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The Plight of Temporary Canadians

Because of terrorism that Hezbollah, Party of Dog, launched from their chunk of occupied Lebanon, Lebanon is a war zone. This has resulted with great clamor for countries to extract their stranded citizens. Many countries have 10's of thousands passport holders in Lebanon. Australia has 10's of thousands of "well behaved" Aussie passport holders in Lebanon. Canada has 10's of thousands of passport holders in Lebanon. However most of "Canadians" in danger are dual citizens. These are people who spent three or four years in Canada at some point in their lives. These are Lebanese with Canadian passports. Garth Turner, the Conservative member of Halton has been asking questions about the cost of rescuing Lebanese from Lebanon. There has been a change of policy. Most countries, most of the time will rescue their citizens in distress, billing later for the travel costs. The Canadian evacuation OTOH will be gratis.

The Current, 2006/07/20 discussing this topic.

Update: According a report on The National, 37,000 people are registered for evacuation with the Canadian Embassy.

Other Takes on Buffet and Gates

Ted Rall is a bitter, bitter man. But that's his charm. Recently he presented his contarian view of the Buffet/Gates mega charity by treating them as more successful robber barons then Ken Lay. When Buffet announced his donation makes of the commentry was quite positive, see here for cartoons on the conventional view of the Buffet/Gates charity merger.

Rall's objections can be boil down two main points. Wealth creation is not free. "Gates scammed his dough the old-fashioned way: overcharging his customers and underpaying his employees." Why should public services be dependent the whims of the charitable. We have already went down the route in the middle ages. "... good causes all, but maintaining Pearl Harbor is one of the reasons we pay federal taxes. Why does a national war memorial need help from Gates?"

""We're On a Mission From God" - Elwood Blues

From News of the Weird comes this odd story about criminally insane law in Texas.

The Texas insanity-defense law requires that a delusional person acting under "orders" from God be judged not guilty by reason of insanity, but that a delusional person acting under "orders" from Satan be considered sane, according to prominent forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz (according to a June USA Today story). Thus, Dietz believed that Andrea Yates (at press time being retried in Houston) knew that drowning her kids upon command of someone "without moral authority" (such as Satan) was wrong and thus that she did not qualify for insanity-law protection. Dietz later concluded the opposite in another Texas child-killing case because God had supposedly assured that mother that her kids would be better off dead. [USA Today, 6-20-06]

The problem for me is that what if you acting under orders that you and your culture considers a "moral authority" but every one else in the world considers very crazy. Say you are a pious and sincere Aztec. In your backyard you have an altar where you sacrifice your enemies' still beating hearts to Huitzilopochti. Eventually the police authorities might notice your religious practices.

Guilty or Not Guilty?

New Sporting Nation (I've never heard of)

I saw the highlights of game between Finland and Canada in the Lacrosse World Chapionships. I went to the website and came accross a flag I hadn't seen before, the Iroqouis Nation. Cool.

Ahh, Obsessive Fans

Here is a TV commercial promoting a British film festival. It treats the obsessive movie fan who constantly rewatches movies over and over kindly. I myself have seen The Blues Brothers dozens of times. This women is a big fan of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Update: Here is a Google Map Hack showing all of the Chicago Filming Locations in the Blues Brothers. Many of the location film have been extensively remodeled or demolished. The fan who put this together called this movie, "... a moment of time in a great American city".

Atomic Power is Grrrrreat

NY Times magazine, Atomic Balm, has an article about the rebirth of nuclear power. Three Mile Island discouraged the construction of new plants. Now new plants are going through the developemnt and planning process. Speaking as someone who wore a radition badge I see this a good thing. A character from Repo Man has summed up some of the best argruments about atomic power.

J. Frank Parnell: Ever been to Utah? Ra-di-a-tion. Yes, indeed. You hear the most outrageous lies about it. Half-baked goggle-box do-gooders telling everybody it's bad for you. Pernicious nonsense. Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year. They ought to have them, too. When they canceled the project it almost did me in. One day my mind was full to bursting. The next day - nothing. Swept away. But I'll show them. I had a lobotomy in the end

Spooky Pictures of Child Brides

On NPR is a photographer is discussing her photo essay of Afghani child brides that will appear next sunday in the NY Times magazine. One of the "brides" is payment of a gambling debt.

The justification for child brides in Islam is that Mohammed the child molester married a girl of 9. In fact any and almost everthing that Mo did is emulated by "sincere" Moslems. This modeling of aspects of behavior on all the actions of a "prophet" has few counterparts in other religons. King David wrote deep and beautiful psalms but that doesn't mean that his wacking of Uriah is used as a moral guide for Jews and Christians today who also want the date the currently married.

El Presidente, a Tyrant's Title

When I hear the title "president" I don't think of some constitutionally elected democrat instead it brings to mind a thug in thug's clothing. Most of the presidents around the world preside depotically. It is the title of some one who doesn't have convince anybody ever again. Mubabe started out as a limited Prime Minister in a renamed Rhodesia. Eventually he became a full dictator, the Thug-in-Chief we know today as president Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

Here is an article, In the Time of Presidents, that muses on the non-democratic nature of presidencies.

Terrorists Demand Isreal Release Murderer

One the demands of Hezbollah, Party of Wogs, is to release a Samir Kuntar. Samir Kuntar has a website dedicated to him. His fansite calls him a detainee. On the fansite is a demand to release him and "jailed legislator" Barghouti who like Kuntar is a convicted murderer.

I guess it is not murder if it is you are inspired by your moon god.

Anarchists in Power

The general view of the smirking chimp Bush is that he and his administration is corrupt and/or stupid. Alan Wolf in a recent Washington Monthly article, "Why Conservatives Can't Govern" explains that anti-statist conservatives have a belief system/ideology that predicts that government never works. It explains much of the madness that results when "sincere" conservaties get power.

Long Live the Armed Struggle, Until the Other Side Shoots Back

That pretty much sums up the attitude towards war of the enemies of Isreal/US/Spain/Thailand/India/Britian/etc in the continueing worldwide jihad against civilization. After a civilization reacts to constant low level war and violence and actually counter-attacks against Moslems and then begins to win. Moslems then cry for peace and offers a hudna or ceasefire. This is not a traditional peace treaty that ends a war or conflict which often involves the relinquishing of territory claims. But as many have stated a hudna is usually can be boiled down to a "stop firing while I reload" plea.

Crazy Wogs Attack

An IDF soldier was torn apart by a mob when he was killed in Nablus. Quote from newsreport:

Immediatley after the explosion, dozens of residents gathered around the soldier's body and burst into shouts of happiness in front of the Arab media's television cameras.

After the incident, a senior member of the Brigades told Ynet that his people hold part of the killed soldier's body, but another activist made it clear that there was no plan to negotiate on the body parts, which were later transferred to the Palestinian Authority and then to IDF representatives.

Considering the respect that muslims show to their enemies maybe it is time to repeat the practice of General Pershing when he was dealing muslim terrorists in the Philipines, always bury dead terrorists with pigs.

Ship in Book and News the Same Day

I was reading a book about the history of oil, A Thousand Barrels a Second. The book details some the techniques to increase whaling yield among which was making a whalers search the seas for black fish rather then remaining inshore whalers. An whale oil merchant built a bigger and longer range "factory whaler" then previous models. The ship, The Charles W. Morgan, is in the news for using oak casualties of Katrina for renovation and repair.

Sainted Cop

Photo Credit: Yoav Lemmery

An Israeli policeman stands in front of a building in Nahariya, Israel, as it burns following a hit by a Katyusha-style rocket fired from Lebanon. AFP/Getty

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The Dear Laeder

"Tragic" Death of Mob Figure Kenny Boy

Mob boss "Kenny Boy" Lay died yesterday while awaiting trial on collapse of of his front company. As reported in today's Globe many of Kenny Boy's friends and associates sympathized with his plight. Kenny Boy's life was the American dream, from being a lowly worker in the rackets to heading his own syndicate, until brought low by the justice system. Other associates however describe him in the typical manner of mob bosses.

In contrast to the genial, big-picture executive that Mr. Lay claimed to be, the jurors said they saw glimpses of a man who could be intensely controlling and who had a big chip on his shoulder. And that didn't jibe with the defence's portrayal of Mr. Lay as an unwitting victim of the collapse, along with thousands of employees and millions of shareholders.

Strangely in all the lists of well wishers and mourners Kenny Boy's pet politician is missing. DoubleU, a client of Kenny Boy has not shown any gratitude to his one time patron at this time.

Crazy Anger from the Wives of Terrorists

In today's Globe there is a story about the wives of muslim terror suspects. These wives ionhabited an online space where they exchanged opinions about how to keep to strict sharia law. They also had harsh opinions about Canada.

Ms. Farooq's hatred for the country is palpable. She hardly ever calls Canada by its name, rather repeatedly referring to it as "this filthy country." It's a sentiment shared by many of her friends, one of whom states that the laws of the country are irrelevant because they are not the laws of God.

This group didn't find much to like about Canada, or any country.

Ms. Jamal's list of forbidden institutions goes beyond politics. Banking, membership in the United Nations, women's rights and secular law are all aspects of Canadian society she finds unacceptable.

What is scary about this story is that it shows that there is alot more Khadr families here.

PS: In the comments for this article there is a comment by an Elliott Leyton who also happens to be an expert on psychopaths, see Hunting Humans. For an expert in evil he has an interesting opi9nion. (see below)

Elliott Leyton from Paradise, Newfoundland, Canada writes: No one could possibly have more respect than I for the gallant guys and gals at the 'Refugee' board and the Dept of Immigration; but they've really outdone themselves this time by importing a pack of persons who hate this country and would love to destroy it. Just as a matter of interest: do we have any criteria at all for prospective 'New Canadians'?

Lynching Victim's Odd Morality

I listened to an archived interview with the founder of the "Black Holocaust Museum" James Cameroon. 1930 he was almost lynched in the Marion, Indiana, his friends were, (see above). Cameroon recounts the entire episode from hanging with his friends to nearly hanging with friends in a more deadly way. The odd part of the story for me, that wasn't picked up on by the interviewer, was at the point of the armed robbery that got him arrested.

Cameroon and his friends hang out. They decide that they need beer money, I understand. Cameroon and his friends come upon a couple in an isolated car in lover's lane. One of Cameroon's friends hands him a gun. Then Cameroon notices that the man is one of his shoeshine customers. The man is the car is nice guy. Cameroon tells his "friends" he can't rob one of friends and hands over the gun and leaves. It turns out later that of the couple in the car come to bad end, the man is killed and woman raped.

What I don't understand is if James Cameroon was unwilling to rob someone he knew why was willing to standby and let someone else do the "job". At the point when Cameroon decided, as he says, that he wanted no involvement in an armed robbery he was holding a gun.

US Soft on Terror (Saudi Arabia Terror that is)

Here is properly footnoted article about US-Saudi relations by Daniel Pipes. The article details instantances of US authorities adapting to Saudi prejudices. American companies as behaving badly to please the desert barbarians. American law enforcement authorities not prosecuting Saudis for criminal actions that extend to slavery. Spooky.

