Author: Dan Dickinson

Once again, an Onion headline becomes reality

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Of all the reprehensible things the Bush administration has done, this is one of the most terrifying: in an article titled Forget Nuremberg: How Bush’s new torture bill eviscerates the promise of Nuremberg, Slate explains how the President has granted himself the authority to “interpret the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions.”

The court system is now emasculated regarding the issue of torture. The executive branch has subverted the judicial branch, and has the legislative branch by the throat. The checks and balances set out by the forefathers Republicans claim to hold so dear are being chipped away, bit by bit.

I fear America is sliding into a period which, not too many years hence, they’ll view as one of the darkest in their history.

.:.

On a lighter note, and in preparation for our trip, I’ve added a little Google Map to the sidebar. It’ll show you where we are, so long as I can get enough signal to update our location on the blackberry.

[tags]bush, torture, nuremberg, geneva conventions, google maps[/tags]

Oil, fat and hyacinth

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At lunch today I finished watching another Werner Herzog documentary: Lessons Of Darkness (imdb | rotten tomatoes). Essentially 50 minutes of aerial film from Kuwait, taken just after the first gulf war, set to a Wagner score or to Herzog himself reading passages from Revelations, it’s enough to boggle the mind and drop the jaw. Fountains of fire spewing from sand, rivers and lakes of oil stretching for miles, racks of crude torture paraphenalia, burned & rusted skeletons of old vehicles, blackened men trying desperately to regain control over the exploding landscape…it’s just incredible stuff.

Herzog’s a freaking genius.

.:.

It’s natural that a conservative government would cut social programs. That’s what they do; it’s the basis for conservative politics: you lessen the role (and spending) of government, thereby reducing the short-term tax burden on the public. So it comes as no surprise that the Tory government is cutting $1 billion from human rights lawyers, students, museum-goers, etc.

What does surprise me is that they cut the programs on the same day they announced a $13 billion surplus.

While I agree with their decision to use the surplus to pay down the debt, couldn’t they have paid down $12 billion and left the social programs intact? It would’ve been a good PR move, certainly, and it would have been a non-dickish thing to do.

Weighing in with their (predictably opposing) viewpoints: the Toronto Star and National Post.

.:.

While piddling about on my computer tonight I put ye olde Windows Media Player on random. These were the first ten songs served up. Apparently my PC likes the instrumental post-rock; I didn’t hear a single word for about 22 minutes starting at song #6…

  • radiohead . “backdrifts”
  • blink 182 . “i miss you”
  • hank williams iii . “atlantic city”
  • flogging molly . “light of a fading star”
  • bjork . “army of me”
  • mono . “the flames beyond the cold mountain”
  • mogwai . “you don’t know jesus”
  • explosions in the sky . “first breath after coma”
  • constantines . “hyacinth”
  • ani difranco . “willing to fight”

I should have kept writing them down. It just played The Cooper Temple Clause, Sleater-Kinney and Iggy Pop all in a row.

[tags]werner herzog, lessons of darkness, conservative spending cuts, budget surplus, random music[/tags]

You snooze, you lose; well I have snost and lost.

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You know, it’s all fun and games ’til someone…umm…ooh. Yikes.

.:.

Sports Illustrated thinks the Canadiens might be a dark horse this year. I hope so, but their 0-4 preseason record isn’t a great sign.

Ooh…but they’re leading the Senators 4-2 in the 3rd.

.:.

We watched episode one of the fourth season of The Wire, and I’m hooked already. Sooooooo hooked. I love that show.

.:.

By the way, that line up there in the subject is from “I Hear The Bells” by Mike Doughty, known to my wife as the song playing at the alternaprom in the last season of Veronica Mars. I just love the lyric.
[tags]sports illustrated, canadiens, senators, the wire[/tags]

My body dislikes me…

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…when I run for the first time in two weeks. The film festival and courses away from home (especially when the gym is off limits all six days) don’t allow much time for exercise, and there’s an abundance of rich desserts, ice cream bars and brownie-shaped objects at the training centre, so…yeah. All that adds up to about five pounds, so I’ve undone all the good (which equalled precisely that amount) I’d done in the weeks prior.

[tags]a waist is a terrible thing to mind[/tags]

Jesus is magic and the root of all evil

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I watched two very different things this weekend. The most recent was Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic (imdb | rotten tomatoes), which I was a little disappointed by. Sarah Silverman is obviously very talented and funny and (at times) hot, but there were precious few times that I laughed. Some bits were so profane that she managed to get that slightly uneasy chuckle out of me, but that was about it. The best part of the DVD was the five-minute clip of her in The Aristocrats; everything else just seemed a little too contrived in its fearlessness.

.:.

The other film I watched was a documentary on CBC Newsworld’s new series The Big Picture, where Avi Lewis watches a documentary with a bunch of people and then they all discuss it. Sounds boring, I know, but the topic this past week was Richard Dawkins’ documentary The Root Of All Evil: The God Delusion. A lot of the crowd — made up of regular folks but also “experts” like ministers, imams, professors, etc. — didn’t like the way Dawkins went about making his point, but most of the people either agreed in the end or made arguments so illogical that one could barely argue with them. One example from a minister and politician: “I think God is love; would you deny that love exists?” Well, I could declare that god is buttered popcorn; that doesn’t really prove much. But the real low point of the evening was surely Charles McVety, president of the Canada Christian College. Even the clergy were turning on him by the end. The whole thing plays again this evening on Newsworld if you’re interested, or you can view the debate online and witness the migrainish hilarity firsthand.

This coming Wednesday the topic is a Sir David Attenborough documentary about global warming. Should be a good one.

.:.

Actually, I guess I watched a third thing this weekend: Jericho, the new CBS show about a small Colorado town that’s plunged into darkness, fear and uncertainty when a mushroom cloud appears on the horizon, roundabouts where Denver should be. By the end of the first episode they also learn that [spoiler alert] a bomb’s gone off in Atlanta, and that a small child can make a remarkably neat trach tube from a handful of pens and a rubber band in a matter of seconds. Anyway, it’s an interesting enough premise, but the show was prone to hammy acting, predictable scenarios (prodigal sons, lost loves, overturned prison buses, etc.) and speech-making that just bogged it down. I’ll probably give it another week or two, but it’s on a short leash.

[tags]sarah silverman, jesus is magic, cbc newsworld, the big picture, richard dawkins, religion, root of all evil, god delusion, charles mcvety, david attenborough, global warming, jericho[/tags]

Feed me, see more.

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If you know what RSS is — and use a news reader — you might be interested in the following feeds.

I’ve also added the links to the sidebar for future reference.

By the way. if you don’t know what RSS is, or don’t use a feed reader (or My Yahoo, or some other web portal aggregator), read this: RSS explained the Oprah way.

[tags]rss feeds[/tags]

Not booking vacations will mean the terrorist bears have won

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I love doing nothing.

OK, well, we didn’t exactly do nothing today, but pretty close. We went looking for a wide angle lens for our new camera, but couldn’t find the adaptor needed to make it work; it seems to be sold out everywhere. We’re now on the hunt for one before we leave for Alberta next Sunday. We also picked up some clothes at MEC, since we’re not sure what the weather’s going to be like. While we were there some wildlife people were showing a group of kids some animals native to Ontario like badgers, possums and snapping turtles. It was hard to get Nellie out of the store.

After picking up those things and doing a few more errands we came home and have spent nearly the entire day exploring: Nellie in a new book we bought about hiking trails in the Rockies, me on Google Earth. I plan to scour sites like wikitravel and chowhound for travel hints and ideas over the next week. Anybody know any good places to eat in Calgary (or Banff/Lake Louise/Jasper)?

.:.

My brother is also leaving for a trip in the next couple of days. While we explore the mountains, he’ll be in Turkey. There was some concern about the safety of that destination following the explosions at tourist resorts in August, but h’s not scared. What follows is a transcript of an email conversation we had today:

  • Tim: I know you guys are going out west soon. Before I forget, [SWMNBN] and I wanted to say, “Have a super time”. I’ve only been to the Rockies once, and have felt like I should do that again some day. I’m sure you’ll have a lot of fun.
  • Dan: Thanks! Yeah, a week from now we’ll be packing for our early-Sunday-morning flight. Did you ever reset your travel plans? Or are you still aiming for Turkey?
  • Tim: We’re still going to Turkey. Fuck terrorists.
  • Dan: Exactly. That’s why we’re going to the Rockies. Fuck terrorists. Wait…I meant bears. Fuck bears. I always get those things mixed up.

Word.

[tags]rockies, banff, lake louise, jasper, google earth, wikitravel, chowhound, turkey, fuck terrorists[/tags]