Restive Thoughts

Election Results

2008-10-15T10:40:00.001-07:00

I would much prefer to scrutinize the election results than work today. However, briefly, I'm impressed Lunn won re-election. I'm glad Keith Martin beat out the Conservative candidate, that candidate seemed over-confident and an ego bruising defeat he deserved. Still he'll likely be back next time, and maybe as a more humble version of himself.

North Island was a disappointment. That Duncan guy, I can't believe his hypocrisy on MPs pensions, it typifies duplicitous politicians.

Liberal Leadership Convention

2008-10-13T16:48:00.000-07:00

When will there be a new Liberal leadership convention? Assuming Harper gets a minority tomorrow, I wonder how long Dion will stay on. Perhaps he'll stay on until the next election. At the AGM, whenever that will be, I assume he needs to get a majority of delegates approving him. It is unclear if he'll be able to get that. Maybe Rae or Iggy will be able to get the Libs out of their funk.

Note from Fam

2008-10-10T10:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a taste of what its like to be me, email from dad about holiday travel plans:

Dear RT:

Option thrifty

Thrifty does not involve overnight in an airplane. It might mean 2 nights in Vancouver? One change heading south, 2 changes coming home.

Option delta one stop

One or 2 nights in Vancouver, $500 more, One change heading south, one change heading north

Love from your father

I will look at SEA after a second slice of pizza with olives, artichoke hearts and grape tomatoes (+ pepper and garlic salt).

Pappa RT

P.S. troopergate report expected shortly

Fair Copyright

2008-10-06T09:22:00.001-07:00

This is a great story. Good on these guys for doing something. Moreover, if the stunt is good enough, heck even if it isn't that clever, it can get coverage.

People should care about this bill, dead or not, because it will come back and it will interfere with basic personal liberties like format shifting.

...

Proposed changes to law on digital copying rankle few

Downloading of CDs would become illegal, protesters claim

Kent Spencer

The Province

Monday, October 06, 2008

Fair Copyright protesters proved yesterday that six men can carry a coffin through downtown Vancouver -- to protest digital-copying legislation -- and no one will care.

Bill McGrawth, a founding member of Vancouver Fair Copyright, said the federal Tories had moved to make digital downloading of CDs illegal. But the bill, C-61, died when the federal election was called for Oct. 14.

McGrawth predicted its provisions will return in some form following the election.

"The bill would have criminalized digital copying, which people are used to doing in their own homes," he said.

The group carried a black coffin through the downtown yesterday before staging a mock funeral for the now-dead bill.

McGrawth said Canadians should ask their federal candidates about changes to digital-copying laws.

He said violations under the proposed bill could have included putting a TV show such as Boston Legal on to a DVD and viewing it more than once. Or copying a legally purchased Madonna CD on to an iPod.

"There were all sorts of strange regulations in the bill," McGrawth said.

File uploads to YouTube would have been affected as well as digital loans of library files, he said.

Although the protesters' numbers were small -- only a handful showed up -- McGrawth said about 90,000 Canadians have registered their opposition on a Facebook site.

The bill was introduced June 12 by Federal Industry Minister Jim Prentice, who wanted to make it easier to prosecute individuals who download copyrighted material.

The entertainment industry had asked for strict protection of intellectual property, including films and recordings.

The bill would have shut down transfers of unauthorized video-game files over the Internet.

Prentice said the bill would not be enforced as such; the industry would be expected to initiate actions against violators.

McGrawth said opening digital locks would have been illegal.

"We expect software and hardware companies would be forced to put in restrictions to prevent digital copying," he said.

There were to be $500 fines for infringements graduating up to $20,000, McGrawth said.

kspencer@theprovince.com

2008-10-05T22:59:00.001-07:00

Recount

2008-10-04T13:21:00.001-07:00

I forgot about this movie, about the 2000 election, one of those I wanted to see. Here it is.

Cartoon of the Day

2008-10-04T10:05:00.000-07:00

Hell Yes

2008-10-02T14:15:00.000-07:00

I like the notion of additional punishment for street racing...

Appeals court gives Toronto street racers additional punishment

KIRK MAKIN

Globe and Mail Update

October 2, 2008 at 4:47 PM EDT

A sentence imposed on two reckless drivers who killed a Toronto cab driver in 2006 were far too light to reflect the dangers of irresponsible driving and the horror of the carnage they caused, the Ontario Court of Appeal said Thursday.

In a 3-0 ruling, the Court said that the conditional sentences meted out to Wing-Piao Dumani Ross and Alexander Ryazanov amounted to “merely being grounded without driving privileges.”

“The respondents continue to go to school and work,” Madam Justice Gloria Epstein wrote. “Now that the first year is over, they have complete freedom during the day and can even go out after curfew with a parent's note.”

The Court tacked on a year of house arrest, barred the two men from driving for seven years, and issued a strong statement to would-be street-racers.

“When young people are granted the privilege of driving they take on a grave responsibility,” Judge Epstein wrote. “When that privilege is abused through irresponsible conduct – in this case conduct that took a man's life – the loss of the privilege must be felt, both by the perpetrators and by others who would engage in similar conduct.”

She said that conditional sentences are intended to serve as a punishment – all the more so, when a tragedy has galvanized the community and other young people are watching.

The lengthy driving prohibitions “convey the message that conduct similar to that which occurred in this case will not be tolerated,” Judge Epstein said, writing on behalf of Mr. Justice John Laskin and Madam Justice Janet Simmons.

“Where, as here, two young men made a conscious decision to drive in a dangerous fashion and caused the death of an innocent member of our community, the sentencing objectives of denunciation and general deterrence must be paramount.”

The victim in the gruesome accident – Mr. Khan – was a 46-year-old immigrant from Pakistan who was just three days shy of becoming a Canadian citizen. His cab was rammed at high speed as he attempted to make a left turn off Mount Pleasant Road on Jan. 24, 2006.

“It was estimated that Mr. Ryazanov was travelling at about 119 kilometres per hour at the moment of impact,” the Court said Thursday. “The momentum of the impact forced Mr. Khan's car north over the raised concrete curb and left the driver's side wrapped around a utility pole.”

Mr. Ross and Mr. Ryazanov, 18-year-old graduates of exclusive private school at the time of the accident, had been racing their parents Mercedes-Benz automobiles – at times, alongside one another – on their way to Mr. Ryazanov's house.

They reached speeds of up to 140 kilometres per hour as they negotiated the numerous curves and grades along the route. The posted speed limit is 60 kilometres per hour.

Sentences caused media uproar

Coming amid a debate over the proliferation of street-racing and reckless driving, the sentences caused a sensation, fuelling radio talk shows and igniting angry editorials.

In sentencing the two last year, Ontario Court Judge John Moore gave each man a conditional sentence of two years less a day, followed by two years' probation. He also imposed a four-year driving prohibition and 150 hours of community service work on each.

The first year of their conditional sentence was to be served under house arrest, followed by a curfew for the second year.

On appeal, Crown counsel Robert Hubbard and Matthew Asma argued that Judge Moore made a fundamental error by not properly considering the perils of street racing as well as the fact that the defendants made a conscious choice to drive dangerously.

However, the appeal court ruled Thursday that Judge Moore did take both factors into account in his sentence – even if he did not explicitly state it.

“He acknowledged that the respondents were travelling at speeds of more than two times the legal limit, while switching from one lane to another and that this conduct continued over a distance of one and a half kilometres,” Judge Epstein said.

She also rejected the Crown's contention that Judge Moore failed to consider the fact that the friends were street-racing as an aggravating factor in his sentence.

“In any event, I do not regard it as important to assign a label to the respondents' conduct in order to determine the appropriate sentence,” Judge Epstein said.

The Crown faced an high and unusual hurdle in appealing the original sentences of 12 months of house arrest and two years' probation, since they had pleaded guilty to dangerous driving as part of a plea-bargain.

Defence lawyers Edward Greenspan, Brian Greenspan, Seth Weinstein and David Tice argued strenuously at the appeal that the Crown explicitly agreed during plea negotiations not to appeal the ultimate sentence.

They said that the defendants pleaded guilty based on that understanding, and it would be an abuse of the court system for the Crown to renege on the agreement.

The defence team warned that any attempt to override that agreement would tarnish the justice system and potentially lead to a collapse of the plea-bargaining system.

Mr. Hubbard and Mr. Asma conceded that the downtown Toronto Crown Attorney's office had, in fact, agreed not to appeal. However, they said that did not preclude the Attorney General himself from appealing.

The Court of Appeal agreed Thursday, saying that it was within the Attorney-General's power to go ahead. In fact, the Court said that neither side in a plea-bargain can truly sign away any future right to appeal, so they should be wary of even attempting to do so in future.

“I reject the respondents' argument that to permit the Crown to appeal in these circumstances would lead to a collapse of the plea bargaining system,” Judge Epstein added.

