Link: The Vision Thing: RSS Revisited.
RSS has reached the point for me personally, that if your site isn’t available via RSS, you’re dead to me. Seriously. There are some exceptions, but by and large, I like the self-contained nature of BlogLines and like to read through my list of 50+ feeds in a single sitting. Less browse, more peruse.
Amen, brother.
This article is a must read. It is a view of America, still framed in a christian context, but using the concepts of inclusion, not exclusion.
It is hard for me to look upon the neo-con, “Right-Wing” Christians (I use the capital letter purposefully — look for the to follow the word shortly) and place them in a christian context. They preach hate, disrespect, disregard and exlusion to their followers. It is as though christianity has been divided again, into those who deeply understand the word of Christ, and those who nominally use the word of Christ to divide a nation in their image.
Evangelical Christianity is a sham. It is a disgusting way for the nation to drive the United States back into the 18th century, where freedom was a measured thing, only available to the “right” people.
Link: Democracy in the Balance, Sojourners Magazine/August 2004.
But America is a broken promise, and we are called to do what
we can to fix it – to get America back on the track. St.
Augustine shows us how: “One loving soul sets another on
fire.” But to move beyond sentimentality, what begins in
love must lead on to justice. We are called to the fight of our
lives.
When Americans ask how our political system differs from theirs, I say that Canadians have an elected dictatorship. They seem aghast to hear the British Parliamentary system described this way, but when the governing party has a clear majority, that’s what it is.
Right now, the minority government does give the other parties some power, but Big Pauly is still the "head of the family".
After reading the statement of claim for the “Hockey Night in Canada” theme (available here), it is clear that it is as much about the history of HNIC itself, as it is about the composition. The constant to-ing and fro-ing (Molson/Molstar, CBC) of ownership of the broadcasts, the growth of product placement marketing, and the need to fill a 500-channel universe with re-broadcasts are all detailed in the claim.
The song is as old as I am; and it is a victim of much of the same changes in the world that the North American mass market has been. I agree that the composer should be compensated fairly for her work. And I agree that the CBC has pushed (and broken) the limits of the licensing agreement as laid out in the claim.
I wish the author well in her fight.
The question that I raise is the need for this fight to be made public. Why? Garnering of public support? If her legal case is strong (as it appears to be), there would be no need to take this fight into the public domain. The courts should be able to hand down justice.
As a reminder to others? I suppose. All firms who assume a license agreement should realize the legal ramifications. There is a cost involved. In this case, there is not a large record company or the RIAA backing her up, but rather Mr. Ciccone and his firm.
So, in the end, the stand I take is that the CBC and Ms. Claman and her representatives should settle this quietly, and not sully the iconic sound that has come to represent a segment of the Canadian life to Canadians. This sound represents a nation unified by television, a nation that could finally see its sports heroes.
And, that unifying force has been drowned out, first by cable, then the decline of the NHL in Canada, and finally, this year, by the lockout that has completely removed the league from the televisions of the world.
And you know what? I would gladly kick in $1.00 a broadcast to watch some of the old grainy games, when Montreal v. Toronto still mattered, and the HNIC theme, the league and the broadcasts were still a national icon on Saturday nights.
As long as Dolores Claman got $0.05 for every $1.00 I spent, of course.
Link: Yahoo! News – Hockey Night in Canada theme composer launches lawsuit against CBC.
Of course, the true Canadian National Anthem is this…Northwest Passage
Stan Rogers
Chorus:
Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea;
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.
Westward from the Davis Strait ’tis there ’twas said to lie
The sea route to the Orient for which so many died;
Seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered, broken bones
And a long-forgotten lonely cairn of stones.1
Three centuries thereafter, I take passage overland
In the footsteps of brave Kelso, where his “sea of flowers” began
Watching cities rise before me, then behind me sink again
This tardiest explorer, driving hard across the plain.
And through the night, behind the wheel, the mileage clicking west
I think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson and the rest
Who cracked the mountain ramparts and did show a path for me
To race the roaring Fraser to the sea.
How then am I so different from the first men through this way?
Like them, I left a settled life, I threw it all away.
To seek a Northwest Passage at the call of many men
To find there but the road back home again.
1 “Not until 1859 did the last search party, led by Leopold McClintock, find
the cairn containing messages confirming Franklin’s death, and skeletons of
some of the last survivors, some of whom had apparently resorted to
cannibalism. According to a note found in the cairn at Point Victory, “Sir
John Franklin died on 11th June 1847″ at a point when only 24 men had thus
far died.”
— The Franklin Expedition: 1845-1859
Link: CNN.com – Scientist:Man in Americas earlier than thought – Nov 17, 2004.
An archaeologist from the University of South Carolina on Wednesday
announced radiocarbon tests that dated the first human settlement in
North America to 50,000 years ago — at least 25,000 years before other
known human sites on the continent.
Wow. Transatlantic Hide Boats…
Where’s Thor Heyerdahl when you need him?
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
– Benjamin Franklin
I.
The 2004 presidential election was lost not by John Kerry over the last several months but by the Democratic Party over the last several decades. Democrats have lost control of all three branches of government for the foreseeable future. We are now a minority party.
II.
When the Senate Democratic leader is defeated while spending $16 million attempting to get the majority of 500,000 votes, the problem is not a lack of funding or effort.
III.
The failure of the Democratic Party to connect with Americas desire for fulfillment is political death.
IV.
Democrats are now history’s spectators, Republicans its actors.
V.
The obsession with denouncing the radical conservative project as a “lie” has become a useful substitute for vision.
VI.
Renovating Democratic politics is not a question of moving to the right or talking more about religion. It is about creating a framework that once again communicates to the core needs of the American people.
VII.
America is not now, and never was, simply “the economy, stupid.” What the American people want is a deeper sense of personal meaning, a national mission, and passion in times of fear.
VIII.
Returning the Democratic Party to majority status will require a political realignment no less sweeping than that which was accomplished by conservatives over the last 40 years.
IX.
Only the breath of a serious and new moral-intellectual vision will be sufficient to resuscitate the Democratic Party.
X.
Democratic candidates will continue to lose as long as they treat Americans as rational actors who vote their “self-interest” after weighing competing offers for health care, jobs, and security.
XI.
Conservatives have spent the last 40 years getting clear about the values they represent. They have even developed a “family values” brand to represent a framework that coheres traditional prejudices around prayer in school, gun rights, restricting abortion, and restricting gay rights.
XII.
By contrast, liberal or ‘progressive’ groups and Democrats have spent the same period of time defining themselves against conservative values, even ‘morality’ in general.
XIII.
If resources continue to flow to the same leaders who have failed to construct a new vision and have thus left the Democratic Party in ruins then we can expect more of the same. And worse.
XIV.
Those who resist the process to create a new vision will be left behind.
XV.
Candidates who intend to win should no longer hire consultants who repeatedly lose. Those who counsel caution when dealing with the indifferent, the disaffected, and the undecided do not understand American history. Consultants who advise their clients against offering a clear and compelling vision in fear that it will be attacked should find themselves without a home in the Democratic Party. The sooner they retire, the better.
XVI.
Unconnected at a values level, the Democratic Party’s laundry list of policy proposals is a confusing and alienating hodgepodge of special interests bound together by a vague sense that ‘we’re all on the same side.’ Such a conflation demands no critical self-examination of the interest groups whose turf, and very identities, are treated as inviolable by Party chieftains.
XVII.
The progressive vision must be a direct challenge to fundamentalism in all of its forms: political, religious and economic. It must match fundamentalism’s power without replicating its authoritarianism. It must appeal to the values of liberty, equality, community, justice, unconditional love, shared prosperity, and ecological restoration, among many others.
XVIII.
Democrats serious about returning to majority status must:
XIX.
In despair and defeat lie the seeds of triumph and victory. In that loss lies the opportunity to define a new progressive politics for the new century.
Link: Suzuki on anti-Americanism.
Gotta like the man’s attitude…and opinion. David Suzuki and I have not see eye-to-eye on everything (we had a minor spat in the letters section of th Vancouver Sun in 1998 over urban development), but I think he nails this one.
His summary quote:
Pundits who insist that critics of President Bush are anti-American are really saying that if 52 per cent of Americans believe anything then thats what America stands for and everyone else has to respect that. This is a morally relativistic viewpoint that doesnt even withstand the most basic of scrutiny and Bush administration critics should not be bullied into believing it does.
The ZenWife found this in the Best of Craigs List. I post it here, verbatim. The metaphor is fantastic.
The Country is bound for one LONG walk of shame. America, the once beautiful, is slowly making its way back to its apartment, still wearing last night’s clothes. The country has sex hair, and can taste its own breath.
Yes, there’s nothing like an election to make you feel cheap and used, and you just KNOW that W, much like the deranged Frat boy that he is, is high-fiving his buddies, retelling the story of how he fucked the country so hard, and damned if he doesn’t think that he could probably goad her into giving it up again, only next time he’ll get her so drunk and confused he’ll be able to take her in the ass.
We, the few, the proud, the 48%, sit here scratching our heads, considering our country for the naive sorority sister that it is. America, you knew better. You’ve seen him do this before. You’ve been this girl before. And you know he’s fucking Iraq right now. Doesn’t that make you feel cheap? To Give yourself up this smug idiot when you know the whole time that he’s sticking his dick where it OBVIOUSLY doesn’t belong. Do you really think what you did was safe? I mean, we know outright that you didn’t protect yourself last night.
But We have to bear in mind that last night was not a one shot job. He didn’t slip the country a good old fashioned dose of ruhypnol and let her fall unknowingly into his arms. This time around there was no rape, no theft. No my friends, we’ve been watching this for months. Convincing her that he had her best interests in mind. Convincing her naive fly-over states that they might be the next ones to be targeted by terrorists (yeah Jim-Bob, because its your fucking Walmart that Osama Bin Laden wants to blow sky high, because he “Hates Your Freedom”. Right. And on that “Hating Democracy and Freedom” point, why have none of the neutral nations been attacked? just asking. but back to extended metaphor).
You should have listened to New York America. We were the ones hit hardest by 9/11. And we could have told you, in fact DID tell you all night last night as you were eyeing him across the room not to do it, that he was a prick and a liar, and would most likely just steal from your purse to buy some coke, fuck you and leave you worse off than you already were. But like a woman with an abusive husband, America fell for the lies, fell for the promises that things are going to get better, that he only abuses us because he really loves us (and God forbid, that Jesus told him to do it). America fell for the bullshit.
And now, she’s on the way home. Sore, tired, and with considerably less self respect than she had yesterday.
I don’t know what the future holds. but after a night like last night spent with a dirty prick like Him, you have no idea what manner of political genital warts you may have contracted, no idea what might be lying latent just waiting to pop up and threaten your safety, your way of life, your well being. I mean, there are plenty of other countries out there to start a war with! and I’m willing to bet that none of those we choose will be home to Osama Bin Laden (who was that again? oh yeah, the guy we were supposed to find 4 years ago. But again, I digress.)
So, my fellow Democrats, we weep. Let’s be big about it though. It’s over. Lets get back to watching him destroy the country, the economy, our status in the world, our Constitutional rights. Because in 4 years (Provided we’re all still here) we can look all of our fellow Americans who just HAPPENED to have voted for him (because, like our slutty friends who take one night stands with abusive men, we can always forgive our fellow americans) in the face and say “Hey, I Told You So”. Cold comfort, but the asshole in me sees it as the best I can hope for right now.
And Shame on You America. You let yourself be used. Get your ass home, take a shower, and put on the hap-hap-happiest fucking face you can. Cause Tomorrow you have to face the world, and they ALL know what you did last night.
Yesterday was November 11th. Where I am from (Canada), this is Rememberance Day. In the US (where they already have Memorial Day created to celebrate their orgy of destruction, the War between the States / Civil War), the same day is known as Veteran’s Day.
One is a day of rememberance for the dead. One is a day to honour those who returned.
In some respects, this is the difference between Canada and the United States. In Canada, there is a reverance for those who had given their all for the community as a whole. That is why Tommy Douglas leads in balloting for the Greatest Canadian (ahead of Terry Fox and Frederick Banting).
In the US, being successful and achieving your objectives, no matter what the cost are revered. In other words, losing your life fighting the enemy is failure; fighting the enemy and coming home alive is success.
Remember the sacrifice, or celebrate the survivors? Which philosophy is yours?