But then the Republican Party under Lincoln was against slavery. The current Republican Party however in more in favor of deregulation to help the economy.

Spooky Sniper Training Film

While trolling around in a torrent tracking site looking for World Cup footage I came accross an oddity of a documentry, German Snipers - Der deutsche Scharfschütze 1944 (English-German) was a British trianing film put together from captured German training films. Here is the copy from the Pirate Bay listing.

Silent, motionless and deadly, German snipers lurked on the European battlefields of World War 2, hunting enemy sharpshooters, supporting assaults and laying diabolical traps on defense. Drawn from two German military training films made in 1944, this program provides fascinating views of tactics, weapons and camouflage techniques that are still viable today.

When I play Counter-Strike I hate the snipers. Because They are able to pick me off before I can use my spray and pray technique. However on the rare occasions when I can get nice clean kill it is more satistifying than all random hits from recconaisance by fire.

The photo is a Soviet sniper from an photography dealer. I remember coming accross another exhibit of Soviet photos from Stalingrad. In one case the photographer never changed the film, no film and/or didn't know how. So in the entire battle of Stalingrad he only took 20 frames.

Security Risks

"I took Jim Judd aside and said, 'What the hell are you doing?' " Mr. Hamdani recalls. "If you flag everyone who supports Palestine, that's 98 per cent of the Muslim population. I support Palestine -- am I a security threat?"

Communists were considered security threats in the Cold War for two reasons because were more loyal to their party, and the Soviet Union, than to their own countries. And because they supported violent revolution, if not in their own countries then somewhere else in the world, communists could not be good security risks.

Today many if not most Muslims in western countries can also be considered security risks for similar reasons. Many Muslims are more loyal to global community of Islam, The Ummah, then to their own fellow citizens. Secondly there are many supporters in the Muslim community of violent revolution, or jihad, in this case to impose Muslim rule. They may not support violent revolution here and now but many Muslims do support jihad somewhere right now. That is enough reason to consider Muslims in non-Muslim countries security threats.

Article in Friday 9, July 2006 Globe and Mail
Alienation at home, criticism form aboard
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060609.TERRORMUSLIM09/TPStory/Front

Current Reading: To Afghanistan and Back

Ted Rall, one of my favorite editorial cartoonist, has a book out about his trip to the start of the latest Afghan War. The book, To Afghanistan and Back, is great war reportage as well as being an adventure story. Adventure has been defined as someone having a horrible time far awayMy favorite section is where he goes into details about bathing facilities. He pays extra to get a rusty can cold water to pour over himself. He finds out later that water comes from a open sewer. Yum.

The story of foreign corespondents has been coverage in many other books. Philip Knightly wrote a history of the war corespondents, The First Causalty. The story is told from The Times corespondent Russel in the Crimea to now. Russel, in his relation other war correspondants called himself "the miserable parent of a luckless tribe". See here for more discussion about Russel and jouralism history with Knightly on On The Media. In the book Good Omens, the incarantion War one of the four Horsemen is the best war corespondent in history. Finally, I have a memoir of a war correspondant with the horrible title of Anyone here's been raped and speaks English.

Skyscaper Mania

The Economist has an interesting article about the Skyscapers. The Economist article repeats the way that skyscrapers are negative indicator of prosperity, the biggest are designed in boom times and by the time they are finished sit empty.

The article mentions the Skyscraper Museum, where the picture on the right is from. The Skyscraper Museum has a number of interesting web exhibits including this these images of a tower under construction. And a gallery of the favorite NYC towers.

Don't forget to look at James Lileks' archive of old, forgotten and never built towers.

Bussiness Action Figures

A group DotCommunist refugees in Toronto, called Happy Worker have created "action figures" of the business world. The figure on the right is Bossman, he also has other accessories such as MBA diploma and cigar. There are several other toys in this line, Moneyman, Geekman and Supermom. ha ha.

Haditha Massacre

An incident of bad behavior on the part of US troops is in the news recently. Apparently some troops were driving through the shitty town of Haditha when they came under attack. In retaliation the troops whacked a family. Thats the story. Many people see in this incident evidence of some sort American genocidal conspiracy. I don't. I see something much much worse. The problem was that the US troops acted like Iraqis, they went native. Mass executions on flimsy grounds are traditional in the Muslim world. Not enough repression on the other hand in a country like Iraq can only encourage civil war as every like tribe, clan, party and sect grabs for power.

Non-Role Models

I am always amazed that athletes, professional and otherwise, are assumed to be role models. I don't know anyone who ever had a pro athlete as a role model except for maybe aspiring athletes. Twelve years ago Charles Barkley did a Nike ad in which he expounded on the theme of not being a "role model", look here for (noncanonical) text. Here is an interesting story about how female collegiate athletes have been absorbed into the male drunken jock lack of culture. Apparently one fan got so annoyed with athletic scum that he started a blog about sleazy athletes, drunken athletes, and molesting coaches. Bob Reno's Bad Jocks has the same kind of cruel joy that Frank magazine in exhibits.

Big F-ing Gun

BFG is a gamer term for a big powerful gun. It was used in Quake as the formal name, not nickname, of one the most powerful gun. I think it was also current among gamers but I have no proof as yet. A custom gunsmith, Serbu Firearms, who used to sell silencers, has named their .50 cal BFG-50. It is has been rated higher than even the famous Browning.

Here is a video of a lawnmower getting what it deserves.

Counter-Strike Existentialism

Counter-Strike is an odd game. No matter how good you are, and I am not, you will die and be reduced to ghosting. Counter-Strike doesn't intoxicate you with power in the way that god games like Civilization do. Instead I am always reminded of the fraility of life. All of us despite skill and luck can be sniped down, fragged, drown, trip. Here is a machima short Deviation that is currently doing the film fest circuit. Here is the Boingboing link where I found this film.

