist is no more justifiable than killing the rapist's mother or father (perhaps even less so, in that, plausibly, a parent could have in some way influenced, caused or contributed to the son's actions. The preborn child has not yet been created; no causal influence, and therefore culpability, is possible). The perpetrator alone should be punished; punishing the preborn makes him or her a scapegoat and the second victim

Many other sites present the same viewpoint:

The unborn entity is not an aggressor when its presence does not endanger its mother's life (as in the case of a tubal pregnancy). It is the rapist who is the aggressor. The unborn entity is just as much an innocent victim as its mother. Hence, abortion cannot be justified on the basis that the unborn is an aggressor.

I honestly don't know where to begin with this. It is impossible to discuss ideas of autonomy or relative rights with an individual who can't even acknowledge that forcing a woman through an unwanted pregnancy after she has been raped is somehow wrong.

I need to find a common ground situation. The common ground of "mother's life is in danger" doesn't work since the anti-abortionists simply classify that as self-defense and allow the abortion there while still restricting it everywhere else. I think that's my mental job for the next 24 hours.

Why do I care? Bush is going to win the next election, and I honestly believe that some serious anti-abortion work is likely to be initiated south of the border. I have to start gearing up mentally for the battle, and for me, it starts here.

2004-04-24T13:54:00.000-04:00

The ongoing genocide nobody cares about

The government of Sudan has for years been perpetuating genocidal atrocities - including mass murder, rape and abduction of children for slavery - against minority areas of the country. Before it was in the context of a civil war with the southern portion of the country which seems to be resolved, but they immediately started up again the West.

A cartoon on salon.com suggests a certain amount of hypocrisy in the fact right-wing America (media and government) has been ignoring the ongoing crisis. I certainly won't disagree with that conclusion but I think that the anti-American segment of the world population has been equally hypocritical in regards to that conflict, focusing instead on their on pet issue i.e. the supposed atrocities committed continually by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people.

So why does the Left ignore Sudan? I believe that it is simply because that conflict works against their black and white views of world issues, where the United States and its friends are the evil ones who oppress poor innocent Islamic peoples. In this conflict the`"bad guy" committing the atrocities is the Sudanese government which is a virulently anti-American and composed almost entirely North African Arab Muslims, while the oppressed groups are mostly Black Christians and animists.

2004-04-23T04:19:00.000-04:00

Great gifts from Ebay

What do you give to your dear mother who already has everything she wants?

Why, a Rachel Corrie watch of course!

2004-04-23T03:02:00.000-04:00

Speaking of photo scams

Salon.com has a story showing 2 versions of a shocking photo at the top. You may have to watch a quick ad to see the story.

2004-04-22T13:28:00.000-04:00

Tainted Photographs

I have come across a picture recently in a number of different locations. It purports to show a Palestinian child who is strapped to the hood of an Israeli jeep, presumably so that the child could be used as a human shield.

Some context is provided by a "witness":

Sheirman accounted on that the child was bewailing and shuddering of fear when the Israeli soldiers placed him in front of the jeep and tied him off to be a human shield. He added that he along with two peace activists were tied with the next military jeep

Sadly, the photographers apparently only felt that it was important to take a picture of the child, leaving Sheirman out of the public spotlight.

Obviously, some problems surface immediately:

The "restraints" presumably refer to the band on the child's upper left arm, since I can not see any other equipment in the picture that would do the job.

The boy is acting as a human shield for a smoking break

And neither of the first 2 points matters anyway, because the picture doesn't provide any context and could have easily been photo-shopped.

Wait, can photographs actually be faked in these days of digital photography? Some examples (from Snopes):

John Kerry showing his big anti-war credentials

Some silly 3rd world protestors.

A satellite view of the big August blackout

That stupid prez George Bush holding a book upside down.

Sometimes, the photo can be real, but the context can be falsified, such as this photo taken of a charging bull by a tourist in a heap of trouble. The picture is real, but the context is fake. Ditto for pictures of Hurricane Isabel, which sadly are not even pictures of a hurricane, go figure.

So, the question is, how can we determine, in this age of ubiquitous digital fakery, which photographs are legitimate? The answer is simple, we trust photographs that have substantiating proof or that are taken by verified news organizations such as Reuters or AP.

Previously, both major news sources have been happy to pick up pictures that painted Israel in an unfavourable light. The human shield picture would be especially powerful... if it was real. However, neither Reuters nor AP has carried the story. Some conspiracy theorists would believe that this is because the mainstream media is purposefully ignoring it.