The Court also said that allowing the Crown to appeal would not constitute an abuse of the court process.

“Thus, while I accept that granting leave to appeal could appear unfair, it does not amount to a level of unfairness that is contrary to the interests of justice,” it said.

“Granting leave to appeal would not violate the conscience of the community. On the contrary, as I have mentioned, the error in the sentences imposed is of a nature such as to require the Attorney General to appeal to ensure that the administration of justice is fairly and properly carried out.”

Japanese Firefighters

2008-09-30T22:57:00.000-07:00

And no that is not code for gay.

What's the deal with these suits? Possibly it is just a stylistic difference from what we are acustomed to in north america, which is weird, but if it is more than that and these are more protective shouldn't they be adopted here too?

I Don't like Elizabeth May

2008-09-29T23:17:00.000-07:00

1-We need less theocracy and she has been training, and hopes to continue, her advanced theological indoctrination.

2-Attendance at anti-Israel rally suggests she either is against Israel or can't anticipate that the rally had pro Hezbollah elements.

3-She thinks Canadians are stupid.

4-Last but more important - she doesn't inspire confidence. Policy wise the Greens are not meaningfully different than the Liberals and she will help Harper get a majority.

Doesn't Know a case besides Roe v. Wade and could pick the next Judges

2008-09-29T23:07:00.000-07:00

The Next Supreme Court

Published: September 27, 2008

To the Editor:

Re “The Candidates and the Court” (editorial, Sept. 21):

Let’s not forget that should John McCain prevail in November, Sarah Palin will be second in line to choose the next generation of Supreme Court justices.

Here is someone who is on the record as opposing or questioning the legitimacy of abortion, sex education, stem-cell research, evolution, same-sex marriage, gun control, attributing global warning to human activity, environmental protection, universal health care, detainee rights, the abolition of capital punishment, and the separation of church and state.

If that doesn’t fire up Democrats, nothing will.

Robert J. Inlow
Charlottesville, Va., Sept.
21, 2008

Latest Palin Gaffe: Can't Name Supreme Court Case Other Than Roe V. Wade

Today, the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz reported on potentially embarrassing clips of Sarah Palin being interviewed by Katie Couric that haven't yet been aired. The Politico has more information on one in particular:

Of concern to McCain's campaign, however, is a remaining and still-undisclosed clip from Palin's interview with Couric last week that has the political world buzzing.

The Palin aide, after first noting how "infuriating" it was for CBS to purportedly leak word about the gaffe, revealed that it came in response to a question about Supreme Court decisions.

After noting Roe vs. Wade, Palin was apparently unable to discuss any major court cases.

There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence.

Perhaps Correct

2008-09-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

Not meaning to sound like Hiderism (sp? that former anti-immigration leader in Austria), but some of these arguments sound persuasive.

The truth about immigration is that costs exceed benefits

James Bissett

Special to the Sun

Monday, September 29, 2008

CREDIT: Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun

Immigrants line up at Canada Immigration to obtain a permanent residents card, now required to re-enter the country.

We sometimes complain about politicians who don't do what they promise to do after they get elected. Ironically, it is sometimes much better for the country when some of these promises are broken.

Let's hope, for example, that the promises made by our political leaders to raise immigration levels and provide more money for immigrant organizations are not kept. Either our political leaders do not know that Canada is facing an immigration crisis or they care more about gaining a few more so-called "ethnic voters" than they do about telling the truth about immigration.

Canada is taking far too many immigrants and the leaders of all the parties are promising to take even more. There are already close to a million immigrants waiting in the backlog to come here. They have all met the requirements and by law must be admitted. There is also a backlog of 62,000 asylum seekers before the refugee board and even if these are not found to be genuine refugees most will be allowed to stay. In addition, there are between 150,000 and 200,000 temporary workers now in the country and here again it is unlikely many of them will ever go home.

Despite these extraordinary numbers, the Harper government wants to raise the immigration intake next year to 265,000. The Liberals and the New Democrats have said they want even more, as much as one per cent of our population, or 333,000 each year.

These are enormous numbers and even in the best of times would place a serious burden on the economy and on the already strained infrastructure of the three major urban centres where most of them would end up. Let's face the facts -- when there is a downturn in the world economy and dire predictions of serious recession or worse this is not the time to be bringing thousands of newcomers to Canada. In July of this year, Ontario alone lost 55,000 jobs. So what is the rationale for more immigration? The fact is there is no valid rationale. There is only one reason why our political parties push for high immigration intake and that is they see every new immigrant as a potential vote for their party. This is not only irresponsible it borders on culpable negligence.

There are few economists today who argue that immigration helps the economy in any significant way. Studies in Canada since the mid-1980s have pointed out that immigration has little impact on the economic welfare of the receiving country and similar studies in the United States and Britain have reached the same conclusion. Comprehensive studies by George Borjas, the world's most renowned immigration economist at Harvard University have shown that immigration's only significant impact is to reduce the wages of native workers.

Our politicians justify their desire for more immigrants by raising the spectre of an aging population and telling us immigration is the only answer to this dilemma, and yet there is not a shred of truth to this argument. Immigration does not provide the answer to population aging and there is a multiplicity of studies done in Canada and elsewhere that proves this. Moreover, there is no evidence that a larger labour force necessarily leads to economic progress. Many countries whose labour force is shrinking are still enjoying economic buoyancy. Finland, Switzerland and Japan are only a few examples of countries that do not rely on massive immigration to succeed. Productivity is the answer to economic success not a larger population.

Most Canadians assume that our immigrants are selected because they have skills, training and education that will enable them to enhance our labour force but only about 18 to 20 per cent of our immigrants are selected for economic factors. By far the bulk of the immigrants we receive come here because they are sponsored by relatives or because of so-called humanitarian reasons and none of these have to meet the "points system" of selection. This is why over 50 per cent of recent immigrants are living below the poverty line and why they are not earning nearly the wages paid to equivalent Canadian workers.

It also explains why a study published this year by professor Herbert Grubel of Simon Fraser University revealed that the 2.5 million immigrants who came to Canada between 1990 and 2002 received $18.3 billion more in government services and benefits in 2002 than they paid in taxes. As Prof. Grubel points out, this amount is more than the federal government spent on health care and twice what was spent on defence in the fiscal year 2000/2001. Isn't it time our party leaders were made aware of this study?

In the discussions about immigration we never hear from our political leaders about the serious environmental problems caused by the addition of over a quarter of a million immigrants each year. Most of our immigrants are coming from developing countries of Asia where their "ecological footprint" is tiny compared to the average Canadian but within months of arrival here, the immigrant's footprint has increased to our giant size. We have already experienced the impact mass migration has had on the health, education, traffic, social services and crime rates of our three major urban centres. It may be that cutting the immigration flow in half would do more than any gas tax to help reduce our environmental pollution.

If immigration is to be an issue in the election campaign, then let us insist that the real issues be discussed and that our politicians contribute more to the debate than promising higher levels and more money to immigrant groups.

Canadians and immigrants deserve better.

James Bissett is a former executive director of the Canadian Immigration Service.

Politicians on Digg

2008-09-27T22:33:00.001-07:00

It occurs to me the incidence of popular political figures on Digg.com is kind of suggestive of what appetite there is for action by politicians. Yes Obama is huge on Digg and has been for some time. There have been pro-Obama links coming up since the beginning of his battle with Hillary. However the other figures popping up are less obvious. Dodd occasionally around telecom immunity - and that much is predictable given the tech bent of Digg. However, it also goes for the types who by mainstream would be considered fringe - i.e. developing Gravel campaign. But these same fringe types, like Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, represent something else I conjecture: a desire, maybe even desparation, for clear thinking, firm but logical positions, and generally people speaking truth to power.

Why this isn't in sync with those getting elected to congress generally? Money I presume.

Kucinich - And this is the System we are Saving

2008-09-27T21:36:00.001-07:00

Head of Skate

2008-09-27T13:54:00.001-07:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Hey Rosetta! - Swing The Cellar Door

2008-09-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

A promising East Coast band - who should expand their touring West... Hey Rosetta!

Swing the Cellar Door - Hey Rosetta!

