Bad Imams

Based on the subsequent reports on the Imams that were recently removed from a flight, it becomes reasonably clear that they were either:

• Trying to make a scene, or
• Planning to hijack the aircraft

The Coming Conflict in Europe

Taking issue with Mark Steyn's belief that Europe will eventually become a Muslim nation, Ralph Peters of the New York Post says that this is a stupid idea, because, wait for it... eventually Europe will find itself another Hitler and go on a killing rampage until the continent is devoid of Muslims.

(Peters is not arguing in favor of this outcome, but thinks it is inevitable.)

Steyn doesn't discount the possibility of another Hitler, but he thinks it won't make any difference due to the lopsided birth rates.

I tend to think that Steyn has the stronger side in this debate, but either way this sure is a depressing view of the future.

General Abizaid on Defeat

CBS was pretty clearly fishing for a clip that they could describe as "Top US General Admits Defeat".

But General John Abizaid wasn't going for it. He really wrecked that segment.

He's totally wrong (barring a pretty major policy shift), mind you, but it was still funny.

Jonathan Chait Steals My Idea

To reinstate Saddam, that is.

Well, at least he wrote about it a lot more eloquently than I did.

Accents Restaurant

Accents is a decent sized place on Broadway in Vancouver. Offering "Russian & European" food, it can be a confusing choice for a first-timer. Luckily, everything is very good, so it's unlikely that you will pick wrong.

The food is beautifully presented and it's reasonably cheap too, at least at lunch. $8 for an entree, or $10 including a drink and dessert or appetizer.

Highly recommended.

Accents Restaurant
1967 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC

Ignatieff for Liberal Leader

An 18 page biography for Michael Ignatieff, the frontrunner for Canada's Liberal leadership race.

While I find his extremely aristocratic roots and early behavior to be rather off-putting, he did take principled stands on a couple of issues that cost him many of his socialist/left wing friends.

At the very least, it sounds like he would argue for policy based on reality rather than ideology.

How to be Weird and Still Fly

Best of the Web Today offers this anecdote (top item) about a group of Jews that have modified their prayer habits as to not upset their fellow passengers.

That seems like a pretty good idea, given the recent incidents.

Movie: Happy Feet

Visually very nice, with plenty of singing of strangely modified oldies and popular music, Happy Feet is a decent movie to catch (for kids and adults). Unfortunately the plot isn't terribly engaging, and the dancing by the star penguin was kind of uncomfortable looking.

One thing that really bothered me was the use of humans to actively drive the story. In most of these animated movies humans exist, but as background props - just another hazard to be navigated. Here their active participation ends up being instrumental in resolving the penguin crisis. Somehow that cheapened the existence of singing, dancing penguins for me.

Can BSG Be Saved?

After successfully navigating the minefields of insurgency and suicide bombing, the two most recent episodes of Battlestar Galactica have easily been the worst of the series. Weak, stupid plots, and a total rewrite of Admiral Adama's character.

I don't think I can keep watching it at this reduced level of quality...

Garth Turner Confused on Income Splitting?

Garth Turner has been loudly proclaiming his support for income splitting for a while now, but it is starting to look like he doesn't understand it very well (or has something completely different in mind).

I have always assumed it would work as described in this National Post article. It would be a pretty awesome thing if it goes through (both for me personally, and for the country as a matter of policy).

Poisoned Fruit

Cox & Forkum on the Iranian offer of 'aid' in stabilizing Iraq.

Profiling in Minneapolis

6 imams removed from a flight for praying loudly, and saying things that made their fellow passengers very nervous. Muslim groups are outraged.

But wait, one of the guys tossed turns out to have been intimately involved in 'charities' that handle terrorist fundraising efforts.

Queen of the North Log Books

Update: eBay listing has been pulled, and local radio is now reporting that the log books for sale were actually blanks.

The media has treated the story of the doomed ferry's missing log books as if they are critical in finding out what happened. One wonders what they expect to be written in the log books:

March 22nd, 2006: Man, I am soooooo hungover. Hey, let's see how close we can run to Gil Island. No! That's t

In a strange twist, someone bitter (located in Prince Rupert, the north end of the primary run) is now selling Queen of the North log books on eBay. I don't see any claim that they are the log books, but the media is reporting it as a possibility.

