It's raining in Toronto, too. I had forgotten it was February until you mentioned it. It feels more like March and the trees in the cemetery are starting to bud.

NCPR ran a story last evening about the sugar shacks in Virginia making syrup already. Six weeks early. Soon be time to visit the Maple Shanty...

Were pictures of US dead from Iraq an actual taboo for some or was it in fact administration policy to restrict access to information for political purposes? I do not mean to debate the two so much as to frame the idea of taboo with the example so don't go off.

Hey Al,

1. I am firmly in the Danish camp on both the cartoon issue and the Hans Island issue. Cartoons are meant to be irreverant slices of life. Mohammed with a missile for a hat, I think, is a fair comment on the disturbing mixture of religion and belligerence. When people run around shouting "Death to Denmark" over a cartoon, then that merely proves the point of the cartoon. And the Hans Island issue is like a cartoon.

2. Thanks for thinking of me, but an image of Heuvelton is firmly planted in my mind. The image includes an Ahmish horse & buggy with flourescent sign on the back bumper. I have been to Canton too once or twice (pronounced CAN'-n, unlike the Canton Cafe (can-TON')in Charlottetown), which I think hosts St. Lawrence University.

3. As for the lying liars, I used an article by Phillippe Sands in a paper I wrote many moons ago at York University. He was a credible author in a peer reviewed international academic journal then and I don't doubt his objectivity or rationality has changed any.

That's the view from here. Cheers,

Hans

I had a Heuvelton moment when I crossed over the bridge and hit Highway 68 to <i>Caaaaa''n</i>. I came upon a slow plow coming towards me with a line of traffice behind. On my side of the road there was an Amish buggy and on the other the oncoming snowplow was passing another Amish buggy. Horse-based traffic jam.

Alan, I would argue that is in the broad interest of every administration (Republican or Democrat), and indeed every democracy, to limit media exposure of combat casualties. Not limiting the figures or facts, but showing the dead and decomposing on TV. Why are some people clamouring to see war dead but they don't lobby to see the crime-related dead on local streets?

First, some of the same principles apply with not naming/showing violent crime victims here at home. Officials need time to notify families and next of kin first -- nobody wants the first notice of dead relatives through CNN.

Second, the media tends to sensationalise. Rather than say, compare allied and enemy combatant losses, weighing strategic and logistical considerations, the media will show dead soldiers and then cut to reporters interviewing grieving family members. If they were going to use it as a tool for understanding strategic or tactical imperatives then it might serve some purpose, but no reporter will waste time doing that when the wailing widow soundbites are so much easier to get. People in grief say and do stupid things. Giving them a national platform at the time of their greatest emotional vulnerability makes for attention-grabbing TV, but poor public policy. (Exhibits A & B: Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer's relatives, Cindy Sheehan)

Third, playing up gruesome images will have extremely negative effects on military and civilian morale. Citizens may trust the armed forces to execute combat missions, but when faced with seeing the results (i.e. dead combatants on either side), they will inevitably quaver and have doubts. They may in turn have an extremely negative view of the military thereafter, which will depress recruiting and retention rates, their willingness to have bases in close proximity, or even the purpose of having such a force. This will have deleterious effects across a broad spectrum of society and may prevent policymakers from adopting necessary but unpleasant postures in foreign policy and national defence.

Everyone has a conscience, and even the soldiers themselves will relive and question unpleasant scenes long after they have left combat behind. How much more so will civilians, who have no mental preparation for combat effects and yet -- if war dead are shown i print or TV -- will be subjected to them via the news? It is the difference between enjoying sausage and enjoying scenes of the making of sausage. I acknowledge the absolute necessity for military forces to defend a democratic society, but I do not necessarily want to see their handiwork while eating dinner. If, on the other hand, I find it no bother, then chances are I have already taken the step of enlisting so that i can contribute directly.

coco crisp! cococ crisp!

