acanuck's blog

Why 9/11 Mosque 'Compromise Solution' Is Worse Than None At All

acanuck — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:02:29 +0000

I posted this as a comment over at TPM, but I think it bears repeating here:

It's not MY constitution, of course, so maybe I should just butt out and shut up. But does nobody else see the huge problem I do with the so-called compromise proposal?
The idea is to placate those yahoos with the least comprehension or affection for separation-of-church-and-state (I'm thinking about the "No more mosques anywhere" guy) -- by having the federal government subsidize the mosque's move to a different location.
I.e.: by violating in the crudest possible way separation-of-church-and-state. This is what people are calling a compromise? So instead of one affront to constitutional principle, you get two.
Way to go, America's political leadership.

Topics:

Politics

Religion

Portrait of the terrorist as a young man

acanuck — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 08:02:52 +0000

The jury has been selected, and the trial begins this morning: the first prosecution of a Guantanamo detainee since Obama instituted his new, improved, Supreme Court-compliant military-commission system. Not at all like Bush's, except for every important detail.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/and-then-there-were-7-the-jury-who-will-decide-omar-khadrs-fate/article1669446/

The trial is unique in other ways as well: the defendant, Omar Khadr, is the youngest "enemy combatant" in U.S. custody, he's also the only citizen of a western country still being held there, and a solid majority of Canadians -- including a former federal minister of justice -- think he should be repatriated to this country and, in fact, set free.

The Pentagon won't hear of it, because a U.S. soldier was killed during the four-hour firefight that ended with Khadr's capture. Khadr, who was 15 at the time, is charged with his murder. The White House, on the other hand, seems sensitive to the optics of making Khadr the poster boy for Gitmo defendants. A few months back, sources within the White House leaked to the media that they would seriously consider repatriating Khadr -- but their hands were tied until Canada requested his repatriation. Hint, hint, Mr. Harper.

That is something Stephen Harper's right-wing government adamantly refuses to do. Presumably -- playing to their base -- they don't want to be seen as soft on terrorism. Truly bizarre, since two-thirds of Canadians tell pollsters they want Khadr released, and the courts have consistently ruled that the government violated his rights by disregarding his claims of torture and instead interrogating him on behalf of his captors. Right now, the government is openly defying a Supreme Court order to correct that breach of his rights.

Thanks to the Harper government's obstinacy, Khadr's trial is now under way. Given that the military judge has ruled his confessions obtained under duress are admissible, the outcome is more or less pre-ordained. But a case like this would never even proceed to trial in the civilian justice system:

1. As a 15-year-old, Khadr was clearly a "child soldier" -- a class of combatants that Canada and the U.S. led the way in writing protections for into international law. Exploited by adults, they are as much victims as their own victims are, the protocol asserts.

2. Khadr's various "confessions" came after he was a) physically tortured, b) told he would be sent off to prison to be raped and murdered if he didn't co-operate. One of his interrogators was later jailed for abusing another detainee who ended up dead.

3. The evidence that Khadr committed the most serious act he is accused of -- tossing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier -- is totally circumstantial and, in fact, contradicted by some eyewitnesses. The Pentagon refuses to consider that he may have been killed by friendly fire.

4. Finally, what Khadr is accused of doing is not even remotely a crime. The group he was with exchanged gunfire and grenades with a U.S. patrol, and the house they were in was bombed from the air. People were killed on both sides. It was a military engagement -- WAR. The idea that any act, no matter how deadly, during an ongoing firefight can somehow constitute murder defies logic. Khadr's govt,-appointed military lawyers have never stressed this, relying instead on the child-soldier, torture, and unreliable-evidence defences. But to me, it's the clincher. You simply can't go into a foreign country, try to kill people, and assert that they have no legal or moral right to try to kill you back! Seems to me that is one of the fundamental rights all men are endowed with by their creator, no?

None of what I say in this blog, of course, is going to help Omar Khadr avoid the travesty of justice that's about to unfold. He was, incidentally, offered a plea bargain that would see him him serve five years (on top of the seven or eight he's already been held for). He turned it down, because it required him to stipulate that he committed the deed he's accused of. Instead, he chose to face a potential death sentence. Personally, I find this kind of principled stand surprisingly encouraging in someone whose social development stopped in his early teens.

I did title this Portrait of the Terrorist as a Young Man, and haven't really delivered much in the way of personal biography. That's partly because this guy really has no biography of his own. He was born in Toronto. His father, a jihadi and top-level Al-Qa'ida financier, took him to Pakistan/Afghanistan when he was 9. He grew up playing with the kids of Osama Bin Laden. At 14, his father left him with a militant group that taught him to make roadside IEDs -- the group he was with when captured. The rest of his life (he's 23 now) he's been a prisoner at Gitmo.