Lyrics

Wait-Wait-Wait-
before You Go I Want You To Know
all That You Were And The Sound That You Made When You Moved
before You Leave I Need You To See
all That You Mean, You Would Hardly Believe It

sitting In The Kitchen Wondering How It Is I'll Tell You This
when The Phone Rings, So I Start Right In Then:
we Are Shells Or Instruments, Inside There's Sound That Speaks To Us
if You Listen, And I've Been Listening

and I'm Sorry To Reduce You To This Useless Imagistic Bullshit
but Maybe That's All I've Got
maybe That's All I've Got
sorry To Confuse You With Some Foolish Thing That Misses Truth
but Maybe That's All We Are
around A Brightly Dying Star

these Spiralled Shells, So Sexual, Could Out-Reveal The Texts We Dwell Upon,
or Maybe Not, But Certainly
a Sound That's Free Can Open Me And Easily
just Rip My Heart Out, And Start Me Shouting:

this Is How I Feel... Listen

i'm Sorry To Reduce You To This Useless Imagistic Bullshit
but Maybe That's All I've Got
maybe That's All I've Got
sorry To Abuse You With This Ruthlessly Sadistic Music
but Maybe That's All I Want
(I'm Just A Really Pretentious Guy)

but Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!
before You Go, I Want You To Know
all That You Were, And The Sound That You Made When You Moved
before You Leave, I Need You To See
all That You Mean, You Would Hardly Believe It

you Would Hardly Believe It...
if I Could Just Speak It...

but This Is How I Feel...

Legislate Out of Idiocracy?

2008-09-26T23:50:00.000-07:00

LaBruzzo: Sterilization plan fights poverty

Tying poor women's tubes could help taxpayers, legislator says

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

By Mark Waller

Worried that welfare costs are rising as the number of taxpayers declines, state Rep. John LaBruzzo, R-Metairie, said Tuesday he is studying a plan to pay poor women $1,000 to have their Fallopian tubes tied.

"We're on a train headed to the future and there's a bridge out," LaBruzzo said of what he suspects are dangerous demographic trends. "And nobody wants to talk about it."

LaBruzzo said he worries that people receiving government aid such as food stamps and publicly subsidized housing are reproducing at a faster rate than more affluent, better-educated people who presumably pay more tax revenue to the government. He said he is gathering statistics now.

"What I'm really studying is any and all possibilities that we can reduce the number of people that are going from generational welfare to generational welfare," he said.

He said his program would be voluntary. It could involve tubal ligation, encouraging other forms of birth control or, to avoid charges of gender discrimination, vasectomies for men.

It also could include tax incentives for college-educated, higher-income people to have more children, he said.

LaBruzzo, 38, is white, married to a lawyer, has a toddler daughter and holds a bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University.

He is serving his second term in the Legislature, where he drew attention this year for advocating the controversial legislative pay raise and for trying to abolish the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Commission and its Police Department.

His 81st House District runs from Old Metairie north to Bucktown and west along Lake Pontchartrain to the Suburban Canal. In a somewhat different configuration, it is the same district that sent white supremacist David Duke to the Legislature in 1989.

LaBruzzo described the tube-tying incentive as a brainstorming exercise that has yet to take form as a bill for the Legislature to consider. He said it already has drawn critics who argue the idea is racist, sexist, unethical and immoral. He said more white people are on welfare than black people, so his proposal is not targeting race.

LaBruzzo said other, mainstream strategies for attacking poverty, such as education reforms and programs informing people about family planning issues, have repeatedly failed to solve the problem. He said he is simply looking for new ways to address it.

"It's easy to say, 'Oh, he's a racist,' " LaBruzzo said. "The hard part is to sit down and think of some solutions."

LaBruzzo said he opposes abortion and paying people to have abortions. He described a sterilization program as providing poor people with better opportunities to avoid welfare, because they would have fewer children to feed and clothe.

He acknowledged his idea might be a difficult sell politically.

"I don't know if it's a viable option," LaBruzzo said. "Of course people are going to get excited about it. Maybe we'll start a debate on it."

. . . . . . .

Mark Waller can be reached at mwaller@timespicayune.com or 504.883.7056.

Sean Lecomber

2008-09-23T22:46:00.001-07:00

This guy's standup is pretty good.

BC Tory Candidate Was Disciplined

2008-09-23T20:56:00.001-07:00

Published Date: 2008/9/23 0:20:00

Article ID : 5146

Version 1.00

By Steve Mertl
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — The Conservative candidate in a suburban Vancouver riding was disciplined three times by British Columbia's real estate regulators, The Canadian Press has learned.
ukhmander (Sam) Rakhra, who is challenging NDP incumbent Peter Julian in Burnaby-New Westminster in the Oct. 14 federal election, has been sanctioned for incompetence and professional misconduct by the Real Estate Council of British Columbia.
Material covering three instances of discipline in 2004, 2005 and last year, which included a six-month suspension that ended Aug. 10 this year, was sent to The Canadian Press by a Liberal party source.
The council, which administers the B.C. Real Estate Services Act, confirmed the infractions Monday and provided details of the disciplinary settlement.
It said Rakhra currently does not hold a real estate licence after surrendering his licence last December.
Rakhra did not respond to an interview request, but Conservative spokesman Colin Metcalfe said the party was aware of his problems before he won the nomination in June.
“What we know is there have been a few incidents where there were administrative matters not handled properly in his real estate business,” Metcalfe said.
“That matters were dealt with between the candidate and the real estate council to their satisfaction, and as far as we're concerned the matter is closed.”
Council spokesman Anthony Cavanaugh said Rakhra was ordered to take remedial courses and may face a requalification hearing if he wants to get his licence back.
“It's pretty serious on the scale of the sanctions that we hand out,” said Cavanaugh.
Rakhra obtained his real estate licence in 1987 and had been managing broker of Tapestry Realty when the infractions occurred.
His position made him responsible for overseeing other agents at his firm, said Cavanaugh.
“The real estate council has no tolerance for any kind of behaviour that contravenes its act or the rules,” he said.
The length of the suspension was due to Rakhra's previous disciplinary history, Cavanaugh said.
“We very rarely see multiple infractions,” he said. “When we do, the sanctions that we hand out reflect that accordingly.”
Rakhra was handed a retroactive six-month suspension in 2004 after stepping aside during the council's investigation that concluded he was negligent in complying with rules under the then-Real Estate Act, including premature withdrawal of commissions from trust accounts.
He was reprimanded the following year for infractions related to a serious of transactions by a broker under his supervision.
In an agreed statement of facts on last year's case, the council found Rakhra and Tapestry committed several infractions, including non-disclosure of a conflict of interest by one agent in a real estate deal and in the way clients were advised by another agent with respect to direct payments made to sellers and-or developers.
Metcalfe said the party believes Rakhra is in a three-way race with NDP candidate Julian and Liberal Gerry Lenoski.

Lunn in Trouble?

2008-09-23T20:39:00.000-07:00

Whoa, unexpected, the NDP candidate in Sannich Gulf Islands, Julian West, has resigned, this leaves the Liberal candidate positioned much better to pose a serious challenge to Gary Lunn.

Apart from this swimming incident I would have preferred Mr. West to the Liberal candidate. However I really relish the possibility that Lunn will be dethroned.

The Shunn Lunn campaign lives?

Bartlet Meets Obama

2008-09-22T22:31:00.000-07:00

I like the idea expressed below of the fictional meeting the real. I do think Obama has to be careful about how he gets angry - if he over does it he'll look like Jesse Jackson, and John McCain will be president.

But enjoy...

September 21, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist

Aaron Sorkin Conjures a Meeting of Obama and Bartlet

By MAUREEN DOWD

Now that he’s finally fired up on the soup-line economy, Barack Obama knows he can’t fade out again. He was eager to talk privately to a Democratic ex-president who could offer more fatherly wisdom — not to mention a surreptitious smoke — and less fraternal rivalry. I called the “West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin (yes, truly) to get a read-out of the meeting. This is what he wrote:

BARACK OBAMA knocks on the front door of a 300-year-old New Hampshire farmhouse while his Secret Service detail waits in the driveway. The door opens and OBAMA is standing face to face with former President JED BARTLET.

BARTLET Senator.

OBAMA Mr. President.

BARTLET You seem startled.

OBAMA I didn’t expect you to answer the door yourself.

BARTLET I didn’t expect you to be getting beat by John McCain and a Lancôme rep who thinks “The Flintstones” was based on a true story, so let’s call it even.

OBAMA Yes, sir.

BARTLET Come on in.

BARTLET leads OBAMA into his study.

BARTLET That was a hell of a convention.

OBAMA Thank you, I was proud of it.

BARTLET I meant the Republicans. The Us versus Them-a-thon. As a Democrat I was surprised to learn that I don’t like small towns, God, people with jobs or America. I’ve been a little out of touch but is there a mandate that the vice president be skilled at field dressing a moose —

OBAMA Look —

BARTLET — and selling Air Force Two on eBay?

OBAMA Joke all you want, Mr. President, but it worked.

BARTLET Imagine my surprise. What can I do for you, kid?

OBAMA I’m interested in your advice.

BARTLET I can’t give it to you.

OBAMA Why not?

BARTLET I’m supporting McCain.

OBAMA Why?

BARTLET He’s promised to eradicate evil and that was always on my “to do” list.

OBAMA O.K. —

BARTLET And he’s surrounded himself, I think, with the best possible team to get us out of an economic crisis. Why, Sarah Palin just said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had “gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.” Can you spot the error in that statement?