I head the Montague piece on CBC, then read the Maclean's article and spent some time trying to figure out how backwoods Georgia was magically moved to Lanark County. This whole thing sounds like a weird rejected script from the Dukes of Hazzard! Suing someone for defamation because he's publicly criticized the one of the Townsihp's services? <b>Come on!</b> Maclean's mentions the fact that the founding president of the Montague ratepayer's association was mysteriously murdered, as well. Scary stuff.

I gather that he court's decision is a Canadian precedent, too. Thank god for common sense.

Lying liars. Eh? Who are you chastizing here, Alan?

Taboos. Of course there are taboos in N. America. Problem is that N. America isn't mono-cultured. There's not a distinct majority culture either. But all of them have their own taboos. For instance saying, 'Here's to Gen. W.T. Sherman,' while in an Atlanta bar will likely get you killed(or in most places in the South, Southrons have their own culture).

Anarcho-libertarians: Are you busting the Ayn Randians or the Black Block types here?
The Ayn Randians would be PISSED over this redistrobution, I would think. They tend to be pissed over any taxes anyways.
THe BBs would take another hit off the bong and chortle. Seeing as how they tend to hew to rather socialist/syndicalist lines anyways.

Thanks Chris but one more question. Does all that you have correctly described add up to a taboo for North American society? For example, while we do not show crime dead or name them, local US TV stations do and I get uncomfortable when I see those stories. Am I reacting in the particular for the families? Not really. I really have a general reaction which I would relate to taboo.

Anarcho-libertarians use public roads, rely on public health to keep influenza at bay, enjoy the food safety the government provides, is made safe by the Building Code, rides elevators with confidence and places their babies in regulatory approved fire retardant textiles while bitching about taxation and fantasizing about autonomous emperors of their own backyard. I'd call them hypocritical Randian fools except that is an oxymoron.

I suppose it does add up to a taboo. I tend to think of taboos as being somewhat superstitious, non-logical and non-utilitarian in nature: i.e. I occasionally mix Cheerios in with my porridge, on the grounds that they are both oat products and cereals. Wanda hates it when I do this; she will make the porridge and get out the Cheerios for me, but refuses to do the actual mixing herself. It is some kind of abomination for her and she wants nothing to do with it.

In the case of war/crime dead there are strong, logical and utilitarian reasons not to air footage. It doesn't really have any ritual or superstitious elements, but it is very much a societal/cultural norm that we are loath to break. So in the broadest sense of the word I'd say it qualifies.

What is an "actual friend"? Oh, the flesh and blood, in your neighborhood type, not the strange, undersocialized types (like me?)one meets on weird blog sites.
Re: strange weather: syrup(sap) is apparently being drawn hereabouts several weeks early. Northern New England, that is. Songbirds sing merrily, rain pours, snow melts. Killed a mosquito Jan 29, and 30, and 31, and FOUR mosquitos yesterday, Feb. 2, groundhog day.
A winter for the record books, it seems.

I value words and concepts such as buddy, pal, friend, acquaintance, respected but distant collegue, stranger, stalker and do like to note when people move from one to the other category but I think that the left end of that continuum does require actual face to face as a minimum.

OLYMPIC HOCKEY! Whaddya say folks? Strong teams for the US, Swedes, Russians, Canadians and Czechs? Finns too? Well, I say we may have to watch the Czechs again. As for the women, a kickass final between the US and Canadians?
I'm just happy because the Bruins beat the tar out of the Senators AND EVIL Canadiens this week.

We are definitely rooting for Canada and especially Gillian Apps, our 4th cousin, who also plays NCAA at Dartmouth, a venerable NE institution.

I am not understanding the point of your taboo question, Alan. When you ask if some things should not be taboo in conjunction with the Denmark cartoon fracas I am forced to wonder if you are asking if it should not be "taboo" for Danish newspapers to ask as they have done for fear of upsetting some folk's religious sensibilities. Of course, "taboo" in this sense is purely colloquial rather than taboo in the technical, anthropological sense that for many Muslims representations of Mohammed are taboo. If I am mistaking your point I hope you will explain the juxtaposition. If not, I hope you will share your thoughts on a radical new taboo against issuing blood-curdling death threats because other people poke fun at your religious beliefs.

