It has been a week of reflection. Every birthday is a big one but I think the multiples of eleven are more important than the multiples of ten. What we face beyond eleven has much to do with 22 and 33. Each is past the point of return or at least kidding ourselves. It was also a week to consider much violence - in the news at Virginia Tech and also in Iraq and, of course, so any more elsewhere without notice.
- Others have been reflecting. Jay has been wonder what it is, what all this is, all about - tapped out by the tedium that is Canadian Federal politics given the cast of characters we have for leaders. He could always turn to PEI for a bit of cheer. Stephen is reflecting about politics of a sort as well - the politics of fitting in as Canada's only true citizen journalist. Both are good pieces.
- They could both wonder at the stuff we have to put up with - like this bit of fear mongering. I frankly do not know or care that much about climate change but there is never anything wrong with conservation and nothing makes for an economic boom like an imposed technological shift. So what is Baird on about? And why did he leave the pie charts home? The government has been leaving its facts elsewhere this week.
- Sometimes it is nice just to have an opportunity to reflect on the saddest screen shot ever. A great way to wrap up the week that web 2.0 finally jumped the shark.
- Brent Butt has been reflecting. Apparently a pal has heard him work my meeting on the street with him into his act. I guess I scared the crap out of him when I spoke to him from behind at a street corner. Oh well. It was a great line.
- Forget the "war on drug" or the "war on terror" - isn't it time for the "war on whacked-out loners"?
- The Globe and Mail had a quick fact sort of thing the other day that said 20% of all surveillance cameras were in Britain and that within 200 yards of George Orwell's house there was something like 32 camera watching public space. Fewer cameras and more ships in the navy says I. And free the hoodies.
Comments
gr - April 20, 2007 8:48 am
Ha CM!!!!
gr - April 20, 2007 8:51 am
This whacked out loner thing: maybe we should lock up somebody whose name rhymes with G-o-r-t-h-o-s.
cm - April 20, 2007 8:53 am
Yeah, well, I've been sick. :-P
I was thinking of staying 40 forever, but 44 does have a nice symmetry.
Paul of Kingston - April 20, 2007 9:52 am
Al, unconcerned about climate change?? The thing about climate change is that the climate will change. I am sure that the quality and supply of foodstuffs like hops and grains are sure to suffer if we don't act now!
Paul of Kingston - April 20, 2007 10:00 am
The sick nutjob's video has got me on a broil as well. I don't blame all the other media outlets for running it. Once NBC let it go they had to (sort of the patritic duty to compete in a business arena). But the crime of Cho didn't stop when he blew his brains out. NBC was happily complicit in being Cho's task master and putting their considerable media resource to the tasks of distributing the lame "manifesto" thereby throwing down the gauntlet to other copycat losers and rubbing salt in the gaping wounds inflicting on the family and friends.
There is no doubt that this is an immoral act on the part of NBC. I encourage those family and friends to go further and extract their pound of flesh from the NBC execs who put their business first.
Alan - April 20, 2007 10:02 am
The climate changes naturally, too, and quite severely . I have not seen a good argument in any of the babble for any side. With any luck, Vinland will rise again! I save all my populist angst for the impending reversal of the magnetic poles.
Gorthos - April 20, 2007 10:35 am
I'm not a loner....... (sound of crickets and spring peepers chirping as I sit on my dark deck, slingshot in hand, scaring away squirrels)....
I agree, broadcasting this guys missives is absolutely moronic. They kept the writings of the (unnamed) guy that killed John Lennon under wraps, they hid the crazy crap from Hinkley inder cover for years, but a guy that could actually egg on loner depressed angry kids into doing even bigger badder things is sent forth like a manifesto.. stupid.
gr - April 20, 2007 10:39 am
Oh, that's right, I'm your friend gorthos. Not much of a friend, though, am I?
Gordo - April 20, 2007 10:39 am
NBC was damned if they did and damned if the didn't. Run it and be ghouls or sit on it and be accused of suppressing it. Personally, I thought they handled it a hell of lot better than CNN or Fox. NBC was at least selective in what they went with. We can all be proud of the fact that CBC chose to run none of the video and not picture of Cho with weapons. They seem to be alone in the English media on the high road.
Mike C - April 20, 2007 12:06 pm
re Climate: Sadly absent in the debate from either side is a balanced look at the science, a true discussion of what Kyoto purports to do, how Canada fits in, and the impact of Developing Countries on the whole effort.
Jay Currie - April 20, 2007 4:05 pm
Thanks for the mention Alan...my server is now melting.
What I find fun about the GW debate is the complete inability of the Kyotoists to acknowledge that their science is more than a little shaky and, more to the point, there will be costs associated with the implementation of any CO2 reduction program. Put the two together and you have a rather good argument for careful, unpoliticized, further study with the costs and benefits carefully considered. We might even go all Lomborgian and think about what, say, 10 billion dollars spent on, for example, clean water in Africa, might do to save lives right now.
The real belly laughs occur when the IPCC contradicts the factual assertions of Algore (Gore: 20 foot sea level rise, IPCC: foot, maybe a foot and a half) or Sir Nicolas Stern. The difficulty being that when you are crying from the roof tops that the science is settled and further debate is pointless, it does not help when the UN busies, even with crafting from their political masters, change "the science".
As for the whacked out loner: what I have not seen in MSM is a wee guide for the perplexed on the question of what to do if you happen to be in the whacked out loner situation. A barrage of text books and cellphones with a dozen people rushing the SOB seems the right idea. But there are plenty of people with real expertise who might be interviewed. And, rather than fretting over this murderous idiot's media exposure, it might be interesting to take a look at a basic training program for people in vulnerable situations. Cowering under the desk seems a rather lame response.
cm - April 21, 2007 10:06 am
Jay, the current response to your last point seems to be "arm everyone, then they can shoot the SOB."
Alan - April 24, 2007 5:37 pm
Because I can't post bad things about the web for I while, I will post this interesting juxtaposition from today's MetaFilter back in time, like four ro five days ago: Are blogs part of the new fascism? Who needs physical thugs if you can have digital ones?