Life On Mars

There are some things people should remember about John McCain. Here are some of them (click to enlarge):



Speaking of conservatives, here in Canada the Conservative Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maxime Bernier, recently resigned after a scandal involving his buxom girlfriend, pictured below, who might have had ties to the criminal world.



When asked for comment, Prime Minister Harper just couldn't stop talking about (and miming) Bernier's girlfriend's boobs:



Boobs. Is there anything they can't do?

In other weird "conservative" news, there's a movement afoot by those on the Right of the political spectrum in the USA to make English America's official language. (See, they currently don't have an official language, hence it's perfectly reasonable for the all the immigrating Mexicans to demand services in Spanish). Well, if the following image (courtesy of the Houston Chronicle) is any indication, maybe these English-speaking activists need to, you know, learn some English:


I love that she took the time to underline her idiocy.

Since we're on an image roll, I thought I'd share with you the following story in images. It's of a rock god, Mr David Bowie, a great inspiration to me over the years. One of my favourite Bowie songs is "Life on Mars", which many people believe to have been Bowie's response after having been muscled out of writing "My Way" for Frank Sinatra, by --of all people-- Paul Anka. See, "My Way", was based on an old French song called, "Comme D'habitude". All three songs employ the same chord changes. Weird, huh?

Well, first we have the original performance of "Life on Mars" by a young Bowie in 1973, featured in this video by Mick Rock. Revel in the fashion and in the youth:



Next up is a mostly a capella version set to images of Bowie's life:



After that is a live performance in the mid-80s, as part of the legendary "Serious Moonlight" tour. This was the first time I'd heard the song, and was impressed by Bowie's significant lung volume and sheer vocal power. I think he's 40-something in this one:



Last up is the modern Bowie, dapper at 62, but still a bit sad for those of us who still think of him as the youthful weirdo. Notice the deeper voice, slower tempo and overall agedness --which nonetheless make this a more profound and emotional performance:



I guess even rock gods get old...

Bye Bye, Vista

Don't ask.

Who are the most cynical people on Earth? Doctors! Here's a list of things they write in your file that you're not supposed to know about. Probably all a crock o' shit, but maybe I'm just a faecal encephalopath.

This blog post attempts to tabulate the degree of scientific accuracy portrayed by various science fiction films. (Hey Dee Mack, it links to your Skiffy article!) I'm not sure I hold with its criticism of 2001's "weird depiction" of the effects of vacuum.

Also in space news, there's a new storm on Jupiter that threatens to overtake the Great Red Spot!

Darth Vadum sends us this horrific news of a plan to tax pornography!!

Dawn sends us this story about a store that's offering the great deal: buy a car, get a free gun. Now, if it was free gum, I'd so be there!

Dawn also sends us this link to a site tracking fun typos across America.

Don't have much more to say today, except to whine a little more about how much MicroSoft Vista is pissing me off. The dang thing crashes all the time, annoys me with endless messages, is always getting infected with Trojan Vundo, and doesn't play well with non-MicroSoft products, like Firefox and the new crappy Palm desktop.

I refuse to be seduced by the cult of Mac, but I have to admit that Mac OS is probably a lot more stable and reliable than Vista, and Apple is probably a lot more responsive to personal computing issues than MicroSoft appears to be.

I'm just tired of big corporate computing in general. So when I get back from France in a couple of weeks, I'm going to start the process of migrating to all open-source computing bits, starting with adopting Ubuntu as my platform of choice. Stay tuned to this gripping development.

I leave you with one more reason Firefox rocks:

Indiana Jones And The Kingdom of the Crystal Turd

The following contains spoilers for the movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull...

image taken from burbanked.com

About four years ago I was horrified when my girlfriend at the time mentioned casually how she did not care for any of the Indiana Jones movies. Instead, she preferred the piece of steaming crap we had just finished seeing: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. I knew then that the relationship was doomed to failure.

For a generation of sofa-bound adventure types, the Jones movies are the pinnacle of laddish delights. Through them, we travel to a time and place where intellect and two-fisted bravado can coexist, where the good guys are really good, and the bad guys are the worst of the worst. It's a place where clues are solved with both your brain and your testicles, and where mind, heart and spirit conjoin to produce heroism in its most profound form.

Thus, the twenty year wait between the 3rd movie (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) and this fourth one promised a return to the purity of that form. In the interim, some of us inspired by Indy have ourselves become adventuring professors who trek through jungles, savannahs and mountaintops in search of strangeness, romance and exotic infections.

Well, I'm here to report that the new movie is very enjoyable. But it's also a great disappointment.

Where to start? Yes, Ford (and thus Indy) are now 66 years old. That's okay. The film even makes a few aging jokes. But given that he's 66, maybe it's not so convincing that he's beating up tough Red Army soldiers half his age? I would have much preferred to have seen an emeritus adventurer directing his little young proteges about.

Karen Allen, while ten years younger than Ford, has aged well for an average woman, but poorly for a Hollywood starlet. Sharing a screen with 39 year old Cate Blanchett, who looks fan-freaking-tastic, doesn't help her much either. But Allen's role doesn't call for her to be the hot young thing anymore; it calls for her to be spunky and worthy of Indy's heroics to save her. Sadly, their supposed re-budding romance just looked more like an episode of the Love Boat. Eww.

Then there's Shia LaBoeuf as Indy's son. Yes, his son. Why does Indy need a son? Why does Superman need a son? What is with Hollywood and its recent celebration of the absentee father? It's too cute, too convenient, too trite.

The action was way over the top. This was more a video game than an Indy movie. The old Indy crawled under moving vehicles and was bruised and beaten for his efforts. The modern Indy --and his son-- straddle speeding jeeps while rapier-dueling, and neither emerges with a bruise. All too convenient.

See, there's a line between campy and stupid, and this movie crosses that line often. Here are three examples: Indy survives a nuclear explosion by hiding in a refrigerator. Read that again. Then his son swings from tree vines like Tarzan, leading his own army of monkeys. Seriously. And --get this-- Indy gets pulled out of a sandpit, using a live python as a rope. Stupidity abounds.

And lastly..... aliens? Haven't Lucas and Spielberg given us enough aliens already? Indy has always been about ancient cultures and their connections to indefinable deities. By defining the deities as space aliens, the movie is dragged from mysterious to hokey. Me not like. And don't get me started on how ridiculously fake that crystal skull looked. Geez Louise.

Anyway, colour me disappointed. This could have been a tremendous film, an opportunity to really show how an aging adventurer could hold his own mentally instead of physically, in a changing world that no longer appreciates his style. But no. Instead, we get the Love Boat.

At least I still have the terrific TV series, Young Indiana Jones. No aliens show up in that one.

Moobs, part 2

Headline from the Times: Obestity fuels growing "boy-boob" problem. To my brothers in moobishness, I feel your pain. If I were to abandon my regimented programme of bench presses and push-ups --an eventuality of age!-- I fear that what pass for my pecs would quickly transform into the dreaded "man boobs", as well.

Fans of Seinfeld know that Kramer had a solution: the "manzier" or "bro":



Personally, I prefer the term "pectacle" for a male sports bra. And no one can steal it now, 'cause I've mentioned it here and it's date stamped!

In other news...

Brother Bhash sends us news of a new device that can turn waste heat into electricity. He likens it to "green glue".

Today's Daily Perv Links (TM) are twofold, one fanciful and the other disturbing. The latter is news that a Calgary child molester had also had his way with victims of the canine persuasion. The former is news of a New England play that features illegal dog-loving in a character-affirming way. But the question before us still persists: are these stories indicative of the mainstreaming of this particular illicit activity?

The Grammar Nazi Strikes Again

This past week in Montreal I met an interesting fellow who works in speech pathology and who knows a fair bit about linguistics. He posited the following sentence, which apparently is an example of the type of linguistic logic that some linguists have suggested is what English is morphing into:

"The boy that the girl that the car hit saw fainted."

Now the questions that he posed to me, that I now pose to you, are:

1. Is this English?
2. What is happening in the sentence? That is, who's doing the hitting, fainting, seeing and car driving?

