blevkog

Please redirect your links to our new home at http://blevkog.wordpress.com/. Thanks!

Posted by kevvyd at 1:38 PM | Permalink | Comments

I don't know if others have been having problems with submitting comments on the "new" blogger, but I think the fine people at Google are using a different definition of that word than I'm accustomed to. I can't count the number of times I've had to retype in that goddamn security word only to find that I have to retype my password, or vice versa. "New" now apparently means "(1) aggravating and frequently vexing; (2) an absolute pain in the ass; (3) no longer worth my time."

Over the next few days I'm planning on moving this blog somewhere else and kissing blogger goodbye. Anyone have any good ideas? Wordpress? Typepad?

If anyone can provide a compelling reason to not move the 'kog, I'm willing to entertain those arguments, too.

Posted by kevvyd at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments

It seems that one of our favorite Necropublicans finally got a little tiny taste of what the troops have to deal with everyday. I wonder if the Taliban representative was driving a grassy knoll? In my view, too bad they missed.

Posted by graven at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments

News this morning from the Chronically Horrid that unrepentant pseudo-scientific racist Jared Taylor is returning to Halifax, this time to debate Peter March, the Saint Mary's University professor who stirred up controversy by posting the Mohammad cartoons on his office door. While I don't support March's decision on that score, I certainly give him props for facing the issues raised by Taylor head-on.

I was somewhat dismayed by the speed at which SMU disavowed any connection with this event. Just as human beings have to stand by their convictions, so too should our institutions of higher learning. As an alumnus of the university (as well as of Dal, who cancelled the original debate, leading to the ensuing fiasco), I am feeling a little abandoned. Surely backing the person opposing the vile racist cannot carry any political liability. If anything, it might add to the prestige of the university to take Taylor on while its cross-town rival chickened out. I am forced to reflect on the establishment of their school for business ethics and wonder how much they really are willing to live what they teach.

On the dark side, Taylor seems positively consumed with glee to be coming back. Why? He's obviously hoping for a repeat performance of the mob scene to further bolster his credibility with the neo-nazi dogmatists. They showed a clip from the last event this morning, and I couldn't help but notice (although I didn't at the time) that the bastard is smiling as he's being driven from the room. The mob mentality serves his purpose, and I would encourage anyone who's thinking about causing a scene this time to let him speak - it's obvious he actually has nothing of value to say, and it's better for free thinking, progressive individuals everywhere if we let him demonstrate that very fact, let him indict his whole cowardly movement from his own lips. He says he has things to say, let's let him try to prove it.

While Dr. Peter March isn't necessarily a role model either, in retrospect, his comments about this upcoming debate has made me rethink my opinion of him. While perhaps rather clumsy, he did raise some valid questions about the portrayal of Islam in the media and it's perception by the public, whether he actually intended to or not. I've seen the Mohammad cartoons, and, quite frankly, they're not funny, and are racist on the face of them without the added meaning of the depiction of the Prophet. Was March trying to be ironic? Was he posting the cartoons to preserve freedom of speech? Was it a heavy-handed thump on the head to Muslims? We may never know, although I now suspect his motives may have been more positive than they were portrayed.

In any case, if he's willing to argue the point rationally, to remind Taylor (and us) that we are all human beings, to point out that 'race' is a social construct with no real validity, I say, let's back him up. Clear the stage, and let the two go at it with all their philosophical might, and I'm quite confident that regardless of who rationality's champion is, the side of truth, of tolerance, and of humanity will win the day.

*Hamlet, II, ii.

Labels: Jared Taylor, racism

Posted by Flash at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments

It appears that at long last, the Grand Parade may become something more than a HRM city council's parking lot. If the council agrees with the recommendation, on April 1, parking rights will be removed and councillor's will be forced (some at gunpoint) to walk half a block. "Heaven's to Betsy, what will happen to my shoes?" Ken Streatch was not quoted as saying, instead he simpered said:

When I took this job back in 1999, parking was part of the job, it came with the territory. And, quite frankly, this is a working city hall. This is not a museum, it is not a shrine...

I suspect that if, instead of pissing away upwards of half a billion that the council seems prepared to throw into the Commonwealth(y?) Games, we spent it on public transportation, perhaps we could make it convenient enough so that even Ken Streatch could take the bus or ferry in from Eastern Passage like the little people do.

Posted by kevvyd at 8:25 AM | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Dan at 5:31 PM | Permalink | Comments

Not light, nor lightning, but lightening...

Enjoy.

(h/t to Dan for pointing me to Jim's Big Ego, which landed me here, at home. It's a funny world.)

Posted by kevvyd at 3:28 PM | Permalink | Comments

Even to the point of creating their own version of Wikipedia, called appropriately enough Conservapedia - apparently among their complaints against Wikipedia are that they use C.E. and B.C.E for their dating system, and they actually use gasp - British spellings in some articles - apparently, the concept that those articles were actually written by Britons is too subtle for their acute minds to grasp...

Posted by Dan at 12:25 AM | Permalink | Comments

Canada Post wants to know what to call it's new $1-million, 100 kg coin. Oh, I don't know, how about a vulgarity? A stupidity? Or, riffing on the past head of the mint, an entitlement?

How long until someone designs a poker machine for it?

Posted by kevvyd at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments

I suppose that it's no surprise that a National Post columnist doubts the validity of global warming, but that Barbara Kay would put more credibility on the typings (writing is too good a word) of Michael Crichton than on someone that has studied environmental issues all his career, shows that she has chugged the entire pitcher of Kool Aid.

It's simply dizzying.

Posted by kevvyd at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments

Dr Bob Altemeyer, an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Manitoba, has studied and written extensively on the subject of Authoritarianism - indeed his work was extensively referenced by John W. Dean in his book Conservatives Without Conscience. He's recently put his latest book The Authoritarians online - so far the first six chapters can be found here. It is, as I said in the subject, an interesting look into the mindset of those who insist that Bush has to be right no matter what.

Posted by Dan at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments

The Halifax police have just announced that Ernie Fage has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident. I see that they are keeping the "glug, glug, honk, honk, smash!" out of it though, so he's going to get a light penalty.

I figure that Rodney will have him dusted off and made Minister of Public Safety or somesuch just as soon as he's paid his fine.

Labels: Ernie Fage

Posted by kevvyd at 1:36 PM | Permalink | Comments

Perhaps it's just pre-election spending combined with perhaps simple nostalgia on my part, but it's nice to see the federal government has decided to revive Participaction. Of course, in true Conservative fashion, which is to say exactly the same as true Liberal fashion, they are not going to give it enough funds to really do something, but it is a start.

Remember those flexed arm hangs?

Locally, and related, here in Nova Scotia it seems to me about half of everyone I meet could stand to shed 15 or 20 kg. Today it was announced by the Conservative government that they are going to put on hold until at least 2008 their plan to have every high school kid in the province take a physical education class. The delay largely has to do with hiring enough qualified people and providing adequate equipment on a shoestring budget; in other words, the Tory government (gasp!) promised something before actually planning for the details. I'm thinking that only on the fiddle does Rodney know how to play more than one string at a time.

It might be shallow of me, but I have to believe that a healthy, active person is going to be less of a drain on the healthcare system than an overweight, inactive one. The government should see that it is not such a big stretch to assume that money spent now on developing active lifestyles will pay off later (and really, not that much later), in savings on healthcare.

So just why do we think it is such a victory to get high school students into a phys. ed. course once over a three-year program? Why not every day?

Labels: fitness, participaction, physical education

Posted by kevvyd at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments

To all those people who felt compelled to write hate mail to the newspaper, simply for running the story of Ashley MacIsaac's wedding - don't worry, George Takei has a PSA that addresses your fears...



Otherwise, let's try this bizarre concept on for size - if the sight of two men kissing bothers you that much - DON'T LOOK AT IT!!! Or don't buy the paper at all. And if you're opposed to Same-Sex Marriage - don't attend one. Whether you like it or not - SSM is the Law of the Land, and if the Harper Government wasn't gonna make a serious attempt to roll it back, it's not going to be changing.

As for myself, I think I speak for my fellow 'Koggers when I say - Congratulations, Ashley! Personally, I still think you're a bit of a freak, but that has nothing to do with your sexual orientation - and hey, if married life helps you deal with accusations of racism and cocaine addiction, then all the power to you. Just one thing, though - don't run for politics please; Nova Scotia elected one Fiddler to public office, and it hasn't worked out too well...

Posted by Dan at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments