She's out

Yahoo! News - Martha Stewart Leaves Federal Prison
And I am glad.
The Stewart conviction was a miscarriage of justice -- the jurors seemed to think they were striking some kind of blow against the rich by finding her guilty, though the evidence of her guilt just wasn't there. I admire her for sucking it up and doing the time. She'll be back on top pretty soon.

It's the Charter, Stupid

Young Liberals push gay marriage
I like their slogan -- it makes the right point.

He did it!

I've been following this story for the past two days. Steve Fossett is described in the news stories as a "millionaire adventurer" -- what a life this would be!
If I had a million dollars . . .

Excommunicate this!

Yahoo! News - Bishop Calls for PM's Excommunication
So, excommunicate him.
But if you do, Mr. Bishop, then you also have to excommunicate:
All the Catholics who have ever been divorced.
And all the Catholics who have ever used birth control.
And all the Catholic women who have ever had an abortion.
And all the Catholic doctors who have ever prescribed birth control for a patient.
And all the Catholic pharmacists who have ever dispensed birth control.
And all the gays.
And all the Catholics who fought in the Iraq War.
And all the Catholic politicians worldwide who voted in favour of it. I think there may have been several in Italy, and in Spain. . .
Shall we continue?

War Crimes R Us

CIA Avoids Scrutiny of Detainee Treatment (washingtonpost.com)
Well, maybe the Washington Post can shame the Republican senators into investigating this kind of stuff:

"In November 2002, a newly minted CIA case officer in charge of a secret prison just north of Kabul allegedly ordered guards to strip naked an uncooperative young Afghan detainee, chain him to the concrete floor and leave him there overnight without blankets, according to four U.S. government officials aware of the case. The Afghan guards -- paid by the CIA and working under CIA supervision in an abandoned warehouse code-named the Salt Pit -- dragged their captive around on the concrete floor, bruising and scraping his skin, before putting him in his cell, two of the officials said.
As night fell, so, predictably, did the temperature.
By morning, the Afghan man had frozen to death.
After a quick autopsy by a CIA medic -- "hypothermia" was listed as the cause of death -- the guards buried the Afghan, who was in his twenties, in an unmarked, unacknowledged cemetery used by Afghan forces, officials said. The captive's family has never been notified; his remains have never been returned for burial. He is on no one's registry of captives, not even as a "ghost detainee," the term for CIA captives held in military prisons but not registered on the books, they said. "He just disappeared from the face of the earth," said one U.S. government official with knowledge of the case."

Or maybe not -- after all, they're awfully busy passing bills to make it harder for people bankrupted by medical costs to declare bankruptcy, and trying to sell the destruction of their social security system to a skeptical public. They don't really have the time or the interest to investigate what their own employees are doing in the name of the United States government.
As the stories continue to emerge, it becomes clearer exactly WHY the CIA wanted then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to give them legal cover for torture. And why Bush pulled the US out of the International Court in December of 2002.

So why are we surprised?

CANOE -- CNEWS - Canada: Canadian beef producers 'devastated' by latest mad cow setback: "Canada's beef producers were stunned Wednesday by yet another setback as an American judge agreed to postpone the opening of the U.S. border to live cattle due to continuing fears about mad cow disease. 'It's a disaster for our industry again,' feedlot operator Rick Paskal said"
So that tears it -- we can, I think, count on at least six more months before the border opens, if then. The Montana cattlemen will keep fighting this in every court they can find, as long as they can -- and when they're done, maybe some cattlemen in North Dakota will start running to court, or Washington State.
And why is this so surprising to the cattle industry here? I said back in January that we could likely expect US politicians to seize on the new BSE cases to keep the border closed.

Its about time

The Globe and Mail: Zundel deported, on way to Germany. He's gone, and he's not coming back. And its about time. When trolling through some of the US right-wing white supremist sites a few weeks ago, I was amazed to realize how the Zundel case is viewed as some sort of international cause celebre. Creepy.

Pit bulls are a risk that society no longer wants to take

The Globe and Mail: Ontario bans pit bulls
My sister and I have had lots of arguments about this kind of legislation. She is a dog trainer who has an almost magical ability to work with dogs, and with their owners -- she know a lot about how dogs think, so she can often figure out some way that an owner can deal with dog misbehaviour, or just dog annoying behaviour, and she does a number of individual consultations with owners who are at their wits end in dealing with a doggy problem. Anyway, she disagrees with anti-breed legislation, saying it is the owners that are the problem not the dogs.
Pitbulls are not the only dangerous breed around -- shepards, spaniels, labs, dobermanns, rotweilers, can be abused and can become untrustworthy. We own two yellow labs, and I know how strong these dogs are -- if they wanted to take off, I would not be capable of holding them back physically. But they are good dogs to work with, and they listen to us -- and we have trained them for bite inhibition, which all owners of dogs in a city should do.
And we have also gone through the agony, a few years ago, of putting a dog to sleep which we had got from the SPCA, which turned out to be so emotionally damaged by his previous life as to be untrustworthy around children.
But pitbulls have a tenacity in fighting that most other breeds do not have, and also seem to be the dog of choice for the worst owners. While I agree it is the owners that are the problem, I feel that society can no longer take the risk with strong, potentially violent breeds like pitbulls -- the consequences of bad ownership are too horrific.
If a bad owner owns a dashund or a toy poodle, well, so what if they jump up and bite you on the kneecap?
But if a bad owner owns a pitbull, that dog can kill a child. The other benefit of this legislation is that it will stop the unprincipled breeders who are breeding and selling these dogs.
Anyway, that's what I believe. But my sister also sees the tragedy of the dogs who could be saved if they only had owners who cared.

Here's the link

NFB - Two Oscar� nominations for the NFB
Here's the link for the two Oscar-nominated NFB films -- including Ryan, which won.

It's a growth industry

Yahoo! News - Elderly Couple Accused of Selling Pot Well, this is the first time I've seen a story like this, but considering how us baby boomers are getting older, it won't be the last.

Spreading the word

My Blahg News points to this post -- The Gracchi: Truth About Canada-US Relations -- which talks about a number of governor/premier cross-border associations which demonstrate the close working cooperation between Canada and the US. "Canadian conservatives have been complaining of the left's hatred of the US, while Republicans claim Canada is becoming increasingly irrelevant. We on the left must ignore their rhetoric and spread the word of the increasing levels of cooperation between our two great nations. This is not an issue of Canada's dislike of the United States, but rather Canada's dislike of George Bush and his policies. "
So Gracchi, like you asked, I'm spreading the word.

Leadership

TheStar.com - Anglicans headed for divide over homosexuality
When I read stories like this one, indicating that Anglicans in Africa would rather see their church split up than accept gay people as full members of their church, I realize how critically important Canada's gay marriage bill will be. It will demonstrate leadership to the world in framing this issue as an equal rights issue. From reading the Anglican reports and news stories, gay people are being demonized as "sinners" by these churches and the equal rights argument is not being made. When Canada legalizes gay marriage, the world will be given an opportunity to see how a democracy can deal with gay rights as a political, rather than religious, issue.

"Oxyconned, Foxcized, Freeped-out Fanatics"

Orcinus provides a critique of several recent essays on fascism in the US, about which I have blogged too. I was particularly impressed by his conclusion: "What's important to understand is the real dynamic: A growing populist 'movement' is being encouraged increasingly to adopt attitudes that, taken together, become increasingly fascist. Greater numbers of individuals are being conditioned to think alike, and more importantly, to accept an increasingly vicious response to dissent. This does not mean that genuine fascism has arrived as a real political force in America; but it does mean the groundwork is being created for just such a nightmare, by irresponsible politicians tapping into terrible forces beyond their ability to control. If even 'paleo-conservatives' can see this, there's hope of stopping it. But I think we need to begin with a clear understanding of who, what, and why the fascists are. The latent fascists who are the biggest problem right now are not Republican leaders. It is their oxyconned, Foxcized, Freeped-out, fanatic army of followers, comprising ordinary people, who pose the long-term problem. Drawing them back from the abyss is the real challenge that confronts us. "

Tribalism

The Resentment Tribe
Digby has a lengthy post about the roots of the cultural divide in the US: "Resentment was a foundation of the culture as slavery was hotly debated from the very inception and the division was based on what was always perceived by many as a moral issue. The character and morality of the south had always had to be defended. Hence a defensive culture was born. The civil war and Jim Crow deepened it and the Lost Cause mythology romanticized it. The civil rights movement crystallized it. A two hundred year old resentment has created a permanent cultural divide. . . . Wherever resentment resides in the human character it can find a home in the Republican Party. This anger and frustration stems from a long nurtured sense of cultural besiegement, which they are finding can never be dealt with through the attainment of power alone. They seek approval. "
On the surface, there are two Canadian parallels to what is happening in the US -- the separatist movements in Quebec and in the West. But though both are also based on a sense of grievance, including resentment toward Central or English Canada, neither is based on a defensive culture which spend 100 years trying to justify actions which were morally wrong and actually indefensible. So while Canada has been able to make political and economic changes over the years to accomodate and/or molify separatists -- this goes up and down, of course -- it is difficult to see what could be done in the US to change the tribalism which is splitting their culture. The approval they are seeking, they will never get.
Perhaps it does explain, however, the amazing tolerance for torture and the destruction of civil liberties which we see in US society today -- destroying American society and the American constitution becomes just another cultural issue.

Missile defense would have brought down the government

So now the Conservatives think they can have it both ways -- they want to get credit in pro-US circles for bashing the Liberals announcement on missile defense, and yet they would have happily brought down the Liberal minority government on this issue.
And wouldn't the Conservatives have loved to fight an election on this.
First of all, any motion on missile defense coming for debate in the House, concerning as it does a major aspect of Canadian military and foreign policy, would have to be considered as a confidence issue (unlike the gay marriage bill, which is not being considered this way)-- if a confidence motion doesn't pass, the government falls.
So if Martin had brought a missile defense motion to the House, he would have had great difficulty even getting his own caucus to support it. The NDP and the Bloc would have voted against it for sure, leaving Martin with a motion that could pass only with Conservative support. Then, after great blustering and blather, a sufficient number of Conservatives would have voted against it to bring down the government.
Leaving Harper in the delightful position of fighting an election on the missile defense issue, which something like 70 per cent of Canadians do not support, rather than, say, the gay marriage issue or the new budget, which a majority of Canadians do support.
Most disingenous was this MacKay quote from The Globe and Mail: Canada won't allow U.S. missiles to impugn sovereignty, PM vows: "Conservative MP Peter MacKay said the government should have consulted the House of Commons before informing the Americans that Canada was staying out of the missile defence project." Is there any chance whatsoever that the House would have supported missile defense? Just asking!
Now Martin finds himself attacked by editorial pages across the country, for making a decision that most of the country supports. Poor guy, he can't win, can he?
You know, there was a time when I supported Canada's participation in missile defense, because it was one way to keep the Americans happy and it would never work anyway. But the more the American media talk about weaponization of space, the more I realized that this was the ultimate aim of the program, and nothing would deter the Americans from weaponizing space if they wanted to, regardless of any Canadian protests. So all we could do was simply not join them, thereby denying them the "North American" cover they wanted. Its not much of a gesture, but there it is.