Clearly, this is not standard grammar. If it were presented in a school essay, I trust the teacher would take exception. That's not the discussion before us. Rather, is there intrinsic clausal logic in the sentence, and thus should it qualify as English?

The Grammar Nazi strikes again.

Mmmmm.... Dead Cow

Greetings from the swanky Hotel Intercontinental in Montreal. Been in this fair city for almost a week now, on work. But now that the weekend is here, I've decided to reward myself with some decadence, beginning with a $60 steak and continuing with a 2-hour massage. Here's a pic of the magnificent 22 ounce rib-eye steak from Moishe's on St Laurent Blvd, so big it took me two days to finish it. My hand is included for scale:



The Other Ray sends us this site of pretty pictures from nature. Here's a taste:


Here are some random news bits and observations:

A high school teacher in Virginia ran an escort service on the side. When the school discovered her side business, she "chose" to resign, rather than being fired. Now, regardless of how you might feel about the so-called "escort" business, it remains legal in the state of Virginia. From all accounts, this woman was not engaged in anything illegal or even hidden. So what's the problem? Obviously, the "community" was displeased with the morality of her business. But would anyone demand the same scrutiny and discretion of someone who, say, was also a tobacco farmer? Or who owned shares in Walmart? Both of those examples feature involvement in legal activities that can be shown to contribute to the detriment of society and its health. Yet, once again, it's activities of a sexual nature that are set aside for hypocritical treatment.

All of the US Presidential candidates, on both sides of the aisle, have spoken belligerently about Iran. The most vocal has been John McCain. Hillary --she of the "obliterate" quote-- is not far behind. With all this frantic rationalization for "pre-emptive" war, has no one considered that it also serves to justify possible action by the Iranians? Think about it: prominent Presidential hopefuls are basing their platforms on their intents to attack and possibly invade Iran. So, according to the ridiculous dictates of "pre-emptive war", wouldn't Iran be justified in pre-emptively "addressing" those individuals by whatever means they saw fit, including militarily? Just sayin'.

Onto matters of less importance.... Fans of the new Battlestar Galactica know that this, the final season, features as its great central mystery the hidden identity of the final human-seeming Cylon. Prior to this season, a photograph, emulating the Last Supper, was released to the media, supposedly with clues implicit as to the identity of this last Cylon:


One fellow has analyzed the photo and has made his own conclusion about the hidden one's identity. If you don't want to know what he concludes, don't click here.

Lastly, check out this priceless "success story" for the Indian matrimonial site, Shaadi.com:

"DEAR SIR,
WE GOT MARRIED ON 25 DEC LAST YEAR. WE PROCESSED THE MATRIMONY CASE THROUGH SHAADI.COM. WE ARE ENCLOSING THE PHOTOGRAPH FOR YOUR REFERENCE. THE CASE PROGRESSED WITH ITS USUAL HICCUPS:
THE PARENTS WERE DEALING THE CASE ON OUR BEHALF. WE FOUND THAT DIRCT DEALING WITH THE BOY/GIRL IS MORE OFTEN THAN NOT 'NOT A SERIOUS PURSUIT'

THE CORRESPONDENCE /CHATTING STOPPED FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS AND THE CASE APPEARED AS GOOD AS DROPPED; BUT THEN BOY'S PARENTS THOUGHT IT WAS A TAILOR MADE MATCH AND MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO FIZZLE OUT.THE CONNECTION WAS REVIVED AND IT WORKED OUY SUCCESSFULLY;THANKS TO SHAADI.COM"

Awww, how romantic! Isn't it great when lawyers hook up?

That is all.

Sir Richard Francis Burton

Still in Montreal doing the medical sociology thing. It's interesting how the more I drink, the better my French gets.

First up, The Other Ray leads us to this remarkable blog by a remarkable teenage girl --she's only 15!

Nasty Nicky B sends us a deep analysis of the history of deaths in the original Star Trek.

Darth Vadum sends us this hilarious re-mixed video of Bill O'Reilly's outtakes.

