Why America FINALLY got it right.

Hey, wacky Canadian readers:

If you are at all concerned about the environment, or you just plain don't want a Harper-led majority government, you need to check out Vote for Environment:

It's all about voting strategically, so that your vote counts:

VoteForEnvironment.ca was designed by Canadians who believe what the vast majority of the world’s scientists have told us. That we are out of time and we must start to reduce our fossil fuel pollution now to save the planet from dangerous climate change.
We believe that the Harper Government’s collusion with the Bush White House to obstruct progress on climate change at recent international summits does not reflect how Canadians want their leaders to behave on the world stage. The Harper and the Conservative Party are simply not in step with what scientists say is needed, with Canadians' concerns, and with economic benefits of dealing with climate change.
All the other major Parties have programs that seriously address our critical climate concerns and are talking about them in this election.
If those of us who care about the environment don’t work together across party lines, the pro-environment vote will be split as it was in the last election and Harper will be re-elected.
We are the majority. But our electoral system hasn’t kept up with Canada’s changing political landscape.

This is a *great* idea. Kudos to the organizers. My hope is this type of organizational work can offset the fact that the Liberals picked such a nudnik (although a smart one) for a party leader.

THIS is the person who should be next-in-line to the presidency of the United States?

"That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out but ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the -- it's gotta be all about job creation too, shoring up our economy, putting it back on the right track, so health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans and trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity not as competitive, scary thing, but one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we've got to look at that as more opportunity. all of those things under the umbrella of job creation, this bailout is a part of that."

Really? Um, what?

I read this article about PGA tour golfer Tripp Isenhour killing an endangered hawk while filming "Shoot Like A Pro," some golf TV show. My first reaction was, "I remember this when it was Dave Winfield's story."
Then I read the story.
It seems Tripp was annoyed by the hawk, so he started shooting balls at it. And missed. Then, when it was closer, he started again, eventually killing it.

“About the sixth ball came very near the bird’s head, and (Isenhour) was very excited that it was so close,” Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer Brian Baine indicated in a report.

When I was 12, and on my first ever scout weekend trip (thank you, Jim Stout), we had a group of kids who stayed behind from a day hike, and hung around the campsite. A few of them found a partridge in a (non-pear) tree, and basically stoned it to death. When the leaders found out, they made the boys involved pluck, clean, cook and eat the bird, as a lesson. I remember one of them saying they'd never felt so guilty as they did when eating that bird -- but they were kids, and kids do stupid, brainless things.

This guy's a "professional," and an adult. It likely won't happen, but anyone guilty of such purposeful abuse should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Hopefully, there's no "celebrity exemption" on this one.

Max Blumenthal did a walkthrough of the College Republican National Convention Tour, and recorded responses that he got from these young, fresh, hell-no-I'm-not-serving-in-Iraq college students. It is absolutely brilliant -- especially the Christian high school student who almost has a meltdown over the "Adam and Steve" comment by Blumenthal.



I will say, however, that Blumenthal's passive-aggressive response at the end was a little over the top for me.

I've blogged about the frustration that is having the email address, lincoln(atyouknow)mac.com. I suppose it's much the same for those who have john@yahoo.com, bruce@rogers.com and the like -- constant spam, and misdirected emails destined for other inboxes.

Usually, I respond that the email that I've received is sent to the wrong address, and ask that they please stop sending to me. However, today I got one that, given we watched (again) Magnolia Pictures' Jesus Camp again tonight, I expounded a little. The original email, destined for some other Lincoln, apparently, is after the jump, detailing the use of the jumbotron and everything:

From: Jon Robberson
To: Lincoln Dunn Subject: America the Beautiful...the song for the AWESOME patriotic segment

JON ROBBERSON

Wow -- the words flash BIG on the jumbotron? Damn, that's cool. Except if you (a) don't give a rat's ass, and (b) think that theology is just a *little* deeper than that. And, that, you know, God didn't bestow some amazing power on the United States to be the sword and shield of Jesus.

I responded thusly, though a bit harshly:

I have no idea who you are, or why you're emailing me, but anything that involves "America the Beautiful" should append, "A new theocracy of intolerance and big business" to the last line of the song.

Please don't email me again.

(keep in mind, I get a lot of misdirected email for other Lincolns)

I told Frances about the email, who chuckled, and asked if I'd received a response. Prematurely, I said no -- then I got this:

Sorry for the error, I didn't know the email was going to Communist China.

Funny fundamentalists. I couldn't leave it alone:

LOL -- No, Canada, probably even worse in your books. Communist China? Are you from the 50s? That's the funniest thing I've heard as a response from a US-described "Christian" in a long time. Thanks for a laugh -- and supporting my thesis that fundamentalist Christians are as uneducated in history, geography and sociology as the rest of the world believes.

My wife's a minister, so we're well-versed in scripture in our household. Good luck in the perversion of the Word -- I wish you well, because I know you'll end in failure. My God has much more of a sense of humour.

Immature? Damn straight. I never said that age was making me more mature.

Oh, and Jon? If you find this post? I'm a gay-loving, same-sex-marriage-supporting, married-to-a-minister kinda guy. I know this probably causes all kinds of issues in your Ted Haggard kind of world, but, you know, he's just a meth-smoking, transvestite-hangin' kinda minister -- and besides, he just got a massage.

I love this idea.

Bum Rush the Charts is an effort to use social networks to influence the positioning of a music artist on the charts, without the 'assistance' of media monsters and record labels. From their site:

We can match and exceed the reach of big media, corporate media, labels, and the entrenched interests. On March 22nd, we are going to take an indie podsafe music artist to number one on the iTunes singles charts as a demonstration of our reach to Main Street and our purchasing power to Wall Street.

The track we've chosen is "Mine Again" by the band Black Lab. A band that was dropped from not just one, but two major record labels (Geffen and Sony/Epic) and in the process forced them to fight to get their own music back. We picked them because making them number one, even for just one day, will remind the RIAA record labels of what they turned their backs on - and who they ignore at their peril.

So, if you read this, go buy the track -- it's actually not bad. Besides, it's a buck -- it's worth that to me just to see what the experiment results in.

An aside: should I be offended by the use of Bum Rush? I'm equivocal on that.

....you rule. Now, let's see the lawmakers step up, and enact the right legislation in the next six months. Now, we just have to hope that non-conservative heads prevail as expected in Canadian parliament this month.

From BoingBoing, there's a note from Michael Geist about the ham-handed efforts of Access Copyright, a Canadian copyright agency, to "educate" kids on copyright issues.

Michael Geist sez, "Access Copyright has launched a new site that borders on parody, but is apparently serious. Captain Copyright, is a new "superhero" that educates children about the virtues of copyright, rushing to the scene in the event that someone publishes research without proper credit. While my first reaction to the site was that it is just silly, as I dug deeper, I now find it shameful. These materials, targeting kids as young as six years old, mispresents many issues and proposes classroom activities that are offensive."

The best part, however, is the AUP on their site:

"...pages with the following exception: permission to link is explicitly withheld from any website the contents of which may, in the opinion of the Access Copyright, be damaging or cause harm to the reputation of, Access Copyright."

Hey, Access Copyright: your premise, your "educational materials" and your existence are offensive. And, your web site is so 2002.

So, new Conservative minority government in the House. It pains me to say I think it's the best of both worlds. The Liberals needed to go, but I despaired at the idea of a Conservative majority, and its right-wingnut "moral" agendae. This, however, will be interesting.
Or so I thought. Until I read this item: "The Canadian government will defend our sovereignty," from the words of the Harpinator. That's right -- let's spend $5.3 billion defending something that doesn't need to be defended. Hey, here's a better quote, right from the Conservative web site: “As Prime Minister, I will make it clear to foreign governments – including the United States – that naval vessels traveling in Canadian territorial waters will require the consent of the Government of Canada,” said Harper.
It feels so good to be in the select group of nations that other countries snigger at when their leader speaks.

On the CBC this AM, I heard that the IOC wants Italy to "suspend" their tough anti-doping laws during the Winter Olympics in Turin next year. Quote from Mario Pescante, IOC member and the government supervisor for the Olympics:

""They expect Italy will respect the duties it took on when it was assigned the Games," he said.

What the hell?!?

I've been stewing on this since I heard it, trying to find *one* remotely-logical reason for why the IOC would want this, other than wrecking the show with cops raiding the Olympic village during the Games.

How is it possibly Italy's "duty" to rescind criminal laws during the Olympics? It's not like they have a law making it illegal to participate in an Olympic sport – however appropriate it might be in some circumstances. Once again, we have the IOC sending a clear message on doping – Just don't let us, or anyone else, catch you.

At least the Foreign Minister Gianfranco has the sfere to stand up to them:

"I believe that one of the principles of sports is fairness. An athlete who uses banned substances comes under this principle, and therefore I would not support measures to render our legislation - which is one of the most just and severe in the world - weaker for people who use (banned) substances."

I sincerely hope that Italy doesn't cave – and that, come February, Olympic "athletes" from all over the world find their asses warming a jail cell floor.

Thanks -- of a sort -- to Darren for directing me to the graphic blog entries from a volunteer in Thailand who is helping tag and process tsunami victims.

The layers of skin on my upper lip and nostrils were being gradually stripped raw from the huge burning globs of tiger balm I had been applying, but the strong menthol was no better at withstanding the stench than many beachfront bungalows did against the 30’ waves.

I feel such a wave of combined unreality and helplessness every time I see or hear accounts from the ground in Southeast Asia.

December 3 -- 3 miles, road run, -4C
December 4 -- Off
December 5 -- 3 miles, road run, -10C
December 6 -- 3 miles, road run, -10C
December 7 -- 4 miles, treadmill
December 8 -- 3.5 miles, road run, -5C
December 9 -- Off

I gotta do a better job of blogging this stuff.

Today, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that government plans to allow same-sex marriage were constitutional.

This is a great day. I'm revelling in the sound of neocon heads exploding all over Canada. The collective heterosexual population has screwed up marriage in Canada so badly, why shouldn't same-sex couples have the the same opportunity?

I truly believe in the sanctity and solemnity of marriage as an institution. The trouble is, it seems no one takes marriage as a serious commitment any more -- look at the divorce rates in Canada. Almost 1 in 2.

Unfortunately, this once again is a case of not being pro-marriage; it's being anti-gay.

I was more than a little amused by this video edit of seven speakers at the Republican convention last month, courtesy of Joi Ito. You'll know all of them. If you didn't think that the party platform was based on fearmongering before, take a look at the sampling of speeches throughout the convention. I know it's partisan. So what? Anyone who can't pronounce the word "nuclear" shouldn't be allowed to control nuke-u-lar weapons.

Yes, I'm being petty and shallow. It's Monday. Deal with it.

I can't hold it in any more. My apologies to my friends who are American, because I know you, and I know that you're intelligent, open-minded and well-informed folks.
But, dear God, what are (some of) you thinking down there?
There are many who are better writers and thinkers than I that have espoused on this subject, but I'm going to lay out my bit. This almost-war is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Not because I think Saddam is really just a misunderstood individual. Not because the regime doesn't need changing. And certainly not because I think that nukes and chemical agents are really not as bad as they sound.
It's wrong because the U.S. and its president think that they can make these decisions on their own, and act with (or is that without?) impunity. The UN has been in existence longer than Dubya has been out of diapers (and longer if you count the League of Nations), and, as inefficient as it may be at times, as slow to act as it has been before, IT'S STILL A VALID INTERNATIONAL GOVERNING BODY. I for one don't trust some crackpot, rabid-right-wing Republican to make decisions for the rest of the world.
And I don't want to denigrate or demean the thousands who were killed on Sept. 11, but how on God's green earth do you think that the removal of Iraq's regime is going to stop that from happening again? Are there so many people in the US political system that are blind to the fact that this kind of teeth-kicking "diplomatic action" is what caused these militant groups to target Americans in the first place?
I went across to the U.S. on Monday with Cory, who I work with. When we got back, he said that he'd felt "different" the whole time we were across. I agree. We Canadians have always acknowledged our differences from our southern neighbours, but there seems to be a line now carved in the sand between these two countries. It's like our eyelids have been peeled back, and we see for the first time the vast differences in our respective self-images. I mean, they're banning the Dixie Chicks on radio. With all due respect to my parents, who are huge country fans, is anyone surprised that the country music demographic acts this way? The demographic is the same as NASCAR, by the way.
I've now resigned myself to the fact that there's going to be a "war," if you can call it that. I do, however, take immense pride in the fact that we're not going. Say what you want about Jean Chrétien, but he's got intestinal fortitude.
Bush just has a tummyache.

Because you needed more confirmation that the government of the United States of America will go to *any* lengths to ferret out the answers they want (hey, who says they need to be right?), check out the article here.
The best part of the article? Quote: "If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't doing your job." That's funny. I've used that same mantra when it comes to web development. I think that's also in Nike's mission statement somewhere.