Friday, August 12, 2005

USA: Immigration : Tamar Jacoby, Manhattan Institute, writes 2 most important webpages on immigration

Writing in The Daily Standard (Aug 15-Aug 22 issue of print version The Weekly Standard), Tamar Jacoby surveys the emerging near-consensus that embraces both sides of the aisle of both houses of the US Congress in regard to the seemingly intractable problem of immigration, and the politics in the background (the Hispanic vote), and the ecnomics of restrictionist school of non-thawt led by Rep. Tom "Tank" Tancredo of Colorado.

To be sure, there are still plenty of people who don't buy into this consensus. Not just restrictionists like Rep. Tom Tancredo, but also many mainstream Republicans, particularly in the House, seem to think that we can fix the problem simply by cracking down--without a guest worker program. One of the major battles to come will pit these "enforcement-only" folks against reformers who understand the paradox of liberalizing to get control. And even within the reform camp, the months ahead will bring no end of skirmishes.

Jacoby remains convinced, however, that a consensus lays beneath the the current battle lines, and the current battle must get hotter, so that the full implications of proceeding with a strong border watch coupled to an active legal orderly process of admission of guest workers into the USA and its economy, that coupled idea will emerge out of all the present commotion.

I would add that President Bush has held firm on both ideas of the coupling, and that this difficult position right now, is another aspect of his compassionate conservatism. - Owlbird

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Canada: Religion & Voting Patterns : The Roman Catholic vote in Canada - any such thing?


Why do Roman Catholics vote Liberal in Canada?

by Russ Kuykendall

Republished with permission of the author,
originally published in Burkean Canuck blog, July 26, 2005



A friend brought my attention to a Jeffrey Simpson piece, "Quick now -- why do Catholics prefer Liberals?" The Globe and Mail (13 July 2005):A15. This friend is a self-confessed agnostic who for all that isn't hostile toward Christians and tends to be fairly socially conservative. Odd. Or not. He also describes my blog as "pretentious without being condescending -- I didn't know that was possible." Hmm. He's suggested I respond to Simpson's piece, so here goes (condescending without being pretentious, or was that the other way 'round?).

In the column, Simpson makes generous use of the findings of University of Montreal Professor Andre Blais, a political scientist and leading expert on voting intentions:

In elections since 1965, Catholics have preferred Liberals in Ontario and Atlantic Canada by an average of 18 points over other parties. Before 1990, the Liberal edge among Catholics in those regions was 19 points; since then, it's been 16 points.

Catholics represent 30 per cent of Ontario's electorate, 40 per cent of Atlantic Canada's. Without the big lead among Catholics, the Liberal lead would evaporate in both regions -- and, with it, the party's grip on power.

Also helping the Liberals is their 23-point lead among voters from Asia, Latin America or Africa. Religion and ethnicity are alive and well, therefore, in determining voting intentions.


When I first read the above, I thought, "Aha -- but what are voting intentions among RCs who regularly attend Mass?" But Blais's study addresses these and other speculations, including this:

Prof. Blais has also found that the more the voter practices Catholicism, the more likely he or she is to vote Liberal. The most religious Catholics are the Liberals' strongest supporters. Liberal support among them is 19 points higher than overall Liberal support, compared to 12 points higher for "non-religious" Catholics.

And this . . .

He put forward a number of hypotheses. Maybe, since every Liberal leader after Lester Pearson has been Catholic, the leaders' religion influenced voting behaviour. Said Prof. Blais: "There is no evidence that Catholics vote for a party with a Catholic leader."


He reached the same conclusion for the relationship between Catholic Liberal candidates and Catholics' voting intentions.

And this . . .
Or maybe Catholics think differently about broad issues than other Canadians, and those different perspectives explain why they line up behind the Liberals. Sorry, that won't work, either. Wrote Prof. Blais: "Catholics do not systematically differ from non-Catholics."

There are a few differences on individual issues, but not on the general view of the country and the world. For example, Catholics are more conservative than non-Catholics on abortion and same-sex marriage, but it doesn't seem to shake their Liberal preferences.


And this . . .

Forty years ago, surveys showed that Liberals were preferred by Catholics. So maybe it's just a matter of one generation handing down political affiliations to another. Sorry, research shows that increasingly political affiliations have to be reaffirmed from generation to generation. They don't happen automatically very much.

And this . . .

Maybe success flows from being a centrist party, and Catholics instinctively like centrist parties. Sorry, again. Catholics are no more centrist in their policy views than other Canadians, but they tend to like Liberals more. Professor Blais says, "Why Catholics vote Liberal is still largely a mystery, at least for me. I propose the creation of a special prize for the individual or team that solves the mystery."


Uh, okay. Even so, I'm going to take a stab at it. One of the great ironies of Blais's and other political scientists and sociologists' findings on voting intentions is that for all the media penchant for construing the old Reform Party and the Canadian Alliance as "evangelical," conservative Protestants (including evangelicals and Pentecostal Christians) were only marginally more likely to vote for these two predecessors of the merged Conservative Party, here. Despite what the abstract of the piece linked indicates, the findings given in the full text bear out my assessment that a voter's identifying as "evangelical" was only a marginal predictor of her vote. And although these findings are dated and based on Angus Reid research from 1996, I'd be very surprised if the situation to date has changed substantially.

Canadian, conservative Christians -- both multi-generational Canadians and "new Canadians" -- tend not to vote their "values" -- or their world view, if you prefer. They tend to vote approximately along the same lines as Canadians who do not regularly attend in any house of worship. At least they have, till now.

And before my self-professed "fiscally conservative but socially liberal" partisans in the Conservative Party pounce on this in order to push a fiscally conservative but socially liberal election platform, I urge them to take note . . . As a group, Canadian conservative Christians of any stripe don't consistently vote their world view with respect to fiscal issues, either!

So, what's a Conservative Party to do?

"Thought you'd never ask!"

The short answer is: "voter education."

This should not be taken as in any way demeaning voters. If anything, politicos tend to underestimate voters by "dumbing down" policy platforms into "hot button" issues. What Conservatives tend to do on fiscal policy is make the mistake of only talking about "the macros" -- the positive implications of their economic policy for the Canadian economy taken as a whole. Instead, Conservatives need to get the macros right in the research base, but talk more about "the micros" -- how their policies will make positive impacts on household budgets, home ownership, on children's educations, on health care, and on retirement planning. And then and only then, put these in the context of how Canada's long-term economic situation will be improved.

Frame social policy in terms of -- you guessed it! -- strengthening families, keeping neighbourhoods and streets safe, and caring for seniors. For example, on safe streets, one of the most often cited fears among young, single women, especially in big cities, is being accosted on the street after they've visited a cash machine. So, while a young, single woman might not want to vote for a party that calls for marriage as a legal union of one man and one woman, she just might vote for a party that offers to make her feel safe walking down Yonge or St. Catherine or Portage or 7th Ave or Jasper or Robson at mid-day. And how do you suppose seniors with incomes below a certain threshold might vote if they could deduct their property taxes -- including those included in rent -- from their taxable incomes?

When I went door-knocking for a couple of friends standing for the Conservative Party in last year's election, the policy plank that made people with kids at home and a mortgage practically light up was the Conservatives' proposal for an after-tax, sheltered savings account. As it is now, taxpayers can put money into an RRSP and get a tax credit for that tax year, but they can only draw it down for a down-payment (that must be paid back into the RRSP) until retirement age. And when the RRSP is converted into an RRIF, what is drawn down is taxable in the year drawn out of the fund. That is, the money is taxable on "the back end." Last election, the Conservatives proposed an additional tax shelter. As proposed, taxpayers could have put their after-tax dollars up to a ceiling in an investment savings account and drawn it down for making a lump-sum mortgage payment, for a vacation, for kids' educations or dental bills, or for retirement -- free of tax. They immediately saw the advantage of paying the tax on the front end, and appreciated the flexibility of it. Honestly -- their eyes lit up by the time I was finished.

Think "voter education." At the door, in the canvass card, on the talk show, in the story quote or talking point, on the phone, in the stump speech, in question period, in the scrum, in direct mail, and in campaign ads. Don't talk down, don't underestimate, but educate, educate, educate.

Oh, yeah -- "Why do Roman Catholics prefer Liberals?" First, let me rephrase the question: "Why do Canadians vote Liberal?"

"Um, 'cause Liberals are better at the politics."

Conservatives can overcome that by putting their focus on voter education.

Power: Women : Forbes magazine ranks world's top-10 women

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wields so much influence that Forbes magazine, according to The Christian Science Monitor's email newsletter, "rates her the most powerful woman in the world. Right behind on the political stage are Vice Premier Yi Wu of China, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (a newcomer), and Philippines President Gloria Arroyo. Rice's closest rivals on the US political scene are Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (No. 23) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) of New York (No. 26). The most powerful women, as ranked by Forbes on the basis of economic impact and visibility in the news media:

1. Condoleezza Rice, US, Secretary of State

2. Yi Wu, China, Vice Premier

3. Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine, Prime Minister

4. Gloria Arroyo, Philippines, President

5. Margaret Whitman, US, Chief executive, EBay

6. Anne Mulcahy, US, Chief executive, Xerox

7. Sallie Krawcheck, US, Chief financial officer, Citigroup

8. Brenda Barnes, US, Chief executive, Sara Lee Corp.

9. Oprah Winfrey, US, Chairman, Harpo Inc.

10. Melinda Gates, US, Cofounder, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
"

What happened to Madonna?