The truth in this case is fairly obvious. The picture may or may not be a complete forgery. However, even if the picture is legitimate, the context is almost certainly faked. There is no corroborating evidence, no photos from a different angle or that provide a more complete view of the situation (such as the jeeps and the "protestors" in a single picture), and no legitimate source of verification.

It screams context-fakery.

2004-04-20T12:49:00.000-04:00

Revisionist History

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah in Hebrew). I found it chilling that on this very day the Globe and Mail saw fit to print an article concerning the Rwandan Genocide with some very serious undertones:

Defence lawyers also point out that there has never been any forensic testing done on those killed. There's no doubt that hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were murdered, but there is no DNA evidence proving that most of those murdered were Tutsis; it may be that the Rwandan conflagration was more of a civil war than a genocide.

I have never heard the Rwandan massacre characterized as a civil war, and this occurred only 10 years ago. Is it any wonder then that the Holocaust, which occurred 60 years ago, is portrayed as a fabrication today? In the Globe and Mail no less.

The Holocaust was a unique episode of savagery in the history of our species, but modern genocides such as Armenia and Rwanda are also important, and we must not allow them to be forgotten either.

2004-04-20T12:32:00.000-04:00

Martyr Math 101

A frequent claim by the anti-Israel crowd is that the targeted assassinations do not serve any useful purpose since "for every Hamas leader killed, hundreds of young Palestinians are recruited to the cause".

But now, after Israel wiped out the second Hamas leader within a month, they have decided to keep the identity of the new head a secret:

After Israel's assassination of two of its leaders in less than a month, Hamas decided to keep the identity of its new supremo in the Palestinian territories a secret, in line with a call from Meshaal

Perhaps its my high-quality grade 8 education speaking here, but that doesn't make mathematical sense. If every targeted assassination only helps the Hamas cause, why would they be hiding the identity of their new leader?

Maybe they use alternative math over there in the mideast...

2004-04-16T12:33:00.000-04:00

Crime and Punishment

Hypothetically, if someone steals a ring from a jewellery store and then returns it 24 hours later, which of the following is true:

This is a noble person, worthy of the Order of Canada

This is a thief, worthy of prosecution

2004-04-15T00:51:00.000-04:00

Spam Wars

A few weeks ago, I was getting about 20 spam messages a day, but they all had a weird character set. As a temporary fix, I set up a filter that immediately trashed any email that contained the words "Gµarántêe", "sêxûaÌ", or "Ênlárgëmeñt".

The results were a stunning success, my spam levels dropped to about 5 per week. I was ecstatic, having won a little battle against the spammers.

Sadly though, victory was fleeting. The spam is back, though a different type of spam. For those who are spam-prone, you may have noticed that spammers now include random words at the bottom of their message, for example, at the bottom of my latest spam was the following text:

reach worth montmartre alberta proclamation teacup cruddy candid disembowel hair missy verge bellwether waistline encyclopedic defector reprise chagrin rapt wail gooseberry manor airtight codeposit stellar wreathe garibaldi cliffhang flintlock wondrous punish cellar sensuous wizard chairwomen salad ebb marlborough chunk chose boar huntsville consonantal recompense moonlit

Fascinating stuff. Relatively low level protection of course, I have seen some spam messages that place actual randomly generated stories at the bottom of the spam message. This is probably done to combat a spam-filtering technique known as Bayesian Filtering. Essentially, this type of filter looks at words that are common in the email you get and words that are common in spam that you get, and assigns a "spam-likelihood" probability to each message. For example, a word like "unsubscribe" would be very spammy, but a word like "Diplomacy" would be very unspammy for me in particular, since much of my regular email contains that word.

(I should point out that the linked article above is long, and a bit technical at the beginning, but just ignore the algorithms, its fairly interesting stuff).

When I first read the article of Bayesian Filtering, it sounded like the ultimate panacea, but my ardor was rapidly cooled in this chilling analysis:

This is where the unparalleled strength of the Bayes-type filtering becomes the very makings of unmitigated disaster, as the second-order effects come into play. Consider the question What does it mean for an spam email to make it past a Bayes filter?

The proper answer to that is a mathematical one, but in English, it means that there are no obvious cues that the message is spam. Nothing obvious in the title, nothing obvious in the text, no key words used only in spam, nothing.

He then gives an example of the type of spam we should expect to see shortly:

That's a nice point, but I think you should consider the information at http:/\/www.somewebsite.com/info.html before going with that approach. I found that information to be really pertinent

A message like that cannot be filtered by any antispam software, since it looks exactly like a real message. No key words to hit, nothing to distinguish it from normal email.

