Ranting and Roaring

Testing…

After 1:23 of Cross Country Checkup on CBC, I have realized the horrible truth:
there is only one way to think in this country, as defined and handed down by the Liberals
in Ottawa, and anyone who doesn’t see reality is the enemy.
There is no honorable dissent in this country, just unworthy mites and parasites bothering the feet of
the Correct and the Mighty.

Robert “They named the verb after me” Fisk found the serial number of the bomb
that was dropped on the Baghdad marketplace, at it turns out that according to one
of Tim Blair’s readers that this may be from a HARM (High Speed Anti-Radiation Missile)
missile.
The conclusion to me is not that this was an accident, but that, just perhaps,
the Iraqis are placing radar units to “paint” F-16s flying over Baghdad, knowing that
they will immediately launch one of these missiles: instant atrocity, and it’s all “the American’s fault”.
I’ll have to say that this was one of the things that was worrying me before the war, but I figured that the US would have
had the location of all the hospitals and orphanages already mapped out beforehand to avoid this sort of thing.
As a bonus, it will also make the Americans more reticent to use these weapons in the future without knowing
exactly where the target is in relation to civilians.

Coalition of the non-killing? That’s one idea.
If I had more initiative, or was more of the inventor type, I would have long ago invented
the better mousetrap: a electronic trigger upon which one would place peanut butter or some other equivalent delectable mouse treat; the trigger being under a hose and connected to the central vacuum system of the house. Though I’m not sure if this would pass the PETA humaneness muster, it sure would be cool to see the expression on the little fecker’s face as he (or she) gets sucked up into the hose, not to mention teaching the little bastard an important and timely lesson.

Bruce gets a mention in this weekend’s Globe and Mail, and a good thing too, as I thought Allemang was going to get all the way through the article without mentioning that Canada has bloggers, or even that there exists interesting non-media bloggers.

Imagine if newspapers actually did have reporters like Bruce: people who actually seem to have a clue about what they’re talking about — domain expertise, as they say. Wouldn’t that be cool? I won’t include myself in this list; I’ve got an opinion and just seem to spend too much time at the computer .
I guess it’s threat to the “J-school catamite” crowd. I’ve noticed a similar phenomena at computer companies primarily run by PHDs: the concept that someone from outside their circle could produce something useful generates the same reaction one would get watching someone in the car next to you pick their nose, examining the treasure discovered, and proceding to eat it.
My brother has taken me to task for quoting some of National Post’s court coverage, which he believes is wretched. I’ll have to assume that he’s not talking about Blatchford, who’s word on the colour and condition of the clothing worn and type of eyeglasses sported has never been
impeached.

Colby Cosh mentions Bruce’s mention also.

I’d like to draw your attention to Peak Talk, yet another Canadian blogger, and a thinker more so than a linker, as they say. Peak Talk would be in my blogroll, but you can read my sad story a few posts below. He has an excellent post today on the Pim Fortuyn phenomena, which should serve as a cautionary tale to all Canadians about what could happen if political thought is partitioned into acceptable and non-acceptable topics, as defined by a very narrow elite of the population.

I do read him everyday through this.
You can find out more about him here.

Go over and say high to yet another Newfie blogger, Doug,
who makes his home beautiful, sunny, warm St. John’s. I think we might be able to double,
possibly even triple, the number of bloggers at next year’s bash.

The reason that Doug and Ron aren’t in my permalinks is that
blogger is being very recalcitrant about letting me change my template.

Because … no we’re not. Fooled you. What are you, some sort of f*cking idiot?
The Iraqis shot down a drone plane — that’s the extent of their military success for Day 8.

You’d think that at this hour — 4:44 AM — I’d be able to think of something clever and witty
to say. Okay, maybe you don’t think that: I’m a morning person though.
Anyhoo, to follow up on the AI thing below, here’s WaPo
story.

From Sky News, as reported by William Gibson,
via Kevin Marks.

They weren’t witches, which our looney pagnist/Wiccan friends should keep in mind as they attempt to appropriate their victimhood.

Staff Sgt. Jaime Villafane: “Getting shot at was no big thing. It was getting shot that sucked.”

The newspapers are now theorizing that France twisted Turkey’s arm
into not letting the US use Turkey as a base.
Advantage: Janes.
I wrote about this two days ago. Ron Knowling says more
about this also. Link below via Instapundit.

I remember, way back when, when Amnesty International was a respected organization that
had a policy of trying to be non-partisan, avoiding the politics of the various nations and dealing directly
with the various human rights abuses going on around the world.
Maybe I was just buying into the propaganda,
listening to too much U2 and Peter Gabriel, but that seems reasonable enough for the time.
And then I remember, sometime in the mid-late 1990′s listening to some guy from AI on the radio
saying (effectively) it was time to stop being neutral and become politically involved,
as social change was the only way to bring social justice. Or, in simpler terms,
we’ve collected enough good-will chips now we’re going to cash them in.
Or in even simpler simpler terms, we’re a bunch of socialists who hate Mommy and Daddy.

This AI press release starts off well enough:

But, alas, it goes for 7 paragraphs, 267 words condemning the US for bombing the state
run television station in Baghdad. Oh, and they manage to fit in at the bottom — 2 graphs,
72 words — that the Iraqis really shouldn’t be bombing civilians, putting military
emplacements in civilian areas, or dress in civilian clothes to launch attacks.

Via ESR, which has more commentary.

But of course, Liberation Theology
was about nothing but sugared excuses for communism anyway.
I still can’t believe the crap that was plastered on the walls of library of my Jesuit high school.

Me too.
I don’t have a problem with anti-war: Tony Pierce is still a god of the Internet.
Matt Good still writes good music, and occasionally has amusing things to say.
I disagree with them for sure, but so it goes.
But today’s Onion wasn’t, well, funny.
“Dead Iraqi Would Have Loved Democracy”? Harr Harr Harr.
“Point/Counterpoint, a/k/a I can’t make an argument because I’m for the war”?
Ha–larious.
“New Bomb Capable Of Creating 1,500 New Terrorists In Single Blast”?
Wow!

Shrill mockery != humor.
Of course, Colby Cosh was way ahead of the wave on this one.

Stupid losers. What the hell are you doing, meeting Americans in open battle? Fight to your strengths, whatever they may be.
This is weird…

I’m posting a letter that Tim Marshall,
a friend of mine in Newfoundland from long
lost D&D days (the 1970′s!), wrote to a little mailing list we share among
Newfs and ex-pats. Tim is a former armour officer in the Canadian Forces.

I’m against the death penalty — I really am — and one (of the many) reasons is that I don’t believe the state should be in the business of handing out to people what they deserve. But I’m hard pressed to think of many persons more deserving than this fellow, one Peter Currie, I read about in today’s National Post. Before I went out to lunch, I was looking at pictures of my daughter, here and here. It’s unbelievable, and more than a little scary, how much she loves us, how much she trusts us. Perhaps there’s a dimmer switch in the brain that makes people feel this way, and in me it’s turned up as far as it will go. And perhaps it’s turned off altogether in Currie, who took his two year old daughter, slit her throat, and abandoned her in the woods behind his house to struggle, to bleed, to freeze, and eventually after a too long period of time, to die alone. His expression of remorse was that “it was between him and his wife”, and he should have left his daughter out of it.

They should put him in an empty cell, in a empty wing, of an empty prison and walk away.

I’m getting easily 2 – 3 times the normal number of times of hits on this blog. Cool. And not from big links, just people checking in.

Oral sex … get this … for women.

Randomly flicked on CBC just now: they’re talking to anti-war teens.
Sigh.

Actors have to do something — it’s built into the name: act — actor. Perhaps he means
mime on the world stage?

A possibility I’ve been mulling over is that Turkey has sold out to France: i.e. thwart the US and we’ll look sympathetically upon your entry to the EU the next round (before the end of this decade). France is the country that has been blocking Turkey’s possibility of acceptance into the EU. In the long run, this is probably worth a lot more than $15 billion to Turkey, and anchors the moderate Westerners in Turkish government to something more substantial than to fickle US support.