And Cousin Ajay alerts us to a fellow who put his cheating wife on sale on Ebay. A link to the ad is here. Or you can click on the photo below:


Now, I really don't like the blogging phenomenon of "tagging". Whenever someone tags me, I just delete the message. But this time I'll give it a shot. A while back, Nasty Nicky B tagged me and others because he was tagged. The tag was this:

(1) Link to the person who tagged you.
(2) List 5 random/weird things about your favorite historical figure.
(3) Tag 5 more people at the end of your blog and link to theirs.
(4) Let the person know they have been tagged by leaving a note on their blog

Okay, let's begin:

(1) Done.

(2) I choose Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890).... the explorer, not the actor. Random things about him:

i. Sir Richard has been written in as the hero in at least two science fiction novels or serials. The first, and most famous, is the masterpiece by Philip Jose Farmer, the Riverworld books, in which everyone who has ever lived is resurrected at the physical age of 25, naked, along the banks of a 1000 mile long river. In the books, Burton is the dashing hero who traverses the length of the river, encountering, loving and battling historical figures, like Hermann Goering and Alice Liddell Hargreaves (the real life inspiration for Alice In Wonderland.)

Burton also makes an appearance in the lesser known book, Larklight, by Philip Reeve.

ii. In a recent episode of the TV show Lost, titled "Cabin Fever", a young John Locke is seen escaping from a high school locker. A quick glimpse into the locker reveals a semi-hidden photograph of Sir Richard Burton, tucked behind a comic book:



iii. Burton's wife was named Isabel. While they lived, and after Burton had returned from seeking the source of the Nile with John Speke, Burton and Isabel were never seen in public without each other.

iv. A short film called Zero Patience features an imaginary encounter between Sir Richard and the notorious "patient zero", the flight attendant who is thought to have been the first person to bring HIV/AIDS into North America.

v. Burton is believed to have been the first white man to have seen Mecca and to have lived to tell and write about it. To pass as a Muslim, he needed to be circumcised. Legend has it that he performed the task, or had someone perform it for him, after imbibing a bottle of stiff liquor as his only anaesthetic. Now that's a real man!

(3) No, this nonsense ends now.

(4) No. Why? Because I'm not your monkey. That's why.

Nothing Is Going To Change

At Sush's prompting, I'm squeezing in time to do this blog post. I've been so insanely busy that everything has fallen by the wayside. (Aside: does one do anything to the "wayside" other than to fall by it?) I find myself in Montreal, attending a conference of medical sociologists. Montreal is a good opportunity to reconnect with some semblance of humanism. It seems everywhere I look, there are over-coiffed young couples smooching on the street. I like it. Occasionally it's nice to have an innocent break from hardcore porn.

Got some odds and ends for you today. First, resident Deonandia villain Darth Vadum sends us the following image stolen from Youtube of Max Raabe. According to the Dark Lord, Raabe has "stolen my smirk". What think ye?


Next up is a bit of self-pluggery. My latest MicroSoft column is up, and you can read it here.

Next, DR sends us this very entertaining video of Arthur Benjamin, the "mathemagician".

For you alternative energy enthusiasts, Dawn sends us this video of a dude attempting to use his electronics in the woods.

Andoo sends us a list of the most quoted statistical fallacies.

Meanwhile, my favourite Youtube video series is back for another season. Here are the pertinent links:

Ironman meets Batman
Marvel/DC Season 2, episode 1, part 1
Marvel/DC Season 2, episode 1, part 2

Speaking of homemade videos, JJ sends us this hilarious Hillary Clinton short film:



And speaking of Hillary, are you as tired as I am of the way American cable news covers this pre-election election? It's like a sporting event and not a public policy event. Teams of dour-faced reporters, eager to congratulate themselves on their gravity, line up to discuss --not the issues facing the nation-- but the "game play" of the competitors. How many times have I heard an anchor turn to an analyst as ask him to predict what Hillary or Obama is going to say in their next endless address.

Instead of telling us what they're going to say, how about telling us what it all means for the country and the world? It's entirely content-free coverage that belies media's lazy comfort with sports metaphors and manufactured competition. One day soon we will have slow-motion replays of candidate's rhetoric, complete with analysts' chalk drawings of who spewed what where and why.