But that's not even the scary part. As Jeremy points out, the truly horrifying aspect of this inevitable evolution of spam is that humans will have a hard time recognizing it as spam. Right now we can see which messages are spam almost immediately and delete them, but imagine if that became impossible?

In some doomsday scenarios, spam will spin out of control within a year or two. Many solutions have been discussed, one of the more reasonable ones being a charge for sending email. ISP's could even make the first 10,000 email messages a month free to subscribers, and that would still stop spammers cold in their tracks.

I think that a charge for sending email is inevitable. The only question is: will we be forced to suffer through a "dark age" of email before this change occurs? I certainly hope not.

2004-04-12T14:23:00.000-04:00

Revenge for Yassin

Yassin, leader of the terrorist group Hamas, was killed on March 22nd. By tomorrow, we will be celebrating the 3 week anniversary of his demise.

Why is this notable? There hasn't been a single successful retaliation suicide bombing.

Remember, the Palestinians were calling for blood, to show Israel how wrong it was to go about killing innocent terrorist leaders. Everyone around the world expected that Israel would pay a price for daring to strike at the heart of its enemies. However, no price has been paid as of yet.

Obviously, the next successful attack will be touted as justifiable revenge for the killing of Yassin, but is that credible? Three full weeks without an attack is quite reasonable. If anything, it seems that Israel has been rewarded for the attack on Yassin with a period of relative calm.

The time has passed for Hamas to take revenge. The next successful suicide bombing will be one that would have occurred regardless if Yassin had been assassinated. The message to take home from this is that terrorism can be fought, as long as you have the resolve to take the necessary measures.

2004-04-11T20:02:00.000-04:00

Is this funny?

Not feeling inspired to comment on anything, I present the potato song. Is it humorous? I'm not quite sure...

2004-04-10T18:55:00.000-04:00

Sopranos getting snuffed out

That will be the likely result if the American government passes the bill presently before congress to ban a number of swear words including the essential f-word that all Italian gangsters must use to punctuate their phrases (the exact words to be banned can be found here)

In general I am opposed to all forms of censorship, but I think it is specifically stupid in this case because they are going to ban the swear words but there is no mention of the violence and nudity that can also be found on many american cable TV shows. If they're are going to treat the american public like a bunch of children they might as well be consistent about it.

2004-04-09T15:34:00.000-04:00

Leave google alone!

Google is in the process of introducing a concept in web-based email that will revolutionize the way we view web-based email. Google is offering a 1 Gigabyte storage free web-based email service. This is about 500 times as large as any of the other free email services.

Obviously there has to be a catch of some sort, and there is. The text of the email messages will be scanned so that google can deliver some targeted advertising. This will be a machine scan and no human will ever see it.

Is there a problem here? Obviously not, but some pseudo-civil liberties groups seem to have forgotten the definition of civil liberties.

A coalition of 28 privacy and civil liberties groups wrote Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page a letter Tuesday urging them to think again about the service, which they said sets potentially dangerous precedents for the automated scanning of private communications. The service may conflict with European privacy laws, and should be suspended until privacy issues are addressed, they wrote.

Of course, as these groups admit, email is already scanned on a regular basis in order to filter out spam. This is no different, as long as the email message (or parts thereof) are not seen by a human, there really is no violation of privacy. In fact, the spam filters are, if anything, a more egregious assault on privacy since the scan can result in some email messages getting censored, whereas the google ad-scan will never result in a message being blocked.

However... none of this really matters, because the google gigabyte mailservice is voluntary. If you think that your privacy rights are being trampled, don't get it, plain and simple. If you start pushing google to not offer the service to anyone, then you are essentially trampling on my own liberty to choose, and presumably that is something all good libertarians would want to avoid.

2004-04-09T15:23:00.000-04:00

Tradition

Demonstrating their historical connection to nature, the Quebec Innu slaughtered 30 endangered caribou and left many of the carcasses out to rot. The term used was a "protest hunt". The response should be obvious:

Jail/fine: The Innu should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Not only did they poach, but they poached an endangered species. If a white guy went into the woods and shot up 30 spotted owls and left their bodies to rot, he'd probably be facing jail time, why should the Innu be exempt?

Hunting: Any Innu involved in the hunt should have their hunting licenses revoked immediately.