Manufactured Sawed Off Shotgun

The Americans have an interesting (gun) culture. The sawn off shotgun above is manufactured that way. The copy on the website advises how legal it is to buy and sell, in the US, "...can be transferred with a $5 stamp!". A holster is also advertised that kind of looks like Han Solo's. The Canada's governing Angry Redneck Party has announced that it wants to gut gun control laws. Is this gun in Jane/Finch now? Or will it be there soon legally?

Video Games as Alternative Life

In Slate there is an article, Love Thy Playstation, Love Thyself, that attempts to explain the falling birth rate. The column is called the Dismal Science, examines the cost/benefit of everyday life. This article counts the entertainment value of computer games, average user 8 hours a week, to the cost and rewards of "true love".

Renaisance Man: Tomás Luis da Victoria

This week's Composer of the Week is a Spanish composer of polyphonic church music. Tomás Luis da Victoria was a priestly composer. In otherwards he would have treated my ancestors badly. He was an original Jesuit.

There is something quite new agey about polyphonic music with its choirs of sliding voices. Give it a listen.

Bill Maudlin

In looking around for more images of this iconic pair to the left I happened upon a Tribute To Bill Maudlin at the US Library of Congress. Also included is a bibliography about and by Maudlin.

Personality Survey

A friend of mine is has a posted an online survey as part of her Psych studies.

Soft Headed Defense of Terrorism

A panelist on DI in a report for The Fraser Institute suggests that if people want to come Canada they should give up there previous country and wars and only identify with Canada. He also wants a law in place to deport people who commit or surport terrorism acts.

All the women on the panel had a problem with dealing terrorism. They had problem with defining terrorism. They had problem with deporting people with terrorism, they can be charged. They had a problem with charging and not deporting for terrorism. One moron defended terrorist surporters as a human rights campaigners. She even defended the Tigers as a multifaceted organization that was involved in tsunami relief. The Tamil Tigers pioneered suicide bombing. Then she defended people involved in "legitmately pursuing national rights", like the Pali bombers. Now is a terror group that has bake sales, free clinics and a political wing harmless, or are they just terrorists with good PR.

Blown Up Real Good

A gaming company, Airtight Games, has created an engine that can model material deformation in game time. The movies on their site is from a superhero game. The image above is from oil bursting out a pipe and floating shipping crates around. There is also a plane crashing apart.

Be a More Successful Chain Saw weilding Manic

Here is ad from STIHL that actually refers to Leatherface, you know the most famous chain saw user. HA HA

Update: Bestadsontv stops you from going to the page you want. They are probably worried about being screenscraped. To get to this ad go to the page it was on, then click on the image of Leatherface.

Computer Audio Services

I listen to a lot of online audio. Mostly I listen to streaming audio. Here are some of my favorite stations. The another station I listen to, am listening to right now is David Byrne Radio. Every month David Byrne is focused on type of music. One month it is classic disco, another month it early country music, this month it is latin music.

That is the view of audio services from a consumer perspective. You however want to be a broadcaster. The software to create your programs are reasonably cheap and can be managed from midlevel machines. Your station or podcast can be listed for free in the various directories, shoutcast for streaming audio , and itunes for podcasts. The cost, the limiting cost is hosting. If you are providing a streaming service you will be paying for a streaming server. Your charges will be based on the audio quality and the number of listening slots, see more here for details. With podcasting the cost is based on total volumn downloaded. However I just come accross a podhosting company, Audio Blog, with unlimited downloads. Quite unusual. Streaming works well with music podcasts work well with speech the begining of sentences are sometimes needed for comprehension. Generally it can cost a dozen dollars a month up to hundreds, depending on bandwidth, to host your own audio programs. This is additional to any web costs to get online.

Lousy IE

In the classic words of the Comic Book Guy, Internet Explorer is "the worst browser ever!" From Google news there are plenty of stories about unveiling of a beta for a new version of IE. What is surprising is the software press is not positive. A critic at a specialist magazine is expected to promote both the product of advertisers and product in general. Which is Why Adbusters has had problems placing their anti-car ads in auto TV shows and the like. Now an online magazine like Playfuls, which covers computer hardware/software has come with, Is Internet Explorer 7 actually a competitor for Firefox? And from PC Magazine, PC Magazine wrote the book on the IT promoting / covering / not necessarily crititicing computer magazine, has a story The Great Microsoft Blunder. All can say is to echo Nelson Muntz with HAHA.

Fashion as Antropology

I listen to the latest On The Media and there had on the fashion writer Robin Givhan from the Washington Post. She won a local press award for criticism. This is quite unusual for fashion writing which normally focuses on the look of clothes rather than their meaning. WAPO has put a selection of her columns, from last year, together on a separate page. Check out the interesting writing.

Who gets an Obituary on BoingBoing

Jane Jacobs died today. She also joined a select and rarefied group. Those whose obituaries appear in BoingBoing. BoingBoing chooses the people and things to highlight that are meaningful to them. That is why they had an obit for Johnny Ramone and Peter Gzowski, Peter Drucker and James Doohan, the Whole Earth Review and a overweight Lobster, Andre Norton and Will Eisner. The one type whose obit is rarely covered are the usual ugly gang of authority figures, VIPs, professional assholes and stuffed shirts that fill up most of the column inches on obit pages.

Moslem Murders Inc

Through a depressing site I fequent I came accross another depressing site. The site called is called the Religon of Peace. Also on the site is an updated list of moslem murders. Yesterday, on the 24 of April, moslems killed 61.