Seriously, you can check out the companion piece, a Special Report on "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women" by Elizabeth MacDonald and Chana R. Schoenberger, Forbes August 20, 2004 (? - that's what it says, mistake?). Just click the headline at the top of this blog entry. - Anaximaximum

Politics: US Public Diplomacy : Whatever happened to the US effort to tell its story to the world's peoples?

The USA used to work hard at explaining itself and its current policies thru an single-minded agency making an all-out effort. Just before 9/11 the Clintonite diplomats of the State Department under Madeleine Albright got ahold of the US Information, merged it into the State Department, and broke it into pieces - dispersing its fragments to area bureaux and the kingpins who run bureaux regional desks as little emirates of their own. Stephen Johnson, Helle C. Dale, and Patrick Cronin, Ph.D., present the Executive Summary of their Backgrounder #1875 on the matter, and you can read it by clicking the blog entry headline above.

The final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States said that America’s biggest failure leading to the events of September 11, 2001, was a lack of imagination. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, terrorist dangers were hardly men tioned as priorities in America’s policy debates. Likewise, leaders in both the legislative and executive branches considered public diplomacy (PD) a Cold-War relic in the absence of a powerful adversary.

... While overseas opinion polls show mostly negative views of the United States, the State Department’s communications machinery remains in disarray. Congressional funding for public diplomacy programs has increased only slightly since 9/11, interagency coordination remains minimal, and America’s foreign communication efforts lack a focused strategy. More worrisome, new programs may not be effective in confronting the array of security, foreign policy, and economic challenges emanating from the Middle East.

On July 29, 2005, the Senate confirmed Karen Hughes as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. As a close adviser to President George W. Bush since he was Governor of Texas, she should have his backing to advance needed reforms, but her task will be daunting and limited to fixing one part of the larger public diplomacy effort.


The threesome writing this report - Johnson, Helle, and Cronin - offer an important analysis with a number of policy recommendations. An important read. - Politicarp

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Politics: Prez's Men give way to Prez's Foes : Rove leak diminshes in face of huge CIA leak by 3 Democrat Senators


It's almost unbelievable how this story, based on a major report, has been buried and covered-up by the mainstream news media, while a few of the more conservative ones, particularly NewsMax.com have kept it online where knowledge of its existence has slowly rippled out into the blogosphere brain. It's a story that parallels the alleged Rove leak of the Plame-Wilson cell of Kerryites in the CIA, trying to take down the Bush Administration. But this parallel so dwarfs the allegation concerning Rove, that the latter appears for what it is, at best (that is, at worst, dependending on your particular partisanship) something in the order of a peccadillo. The monster parallel is more on the order of Mortal Sin, and it involves the Deputy Leader of the Senate Democrats, Dick Durbin (notable for his recent Holocasut Abuse), Jay Rockefeller, and Ron Wyden. Credit for this exposé goes to Carl Limbacher and the NewsMax.com staff.

Saturday, July 23, 2005 1:11 p.m. EDT
The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into whether Democratic Senators Dick Durbin, Jay Rockefeller and Ron Wyden leaked details about a secret "black ops" CIA satellite program last December in a move that may have seriously compromised national security, former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Jed Babbin said on Saturday.

"The CIA made a request to the Justice Department to investigate and possibly bring criminal charges against these three [senators]," Babbin told WABC Radio host Monica Crowley. "My information is that investigation is ongoing."
Rockefeller is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and Durbin is the No. 2-ranking Democrat in the Senate.
Media reports on the satellite leak last December indicated that the Bush administration was concerned about public comments by Durbin, Rockefeller and Wyden and that the CIA had requested a Justice Department probe.

"The formal request for a leaks investigation would target people who described sensitive details about a new generation of spy satellites to The Washington Post, which published a page-one story about the espionage program Saturday [Dec. 11, 2004],"


Click it up and get the incredible details of a well-documented attack on American secret operations, much worse than any puny exposure of the kerryite cell in the CIA. One wonders whether the whole attack on Rove is a desperate effort by the Democratic Senatorial Trio of Betrayal to sandstorm their own wickedness. - Politicarp

Terror: Muslims & Polls : Jonathan Last examines two polls regarding Muslims in UK

Jonathan Last, Web Editor for The Weekly Standard puts out an email newsletter, as well as blogging for WS. In his last email, Last sizes up two polls of interest to refWrite readers.

It's an interesting exercise to contrast the results of two recent public opinion polls. The first is a survey of British Muslims conducted at the end of July. You can see the full survey here.

In it, Muslim respondents were asked their opinions about the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London. The good news is that 77 percent of Muslims surveyed said that the attacks were "not justified at all."

But deeper in the survey there is troubling data. Twenty-four percent of Muslims polled said that they felt some sympathy for the terrorists; 56 percent said they understood why the terrorists would act the way they did; 26 percent disagreed with Tony Blair that the terrorists' ideology was "perverted and poisonous"; 31 percent said that Western society was "decadent and immoral" and that Muslims should try to bring it to an end--albeit peacefully; 44 percent said that if a Muslim was arrested for the attack, he would not receive a fair trial; and, 14 percent said that if they saw suspicious terrorist activity they felt no duty to report it to the police.

The other survey was conducted in America, also in late July, and it examined Americans' perceptions of different religions. You can find it here (you can download the complete Pew report). When asked if they had favorable or unfavorable opinions of different religions, Americans gave their highest favorable rating to Jews (77 percent), then Catholics (73 percent). Only 57 percent had favorable views of Evangelicals, while a similar percentage, 55 percent, had favorable views of Muslims.

The most interesting question the Pew survey posed was whether or not "the Islamic religion is more likely than others to encourage violence among its believers." Thirty-six percent of Americans said "yes."

Blogger Dean Barnett had this to say (you have to scroll down to the August 26 blog entry, Pew Poll - P.C. and P.U. - Polliticarp):

Is it really a slam on Islam if you happen to notice that the vast majority of terror incidents committed over the past several years have been committed by the religion's practitioners? While I really shouldn't have to say this, in the interests of self-preservation I will: Obviously not all Muslims are terrorists. Obviously only a teensy-tiny portion of Muslims are terrorists. But, and the following is not really deniable, a high percentage of terrorists are Muslims. Facts are facts.
[You must read Mr. Barnett's entire post! - Politicarp]

It's interesting that after four years of the war on terrorism, we hear a lot of worrying about backlash against Muslims living in the West. Fortunately, there hasn't been much backlash and both Americans and Brits have conducted themselves, for the most part, the way in which we expect from tolerant, pluralistic societies.

If the poll from London is any indication, in the West, tolerance and pluralism may be something of a one-way street.


Thanks to Mr Last and Mr Barnett both, and of course to The Telegraph and Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life for their respective polls. Lots to think about. - Politicarp

War: the Koreas - Peace? : Peace Treaty in works after 52 years? North Korea, South Korea, USA, China - Canucks fawt there too!


I found it on The Christian Science Monitor email newsletter, and clicked up the newsdaily's webpage for the story in the "World > Terrorism & Security" section for today, a news story by Arthur Bright, csmonitor.com. August 9, 2005.


A formal end to the Korean War?


Report: US, China, and both Koreas agree to launch talks for a peace treaty to replace 52-year cease-fire.

North Korea renewed its call for an official end to the half-century-old Korean War Tuesday. The communist regime has recently stepped up efforts to argue that a formal peace treaty — rather than the longstanding cease-fire — would give momentum to the stalled six-party nuclear talks and go a long way toward convincing them to scrap their nuclear program. North Korea may be a step closer to that goal, according to a Korea Times report.

The Korea Times reported Monday that both Koreas, along with China and the US, will soon begin discussions to formalize peace.

The four nations, which participated in the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear programs with Japan and Russia in the past weeks, agreed to launch a separate four-way forum to discuss the matter, an official involved in the talks said on condition of anonymity. ...

Experts say the replacement of the 52-year-long cease-fire would mean a springboard for not only an eternal peace on the peninsula but also a normalized relationship between North Korea and the US.


I'm a hardliner on North Korea and Communist China, these are both brutal repressive régimes that keep up a vivid smoke screen of "Human Rights" while being among the world's chief violators. Slave labour exists extensively in both countries. And the persecution of religions that don't register with the State is cruel and brutal, while these non-puppet unregistered communities of faith grow by leaps and bounds. A peace treaty should not end up with a clause whereby the US and South Korea agree not oppose with all effective means these monstrous conditions of the Communists' making in their own countries. Further, no clause in a peace treaty should compromise the right of either government to recognize the Chinese Republic of Taiwan. The US's adherence to the "One China" is both obsolete and self-contradicatory with its companion phrase "Two Countries." There are: Two Chinas, Two Countries. Recognize the Chinese Republic of Taiwan now! - Politicarp

Sports: USA Major Football, new Cricket coverage : Baseball's disgrace Baltimore Orioles, Hockey's 'Killer Bertuzzi' of Canucks


B A S E B A L L


FLASH: Detroit dumps Toronto in 12-inning game Ouch! That hurts, another overtime longplay game, and TO misses out again. Also, I thawt the game was tonite (yes, I sometimes get ahead or behind myself on the calendar), so you can imagine how, when I'm thinking the game is about to begin, that I get a write-up in my email how it's all over, and with not a pleasant result for all that! (Click up headline link for the Canadian Press write-up in the Fort Francis Times Online, August 9, 2005).- Owlie Scowlie


Preview of Yesterday's Game: Tigers (53-58) vs. Jays (56-55),. STANDINGS: Blue Jays - 3rd place, 8 GB, American League East. Tigers - 4th place, 19 GB, American League Central.