Punitive damages: You can't claim a historical right to a sustainable hunt if you don't use it responsibly. Sadly, for this band of Innu at least, I don't think they have the right to ever lay claim to a traditional hunt in the future. Let them apply for a license like everyone else who feels the need to use assault weapons on animals.

Sadly, we all know what will happen. We will find out how about 500 years ago the ancestors of this band were abused by the ancestors of 1% of the current Canadian population, therefore if the Innu want to exterminate a species, who are we to complain?

2004-04-09T15:20:00.000-04:00

Japan demonstrates a backbone

Daniel beat me to the punch.

Putting Europe (and Spain in particular) to shame, Japan has shown the world that they are one of the few countries on the planet who will not bend in the face of terrorism.

Presumably, with a Canadian also kidnapped, we will start seeing articles in the paper calling on Canada to distance ourselves more fully from the States so that we won't be targetted by terrorists any more.

Who ever thought that Japan would help the world more than Canada?

2004-04-09T14:56:00.000-04:00

Still sick, but blogging

I can't speak if my life depended on it, but at least I can type now, so its time to resume my blogging!

2004-04-09T14:32:00.000-04:00

How to deal with kidnappers

There is basically only one rule that must always be followed by nations and organizations when dealing with a kidnapping or hostage taking: no matter how much the loved ones beg and plead, NEVER give into the demands of the criminals responsible.

Cold and callous? Hardly. Negotiating with the kidnappers ensures that there will be further individuals taken captive because you have demonstrated that it is a useful tactic. So not only are you benefiting the criminals by giving them what they desire but you are increasing the number of individuals in your group who will suffer in the future. It is a classic example of a situation where the theoretical needs of the many outweigh the immediate and potentially lifethreatening needs of a few, and also where future concerns should trump present and pressing concerns. Not surprising then that it is a nightmare scenario for any politician that wants to be re-elected.

Thankfully, it seems like Japan will not be giving in to the Iraqi insurgents who have kidnapped 3 Japanese civilians and threatened to kill them unless Japan pulls out of its non-combat mission in Iraq. Unfortunately, it is far from certain in my mind that they will hold onto this position given that public pressure is bound to increase from Japanese citizens who are already opposed to the presence of Japanese troops in an overseas conflict (which actually goes against the present Japanese constitution).

The best response in recent history to a hostage taking was clearly what the Russians did when the Moscow theatre was taken over by Chechen terrorists. They used an anesthetic gas to knock out everyone in the theatre, including the women who had bombs strapped to themselves. Unfortunately, the gas worked better than they could possibly have imagined and the Russian rescue team was inadequately prepared to save the lives of a large portion of the hostages who died because they were left unconscious and face up in the rain and were not woken up fast enough because there was not enough antidote available. Nonetheless, the absolute ferocity of the Russians response has ensured that no similar scenario has been attempted again.

2004-04-08T17:32:00.000-04:00

C-Section murder charges dropped in plea bargain

I guess I should be relieved that Melissa Ann Rowland, the woman who refused a c-section that doctors felt was necessary to save her fetuses, will not be convicted of 1st degree murder as originally charged. But I am not. Not only was I hoping that the case would go to trial in order for their to be a precedent against future cases, but Ms. Rowland pleaded guilty to another charge that should almost certainly not be considered a crime, using cocaine while pregnant and thus endangering the lives of her future babies.

I like to think that we live in a society where a woman does not suddenly lose control over her own body when she becomes pregnant. Using cocaine certainly is potentially harmful to fetuses but so are an uncountable number of behaviours including smoking, not eating a well-balanced diet, driving a car and working at a stressful job. Should all women who take part in those activities be arrested as well? Or even worse, research has shown that fetuses are most likely to be harmed in the early stages of pregnancy (1st and 2nd trimester) when the woman may not even know that she is pregnant. Thus, in order to truly protect all these potentially harmed fetuses we would be forced to inact laws regulating the activities of all sexual active fertile women, just to be sure. Alternatively, we could just stop this craziness and recognize that people have a right to do whatever they want to their own bodies, and at the same time use the money wasted on the police and courts to educate women on the benefits of certain lifestyles for the health of their future babies.

2004-04-08T17:23:00.000-04:00

Introducing the second blogger... me!

