An Norwegian man picked up for drunk driving had a blood-alcohol level of 2.59. (The legal limit iheareabouts is 0.8 or 1.0, but in Norway merely 0.2.) "A level of 2.0," note the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, "is reckoned to be when signs of alcohol poisoning arise, and the subject exhibits a total loss of control."
It should have been an open-and-shut case, especially since the guy confessed to driving drunk. But he told a newspaper: "I was both drunk and hung over when I was questioned. I signed a confession to get out of an uncomfortable situation. Later I withdrew the confession." A court threw out the charges, agreeing with the man that his confession to drunk driving was invalid because he was too drunk to make it.
According to this study, the increasing prominence of the "gay lifestyle" and recent judicial victories in the states may have cause a sharp drop in support for that lifestyle. Almost half of Americans think consensual, adult gay sex should be illegal. This is a more stringent position than that taken by most political commentators, and I suspect by both Dexter and Clio; most of us who see it as undesirable on religious or ethical grounds would nonetheless not expect it to be criminalized any more than adultery ought to be. In Canada, as with most issues, the safe bet is that more Canadians will support "gay rights" than in the US. Nonetheless, it seems premature to assume broad support for legalized privileges for gay couples, however they are defined. If almost half of Americans would criminalize sexual activity in such a relationship, how small is the number who would elevate that relationship to the status of marriage, or something very close?
A few optimists have expressed their hope that the more visible and noisy gay activists become, and the more the public becomes aware of the rather significant deviations between gay relationships and heterosexual unions, the less support there will be for extending the trappings and substance of marriage to them. I haven't shared this optimism, but this looks like a move in the right direction.
For those of you who have criticized the USA for not signing on to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, consider the action taken yesterday by the Athens Bar Association. This gaggle of Greek lawyers has filed charges at the ICC against Tony Blair as a war criminal.
Basing their case on press clippings and tv news accounts, these keen legal minds have laid 22 charges against Blair and some cabinet colleagues for "crimes against humanity."
The London Telegraph reports Stephen Jakobi, the president of Fair Trials Abroad, saying that the Athens Bar was playing into the hands of those who wished to stop the ICC gaining credibility before it had prosecuted its first case.
"People with a political axe to grind can do great damage to this institution. It reminds me of the cases in the Belgian courts against [President George W] Bush and [the Israeli prime minister, Ariel] Sharon where every bunch of crazies tried to take advantage," he said.
Ironically Prime Minister Blair's government supported the creation the ICC, despite American claims that it would be used to harrass Western political leaders.
This is the single best explanation I have found of the American approach to the war agains Islamic terrorism. Note that Canadian opposition to the war is described as "a major unpleasant surprise."
The thugs currently smashing their way through Montreal differ only in the magnitude of their violence and stupidity from Islamofascists, not in quality. The "protesters" are generally well off students or unemployed and living on their parents' generosity, else they wouldn't be able to afford the time and airfare to hop around the world breaking windows and climbing fences. Rather than take advantage of the many, many options open to them to change the things with which they take issue -- run for office, go to law school, become a journalist and write pungent editorials and books -- they resort instead to the most base level of behaviour, and one that is fairly unconnected to anything they care about. Rather than going after the Gap and McDonalds (where vandalism costs the mother company very little but costs the minimum wage employees a great deal, as outlets are closed down temporarily or permanently) why don't they storm the Liberal Party HQ, or the offices of TotalFinaElf, both of which have far more to do with poverty and injustice here and abroad?
Like their homicide bombing brethren, though, they act not from an educated, rational or moral position but from blind rage at their own incompetence. The reality is that these children of privilege, living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, are unable to succeed on its terms, and after a few cursory attempts they soon decide that it's much more fun to break things and run around in mobs than it is to finish that graduate degree in conflict resolution, labour studies or gender studies, get a job, and deal with reality.
Iran and Canada are currently involved in a diplomatic tiff and are swapping accusations of murdering the other's citizens. How those deaths occurred offer an interesting contrast in political cultures.
In Iran a Canadian photographer was arrested by police for recording a protest and beaten to death by police in jail. In Canada an Iranian teenager was shot while attacking a policeman with a machete.
In Iran the hardliner who ordered the arrest and orchestrated a cover-up is now in charge of the investigation. In Canada the policeman is suspended.
Canada may no longer lead the UN list of best countries to live in (we're #8, trailing, among others, Belgium and the USA) but at least in this country we have to do more than photograph a demonstration to be killed by the authorities.
Yup, you read that right. Who knew our cops were murdering young Iranians?
Julia Gorin has an interesting theory: the French are basically savages.
"France has a natural affinity for any and all of the globe's uncivilized elements. The more primitive, the better to define one's own deviancy down -- a deviancy that once prompted Mark Twain to observe, 'In certain public indecencies the difference between a dog & a Frenchman is not perceptible.' Which would explain why dogs are allowed in restaurants in France."
In that same speech, Dick Gephardt promised his listeners that if he were president he would "never settle for a quick psychic victory." I presume that he is not referring to employing spiritualists or mediums in his military but rather to a "Pyrrhic victory". You will recall (better than Mr Gephardt) Plutarch's history of the King of Epirus who was called in by his fellow Greeks to battle Roman forces. Pyrrhus beat the Romans but his army suffered such heavy casualties that he was said to have remarked "One more such victory and we are lost."
Presidential aspirant Dick Gephardt on the situation in Iraq: "This looming quagmire is on our shoulders alone."
In a staggering piece of decent behaviour French diplomats went out of their way on July 14 to show their disapproval of Caribbean dictator Fidel Castro. By inviting Cuban dissidents to a Bastille Day reception the French ambassador was showing his government's disapproval of the recent crackdown on peaceful opponents of the Comunist regime that has ruled Cuba since 1959. This seems to have driven the Fidelistas into a teeth-grinding rage.
Naturally such an act of civility and support for democracy did not originate with the fromage-munchers. It appears to have been the brainchild of the British embassy in Havana. Well done chaps and a rare tip of Dexter's cap to the froggies.
If you watched only the CBC and the major American networks you might get the impression that the US-British-Australian-Polish liberation of Iraq was turning into a disaster. The scattered resistance from either Baathist hold-outs or (if you believe their press release) al-Qaida assassins and the weariness of American tropps are played up while the successes of the war and its aftermath are ignored.
Consider then this poll of Iraqis undertaken by the British television Channel 4 and the Spectator magazine. It found only 13% of those questioned wanted the Americans to leave immediately and a majority wanted them to stay at least a year. A majority of them agreed that the war on Sadam was right and most are hopeful that thing will be better in a year. They did say that things were less safe on the streets than under Saddam and they think that the war was fought for Iraqi oil and to protect Israel but more feel more friendly to the Americans now than tthey used than those who said they were more hostile.
By almost three-to-one, Baghdadians expect life in one year's time to be better (43 per cent) rather than worse (16 per cent) in one year's time than it was before the war. Looking five years ahead, optimists outnumber pessimists by five to one (54-11 per cent). By then, most people hope that the occupation will be over; but, despite the criticisms, fears and acute day-to-day problems, only 13 per cent want the Americans and British troops to leave immediately. As many as 76 per cent want them to stay for the time being – with a majority, 56 per cent, wanting them to remain for at least 12 months.
Shades of Dan Quayle's disaster at a spelling bee. Democratic presidential aspirant Bob Graham of Florida had this to say about George Bush's assessment of Iraq's nuclear threat: "I would not use the three-letter word. I would use the five-letter word: deceit."
All sorts of interesting things will be happening in this coming week. In Britain the General Synod of the Anglican church will be meeting and the prospect of gay bishops will be on the agenda. Those supporting the notion of homosexuals in positions of leadership in the Anglican Comunion were dismayed recently to sense opposition coming from Rowan Williams, the new Archbishop of Canterbury. He had been reckoned to be a liberal on the issue but when he forced the withdrawal of an openly gay priest as Bishop of Reading many began to suspect him of being a "closet evangelical". The Archbishop will be addressing the controversy in a speech on Monday and all sides will be listening carefully to see which way the archepiscopal wind is blowing.
On Wednesday the Assembly of First Nations will be voting on a National Chief. Candidates are the incumbent Matthew Coon Come, self-styled "bad cop", a former National Chief Phil Fontaine, known for his connections to the Liberal Party, and Roberta Jamieson, a Mohawk chief who served 10 years as Ontario Ombudsman. Of the three. only Ms Jamieson is a holder of the Order of Canada. It is not expected that the choice of leader will make an ounce of difference to the lives of Canadian aboriginals but relations with the government may be cozier if Mr Fontaine is elected.
In Baghdad the newly-appointed Iraqi Council is meeting for the first time. Representatives of Kurds, ethnic Turks, Shiites, Sunnis and Christians announced that henceforth April 9th would be a national holiday to mark the liberation of Iraq by the forces of the American-led coalition. "Long live Bush!" shouted one participant. (Cries of "Long life to Chretien!" were notably absent.)
Shocking news out of France today. A strike by mimes, jugglers and other show-biz folk has paralyzed the summer arts festival in Aix-en-Provence. Moving their bodies in gestures meant to convey "the show will not go on!" members of the performers' union have demanded more money during periods of unemployment or they will not return to the stage. This heartless action has struck at the vitals of culture-crazy France and it is expected that at the very least the government will collapse and German troops will be marching through the streets of Paris by week's end.
In related news, the strike by Canadian poets is entering its sixteenth year with no resolution in sight. Spokesmen for the Almagamated Union of Rhymers, Lyricists and Bards have vowed to step up job inaction. Not only will our nation be deprived of its customary quotas of sonnets, epics and free-verse maunderings about unrequited love, but the country's store of sestets, dithyrambs and limericks may also be threatened.
Those looking for the "root causes" of Islamic terrorism imply that there is something reasonable that the West could do to avoid making some people into bombers and assassins. If only we were less aggressive ... if we understood their culture more sensitively ... if we withdrew non-Muslims from Saudi Arabia ... if we were more even-handed with Israel and Palestine ... if we were less prosperous (Jean Chretien's theory), etc., etc.
Well, the United States and Canada went to war twice in the 1990s to protect Muslims from Christian aggressors (Bosnia and Kossovo) but 9/11 didn't seem to reflect any deep well of Islamic gratitude.
The United States announced it was pulling its bases from Saudi Arabia but terror bombers murdered American civilians there anyway.
The United States pressured Israel into making concessions for the "road-map to peace" but the hate-filled Islamic press continues to spew anti-American fables. Try this Saudi editorial that calls Jerry Falwell a terrorist or this Iranian one that says President Bush will outdo Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini or this Lebanese article expressing joy at the destruction of the space-shuttle Columbia. My particular favourite is an Egyptian editorial asserts that Condoleeza Rice has 'damaged the world of the blacks,' and 'is suited only to work at a nightclub or to make her bed in the heart of the jungles'
Russia and Pakistan both opposed American intervention in Iraq but Islamic terrorists attacked each country last week anyway, bravely choosing to blow up a rock concert and a mosque.
And in a totally unrelated atrocity, a Minnesota woman has been charged with murder and attempted murder for allegedly throwing her twin infants into the Mississippi. The names of these tots: Sincere Understanding Allah and Supreme Knowledge Allah.
Now that Canada is the third country in the world to decide that marriage can be just as legitimate between two men, and two women, and no doubt two more articulate barnyard animals, it is tempting to hang our collective head in shame, apply for the Green Card lottery or just drink maple syrup straight out of the bottle until it all goes away. This writer, though, thinks that the evil heterosexist imperialism of our society will not so easily be legislated away. This is a good point. If very few gay couples choose to "get married", and if those who do comport themselves with the monogamy and dignity characteristic of their demographic, it will never become a mainstream issue.
Also worth reading in the National Post online today is this essay by Theodore Dalrymple. If Dalrymple becomes a regular contributor it will balance out a small part of the harm done to the NP by the departure of David Frum and Mark Steyn (soon to be followed by Christie Blatchford). If Canada's two leading conservative journalists aren't currently published in Canada, we're in a sorry state indeed.
A number of voices have been raised recently in favour of an American invasion of Liberia. Apparently there is some sort of mad dictator in charge there who has been mistreating his people and fomenting chaos in the region.
I certainly hope the United States has learned its lesson in Iraq and ignores these pleas. I know Canada will take a firm stand and repeat our principled opposition to American actions against Saddam Hussein. After all such an invasion would be a gross violation of a nation's sovereignty and United Nations approval of such an incursion is lacking. Moreover, civilian casualties would be inevitable and the humanitarian consequences would be a disaster. Those of us who care about the war on terror also see this proposal as a distraction from tracking down and bringing to justice the perpetrators of 9/11.
I propose, instead, a least a decade of thumb-twiddling and debate in the Security Council and General Assembly before the civilized world deals with this problem, which is, after all, an issue for the Liberian people to solve themselves. I also call upon the peace-loving opponents of violence, particularly veteran Canadian human shields, to go to Monrovia and position themselves between the forces of the cannibal Charles Taylor and the murderous rebels. If there are any left after a week they can repeat their mission should the blood-thirsty forces of George W. Bush seek to unjustly impose American hegemony on yet another plucky independent country.
My position will doubtless be echoed this weekend by marchers across North America and Europe who are, as I write, massing in their millions to demonstrate that The People United Can Never Be Defeated. Peace, brothers and sisters, peace.
Canada's most famous nudist weighs in on the horrible childhood mortality rates in much of the Third World. The six countries responsible for a half of child deaths are Nigeria, Ethiopia, the Congo, China, India and Pakistan. The remedy, Suzuki feels sure, is more assistance from the industrial world, and universal free medicare.
In fact the problem in these countries is more cultural than economic or medical. The first three all receive very generous funding from the USA, UN, EU and others; much of it ends up buying colour coordinated fleets of cars for the generals-turned-politicians who run the show. These three countries also share an inordinate fondness for civil war, frequent coups, and intertribal warfare, none of which tend to benefit children's health. Not only does violence kill many of these children, but the constant fighting disrupts still further the flow of Western-funded water, food and drugs that would prevent many deaths.
The Asian three of the above countries share different problems. In neither India nor China is actual scarcity an issue, and Pakistan is no worse off than many countries that manage much better. Surely an issue here, upon which Suzuki never touches, is the propensity for killing unwanted children, especially girls. In China especially, where the disparity between men and women is starting to complicate marriage patterns, this trend must surely influence overall childhood mortality rates.
Of course, if the statistics were amended to include deaths per 1000 children between conception and age 5, North America would be at the head of the pack. In some states in the USA one in four pregnancies is aborted.
Trans-Canada Highway
Margaret Atwood
Sheila Copps
Seal-flipper pie
Svend Robinson
Harold Ballard
Don Cherry
Fuddle Duddle
Frank Magazine
Robert Enright
Michael Enright
Brian Mulroney
Things Liberals promise but don't deliver (abolition of GST)
Things Liberals promise and do deliver (no helicopters for military)
Things Liberals never promised but we get anyway (decriminalization of marijuana, gay marriage)
Mosquitoes
No NHL hockey in Winnipeg, Hamilton or Quebec City
Charter of Rights and Freedoms
David Suzuki
Michelle Landsberg
Stephen Lewis (and his father and his son and his daughter-in-law)
Sunera Thobani
Bill Phipps
Weaseling out of Iraqi liberation 2003
Vancouver Grizzlies
GST
FLQ
Alan Eagleson
Matthew Coon Come
Donovan Bailey
Air Canada
Oka
John Ralston Saul
Lucien Bouchard
Trying to find a clerk in a Canadian Tire store
Louis Riel (guilty, guilty, guilty!)
Justin Trudeau (and his father and mother)
kd lang
Mike Meyers
Pamela Anderson
Porky's (and its sequels)
Doris Anderson
General Maurice Baril
Sea King Helicopters
British submarines
Professionalization of curling
Toronto Star
Toronto
Wayne and Shuster
Poutine
aurora borealis
Ian and Sylvia
Montreal Canadiens 1956-60, 1971 and 1976-80
Stompin' Tom Connors, especially "The Hockey Song"
Ferguson Jenkins
Northern Dancer
Saskatoon berry pie
John Wing
Guy Vanderhaeghe
Avro Arrow
Larry Walker
Stan Rogers, especially "Mary Ellen Carter", "Barret's Privateers" and "Northwest Passage"
Quebec City 1759
Queenston Heights 1812
Chateauguay 1813
Nile Expedition 1884
Batoche 1885
Leliefontein 1900
Vimy Ridge 1917
Ortona 1943
Kapyong 1951
Medak Pocket 1993
Afghanistan 2002
Pauline Johnson
Gordon Lightfoot's "Canadian Railroad Trilogy"
Billy Bishop, V.C.
Edmonton Grads
Salt and vinegar potato chips
William Shatner, pre-toupee
Ben Johnson, pre-urine sample
CFL
SCTV
NATO
Expo '67
John Candy
Al Purdy
Bernard Callebaut chocolates
Whitby Dunlops
Trail Smoke-eaters
Melville Millionaires
Eugene Levy
Perogies and cabbage rolls
Banting and Best
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Prairie populist movements: CCF, Reform Party, Social Credit, Wheat Pool, credit unions
Tommy Prince
Newfoundland mumming
Inuit prints
Peter Gzowski
Max Ferguson
The Friendly Giant
Mr Dress-Up
Chief Dan George
Leslie Nielsen
Those near and dear to me have remarked on my lack of enthusiasm for the celebration of what we are told to refer to as “Canada Day”. They say to me: “Dexter, you are [and here we paraphrase] a sophisticated man of the world. You have visited many countries around the globe, sampled their foods, eyed their women, been followed by their secret police. You have strolled through quaint native bazaars as well as the topless concrete canyons of the postmodern metropolis; you have had your pockets picked by deft-fingered low-lifes of every race and creed; you have meditated in woodland glades, Gothic cathedrals and in heathen shrines. You have seen the malodorous Gaul on his home ground, the wily Pathan, the anal Teuton, the Zulu, the Hindoo and the Jain. Surely you, of all people, know that there is no place on this cloud-capped globe that is as wonderful as Canada.” To which I reply, “There is something in what you say, and yet, and yet....”
There is much to be celebrate in being a Canadian by birth or choice. The biggest thing is simply one’s good fortune to be part of a prosperous industrial economy adjacent to the United States, the planet’s most efficient wealth creator. Their prosperity spills across our borders and their military might allows us to safeguard our independence on the cheap. We can live comfortable lives in relatively safe surroundings without having to do too much work. Our institutions are largely free of the kind of corruption that plagues Latin America, Africa and much of Asia. Our army stays out of politics and our police forces usually obey their municipal employers. Health care is mediocre but widely available. Education is sub-mediocre but widely available. And yet, and yet...
Few would argue that our national political life is profoundly dysfunctional. It is a one-party regime that stays in power by dispensing public money to areas of greatest Liberal need. The entire upper chamber of our federal legislature is nominated by one man as are the increasingly-powerful members of the Supreme Court, the heads of quasi-governmental organizations, and postings in the foreign service.
Any power that does not emanate from the Prime Minister’s Office is shared by a small cadre of like-minded, well-educated and well-meaning men and women in the media and civil service who have no allegiance to anything but their own predispositions. No feat of social engineering is beyond them. They are willing to ignore history, human nature and common sense if only the abstract ideals of the Enlightenment and Trudeau’s Just Society can be made flesh. Their motto is that erected above the gate of a camp in the Soviet Gulag: “With an Iron Fist We Will Lead Humanity Into Happiness.”
The administrative class that feeds on public money just grows and grows. We have more health-care managers than doctors; more curriculum consultants than teachers; more lawyers than engineers; more equity and diversity officers than professors. Our umbrage industry leads the world -- Canada has thousands of articulate spokespeople defending the rights of seals, sexual adventurers, trees, spotted owls, and people who are made uneasy by being wished Merry Christmas. Daily there are fewer things we can say out loud; daily there are more things about which we can have only one opinion.
But what the heck? We’re lucky to live here and those of us who are middle-aged might well avoid the day of reckoning that comes to every society that is unwilling to defend itself and lets power accumulate in the hands of the short-sighted and greedy. Gather ye maple buds while ye may. Two cheers for Canada and a Happy Domnion Day to everyone.