Baltimore Orioles, an organization that's falling apart, stars drugs


Orioles' star pitcher Palmeiro suspended for using steroids, by Eric Fisher, Washington Times, August 2, 2005.



F O O T B A L L


NFL training camps a turn-on for fans who get to meet their idols, and hang out, 5,000 fans turn-out to watch the Carolina Panthers prepare for the new football season, by Erik Spanberg, Christian Science Monitor, August 8, 2005.


Real American idols perform at Patriots training camp, Foxboro, Mass, by Julie Fallon, CSM, August 8, 2005.


Philadelphia


Philly.com Eagles webpage


S O C C E R


How a football club came to symbolise Cyprus, by Elias Hazou, found today, no date on article, 2005. Hat Tip to David Koyzis!


H O C K E Y


Vancouver Canucks
Bertuzzi Reinstated to NHL After Suspension, NHL Suspends Bertuzzi for Breaking Player's Neck, FoxNews, August 08, 2005.


NEW YORK — Vancouver Canuck forward Todd Bertuzzi, whose blindside punch left Colorado's Steve Moore with a broken neck, was reinstated by the NHL on Monday.

Bertuzzi was suspended for the final 13 regular-season games of the 2003-04 season and the Stanley Cup playoffs. His banishment continued throughout last season's NHL lockout, which kept Bertuzzi from playing in the World Cup of Hockey last September and the past two world championships.

He also was barred from playing in any European league last season.

Bertuzzi and Moore met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman for Bertuzzi's reinstatement hearing on April 26. The Vancouver right wing needed the commissioner's approval before being allowed back into the league.

"I find that the appropriate discipline to be imposed for Mr. Bertuzzi's conduct on March 8, 2004 is the suspension that has been served to date," Bettman said in a statement.

The suspension cost Bertuzzi $501,926.39 in salary. He is due to earn $5,269,333 from the Canucks in the upcoming season.


Sports opinion by Owlie Scowlie: Bertuzzi should be in jail. His suspension occurred while the NHL wasn't functioning, due to the lockout by management, and the players attitudes. 'Killer Bertuzzi' should never by allowed to play again. Crime is crime, even when it occurs in a hockey game. The hi officials of the Vancouver Canucks are also culpable, judging by remarks made by one of their hi potentates, triviliazing the evil Bertuzzi did to Steve Moore. A damn shame! And a deep indelible stain on the Canucks for coddling a guy who's proved his potential for doing drastic harm to another player. - Owlie Scowlie


C R I C K E T



England have the edge over Aussies - Fletcher. BBC Sports August 8, 2005.

Coach Duncan Fletcher insists England will take a psychological advantage into the third Ashes Test on Thursday.
Fletcher believes England's two-run win at Edgbaston could haunt Australia.

"I think if they had got beaten by 60 or 70 runs they could have walked away from it and said, 'Right, lets get on with it,'" Fletcher told BBC Five Live.

"But having got so close, it must have some sort of psychological effect. It was mind-sapping and hopefully it will be an advantage for us."

Australia had looked set for an improbable victory at Edgbaston after edging to within three runs of England's target of 282.

But they fell just short as last man Michael Kasprowicz gloved Steve Harmison to wicket-keeper Geraint Jones.

Flintoff has proved he's a really top-class international all-rounder England coach Duncan Fletcher. The two sides now go to Old Trafford with the five-Test series level at 1-1, and Fletcher has urged England not to get carried away.


India pip Windies to final spot


Tri-series one-day international, Colombo: India 262-4 beat West Indies 255-7 by seven runs,BBC Sports, August 7, 2005.


Singh celebrates his century - India weathered a brave fight back by West Indies to win by seven runs and qualify for the tri-series final.

They set West Indies 263 to win after a blistering century by Yuvraj Singh and an unbeaten 83 from Mohammad Kaif.

Anil Kumble (3-38) reduced West Indies to 112-6 but Runako Morton hit 84 and keeper Denesh Ramdin an unbeaten 74.

However, with 12 runs required for a major upset, left-armer Ashish Nehra held his nerve to bowl a fine last over, conceding just four.

India now face Sri Lanka in the final on Tuesday in Colombo.


England set sights on famous winSecond Test, Edgbaston (day three, stumps)
England 407 & 182 v Australia 308 & 175-8, BBC Sports, August 6, 2005.

Andrew Flintoff played a starring role as England closed in on victory over Australia in the second Test.

Despite an injured shoulder, Flintoff hit a heroic 73, with four sixes, and was the pick of the bowlers with 3-34.

Michael Clarke fell to the final ball of day three at Edgbaston to leave Australia 175-8, needing 107 more.

Shane Warne had taken 6-46 - 10 wickets for the match - and Brett Lee 4-82 as England posted 182, Flintoff and Simon Jones adding 51 for the last wicket.

On a day in which 17 wickets fell, 332 runs were scored and the evening session lasted three-and-a-half hours, the momentum swung regularly this way and that.

England slumped to 31-4 early on, Lee taking three wickets for four runs in 11 balls.


NCAA


Florida State U furious over NCAA ban on Indian mascots after Feb 1, 2006 , by ESPN.com, August 5, 2005.

Quaid of the Thinklings has deep reservations about the whole attitude of the NCAA as well. Who's that holding your cigars?, August 5, 2005.Quite politically incorrect, to be sure. - Owlie Scowlie

FLASH DEVELOPMENT Heard on the grapevine that NCAA has back down, and will impose rule only at its own tournaments, at the end of the season, or so it seems. Will check further. - OS


WORLD ATHLETICS, HELSINKI
World Athletics: day two round-up, BBC Sports, August 7, 2005,


Justin Gatlin beat Michael Frater into silver
Olympic champion Justin Gatlin grabbed the world 100m title with a brilliant run of 9.88 seconds in Helsinki.
Gatlin had a poor start but came through at 60m to beat Michael Frater and reigning champion Kim Collins.

Jamaica's Trecia Smith nailed a huge 15.11 metres to take a surprise gold in the women's triple jump.

Carolina Kluft retained her world heptathlon title by a fraction after out-sprinting Eunice Barber on the home straight of the final 800m event.


World Athletics day one round-up, BBC Sports, August 6, 2005.
Radcliffe is hunting her first global track title
Paula Radcliffe finished in ninth place as Ethiopia took a 10,000m clean sweep on a cold night in Helsinki.
Tirunesh Dibaba out-kicked Berhane Adere and her sister Ejegayehu Dibaba to win her first World title.

Jason Gardener and Marlon Devonish both qualified for the semis of the 100m, but Mark Lewis-Francis crashed out.

Kelly Sotherton ran an excellent 200m into a strong headwind to move into third in the heptathlon, behind Eunice Barber and Carolina Kluft.

Science: Space Exploration: She's home! - Scuttle all scuttlebutt of shuttle failure - Discovery's landed! + 'Gravity Wells'


Safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Californnia, at 8:11 a.m. EDT, one minute early., FoxNews Channel, August 9, 2005. Click up Fox for Photo Essay • 14 Days in Space


EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — The Space Shuttle Discovery touched down safely in California Tuesday after spending two weeks in space, making it the first successful shuttle landing since Columbia broke apart over two-and-a-half years ago.

"Congratulations on a truly spectacular test flight," Mission Control said once Discovery came to a stop. "Welcome home, friends."

"We're happy to be back and we congratulate the whole team for a job well done," replied shuttle Commander Eileen Collins, who manned a picture-perfect landing.


Gravity Wells in outer space, aka 'Black Holes' more numerous than hitherto thawt, by Robert Roy Britt, Space.com via Slashdot.org, August 3, 2005.

Monday, August 08, 2005

Science: Space Exploration: UPDATE: Shuttlenauts landing scuttled, waiting waiting tick tock


Zero Days to Landing


The landing that wasn't has turned into the long wait; this time it's the weather, and that's convincing from a Toronto perspective because of the recent Air France crash here where the wet runway was a key factor on a foreshortened runway that sent that vehicle into flames.

We're hopin' and we're prayin' that nothing so untoward is ....

We'll be welcoming you all, you lovable bunch of astronautical genii ... so, again, Happy Landing! - Anaximaximum

FoxNews.com reports "NASA scraps Discovery landing":

Space Center, Houston — After orbiting the Earth for nearly two weeks, astronauts aboard space shuttle Discovery were told to circle the planet for another day as bad weather in Florida forced NASA to delay Monday's scheduled landing.

The astronauts had powered up their spacecraft and were awaiting word from Mission Control to fire their braking rockets and head for home when controllers announced early Monday that low clouds over Cape Canaveral would postpone the landing.

When clouds still threatened after the second of two opportunities, NASA officials rescheduled the landing for Tuesday.


