Loyalty to a culture

For the story behind these treasures and the personal courage which saved them -- a true story more fascinating than any Indiana Jones movie ever made -- read Galloping Beaver's The Keyholders of Afghanistan and follow the links at the end.

Ask the farmers what they want

Imagine, after 32 years, being fired by a man who won't even talk to you.
That's what happened to Wheat Board president Adrian Measner:

Measner said [Agriculture minister Chuck] Strahl never spoke with him directly about his firing. "It isn't a very professional way to operate, but it is the method of operation that the minister has chosen," he said from his home near Winnipeg.

Now we'll see whether Strahl, who has never been a farmer, is also afraid to seek farmer opinion about ending the Wheat Board marketing monopoly. Will he hold a plebicite -- or if he is so ideologically driven that he doesn't care what the grain farmers want?
Here's another surprising quote from this story:

Carl Siemens, who grows grains and oilseeds near Rush Lake, Sask., said Tuesday's announcement could cost the Conservatives votes in the next election. "Although a goodly number of (farmers) actually voted for the Conservative government in the last federal election, they did so with no knowledge that this government was going to move in this fashion to remove the Canadian Wheat Board," he said.

Have they been living in caves? Why would any farmer not know already that the Conservatives wanted to dump the Wheat Board? They're been talking about it for years.
Of course, maybe they just assumed that the Conservatives wouldn't dare do such a thing without a producer vote.

Yeah, right!

Bushistas are saying that Bush can copy the success of Vietnam with 40,000 extra troops.
Sorry about the mess on your computer -- I should have waited for you to swallow before I told you that.

Great line of the day

Suburban Guerrilla:

Does anything say Christmas quite like giant inflatable snow globes?

I read the news today, oh boy

Brisk market for burial shrouds in Iraq holy city -- well, as least there's one growth industry in Iraq.

The Bush administration might as well call their proposed troop increase Operation Big Swinging Dick, because that is whose idea it was and that is the idea behind it -- to prove to all the Dirty Fucking Hippies that the US military can win against a bunch of teenagers in Iraq. When will Harry Reid learn that you simply cannot give Bush bi-partisan cover? You say its OK to send more troops to Iraq provided this helps them all come home sooner -- but why would you believe that Bush ever intends to bring troops home?

August writes:

Congratulations to Time for actually thinking of something even stupider than Rudy Giuliani in 2001 . . . Person of the Year isn't the Special fucking Olympics. The entire point of the exercise is that everyone doesn't get a medal for participating. The purpose of the issue is to address the person or persons who, for bad or worse, most affected world events of that year. So they picked... everyone? Well of course everyone affected world events the most, fuckwits.
I mentioned Giuliani because I think most people who used to care about this would agree that 2001 was the year that without any argument Time blatantly copped out on the entire point of the issue. Osama bin Laden was clearly the person who, like Hitler in 1933, affected world events the most that year. But bin Laden wouldn't sell magazines and American readers would be too stupid to realize it's not an award. So now, five years later, Time's given in and decided that Person of the Year is, officially, an award. Congratulations, Time Magazine is now Everybody Gets a Trophy Day.
Wake me when we have journalism in America again.

And with the side-benefit that Time could avoid giving the award to either Al Gore or Nancy Pelosi. Time Canada gave it to Stephen Harper -- I guess Canadians just aren't "you"-worthy.

Cute

Enjoy what the Poorman calls The Greatest Webpage in the Known Universe

Donny we hardly knew ye

Bill in Portland Maine treats us to a Rumsfeld tribute, to the tune of "Memories":

Mem'ries, light the corners of my mind...
"It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."
Misty water-colored memories, of the way we were...
"There's another way to phrase that and that is that the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence."
Scattered pictures, of the smiles we left behind...
"Needless to say, the President is correct. Whatever it was he said."
Smiles we gave to one another, for the way we were...
"Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. Stuff happens."
Can it be that it was all so simple then? Or has time re-written every line?
"We do know of certain knowledge that he [bin Laden] is either in Afghanistan, or in some other country. Or dead."
If we had the chance to do it all again tell me, would we? Could we?
"As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns---the ones we don't know we don't know."
Mem'ries, may be beautiful and yet, what's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget...
"I don't do quagmires."
So it's the laughter we will remember...
"Now, settle down, settle down. Hell, I'm an old man, it's early in the morning and I'm gathering my thoughts here."
Whenever we remember...the way we were...
"I'm not into this detail stuff. I'm more concepty."
The way we were...
"If I said yes, that would then suggest that that might be the only place where it might be done which would not be accurate, necessarily accurate. It might also not be inaccurate, but I'm disinclined to mislead anyone."
No matter what happens, sir, we’ll always have Tikrit and Baghdad. And areas east, west, north and south somewhat.

All about Frasier

I love the Internets! Here's the story behind the pilot episode of the greatest sitcom of all time, as told by one of the show's creators Peter Casey: How FRASIER came to be, More FRASIER, and FRASIER starring Lisa Kudrow??.

Great line of the day

From Maccabee's diary at Kos - Bush Has No Idea How Much Trouble He Is In:

[Neocons] fought no wars, worn no uniforms beyond Cub Scouts, know no Arabic, and are truly impressed with their knowledge of history. . . . These folks are exactly like the anti-Communists after McCarthy. They cannot let go of their addiction to boogymen philosophies: Communism ...Atheism ...Homosexuality ... and now ... Islamism.

Emphasis mine

It is shameful

So this is Christmas
And what have you done?
Another year over
And a new one just begun

This story made me weep.
Why can't Canada do better than this? No Christmas lights or indoor plumbing make for grim Yule on reserve:

. . . "The conditions in Pikangikum would not be tolerated in our suburbs or rural areas," said Dr. Pete Sarsfield, medical officer of health for the Northwestern Health Unit based in Kenora, Ont. "It simply would not be allowed."
"What are they reviewing, the font?" he asked in an interview Tuesday when told that Indian Affairs is still studying the damning 18-page report dated last September.
The report included photos of a frozen outhouse smeared with overflowing human waste, and the plastic containers many of Pikangikum's 2,200 residents use to store untreated lake water for cooking and bathing. Many people can't get to taps for clean water from the reserve's treatment plant because they live too far away, says the report.
Just 43 of the 431 homes located 250 kilometres north of Kenora have running water or indoor toilets, says Susan Bertrand, a spokeswoman for Indian Affairs.
Work to connect the remaining homes has been stalled since 2001. That's when the former Liberal government took over the band's finances - which were in order - citing its failure to deal with a daunting range of social problems. The Federal Court later ruled in Pikangikum's favour but the matter is still before the courts.

And, of course, God forbid any bureaucrat could ever provide some project funding for septic tanks or portable toilets until every last court case is settled -- why, the Auditor General might complain!
Here are some photos of this reserve and its people -- they're working hard to resolve some awful social problems, like high suicide rates, while also trying to promote economic development.
Wouldn't it be nice if the people of Ontario and of Canada could stop getting in their way and give them a bit of a hand for a change, eh?
















Here is the photo credit for the last photo

The Milgaard case

There are three problems with this wrap-up story about the Milgaard inquiry -- problems I fully expect to see repeated in the final report:

In the late 1990s DNA proved that the rapist, Larry Fisher, was indeed the real killer. Fisher had lived in the basement of the home Milgaard was visiting on the morning of the attack.
The inquiry has heard how police originally considered that the then unidentified rapist could have killed Miller, but when one of Milgaard's friends came forward pointing the finger at Milgaard, that lead was never followed through.

Well, it was perhaps a little more than just not following up on a lead.
When Fisher was caught for the Saskatoon rapes a year later, he was put on trial. In Regina. For an inexplicable reason that nobody at all, at all can remember.
And as a result, the Saskatoon media never knew that Larry Fisher existed or that he had raped several women around the same time that Miller was killed or that he lived near the murder scene or that his apartment was in the basement of the house where Milgaard had been visiting that day.
Then there is this:

[Milgaard's lawyer ] Wolch's comments were dismissed by lawyers representing police and prosecutors at the inquiry.

They have consistently "dismissed" the Milgaard side. This has been seen from the beginning as an adversarial proceeding -- two years ago, the Inquiry was almost derailed when it began, in effect, to try to put Milgaard on trial again, just to demonstrate how awfully guilty he looked and how the police and prosecutors really couldn't be blamed for thinking Milgaard was guilty.
And finally, we're supposed to feel sorry for the prosecutors and police, rather than for Milgaard:

Knox called it a "campaign of character assassination." Most of the allegations [of police and prosecutorial targeting] have not been borne out in the evidence brought forward at the inquiry.
Garrett Wilson, the lawyer acting on behalf of Serge Kujawa, the director of public prosecutions who handled Milgaard's original appeal, also took issue with Milgaard supporters and their "shotgun approach" to criticizing justice officials as they tried to get the case reopened.
"That (prosecutors) could be accused of deliberate deception in the conduct of their responsibilities as members of the justice system of Saskatchewan is horrendous, monstrous," Wilson said.

If Milgaard's mother hadn't made her explosive accusations of cover-up and malfeasance, the media wouldn't have played up the story the way they did. And I don't think Milgaard would ever have been freed.
It was Milgaard who spent two decades in jail for a crime he didn't commit. So, no, I don't feel any particular outrage at the "horrendous, monstrous" accusations which the Milgaard supporters made over the years. Comes with the territory, folks.
And we still need an explanation for wisking Fisher down to Regina for that trial.

I read the news today, oh boy

So the Pickton trial is supposed to last a year? How ridiculous, for six charges -- what possible justification could there be to take any more than two weeks per murder, 12 weeks tops, to hear the evidence? He only has to be found guilty of one or two anyway. Prosecutors better watch out that they aren't being played here, with the goal of being able to appeal based on the jury being prejudiced against the defendant.

Here's a 'pot calls the kettle black' story -- Bush Aides Seek Alternatives to Iraq Study Group’s Proposals, Calling Them Impractical. Yeah, like Bush's plans for the war have been the height of rationality and focus. And here's an analogy I've never seen before:

The report’s authors say their strategy will work only if taken largely as a whole; Mr. Baker warned against treating it like a “fruit salad,” picking the juiciest pieces. The White House, however, appears to be groping for the right fork to do exactly that.

Rick Salutin calls it Canada's own "hanging chads" scandal -- the emerging storyline that the RCMP used a big public announcement of the income-trust investigation last December to make sure Paul Martin's Liberals were defeated and Steven Harper's Conservatives were elected.

Colbert responds to the news that "truthiness" is dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster's word of the year:

"Though I'm no fan of reference books and their fact-based agendas, I am a fan of anyone who chooses to honour me. And what an honour. Truthiness now joins the lexicographical pantheon with words like 'squash', 'merry', 'crumpet', 'the', 'xylophone', 'circuitous', 'others' and others."

Wasn't truthiness also some linguist association's word for last year, too? The way the world is now, I guess it could stand for more than one year.

Finally, how about this? Now, I've been to the occasional restaurant that I WISHED was darker, but...

The Coolest 8 Year Old In The World Talks About O'Reilly

This was from Al Rodgers' diary on Kos. It's passing strange but strangely fascinating.

Great Line of the Day

From Meteor Blades:

. . . If the current fatality rate holds [in Iraq], more Americans will die this month than any previous month since the war began.
If Russ Feingold’s August 2005 proposal for withdrawal had been adopted, the last American troops would be leaving Iraq in a couple of weeks. . . . But Feingold’s, and the proposal by Brian Katulis and Larry Korb, and John Kerry’s, and Jack Murtha’s and Wes Clark’s have all been ignored. So, the skulls are stacked, American, Iraqi and others, the bloodbath goes on, and the dithering ceases not. With no end in sight.

Emphasis mine.

It was 26 years ago that John Lennon died

For me, this was the day the music died. Read this Kos diary about that terrible night.
Don't you wonder what songs he would have written?