Epiphanies, Redux

Finally, someone took my bait! I was sure that this was going to be a great topic to get feedback on, but not so much.

In response to Sacha's response (to my original post), I don't think that the taxation issue really hit me until I was working full time. Even with a decent paying summer job, university tax breaks resulted in a negligible tax burden.

BC's Place in the New World Order

An article on how BC is trying to become integral to the shipping of goods from Asia to North America.

BRITISH COLUMBIA'S GATEWAY INITIATIVES

$900 million: Roberts Bank

Terminal Two

Container facility.

$400 million:

Deltaport Third Birth.

$190 million: Fraser Surrey

Dock expansion.

$175 million: Dredging Fraser River Channel for larger vessles.

$340 million: Fraser Richmond terminal development.

$269 milion: Vancouver Harbour terminal.

$550 million +: New deep water container terminals at Prince Rupert.

$60 million + : Tsawwassen First Nation agreement in principle for Roberts Bank expansion.

Total: $2.884 billion

$800 million: South Fraser Perimeter Road.

$460 million: North Fraser Perimeter Road.

$1.5 billion: Trans- Canada upgrades and twinning of the Port Mann Bridge.

$300 million: Widen Fraser Highay through Surrey; twin Dollarton Bridge and other road improvements.

$900 million: Golden Ears Bridge, spanning the Fraser River.

$600 million: Replacing Patullo Bridge.

$252 million: Land border crossing upgrades.

$960 million: Kicking Horse Canyon Highway upgrades.

Total: $5.772 billion

$1.9 billion: Canada Line, between YVR and downtown Vancouver. Completiion 2009.

Total: $1.9 billion

$290 million: Upgrades to Vancouver International Airport to reduce delays. Completion by 2012

$1.4 billion: Expansion of passenger facilities, including a nine-gate expansion. Passengers expected to rise from 16.4 million to more than 28 million. Completion 2015.

Total: $1.690 billion

$5 billion +: Building of up to five pipelines between western Canada and West Coast.

$76 million +: Lheidli T'enneh First Nation settllement also awards 4,360 hectares of land, including 1,160 hectares of mostly Crown land inside Prince George, helping to bring about proposed pipeline and development of inland port and container facilities in Prince George.

Total: $5.076+ billion

Grand Total: $17.332 billion

Turning Iraq into Vietnam

The Bush administration willfully ignored Iran long enough that there are obvious parallels developing between Iraq and the Vietnam War. (Although there are only 10,000 opposition fighters in Iraq, compared with 1,000,000 in Vietnam - while the number of American troops in Iraq is roughly equal to the number in Vietnam...)

Now, Walter Pincus of the Washington Post is advocating that the Democrats take it the rest of the way. Rather than just giving up, letting Iraq collapse, and saving the military for another day, he wants Dems to use budgetary constraints to prevent military operations that might actually be effective (he states this outright).

Apparently the goal is to undermine Bush while protecting the Democrats from being held accountable for the inevitable disaster in Iraq. At the cost of more soldiers' lives.

Link via Byron York.

Surrey Wins!

With the highest murder rate in BC's Lower Mainland. Not being an (East) Indian woman significantly decreases your risk factor though.

I find the statistics related to murder investigations amazing; here in the Lower Mainland only 70% of murders are "solved". Assuming that they use the same criteria as California for considering a case closed, this means that in that 70% there are going to be some number of acquittals, dismissals, and wrongful convictions.

So if you kill someone, you have a 30% chance of never even being charged (closer to 40% in California). If you kill someone you don't know you probably have way better odds than that.

The Party of Michael Moore

Anytime I start thinking "maybe the Democrats wouldn't be so bad" I get smacked in the face by something from Michael Moore.

I could conceivably vote for a John Kerry, but I couldn't vote for the party that lets Moore into their National Convention as an honored guest.

Pieter = Wrong, OJ = Tacky (and Murderer)

Confirmation that OJ is doing a round of publicity for his "what if I killed my wife" book tour.

That's the last time Pieter will doubt my National Enquirer sourced scoops!