By the way, Fox has a great series of free short newsvideos on various themes and moments of the shuttle's venture:

• Another Day in Space
• Coming Home
• Astronauts Step Out of Shuttle
• Problem Solved
• Astronauts Confident About Mission
• NASA Sets Repair Spacewalk
• Space Program Setback
• Foam Problem Persists

FoxNews videos on space-shuttle Discovery

Toronto: City life: Miss Universe, Air France Crash, Blue Jays marathon 18 innings of baseball play




Miss Universe about Town


Miss Uni presides over "Battle of Parliaments" Soccer Match, Centennial Stadium, a win for world youth, Toronto, August 5, 2005.

Natalie Glebova, Toronto's own Miss Universe, reined over a cross-Atlantic soccer match between Canadian and Italian Parliamentarians. At the game, Her Beautifulness made the first kick, a ceremonial gesture at which this atheletic young woman is quite adept, kicking the soccer ball to the Foundation's Chairman and Founder Mario CortelluccI who, in turn, kicked to Italian player Carolina Morace, Coach of the Italian National Womens' Soccer Team. For the Canadian Team, among the players were the Conservative Party's Deputy Leader in the House of Commons, and Frank Klees, of the Ontario Legislature.

Nevertheless, 'tis true, the Italians outscored Team Canada ruthlessly, 7-1. But everyone agreed the game, and later the fund-raiser part of the Gala were a great win for world youth in poverty, who will benefit from the educational projects supported by the Universal Youth Foundation.

At the Gala that evening, everyone was in hi good spirits. Our Miss Uni performed the toast to Italy, while Italian player and M.P. Maurizio Paniz led the toast to Canada.

Team Canada had made a valiant effort, scoring the first goal of the game. Taking place at the Centennial Stadium in Toronto, the soccer match was in support of the new Universal Youth Foundation. Founded by philanthropist, Mario Cortellucci, the non-profit organization is committed to providing educational assistance to children and youth in need throughout the world by funding schools and teachers. In addition to elected officials, players included Canadian Soccer Hall of Famer, Robert Iarusci and the Coach of the Italian National Women's Soccer Team, Carolina Morace.

"It was a pleasure to play in support of the Universal Youth Foundation here in Canada, a country rich in diversity, compassion and the warm-heartedness of its people. My teammates and I enjoyed celebrating our great Canadian experiences tonight at the Gala hosted by the Foundation."

"I would like to congratulate Mario Cortellucci and the Universal Youth Foundation for taking the important intiative to provide hope for world youth through education," stated Senatore Roberto Salerno, Captain of the Nazionale Parlamentari Italiana Soccer Team.

The Gala, which experienced an overwhelming response of generosity from the public, featured not only Miss Universe, Toronto's own Natalie Glebova, but also the famed blind performing artist Simone Soman, renown for her dynamic and energizing repertoire.


A creative website features Miss Uni, fab pix of her, and offers a downloadable 4 minute video of her being interviewed by Adam Gonshor of andPOP on "Pageants Still Relevant," as well as some of her future projects and goals.


AIR FRANCE JET'S MIRACLE CRASH


Weather a Factor in Air France Crash by Rob Gillies and Beth Duff-Brown, Yahoo!News via Associated, August 3, 2005. All 309 passengers and crew survive! Sure, it's old news now, but I wanted to pass along to readers a good article that can serve as a matter of record here, and a reminder to everyone who was glued to the TV thru-out North American and around the globe on the day of the crash and the unfolding drama that ended so well. Except, of course, here come the law suits, I guess in the form of class actions, but they got out alive. Air France and Pearson International Airport in Toronto did everything they could to bring all to safety. I hope the courts award the complainants exactly zero sum of of money. There are no absolute guarantees in life, and certainly not in flying an airplane or -bus or whatever it was. - Owlie Scowlie


Why did Air France plane land so far down the landing strip? Why didn't two exit chutes open?, by Beth Duff-Brown, Associated Press via Miami-Herald, August 7, 2005.


TORONTO SPORTS


Blue Jays edge Angels in longest game of year It's already been 9 days since the record breaking game with the squeak-thru win for Toronto against Los Angeles, 2-1 for the home team. As well, it was a record number of innings in a single game for the Blue Jays.


Oh, those headlines are sweet! Blue Jays Defeat Angels 2-1 in 18 Innings - Hudson's RBI Single in the 18th Ends Longest Game of the Season, Helps Blue Jays Beat Angels 2-1 AP / ABC News / ESPN. The score was 0-0 into the 8th inning; the Angels scored in the 9th to tie the game, and then it wasn't until the 18th that the Blue Jays got their second run, batted in, and won the game.


USA Today headlined it in terms of endurance: Blue Jays outlast Angels in 18 innings, calling the game a "marathon."

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Science: Space Shuttle: Ground control to Major Tom ... have you got your helmet on? ... Hoping for your soon & safe return


[Click the title above for a good picture of the crew in the shuttle, News.com.au, August 8, 2005.]


Yes, Shuttlenauts, we're rootin' for you all! Come back safe and sound, we pray. Your escapades have amazed us. And ain't that Canada-made robotic-arm the cat's meow? - and how! - Owlb and all the gang at refWrite and all our readers.


Shuttle woes threaten future of space station, SwissInfo, August 6, 2005.


Backgrounder on NASA Space Shuttle Program: A Rocket To Nowhere, by Maciel Ceglowski, Idle Words blog, August 3, 2005. Hat Tip to Jason Kottke.

Political Theory: Christian thawt : Prof David Koyzis has a major article in the new Comment weekly journal online

Dr Koyzis , in the reformulated and redesigned new magazine Comment(July 2005 - V. 23 I. 7), has an article (it seems to be part of an ongoing series) Building Institutions - Political parties much worth your clicking up and reading in its full text, from which I quote a chunk below, but which merits more attention.

...{T]he classic political party in the stereotypical western democracy is based on adherence to a specific set of political principles, often grouped under the label of ideologies. Most countries have a liberal party, a socialist or social democratic party, a communist or ex-communist party, and many even have professed Christian democratic parties. Such parties see themselves as representing, not a particular interest group constituting only a part of the body politic, but a particular vision of life and politics which they deem to be in the ultimate interest of the entire citizenry. Liberals do not simply articulate the interests of middle-class entrepreneurs, though they may indeed come to be identified with them. Rather they see themselves as evangelists for the principles of liberalism which they believe will eventually benefit everyone, whatever their current economic or social status. Similarly, socialists, though they are often tied to the labour unions, believe in their heart of hearts that implementing a socialist agenda will help all citizens, and not just industrial workers.

Half a century ago the French political scientist Maurice Duverger discovered a causal link between electoral systems and party systems. A single-member-plurality electoral system, also known as first-past-the-post, tends to encourage a two-party system, he found. That is to say, where a country is divided into so many electoral districts, each of which can elect only one representative by a simple majority, or plurality, the sorts of parties produced will tend to be pragmatic brokerage parties playing down principles and playing up winning at the polls. In any political system only two such parties are needed to make for competitive elections. A third such party will quickly make itself redundant, as one of the other two steals its thunder.

Secularization in 19 th- and 20 th-century Europe led to the rise of the modern party systems in which Christian democratic parties took their place as representatives, not only of the Christian community as a mere part of the whole, but of Christian principles manifested within the political realm. No longer could Christians rest on the assumption that theirs were Christian societies governed by a biblical vision of life. Instead this vision would have to be raised deliberately as a banner in the public square, competing with other visions - and illusions - for the allegiance of the voters.


The professor goes on in his article to give a solid overview analysis, and then to suggest a number of possible actions some Christians may want to take. Of course, tho not mentioned, in the profession of journalism there is an profession-specific ethical code adhered to by some in the field (including some Christians) that requires political writers to maintain a sufficient independence of critical perception by not joining any political grouping or voting for any party in any election. Still, that does not rule adhering to much of the Koyzis analysis and historiographical insite presented in this important article. - Politicarp

Science: Prez as Christian science-layman: Bush lets his Christian-scientific values be known, wants free speech in science


BUSH ON INTELLIGENT DESIGN [#1]


Jonathan Witt on media and science-laity who are now considering ID as a story to write about.


President George W. Bush has been known for some time to be a self-acknowledged Christian, but more recently he also let it be known that he holds to Christian-scientific values, as well (not all Christians do, of course, as many of us live in split-level worldviews and have little understanding of the specificity of the various societal spheres and their universalizing inter-linkages, but I'll put a hold on the big-word mayonnaise!).


After goading from The Washington Post (Press Baits Bush on Intelligent Design, Then Fuels Debate over his Response) as to his view of Intelligent Design theory, he forthrightly answered his affirmative regard for that scientific view - a view indeed held by a minority of scientists to date, but held by scientists, as one wag put it, "no fools." The majority of science-laity apparently follow theories like neo-Darwinism which they take on faith and trust in the scientists who advocate such, and are not able to replicate the findings of the scientists any more than the science-laity of the other view can. Thus, only a few scientists even approach having scientific authority to hold either view, or sketch an overview. Science is vitally important, but it has its limitations, which neo-Darwinists don't like to acknowledge. But let's move on.