I merely inquire as to the nature of taboo, good sir, without agenda. You make a point about the question of appropriate response to a breach of taboo but over at Jay's I noted that the protest was in the form of egging - an act of terrorism only to chickens. <p>But that Danish-Islamic taboofest is only a trigger of the mind. I wonder what else we might have taboo but not think of as odd because we are so close to it, in the way that some citizens of Asia consider we folk of the North Atlantic zone reek of cheese, a food unknown to them. I appreciate that I wallow in the colloquial on this point but I am well known as Colloque Wee Al amongst certain non-anthropologists.

I take your egging point but remain rather more concerned about my hostage-taking, bomb-threat and death-threat point at least in so far as we are still taking the case of Denmark.

As for our local taboos, I cannot think of anything that would prompt me to hostage-taking, bomb-threats or death-threats; this despite having watched a fair amount of Jerry Springer.

Is a taboo by definition something that causes death threats or does the ukky feeling of closer-than-first-cousin marriage suffice?

To that end I offer you the Federal <i>Marriage (Prohibited Degrees) Act</i> which sets out taboo in law. Note that prohibitions are not merely sanguinity but include relationships by adoption and, one might expect, they apply equally to same sex marriages.

<i>It's raining. In February. In Kingston. I am not allowed to make this up.</i>

Something about large men of Scottish ancestry living in glass houses...

I was baiting you, brother! I couldn't help me self.

Found these points somewhat important:<blockquote class="smalltext">One group of Danish Muslims, led by a young imam named Ahmed Akkari, grew so frustrated by the inability of Muslims to get their message across in Denmark that they compiled a dossier of racist and culturally insensitive images circulating in the country and took them on an road show in the Arab World to raise awareness of the discrimination they faced...<p>Quist says the dossier they shared in Egypt may have been far more damaging than the Jyllands-Posten episode -- and it may have further exacerbated misgivings between Denmark and the Arab world. In addition to the now notorious caricatures published by the newspaper which have now spread like wildfire in the blogosphere, it also included patently offensive anti-Muslim images that had been sent to the group by other Muslims living in Denmark. The origins or authenticity of the images haven't been confirmed, but their content was nevertheless damaging. Quist says the dossier included three obscene caricatures -- one showed Muhammad as a pedophile, another as a pig and the last depicted a praying Muslim being raped by a dog.<blockquote>

"The drawings in Jyllands-Posten were harmless compared to these," he says...</blockquote>

The reporter says that Arabs who visited with the group later claimed Akkari's delegation had given them the impression that Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen somehow controlled or owned Jyllands-Posten.</blockquote>

See: http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,398624,00.html.

And people are chanting Coco Crisp? YOu're a wicked one, Mr. McLeod. Wicked.

Ayup - some wicked goooud.

If Marian and David Janes were here, the reply total would be well past 100. Surely they have not gone too far?

"Is a taboo by definition something that causes death threats or does the ukky feeling of closer-than-first-cousin marriage suffice?"

Mixing topics here again, Alan. My death-threat point was in response to your eggy dismissal. If you want a technical definition of a taboo, however, I would be happy to provide one.

The issue as I understood it wasn't caricatures of Muhammad but of portrals of Muhammad at all - it's a sin to portray the prophet. Secularism should trump religiosity every time. However, racist caricatures shouldn't be published by a newspaper that hopes to be taken seriously (nuts to hate crime laws, everybody has a right to publish whatever they want). A good friend of mine who spent some time working in Denmark remarked to me once that "The sad fact is, most Europeans are racist."

After a drought, BlogMatrix has work and potential for a lot more so I'm happily toiling away. And practicing "Oh Susanna".

Just to delve into 'nee's last comment: fair enough. But what makes a caricature racist (or biggoted, which is probably a better word in this context). A 1930's cartoon with a 5'2" big-nosed troglodyte with a sack of Deutchemarks in one had and grasping at a blonde woman's ass in the other certainly is; but a cartoon showing a German as bloodthirsty hun is...

