News, Politics, Events – Page 3

A Second Career In The Military

An interesting article in The Globe this morning on the recruitment of older folk, in large part established professionals, for the Canadian military:

“In the last two years, our strategic intake plan has been heavily dominated by the combat arms,” says Captain Holly-Ann Brown, a spokeswoman for Canadian Forces Recruiting. “Are there people over 25 applying for combat arms? Sure. But, typically, the person coming to the military looking for a career in combat tends to be out of high school.” As a result, the average age fell to about 24 last year – still closer to 30 than the minimum entry age of 17 for full-time service. Older service men and women can be costly in terms of benefits, and there is also the dicey issue of whether they can hold their own with the young and spry. Yet military data indicate that nearly one-quarter of the 2,596 troops currently serving in Afghanistan are older than 40. More than a third are younger than 29.

That is quite the thing. I thought when I heard of Trevor Greene‘s decision to serve and subsequent injuries that his enlistment was maybe a rare thing. But recently learning of another Kingsman of my era, Stephen Murray, being out there building roads and other good things in the reconstruction team gave me some inkling that there were more than you might assume.

Speaking Of Constitutional Law…

It is a very instructive day in the news if you are interested in constitutional law. Yesterday, the US courts confirmed the primacy of the person and the bar on making things up:

The appeals court yesterday ordered the trial judge in the case to issue a writ of habeas corpus directing the secretary of defense to release Mr. Marri from military custody “within a reasonable period of time to be set by the district court.” The government can, Judge Motz wrote, transfer Mr. Marri to civilian authorities to face criminal charges, initiate deportation proceedings against him, hold him as a material witness in connection with a grand jury proceeding or detain him for a limited time under a provision of the U.S.A. Patriot Act. But the military cannot hold him, Judge Motz wrote. “The president cannot eliminate,” she wrote, “constitutional protections with the stroke of a pen by proclaiming a civilian, even a criminal civilian, an enemy combatant subject to indefinite military detention.”

These sorts of things are difficult cases and we have a natural gut reaction that bad people ought to be treated badly, differently. The trouble is the job of determining who and how has to be done on a principles and public basis or there is a veering towards a genial sort of authoritarianism where others take care of things you do not know about in ways that you do not understand. They become your betters, too, as a result.

Group Project: The Problem With Making Up Stuff

By focusing so completely on avoiding international law, by presuming what has gone before is inapplicable or wrong, it’s tough not to mess things up:

…the chief military defense lawyer here, Col. Dwight Sullivan of the Marines, said he viewed the decision as having broad impact because it underscored what he and other critics have described as a commission process that lacks international legitimacy and legal authority. “How much more evidence do we need that the military commission process doesn’t work?” asked Colonel Sullivan.

I am not going to defend Khadr – not so much as the fact that I have no interest in doing so but really because Darcey will call me funny names and then tell all his pals – but what is the value of Canadian citizenship if we don’t lift a finger (even when the UK has tried and Australia has succeeded for its similarly situated citizens), what is the point of speaking out against child soldiers elsewhere when one carrying our passport doesn’t raise the slightest concern? Now as a man and no longer a child – and a man who has likely been indoctrinated in the Cuban jail more than his terrorist father could have ever wished – he is could well be more intent on murder than he was when fighting in Afghanistan. I don’t doubt it myself.

But maybe now it is time to just try them on good old international law or hold them as run of the mill combatant detainees, you know – POWs, seeing as the war in Afghanistan still continues, and move on from trying to prove the situation is unprecedented. Group Project rules apply. Now at five and a half years of the war in Afghanistan, have things gotten to a point where in perspective we see acts on the battlefield were the acts of war rather than the acts of terrorists?

Standard Form A-137: Bulletted Chat (Friday)

In this edition, I review what I did this week and find it lacking. After being confused and disappointed by Twitter, I was simultaneously invited to Facebook by men in Alberta and Norway and I took the bait. Now I have 18 friends. I wonder whether I really had friends at all before that point. Then I wonder what I am supposed to do with the thing now that I have 18 friends.