Thus, Bush has stated publically and for the record that he thinks the theory of Intelligent Design should be accessible to all - for consideration as possibly true, valuable, and fruitful for further scientific knowledge, begining in the education of our youth, who now are exposed one-sidedly only to atheistic neo-Darwinism as the religious-philosophical presupposition of their science studies, especially in biology courses. The latter is what makes the matter a "hot-button issue."


In allowing his Christian-scientific values be known in this way, Bush does not stamp the theory of ID as an exclusively Christian theory to be obtained directly from the/a Church's dogma. It is scientific in a very broad sense, as it does not require explicitly Christian concepts of God, nor even of a God or gods. It requires only some idea, however vague, of a designing intelligencing force. Anthony Flew, a prominent anti-Christian and atheist philosopher has recently concluded that neo-Darwinian evolutionism is fundamentally mistaken in assigning the origins of the universe to chance and natural selection. Instead, he has opted for his own version of Intelligent Design, and is writing on the subject, in what we may assume will appear as both a fierce defense of the so-called "neutrality" of science and a driving arguement against the existence of any God or gods (the latter being what Calvin Seerveld calls "no-gods").


So, Bush the Christian science-layman and the whole ID intellectual movement is in philosophically mixed company as to its central theory. It has been claimed, falsely, that ID is the child of Creationism (literalist fundamentalist interpretation of Gensesis 1-3 which is both bad science and bad interpretation of Scripture, an interpretation that has its own questionable assumptions about what the Bible can and cannot mean, and how, in those key chapters).


Genesis 1-3 are vital to all of us at refWrite, both spiritually and intellectually, but speaking for myself, I adhere to the great Reformed and neo-reformational tradition of theistic evolutionary thawt. We do not think Darwin was simplly a twit, but a great biological scholar who got some things right but also key things wrong. Our view in its modern version begins with the theory of theistic evolutionary concepts that were prepared in a best-selling study the first edition of which appeared in 1859, The Method of Divine Government by James McCosh (later longtime President of Princeton College), a book written some years before Darwin's The Origin of Species, and which Darwin probably read. Darwin himself was not an atheist, as his neo-Darwinian distortionists simplistically try to make him out to be.


While the interdisciplinary scholarship of Dr McCosh led him to subscribe to a doctrinally-rich scientio-philosophical theory of theistic evolution in which scientific concerns played an integral part, he was not at all alone in this Christian-scientific development. Many professors at both Princeton College and Princeton Theological Seminary (which remained a Presbyterian institution) as well as in his native Scotland, in Northern Ireland where he was the first President of Queen's University, Belfast (leaving his philosophy professorship at Edinburgh to do so), and thru-out England and North America - all before the USA's Civil War.


McCosh also held to and argued in North Anmerican philosophical journals on behalf of the theory of Intelligent Design, on a non-doctrinal basis that rooted itself in empirical observation only, and limited the scope of the theory to that field as its proper scope.


IntelDesign

Intelligent Design site


A good place to start in sussing out all the hullabaloo artificially induced by the news-inducers at WaPo an excellent point of departure may be found at Tom Gilson's Thinking Christian blog which deflates Time mag's Charles Krauthammer on 'Creationism's modern stepchild' - the latter's assertion having just been shown by me (above) to be historical bunk and, worse, falsification of the historiography of American philosophy. - Owlb



But, hey!, if you're up for wallowing in the Hammeredbrain's bunk, here's his link while it lasts, Let's Have No More Monkey Trials - To teach faith as science is to undermine both, August 1, 2005.

There's a response already from an ID leading scientist, William Dembski on his blog Uncommon Descent, Charles Krauthammer on ID.


You want a penetrating analysis of Krauthammer's rant? Read George Neurath's Darwin's Compast, American Thinker blog, August 4, 2005.


You want the original trickdicky WaPo set-up piece? Go here.
----------------
UPDATE: Today already I found a choice morsel of comment on one of Krauthammer's shakey points. Prosthesis on an false axiom of Krauthammer in WaPo
----------------


But please note that Krauthammer's fantasies are also based on historical falsification in the very metaphor of his title, if he intends to reference the famous Scopes Trial, in Dayton, Tennessee (July 10, 1925) based on a law passed three years earlier prohibiting, not the teaching of evolution, but that humanity exists only because we allegedly evolved from simpler forms of life (the "unity of life" hypothesis that reduces all life-forms on earth to one original simple form). And, often implied, that we did so without any Divine Guidance and Providence in the evolutionary course of the emergence of our human species.

The truth is, John Scopes never spent one second in jail. Violating the Butler Act was not a jailable offense. It was punishable only by fine, which Scopes never had to pay. In fact, John Scopes apparently never even taught evolution. Let me quote his autobiography, Center of the Storm: "To tell the truth, I wasn't sure I had taught evolution. ... Darrow had been afraid for me to go on the stand. Darrow realized that I was not a science teacher and he was afraid that if I were put on the stand I would be asked if I actually taught biology. ... If the boys had got their review of evolution from me, I was unaware of it. I didn't remember teaching it." ...


This trial was not instigated by Christian fundamentalists. It was instigated by the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union], which was trying to recruit a Tennessee teacher to challenge the Butler Act. Scopes agreed to say he taught evolution and be served with a warrant. Everything was done with his consent.



Krauthammer's metaphor refers to a movie-made falsification of a whole trial that itself was a scam by the ACLU, just as WaPo news-inducers invented an occasion to make a story on President Bush's Christian-scientific values which include consideration of Intelligent Design theory.

It matters what we think about Darwinism, especially in its contemporary neo-Darwinist form as exposited by Richard Dawkins who may or may not be aware of the societal implicaitons of his views. We must be aware of those implications, as they have already demonstrated their capacity for feeding monstrous policy;

n this compelling and painstakingly researched work of intellectual history, Richard Weikart explains the revolutionary impact Darwinism had on ethics and morality. He demonstrates that many leading Darwinian biologists and social thinkers in Germany believed that Darwinism overturned traditional Judeo-Christian and Enlightenment ethics, especially those pertaining to the sacredness of human life. Many of these thinkers supported moral relativism, yet simultaneously exalted evolutionary "fitness" (especially in terms of intelligence and health) as the highest arbiter of morality. Weikart concludes that Darwinism played a key role not only in the rise of eugenics, but also in euthanasia, infanticide, abortion, and racial extermination, all ultimately embraced by the Nazis. He convincingly makes the disturbing argument that Hitler built his view of ethics on Darwinian principles rather than nihilistic ones. From Darwin to Hitler is a provocative yet balanced work that should encourage a rethinking of the historical impact that Darwinism had on the course of events in the twentieth century.


And, by the way, I chose my source for the Scope Trial matter above to bring out the relation of the public image of the Scopes Trial which is confabulated from three historically-falsifying movies, some of which still play on TV. But other more historiogrpahical sources on the Trial are available, to the consternation of ACLU. An intermediate website with more valuable info, also with a French DVD download available, may be found at The Scopes Trial: History Gone Wrong?.

For a little musical fun with solemn ideas, try: Hip-hop group FM108 goes for Intelligent Design theory
[T]he message on Darwinian Evolution is getting out to the young people. Check out this hip-hop band’s song called “Agency”. It is an all out attack on Macro-evolution, Chemical Evolution, Common Descent, even Scientific Naturalism, on the whole. The song also states that “ID is a more possible explanation” and is very friendly to the ID movement and general ID thesis. This rapper is genuinely angry about the rhetoric employed by Darwinists-basing most of their arguments against ID on ad-hominem attacks and “Creationist” labels, in their refutation of ID, rather than addressing the scientific merits of the theory .

If the pop-culture is starting to understand the gross inadequacies of Neo-Darwinism to explain the origins and the diversity of life in this universe, perhaps a paradigm shift is closer than we think.

The band is called FM108 and tackles issues of biological origins, in addition to issues of criminal justice, particularly wrongful convictions and a variety of other pressing world issues.

You can hear the song Agency recorded in February 2005 by FM108, altho it is not yet released - just click up the group's webpage here.

- Write-up by Owlb; links collected by Owlbie Scowlbie

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Canada: Government: The structure and politics of the office of Governor-General in Canada, PM's recent appointment


Reflection on the relevance of the Office of Governor-General

by Jacques Hamel (original text in French)

Mrs Michaelle Jean, was named [our new GG] by the Prime Minister with the agreement of Her Majesty Élizabeth, Queen of Canada and the United Kingdom. However, the office to which Michaelle Jean accedes is hierarchically higher than that of Paul Martin. Indeed, the occupant of the GG office will have to pose her signature on all the bills voted by the government. This is only one formality, acceptance being necessary to ratify the bills is a firmly established tradition. Then the GG's office is never opposed to the bills of the government, which makes ratification something of an asset. One can say, therefore, the role of the Governor-General is simply the epicenter of a quasi-symbolic system.

In addition, the station of G-G in is also one of image. Mrs Michaelle Jean will have to represent Canada in the world and the Canadian unit as a whole. For the Sovereigntists, the appointment of the young Québécoise woman is perhaps positive:indeed, Michaelle is not known for any enthusiasm to defend Canadian federalism, certain sources evensay that she has leaning towards the Sovereigntists. One can doubt thatshe is a genuine Sovereigntist, if only because she wouldn't in that case have accepted the office [offered her] - but to that observation one may add the additional thawt that she has a fund of sympathy and tolerance towards the Souvereigntists which previous Governor-Generals never had.

