Barrel Strength

A delicious little satire (at least I hope it is satire) from Gerard Baker of the London Times.

July 25, 2008
He ventured forth to bring light to the world
The anointed one’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a miracle in action - and a blessing to all his faithful followers
Gerard Baker
And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.
The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

Read the rest…

The recent reports here and here have touted her as a Vice Presidential candidate for McCain.  Your correspondent is not troubled by her corporate governance, which seem to trouble others, but rather by her more fundamental beliefs which are addressed here.  Last thing we need is someone to go wobbly during this critical juncture.

The widely anticipated First Coming of Obama in secular Europe looks set to even exceed the hype that preceded the event.  A German magazine is reporting that “Those who want to hear Obama live have been told to start arriving three hours earlier. Berlin authorities say that as many as a million people could attend. Four TV stations are broadcasting the entire speech, and the rest are scrambling to secure prime locations at the site.”

Why is the that a million people of the super-state of EU, which exceeds US in terms of PPP-adjusted GDP, are so eager to listen to a person, who will have less of an impact on their lives than their own politicians and who does not have the moral ascendancy like Nelson Mandela or Dailai Lama?  What is it that is so newsworthy about his words that four TV station will brodcast the entire speech?  What is it that they are yearning for?  Is there a linkage between this event and the mass hysteria that accompanied Diana’s funeral when the foremerly stoic Brits were heard to say that Diana’s death had affected them “more than the deaths of people in my own family?

To be continued…

Update: Looks like the crowd estimates were another Obama hype.  First reports state: “Despite talk in the German media that the speech today would draw a crowd of up to one million, it was more like tens of thousands - a massive crowd, regardless - that came to hear the presumptive Democratic nominee. A local band warmed the crowd up for over an hour before the much anticipated speech.”

Another source states: The reggae musician Patrice kicked things off, followed by the rock band Reamonn.

For comparison:

John F. Kennedy

Date: 1963
Crowd Size: 120,000

Ronald Reagan

Date: 1987
Crowd Size: 20,000

Evangelism is essentially a form of sales. Call that tatty but prove me wrong. And in that vein, it is truly sad to see the Anglican Communion not even in contention for the steak knives in our current Christian “Glengarry Glen Ross”.

Unlike Pope Benedict XVI, Dr. Rowan Williams and his hapless colleagues fail to grasp a fundamental marketing principle, brand consistency. Case in point: the lovely and intelligent former suffragan Bishop of Toronto, the Rt. Rev. Ann Tottenham. In an interview aired on July 20 on CBC Radio’s The Sunday Edition, she capped off her ventings against Anglican opposition to female bishops by reminding us of the Gordian Knot that is, apparently, the practice of female circumcision in Canada:

For Bishop Tottenham, denying a woman a bishopric or questioning the right of a father to mutilate his daughter are matters of discrimination, varying merely in degree.

When a Christian cleric is unable to grasp instantly the horrible injustice of this barbaric ritual and recognize that nothing in the New Testament could countenance it, that cleric is no longer Christian.

An editorial submitted by McCain to NYT, in response to an earlier article by Obama in NYT, has been rejected by NYT Op-Ed editor David Shipley with the following explanation, “It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama’s piece”.  Your correspondent is of the opinion that this is excellent news.  The MSM has been shamelessly cheering on Obama and this fact is starting to become noticed.

The latest Rasmussen poll “found that 49% of voters believe most reporters will try to help Obama with their coverage, up from 44% a month ago.“  Once this meme takes hold it will be detrimental to Obama as one of his strongest cheering sections will be negated.  Even among Democrats there is an acknowledgement of this bias.  The same poll shows that a “plurality of Democrats—37%– say most reporters try to offer unbiased coverage of the campaign. Twenty-seven percent (27%) believe most reporters are trying to help Obama and 21% in Obama’s party think reporters are trying to help McCain.”  Among the independent voters, who are the most critical constituency, “50% see a pro-Obama bias and 21% see unbiased coverage.  Just 12% of those not affiliated with either major party believe the reporters are trying to help McCain.”

July 22, 2008

Update: In case you weren’t aware there is another guy running for the presidency and in “Manchester last night, there was just one reporter and one photographer waiting for McCain as his plane” touched down on the Wiggins Airways tarmac according to this report.

Canadians who like classical music will be aware that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has had enough of catering to those who like classical music, and is seeking to attain a younger audience by dumping classical music, and where it has not be overthrown entirely, by dumbing it down. Management discovered that the age profile of its classical music listeners was too old, too white, too Christian, for the multi-culti sensibilities of downtown Toronto, so they have replaced classical music (audience 1% of the population) with jazz (audience 1/10 of 1% of the population. Smooth move, Exlax.

In keeping with the insights of Clay Shirky, about how the Internet allows collaboration to replace institutions, I would like to alert the elite readership of this blog that an island of sanity is broadcasting classical music 24/7, Vermont Public Radio.

Why would thius be an example? Is VPR not an institution? Yes, of course. But the Internet is allowing VPR’s minute audience to expand as far as the Internet reaches, and that minute listenership can support VPR directly, without passing the money through a federal government on its way to a Crown Corporation.

Now you might wonder, if you think about it, is how VPR, supported by, let us say, 2% of the citizens of Vermont, whose total  population in 2006 was 624,000, can sustain a classical music station on the Internet, with five broadcast repeaters in that province, sorry, state, but Canada, population 33 million, and a CBC, whose radio budget in 2007-8 was $345,915,000 cannot.

Perhaps VPR is supported by 2% of the 1,315,000 people of neighbouring New Hampshire?

Cuts to classical music at the CBC are detailed here.

One of the things that puzzles your correspondent is the rise and rise of “Barack Obama to win 2008 US Presidential Election” contract on Intrade.com.  Whilst polls have shown some fluctuations, such as negation of earlier 15-point lead that Obama enjoyed, this is not the case with this betting market.  The price trend of this contract is exemplified by a lack of volatility and a steady rise since the presidential primaries ended, as if the election is a foregone conclusion?  Is it?  What does the election market seem to be saying?

It is difficult to be certain of things in a free market, but one would be wise to recall that in latter part of 2004 there were rumours that a well-capitalized convicted felon was manipulating the US election betting markets.  A more comprehensive article on political stock market manipulation can be found here.  Similar views are being heard during this election.

One should also recall the attempt to manipulate the results via deliberate misrepresentation of exit polls during the 2004 election.

Your corresondent’s earlier post noted that Obama’s campaign is “planning a huge rally with thousands of people in a stadium, want to create a mandatory youth corps for national service, and are thinking about a big dramatic speech in Berlin.”

With a campaign in which just the foreign policy team consists of a cast of 300, one would expect resplendent accomplishments, given what a another ragtag band of 300 accomplished historically, under much more trying circumstances.  Alas, that is not the case.

Obama’s mini State Department has chosen Siegessäule, or Victory Column, as the site for his speech in Berlin and, according to this article, “The monument was built in 1864 to commemorate Prussia’s victory over Denmark. When it was inaugurated, Prussia had defeated Austria during the Austro-Prussian war in 1866 and the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71.” and according to Rainer Brüderle, deputy leader of the opposition Free Democrats, “It was the symbol of German superiority over Denmark, Austria and France”.

An interesting choice of venue indeed but was it by design, and is an accurate reflection of Obama’s policies, or is it a case of, as Rainer Brüderle states, “Obama’s advisers had little idea of the historical significance of the Victory Column”?  On this trip, the case for the former was strengthened when Obama stated, “the objective of this trip was to have substantive discussions with people like President Karzai or Prime Minister Maliki or President Sarkozy or others who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to 10 years.”  Hmm, Dear Leader for 10-years, that is a good start indeed.

Some French-Canadian nationalists objected to Paul McCartney’s planned concert on the Plains of Abraham on the ground that an English singer would remind them of their status as a “conquered people.”

The eternal capacity of some French Canadian nationalists to feel themselves humiliated is a source of wonder and guilty amusement. The cheerful news is the derision with which the French Canadian blogsphere has responded, here and here. Most letter writers have been hostile to the objections of the nationalists too.

Do the Germans, Japanese, Hungarians, Poles, Italians, Czechs, and Bulgarians consder themselves permanently humiliated by their defeats since 1763? Since 1918? Since 1945?

For that matter, are the English burning with resentment about the Norman Conquest of 1066? You may recall that the Norman Conquest permanently transferred England out of the Scandinavian orbit into that of Rome (until the Reformation), established a new language, and forged one of the first medieval monarchical states. By and large England was much more transformed by the Norman Conquest than French Canada was by the defeat of Montcalm in 1763. Are we English still bitching about it, or have we embraced it as part of our identities and moved on since about 1200? Maybe it takes 150-300 years.

The only other group still whining about their defeats as a source of national identity are the Serbs. Hmmmn…. Any commonalities?

The general derision heaped on the objectors is a welcome sign that Quebec nationalist whine has a diminished appeal among the Quebecois. We can only hope.

What kind of world do we live in where twee socialist songster Steven Page feels the full weight of The Man but über-twee Jian Gomeshi gets a tenured gig with the Mother Corpse? Did Gomeshi actually inherit Ralph Benmurgui’s stash of incriminating photo negatives?

Sure, the Barenaked Ladies v Moxie Früvous dilemma inhabits about the same turf as the Picard v Kirk debate, but why the hell is Gomeshi still getting airtime, whereas Page may have to exercise down the road a judicious form of soap handling etiquette?

As Bart Simpson once observed, fame is a bitch goddess.

Let’s pray for a win-win in this: five to ten for Page and CBC Radio Overnight for Gomeshi.

Are you listening, God? It’s a sane Canadian.

This is truly the one thing you MUST see on YouTube this year.

In this prescient lecture at the 2005 TED Conference, “Institutions vs. collaboration”, Clay Shirky explains how closed groups and companies will give way to looser networks where small contributors have big roles and fluid cooperation replaces rigid planning:

Direct link to video on Youtube

Dan Gardner sniffs at the Templeton Prize in today’s Ottawa Citizen for its effect on undermining “real” science.

One of the more amusing things about the state of modern science is the gap between what the physicists are finding, namely the incredible fine tuning which is required at every level to produce a universe in which there are intelligent observers, and the materialist doctrines of randomly self-assembling biobots that are the party line in the field of biology. The biologists rail against design, while the physicists record it in the incredible number and detail of laws that have to work out just so, sometimes to 20 orders of magnitude, to produce minds such as ours, which watch stars and listen to Mozart.

Read the rest…

At last, saying what everyone is thinking, or guarding against thinking. tasteless, offensive, and funny:

China and Russia swoop in to protect their new BFF and kindred spirit, Comrade Robert Mugabe at the UN Security Council.

As I have noted often, a total lack of shame opens up vast new frontiers for some.

One of the byproducts of a euphoria is that everything is perceived as good news. A good example is the recent news coverage of Obama, in particular these two news items.

Jackson’s `Crude’ Remarks May Give Boost to Obama

Ironically, success of the surge in Iraq is helping Obama

Is there anything that won’t help Obama?