Update: What I believe.
Update: continue to pray as we plan for MaineCanoe 2007 next week. Note for future google searches, you can find Kingston Canoe events and opportunities here.
Back in the days before I had a blog, I used to buy the Economist quite regularly. I mainly liked the graphs and the funny captions under the photos of world leaders. Their essay on the fate of Paul Wolfowitz avoids much of the gobbledegook related to the cause:

On May 14th, a report written by seven of the bank’s directors concluded that in the summer of 2005 he had broken the institution’s rules, breached his contract and fallen short of the high ethical standards of his office. All of this in an effort to appease Shaha Riza, his romantic partner, who was outraged that she would have to leave her job in the bank when he took his. He went to huge lengths to smooth his girlfriend’s exit, bowing to her demand for a substantial rise in pay, sharp annual increases and a big promotion (or two) on her return. He should never have put himself in the middle of the dispute, the report argued. He was only following the directors’ sketchy advice as he had understood it, Mr Wolfowitz insisted in reply.

You got to hand it to the man. He has had two tasks in my experience of him, totally blew both and displayed an utterly pathetic understanding of both geo-politics and personal ethics, leaving nothing but disorder in his wake. Not bad.
Is it possible that the Canadian Parliament is in disarray because not one party and not one leader has one decent idea to latch on to?
A great day for the Sox and a great second game of the double header for former Jays starter and Sox benchman Eric Hinske. I’ve never seen a man happier to hit a home run, the two run tater that gave the win, and I have never seen a man hold on to a baseball for an out while slamming his face into the warning track and eating half a pound of dirt. Good to see.
What else does this list of nations have in common other than filtering internet use? Bad at ice hockey – some good at field hockey, though. More English colonies than French, oddly enough.

More later at the breaks no doubt. If it is warm somewhere, please waft the air our way. I am sick of the cold and dreary.

GM Decisions

A tough but perhaps telling comparison of neighbouring economies as GM pulls out of Massena, NY about two hours to the east but plans to expand in Niagara Falls, Ontario about the same distance as the crow flies to the west. The two plans are not related directly but we often assume that Canada is not in a competitive position in these sorts of things. But it takes doing as grannie might have said:

At GM’s massive assembly operations in Oshawa, workers agreed to outsource janitorial operations and eliminate an in-house construction crew in order to win investment. The Ontario and federal governments also backstopped the plan by providing $435-million (Canadian) for the project, which included investments at other GM operations in Ontario and several research and development projects at universities throughout the country.

Tough decisions in a shakey market. But at least get the spelling right, wouldja.

What Is Going On This Morning?

That is sort of what this is all about. Wake up. Read the news. Figure out what is whacky and see if I can write something. It’s not so dumb.

It’s a bit interesting that the Prime Minister has used Parliamentary privilege to suspend a court case. I would presume, as an election is not strictly speaking a Parliamentary matter, that the matter is only on hold. Embarrassing if it picks up come the next election. But that is not that interesting unless you have a good set of books on Parliamentary privilege or have access to the factum with the written legal case to nose around in. The Sox and the Mets lost – not interesting even if the Tiger’s pitcher was throwing over 100 miles an hour late in the game. It’s been raining the perfect rain which is interesting now that the basil and tomatoes are up, too. Show soaking rain followed hours later by a nigh of pouring. Everything’ll pop once the sun comes out. Falwell dead. Not interesting though the gayness of Tinky Winky was interesting – best line from a comedian: “show me the gentials!” Canoes are cheaper in the States than in Canada – that is wrong yet interesting and I have to obey the mighty dollar. Please all pray for a high Canadian dollar in the next two weeks. Darwin’s letters now online. What took them so long? Not interesting. Exercise desk? Not. Dark matter found. Feh.

Better go to work.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

I can’t say the Jays deserve to be better than last in a surprisingly weak AL East but the time is coming to determine whether they have already packed it in for the season:

The question is, on an injury-ravaged team that has fallen into last place in the American League East with a record of 13-20 and is now 91/2 games behind the first-place Red Sox, how many more lacklustre efforts will the Jays’ executive have to witness before initiating change?

Watching the game last night, the Jay’s broadcast unfortunately, I was interested to check out where we will be seating tonight and then I realized, like watching a CFL game broadcast from a city east of Winnipeg, they were not showing the crowd or what claimed to be one.