Then why name a woman very tolerant towards the Québécois freedomfighters? Quite simply for the better allurement of the Inhabitants of Quebec and making them adhere more easily to the idea of the Canadian federation. A choice that could gain ground; and, from the point of view of the image, the strategy succeeds very well.

Quebec was heavily wounded by the scandal of the mixed-liability companies (Adscam scandal), it seems then enough for the federal government to clog the wounds and to give a powerful message of this government's being representative of the Québec population in Rideau Hall.

Wasn't Luck Mervil, a Québécois Haitian, named Patriote of the year by the Saint Jean Baptiste Society, a group dedicated to the independence of Quebec? Can one think that the nomination of a Haitian as G-G [by the Liberals] is a reaction to this [previous] appointment of the Sovereigntists? And what to think also of Maka Kotto, another candidate of Black origin who was elected for the Bloc Québécois at the time of the federal elections in 2004?

Certainly, for his construction of the image of his government, it's necessary to give Mr Martin his due. But as to the content of that image? In fact, the office of GG is not one to which one posts a greatcontent, but all the same the GG must maintain a discourse on Canadian unity. In this regard, Mrs Clarkson fulfilled her role well. One could have thought of Mrs Frulla, if one wanted to continue a tradition of great oratory declaiming in lyric addresses on the merits of Canada. It should be well understood that there is something of lyric inherentin this position, for it is necessary to defend Canada in representations and in strong images, to make Canadian pride foam up with a hi froth. Somebody from the arts milieu is completely appropriate for the posting. But nobody has had the chance yet to see Mrs Jean in this role, speaking lyrically in praise of Canada.

Adrienne Clarkson was often criticized, rightly or wrongly, for her "insane expenditure". Indeed, the budget of the Governor-General figures at nearly 20 million dollars. This budget is, in addition, voted upon by Parliament.

Is the office of Governor-General still useful? In that the position isone of representation, one should note that the GG gives out all those honorary medals to the Canadians who distinguish themselvesin many fields. The Prime Minister could perform this task, but does he have time for this ceremonial duty? The Prime Minister has a heavily-loaded daily schedule, he must sit in the Parliament, as well as work continuously on various files, and must make official visits to various countries to contract agreements.

However there is large difficulty when comparing his office's legitimacy to that of the office of the Governor-General; the latter is not elected. Some will say such precisely reflects the latter's not-partisan spirit. But nomination of the GG by the Prime Minister has certainly to reflect the particular interests of the PM.

Moreover, a Radio-Canada journalist can only with difficulty be completely objective. In fact, the journalists have so much of their collective nose in the daily business of the company, regarding which they very often take a stance reflected in their way of presenting the news, the choice of words, intonation, features of the face - all are telltale of the opinion of the journalist.

The position of the governor-General is thus an office of projecting an image and incarnating suppossed "objectivity."

In my opinion an office of representation is certainly relevant, but I believe that the occupant of the office should at least be elected by the Parliament - or officially elected in some other as-yet-to-be specified way - in order to stop the favouritism which the Prime Minister inevitably communicates to us all by naming, in his own voice only, a particular person. The appointment of the Governor-General should be the fruit of a debate in Canada and not the particular choice of the PM.
It is in addition known that the Liberal Party of Canada is very close to Radio-Canada; Radio-Canada gives 82% of its political contributions to the Liberal Party of Canada - which discredits the assertion that this choice is exclusively non-partisan. This nomination was not discussed, nor do we know who else was on Paul Martin's shortliest of candidates. There is an aspect a little too Soviet in this approach. That the PM omit his criteria of representation of Canada is particularly insulting to the integrity of our democracy and to us citizens who should also have a word to say. Perhaps it'sthe case that the population itself would not make a very positive discrimination among candidates and would really choose according to required personal qualities only.

It is true that at this very point, I pose a breach in the monarchical system. While I am not additionally for a republican system, the constitutional monarchy is quite well agreeable to me. Because it is based on the parliamentary system of Prime Minister and the ministerial responsibility of the cabinet members, which in my eyes is more interesting than a republican presidential mode devoted to the separation of the presidential office and the Parliament, and which thereby opens the gate with the blocking of the two institutions.

In my opinion the office of Governor-General can very well be retained, but it could be selected in a more democratic and more transparent way.

- A miserable free translation by Owl of a French text by Jacques Hamel, posted on his website, La sphère des idées J. H., August 4, 2005.

Toronto: Surviving in the city: Guns, gangs, shootings, deaths, Mayor, Prov #1, Police Chief TO, Prov Consvt #1 > spinich




Toronto Guns'N'Shootin's Watch


Criminals with 50% American guns aren't winning, Editorial, Toronto Star, August 6, 2005. For the entire editorial, click the blog-entry large-typeface headline at top. The secondary headline for the more immediate link is my version of what the editorial's means in the context of the official lines put out in the city in the last two weeks, in lite of the info which follows in the various other links of the blog entry below.

Our Toronto Mayor, David Miller, and our Provinicial Premier, Dalton McGuinty, both want to blame our predicament on the Americans - not the smugglers, who bring half our illegal weapons into the province and city, but more largely "the Americans" (see the last link on the different histories of the two countries on Gun Control). The Toronto Police Chief agrees with the datum in a hat tip to the Mayor and the Premier, but focuses on winning their and our support for a plan of police strategists to target the zones (not mere "neighbourhoods," mind you) where two top gangs of considerable size and reach are conducting a turf war. This has less public support than you may wish - for instance, among white liberals who are already primed for the division that will emerge in the Black communities whether to support the police or to decry them as being the worst of two evils. This predicatble pattern is one reason why the pusillanimous Mayor and Premier float their "blame the Americans" flusterbluster. Don't be smogged by this ploy (which Dalton has already used on the pollution of Toronto's air by the cars Torontonians drive, not caused in the main instance by the Americans as he would have it). - Politicarp

Residents of Toronto, and beyond, have been rightly shocked in recent weeks by a spate of shootings that have claimed at least six lives and wounded several innocent bystanders. Most appalling is the harm done to Shaquan Cadougan, a 4-year-old boy struck by a series of bullets to the legs in a drive-by shooting.

This violence is inexcusable. Those responsible deserve the harshest punishment possible under our legal system. And the public is justifiably expressing outrage over gangs, guns and some criminals' devil-may-care attitude toward taking human life.

But, despite what some critics would have us believe, Toronto the Good has not turned into Toronto the Bloody. This city's streets have not become out-of-control shooting galleries, filled with gun-toting thugs. And references to "Dodge City" are simply out of place.
Perspective is important. Violence does pose a serious challenge, but it weighs heavier on selected parts of the city, and selected communities, rather than Toronto as a whole. For residents of those unfortunate zones, life is punctuated by gnawing fear and — all too often — the popping sound of criminal gunshots. That's a tragedy. Every effort must be made to bring relief to these troubled areas of the city.



Canada Free Press' Weintreb fixes on McGuinty belated gun solution for Toronto, by Arthur Weinreb, Canada Free Press, August 5, 2005.

After the latest evening of multiple shootings in Toronto and the GTA (at least the latest at the time of this writing), the spate of violent gun crime finally got the attention of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. A group of people were sitting outside their homes on a hot summer night when they became the victims of a drive-by shooting. Included amongst the casualties was a 4-year-old boy who was shot in the leg and hip.

McGuinty seemed to have been rattled by the shooting of the 4-year-old. Well, at least this is some progress for our illustrious premier – the child wasn't even his kid. The last time McGuinty got excited about a young person being the victim of a violent crime it was when one of his sons became the victim of an Ottawa mugging.

After expressing his sympathies to the victims of the escalating gun violence, the premier, stuttering and stammering, said that it's time for a "rethink" about the laws. A rethink?

While Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair set up a task force to redeploy officers to areas of the city where most of the gang related shootings are taking place, Dalton has decided to think. Perhaps after all this thinking is done, some action might be taken to combat the nights of multiple shootings in Toronto that have recently become all too common.

About the only specific thing that McGuinty said was that he intends to take up the matter of illegal guns with the American Ambassador. He seems to be taking a page from Toronto mayor David Miller who blames the United States for shootings and murders committed in Canada by home grown Canadian criminals. Since becoming mayor, David Miller has refused to take any responsibility for any problems that occur in his city, preferring to blame the federal government, the provincial government and now the United States. But we expect more from the premier who is sinking quickly to the level of the Toronto mayor.

The notion that talking to the Americans is somehow going to get them to change their entire gun culture is totally absurd. And if McGuinty truly wanted to do something to stop American guns from being brought across the border, the premier would be talking to the federal government that is responsible for the border, not the American Ambassador.

Dalton McGuinty had promised to fund an additional 1,000 police officers for the province but that promise seems to be just lying around until it can officially declared "broken" as most of his other major promises have been.

McGuinty's undertaking a "rethink" and wanting to talk to the U.S. Ambassador while the streets of Toronto are being shot up on what seems to be a nightly basis proves that he is totally incapable of dealing with problems that don't fit into his special pet interests.


