Consensus?

2008.03.30 - Sunday

U.S. Senate Report: Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007

A good read, but don't forget, the debate is over!

Support Our Troops!

2008.03.26 - Wednesday

A Canadian heroes' welcome

It makes me proud to be Canadian to see such things, but I do have one question. Why the hell am I reading this story and seeing these pictures in a British publication?

Protesters And Such

2008.03.22 - Saturday

I went downtown this afternoon to do some shopping; clothes mostly. Of course there was a protest going on at the Vancouver Art Gallery, as is often the case. This week it was Tibet. A pretty decent number of people crowded around the steps facing Georgia Street, most of them with Tibetan flags or coloured shirts. The usual kind of thing. They seemed to be mostly younger people, students for the most part, I'm sure. I have to say I've never understood the protest culture that's developed since the '60s. The scraggy, poor man clothes, the crazy outfits and hair, the flimsy, barely legible, huge cardboard signs, and the cheers and chants.

It looks like a joke. At most, it looks like a football booster club, and is taken about as seriously. And what are these people accomplishing? Are they raising awareness? Doubtful, considering the story has been on the front page of every newspaper, on the front of every news site, and at the top of every news cast for at least a week. China certainly doesn't care what anyone else thinks, at least not when it comes to Tibet. Are they trying to pressure free governments to do something? Well, like what? Send China a stern warning? It's already been done. It was done right away, and by BushHitler, no less. No, for the most part, these protests are all about making the protesters feel good about themselves. They're about making sure those protesters can go to sleep at night, confident that they've done something, that they've helped to change the world by standing in security on the steps of an art gallery in Vancouver and shouting slogans into a megaphone. I'm sure it made a huge difference when they were protesting far more savage crimes in Darfur six months ago, and in Burma six months before that.

Oh. Right. Nevermind.

It's not that I'm a fan of China by any means. Anyone who knows me knows at least that much. It's just that this protest culture isn't getting anyone anywhere. In fact I'd wager that in the eyes of many people, the kinds of tactics used only serve to hurt their many causes. The largest protests we've seen in recent times were against the war in Iraq, and they changed...nothing. Maybe it's not necessarily the message, but the medium. We're a long, long way away from the dignity of the Million Man March, here. Of course, when sensible anti-war, or in this case, anti-China protesters march alongside BUSH=HITLER maniacs and Communist day dreamers, they're only polluting their message with some of the most foul ideological filth our civilization has ever created. It's clear however, that protesters today go for quantity, rather than quality, at every turn.

As for China, I wish we would boycott the Olympics over this issue. I hope the Olympic committee eats it, as a repeat lesson of what happens when you award the world's most prestigious athletic event to a Communist dictatorship that's guilty of violating every single Human right we have a law for. I hope the small rebellions and uprisings increase to a fever pitch as the games draw closer, forcing China to embarrass itself more and more in one way or another. It's way past high time that certain people were reminded of what Communism is really like behind the velvet curtain and pretty lights. As for the athletes who've been complaining that a boycott would unfairly punish them, it's a shame that they seem to need politicians to remind them that sometimes one must sacrifice something to stand up for one's principles. Ridiculous suggestion, I know.

2001: A Space Odyssey

2008.03.09 - Sunday

I picked up "2001: A Space Odyssey" last week on Blu-Ray. I hadn't watched it in several years and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep during the end of the film, not because it was boring, but because it was late and I was extremely tired to begin with. I had no problem staying awake this time.

Obviously the film is a masterpiece. That's pretty much an accepted fact these days. Technically it's amazing, and a lot of the space scenes still look fantastic. The only thing that's really off about any of them is the Earth, being far too bright and not having nearly enough colour, but it's hard to blame them for such a thing in 1968. After all, they were going off some pretty crappy and over-exposed photos at that point. Even a lot of the design work still holds up, which should tell you how well thought out that work was. Apart from certain screens being too small and some buttons being too big, the interior of most of the sets could have been shot now. I love the lack of sound in space, and setting everything to Strauss' music was genius.

The only part of the film that did look extremely dated to me was near the end, during Dave's journey "beyond the infinite" or whatever they call it. The psychedelic colour patterns still look cool, but the footage of canyon fly-throughs and ocean waves, over-exposed, colourized, or inverted, looks really lame today. I'm not even sure it looked cool in 1968. I would have loved to keep watching more crazy colour patterns instead. Oh well.

"2001: A Space Odyssey" was trampled in the reviews, and didn't perform particularly well at the box office, at least not to start. It's a great example of why not to pay attention to film critics, although since "2001" doesn't spell everything out for you, maybe some of them were just too stupid to recognize what they were seeing. Terms like "giant waste", "boring", and "pretentious" were used by some of the biggest critics and papers of the day in their reviews. Today, "2001" is considered to be one of the greatest films ever made. It's a great example of what sci-fi can accomplish when it's made by people who get it, when it doesn't treat its audience like morons, and when infantile producers and studio hawks stay out of the damn way.

Born Again!

2008.03.06 - Thursday

Eject! Eject! Eject!

Well, perhaps "born again" is a little on the melodramatic side. Still, it's somewhat appropriate. Since coming across Bill Whittle's site and his collection of essays, I've definitely felt a renewed confidence in what many could call my psycho, right-wing Nazi beliefs. It almost feels like I wrote them myself, in some mythical time when I'm a good writer and living in the States. The best part about Mr. Whittle's writing is Mr. Whittle himself. He's a conservative supporter of the war living on the edge of Santa Monica and Venice. He's a private pilot. He works as a film editor. He's liberal and progressive in all of the right ways, betraying no suppressed racist, feminist, or totalitarian tendencies. He is, a little like myself and a few friends, a person who grew up in a liberal, secular culture who came to his senses and at some point realized the world isn't a big pink fuzzy bunny land as some would have us believe, and that while we are by no means perfect, we're the best damn show in town.

I recommend starting with "Tribes", accessible on the right hand menu bar, and reading in order from there. So far, I've found "Tribes" and "Power" to be the most convincing and well thought out arguments. You may not agree, but give them all a shot.

As someone who supports the war, I've recently found myself questioning that wisdom. People's beliefs should evolve with time, and should be based party on real world experience. Bill Whittle reminds us that even though we question ourselves, and even though we may be tired of it all, we're God damn right and we should be God damn proud of it.