(my answer: "surprising accurate")

It's raining. In February. In Kingston. I am not allowed to make this up.

You wanted snow?

Three somehow unrelated points:

1) We just were given a lovely Burmese cat named Coco...so if my two year old...No, no, I have not had enough beer to finish this joke.

2) It is raining in Victoria. It has been raining since the 1st of January and I expect it will keep raining until the end of February. The daffodils are up...

3)I just love the Islamists. Not content with seething over the actual cartoons they had to gilt the lily with a few rather vile images of their own.

What is is about Islam which turns a tiny percentage of its adherents into humourless zealots intent on fostering a clash of civilizations which they are bound to lose? Or, more accurately, spoiled children.

It is very, very tough to take these people seriously at any sort of intellectual level. They are certainly pests and the best thing to do with pests is clear them out of the house. One way tickets to East Wackistan would do Denmark and the rest of Europe the world of good...we might want to look at that option with a few of our Canadian Islamic extremists as well.

Does anyone have "Flea Form 431GJ" whereby I request a taboo definition?

International Flea News Services has a very good op-ed piece on the Danish-Muslim thing as I in articulately put it.<p>He skillfully identifies the falsity of the concept of "Muslims" which is instructive in comparison to the non-existent group "Christians" and thereby illuminates the entire Danish-Muslim thing as a co-opting of a theoretical offense for ulterior motives and crowd-whippy-uppery. I am inclined to agree...completely in fact... and am now drawing posters in multi-coloured magic marker with slogans such as "Death to the Anti-Flea-ist Hegemonists" and "Down with Danish Cardoons" as I feel looney protest must be met with looney protest. How better to defeat Islamo-fascism than with sub-deft Dadaist display? <p>Gather at 5 pm near the docks if you want to make history.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-taboo.htm (just click on the web address under my name).

In Canada and the US there are taboos against 1. using certain bigoted words and 2. having sex with your sister 3. eating people, among other things.

I wish the less cosmopolitan Islamist would stop making it so hard for non-islamists to defend them.
On the other hand, do we really want to start deporting citizens based on their beliefs? Who will go first? How will we decide which ones to deport, I mean? Will there be a standard test, or will we simply rely on neighbours to come forward and point fingers? No, this sounds like a bad train of thought. It reminds me of other bad episodes in human history. Comparing people to insects or vermin is also really grim. It suggests that these 'others' are not fully human and can be swept out or disposed of like dirt.

Who will go first?

Off-topic: but Marian for GenX40 Reader Profile!!!

About the 12 cartoons! Have you seen these cartoons? They're very inoffensive in my opinion.

As a cartoonist myself, I am very preoccupied by what's going on in Europe and I think that everybody in the western world should stand and say NO to the world control of freedom of speech by the Muslims. Their religious and political leaders only use the pretext of these cartoons to gain control over non-educated extremists and other muslims against the western world. This must be denounced by everybody.

I actually have not bothered to go looking for the Danish cartoons as I do not want to have my outrage stoked by something that, but for blogs, would likely never have met with this general outrage on either side of the debate. I like to save my ineffective sitting-on-hands liberal outrage for things like the millions of dead and political dislocation in Sudan, the Congo, Zimbabwe etc. that no one really seems to care about.<p>But that being said, welcome to I think our first poster from Quebec. Regular input from the other solitude would be a welcome thing to add to the more banal selection of Anglo-Canucks in Hungary and Dutch Surinamese in the Maritimes.

As long as I am deported to somewhere with palm trees and white sand beaches.

Actually, though I don't live in Quebec, I was born there and so was my father.

Alan: Dutch Surinamese in the Maritimes.<br />
<br />
Marian: Actually, though I don't live in Quebec, I was born there and so was my father.<br />
<br />
<small>...and I'm not dutch surinamese... What do you need for a reader profile Alan?</small>.

