Tag: News, Politics, Events

A Serb In Austin

Elderly well dressed couples from Austin show up in the afternoon, strolling among the evacuees smiling broadly and kindly at all of us. When they asked me, with the air of Princess Diana, “How are you doing? We see you managed to get your computer out,” I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I was from Serbia, and that I am doing fine.”

These observations at an Austin Texas refugee center are very interesting.

Awful

I wrote this over at Michael’s place:

If you look at the Louisiana Constitution it does state:

The military shall be subordinate to the civil power.

This does allow for directed the legitimate use of the military by civil officials and, while what you say about unarmed people is entirely correct – who cares if they have seven DVD players – there is also this (from CNN):

Before Thursday night fell, police were stopping anyone they saw on the street and warning them that they were not safe from armed bands of young men who were attacking people and attempting to rape women.

That is not looting. That is organized violent opposition. How can you deal with an evacuation, dealing with fires and exploding chemical train cars, removing the dead if you also have people sniping at you. What happens if it does not dissipate of its own accord? An organized civilly directed use of military force in an urban setting may be required.

What an awful prospect.

Having officials threaten use of a standing army against the population may well responate with Americans more than elsewhere given what gave rise to their nation. That is why state constitutions speak against military rule under any circumstances. There may, however, have to be some use of the military by civic officials which may not be as random as suggested in this perhaps rash statement by the Governor:

She said Thursday night that 300 soldiers from the Arkansas National Guard had arrived — “fresh back from Iraq. These are some of the 40,000 extra troops that I have demanded,” Blanco said. “They have M-16s, and they’re locked and loaded … I have one message for these hoodlums: These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so if necessary, and I expect they will.”

For the military to engage rather than just take up the good cause of assisting in a disaster, there would have to be a plan which they would accept operating under. The sort of planning I think John does. For one soldier to fire, however, just takes a sniping idiot. And they seem to exist.

I think the Flea is right, though. I think in Canada the lads in green would have been in a wee bit earlier. But it would have been both as assistance and less about deterrence perhaps – but we are a different country with different expectations and comfort levels. In the end it is all so hard to compare and judge which is what makes it awful.

The Lost Business

I was struck by this passage from today’s Globe and Mail on the murder of Canadian Zaid Meerwali in Iraq:

Mr. Meerwali was targeted because he was a Shia Kurd, his brother said. “We are Shia. Shia believe in democratic society.” Munir blamed former Baath officials and Sunni insurgents for the slaying. “They don’t like to see people from Canada coming over there. They lost their businesses.”…Mr. Meerwali’s family said he studied at Toronto’s Seneca College to become a chartered accountant and that he went to Baghdad six months ago to start a business importing food and computers.

Has it really come to being a turf war about the wholesale trade? This makes me very sad and I am not sure exactly why other than the obvious loss of a very promising person who tried to do the right thing.

Time To Cut Equalization?

Is it time to cut equalization and other aspects of the massive Federal funding to the anti-constitutionalist PEI government?

It may be the law, but same-sex couples can’t get married on P.E.I. None of the provincial bills that cover marriage have been changed, and P.E.I.’s attorney general, Mildred Dover, said it will take an undetermined amount of time for the Island to follow Canadian law.

This was hardly unexpected in light of the general Charter fighting track record of the current suits…but isn’t it time to penalize those who would obstruct the enjoyment by Canadians of the full rights of being Canadian?

Wow

“…they pushed him to the floor and basically unloaded five shots into him…”

Amazing. Hot pursuit of a human bomb.

Update: More…

The Muslim Council of Britain said Muslims were concerned about a possible “shoot to kill” policy. Spokesman Inayat Bunglawala said: “There may well be reasons why the police felt it necessary to unload five shots into the man and shoot him dead, but they need to make those reasons clear. “It’s vital the police give a statement about what occurred and explain why the man was shot dead.”

Another passenger on the train, Anthony Larkin, told BBC News the man had been wearing a “bomb belt with wires coming out”. “I’ve seen these police officers shouting, ‘Get down, get down!’, and I’ve seen this guy who appears to have a bomb belt and wires coming out.

I Un-♥ Day By Day

Below is the lastest strip in a web based cartoon called Day By Day which a bunch of bloggers post and which drives me nuts. Today’s is one of the worst examples but is illustrative of a number of points:

  • It derives its imagery in part from Doonesbury, the long running counter-culturish strip which started in the 60’s by Gary Trudeau, especially the quotes floating about the White House (not displayed in this strip but often a part of the daily dose.) It is indicative, however, that it is asserting itself as a response to Doonesbury with a rightist twist. For me if you are going to say something different, new and interesting, don’t coat tail – you are only reinforcing the fact that your idea is only a reaction.
  • It requires dumbing down to read it. The one below, like much neo-con a la Frum, requires a very conscious supression of known fact. This is based on the assertion one supposes that whatever the left is also supresses fact. But you have chosen to mimic that which you hate if you accept this. That is just sad.
  • In this particular installment, it requires you to reject specific awareness of the very well known facts of Watergate and Oliver Nort/Iran/Contra as conspiracies of the right, needing you to accept the concept that “the conspiracy” against Clinton is laughable. This requires the abdication of personal responsbility for determining relevance through inviting you down the path of collective unawareness to get the joke – rather than considering all of recent history. Again, the argument may be that the left does the same thing but that is the “we are no better than X so like us better than X” argument: aka nonsense.
  • The characters are interchangible, reflect one point of view and are unconnected to any personal existence other than the expression of the point of view. Without storylines, it is a shallow cartoon regardless of the quality of its political content.
  • It flows these points through a non-existant group: hip diverse young right-wing folk who are attractive, witty and all sexificated. Everyone know that all young political types of any point of view are not like this, although they perceive themselves to be through their self-association with power. My own experiment with policial humour here is teaching me the lameness of the medium because, as we all know, they who like political humour are, in fact, more like the characters in Dilbert. I would actually be happy if someone would mirror Day By Day with the comments interposed over the characters from Dilbert. That would be entertaining.

So to like Day By Day, in order for you to “get it,” you have to be unaware of historical fact, willing to supress known fact, jealous of the success of the strip being mirrored, somewhat unfunny to begin with, and needy in relation to self-image. Who wants to fit themselves into that definition? Like Canadian conservatives and Stephen Harper, I am sure they can do better.