His father died in a clash with Pakistani forces a little after Khadr's capture, but his mother and three siblings returned to Canada, where his mother is an outspoken advocate for jihad. If Khadr ever does walk free, I could see the rationale for a court limiting contact with his toxic immediate family. But that's if he ever does walk free. Not an imminent prospect.

(In passing, the Wikipedia article on Khadr is surprisingly even-handed. The former justice minister I mentioned is Irwin Cotler. He's no apologist for jihad, but he's pretty well convinced that Khadr is being railroaded. Senator Romeo Dallaire, who as a general leading UN forces tried unsuccessfully to halt the Rwandan genocide, is also aghast that the Khadr trial is proceeding.)

Topics:

Politics

Social Justice

World Affairs

Bohemian Rhapsodist: Tuli Kupferberg, 1923-2010

acanuck — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 05:58:59 +0000

Who the Fug? Yeah, that's the guy.

Some of you (probably most of you) are too young to recognize the name, but The Fugs were a seminal influence on music in the mid to late '60s. Sort of a Mothers of Invention without the musicality; a Velvet Underground without the polish. Protopunk, maybe ur-punk. The name derives from Norman Mailer's corruption of the word fuck in The Naked and the Dead.

Only when I read Kupferberg's NYT obit http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/arts/music/13kupferberg.html
did I realize the band, whose heyday was 1965-69, had actually been reunited for the past quarter-century, recording new tracks as recently as this year, even as illness confined Kupferberg to his apartment. That's dedication.

They were not good musicians (they were basically antiwar, pro-sex poets and potheads having fun). But an amazing amount of their music has stuck in my memory: I Couldn't Get High, Kill for Peace, Slum Goddess (of the Lower East Side), and the anthemic Wide, Wide River (River of Shit).

Here's a tiny sampling:

Doin' All Right:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUCjORJhQZQ&feature=related
Nothing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HmJX11_AQE&feature=related

It's not exactly stuff for the ages, though the group also put the words of William Blake and Matthew Arnold to music. Along with contemporaries like Ginsberg, Mailer, Garcia and Hendrix, The Fugs captured a cultural moment. And they shared the fun they had doing so with the rest of us. Thanks, Tuli.

Topics:

Arts & Entertainment

IDF audio and anti-Semitic, anti-American activists

acanuck — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 05:57:28 +0000

It's no secret that I greet all information coming from the IDF skeptically. I expect bullshit, but I expect cleverly crafted, quasi-credible bullshit. So when I heard this 26-second audio clip from the flotilla encounter two days ago, I felt sure it was a scam -- a hoax by some nasty leftist agitators seeking to embarrass the Israeli military.

But no, there it was, reported straight-faced, on Drudge, on ynet, in the Jerusalem Post, in Yediot Ahronoth, even in much-respected Haaretz. Today, after the rest of the world stopped laughing, the IDF tried to restore its credibility:

http://idfspokesperson.com/2010/06/05/clarificationcorrection-regarding-audio-transmission-between-israeli-navy-and-flotilla-on-31-may-2010-posted-on-5-june-2010/

Listen to version 1, then to the "unedited" version, and see if it sounds more authentic the second time around. It's a Rorschach test; if you hear people having sex, get help. Like I said, make up your own mind. I'll just point out a couple of things:

1. The still photo that accompanies the edited version is actually from an entirely different audio contact with a ship in the flotilla, released days earlier by the IDF.

2. Supposedly, the initial version released by the IDF merely removed long silences or unintelligible transmissions. But listen closely to the section before the reply, "Shut up, go back to Auschwitz." The IDF guy says, "This is the Israeli Navy." Now listen to how the "unedited" version begins: "This is Israeli Navy ..." He says it twice, before getting the "Shut up" reply. There's a word in the edited version that isn't in the unedited version. Puzzling.

3. This recording was supposedly made on May 30 or 31, but only made public on July 4. So the IDF had absolute proof of what anti-Semites and anti-Americans the activists were -- and sat on it for four days? Really? No compunction about shooting them in the head, but reluctant to smear their reputations? Or did the fact that international revulsion was not ebbing stir someone's creative juices?

4. I'm no audio expert, but I'm struck by the clarity of the offensive remarks, compared with the fuzzy near-unintelligibility of most of the recorded transmissions.

5. When initially posted online, ynet referred to the 26-second clip as an audio "reconstruction" of the flotilla's final minutes. Is that like the crime re-enactments you see on America's Most Wanted? The clip is being used to depict all 600 or so activists as jihadis bent on repeating a) the Holocaust, b) 9-11. That's its intent, and to an amazing extent, it's working.

FYI, the second voice replying to the Navy broadcast, who says, "We have permission to land ..." is an actual Free Gaza official. The other replies? The Navy now says it can't tell where they came from. Except, of course, that they must have come from the flotilla.