OBAMA Yes, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aren’t funded by taxpayers.

BARTLET Well, at least they are now. Kind of reminds you of the time Bush said that Social Security wasn’t a government program. He was only off by a little — Social Security is the largest government program.

OBAMA I appreciate your sense of humor, sir, but I really could use your advice.

BARTLET Well, it seems to me your problem is a lot like the problem I had twice.

OBAMA Which was?

BARTLET A huge number of Americans thought I thought I was superior to them.

OBAMA And?

BARTLET I was.

OBAMA I mean, how did you overcome that?

BARTLET I won’t lie to you, being fictional was a big advantage.

OBAMA What do you mean?

BARTLET I’m a fictional president. You’re dreaming right now, Senator.

OBAMA I’m asleep?

BARTLET Yes, and you’re losing a ton of white women.

OBAMA Yes, sir.

BARTLET I mean tons.

OBAMA I understand.

BARTLET I didn’t even think there were that many white women.

OBAMA I see the numbers, sir. What do they want from me?

BARTLET I’ve been married to a white woman for 40 years and I still don’t know what she wants from me.

OBAMA How did you do it?

BARTLET Well, I say I’m sorry a lot.

OBAMA I don’t mean your marriage, sir. I mean how did you get America on your side?

BARTLET There again, I didn’t have to be president of America, I just had to be president of the people who watched “The West Wing.”

OBAMA That would make it easier.

BARTLET You’d do very well on NBC. Thursday nights in the old “ER” time slot with “30 Rock” as your lead-in, you’d get seven, seven-five in the demo with a 20, 22 share — you’d be selling $450,000 minutes.

OBAMA What the hell does that mean?

BARTLET TV talk. I thought you’d be interested.

OBAMA I’m not. They pivoted off the argument that I was inexperienced to the criticism that I’m — wait for it — the Messiah, who, by the way, was a community organizer. When I speak I try to lead with inspiration and aptitude. How is that a liability?

BARTLET Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.

OBAMA You’re saying race doesn’t have anything to do with it?

BARTLET I wouldn’t go that far. Brains made me look arrogant but they make you look uppity. Plus, if you had a black daughter —

OBAMA I have two.

BARTLET — who was 17 and pregnant and unmarried and the father was a teenager hoping to launch a rap career with “Thug Life” inked across his chest, you’d come in fifth behind Bob Barr, Ralph Nader and a ficus.

OBAMA You’re not cheering me up.

BARTLET Is that what you came here for?

OBAMA No, but it wouldn’t kill you.

BARTLET Have you tried doing a two-hour special or a really good Christmas show?

OBAMA Sir —

BARTLET Hang on. Home run. Right here. Is there any chance you could get Michelle pregnant before the fall sweeps?

OBAMA The problem is we can’t appear angry. Bush called us the angry left. Did you see anyone in Denver who was angry?

BARTLET Well ... let me think. ...We went to war against the wrong country, Osama bin Laden just celebrated his seventh anniversary of not being caught either dead or alive, my family’s less safe than it was eight years ago, we’ve lost trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, thousands of lives and we lost an entire city due to bad weather. So, you know ... I’m a little angry.

OBAMA What would you do?

BARTLET GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!

OBAMA Good to get that off your chest?

BARTLET Am I keeping you from something?

OBAMA Well, it’s not as if I didn’t know all of that and it took you like 20 minutes to say.

BARTLET I know, I have a problem, but admitting it is the first step.

OBAMA What’s the second step?

BARTLET I don’t care.

OBAMA So what about hope? Chuck it for outrage and put-downs?

BARTLET No. You’re elite, you can do both. Four weeks ago you had the best week of your campaign, followed — granted, inexplicably — by the worst week of your campaign. And you’re still in a statistical dead heat. You’re a 47-year-old black man with a foreign-sounding name who went to Harvard and thinks devotion to your country and lapel pins aren’t the same thing and you’re in a statistical tie with a war hero and a Cinemax heroine. To these aged eyes, Senator, that’s what progress looks like. You guys got four debates. Get out of my house and go back to work.

OBAMA Wait, what is it you always used to say? When you hit a bump on the show and your people were down and frustrated? You’d give them a pep talk and then you’d always end it with something. What was it ...?

BARTLET “Break’s over.”

Sam Harris on Sarah Palin

2008-09-21T14:58:00.001-07:00

Worth reading:

It is easy to see what many people, women especially, admire about Sarah Palin. Here is a mother of five who can see the bright side of having a child with Down syndrome and still find the time and energy to govern the state of Alaska. But we cannot ignore the fact that Palin's impressive family further testifies to her dogmatic religious beliefs. Many writers have noted the many shades of conservative hypocrisy on view here: when Jamie Lynn Spears gets pregnant, it is considered a symptom of liberal decadence and the breakdown of family values; in the case of one of Palin's daughters, however, teen pregnancy gets reinterpreted as a sign of immaculate, small-town fecundity. And just imagine if, instead of the Palins, the Obama family had a pregnant, underage daughter on display at their convention, flanked by her black boyfriend who "intends" to marry her. Who among conservatives would have resisted the temptation to speak of "the dysfunction in the black community"?

CBC Columnist Trashes Palin

2008-09-21T01:13:00.000-07:00

This is pretty fun.

Palin has a toned-down version of the porn actress look favoured by this decade's woman, the overtreated hair, puffy lips and permanently alarmed expression. Bristol has what is known in Britain as the look of the teen mum, the "pramface." Husband Todd looks like a roughneck; Track, heading off to Iraq, appears terrified. They claim to be family obsessed while being studiously terrible at parenting. What normal father would want Levi "I'm a fuckin' redneck" Johnson prodding his daughter?

The Word

2008-09-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

Thomas Friedman:

If I were to draw a picture of America today, it would be of the space shuttle taking off. There is all this thrust coming from below. But the booster rocket — Washington — is cracked and leaking energy, and the pilots in the cockpit are fighting over the flight plan. So we can’t achieve escape velocity to enter the next orbit — the next great industrial revolution, which is going to be E.T., energy technology.

Fees in Canadian Public Schools

2008-09-20T10:22:00.000-07:00

I like this comment:

1. Public education should be free for kids, I don't know if this should include food for free, but surreptitiously sliding in fees for other things is not right.

2. Complementing the point above, people have to be encouraged, and I think some social stigma is appropriate here, to think about their ability to care for a child before they bring them into the world. Yes there are circumstances out of the control of many who end up being single parents, or who end up having their children in foster care. But too often there is a lack of consideration given to the future and what basic level of support - financial and emotional - can be afforded to a child. Maybe I'm on a bit of a high horse here, but to argue the opposite, the kind of moral absolutist view that people have to be able to have kids in all circumstances no matter what, is to lose our minds.

I'm also not indifferent to the fact that the most ill equipped, educationally, emotionally, financially are the least well positioned to have this foresight. It is like the dystopian vision from the movie Idoicracy realized. Notwithstanding that, it is incumbent on everyone to encourage foresight and responsibility in undertaking the decision to have a child.

Artistic Ads

2008-09-17T23:28:00.001-07:00

There are 15 solid ones here.

Two of my favourites:

(incidentally the Heartbeats the Knife song is the same lyrically as this song)

Conservation Voters of BC's Help Gary Lunn

2008-09-17T15:17:00.002-07:00

Good job "Conservation Voters of BC". Last election the NDP finished second in the riding of Sannich Gulf Islands. The riding is one of the worst in Canada for vote splitting. What would make sense, support the candidate with the strongest chance at defeating Lunn? No. That would obviously make too much sense. The paradox is that this choice will encourage vote splitting, likely ultimately electing Lunn who supports offshore drilling and thus presumably the Conservation Voters are indirectly supporting a policy they should oppose. Moreover this endorsement wreaks of the worst cronyism of George Bush - support your friends (I believe the candidate they just endorsed was a founding member of some conservation group) whether they are best qualified or not.

Also for the record, I'm sure all of the opposition candidates in the riding are well intentioned and good people. The NDP candidate has credentials from Cal Tech and MIT. The one the Conservation Voters endorsed has training from some second tier school in the UK. Though these things aren't as simple as who has better credentials, my bet is that the NDP candidate is smarter than the others and that should factor into who people choose to support.

Quote of the Day

2008-09-17T15:17:00.001-07:00

Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.
- Oscar Wilde

Servers at Sea

2008-09-16T21:52:00.000-07:00

Google filed a patent recently to put servers on ships at sea. Pretty neat idea. Not sure if it will come to anything but it is fun to think fantasize about copyright not being absolutely incapable of being enforced.

Middle Ages Indeed

2008-09-16T20:08:00.000-07:00

September 11, 2008, 10:22 am

Italian Comedienne Faces Possible Prosecution for Insulting Pope

Posted by Dan Slater

The possible prosecution of an Italian comedienne shines a light on the Lateran Treaty, a 1929 agreement between Italy and the Vatican that says an insult to the Pope shall carry the same penalty as an insult to the Italian president. For Sabina Guzzanti (pictured), that could mean five years in jail.

Here’s what happened: At a July rally in Rome’s Piazza Navona, during which opposition leaders accused Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi of passing laws to protect his own interests and avoid prosecution for alleged corruption, Guzzanti told the crowd that within 20 years Italian teachers would be vetted and chosen by the Vatican. And then this zinger: “But then within twenty years the Pope will be where he ought to be, in Hell, tormented by great big poofter devils — and very active ones, not passive ones.”

Giovanni Ferrara, the Rome prosecutor, said that he had asked Angelino Alfano, the Minister of Justice, for permission to proceed with a prosecution. Here’s a report from the Times of London.

Paolo Guzzanti, Guzzanti’s father, a center Right MP, said that the move was “a return to the Middle Ages. Perhaps my daughter should be be submitted to the judgment of God by being made to walk on hot coals”.

This isn’t Guzzanti’s first run-in with the authorities. A few years back she released “Viva Zapatero!,” a film about the 2003 suppression of her late-night show RAIot, in which she had satirised Berlusconi.

Club Video Controversy

2008-09-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

I don't have much to add to this story except to say I'd be surprised if this club was disbanded by the school because they have such a huge membership. I used to run a club at the same school years ago and I can remember the CVC was a formidable force when it came to booking rooms in the student union - they along with I think the Pharmacy club would camp out over night to be first to book rooms for the term.

Probably the video is somewhere on the internet - does anybody have a link?

UBC social club video 'culturally offensive'

Darah Hansen
Vancouver Sun

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

VANCOUVER I A University of B.C. student social club is facing possible sanctions -- even disbandment -- after a series of online videos designed to attract new membership instead drew fire from dozens of Asian students who complained the content was culturally offensive.
"As a student and a Chinese [person], I felt so disrespected and offended by their video. Other than ruining their own image, they are also ruining UBC's and Canada's image as a multicultural country," UBC student Kim Ho wrote in an e-mail to The Sun.
The videos -- posted last week by the Chinese Varsity Club in a format similar to the hugely popular Mac/PC television commercials -- depict two Asian students discussing the respective merits of their social clubs.
The young woman representing the CVC speaks perfect English, with no accent, while the second character, a member of the fictional "Typical Honger Club," struggles with the language, at one point pulling out a dictionary to look up the meaning of the word "multi-cultural."
CVC president Carlos McCallister said the videos were meant to break the club's image as a Chinese-only group in an effort to expand membership.
"We don't exclude anyone," he said.
But, he admitted Monday, that message "backfired on us."
Last week, dozens of complaints poured into the Alma Mater Society, the campus body that regulates student clubs, labelling the videos as offensive.
McCallister said most of the complaints centred around the use of the term "Honger" to describe an Asian born outside of Canada.
"We didn't mean it as a derogatory term, but a lot of people took it that way," he said.
Others took exception to the accent and poor English used by one of the characters.
"They are looking down at people who are not as fortunate as them to be able to learn English in an early age. It will mislead new immigrants into thinking that they will be teased for speaking English with an accent," Ho wrote.
The club has since apologized.
"We are sorry for any trouble this has caused and hope that we can all move on from this event and work towards a more amicable future," a letter posted on the club's website states.
An apology video is also in the works, McCallister said, adding that as of Monday, the offending videos were no longer available for viewing online.
But whether that's enough to keep the club alive has yet to be seen. McCallister was set to meet with members of the AMS late Monday to learn if sanctions will be imposed. In the worst-case scenario, McCallister said the club -- which boasts a membership of 1,600 -- could be disbanded.
"That would kill us," he said.
Angela Wong, president of the Asian Canadian Cultural Organization at UBC, said she's not surprised the videos stirred up such controversy on campus, where tension between Canadian-born Asian students and more recent arrivals is nothing new.
The divide centres around the larger notion of Asian identity, which has become increasingly complex with each wave of immigration.

The Future of Copyright by Rasmus Fleischer

2008-09-15T21:05:00.001-07:00

Check it

This change has taken place because previously distinct media are now simulated within the singular medium of the Internet, and copyright law simply seems unable to cope with it. Consider radio broadcasting and record shops, which once were inherently different. Their online counterparts are known respectively as “streaming” and “downloading,” but the distinction is ultimately artificial, since the same data transfer takes place in each. The only essential difference lies in how the software is configured at the receiving end. If the software saves the music as a file for later use, it’s called a “download.” If the software immediately sends the music to the loudspeakers, it’s called “streaming.”

Copyright law in the 21st century tends to be less concerned about concrete cases of infringement, and more about criminalizing entire technologies because of their potential uses. ... It will also have seriously chilling effects on innovation, as the legal status of new technologies will always be uncertain under ever more invasive rules.

What does Milkshake refer to in this song?

2008-09-14T12:31:00.001-07:00

My milk shake brings all the boys to the yard,
and they're like,
its better than yours,
damn right its better than yours,
I can teach you,
but I have to charge

Once you get involved,
everyone will look this way-so,
you must maintain your charm,
same time maintain your halo,
just get the perfect blend,
plus what you have within,
then next his eyes are squint,
then he's picked up your scent,

Whoa - Glad we vetoed this in Canada

2008-09-14T10:53:00.000-07:00

From The Sunday Times
September 14, 2008
Revealed: UK’s first official sharia courts
Abul Taher

ISLAMIC law has been officially adopted in Britain, with sharia courts given powers to rule on Muslim civil cases.

The government has quietly sanctioned the powers for sharia judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.

Rulings issued by a network of five sharia courts are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court.

Previously, the rulings of sharia courts in Britain could not be enforced, and depended on voluntary compliance among Muslims.

It has now emerged that sharia courts with these powers have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester with the network’s headquarters in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Two more courts are being planned for Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, whose Muslim Arbitration Tribunal runs the courts, said he had taken advantage of a clause in the Arbitration Act 1996.

Under the act, the sharia courts are classified as arbitration tribunals. The rulings of arbitration tribunals are binding in law, provided that both parties in the dispute agree to give it the power to rule on their case.

Siddiqi said: “We realised that under the Arbitration Act we can make rulings which can be enforced by county and high courts. The act allows disputes to be resolved using alternatives like tribunals. This method is called alternative dispute resolution, which for Muslims is what the sharia courts are.”

The disclosure that Muslim courts have legal powers in Britain comes seven months after Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was pilloried for suggesting that the establishment of sharia in the future “seems unavoidable” in Britain.

In July, the head of the judiciary, the lord chief justice, Lord Phillips, further stoked controversy when he said that sharia could be used to settle marital and financial disputes.

In fact, Muslim tribunal courts started passing sharia judgments in August 2007. They have dealt with more than 100 cases that range from Muslim divorce and inheritance to nuisance neighbours.

It has also emerged that tribunal courts have settled six cases of domestic violence between married couples, working in tandem with the police investigations.

Siddiqi said he expected the courts to handle a greater number of “smaller” criminal cases in coming years as more Muslim clients approach them. “All we are doing is regulating community affairs in these cases,” said Siddiqi, chairman of the governing council of the tribunal.

Jewish Beth Din courts operate under the same provision in the Arbitration Act and resolve civil cases, ranging from divorce to business disputes. They have existed in Britain for more than 100 years, and previously operated under a precursor to the act.

Politicians and church leaders expressed concerns that this could mark the beginnings of a “parallel legal system” based on sharia for some British Muslims.

Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: “If it is true that these tribunals are passing binding decisions in the areas of family and criminal law, I would like to know which courts are enforcing them because I would consider such action unlawful. British law is absolute and must remain so.”

Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: “I think it’s appalling. I don’t think arbitration that is done by sharia should ever be endorsed or enforced by the British state.”

There are concerns that women who agree to go to tribunal courts are getting worse deals because Islamic law favours men.

Siddiqi said that in a recent inheritance dispute handled by the court in Nuneaton, the estate of a Midlands man was divided between three daughters and two sons.

The judges on the panel gave the sons twice as much as the daughters, in accordance with sharia. Had the family gone to a normal British court, the daughters would have got equal amounts.

In the six cases of domestic violence, Siddiqi said the judges ordered the husbands to take anger management classes and mentoring from community elders. There was no further punishment.

In each case, the women subsequently withdrew the complaints they had lodged with the police and the police stopped their investigations.

Siddiqi said that in the domestic violence cases, the advantage was that marriages were saved and couples given a second chance.

Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “The MCB supports these tribunals. If the Jewish courts are allowed to flourish, so must the sharia ones.”

