Snow Ride Vol II - The Crash
A closer look at my attempt to clear the snow covered log on a trail called Mullet.
That’s pure fun!
January 30, 2008
January 29, 2008
Snow Ride Vol I - My first video
I’ve been going on some snow rides with my buddies the past few weekends. We’ve had some video camera’s along and captured some footage. Here is my first attempt at editing a short video with iMovie on my MacBook.
This also happens to be the first thing I’ve uploaded to YouTube. Obviously I’m a novice, as I can’t seem to set a still for my nice new video. Fortunately YouTube has set a default image, making that patently obvious to everyone. Nevertheless, I can now check off two more of those “must do before you die” pop-culture geek things!
Update: I see the still image I selected for the video is there now…nice.
January 25, 2008
Throwing An Egg Against A Rock
Many conflicts start from miscalculation. The whole idea of deterrence during the Cold War was to make miscalculation difficult by maintaining an unambiguously strong position. Writing about the recent victory of the Kuomintang in Taiwan, Wretchard comments on China’s hypothetical plans to take the island by force.
Considering the rhetoric emanating from front-running US Presidential candidates, throwing an egg against a rock has a greater chance of success than it might seem. It’s apparently the judgment of Chinese planners, and who knows how many other powers in the world, that many esteemed American leaders would surrender at the drop of a hat. That may not be true, but that’s how foreign military planners, listening to their rhetoric, understand the words coming out of their mouths. Otherwise, no soap. From a military point of view, a surprise attack on US facilities within the “Dragon’s Lair” would have little probability of eventual success.
[…]
It’s Washington politics that gives aggressors hope; paradoxically it’s the desire for peace at all costs — at any price — that invites the reckless to roll the dice.
The US Presidential candidates should remind the American populace that the default condition of the world is war; famine, chaos and conflict. When it comes to foreign policy, maintaining an unambiguously strong position is the best approach.
January 19, 2008
What do the candidates say about Ezra Levant?
I would like to hear the US Presidential candidates comment on the case of Canadian Ezra Levant. They should each answer the following question:
“Isn’t it a threat to free speech when a publisher can be summoned before a government committee for a 90-minute interrogation about his political or religious beliefs simply because those beliefs offend someone?”
Background. Two years ago Ezra Levant, the former publisher of the Western Standard in Canada, decided to publish a set of cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad. These were the now infamous Danish caricatures of the founder of Islam that implied a connection between Muslim fanaticism and terrorist violence. Subsequently, Muslims have filed complaints against Levant with the Alberta Human Rights Commission.
On January 11, 2008 Ezra Levant finally appeared before the Alberta “human rights officer” for questioning. Journalists were not allowed, but the proceedings were videotaped. The video is posted on YouTube and worth watching.
From his opening statement:
“I am here at this government interrogation under protest. It is my position that the government has no legal or moral authority to interrogate me or anyone else for publishing these words and pictures. That is a violation of my ancient and inalienable freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and in this case, religious freedom and the separation of mosque and state. It is especially perverted that a bureaucracy calling itself the Alberta human rights commission would be the government agency violating my human rights. So I will now call those bureaucrats “the commission” or “the hrc”, since to call the commission a “human rights commission” is to destroy the meaning of those words. I believe that this commission has no proper authority over me. The commission was meant as a low-level, quasi-judicial body to arbitrate squabbles about housing, employment and other matters, where a complainant felt that their race or sex was the reason they were discriminated against. The commission was meant to deal with deeds, not words or ideas. Now the commission, which is funded by a secular government, from the pockets of taxpayers of all backgrounds, is taking it upon itself to be an enforcer of the views of radical Islam. So much for the separation of mosque and state.”