I apologize to dagbloggers for continuing to beat this horse. I wasn't quite sure he was dead, and I'd run out of bullets. I'll stop now. Peace.

Topics:

Politics

Social Justice

World Affairs

I bought a toaster today

acanuck — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 06:16:07 +0000

I know, I know. Daglog is not Twitter. And as Joe Biden would say, big F-ing deal. It's just that I'm over 60 years old (there, I said it) and to the best of my recollection I have never before bought a toaster.

I've owned a toaster -- like, forever. Of course. Everyone owns a toaster. But when my toaster broke this week, I asked myself, "When did I buy this thing?" And I drew a complete blank. Maybe it was a hand-me-down from my dear departed mother, or an ex-girlfriend. Or maybe it was left behind in an apartment I once rented. All I know is I've had it longer than I've had children, and they are in their late 30s. So when it stopped working, it surprised the hell out of me. It had always worked. Why would it stop now?

Actually, not true. It did stop once before, maybe two decades back. I opened it up then, and saw that the heating element had broken. I put a staple through it, reassembled it, and got 20 more years of reliable service.

But maybe I'm not quite as patient or cheap as I was then. Over the years, the toaster had lost the knob for selecting darkness levels (fortunately, my taste in toastiness didn't change) and its white enamel had become chipped and stained. It was looking pretty shabby. No problem, I just hid it behind other, more modern kitchen appliances.

But now the kitchen gods were clearly telling me to move on. I went online to see what a toaster cost -- and I was amazed. You can get one for $8 (two slots, darkness selector, one-year guarantee) or for $250 (also toasts bread). A flyer arrived at my door almost simultaneously: 50 per cent off on a toaster that normally costs $50. Presumably, six or seven times as good as that $8 version, though only one-fifth as good as the $250 one. But it came in brushed aluminum, and my kitchen really needed a bit of upgrading. I made the half-hour walk to the store in brilliant spring sunshine, and bought one.

I haven't taken it out of the box yet. I figure I'll wait until I really feel like a piece of toast; that will make the experience extra-special. I can't help thinking that, if this one is anything like as durable as the old, beat-up Proctor-Silex I'm about to toss into the trash, it will be the only toaster I will ever buy. My heirs and friends will be wandering around my apartment, asking, "Anybody need a toaster?" Nobody will, so it'll go to some thrift shop, to be bought for $5 (maybe marked down to $3) by some homeless guy. Or by some snobbish trendy attracted by its by-then-retro (I hope) look.

I dunno. Maybe I'm overthinking this. It's just a toaster.

Topics:

Business

Potpourri

Personal

Food & Drink

Technology

Hey, Queen's University PC Nazis: Sumo suits are not racist instruments of oppression

acanuck — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 01:38:37 +0000

The Alma Mater Society at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., has just cancelled a campus fundraiser for a local foodbank. The problem: the event would have involved students donning sumo suits and wrestling each other. A few similar events have already been staged at the university. Here are photos:

http://www.pbase.com/parpho/image/119537016

Good harmless fun, it appears, but no! The Alma Mater Society (hereinafter called the nutjobs) suddenly realized the event would "devalue an ancient and respected Japanese sport, which is rich in history and cultural tradition." Huh? Who gives a fuck? Suppose people had been invited to wear hockey uniforms and stage mock fistfights? Would that devalue an ancient and respected Canadian sport? What if it did?

Here's the National Post story, and the nutjobs' grovelling apology for their "wrongdoing." (Yes, that's the word they chose):

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=2740807

http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/posted/archive/2010/03/29/sumo-suit-apology-letter-the-full-text.aspx

Two things: First, if you're going to be politically correct, this event is obviously more insulting and offensive to fat people than it is to Japanese ones.

Second, there is plenty of real racism and real oppression in the world, hurting real people in real ways. That the nutjobs chose instead to go after the imagined abstract slight to sumo aficionados shows they haven't a clue as to how this world works. What about the people who rely on that foodbank? They're chopped liver?

This is the same university whose administration last year appointed six "dialogue facilitators" to roam the campus to eavesdrop on conversations and steer them in politically correct directions. Seriously, true story. Nutjobs, every last one of them. Their only redeeming quality is that they have a fairly decent football team.

End of rant. Thanks for listening.

Topics:

Sports

Social Justice

Speaking truth to power, Canadian-style

acanuck — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 04:59:01 +0000

The Liberal Party, which ran Canada for most of the past half-century but recently has lost its resonance with voters, held a weekend policy symposium in Montreal. A featured guest was Robert Fowler, a now-retired top diplomat who advised every prime minister -- regardless of party -- for at least three decades.

After leaving Canada's foreign service, Fowler worked as a special envoy for the UN secretary-general -- a job that got him kidnapped by Islamist rebels in Niger. He spent five months as a guest of a nasty group called Al-Qa-'ida in the Mahgreb before his release. Less than a year later, he found himself addressing Canada's main opposition party. He didn't exactly tell them what they expected or wanted to hear:

http://can150.ca/day-3-robert-fowler-africa-in-2017-and-canada-as-partner/

Much of his speech may seem too Canada-centric. But if accurate, his main conclusions -- Afghanistan is a lost cause, Africa is the crucial battlefield, an Israel-Palestine solution is an immediate need -- hold true for U.S. policy as well. This guy had five months faced with imminent beheading to clarify his thinking. His words are worth a listen.

Topics:

Politics

World Affairs

The Decline, Fall, Plunge and Demise of Journalism

acanuck — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:38:04 +0000

If you go to the Drudge Report right now, you'll see the teaser:

PAPER: Soros 'at center of hedge funds plot to cash in on demise of the euro'...

If you click on the link, you'll see the Mail Online headline:

Man who broke the Bank of England, George Soros, 'at centre of hedge funds plot to cash in on fall of the euro'

If you read the lead paragraph, you'll see:

A secretive group of Wall Street hedge fund bosses are said to be behind a plot to cash in on the decline of the euro.

And if you read the entire story, you'll see it is spun entirely around a private dinner meeting that Soros himself did not attend:

At the dinner, the speculators are said to have argued that the euro is likely to plunge in value to parity with the dollar.

As for the alleged plot to cash in on this decline, the Mail story itself doesn't offer one word of detail or evidence. Rather, it sticks that totally unsubstantiated assertion in a cutline that accompanies the article:

The man about to break the euro? George Soros is said to be placing large bearish bets against the single currency

So that's what passes as journalism today: an overreaching original story, minimally sprinkled with fact, gets further sensationalized by an editor with an agenda, then is further goosed up by the execrable Drudge, and is swallowed whole by millions of semi-literate mouth-breathers.

An ongoing decline in value of the euro is escalated verbally to a fall, a plunge, and finally -- in Drudge's fevered mind -- the currency's demise. And the underlying cause becomes not the well-documented economic problems of countries like Greece, but a plot by international speculators. If it's all a plot led by Soros, why is he publicly urging the Europeans to take the tough steps he thinks necessary to shore up the currency?

Topics:

Business

World Affairs

Olympic update: gut-check time

acanuck — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:23:44 +0000

I'm not one of those who see the glass as seven-eighths empty. I see it, rather, as one-eighth full. So I'm not crying in my crisp, refreshing Canadian beer over last night's 5-3 loss to the United States in Olympic hockey.

No, there is an upside: Canada won't have to face Russia or Sweden in the gold-medal game next weekend. The downside is that we will have to beat both those powerhouse teams one-on-one to get within even sniffing distance of the podium. Assuming we can first dispatch Germany tomorrow night.

By losing to the U.S., Canada has made its path to hockey gold exponentially harder. I'm cool with that. It's only fair that this team of highly paid superstars should have to scratch and claw and body-check its way to victory (or to honorable defeat), just like everybody else.

Sharp contrast: Virtually every TV set in Canada was tuned to the Canada-U.S. game last night -- while NBC, holder of the U.S. broadcast rights, kept its cameras focused on the figure skaters and pretended hockey was not an Olympic event.

Sentimental favorite: Catch, if you can, tomorrow's performance by Quebec skater Joannie Rochette. Rochette's parents had flown to Vancouver to watch her compete. She was awakened yesterday by her father and her coach with news that her 55-year-old mother had died overnight of a heart attack. Hours later, Rochette was on the ice, practising her short program. She may or may not make the podium, but she is sure to have spectators around the world cheering her grit.

Topics:

Sports

Big Olympic scandal: bogus flags on display!

acanuck — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 05:17:47 +0000

The Vancouver Olympic organizing committee has gotten a lot of unfair criticism, so I hate to pile on.
But I've watched quite a few medal presentation ceremonies over the past few days, and I'm now fairly positive: that is not Canada's flag on display.
Ours is a red maple leaf on a white central square, with two red bands half as wide on either side. Its proportions are therefore 1:2.
All the flags I see raised at the medal ceremonies appear to be 2:3. And I'm making allowances for camera angles.
That's fine for some countries -- like France, Italy or even Russia -- whose flags really have those proportions.
Not, I would argue, for Canada.
That central white square sets our flag apart. In heraldry, they coined a new term for it: "a Canadian pale." By definition, it's square -- as wide as it is deep. Not 2 by 3!
I can understand why the Olympic organizers would opt for a one-size-fits-all compromise. And there are other countries -- like the United Kingdom and Australia -- that are also being shortchanged.
But we're the host country, dammit. At the very least, I want to see my own actual flag on display when we win. Or even take silver or bronze.

Topics:

Sports