Additional reporting: Helen Brooks

Piracy a Handy Guide

2008-09-13T00:23:00.001-07:00

The King of Kong

2008-09-12T01:44:00.001-07:00

This I'd like to see:

The word on patents

2008-09-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

I heard a talk from the Swedish Pirate Party on how overall patents aren't a good idea. I probably would need to look into it more to be sure, but this opinion is further evidence that they may be more harmful than helpful:

Patent system seen stifling medical breakthroughs

A more collaborative approach is needed to bring research to market, McGill professor says in report

I like the Gates Sienfeld Ad

2008-09-11T01:39:00.000-07:00

absurd and fun

Headline of the Week "Harper apologizes for 'tasteless' bird-excrement attack ad on Dion"

2008-09-09T21:42:00.000-07:00

I'm sure there are good headlines around the world, but Canada can hold its own with ones like this.

Who Owns Ideas

2008-09-09T19:03:00.000-07:00

I plan on listening to this when I get a chance.

Entourage

2008-09-08T20:28:00.000-07:00

Season 5 episode one aired yesterday.

I like.

Nice Quip - Romney's Weird Speech

2008-09-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

I think David Brooks on PBS called it "borderline insane." Megan has a great line:

Mitt Romney seems to use the word "liberal" in a randomly pejorative fashion. I half expect him to say "I was eating breakfast this morning, and my hash browns were all liberal. I sent them back and told the waitress to bring me some good, conservative hash browns."

It was random and moronic.

Cute Prank

2008-09-07T10:23:00.003-07:00

Probably my favourite internet video was the prank where the guy kept "buttering" the floor on his roommate, but this is pretty good also:

Christian Rock

2008-09-04T21:36:00.001-07:00

Human Rights and Polygamy

2008-09-04T20:27:00.001-07:00

Tribunal Dismisses Polygamists’ Complaint

Published Date: 2008/9/4 0:10:00

Article ID : 4963

Version 1.00

By Dene Moore
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — A B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has dismissed a complaint from a polygamist couple who alleged a teacher's union discriminated against them by calling for an investigation into allegations of child abuse in the community of Bountiful, B.C.
Duane and Susie Palmer filed their complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal in 2004, after the president of the B.C. Teacher's Federation sent a letter to the premier calling for the investigation into the polygamous community located in southeastern B.C.
The October 2004 letter refers to allegations that the community school failed to abide by the provincial curriculum and taught religious intolerance.
It said that girls were being told they needed only learn what would prepare them to be wives and mothers and were encouraged to leave school before the age of 16.
A subsequent news release urged the B.C. government to respond to “persistent and serious allegations of child abuse.”
And a petition circulated by the federation cites allegations including trafficking of young girls into the community to be the wives of older men, assigning husbands to girls as young as 14 and older men impregnating girls as young as 14 or 15.
The petition called for a thorough investigation and support for the “lost boys” of Bountiful, turned out in order to “keep the gender imbalance,” and discontinuation of provincial funding for the school in Bountiful if it was found that the school was not abiding by the provincial curriculum.
Residents of Bountiful are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway group from the mainstream Mormon church that renounced polygamy more than a century ago and disavows any connection.
The Palmers, he a director of the Mormon Hills School Society in Bountiful and she a teacher at the school, said they were concerned children would not be treated equally or graded fairly.
They said they were also concerned that church members who were certified teachers would not be accepted to work in other public schools under the federation.
“They desire to have us persecuted because of our marital status,” the couple, who identified themselves as members of the breakaway sect, told the tribunal. “Some of us choose to live in a plural marriage relationship.”
They said the law against polygamy had been proven to be unconstitutional.
The couple said they did not want their students harassed by the teachers or other students “because of who they are.”
“We have a desire to ensure that our government is not pressured into making any rash and harmful decisions, based on false accusations which would be harmful to the education of our children, and our right to live our religion and lifestyle,” said their complaint.
They claimed the federation discriminated against them on the grounds of family and marital status and religion, and made false and unfounded accusations.
But tribunal member Lindsay M. Lyster recently dismissed the complaint, saying that while the Palmers may have been offended by the allegations and opposed to the idea there should be an investigation, there was nothing in the publications to support their complaint.
“The respondents' purpose in creating the letter to the premier, the newsletter and the petition was not to discriminate against the Palmers or anyone else,” Lyster wrote in the Aug. 15 ruling.
Rather, the tribunal found the allegations “a matter of legitimate public interest.”
Earlier this year, after years of controversy, the B.C. attorney general appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the possibility of laying charges in the community.
That occurred after more than 450 children were apprehended by child-welfare authorities from a sister polygamous community in Texas, including at least one teenage girl from Bountiful. Those children were eventually ordered returned to their parents by a Texas court.

Exactly

2008-09-03T18:24:00.001-07:00

Not Bad

2008-09-03T16:54:00.001-07:00

From Sarah Palin: “And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities."

War on Islam - Well Said

2008-09-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

TV I Like

2008-09-01T20:46:00.000-07:00

Now that the fall season is coming it is time for new episodes. I look forward to watching the following:

Real Time with Bill Maher
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Entourage
30 Rock
Dexter
House

The Decade of the Dude

2008-09-01T20:37:00.000-07:00

Rolling Stone covers the Big Lebowski phenomenon. For the record I didn't this movie was that great, it might be that it presents a certain really refreshing take on regular interactions don't have to be mundane and predictable given the right cast of characters in ones life, but I suppose I was just too old to really fall in love with that idea in 98 - had it been 95 maybe I would have been over the moon about it.

For instance I really like Daniel Richler's show Big Life on CBC as a teenager, because in those suffocating teen years it presented a window into a richer world which existed. Just being exposed to that was a real morale booster.

Anyway, even though I personally don't think Big Lebowski is great, I am supportive of other people who do. Movies like it are the ones that should have great stature, and not crap like White Chicks.

The Green Party

2008-08-30T21:49:00.000-07:00

I went to my first Green Party event tonight. Elizabeth May was scheduled to speak but wasn't present because of the recent announcement that the Green's have their first MP.

Overall I had a positive impression, but I'm not sure they are ready for prime time. Adrienne Carr, deputy leader, spoke in place of May. There were some other area federal candidates who gave their pitches. These pitches didn't inspire confidence that these people were up to the job. The pitches were a bit facile.

What was positive was the claiming of the high ground - that ostensibly the policies and end results matter more than which person or party gets credit. This may largely be a function of them not having any seats, i.e. a luxury the outsider may claim. However, they did take shots, largely fairly, at the other parties. It would seem there are limits to their ability to transcend politics. For instance I would have liked to have floated to people the idea of, if not merger, coalitions with the NDP because a major fear of mine is that while the centre and left vote is split between the Liberals, NDP, and Greens the Conservative base will remain consolidated and thus we'll have hefty Conservative governments, but I sensed this would have been balked at.

A Party My Little Sister's Friend is Attending

2008-08-30T11:49:00.001-07:00

Thanks to facebook voyeurism I know about this:

Four-score and seven years ago, our forefathers (Jovana, Chow, Geddy, Ronan et al) elected to create within these simple walls a haven for impoverished students, alcoholics, resistance fighters, british car enthusiasts, political activists, pregnant teens, stoners flagranté, and reprobates. Though there were many heady days and many a police cruiser called, this, our Atlantis, is on the verge of being swallowed by a swirling foamy brine of soccer moms (fake tits), neighbourhood co-operatives (fat people who don't contribute to society worth shit) and kempt, manicured lawns (neo-republicans). But as Donovan was quick to point out in his famous musical epic, the Atlantians set forth in ships with painted sails, crying 'Hail Atlantis!'... after having held one shit-whiz of a party.

Though this our Albion, our Rome, may soon be naught for this world, we may rest easy with the knowledge that we have brought down the property values of every other yuppy scum-fuck infested domicile within a three block radius.

Let's bump it up to four.

McCain VP Prediction

2008-08-29T23:09:00.000-07:00

My bet is that this will be McCain's Harriet Miers, but unlike the Miers nomination he has to stick it out on this one or, if he reverses himself, he'll lose in a landslide.

Obama Bandwagon

2008-08-28T22:40:00.000-07:00

I'm riding it, I thought he did a good job tonight, not for the soaring rhetoric but for some specifics. Yes getting off foreign oil in 10 years, thank goodness that got put out there. Apart from his support for "clean coal" those were the right priorities.

Now, so as not to be a trite cheerleader, some David Brooks:

We got to know Barack and Michelle Obama, two tall, thin, rich, beautiful people who don’t perspire, but who nonetheless feel compassion for their squatter and smellier fellow citizens. We know that Barack could have gone to a prestigious law firm, like his big donors in the luxury boxes, but he chose to put his ego aside to become a professional politician, president of the United States and redeemer of the human race. We heard about his time as a community organizer, the three most fulfilling months of his life.
We were thrilled by his speech in front of the Greek columns, which were conscientiously recycled from the concert, “Yanni, Live at the Acropolis.” We were honored by his pledge, that if elected president, he will serve at least four months before running for higher office. We were moved by his campaign slogan, “Vote Obama: He’s better than you’ll ever be.” We were inspired by dozens of Democratic senators who declared their lifelong love of John McCain before denouncing him as a reactionary opportunist who would destroy the country.
No, this country cannot afford to elect John Bushmccain. Under Republican rule, locusts have stripped the land, adults wear crocs in public and M&M’s have lost their flavor. We must instead ride to the uplands of hope!

Kucinich - Great Speech at Democratic Convention

2008-08-26T22:51:00.000-07:00

As usual overlooked in the media, but he speaks the truth. Wake up America indeed.

Mark Warner

2008-08-26T21:10:00.001-07:00

Whoa, I'm glad Mark Warner didn't get picked as VP candidate. He probably is right substantively. His speech on how Bush's single biggest failure was not rallying the country to get off foreign oil after 9/11 was exactly on the mark. But that said he comes off as one of those high school/ university loser debater types - that's a hard speaking style to slough off.

Boxes of Kubrick

2008-08-25T21:02:00.000-07:00

This is a really fun documentary. What I found most interesting were the glimpses of Kubrick directing. Particularly when he is directing full metal jacket. He is explaining the importance of the crotch grab to the timing of the sound-off, recognizes it is kind of a silly thing to be demanding to the actors, but doesn't back off. It is reassuring to see someone so sure of being unconventional. That whole surreal sequence of full metal jacket is of course a kind of poetic mockery which is probably more instructive about the perils of dogmatic institutional following than a straight portrayal.

Must See Film - Real Genius

2008-08-24T13:19:00.000-07:00

This movie had a profound effect on why I was looking forward to university while in high school. Heck it probably pushed me a little into engineering. Highly recommended:

Why we don't care about Darfur or Rwanda

2008-08-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

The reason I don't think is racism. The reason I think is rooted in a calculus, more implicit than explicit, that the value of the life of a person in Darfur or Rwanda isn't worth the same as a life in the developed world. Basically if in order to save some people whose life expectancy is under 40 years and who will live largely in squalor then it doesn't resonate with people in developed countries that they should send their sons and daughters, whose life expectancy is above 70 years, and whose life, for even the lowest of the low, involves flush toilets and full bellies to go to possibly die to save the less developed life or lives.

Put another way we think of this as a reverse of the adult running in front of the car to save the child who is about to get hit - it is a selfless move to save and preserve what is a life full of promise and verve in exchange for a more over-the-hill life. Here the parallel is the promise and verve running out to push the decrepit person out of the way to preserve their life and possibly end their own.

I'm not saying it is right, quite probably it is wrong, but let's call a spade a spade.

Dennis Kucinich - I like this guy

2008-08-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

Fun interview, and yet I find I agree with him, he's a little bold but I wonder if he's right about this:

You’ve met with opposition from Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats for continuing to push for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. The process of democracy is a slow process, and it’s important that I do what I know to be the right thing.

But why bother with impeachment when Bush is on his way out of Washington anyhow? This president is capable of taking us into war, in October, on the eve of an election, to try to change the outcome of the election. We need to keep the ability to impeach at the ready in the event that this president continues to exercise a wanton approach toward the use of power, particularly the war power. The events in Georgia are a premonition.

A premonition of what? A premonition of an attack on Iran. When Georgia moves against South Ossetia as the Olympics are starting, the Bush administration begins its own Olympics — the war Olympics.

Are you saying the Bush administration is likely to declare war soon just to help Republican candidates pick up some votes? Well, you know, they increased the funding to Georgia a while back for military purposes.

You think President Saakashvili of Georgia was encouraged, possibly by the American government, to cry victim? Look. Saakashvili had an American lobbyist who is now part of the McCain campaign, and I am sure he was given advice. The idea of striking during the Olympics would have to come out of Madison Avenue. We have to be able to see through this. And the one thing I have shown an ability to do is to cut through the b.s.

Have you had a chance to talk to President Bush lately? The last time I had a word with him was at the State of the Union address. I told him, “Mr. President, I wish you peace.”

How did he respond? He said, “I know you believe that.”

Obama keeps screwing up - Picks Biden

2008-08-22T22:23:00.000-07:00

Obama's continued missteps almost make me wish McCain gets elected - picked Biden - proof Obama is safe for old whites? Ick. The pick is so uninspired, and yes I get it, it is deliberately uninspired to immunize him more from his secret Muslim image.

Obama - caved on telecom immunity. Went back on campaign finance (though I kind of can't blame him for doing it). Caved on drilling in Alaska.

Ok still I'd prefer he wins, but he's got to stop selling out.

Canada and China

2008-08-22T14:27:00.001-07:00

I'm in agreement with this argument: that we should not just roll over and shut up with China for the sake of "business". For one it is a questionable claim that business gives a shit about who attends opening ceremonies - to be guided by anything but the smell of money is probably silly if not completely bad business sense.

Copyright Canada Op-ed

2008-08-21T22:10:00.001-07:00

Charles Moore, a freelance writer whose work has appeared in dozens of magazines around the world, pens an op-ed in the Saint John Telegraph-Journal on the copyfight in Canada.

I really liked this part:

Copyright is merely an arbitrary and mutable legislative construct. Digital technology has made traditional copyright law largely unenforceable, and like it or not, sharing (or, depending on your politics, "stealing") music has become a way of life for millions.
Heavy-handed "cures" like Bill C-61 enacted at the behest of industry interests almost certainly will be worse than the alleged disease in terms of stifling culture-building and technological innovation.

Phelps "Dissed"

2008-08-21T21:59:00.000-07:00

So here we have some silliness of another swimmer saying she's not into Michael Phelps, ok here's the crazy thing, why is there an attorney commenting on this subject? Then again, why am I commenting on it?

Shatner can't go through with video autograph message

2008-08-16T23:14:00.000-07:00

Awesome: "'When I'm smoking and sipping whiskey with Allen' - who's Allen? - 'I'm secretly thinking of you and your dog?"

$149 please

McCain and Obama Music

2008-08-15T21:27:00.000-07:00

Any surprises?

BARACK OBAMA
1. Ready or Not Fugees
2. What's Going On Marvin Gaye
3. I'm On Fire Bruce Spingsteen
4. Gimme Shelter Rolling Stones
5. Sinnerman Nina Simone
6. Touch the Sky Kanye West
7. You'd Be So Easy to Love Frank Sinatra
8. Think Aretha Franklin
9. City of Blinding Lights U2
10. Yes We Can will.i.am

JOHN McCAIN
1. Dancing Queen ABBA
2. Blue Bayou Roy Orbison
3. Take a Chance On Me ABBA
4. If We MakeIt Through December Merle Haggard
5. As Time Goes By Dooley Wilson
6. Good Vibrations The Beach Boys
7. What A Wonderful World Louis Armstrong
8. I've Got You Under My Skin Frank Sinatra
9. Sweet Caroline Neil Diamond
10. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes The Platters

Secret Tapes: The History of Xenu - Ron Hubbard

2008-08-15T20:21:00.000-07:00

This is his voice, it is pretty wild to hear.

High School Rap

2008-08-13T21:24:00.001-07:00

These guys kept it real from high school with rap dreams, and they're not that bad.

Mike Birbiglia

2008-08-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

Check out the above named guy's stand up on google video. Pretty funny stuff.

Barack Roll

2008-08-09T12:02:00.001-07:00

Propaganda of the odd variety

Out of the Park

2008-08-08T15:09:00.001-07:00

Pat Martin says clearly what needs to be said to this group which intended on picketing the funeral of the beheaded victim with "god hates fags" signs:

Winnipeg NDP MP Pat Martin said the group should be "sent packing," and should not try to show up in Winnipeg "for their own safety."

"We're not going to allow these people to compound the tragedy of the McLean family loss, and Canadians simply won't tolerate these lunatics disrupting what should be a respectful service," he told CBC News on Friday.

"Your freedom to swing your arm in the air ends when it touches the end of my nose," he added. "What these people were going to do was hurtful, harmful and disruptive to the peace, order and good government that we guarantee to our citizens, so they have no place in this country."

Cloning dogs to old kidnappings

2008-08-08T08:53:00.001-07:00

This is so crazy.

I miss a little irresponsible high school friends

2008-08-07T19:37:00.000-07:00

From a friend visiting my high school friends:

i'm in t.o. right now with my friend kara. we met up with lawts last night...he came into town. we had one of those random nights that you often end up having when rob is part of the equation: went to some random bar to hear some random hip hop group from london (toolshed) and rob said that half his (your) grad class was at the bar. weird. random overload of londoners for lindley lately. ahhh alliteration. later that night we went to a kareoke bar in the korean district. we sang all these songs with absolutely horrible translations and even worse music videos in the background. then today i was walking down the street in Kensington mkt area and recognized one of the guys rob introduced me to last night. had a brief conversation with him, altho i must admit i couldn't remember his name.

