Battlestar: Razor

In case you missed it, the new Battlestar Galactica flashback movie is great. It covers what happened between Lee getting the Pegasus and Lee smashing up the Pegasus, as well as explaining how the Pegasus escaped the Cylon attack to begin with.

Lots more tidbits about the evolution of the Cylons too.

This almost makes up for the weak 3rd season.

The Hazards of Peace

The Congressional Research Service says there were more military deaths per year in the 80's (when there were no conflicts) than there have been during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Taking the data from Table 4 and normalizing for the number of "full time equivalent" soldiers during each of those years you get the following chart:


Patrick Lasswell attributes the high casualty rate in the 80s to (among other things) soldiers being high as kites all the time. The eminently forgettable Buffalo Soldiers comes to mind...

No particular point to make. Even being one to dismiss the significance of this war, I was still surprised at how many of the US casualties are simply part of the baseline.

USA Today 2008 Candidate Picker

Political Games Forever links to a USA Today tool for comparing your beliefs with that of all the potential presidential candidates.

It is pretty slick.

After balancing the issue importances, Mike Huckabee is my top match. Given Huckabee's nominal support in the polls, I had not bothered to actually check out his platform. Turns out that his views line up with mine in almost every case - my objections to him tend to come when he veers off into anti-Federalism land (e.g. pro-Federal law banning abortions, pro-Federal law preventing States from enacting gun control...).

And I find religious views from my political candidates to be extremely distasteful, but I've come to terms with that over the years.

Movie Review: Pan's Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth is amazing. Kept me absolutely entranced till the end.

The Spanish Civil War portion of the story was a perfect way of grounding what would otherwise have felt like a dark, yet somewhat inconsistent and ultimately pointless fairy tale. It was slightly odd hearing the Communist rebels getting all excited about the Americans and Canadians coming, but probably only because my knowledge of history is so spotty.

Well worth a rental from the video store.

Contracting Out the Dirty Work

Here's an interesting story that I don't have much of an opinion on... Canada is not going to ask for the death penalty to be taken off the table in the case of Ronald Smith, a Canadian facing execution in Montana for two murders.

Canada, which carried out its last death sentence in 1962 and abolished capital punishment in 1976, has for years appealed for clemency for Canadians sentenced to death abroad. Last Friday, Ottawa said it would do so in the case of Ronald Smith, who is facing execution in Montana for two 1982 murders, but changed tack this week.

"People should be held responsible for their crimes in other democratic jurisdictions and we will not interfere with their process when there has been a fair trial," government minister Peter Van Loan told Parliament on Friday.

Apparently Canada normally intervenes on behalf of Canadians facing the death penalty. Ignoring the fact that the death penalty gets people all riled up, it does strike me as kind of strange that that Canada would ever speak up when the crime is just as horrific by Canadian standards and there doesn't seem to be any question of guilt.

Photos of the Wall at the US/Canada Border

International photojournalist Sacha has photographed the infamous wall along the US/Canada border that continues to cause so much trouble.

Shamelessly violating his copyright and assuming that friendship will stop him from mercilessly suing me, here is one of the photos that captures the essence of the situation.

Take away points:

• Only the Canadian side of the vista is maintained at all, and that is because there is road inside it.
  
• The wall results in a far clearer vista than would otherwise be there - look at the vegetation in the far lot.
• The only reason the Leus needed the wall is because they decided to build up their property two feet higher than their neighbor (see the grass on the right). That strikes me as somewhat peculiar, although obviously the landscaping was important to them.

So the IBC doesn't have the budget to keep anything clear, even in populated areas. They are in the absurd position of stopping people from building within the vista even though that construction might well improve the view through the vista. Ah, bureaucracy!