Congratulations to Fox for once again raising the bar for trashy television.

Chinese Wargames

The Chinese are testing their new Russian submarines by (successfully) shadowing US fleets.

Even more distressing, the US is giving China's military access to US Command & Control sites in exchange for... nothing (depending on how much you value empty promises).

Moonbats Weigh In on the Midterm Election

All the while claiming not to believe their own words, these loons are listing all the evidence that proves the Republican loss was all part of the master plan (no good theories as to what the master plan is though).

Why, surprisingly, did incumbents Conrad Burns and George Allen fail to ask for recounts when they lost narrow races -- throwing the Senate to the Democrats without a whimper?

Because Republicans aren't nearly as big whiners as Democrats? They have dignity, self respect? (Also, Burns is not within the automatic recount threshold - he would have to go all Al Gore loony tunes lawsuit happy to get a recount.)

Presumably this all comes from the authors' desperate desire to keep claiming that the 2000/2004 elections were stolen, and that is a hard sell if the Republicans didn't bother to steal this one. Memo to moonbats: It all gets a lot easier if you start assuming that all the Democrats are in on the conspiracy too... but then I guess you have no one left to cheer for.

I recently read an article that suggested the best result of a Republican victory would be renewed calls for investigations into Diebold's crappy voting machines. Lo and behold, the Dems have won and all of a sudden no one is quite as worried about voting accuracy.

Weak.

Iraq Parallels in "Battlestar Gallactica"

The first few episodes of BSG season 3 centered around the human resistance against Cylon occupation. This, plus an eyebrow raising interview with one of the main actors, caused some consternation among conservative fans who were sure that the show was going be used as a vehicle for criticizing the Iraq war.

In the show, the analogy would be that the Americans are represented by the Cylons and the Iraq "resistance" is represented by the humans. The Cylon justification for occupation is considerably flimsier than the US occupation of Iraq, and the humans are hiding a resistance force among the civilian population and eventually start sending suicide bombers to really get the job done. What is remarkable here is that the humans are much better behaved than the terrorists in Iraq, and yet they still come off in a really bad light. The vast majority of the fighting they do has no tactical merit and usually results in their own civilians being killed. On the other hand, Cylons have no civilians so all the attacks are non-terrorist in nature.

At any rate, the analogy doesn't hold up very well, and where it does the resistance looks worse than the occupiers.

The in-show discussions on suicide bombing made me realize that my own distaste for the act may not be based on the same beliefs as normal people. Normal people apparently object to suicide bombing because the idea of convincing people to kill themselves is morally abhorrent. Personally, I tend to agree with the Colonel Ty character, who states that there isn't a meaningful difference between sending a soldier to blow himself up and sending a soldier on a mission that will almost certainly result in his death.

My objection to suicide bombing (or civilian masked attacks in general) is that it is only effective against any enemy that is more restrained (moral, if you will) than you are. The IRA survived (and more-or-less won) because the Brits didn't have the stomach to do what it would have taken to stop them. In general, winning with those kinds of tactics only means that your enemy is better than you - heaven help the Palestinians if the Israelis one day decide that they have had enough.

Political Epiphanies

The last few paragraphs at the end of this Jay Nordlinger column present some letters from people who had experiences that forever shaped their political viewpoints. Now, it would obviously be stupid to keep voting for the same party regardless how much it changes (not that the letters necessarily imply that is the case), but the idea of moments of crisis redefining our world view is pretty interesting.

My big moment was during the APEC summit held in Vancouver in 1997. I was a student at UBC and living on campus, where many of the meetings were being held. Previous to that point I was reflexively and unthinkingly left wing: Gordon Campbell, then opposition leader, was the devil and it was outrageous that tuition (the lowest in all of Canada) might actually be raised (by the NDP, not Campbell).

Hordes of protesters descended upon UBC. They disrupted classes. They tore down security barricades and clashed with police. They vandalized everything they could get their grubby hands on, including property that belonged to a student club I was active in (and to this day I regret not smashing the video camera of the clown who tried to intimidate us when we confronted them). It was then that I decided that no matter what APEC was, I would give it the benefit of the doubt if this was the voice of its opposition.