Breastfeeding moms protest

2008-08-07T18:40:00.000-07:00

It is hard to conceive of something more stereotypically Vancouver and something that would make the list of stuff white people like. Maybe if Lululemon was distributing free samples outside or something.

That said they should have the right to breastfeed everywhere - heck if breasts were exposed all the time it wouldn't be a big deal.

Detriot Mayor Jailed

2008-08-07T11:01:00.000-07:00

Maybe its just routine corruption, but perhaps there is a good story here. Maybe better than movie of the week good, maybe not.

Hilton Responds to McCain Ad

2008-08-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

This is not bad.

A talk worth watching, or so I'm told.

Article about trolls online from this past weekends nyt magazine. Food for thought.

Random Roundup

2008-07-30T21:58:00.000-07:00

Interesting: Yale Students' Lawsuit Unmasks Anonymous Trolls, Opens Pandora's Box

Of serious concern: Educators Forced to Become MPAA's Cops

Ballsy: The Great Desecration aka a prof eats a cracker

Tools for School

2008-07-29T22:08:00.000-07:00

Chunk it looks promising.

The Hardest Part of Rollerblading

2008-07-28T23:33:00.000-07:00

New take on an old joke

Avril - No copyright needed

2008-07-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

Je pense:

It was recently reported the YouTube video for Avril’s single Girlfriend has earned the 23-year-old singer a staggering $1 million.

Every time the video is viewed - so far over 100 million times - an advert is played and Avril receives a set fee.

Haunting Image

2008-07-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

Not because it is gory but because of the brutality and ultimately emptiness you can fill in for yourself. The Paghman Gardens, Afghanistan - Then & Now 1967 - 2007. The stupidity of war. More such pics here.

Thoughts on Omar Khadr

2008-07-17T21:22:00.000-07:00

I understand both the objection to not lobbying for the return of Omar Khadr and the reluctance to try to get him back.

His family's open hostility towards non-Muslims and Canadians generally makes me think of why crimes like treason have a place in modern times. I think it is not crazy at all to recognize that if we had a country of people with those views we would have no country at all, and moreover it would be like losing our minds to blindly say free speech applies in an absolutist way and all hostility and hatred for principles such as equal treatment of people regardless of group affiliation shouldn't matter.

To cut to the chase though I think what is a more modern concern is that a gut reason Canadians would be opposed to Khadr returning is that he is the paragon of the citizen of convenience. He symbolizes odious views and embodies values inimical to Canadian virtue - why should we go to bat for him? Well one counterpoint is that while this incarnation is modern, the Japanese internment is an example of how the "other" within the whole, or the whole in the sense of the euphemistic multicultural mosaic, is exposed and revealed to be the fantasy which to an extent it is. But still this is different in degree and substance from mass internment. I don't lose sleep over this kid being in Gitmo. Feel free to try to convince me otherwise.

The Word

2008-07-17T21:10:00.001-07:00

Presidential Campaigns Getting Web Savvy

2008-07-17T15:07:00.001-07:00

The McCain campaign used web spiders to catch revisions on the Obama campaign site.

Somewhere there is nice stuff going on

2008-07-14T19:19:00.000-07:00

email from my mom:

I tried for a long time this afternoon to send the photos and it
cannot be done on the dial up. i waited about 20 minutes and
it still did not so as soon as i get back into manhattan, i will send
the two beautiful photos.
Its rejuvinating to be here. Today i reattached the steps to the guest
cabin. There was water and ant rot on one of the boards. It took
a few hours. After supper, Your Sis and I went for a short canoe trip over
past Francis island to the swampy area. We saw a mother otter and
two babies. We noticed her first and when she saw us she hissed.
We left promptly. On the way back, the water was very rough and
we saw two loons with their two young.
So its been a pretty good day. The fresh air is wonderful.
hope you are well.
love, momma

These events really happened, they changed the world and it was glorious... then we fucked up the end game

2008-07-12T22:15:00.001-07:00

The word of the day:

Douglas Bland, chair of Defence Management Studies at Queen's University in Kingston, said a key lesson from the 1980s is not to leave in a hurried manner as the Soviets did.

“One of the big lessons for us is, don't beat a hasty uncontrolled retreat because the place then really goes nuts,” Prof. Bland said. “The exit strategy has to be some very carefully considered process and based on a strong local security situation.”

He said he thinks Canadian soldiers will still be responsible for safeguarding the peace well after 2011, when Canada's troops are supposed to withdraw from combat operations in the country's southern province of Kandahar under a motion passed in Parliament.

“Canadians should be prepared for the fact that Canadian soldiers and policemen and others will be employed in security duties in Afghanistan for a very long time.”

He said he thinks the Forces have done other studies of the Soviet experience in Afghanistan, but said these may not be publicly available.

The Honey Badger

2008-07-11T22:44:00.000-07:00

This is a kick ass animal

Honey Badger Ownage - Watch more free videos

Kilauea eruption

2008-07-10T23:22:00.000-07:00

Pictures here.

"Da Bomb"

2008-07-05T18:49:00.000-07:00

I don't want to jinx it but hopefully it is getting safe to say that "Da Bomb", as an acceptable expression, has been left in 1999.

The machine that copies itself

2008-07-04T19:42:00.000-07:00

I like comments like the one below, because I concede it is hard for me to get my mind around what that reality would be like:

Think about it, he says: "You could shred your milk bottles and make a pair of sandals. What's more, when the child grows out of the shoes, you shred them, add another milk bottle, rescale the design and you have a new pair."

Slavery's new Mecca

2008-07-04T16:17:00.000-07:00

This fills me with a mix of sickness and sadness.

Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen

2008-07-04T12:31:00.000-07:00

Worth listening to:

Order of Canada

2008-07-03T21:41:00.000-07:00

Am I the only one thinking that with the appointment of Morgentaler and the subsequent voluntary renunciation of Priest Lucien Larre's Order of Canada - when following Larre's appointment he was convicted of assault and administering a noxious substance, both against youth - that this Morgentaler appointment is basically a two-for-one?

Iconic Playboy Covers

2008-07-02T20:23:00.000-07:00

Its things like the 7 of 15 cover here and a memorable series of TV advertisements for Barbados that long ago made me think neon lipstick is extremely sexy on chicks.

After All

2008-07-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

Yes this is corny, but it is nice.

The fading line between free speech and libel

2008-07-02T10:45:00.001-07:00

Legal guru says blurry boundaries and the rise of the Internet is making his craft 'utterly unworkable'

JACQUIE MCNISH

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

July 2, 2008 at 6:23 AM EDT

His client, Maclean's, secured a big win last week when the Canadian Human Rights Commission dismissed a complaint against the magazine from Muslim critics. Still, famed libel lawyer Julian Porter is in no mood to celebrate.

Yes, the federal commission is the second agency after an Ontario tribunal to dismiss charges from the Canadian Islamic Congress that a 2006 article by Mark Steyn exposed Muslims to hatred. And yes, legal experts are betting that a pending decision from a third tribunal in British Columbia will reach a similar conclusion.

And yet, despite a string of winning battles, Mr. Porter, 71, has the air of a glum general. Seated in a small office atop a bank tower in downtown Toronto, surrounded by stacks of books, the lean, patrician lawyer absently rubs his wooden desk as if trying to erase a blemish.

The thing is, he explains, libel law is under siege.

read the rest here.

All you BCers

2008-06-30T21:48:00.000-07:00

fill up tonight! tomorrow gas tax comes into effect.

Punked by an Idiot

2008-06-30T20:53:00.000-07:00

Or maybe I'm the idiot - tonight I got a call which started out "hi I'd like you to represent me I broke a bottle on my mom's head..." and kept going for a bit, all the while, I was thinking yeah ok maybe I'll act for this person, but it sucks they are calling me at home - it was a hockey teammate I hadn't talked to in months pulling my leg. Initially I didn't think it was close to a prank, joke is on me.

did you just street harass me using a SALT-N-PEPA SONG?!?!?

2008-06-28T11:31:00.001-07:00

funny

Line of the Day

2008-06-27T23:46:00.001-07:00

From Uma Thurman's dad, who is apparently a prof at Columbia in Buddhist studies:

What do you think about when you meditate? Usually, some form of trying to excavate any kind of negative thing cycling in the mind and turn it toward the positive. For example, when I am annoyed with Dick Cheney, I meditate on how Dick Cheney was my mother in a previous life and nursed me at his breast.

You mean you fantasize about being breast-fed by Dick Cheney? It’s a fantasy of releasing fear and developing affection. It’s a way of coming back to feeling grateful toward him and seeing his positive side, finding the mother in Dick Cheney.

What would Freud say about that? Freud would freak out. He would say, “Well, you are seeking the oceanic feeling of the baby in the womb.” Infantile regression — that’s what he thought the quest for enlightenment was.

whole thing here.