David already introduced me a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately he did so without considering the fact that I had three huge exams coming up so I was not able to post until today. I share many views with my brother, so it is appropriate that we share this blog, nonetheless there are certainly some issues that we have vastly different opinions on (e.g., capital punishment). Anyways I hope you will all bear with me at the beginning as I try to adapt to the blog style of writing, and I am looking forward to all the comments disagreeing vehemently with what I have written :-)

2004-04-03T01:47:00.000-05:00

April Fools Joke - gone awry

Early in the morning on April 1st, I wrote a little missive about the drug ecstasy. After posting, I realized that it was April 1st and I decided that it would be funny to play a little April Fool's joke and claim that Blogspot was shutting me down for inappropriate posting. I figured it would be mostly obvious that I was kidding since internet sites never give 24 hours of warning for a closure, but in retrospect I would have been taken in as well.

The plan was to reveal that it was a joke at about noon on April 1st, but then I became extremely ill. Sadly, I still am, but my brother called me to say that the post was getting a large reaction and that I had better write up a retraction quickly before people got upset.

I apologize for keeping up the deception so long, and I especially apologize to StageLeft who put in a very nice post of encouragement. Again, I was hoping to retract it over 24 hours ago, but circumstances conspired against me. There were some interesting issues that were brought up with that situation, and I intend to blog about them fully when I feel better.

I would like to assure the readers of this blog that I will never attempt anything like that again. I pride myself on being factual, and I don't want to lose that credibility. I ask for your forgiveness.

2004-04-01T03:19:00.000-05:00

Censorship - Blog Moving

Almost immediately after making my most recent post, I got a message from Blogspot indicating that I had violated my terms of service. It seems that certain subjects are not acceptable blogging topics, perhaps part of the Bush "war on drugs".

Pathetic.

They have given me 24 hours to move the blog off their site. I will probably be moving it over to sympatico, I'll try to keep everyone updated.

2004-04-01T03:17:00.000-05:00

Ecstasy Bust

So, the cops are all happy about busting a big multinational ecstasy ring. Soon we will hear the corpulent Fantino crow about the success of his forces and how proud he is... and how guns are taking over Toronto and will continue to do so until the Police Brotherhood gets a donation of a few million dollars.

Ecstasy, the happy rave drug, scourge of our society. Presumably, if people enjoy themselves too much, they might cause society to implode. At least, that's the only reason I can think of that ecstasy gets banned.

Ah, but wait, ecstasy is dangerous, it can kill you!

"The biggest danger of Ecstasy is it can kill you," said Dr. Paul Fischer, the medical director of the emergency department at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center

Of course, water could also kill you if ingested the bad way, and we haven't started tossing the purveyors of liquid refreshment into jail yet. Lets sidle over to the drug hippies and see what they have to say:

The risk of death from Ecstasy use is extremely low. Between 1988 and 1997 some 50-100 UK deaths have been connected to Ecstasy use. The current rate is 7 deaths per million users per year. More people die fishing or eating peanuts.

Of course, those hippies are quoting stats, and stats can be used to prove anything that is even remotely true. The anti-ecstasy cabal has anecdotes, and many of them! When it comes to solid arguments, you simply can't beat an anecdote.

Is this one of those classic controversies where there are two sides to the arguments and everyone has their own appropriate view?

No. It is not.

Drug use in general is not something that should be controlled or curtailed by the government. If you want to fry your brain, then that is your problem. However, repression in the case of Ecstasy is especially egregious simply due to the benign nature of the drug. Big Macs almost certainly kill people on an scale many orders of magnitude higher than ecstasy ever does.

I do not applaud the latest drug "bust". It simply saddens me that we spend millions of dollars pursuing these pseudo-criminals when the money could be better spent on well... anything.

2004-03-31T12:16:00.000-05:00

The refreshing smell of rationality

From Segacs, Sen. David Tkachuk spoke out against our government's cowardly stance on Israel and the recent liquidation of Yassin.

What is of great concern to me is that we are starting to see a pattern of equivocation emerge. I fail to see how an equivocating position is good for Canadians as we witness the escalation of violence and the mounting death toll on both sides of the war. When one of Canada's ministers suggests that Israel behaved contrary to its obligations, I suggest this government is getting closer to condoning terrorist actions. When our media repeatedly defines Sheik Yassin as a spiritual leader, I disagree. I suggest that this bolsters terrorism itself. The "spiritualism" of Yassin would be considered a blasphemy by the Christian standards that I uphold, and I would suggest that the faith and values of Canada's other religions would not condone acts of extermination, something that Yassin's organization, the Hamas, holds as its mandate

I could not agree more, and I am very glad it was said. I honestly thought that the world would do nothing more than mouth off diplomatic platitudes after the assassination since they would all realize that it was an appropriate action. The obituaries to a terrorist though have sickened me, and I'm happy to find at least some small piece of sanity among this entire mess.