When idiots from the protest groups came into the CompSci building to scream about imperialism and capitalism and tried to recruit more marchers, I was tremendously pleased that they were greeted with pro-capitalist heckling. Walking down to the Chan Centre one day in hopes of seeing hippies being pepper sprayed, I noticed that there were guys with guns on the roof watching the seething crowd. On a total whim I waved at them, and much to my surprise, one of them waved back. That simple gesture really humanized the otherwise distant police for me.

And a couple days later I was arguing in favor of the rights of people in Third World countries to have McDonalds if they want to!

Anyone else have a crystallizing moment that they would like to share?

Rumsfeld Takes One For The Team

Donald Rumsfeld oversaw one of the most effective military campaigns ever in the first weeks in Iraq.

He was then given an incredibly ambitious goal (make Iraq into a happy place) while one hand was tied behind his back (civilian casualties are virtually unacceptable, Iran is to be ignored at any cost). He managed to keep it together far beyond any reasonable expectation.

And now he is being sacrificed to appease the Democrats, who have yet to propose any coherent Iraq policy. It's a pretty raw deal. More on Rummy from Victor Davis Hanson.

In his place, President Bush has nominated Robert Gates. Gates, who barely escaped unscathed from the Iran-Contra scandal, is likely to have a very different approach than Rumsfeld. The CIA will almost certainly take center field, and whatever is accomplished will be sneaky and underhanded.

If I were living in Iraq, I would be stockpiling weapons and food right about now; if Gates gets confirmed (or lives out the next two years in a recess appointment), I imagine Iraq will not only be abandoned to fend for itself, but there will be encouragement of controlled chaos from the US. It's a valid way to protect the US, but damn it makes the last few years (and many lives) a big waste.

What is the Point of the Democratic Party?

It's not often that I read an article that perfectly captures my mood, but this one by Robert Tracinski comes damn close.

Without a doubt, the Retardicans deserved to lose this midterm election. That being said, the only benefit from this is that they will have to get their shit together for the next election. Like Tracinski, I can support virtually nothing that the Democrats have to offer, at least not on any of the big ticket issues. For that reason I do most of my political reading at National Review - NR certainly has some writers I routinely disagree with, but at least they argue internally and make some effort to debate the issues based on their merits.

Conversions Due to Discovery of Roots

The Oregonian recently published an article (now offline, unfortunately) on Christians of various flavors who discover that they have Jewish heritage and proceed to become Orthodox Jews.

Now, I understand that finding out you are not (racially) quite who you thought would be shocking, but converting to a religion that you weren't raised in (and clearly had little to no interest in) strikes me as rather strange. It's not like these people couldn't have become Jewish before they found out about their roots.

It would make a lot more sense to me if they all became atheists instead, rather than just switching teams for no particular reason. I wonder if it has to do with (as some of the subjects in the article describe) suddenly feeling like you are about to be persecuted for your heritage - I suppose that might make you more inclined to sign up with the guys you know will look out for you.

Or maybe for every wacky conversion there are 100s of people that just go 'meh - whatever', and the Oregonian is misrepresenting reality...

DDT is Back

Apparently a 700% increase in malaria fatalities and an even greater increase in infections is too much. South Africa resumed the use of DDT 5 years after abandoning it and malaria rates have since dropped back to their pre-1996 levels.

Yet another crime committed against the third world by well-intentioned hippies (don't get me started on "fair trade").

Give Saddam A Second Chance!

Given the following two incontrovertible facts,

• Iraq is going to slide into anarchy because the US doesn't have what it takes to make a democracy (that is, the will to drop the hammer on Iran)
  
• Iran is going to have nukes sooner rather than later because the US doesn't have what it takes to stop them (that is, the will to drop the hammer on Iran)

it is clear that there is only one possible path to peace* in the Middle East. Go to Saddam and say "Hey buddy, real sorry about that whole killing your sons and sentencing you to death business. But we're going to make it up to you. How would you like to run another war against Iran?"

Now some might call me feeble-minded for this idea, but those people clearly haven't watched enough movies. A simple remote detonable bomb implanted in his skull (see Mission Impossible III for more details) will keep him in line this time.

And then to make up for the war expenditures so far, we send in a camera crew to make a new reality TV show: "The Dictatorial Life". Imagine the wacky hijinks as Saddam rebuilds his power, deciding who needs to be executed for not fighting hard enough for him! I expect royalties for this genius idea.

Saddam will obviously be happy (not being dead and all), the Iranian leadership will be happy (having an endless war to justify the oppression of their people), and Americans will be happy because they'll be able to return to fighting about gay marriage and abortions. The Iraqis that bought the Americans' ridiculous promises (for the second time, suckers!) will be choked (upset at first, and then to death by Saddam's death squads), but anarchy probably won't be any kinder to them.

* "Peace" in this case meaning "keep that crap out of America"

Movie: Borat

You must see this movie! My sides hurt from laughing so hard.

Unless of course you are offended by any of the following:

• Extended naked man on fat-man wrestling
• Incestuous kissing and crass references
  
• Satirical antisemitism that is close enough to reality that this movie will likely get two thumbs up from Osama bin Laden, Iran, etc.
  
• Mocking of a reasonably wide cross section of Americans

Hmmm... on second thought, maybe you shouldn't see it. But if you don't, you will likely live out the rest of your life not understanding references to this film - it is going to be remembered for a long time.

Half a Book: Che Guevara

For the second time, I have surpassed my maximum library renewals on Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life by Lee Anderson. The thing is basically an 800 page encyclopedia article.

The subject matter is interesting enough that I'll try to finish it some day, but documenting my current impressions while they are still fresh seems like a good idea.

Ernesto "Che" Guevara was born into money. Many of his later idiosyncrasies can be traced to the fact that he was uncomfortable being perceived as taking advantage of his position (he was much less restrained in relatively private settings, when he would do things like confiscate the few available cigars for his own use).

Che was well educated and after some extended travel (during which he seduced many a peasant girl - something he bragged about for the rest of his life) basically fell into Communism as a way of rebelling against the massive government corruption in South America. He was never able to command much respect though, and would likely never have amounted to anything if Fidel Castro had not seen a use for him. Reading between the lines, it would appear that Castro invited Che to join his fledgling revolution for two reasons: Che was extremely enthusiastic and the fact that he was not Cuban would prevent him from ever being too much of a threat.

In Cuba, it took Che numerous battles to make his mark. He was as bad a tactician as he was a leader and barely escaped with his life a number of times. Luckily for him, the Cuban military was largely incompetent and unmotivated, and never followed through on their numerous chances to finish off the revolution. Ironically, it was his poor skills in war that eventually won the hearts of the men he would come to lead. He became famous for rushing headlong into certain death, and them miraculously escaping (usually without accomplishing the stated goals). That was enough to create a loyal following however, and after some ups and downs Castro eventually gave him a command position.

He continued to just barely survive long enough that the revolutionary army grew to the point that Batista had to mobilize serious forces against it. Once again the undisciplined Cuban army failed what should have been a straightforward mission and this basically broke Batista's reign of terror. Batista fled soon after and Castro assumed power (through a series of puppet intermediaries at first). Che took charge of indoctrinating the army in the ways of Communism and trying/executing the prisoners for war crimes. In that regard, Che was quite reasonable sounding. Trials were held, and it seems that a reasonable amount of effort went into making them fair.

Unlike Castro, Che truly believed in the cause he was fighting for. He went to great lengths to not take advantage of his authority in the manner that both of the Castro brothers happily did, but his help turned out to be fairly instrumental in cementing their position.

I suspect that his idealism is what resulted in Castro finally getting rid of him - it will be interesting finishing the book.

Butterfly Ballots are for Amateurs

Here's a fabulously complicated voting scheme that aims to solve a number of standard problems. Aside from introducing a couple unique avenues of attack, it would also prevent the vast majority of the population from completing a valid ballot (which, to be fair, can be addressed through the use of even more attackable voting machines) or determining what the hell was going on.

I also noted that some effort is still being made to prevent vote buying/selling - good luck with that. With the advent of small recording devices it becomes virtually impossible to stop proof of a specific vote from leaving the polling place.