Don't laugh. He's doing it.

I only hope that he has the chance to make history before the miserable failure retires and gets to spend the rest of his life being referred to as "Mr. President".

Notes on Pacifism (2008-07-19 21:21:00)

I've discovered that I'm incensed by pacifists. They approach the concept of violence with such dismissive superiority, like it's some kind of old idea who's day has come and gone. As if somehow, if a few of us were to decide not to commit an act of violence, the rest of the world will somehow agree to follow suit.

What foolishness is this?

No intelligent person would argue that violence can solve everything, but similarly, no rational person can argue that every problem can be solved without it.

Some conflicts not only call for violence, but outright require it. In fact, I would submit that anyone who would advocate non-violent resistance for all conflicts is just as naive as those who think that every problem is solveable at the barrel of a gun.

In Summary (2008-07-20 13:21:00)

Strolling trough this park has been like walking through my memory. At every turn, I'm reminded of a happy moment, but strangely enough, the memory isn't very specific. In other words, I remember a peace and happiness associated with being here, but for the life of me, I can't determine the source. In fact, my feelings toward the festival presently are quite the opposite to what they were before I left for Ontario back in 2001.

In a way, it's as if my politics have changed, while those of the festival haven't, and somehow we both seem to think that we're still on the same "side".

We both want:

• Peace
• A healthy planet
• Equality
• Affordable housing

But our definitions of these ideals, not to mention the forms in which we'd like to see these things take place differ considerably:

The concensus here for dealing with homelessness seems to be substantial rent controls and treating heroin addiction and alcoholism like a disease. I just can't follow that line of reasoning. Where they see thousands out of work, I see a labour shortage and where they see a need for legislative rent controls, I see acres of underdeveloped land that could be cultivated to drive down the cost of living through competition. We need to increase density and improve sustainability while developing a scavenger class for the emerging market of reusable containers. Ideas like these are met with considerable opposition here.

There's a focus on pacifism, like it's some sort of magic panacea, and there's also a kind of reverence for panhandlers and bums (their term). As if vagrants are living some kind of idealised life. I never used to bat an eye at comments like these, but now they grate against my skin and I'm not convinced that this is a bad thing.

For so many of the people here, things like working and bathing are optional, and there are children everywhere. Screaming, oozing children, the blistering sun and rap music! -- I've not been in a happy place all day.

It's important to note that I don't condemn this lifestyle, far from it. Some of the happiest people I know live and breathe this kind of life. I support their choice and right to this life but... I just don't think that it's the kind of life I want anymore. At one time, yes, but not anymore.

My brother is participating in the BCSPCA's Paws for a Cause Walk. It's the annual fundraiser for the SPCA, which does some good work with wildlife and other animals in BC.

He's aiming for $200, and he's got $90 so far so he's not doing to poorly, but if you've got the extra money and you want to support some Good people, this would be a nice place to start. Here's the contents of his email:

Hey Guys

As you probably know I love dogs more than people so I'm trying to raise money to save a few pups at the annual Paws for a cause walk.

Anything will help. I'm trying to reach a goal of $200.00

Thanks for your consideration everyone...

You have been invited to pledge Matt Quinn in the 2008 "Paws for a Cause...Walk for the Animals" - the largest campaign in support of animals in BC!

Online pledging is secure and easy. Secure online donations can be made with your credit card, and you'll receive an instant electronic tax receipt by e-mail.

To sponsor Matt Quinn click here.

Thank you in advance for your support from all the feet, hooves and paws behind our cause!

At the BC SPCA, we assist, care for and speak for companion, farm and wild animals province-wide. Last year, we rescued 41,884 animals; found new families for 20,067 homeless animals; reunited 5,911 lost animals with their families; and conducted 4,647 cruelty investigations. We are a part of local communities and classrooms through our humane education programs, and a voice for all animals through our advocacy efforts.

Together, we can make a difference!

If you have any questions about the campaign or how to use the online system, please e-mail us at paws_online@spca.bc.ca or visit http://www.spca.bc.ca/walk.

I found this this morning while looking for more information on the latest DNS exploit. Pure brilliance it is:

GORBACHOV: THE MUSIC VIDEO - BIGGER AND RUSSIANER from Tom Stern on Vimeo.

Discovered via K's blog, Doctor Horrible's sheer brilliance was immediately evident. A Joss Whedon creation, Doctor Horrible will be a miniseries broadcast online ONLY and only between the 15th and the 20th of July. I'll let Joss explain it all in his typical style:

Once upon a time, all the writers in the forest got very mad with the Forest Kings and declared a work-stoppage. The forest creatures were all sad; the mushrooms did not dance, the elderberries gave no juice for the festival wines, and the Teamsters were kinda pissed. (They were very polite about it, though.) During this work-stoppage, many writers tried to form partnerships for outside funding to create new work that circumvented the Forest King system.

Frustrated with the lack of movement on that front, I finally decided to do something very ambitious, very exciting, very mid-life-crisisy. Aided only by everyone I had worked with, was related to or had ever met, I single-handedly created this unique little epic. A supervillain musical, of which, as we all know, there are far too few.

The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap – but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way. To give the public (and in particular you guys) something for all your support and patience. And to make a lot of silly jokes. Actually, that sentence probably should have come first.

I will of course be watching. Or more likely, downloading the stream to watch later. If it's any good (how can it not? It's got Neil Patrick Harris AND Nathan Fillion!), I'll probably buy the DVD. Big kudos to Joss and friends for pushing the envelope in media composition and distribution!

In the space of two hours today I've received two messages from two different people on the same subject:

My coworker has good deal for movie tix. she can get them for $6.95/person. Expires in 2010. If you want, let me know how many asap.

Upon hearing the question the first time around, I was interested, but now... now I smell a rat. Could it be that the Cineplex folks are looking to do any or all of these?

• Lock out any competitors with cheap pre-paid tickets
• Lower the price to cut competition while simultaneously securing clientele

I'm sure that there are more things they could be doing behind the curtain but at this point I'm highly suspicious. They do, after all have a well-earned reputation for monopoly maintenance and exploitation. Has anyone else heard of this?

A good friend of mine has been going through hell lately with a bedbug infestation in her Church & Wellsley apartment. For my part, I'd only heard of the little bastards when I returned to Vancouver this year and my brother recounted his own horrible experience with them. My understanding though is that they are beyond horrible.

With that in mind, I thought that I might direct you to an interesting site Lara posted on her own blog called The Bed Bug Registry. They have interactive maps of known infestations in various cities including Vancouver and Toronto as well as a reporting system you can (and should) use to help out other apartment seekers.

I ran across this in 24 this morning and decided to check the guy out online. Calling himself the bulletproof courier (though I'm not sure how he arrived at that name), he rides his bike around town with a digital video camera strapped to his helmet.

From a social perspective, the act itself is interesting, and for those of you who will probably ask, despite my opposition to CCTV, I don't really have a problem with what this guy's doing. He's an individual in a free country exercising that right in a public space. The ambiguity comes with his broadcasting this stuff in a public forum, which is the grey area. I'd be curious to see what my other activist friends think of this.

Regardless, it's pretty neat if you have a few minutes.

Email has been kicking my ass of late. By "kicking my ass", I mean of course that I have had, for far too long, far more email in my inbox marked "unread" than I can reasonably handle.

Among those senders yet to receive a response from me, there are: Annie, Heather, Kathryn, Amy, Margaret, Julie, Katie, Sheena and Roland. To all of you, I want to say that I'm sorry. I'll get to your email as soon as I can but most days, I look at that inbox (15 unread) plus my bloody Facebook inbox (12 unread) and I just can't bring myself to dive into it all. I appreciate the mail, really I do. Just please understand that if you haven't received a message yet, it's because I intend to write a real letter and I need to find the time and a clear head in which to do it.

In the Windows world, new releases are combined with big corporate ad campaigns. In the Mac world, it's a keynote filled with repeated buzzwords. But for Linux (well, Gentoo anyway), they post to their home page with a note like this:

The 2008.0 final release is out! Code-named "It's got what plants crave," this release contains numerous new features including an updated installer, improved hardware support, a complete rework of profiles, and a move to Xfce instead of GNOME on the LiveCD. LiveDVDs are not available for x86 or amd64, although they may become available in the future. The 2008.0 release also includes updated versions of many packages already available in your ebuild tree.

For those who don't get it, you should probably torrent Idiocracy ;-)