There is also a link to Penn and Teller video deriding conspiracy theorists as marooons, to use Bugs Bunny expression. In the short video a fire guy is brought in who is a fire chief, a professor of fire engineering and an editor at Fire Engineering Magazine. Unfortunately the fire magazine website is constructor in a Microsoft code so is best used with the terrible internet explorer.

Interesting Politician

I saw the movie The Ugly American on TVO last night. The movie was as prophetic and depressing as I remember it. In the movie Marlon Brandon is sent to a fictionalized south asian country. The country, Sarkhan, is verging on instability, the commies want to take over, the government wants to stay in power, and a non-communist populist movement wants reforms and influence. Marlon Brando as ambassador Harrison McWhite, can a name be more WASPy, is sent to a country where he shad a good war. After being shot down he spent time with a resistence group, learned the language and the friendship of a resistence leader Deong. The friendship of McWhite and Deong breaks down quickly with both sides spouting slogans at each other. McWhite can't belive that anyone who is friend would surport policies and aims that are his own nation's interests rather than the US. The figure who is half way between two poles is the Sarkhan PM Kwen Sai.

Oddly enough the Prime Minister in the movie was played by somebody did become Prime Minister of Thailand. Kukrit Pramoj was originally seconded to the movie as a cultural expert. In the end he played his one and only movie role as a PM a role he played 10 years later.

Free Music Scores

I was looking aroud the web for a/any piece of music by Erik Satie. I ended up a one site, which refered me a 2nd site. Both of these sites were "free". The secound site where I found the Gymnopédie No. 1 by Satie there was a problem with the PDF provided it was missing the 1st page. The problem was this was "free" site. After trying to reload the faulty PDF as was told. I would to pay to get membership. Finally after several days I went to wiki as should have done from the begining. From there I connected to something called Mutopia, music+upotopia?, and I find the piece(s) I am looking for.

However I still have a problem. The piece that I get is not really scored for a piano. Just look at bars 5-6 on the except above. The right hand has to sustain a chord AND play an octave above the highest note in the chord. I think that this, as it is scored, is really a piano/flute peice. remember Hinterland Who's Who those short nature films put out Enviroment Canada. This piece of music played in the backgroud.

Crazy Iranians

In the latest Grab and Maul, there is a long article on Iran's "democratically elected leader". In course of discussing Middle Eastern history he launches in to this odd paragraph.

We'll have to stop pretending we've done nothing to offend the citizens of the area. The Chinese and the Russians have done terrible things in the past, and have admit, but Britain and particularly the Americans are in denial acting like their actions have always been blameless.

The problem is that some powers have an overly positive view of their own history and motives that is not evil just human. However Russia and China have distorted and rewritten their own history. Both powers in the last century have engaged in have airbrushed history when certain old comrades have been forgotten or written out of a history. There was a time in the 90's when Russians actually looked at/could at their own past. See The Chekist, a horrifying movie about the early Soviet security agency, most of the film is executions. That the case for Russians, the Chinese Communist regime will not admit to or apologize for anything. The ChiCom do want to talk about what they did last week in the Sudan, propping up that government of murderous jihadis. To say nothing of the millions killed in Cultural Revolution or the Great Leap Forward or any one of many noble sounding mass murders.

And then the article goes on about the "military" past of the Ahmadinejad. During the Iran-Iraq War he apparently ran a unit of the Basiji. These units would perform human wave attacks to clear minefield, overrun machine guns and other cannon fodder activities. The average age of these soliders were less than 15.

What Americans Earn

I came accross an archive of generic job descriptions on line. What is interesting is that most job pay a median incomes less the stated per capita GNP, see CIA's World Factbook. So where is all the money going. These job descriptions or "occupational analysis" provide many and interesting figures. In an old Hapers/Atlantic magazine there was an a story on how airline pilots had become to believe the rhetoic that competion and deregulation and forget they were actually working for a living. This was explained that most pilots, then in the early 90's late 80's, earned more $100K and so adopted a mangement viewpoint to economic "reform". That was before the massive shakeout of american airline industry. $100k in the late 80's, 1987 would be worth $150 and $250K today and according to the website noted above, 90% of airline pilots, and flight engineers make less than $100K. Most make less the median pay 20 years ago.

Doomsday Prediction

In a thread about future weather in alt.history.future someone posted a link to google earth/map hack. The hack shows which areas of the world will be innundated for a given sealevel rise. With a rise of only a couple a metres the California's Ccntral Valley just east of San Fransisco becomes another arm of San Fransisco Bay. With further rises countries disappear, Bangladesh, Seychelles, Netherlands. It is also suggested that the Dutch with their tech could create an island lower than sealevel. Other weird things happen like the Amazon acquiring an inland sea.

Very Interesting.

Corporate News from Biker World

In the appropriately named ROB, in the Grab and Maul there is a story about a corporate shakeup in Biker world. In particular the Bandidos. Haha.

Vacancy in the corner office

Bandidos Canada Inc., a small Southern Ontario trading company, underwent a high-profile corporate shakeup this week when eight executives, mostly in middle management, were relieved of their duties.

The firings followed an intense boardroom battle for control of the closely held company, a loose affiliate of the Texas-based multinational Bandidos Corp.

Bay Street analysts differed over the reasons for the internal feud within the firm, but it is understood there were corporate governance issues, and regulatory authorities have been closely watching its activities.

Executives from the Texas parent company have been unhappy for some time with weak earnings results from the Canadian arm, and this week they travelled to Ontario to try and repair the damage from the corporate bloodletting.

There is some speculation that they may try to revive its fortunes with a partial spinoff as an income trust.

A Bandidos Corp. spokesman said he could not comment, except to raise his middle finger.

A SHWI view of the Da Vinci Code

One of my favorite alt history authors, one one confines himself to writing on a newsgroup, is Raymond Speer. Some author posted an ad for his new book on soc.history.what-if. Raymond Speer takes that as a suggestion for a DBTL involving a secret history opposite to the da Vinci code. Here also is Screewtape's view of The da Vinci Code. Ha Ha.

Raymond Speer wrote:

I read Dan Brown's bestseller, _The Michaelanglo Code_, which says that Jesus never founded a dynasty, but instead was a celibate preacher.

If you look in the Gospels, you'll see that there is never any mention, not even once, of any marriage ceremony between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. (Or between Jesus and Lazarus' sisters, to anticipate objections by Orthodox.) The assumption that Jesus was a married man is only a guess made "fact" by constant repetition.

Look at his cousin, John the Baptist. It is conceded that John was single, a wanderin preacher in the Wilderness. Josephus mentions the Essenes, a Jewish faction that praised refraining from sex. Why would it be improbable to assume that Jesus migh have been a follower of the Essene Way through the influence of his cousin?

A long time ago, back in the third century when the texts still existed, a Christian named Loquoqus reviewed the writings of an early missonary named Paul, or Shorty. Shorty drowned when a ship he was on sank, but before then he had been one of the bolder messengers of Jesus Christ. Shorty was a real prude, advocating the restriction of sexual activity to the marital procreation of children. Would Shorty have been endorsing celibacy had Jesus Christ been fornicating normally only twenty years before?

Elected Landslides

Different goverments rebuild after a diaster differently. The suggestion that not all of New Orleans will be rebuild or repopulated has upset many people. However since the most badly hit parts of New Orleans are also the lowest and most vunerable to future flooding. It often a question after a diaster how much effort goes into repairing or prevention.

When the earthquake hit Kashmir last winter it hit Pakistan occupied Kashmir worse than on theIndian side. There were no reports of the conditions in ChiCom occupied Kashmir, probably a restricted military zone. One reason for greater destruction in Pakistan occupied Kashmir is that Pakistan settlement policies have led to a higher densities at higher elevations on land that is ecologically precarious and physically unstable. These settlement policies still being persued in Pakistan. On the PBS Newshour a Pakistan government official, army officer, was interviewed. To relocate and resettle the families that were displaced by earthquake the Pakistan regime will only give funding for rebuilding if people rebuild back up in the mountains, where they pushed out by the quake. The story profiled the case of family that has money to rebuild, but no more land, it slid away.

Obvious Headline

In today's Toronto's Star there is headline on the frontpage that is more statement than news.
Bikers Linked to Murders. The problem is the headline could run any time. More obvious headlines are Murderers Kill People. Or what about Some Candidates Elected, Some Not, or Movie Shown, or Cold Cases Remain Unsolved. Ha Ha.

American Influence in Latin America

I listened to a Julia Sweig talk on NPR about anti-americanism. At one point she was talking about how America is not responible for social welfare conditions in foriegn countries, especially in Latin America. Below is my transcription of what she said:

Allthrough I have talked alot about what the US has or has not done. Also the case there are certain things the US cannot be responible for nor can be held responsible for. And in Latin America, especially you know the elites in these societies, those that do have the wealth, becasue Latin America is not a poor region it is just a very unequal region. They do have some responsibility to implement something that I call a social contract. A social contract which means investing in their own people. And thats not somethime we can export. So I do think it is important to distinguish between where the US can be responible for something and where it frankly can't be.

The problem is that the US has intervened militarily in Latin America on behalf of small elites primarily when local governments were improving the social contract and living conditions of most of the locals. It has not being a stated policy that the US is always in favor of lower living standards for most people. It is just that the life styles of the rich and foreign investors are valued more highly.

Wolves and the Illusion of Rancher Independence

Canadian ranchers have had a hard time of it lately. Because of the BSE crisis, which has stopped the export of live cattle, the wholesale price of cattle has dropped in half, while the consumer cost of meat has not moved. One obvious solution is that ranchers form their own meat pools and set up their own packing companies. Which is what the wheat farmers did after being screwed over by the elevator companies. However ranchers believe in the myth of their independence and are unwilling to combine together for better bargaining. This is as bazzare as the type of people who are most resistent to some sort of unionization, which would better their own lot, are the same people who are most fervent in support of "our free enterprise system". There is DS9 episode which deals with this contradiction of anti-union free enterprisers, Bar Association.

Now ranchers are up in arms about wolves, and not about the meat packing companies that are screwing them over. To make a tastless joke, wolves are nature's way to control the number and profitablity ranchers.

Yoko Ono the Performance Artist

Yoko Ono in someways destroyed your artistic reputation by marrying a "Beatle". In many ways she is similar to Andy Warhol. The difference is that her involvement with rock music damaged her reputation. Whereas Andy Warhol involvement with The Velvet Underground made Warhol hipper and and the VU artier. Now from Boingboing comes film of one Yoko Ono's most noted performance art works, "Cut Piece" (link to film/mpeg). Like alot of performance art the actions and behavior of the audience creates the art.

Spooky.

The Great Transformation

Karen Armstrong has written a book, The Great Transformation (Amazon link), about how roughly 2500 years ago, during the Axial Age, religon evolved from tribal beliefs to a more inclusive development of empathy. Interesting in this history of religous development she also puts details Greek rational philosophy. I could go on but why listen to me when you can hear Karen Armstrong talk about her book on NPR's Talk of the Nation. On Amazon there is some reviews of this book.

History of Plywood

Years ago there was a seasonal ad campaign at Grand and Toy. The campaign obstensively advertised horrible gift ideas, with kicker that Grand and Toy had stuff that people both needed and wanted. One if the gift suggestions was a book set about construstion technology with one the books being The History of Plywood. I would amuse my friends and relations by asking for The History of Plywood at Grand and Toy in person and by phone. It was both joke and serious. Because I have a weakness for technology histories. I have read both The Natural History of the Screwdriver and an earlier and more obscure book whose name I have forgotten. Now I have come across a history of plywood at a trade association for the "engineered wood industry". And through this history is parochial, American patents are cited as proof of invention instead proof of the existence of American patent lawyers, and stilted it at least gives some sort of timeline.

The Plywood illustration come from a chichi yacht supply company.

Comics Curmudgeon

Comics Curmudgeon is a blog devoted to daily comic strips.

Islamic Imperialism Explained

For most people the term Imperialism is used to describe the bad behavior of white people. Tranny and oppression of non-white people by other non-white people is not described as imperialism. Instead a country that fought to abolish slavery thoughtout the world is described as a "evil imperialist". And a country that has brought down a murderous tyrant is reviled.

Now Efraim Karsh has writen an explaination for the mindless agression of moslems to the world. Islam's Imperial Dreams explains how Muslim politacal ambitions aren't a reaction to Western encroachments. Of course as Armenian, like Yosuf Karsh, knows that islamic rule is not always sweetness and light.

Chinese Atrocity Story

There is a report from NW China about some broken skulls found in a forest. I think that somebody at ChiCom Ministry of Truth has screwed up. Given the chinese state propensity for murder, these victums most likely killed by officially licensed state killers.

Photo Caption from Chicom Press
A total of 121 skulls whose tops had been sawn off were discovered last week in a forest in Northwest China's Gansu Province. DNA tests are underway to work out if the skulls belong to human being. The skulls were first thought to be monkeys, but a local professor held a suspicion that they belong to human being as he had found plastic teeth in a jaw of one of the skulls.

Tom Delay Quits

Smiling is not the normal reaction to being arrested. But to the right is Tom Delay's mugshot. He does seem a little too happy. I came accross a thread in SHWI from 1999 that nails the personality of this smiling exterminator.

Patrick Q. Mullen wrote:
> Bob Barr and Tom Delay are #'s 2 and 3 respectively.

I've met Tom Delay. I used to live in his district. He's definitely a big "number two" in my book.

The Gabrielis the Venetian Composers

The BBC3 Program Composer of the Week is focused on Andrea and Giovinni Gabrieli (1532/3-1585; 1555-1612). The Gabrelis were Venetian composers between the the eras of renaisance and boroque. I have tried to look for works by these composers in my local library system, unfortunately very few works by these composers are in the system.

Giovinni Gabrieli, wikipedia reference.
Andrea Gabrieli, wikipedia reference.

Potted History of the American Empire

 David Horsey is an editorial cartoonists at a Seattle paper. He has wrote a mock history of the US by treating it in roman terms, From Hanging Chad to Baghdad. Which is appropriate for a republic with senators and roman architecture. You find excepts of his book, Empire Rising, at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

CSI vs The Sopranos

Different pieces of fiction like long running tv shows, are set in their own universes. Whenever different Star Trek crews go back in time they seem visit an alternatate world where Star Trek hasn't been on the air for 40 years. In CSI the forensic experts are able to unravel obscure clues. In The Sopranos our favourite lunkheads are able to get away with stupid murders. In the latest Sopranos (Mayham) a trio of Columbians are killed by Paulie and a associate who then proceed to loot the apartment. They leave their bloody fingerprints all over the crime scene. This is a problem that take CSI, even the stupid Miami version, no more than 10 minutes to solve. There 2 ways reality is bent in these different shows. CSI always has the resources, manpower and ability to nail the perps. The Sopranos seem to get away with murder, but the anti-mob authorities perfer to frame huge unassailable conspiracies against their targets rather then prosecute for petty crimes and misdemeanors.

Tourism Advertising from Haiti

A religous supply site was found in Haiti. Story from the authorities "...speculated that the bones may have come from a Voodoo ritual." Oh Joy. Another set of religious motivated murderers. Here is the same story from the BBC with a less lurid image.

Signal Magazine

During WWII the Nazis put out their own sort of a picture magazine like Life. Their magazine was called Signal and it was published in many different languages including English. The English edition was distributed in the Channel Islands. I got this cool picture at a French site with Eastern Front photos.

Signal Magazine and Wikipedia entry.
Eastern Front photos.

War Correspondents Now and Then

Philip Knightley talks about war reporting on On the Media. Knightley wrote a book, The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero and Myth-Maker, about war corespondents and their relationship with military authorities. Knightley has updated his book which came out 30 years ago, I have an earlier edition. Knightley talks about the history of war corespondents starting in the past though Russel in Crimea, I have his book, to murders of Iraq, audio file here and transcript here. As is appropiate for a show the media there is a focus on the what Russel described, and described himself "the miserable parent of a luckless tribe".

Other International Incidents Caused by Cartoons

The cartoonist Henry Payne can be found here.

