Three days ago I wanted to kill the Swiss men’s hockey team. Now I’ll be cheering for them. Whether or not Sweden threw the game today, they deserve to get their asses kicked by Switzerlnd because of what the coach said.
Disdain or imprisonment?
Like those referenced in the title of this story in the Sydney Morning Herald, I’m not sure I agree with the three-year jail sentence given to David Irving for denying the holocaust. Obviously I disagree with what he says (or said; Irving claims to have reversed his views, as do many people when facing jail time); I think it makes him wrong, and an ass, but I don’t know if it makes him a criminal. I tend to agree with the rabbi who said “Personally I prefer to treat him with disdain than with imprisonment” or the historian who said “However nauseating, these people should be confronted in debate rather than chucked into jail and turned into martyrs.”
I understand that Germany and Austria have extraordinary political currents that shape their feelings on such matters, and it could hardly be expected otherwise, even several generations on from the Holocaust. I can’t reach into the mind of the average Austrian lawmaker and determine the extent to which guilt plays a part in such decisions; it just smacks of…atonement, I suppose? Again, understandable. But would Irving have been found a criminal in most other countries? Or simply ridiculed and made a fool of in public debate? Does jailing him really turn him into a martyr?
It’s incredible, the destructive power of war and genocide, that we’ll be feeling effects like this for another century. In some ways, I suppose it’s changed things forever.
Fortunate son
A lot of times, when I read the news, I realize how lucky I’ve been. Everything’s kind of been stacked in my favour for my whole life. I’m a healthy, straight, reasonably affluent, atheist white male who lives in a prosperous, peaceful country that’s all but devoid of natural disasters. I don’t have to worry about racism, mudslides, discrimination due to religion or sexuality, poverty, sexism, or gunfire.
Does this make me The Man? Am I keeping somebody down? Is my foot in someone’s ass? I hope not.
Be here to feed me, and possibly clean up my vomit
After many aborted attempts, I finally managed to finish Be Here To Love Me (imdb | rotten tomatoes), a documentary about Townes Van Zandt. You’ve probably heard his songs, but didn’t realize it. I’ve noticed his name over the years, in liner notes and during concert chit-chat. I knew he was a great song writer, but I didn’t realize just how…messed up and tortured and drug-addled he was. It’s an interesting profile, whether or not you like his music.
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We have a vet appointment for the boys in a couple of hours. What with it being -612 degrees out there and the eventual dreaded thermometer ass attack, I don’t think they’re gonna much like us.
Ready, set…spaz!
From the Grope and Flail: MySpace a dangerous place for teens, authorities warn. In other news, so are shopping malls, playgrounds, schools, cars and the stretch of sidewalk directly under cranes lifting pianos and/or safes. Best to keep them indoors and away from the windows. Actually, just chain them to the floor. That’s your best bet.
After reading the comments in that Globe story, I’m reminded why my parents belong in some kind of hall of fame.
R.I.P., Al Neri
Richard Bright, dead at 68.
Feed me
By the way, in case you haven’t found it over in the sidebar or the autodiscover, my feed address is http://www.dandickinson.com/wordpress/?feed=rss2.
Celebrity spotting, Canadian style
I saw Clive Owen today on my way home from Whole Foods. Now, I see celebrities all the time around that neighbourhood, but I’m actually a big fan of Clive Owen and there was nobody else around (except his family or whoever it was) so I was a bit tempted to stop and say something.
But, of course, I didn’t.
Thank god for Germany and Italy
It’s an unusual feeling, watching Canada suck at hockey. I guess this is how countries like Norway and Latvia have felt in the past when they played Canada, as if their team really shouldn’t even be in the same tournament as their opponent. Finland flat out dominated Canada today, in a way that Switzerland didn’t yesterday. The Swiss had a hot goalie; the Finns just beat Canada like a rented mule. Canada couldn’t get into the zone, iced the puck, went offside, lost faceoffs, lost footraces, gave pucks away, and so on, and so on. The Finns, meanwhile, were perfect; as much as I despise the trap for being the most boring hockey tactic ever devised, it wins games. And the Canadians couldn’t even string two passes together, let alone break the trap or win a dump-in. They deserved to lose. The only hope they have for a medal — any medal — is the famous Canadian ability to turn it on when it matters, but so far in this tournament they’ve not even been in the same league as a team like Finland.
The place is dead anyway
Since Nellie’s sick, we’ve been laying low this weekend, which means we’ve watched lots of movies & recorded TV. Actually, because of her faux-OCD, Nellie’s holed up on the couch right now with the kleenex, her laptop and some downloaded Veronica Mars. But we’ve also watched:
- XX/XY (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was something we’d never heard of, but IFC has been advertising it like mad. We both like Mark Ruffalo, so I recorded it. It wasn’t bad; a little whiny and self-interested maybe, but I’ve seen worse. I had to laugh at the tagline though: “There’s no room for honesty in a healthy relationship.”
- Power & Terror: Noam Chomsky In Our Times (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was a Japanese documentary that just featured a couple of lectures and interviews with Chomsky shortly after the 9/11 attacks. It was interesting to hear his take on things when feelings were still so raw…he asked for perspective (“The best way to stop the practice of terrorism around the world is to stop participating in it…”) but also contradicted those proclaiming imminent doom by saying that, all in all, the world is a much better place than it was even 50 years ago, and *far* better than it was two centuries ago.
- But I’m A Cheerleader (imdb | rotten tomatoes) started off as a pretty smart and biting satire about sexual mores, religion and politics, but ended up degenerating into a plain old girl-meets-girl love story. Meh.
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I don’t get companies who treat their email address like a fax line. It’s not something you just check once a week, people. It’s a personal communication channel. You know, like a tel-e-phone? Catch up.
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CBGB called us tonight from the pub around the corner and asked us to join. Since we hadn’t gotten off our asses all day, and since Nellie was feeling better, we did. They’d just left a chocolate-making class we gave CB for her birthday, and had loads of their own handiwork with them. We had chocolate-covered strawberries and truffles over pints of beer and nachos. Somehow it came up that they’d never seen Swingers (money, baby!) so we came back here to watch it. Then CB spilled tea on herself and we made her watch Family Business, which scandalized her. So not a good night for her.
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And now: the NBA all-star skills competition. God bless the PVR.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 