Why does all this happen? Because, frankly, there is pretty much zero difference between all the candidates, Republican or Democrat. That's true in Canada, as well. As a result, there are no substantive issues to dissect. We exacerbate the minute differences between supposed left and supposed right because that's what's expected of the sports metaphor. But in truth, all candidates are playing the same game, the same way, with the same rhetoric and the same policies.

Will an American President disavow capitalism? Economic expansion as the only way to produce wealth? The independence of the federal reserve as a monolithic rate-setting institution? Will he even reject the tired lingo and fashion choices?

There is no real choice in the modern Western democracy. All options arise from the same pool of identically educated individuals with pretty much the same experiential base, the same values, the same goals and the same view of the world, their country, economics and philosophy.

And thus, nothing is going to change.

On that lovely note, I leave you with this review of Toronto Noir in Eye Weekly.

Why Moderate Voices Need Not Speak

It seems yesterday's episode of TVO's The Agenda is garnering quite a lot of attention out there in web land. Mine was only one of hundreds of blog posts on the subject. A few follow-ups:

1. This guy well summarizes the problem with Mark Steyn.


2. After re-viewing the show this morning, I feel I passed judgment on Steve Paikin a bit too quickly. The poor fellow was trying to manage a chaotic situation. That he had three Muslim students to contend with, as opposed to only one Mark Steyn, probably compelled him to intervene more during the formers' presentations, hence my possible misperception of bias on Paikin's part. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.


3. However, I'm quite put off by the spam comment apparently left by TVO's production staff in Paikin's name. I think it's spam because I've found the identical text in the comment sections of a few other blogs I've read today. For shame, TVO. And now I feel like a fool for having responded in good faith.

I also want to say a little something about this ongoing demand among "conservative" circles for "moderate" Muslims to more vocally disavow the extreme positions of the fundamentalists in their community. I can see why someone might request such a public disavowment. But frankly I find its need rather distasteful.

It's anathema to the principles of a liberal society to demand that a community justify its existence by continuously being required to explain why it should not be judged by the stereotypes put forth by a minority. Do we call for the Jewish community to issue public proclamations insisting that they really don't control the world banking system? Do we call for the Irish community to disavow its relationship with the IRA? Do we call for the Black community to publish regular ads explaining that they're not drug dealers and gangsta thugs? Do we call for the Italian community to insist that they're not involved in organized crime? So why must everyday Muslims be required to publicly distance themselves from the antics and rantings of a vocal few? Why must they be required to explain to their neighbours that they're not terrorists?

Anytime we require a community as a whole to answer for the media-fueled misperceptions of its nature, by virtue of the actions of its more newsworthy lunatic fringe or by virtue of myths and stereotypes, we denude that community's dignity and reinforce a power dynamic that positions that community in an inferior role relative to the so-called "mainstream". It's the heart of racism, and will surely pay negative dividends somewhere down the line.

So whose responsibility is it to reset the scales to offer a more realistic and balanced perception of a given community? It's the responsibility of each of us to be educated and to have rational thought processes that recognize that the plural of anecdote is not data. In the modern world, it's also the responsibility of mass media to recognize its awesome power to shape reality by cherry-picking instances of cultural depiction. Just count the number of editorial cartoons you've seen of Muslims as goat-herders and suicide bombers, and compare it to the number of images you've seen of Muslims as scholars, tradespeople, poets, musicians, doctors and journalists. The former image is more common in media, but any reasonable person should recognize that the latter image is the overwhelming truth.

Thus it's the moral (though not legal) responsibility of MacLean's magazine, Mark Steyn and the Western Standard to recognize the damage they do by harping on the words of extremists while simultaneously wondering aloud why so-called moderate voices aren't disavowing the lunatic fringe.

Well, let me turn the tables a bit. Why aren't all those who voted Conservative in the last election publicly disavowing the racist screeds of RightGirl, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and David Duke? Shall we assume by the silence of supposed "moderate voices of the Right" that these extreme voices speak for them all? No? Then stop expecting the rest of the world to conform to a different set of expectations.