Apologies to Arthur for this lengthy quote, but the matter is so urgent, and his remarks are so cogent and backed up by longterm McGuinty-watching on numerous issues, that I'm doing my best to make sure all refWrite readers
get a chance to go thru Arthur's entire argument on the matter. - Owlb


Who's responsible for gun violence?, Letter to National Post, August 5, 2005. Click-up this pithy letter and read it, please. - Politicarp


Mother of shot boy: 'You have to thank God he's alive', by Christie Blatchford, Toronto's greatest crime and crime-trial reporter, making gruesome stuff a good read, now at Globe&Mail, August 4, 2005.

An apparent gang-shooting that begs for the determination of a motive. Miss Blatchfrod writes about the 4-year-old Shaquan Cadougan who was struck an incredible 4 times by the bullets that went into his lower body parts and legs. And he's still alive! Click up here story and read for your self, as Ms Blatchford's account is too close an investigation to be recapped here. - Owlb

Top cop takes aim at smuggled guns, but deftly spins the Miller-McGuinty line to advance police's definite plan for crime-hi TO rival gang regions, by Canadian Press, carried also in The London [ON] Free Press, attributed to Paul Choi, August 5, 2005.

Police Chief Blair

TORONTO -- Smuggled handguns and gang warfare are fanning the flames of violence and endangering the lives of innocent people, police Chief Bill Blair said yesterday in the wake of a rash of gunplay that left a four-year-old boy among the injured. ... Blair acknowledged that one of the problems still at the root of gang warfare is the proliferation of firearms, mainly handguns, that are being illegally smuggled in large numbers across the Canada-U.S. border.

"Our investigations have revealed at least half of all the firearms in the city of Toronto are being illegally smuggled across our border from the United States."

The "extremely alarming" shootings Wednesday night, which left one man dead and four other people injured, were the result of two gangs involved in a fierce turf war, Blair said as he announced plans for a special task force to tackle the problem of gang violence in the neighbourhood where the shootings occurred.


Residents tired of dodging bullets 'If police were harder, there wouldn't be this problem', by Armando D'Andrea and Nicholas Kohler, National Post, August 5, 2005.


Rash of shootings spawns new police unit Chief to deploy 'several dozen' officers to deal with troubled neighbourhood, by Robb Shaw, Globe&MailAugust 5, 2005.


MacLean's, Paul Choi (here's another fine reporter to watch for news stories that are Toronto and crime-related, has here a longer more-detailed version of what appeared later in other sources cited above. MacLean's, August 4, 2005.


McGuinty blames guns from U.S., Broadcast News via National Post, August 04, 2005.

The premier says there's no doubt the guns are coming into Canada from south of the border because it's very hard to buy a handgun in this country.

McGuinty he says police and all levels of government should look at gun laws in an effort to stem the problem before it gets worse.



Police chief pledges to battle crime in northwest Toronto
, CBC.ca / CBC News, last updated August 5 2005.


Weekend marked by shootings in Toronto, CBC.ca / CBC News, last updated August 1, 2005.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Canada: Paul Martin's appointments: New GG, 5 new Senators, soon a new Supreme Court Justice

FLASH UPDATE: Supreme Court seat opens for Westerner
Race begins after resignation opens spot on Supreme Court


Eminent jurists from Western Canada can now place a job at the Supreme Court of Canada at the top of their Christmas wish lists since Alberta's Justice Jack Major will step down Dec. 25, CanWest News Service has learned.


But "race" - what race? A panel of experts now selects candidates, without even the profession having a say in it, complains the presdient of the Canadian Bar Association. The procedure set up by Minister of Justice, Irwin Colter, and his Boss is only slightly bnetter than the Royal-Edict procedure of Paul Martin in the last round of imposing Supreme Court Justices on his own say-so-period.

-------------------


Senate appointments
Conservatives get key 'Red Tory,' Hugh Segal, in Senate


Segal ready to wave Tory flag, CBCNews.com
Segal's appointment raises eyebrows, by Gloria Galloway, Globe & Mail, August 4, 2005.


Award-winning linkline from Norm Specter Wed, Aug 3, lead runner-up story: Martin appoints friend to Senate, despite pledge to end cronyism.


PM fills five Senate posts with friends - and foesAppointments include two Tories as well as two former Liberal MPs, by Brian Laghi, Globe & Mail, August 3, 2005.


-------------


Governor-General appointment

PM presents Michaëlle Jean as next governor-general, by Katie Rook, Globe & Mail, August 4, 2005.

Ibbitson via Spector on Mdme. Michaëlle Jean I cribbed the following from Norman Spector. The scene at his site seems to change rapidly. If you can find the item, the rest of it - more power to you. - Owlb


The Globe and Mail’s John Ibbitson weighs in on the new GG



Whatever criticism does attach to this choice, Paul Martin has probably made a politically astute move by selecting Ms. Jean. The informal principle of rotation dictated that the next governor-general should be francophone. The Liberals however, had toyed with the idea of selecting an aboriginal leader instead. In the end, none could be found who were available, met the requisite demands and were fluently bilingual. Besides, there was political peril in violating the rotation principle: Quebeckers would probably not reward the Liberals for selecting a Quebecker as governor-general, but they might have punished them for not doing so. In that respect, if in no other, appointing Ms. Jean was the safe thing to do.



CBC's Jean our new head of state Canada's Next Governor-General: Montreal journalist, 48, to replace Clarkson on Oct. 1. By Hubert Bauch, Koel Kom, Liz Ferguson, The Gazette and CanWest News Services, August 04, 2005.

- Politicarp

Politics: Fed Conservative Campaign Stephen Harper will meet campaign-prepping Consrvtve candidates today in Toronto


Yes, the Tories are meeting in Metro Toronto today at the Intercontinental Hotel, and "are focusing on specific Liberal ridings. Stephen Harper will push the environment, tax deductible public transit." Well, here "Metro Toronto" seems not to include any downtown ridings. And "Liberal ridings" doesn't include this NDP riding in which I blog. I would love to see some hot young David in my riding take on the Goliath here (if no Goliath nationally). as this riding is represented in Fed Parliament by none other than Jack Layton (and

NDP Fed


provinically by Her Gabbiness Marilyn Churley). I'd like to see such a David take on a difficult uphill climb to unseat the local machine-backed NDP leader who can't even permit the most basic democratic free-vote of his caucus members on an issue so frawt with dissent as gmarriage law was ... and remains. And on and on. The demographics of this riding are most interesting, and it takes years of preparation to put forward a Conservative candidate who can win here. I can't even make contact with the official riding association, and wonder if its officers even live in the riding as I've been trying to do so for almost two years. - Owlb

Fed Conservative Party

Toronto Transit users to get help in Harper Conservative budget
Tories plan election goodies for transit users, by Sean Gordon, August 3, 2005.. "Tax credit part of MPs' urban agenda - Harper brings politicking tour to GTA." And while your're at it, take a gander at this bit on the same subject that I got from Montreal's The Gazette via Norman Spector:

Stephen Harper's Conservatives are said to be considering a neat little trick that would help build municipal transit systems' ridership without stepping on provincial toes and without creating yet more lucrative work for constitutional lawyers. …

What gives Harper's project a little extra sizzle is the cross-jurisdictional aspect. Municipalities are a provincial jurisdiction, and whenever Ottawa proposes spending some federal money on their crumbling infrastructure, it inevitably leads to months of painful constitutional haggling. Equally inevitably, that results in some of the cash going to buy shiny fire trucks or new council offices for St. Polycarpe de Ouairever at the expense of big cities like Montreal, which have the real needs but - in Quebec at least - little political clout.

Federal tax rebates for commuters avoid all those headaches. They no more violate provincial jurisdiction, for example, than do tax rebates for university-tuition fees - another area of exclusive provincial jurisdiction. And they could work. A couple of hundred extra dollars at tax time might not sound like much, but as rising gas prices and soaring parking fees continue to jack up the cost of driving to work, that might be just enough to induce wavering commuters to leave the car at home and take the metro, bus or train instead.


Stephen Harper

Harper Begins 2nd BBQ Summer Tour of Ontario
Harper sets his sights on Ontario this week, by Michael Stittle, CTV.ca, August 1, 2005/.

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Conservatives Get Key 'Red Tory' Hugh Segal in Senate
Segal ready to wave Tory flag, CBCNews.com, August 4, 2005.

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Martin names to Senate a key mean-mouth against Harper
PM names insult-pro Larry Campbell to Senate Mayor rewarded for helping federal Liberals when they were at risk of being ousted, by Peter O'Neil, Vancouver Sun, August 3, 2005.


Larry Campbell, 57-year-old Mayor of Vancouver, an extreme partisan for Paul Martin, has been named by the Prime Minister to the Senate of Canada.

Campbell, who called Stephen Harper's Conservatives "barbarians" during the 2004 federal election and earlier this year denounced Harper's plans to topple the Liberal government, said he expects to begin work as a Liberal senator this fall, even though he plans to serve out his term in municipal politics until a new mayor is installed in December.

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Campaign 'Framing'
You want to win? Better get framed, by Val Sears, Toronto Sun, August 2, 2005. Val Sears doesn't mention that the linguist under discussion in this theory-piece is the Bush-hating extremist George Lakoff. I've read some of his books on metaphor, and I don't think their very good. - Owlb



Here's the website from which will emerge some of the meanest Viciosos against Harper during the anticipated campaignUnleash the Dogs of War ... and Internal Hatred

“Business groups” are the owners of CanWest Media, the Fraser Institute (always guaranteed space in the CanWest monopoly communication vehicles), reactionary so-called citizens’ organizations, the Stephen Harper, Stockwell Day, Preston Manning Right politicians in Canada – backed by the U.S. Administration, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, and the central bureaucracy of the European Union recently drubbed by the voters of France and Holland.

That combination makes up a heavy set of fighters. Their consistent message is “save your own skin”, “help us down-grade standards of living”, “learn, above all, to hate your neighbour”.


Warning: Mark it Poison! now, but ready the remedy, stock up on it, and use it appropriately. - Politicarp

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Politics: Deaths of Leaders: John Garang of South Sudan; King Fahd of Saudi Arabia


SUDAN: JOHN GARANG


Death of former rebel chief tests Sudan peace John Garang, who signed a peace accord with Khartoum ending two decades of war, died in a crash this weekend, by Abraham McLaughlin, Christian Science Monitor, August 2, 2005. The death of John Garang, newly elevated under the terms of a peace treaty between the rebellious Black South of Sudan, which is Christian and animist, and the north which is Arab and Muslim - except for the huge influx of Black refugees into the capital city of Khartoum the center of Arab civilization and politics for the North - this lamentable death of John Garang places 20 years of war and negotiation involving hundreds of non-government organizations and diplomats of many governments, especially in Africa, places it all in jeapardy. Both the new office he filled, and the old role he played among the Black community's various elements, one that held some hope of him making a difference for the Blacks in rebellion and starvation in Sudan's Western region of Darfur, all this is in jeapardy. lamentations! - Politicarp


Northern (Black Christian & animist), southern (Arab Muslim) Sudanese clash violently after vice-president's death, by Tanalee Smith, Canadian Press via Yahoo!News, August 2, 2005.


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SAUDI ARABIA: KING FAHD


Saudi dynasty has new king, same agenda, by Dan Muerphy, Christian Science Monitor, Aug 2, 2005. Abdullah is a reformer, but new king's hands are tied by hard-liners.


King Fahd dies; Abdullah takes throne, by Rasheed Abou-Alsamh, Washington Times, August 2, 2005


King is buried with stately simplicity, by FT.com via New York Times, August 2, 2005.


In contrast to the situation of severe uncertainty generated by the death of John Garang in Sudan, that of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia came after he had been disabled for some time, and his brother's stewardship of the royal responsiblities in the meantime made transition to a new monarch (one with real power, but not absolute) an apparently easy process of change. But time will tell where next the seams in Saudi society burst, just how fast democracy can get off the ground (don't hold your breath), and what terrors will be visited upon this Kingdom that shelters the holiest shrines of all Muslims. - Politicarp

Art: Painters, Music, Writings Group shows Toronto, Borenstein Retro Montreal, Warhol, Basquiat, Deborah Evans Price, Jimi


TORONTO EXHIBITIONS ...


Reviews of 3 Summer Group Shows in Toronto, Gary Michael Dault, "Art with Little Afterglow," Globe & Mail, July 30, 2005. Gary Michael Dault branched out from painting and other artistic pursuits, to become a leading reviewer of Gallery exhibitions in Toronto. I've read his write-ups off and on for some decades now. He's still at it, and is superiour to most such guys, as he draws you into an atmosphere and then the works within it. Even when he pans a show, he manages to be interesting; he reassures that you that its worthwhile to describe and make judgments about artistic works then pass those results on to the public which bothers with the whole endevour. In these reviews he pinpoints some contributions that he found quite worthwhile, so the title may or may not be his. - Owlb


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MONTREAL


Online Tour thru Art of Little-Known Canadian, Sam Borenstein (1908-1969 Troubled Cosmic in Bright Colours amidst Snow. CBC.ca Photo Gallery, by Matt Hays, no date for duration online, so view it now; 10 slides; from a major retrospective at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
I enjoyed the set of Borenstein's pieces online; take a look. - Owlb


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WRITINGS ON PAINTERS


Snap, crackle, and pop art - Warhol exploited the system on which his art and celebrity was based., by Timothy Cahill, Christian Science Monitor, July 29, 2005. Andy Warhold actually wrote up his philosophy of life as art, From A to B, and Back Again. In it he celebrates surfaces and superficialities. but with such nuances that that the complexities overwhelm, at least by way of talk talk talk about the images that he was ever repeating and changing only in small details and superficial ways. He got shot in the head by the radical militant feminist who wrote the SCUM Manifesto. In Canada, his general idea was taken up by a trio of artists (what then used to be called "an art collective") called General Idea. You get the geneal idea, I'm sure. I understand they were largely funded by the government - oops! hands-off ... (or is it?) ... arms-length arts councils.- Owlb


Short life, big impact: Basquiat, by Gloria Goodale, Christian Science Monitor, July 29, 2005. Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) "came to personify the art scene of the 80s, with its merging of youth culture, money, hype, excess, and self-destruction. And then there was the work, which the public image tended to overshadow: paintings and drawings that conjured up marginal urban black culture and black history, as well as the artist's own conflicted sense of identity." There's a major exhibition of his work, July 17-October 10, 2005, at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. - Owlb


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MUSIC


Christian artists breathe new life into old hymns,Deborah Evans Price, Billboard via Detroit News, July 31, 2005. "Their modern spins on the classics feed the soul of the religious revival in America." There's a whole new round of that "old-time religion" when it comes to its music. A major process of transformation and renewal, while keeping the essential core in new musical idioms turns out to be a nationwide powerful renaissance of song that the "mainstream" culture has few antennae to discern. - Owlie Scowlie


Flashy, raucous, sad: the Jimi Hendrix experience, by Darryl Lorenzo Wellington, Christian Science Monitor, August 02, 200. "Book recounts contribution: By the age of 27 he had revolutionized rock music." He flourished during the years of 1968 thru 1970, but in that time he gave new meaning to the guitar, now electrified, as a virtuoso instrument. I remember the first time I heard his version of The Star-Spangled Banner which can be taken as a political statement (if so, then one knows the difference from this experience of listening that there's a vast difference between "political" music, and political music). But I never got hung-up on his disaffections from the political system. I responded to the sheer inventiveness of his taking something old and familiar, however difficult to sing, and transforming it into an instrumental of great power, dissonance and all, that still carried in its midst the familiarity of the tradition of American national anthem. The new book about Jimi tells of his evading the draft by pretending he was homo; and, of course, it has to tell the story of his addiction, and of his death most miserable. I hope he has found peace at last. I believe that at death, we begin to dissolve in all aspects of our life, until as mere electromagnetic ripples our forensic traces waft out into the universe, held together in some altered state of being by the power of the Lord in an Interim State, wherein to each of us the Lord Jesus comes in dreams to encounter us, to dialogue with us, to heal us, to bring us into communion with Himself, and prepare us for the Resurrection of the Dead and the Life Everlasting. Only those who thru that process refuse the encounter have the fate of being granted separation from God in Christ - folks like Hitler, I presume. Unlike the refuseniks, I trust to see Jimi after he emerges from the Interim State again to play his guitar. Peace at last. Someday. - Owlb

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

North Korea: 6-Nation Talks: Talks to denuke North Korea - go from hopeful wordsmithing yesterday to NK souring today


North Korea Human Rights

Citizens' Alliance for Human Rights for North Koreans - English section There's also a large Korean-language section of the site.

North Korea's wordsmithing of its blackmail, and US balks somewhat, J. D. McGuire, China e-Lobby, August 1, 2005.


Talks on SNK’s nuclear weapons centering around draft statement: The six-party talks on Stalinist North Korea’s nuclear weapons is now a week old, and the goal of this round appears to be agreement on a “draft of basic principles” (BBC). The biggest holdup is “North Korea's demand for swift compensation for a commitment to dismantle its nuclear weapons program and U.S. insistence that inspections and dismantling actually begin before compensation is delivered” (Washington Post). Note that the U.S. is now merely demanding that “dismlantling” begin, not be completed. Making matters worse, Christopher Hill, the head of the U.S. delegation, said it was all coming down to “wordsmithing.” In other words, while the Stalinist regime continues to develop more nuclear weapons, it can engage in wordplay with the U.S., Russia, Japan, South Korea, and Communist China (not that the fifty-plus year Stalinist ally minds all that much) over the timing of aid they can receive before a single nuclear weapon is destroyed. Freelance correspondent Richard Halloran (Washington Times) sees this as going nowhere; yours truly is more afraid a deal will go down (Epoch Times). Will they never learn? Meanwhile, Lieut. Colenol Gordon Cucullu, Front Page Magazine, is rightly incensed that the well-being of the people of northern Korea is not being discussed at the talks.


Stalinists souring on nuclear talks, J. D. McGuire, China e-Lobby, August 2,2005, ¶#1.

Surprise! Surprise! - North Korea wants everything for nothing, and still the US has a hard time saying No! But Chief US Negotiator Christoopher Hill seems to be holding a line, however obscurely, while not (yet) allowing NK to scramble out - maybe China is helping here a wee bit. But I'm reminded of McGuire's steady skepticism about both of these Asian nuclear powers.

Click up China e-Lobby for these link-loaded snippets and checkout the sources he's selected While your're there, why njot subscribe to his email newsletter? - Owlb