Klingon Wikipedia

While in the Star Trek Wikipedia, Memory Alpha, I came accross the Klingon language wikipedia. It is a wiki for Klingons and not just about Klingons. Makes want to pull out my klingon primer again to seriously learn the language. Klingon sports fans can learn our languages why shouldn't why learn theirs. Here is the entire entry for "human" from the Klingon Wiki:

yoq Segh chaH Humanpu''e' ("tera'nganpu'" luponglu' je). chaH mung 'oH Sol Hovtay'Daq tera' yuQ. vagh 'uj lu'ab Humanpu' 'ej wej loS ghap cheb'a' lu'ngI'. chorghmaH tera' DIS 'oH yIn poHchaj'e'. tera'Daq Segh val wa' neH tu'lu', 'ej cha' 'uy' ben 'oH'e' lumojpu' Humanpu'.

loghDaq lengmeH chuyDaH nap lo'vIS juHqo'chaj lumejlaH Humanpu'. maSchajDaq chaH, 'ach wej yuQ latlhDaq.

Tribute to Ali Farka Toure

I have only heard of the guitarist Ali Farka Toure. Althorough in retrospect I have heard his riffs in many different various programs. The BBC3 program World Routes dedicate their time to Ali Farka Toure's life and work. Listen (direct link to program archive) to it before it comes off the website on saturday. On the messageboard for World Routes one listener calls this program:

"This was the obituary to end all obituaries..."

Is the Taj Mahal not Mo

On a website of a Hindu convert Steven Knapp, there is a long discusion about the provence of the Taj Mahal. The tradional view, see wikipedia, is that Taj Mahal was built by a Mugal Emperor. There is also proof that the Moguls as the invading Muslims, merely reworked an existing Hindu/Vedic temple/place complex during their occupation of india. A PJ Oak has written a book, Taj Mahal the True Story, arguing this point. More argruements to this theory, with pictures, is presented at Steve Knapp's website.

(n)Ice Pictures from Antarctica

The American Antarctica program has lots of wonderful pictures at their website/photolibrary. The image above is the Canada Glacier which extends into the Taylor Valley toward Lake Hoare. An extralarge verison of this image can ge found here.

Boingboing has lots of recent Antarctica coverage.

What Do We Really Know?

A new book, What We Believe but Cannot Prove, is out that asks scientists about their (currently) unproven beliefs. It leads to some interesting philosophical discussions. NPR has an some of these discussions on Thinkers Lay Out Beliefs They Can't Prove.

Rally for Denmark

There will be a rally in support of Denmark on saturday in downtown Toronto, map.

Christians in the Middle East

I listened to an NPR program, Christian Numbers on decline in the Middle East. Every guest commentator refused to call this demographic change the result of religious oppression. Listeners would recount how they and their families moved because of religious tyranny. Then one of the guests experts would say no one has rights in a dictatorship. When a calller brings up the plight of the Copts the experts explained that thro incidents of terrorism occur Egypt's mainline terror group is not in favor of murdering christians.

Nemo's revenge and others

A fake merged movie ad from a contest on Worth1000 about miscast films. Nemo and his father are clownfish. On land not everbody likes or trusts clowns, see details of the evil clown phenenom. When Homer Simpson became a franchise Krusty the Klown (2F12 Homer the Clown) he became disenchanted with being a clown.

Homer: Aw, being a clown sucks. You get kicked by kids, bit by dogs, and admired by the elderly. Who am I clowning? I have no business being a clown! I've leaving the clowning business to all the other clowns in the clowning business.

Real Life Simpsons

Real life family acting like the Simpsons. An ad set in Northern England with real people standing for Springfield and the Simpson's. The ad is from Sky, a satellite service owned by the same short fingered vulgarian (Murdoch) that owns Fox. HAH HAH!

Crazy Moes

The cartoonist's site is here. Found at Cagle.

Lego Sculptor

 
Nathan Sawaya is a Certified Lego Professional, a certification I knew existed. His work is done both on small scale, talk to the hand, and the huge scale, see the 8' pencil. More images of his work can be found here at his gallery site.

Interesting Blog: The Candy Addict

The Candy Addict is devoted to candy. That's all. No politics, no philosophy, only candy.

Cheney Less Popular than a Pedophile, Murderer or Tyrant

According to a new poll from CBS news Cheney the Dick, VP in Chief, has had his popularity drop to 18%. A commentary from Washington Post points out that Cheney is now less popular than Michael Jackson, OJ Simpson and Josef Stalin. I can half understand that there some people who still have feeling for Stalin. I've met them. There are also people who revere the memory of a bandit chief who lived in 7th century Arabia. Great villians are easier to both admire and emulate. They don't put any ethical restaints on their fans.

Great Blues Lyrics #2

From a song by Otis Spann
Come Day Go Day

You drank whiskey for breakfast
and Alka seltzer all day long

The Architecture of Control

The Architecture of Control is blog devoted all of the design that is meant to limit the actions of the users. The blog sums up its raison d'etre nicely.

Increasingly, many products are being designed with features that intentionally restrict the way the user can behave, or enforce certain modes of behaviour. The same intentions are also evident in the design of many systems and environments.

The parkbench above is one the new kind that is designed to uncomfortable. Why a public body would hate its public so much to install this abomination is explained in this ad copy from Belson.

Redesigned to face contemporary urban realities this bench comes standard with a center arm to discourage overnight stays in its comfortable embrace.

Blogging as Life

Too true.

Spooky Anti-Drug Ads

Montana, not the usual place to think of when advertising is mentioned, has produced a series of anti meth ads. Most of the ads focus on the addictive nature of this drug. In this age anti drug paranoia the best drugs to promote, for drug dealers, are those that are used uncontrollably by a small number of people, like crack and meth. Drugs whose usage is more widespread at the same time with lower expenditures per user, like pot, are less intensely profitable. It is easy to market to addicts rather than occasional users.

The Montana ads, are too graphic for most media outlets was developed in conjunction with meth addicts. On of the ad men behind this ads talks on NPR.