That is all.


In Other News...

My current obsession is the life and times of King Henry VIII of England. I've become a huge fan of The Tudors and just started watching that wonderful 1971 BBC production of The Six Wives of Henry VIII. As an interesting aside, I find it odd how the actresses who played Anne Bolyen in both of those productions, 37 years apart, so resemble each other.

First, here's an image of the historic Anne Boleyn:


Now here's the late Dame Dorothy Tutin from the 1971 show:



And here's the bodacious Natalie Dormer from the current show:


Eerie, no?

Sickened By Steyn

Canadian so-called "conservatives" are an interesting lot. As some of you are aware, some Canadian Muslims finally took action after years of putting up with Mark Steyn's alarmist screeds about the Muslim terrorist horde at our gates. Three Muslim law students took MacLean's magazine to task under the Ontario Human Rights Commission, claiming that Steyn's collection of op-ed articles over the past few years have essentially fed hate against Muslims in Canada.

There are a few points I'd like to make about this issue. First, it's interesting that the right wing blogosphere --almost overnight!-- chose to simultaneously slur the three students as "the sock puppet three." Go ahead and google "Steyn" and "sock puppet" and see how many blog hits you get. It's frightening how organized the extreme Right is in this country, as if they are one beast with a single hideous head, possibly buried in an oil field somewhere in Alberta.

Second, it is no secret that I dislike Mr Steyn. I have written many times about his racist and inciting articles. The example I like to cite the most is when he wrote that the so-called Muslim world is "economically, militarily, scientifically and artistically irrelevant". He has, since that particular article, written much more inflammatory stuff.

Having said that, Steyn is correct in that the most radical wing of Islam appears to be that which shouts the loudest, while the moderate majority remains unheard. Steyn says this in interviews, but not in his writing, in which he typically chooses to highlight and draw further attention to the most obscure and inflammatory of Jihadist quotations, essentially fueling the impression that the extremists are the majority.

It's this disconnect between what he purports to believe (according to his interviews) and what he actually writes that, I fear, may be at the heart of people's confusion over the matter: Steyn can rally the racist mob with one side of his mouth, while miming the reasonable and moderate citizen with the other.

Third, I am on record of being opposed to so-called "hate laws", like that under which the human rights charge is being made against MacLean's magazine. So long as one does not lie, and one can find a platform, one should not be criminalized for speaking one's mind. However, while hate laws still exist, I believe Mark Steyn and MacLean's magazine are guilty of having violated those laws, or at least the spirit and/or principle of those laws. They have done so by deliberately and consistently drawing attention to the most extreme statements spoken by extreme and often obscure Muslims, while systematically ignoring the truth of millions of well-assimilated and peaceful Muslims living in our midst.

Should Steyn's and Maclean's action be criminalized? Of course not; but anyone with a brain can see that Steyn/MacLean's have a political agenda that is not balanced and that is quite xenophobic. Any honourable writer would admit to his agenda, rather than wrapping himself in the flag of the holy defender of free speech.

Steyn and the Muslim law students appeared on TVO's The Agenda last night, and I was sickened by what I saw. It's the first time I've seen host Steve Paikin behave biasedly toward one guest (Steyn) on a matter of great contention. Paikin interrupted the law students frequently and challenged their points in a disruptive fashion, while allowing Steyn to pontificate for minutes on end. Paikin also took it upon himself to defend Steyn's position several times. And before you think Steyn was ganged up on by three fit young people (as Steyn claimed on the show), check out Steyn's own blog post to read his macho pre-match posturing. Moreover, Paikin kept trying to introduce idiotic themes, like "are we not allowed to offend in Canada?", while the students' case was far more subtle, to wit that styles of writing are inciting of hate, not just offense. I was offended by Paikin's seemingly intentional dunce act.

In Paikin's defence, I guess he was off his A-game due to having to referee a tense shouting match.

But back to the matter at hand. I find it hard to interpret Mark Steyn's writings in any other way than the following: that he believes Jihadist tendencies are prevalent across all communities of Muslims everywhere in the world; that he believes that the core beliefs of the Muslim people are anathema to what he perceives to be the values of his Canada; and that he believes that by virtue of differential breeding rates, Muslims are displacing what he believes to be proper Westerners, and are thus introducing "backward" and Jihadist tendencies into Western society, to an extent sufficient to sound the death knell of Western civilization.

If those are indeed Mark Steyn's beliefs, then he is entitled to them, and he is entitled to write about them. However, his confrontational and bitter writing style broadcasts the message that Muslims are banging down our doors with bombs strapped to their chests and iron burqas ready and fitted for our women. We communicate via style and tone, as well as via the specific meaning of the words we choose. It is disingenuous for a professional writer to claim otherwise.

As I've noted on this blog many times, there is a vile tendency among the Canadian Right, as can be seen daily on the Western Standard blogs, to vilify non-Whites and to call for obscene and criminal things to be done to them. In those instances, Steyn's writing if often cited as source material to fuel the rage. So Mark Steyn is free to write what he wants, but an ethical man and an ethical publisher would realize that there are foreseeable negative consequences to the words they print, and that they are thus ethically responsible for those consequences.

I will end with this... My internet friend Rondi quoted in a recent blog post an article by Sam Harris at the Huffington post, drawing attention to the phrase:

"The point is not (and will never be) that some free person spoke, or wrote, or illustrated in such a manner as to inflame the Muslim community. The point is that only the Muslim community is combustible in this way... Muslims appear to be far more concerned about perceived slights to their religion than about the atrocities committed daily in its name."

I think this is accurate. But rather than seeing this truth as indication of an oversensitive and irrational community who just can't handle a bit of criticism, how about we take a step back and recognize that while Western societies perceive themselves to be under physical attack by some elements of extreme Islam, all Muslims living in the West are under attack 24 hours a day, in the form of racism, both subtle and overt, and in the form of an increasingly hostile and ubiquitous mainstream media that revels in publishing the works of Mark Steyn and in portraying their ancient and accomplished civilization as unsophisticated and irrational.

Faced with such an unceasing and encircling assault, anyone with a sense of honour would choose to focus more on defending his community from the insults and mis-characterizations of outsiders, rather than from the misappropriations of one's own internal, radical fringe.

UPDATE: A few hours after the airing of the TVO show, and the right wing blogosphere gives me just what I expected. Case in point is the following by Canadian "conservative" blogger "Girl On The Right", who writes of one of the three law students opposing Mark Steyn:

"He talks to himself. In public. When cameras are on him. He bobs his head around, and mouths words. Is he praying? Is he strapped with C-4, just waiting to be pushed over the edge, so he can jump up, give a roaring Allahu Akbar, and pull the detonation pin?"

And with that, the case against Steyn, MacLean's and their supporters gains clarity: apparently they believe that Muslim=terrorist. And if I may offer a stretch, perhaps they also believe that non-White=terrorist. Good grief.

Moobs

Note to all ye e-pirates: torrentspy is no more, but demonoid is back up. Not that I'm advocating any illegal activities or anything. I'm just sayin' is all.

Self plug: I will be speaking on "ethics in global health" at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Medicine "Global Health Institute" this coming Friday.

So the Clinton-Obama war wages on. About time I took a side, huh? Well, I'm still a Gore man. (See here for why this rumour does not die, and here for how the Right still fears him.)

But let's say I must choose between Hilary and Obama. Hilary has got more ideas, is proven in the political arena and is a known quantity. Obama is an inspiring, outsider-ish figure who speaks a somewhat fresh language unknown in American politics. But he has few ideas and might just be all talk and bluster, while she is a transparent panderer who is desperately out of touch.

In short, she annoys me more than he does. So I choose Obama. Doesn't mean I think he will win, only that I prefer him over Clinton.

Where to begin with the Clinton failures? She, like the Bushites, promises to irrationally "obliterate Iran". And she makes people scream. Her smear campaign against Obama is almost criminal, and her litany of petty lies is almost comical. Frankly, I wish she would just go away.

Meanwhile, Nasty Nicky B sends us a fun webcomic.