I think a decent comparison would be Ted Rall's obviously inflammatory cartoons and the Danish ones. In the end, the mass response should be, 'So?'
The sickos who write death threats to Rall are shunned by the rest of us. Why not allow the same scorn to be heaped onto the Moslems who are making death threats? This is the problem with 'racial justice', that it never is just or treats different 'races' equitably. Are the Moslems who have flown into a spittle filled tizzy deserving of our scorn? Absolutely, just like those who go off the reservation about Rall or the Toss(?, I can't remember, the WaPo cartoon). Moslems aren't children, so let's treat them like that.
Those that are making objections in the accepted manner don't deserve to be made fun of, but those that are appoplectic deserve the same hazing as the Televangelist who said Hugo Chavez should be assassinated. (But, that would require us to make fun of a minority, and that's an f'n hate crime!).
'Secularity should religion every time.' Rethink that, or maybe add the necessary caveats, would you please?

Re: readers profile (mine). The ball is not in my court. I sent stuff. It may not be publishable, I don't know.

Ummm...I think a readers profile should actually inform about the reader being profiled. I will revisit the dossier to sift clues.<p>Arthur: I was thinking of portland. But you are certainly welcome to provide the Dutch in Maritime perspective.

Why did I assume portland was in Vancouver? Must be the west coast name. Or my simply not paying attention, which is always a possibility.

CM--people in New England are always surprised to hear that there is another Portland, in Oregon, wherever the hell that is. Portland is (I am going out on a limb here) from Portland, Maine, Maine's largest city. Not to be confused with Portsmouth, New Hampshire just down the street, and certainly not with any other Portsmouth's or Portlands in Virginia or England.
Howse your work on the maracas and tambourine coming? Spit and jeans, baby?

Well, if anyone wants to see the profile I sent in, it's here: http://www.readerprofile.blogspot.com/
Or click on the link under my name.

If we have a fictionalized series that will be the first. Nice photo.

"Portland, in Oregon, wherever the hell that is" LOL. It's not like we're talking about Helena, Montana here(you know, really obscure locales.). Portland, OR is only one of the biggest ports on the West Coast, if hard to get to(sailing a barge up the Columbia River ain't easy I'm told).

Re: fictionalized, I'm sure I don't know what you mean.

Flea, are you suggesting that deportation is comparable to a holiday?

I think he is suggesting that with simply the right attitude and handy pre-packed carry-on luggage it can be taken as such.

I'm sure deportees to Afghanistan will take this suggestion under advisement.

I've put up more photos from my trip to Mexico on my former blog, in case you or anyone else is interested. There are also some photos from the US.

ARe you two actually missing a Gitmo reference?
"As long as I am deported to somewhere with palm trees and white sand beaches."

ry--I was, of course, making a joke. But it often seems like people in New England consider the New York state line to be the far west. People in New England often are so happy and smug about their hometowns they are unaware that there are other states. And Portland, Maine is a pretty little city, as Alan has noted in the past, but I would love to go to Oregon someday myself.

Gitmo? (Is it so hard to say Guantanamo?) Okay, my husband has filled me in, sort of.

I live in Hungary. So sue me.

GR, I spent the weekend practicing my maracas and tambourines and working on my spitting, too.

As for Portland (the city), I grew up watching cable tv from Bangor, Maine, yet knew of Portland OR but not Portland ME. Funny, that.

Marian-re: your profile: thanks for breaking the code of silence. Perhaps you have a split personality or maybe schizophrenia? Maybe a group of 3 different Canuck/Hungarians calls itself 'Marian'? I wish one of you liked football, as your opinons on the subject would be most entertaining. In all seriousness, it was great to see your pictures.
CM--re: rocking and spitting gleefully: who are your inspirations? Johnny Rotten? Iggy Pop? Wendy O' Williams of the Plasmatics? Can you play the bongos?

Debbie Harry for the attitude, Hugh Dillon for the spitting. Alas, bongos are beyond my musical ability.

Oh my, Debbie Harry! I was about 14 back then and she was...
My cat can play bongos, should we ask him?

...the only woman in the world who could make sweats look punk.
Definitely ask the cat.