One Thing George Does Better

George gets a rough ride. For the most part he deserves it to one degree or another but this whole thing with the Queen is a bit much even for me:

He had stumbled on a line in his speech, saying that she had helped the United States “celebrate its bicentennial in 17…” Mr. Bush caught himself and corrected the date to 1976. He paused, winked, and looked to see if the Queen had taken offence.

Gee wizz. Can’t a guy get a break? Let’s be honest. He are some reasons a visit by HRH to my house would not go so well as a visit to the White House:

The teas is in a mug. Deal with it.
My daughter will ask “what’s with that hat?”
You may have to wait your turn.
Phil stays outside.

The last one is a biggie. And, yes, that’s a beer. Want one?

Bulletpoints For The First of May

The shift from snow to having a lawn to mow is startling. I may already be behind.

Update: Scots election chaos.
Please note two key differences between me and Mike.
I decided this May Day would be the day we should thank a great unheralded socialist of the past. The socialist dream we all benefit from in our day to day life is entirely due to the dreams and efforts of Victor L. Berger, US Congressman from Wisconsin – that is when he wasn’t barred from taking his seat for being against WWI. Looking back, is there any of us who is not against WWI? Thanks Vic.
Speaking of obscurities of the past, I came across this chart of blow-hards and their opinions in relation to the Great Depression. My favorite is “Gentleman, you have come sixty days too late. The depression is over” by Herbert Hoover, 1930.
I set up an account on Twitter to see what all the fun is. In the past, I set up an anonymous blogger blog and did nothing with it as I soon realized such things are sad. I also have a MySpace out there somewhere but it is in German so I don’t understand it. As Rob points out, Ontario has now banned Facebook in the public workspace which is fine as these sorts of things are really private hobby activities anyway. But play with the Twitter thing to see if it does anything. Herbert Hoover I am sure would approve as there are great days ahead. If you need to set up a new email account to play with it, I have about 200 of them to give away.
Good news out of Afghanistan and as positive a flip-flop as the Harper government might flop-flip:

Afghanistan, in what amounts to a tacit admission that its security forces may be compromised by torture, has accepted that Canadian monitors be allowed to interview transferred detainees privately. In effect, the secret police colonel — who may terrify a hapless captive — can be turfed out of the cell by Canadian monitors. That provision alone is a measure of just how far Afghanistan was willing to go to accommodate Canada’s newfound need for a landmark pact.

So there was something wrong, there was likely the need to monitor and control movement of people who had come into Canadian detention and now it is up to our leaders to make sure they are handled properly by those into whose trust they are passed. Sounds all grown up and planned.
Fabulous news out of baseball with the 13th one man triple play in the history of the game’s top level:

To put it in perspective with the game’s other great rarity, there have been 17 perfect games pitched, including Don Larsen’s in the 1956 World Series. Even the “natural cycle,” hitting a single, double, triple and home run in order in one game is more common, having occurred 14 times in the big leagues.

If I had had it on the TV, my head would have been in the fridge at the time.

And on a personal note, I will not as it turns out be going to my undergrad reunion after all. Instead, I will enjoy the enhanced cost of my new roof shingles later this summer. The purveyors of ales and seafood of Halifax and the Maritimes will have to live another year without me. But fear not as instead of six or seven nights of hotels we are investing in Sea Dogs tickies and Boston Chocolates instead as I’ll will be reporting from Maine later in the month. I understand there will be parades on Memorial Day. Parades are excellent. As are Boston Chocolates.

Stats Are A Mug’s Game

Expressing the results of a statistical survey is a tediuos and difficult thing to do yet it is the stuff of bloggers dreams, rife with the opportunity to point the finger of accusation and scream “BIAS! BIAS!!!” without any recourse to any foothold in reality. Yet this statement leaves me wondering about the use of “but”:

A quarter of those surveyed feel their organization “walks the talk” when it comes to work-life balance but only 29 per cent feel their employer truly cares about their work-life balance.

Never minding the fact that an employer really cannot “truly care” unless you are the employee of a sole proprietor, would not a 25% part of a whole be smaller than a 29% part of the same whole, indicating that 4% more employees feel kindly about the acts of the boss than those who hear the words of the boss? Ought not the dour “but” be a hopeful “yet”?

I am so confused I need you to comment.