I leave you with a sad tale of three aging losers and one shed that needed disassembling. See, Sean, Andrew and I gathered at the home of one Special Ed Wong to help tear apart his shed. We're all nerds who failed shop class, so we could barely handle a saw without near mortal injury. So I quickly resorted to my purported martial prowess, breaking boards with axe kicks, in the process exposing my expanding middle aged girth, diminishing flexibility and balance, and generally embarrassing myself in all possible ways. I won't be posting the video of both Andrew and I failing to break said boards with our hands --even my penchant for self-mockery would not withstand such an ego-flailing.

Instead you get photographic evidence, first of our feeble attempts at sawing, then of a successful axe kick (photo courtesy of Herr Wong). What you don't see are the splinters, pulled groin muscles and my lineage of passed-on karate masters spinning like lathes in their graves. What you do see are a magnificent display of man-boobs and bald spots from all those present, most notably one Lord Wat:

Bloody Immortals

My latest Skiffy article is available here.

blackout

I'm at my parents' place in Toronto. We've had a blackout now for 2 hours.
I managed to watch 45 minutes of the HBO miniseries "John Adams" on my
laptop before the batteries died. And now i'm blogging on my battery
powered smartphone.

I guess I should go to sleep now. It's too dark to read by candlelight.

Quite amazing how much of our lives depends on electricity. TV and
computers and cell phones make up pretty much the entirety of my non-social
evenings. I can't work, write or dull my brain with episodes of "Dr Who".

What will I do when we revert to a new stone age in 30 years?

Nature's Proctologist

I got a hefty speeding ticket Tuesday morning, just as I was completing my regular run from Toronto to Ottawa (in the province of Ontario, for all ye furr'ners). I don't mind the ticket; if I break the law, I have no problem paying the fine.

But the cop asked me if I had any previous speeding tickets. I confessed that I had, about a year earlier. So he went back to his car and clicked on his mobile computer for about 20 minutes. When he returned, he said he found no record of my earlier violation.

"Probably because it was in Quebec," I offered. (For ye non-Canucks, Quebec is another province, adjacent to Ontario.)

"That explains it," he said. Then: "So, did you ever find that passport you lost 3 years ago?"

I answered no. But I was taken aback by the question. See, three years ago my passport was stolen from me in New York. As I blogged at the time, the process of getting a new one was a royal pain in the ass, with no substantive assistance from the Canadian consulate in New York city. In fact, when I was given my replacement passport, I was told that if I ever lost another one, I'd be investigated.

So let's break down these events, shall we? The Ontario cop was unable to confirm that I had received a ticket in the neighbouring province of Quebec. But he was able to access federal information relating to my travel documents. Does this seem unreasonable to anyone else?

Additionally, I was the victim of a crime (my passport was stolen). As a result of being a victim, I am now apparently on some sort of watchlist for federal documentation fraud, deemed sufficiently serious that a highway cop brings it up during a routine traffic violation stop.

The next time someone tries to tell you that Canada is a free country devoid of government shenanigans, give 'em a good kick in the shins.

In Other News...

The Other Ray sends us this nifty Dalek voice changer! Also, he sends us nice pics of colliding galaxies.

Medzilla sends us another great TED lecture.

Brother Bhash sends us this expose on what Rumsfeld may have known.

Nasty Nicky B sends us this great web comics series.

Further to my last post on old dudes staying in shape, The Other Ray sends us this inspirational article.

The Other Ray also (I hope ironically) sends us this ridiculous video providing "proof" of intelligent design, based on the "observation" that foods that are good for a certain body part actually look like that body part. Yes, it's as stupid as it sounds. Why aren't cucumbers good for erectile dysfunction, then? Or boiled eggs for waning eyesight? Or cauliflower for haemorrhoids?

The fact remains that, depending on how you slice it (literally), anything can be perceived to resemble anything else. This is not proof of Zod's greater plan, but rather (based on the comments after the video) that Zod has seen fit to fill his planet with imbeciles.

Because all is intelligently designed, I leave you with this lasting image of the elephant, nature's proctologist: