Ten months ago, I noted that Omar Khadr’s detention at Guantanamo seemed to run very much afoul of the UN’s Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which came into force about five months before Khadr’s alleged offences occurred and which both the United States and Canada have ratified. That argument forms part of Amnesty International’s latest intervention on Khadr’s behalf.
I have made fun of NDP defence critic Dawn Black before, and will again in the future if she rises in the House and says something like, “When I became defence critic X months ago, I did not know a lot about military affairs.” But amidst all the usual frothing mouths, her response to reporters on Stephen Harper’s latest “soft on terrorists” outburst was pitch-perfect:
It reduces the debate in the House of Commons to a level that’s just simply not acceptable. The issue is the safety of the men and women in the Canadian Forces. The issue is a shoddy agreement that was signed under a Liberal administration on prisoner detainee transfers. The issue is that four detainees that Canadians took no one know where they are now. No one knows what happened. Have they been disappeared? Have they been tortured? Are they dead? Or are they now, having paid a bribe, are they now putting IEDs out on the highway where Canadian Forces go back and forth on? Those are the issues. And those are the issues that Mr. O’Connor has failed miserably to address in a proper manner. Okay? Thanks.
It hits all the right notes, gets the requisite partisan shot in, and adds an interesting little twist that hasn’t gotten that much play. All that, somehow, with no screeching.
I hope so, anyway. Having been “forced” to follow the Conrad Black-related goings-on, I now find myself unexpectedly enthralled. I’m particularly interested to see where, if anywhere, this little outburst from Toronto Life’s Douglas Bell might take us:
Amiel, plagued by demons of her own making, made a series of inexcusably toxic remarks (the word “vermin” redolent of Nazi lexicon) that would have, had the tables been turned, brought the wrath of a thousand writs. So, might we make a modest proposal: that the “slut” in question—an unnamed [actually very widely named –ed.] CBC TV producer—find herself a libel lawyer and get cracking on an action of her own. After all, turnabout is fair play.
The first n-bomb - and we hadn’t even heard the opening arguments! Hopefully this is a sign of more delicious hyperbole to come, and not a sign of the rhetoric peaking too early.
Further to this post, here’s one of the better songs from the Apples in Stereo’s boffo new LP.
Plus it’s apparently Elijah Wood’s directorial debut! Finally!
In other news, the new Wilco record (or the leaked version thereof, anyway) is some kind of terrific. Jeff Tweedy’s a fine guitar player, but adding Nels Cline to the lineup is going to go down as one of the better moves in rock history, methinks.
YouTube provides two previews from Lollapalooza 2006 in Chicago: “Walken,” and “What Light,” both among the finer songs Jeff Tweedy’s ever written.
The first Neil Young “archives” release - a 1970 Crazy Horse show - didn’t do all that much for me. But I can’t stop listening to the second one, a 1971 solo gig at Massey Hall in Toronto. Young’s voice is what it is, but it isn’t often considered among rock and roll’s greatest. Here it’s umblemished, powerful - even pleasant. The recording is flawless, the setlist dynamite. You hear the warm recognition for “Tell Me Why,” and then you hear “Old Man” introduced as a new song, and you suddenly realize the guy was only 25 years old. Aside from the inane inter-song banter (”I live on a ranch now. Lucky me.”), this is dynamite stuff.
If you’ve ever wondered why so few men go into teaching these days, consider the following:
Supt. Roy Pilkington, who runs 31 Division, said it’s not uncommon for men in positions of authority to victimize young females, but added: “It’s very rare – I’ve been a police officer for some 34 years – and this is the first case I can recall in Toronto … where we’ve had this reverse situation.”
Looks like Diane Finley is going to allow Kevin Yourdkhani, the 9-year-old Canadian citizen in US immigration custody in Texas, and his parents to come to Canada - at least temporarily, until a decision on their status can be reached. It’s a no-brainer, no-lose decision, but then governments have been known to avoid such courses of action in the past. Well done to all involved, says I.
Michael Coren is rarey worth going after, but Saturday’s effort is quite remarkable. Its premise is that if you’re a “lefty” you can “insult at will,” whereas someone like Ann Coulter (whom Coren condemns) is universally excoriated when she goes and calls John Edwards a faggot.
The lefties in question? They include the writers of South Park, after which an entire Republican movement is named, along with noted libertarians Denis Leary and Penn Jillette.
The Apples in Stereo are back from their “crap” period, I am happy to declare. And though this isn’t the best song on the excellent new album by a longshot, it’s the only one I can find on YouTube and I have little else to post about right now. So here’s “Same Old Drag”:
I really am a sucker for that sort of treacle.
It truly seems bizarre, but in today’s NHL you get a two-minute penalty for hooking or tripping, but no penalty for driving a hard plastic shoulder pad into the noggin of an opponent, knocking him cold.
It sure does. Maybe the NHL should get rid of those hard plastic shoulder pads, and make players do up their helmets properly, and penalize late hits causing injury with more than a three-game suspension. And then, if star players are still being put out of action for an unacceptable period of time — then maybe they should fundamentally alter the rules of the game and ban head hits.
By the same token, no sane person would enlarge the size of the NHL net until they tried reducing goaltender equipment to, say, 160% of its 1975 size, down from its current 950%. Yet the NHL’s GMs have discussed it, and people like Cox have cheered them on.
How about this? Go after the things that have actually changed since the NHL’s glory years, whenever those were — shoulder pads, goalie equipment — or that aren’t being implemented properly — helmets — before you alter the game’s DNA.