While Israel has the right to defend itself...

...quite frankly, if they haven't nailed Hizbollah by now, they probably never will.

Kind of like the US and the Taliban, or in Iraq.

Success!

Out of the many flowers bulbs I planted in April, the first two have made it out! One of them is already having its petals eaten, and the other one should bloom sometime tomorrow or Tuesday.

If only the weeds were intentional....I'm going to try the hot water and vinegar treatment to see if that works.

Questions

Did Israel deliberately target a UN obersvation post in South Lebanon?

Did Hizbollah deliberately launch rockets from positions next to the UN observation post?

Which question will ge asked more often, I wonder....

Teeing off

As the violence continues to engulf the Middle East, one would like to think that educated, or at least semi-literate, Americans are realizing just how awful their President is. It's a cliche to say at this point, but Bush is, without a doubt, the worst US president ever.

Consider, if you will, the following:

By starting a war with Iraq under false pretences, the US is powerless to stop Iran's real pretences to become a nuclear power;

By invading an Arab country under false pretences, the US has lost its moral authority to offer any meaningful intervention in the current Israel-Lebanon-Hezbollah war.

By bleeding the Treasury dry through repeated tax cuts (during a time of war!!!), the US has lost the financial strength to protect itself from the world's economic conditions.

By bitterly dividing the country with a never-ending campaign of "us versus them" and scare-mongering, the US is unable to even form a coherent foreign policy to deal with the mess its created.

This may very well be viewed by history as the beginning of the end of the US empire. I tend to be more optimistic because the US is the world's leader in re-inventing itself to suit the times, but Bush's disastrous foreign and domestic policies have left the US so far behind the eight-ball, it's hard to see how it could do so this time.

Enough already....Osama bin Laden will never be caught because Bush isn't even trying anymore.

If gas prices are so high...

...then why are people still accelerating hard from a stop, and flying well above the speed limit?

Could it be gas isn't that expensive after all?

What's My Name (Again)?

This whole business of no-fly lists are, in my opinion, in need of work. While it's intuitive that people who pose a risk to aviation should not be allowed to board a plane, is it really that much effort to give a full identification of these people so that others with the same name can travel in peace?

Someone close to me recently spent three hours being detained by US immigration because his name was very similar to someone who wasn't allowed to fly. Of course, this wasn't the same person, but do they really go with just a name and not bother with a date of birth, or physical description? Someone's brother has the same name as a wanted fugitive, but given how common the name and surname are, it seems odd that the police were going to go full SWAT team on a person who is 5'5" and 280 pounds, versus the actual fugitive who is 6'2" and fighting form 200 pounds. As the lawyer incredulously asked the judge "Have you even bothered to look at my client?!?"

A friend of mine had to submit finger prints to the US Embassy in order to prove that he wasn't "that guy", and had to pay for the fingerprints himself! Does the US government not even realize that someone with the same name born *in a different country* may be different than the bad guy they are looking for?

To which US authorities would grunt: better to inconvenience innocent people than to let a guilty person get on the plane. Oddly enough, something similar was said about Gitmo detainees, but it's still the opposite of what was said a few centuries ago.

Justice indeed....

Dual citizenship, dual loyalties?

I have to admit to being a but surprised at the harsh comments that have been levelled at Lebanese-Canadians asking to be evacuated from Lebanon back to Canada. While these are citizens of the country, either through birth or immigration, many of them have become permanent residents of Lebanon, and haven't lived in Canada for years.

So a debate has emerged: should Canada be obligated to rescue citizens who no longer live in the country?

On a basic level, you would think that yes, simply because citizenship is granted and the rights follow the citizen regardless of where they go, or for how long they are out of the country.

Look at it another way though. If Canadians choose to, they can avoid paying taxes in Canada by cutting their ties to the country. The CRA has its rules and definitions, but it basically boils down to having two or less ties to the country, and you no longer have to pay tax in Canada.

If people have chosen to sever their ties to Canada (bank accounts, driver's license, owning property, etc...), then are their rights still in force? Many people in Hong Kong got some kind of status in Canada as an insurance policy in case things went badly after the Communist takeover. If they choose to live in Hong Kong until something goes wrong, does Canada have to rescue them from the Communists?

I would say yes, technically, but really, that person has also forfeited their obligations and duties as a citizen. They don't vote, they don't pay taxes, they don't make any meaningful contribution to the country. So if you choose to renounce your obligations to your country, why should your rights survive?

This, I think, goes back to broader issues I have written about before. People today are so fixated on their rights and freedoms that they have forgotten about their duties and obligations as citizens. In order for our country to work, we need to contribute our share towards making it such a great country. If people choose to not contribute anything, then why should they be allowed to take anything out of it?

On a pragmatic level, evacuating Canadian citizens out of Lebanon is a humanitarian issue rather than a civil issue (although who pays for this is perhaps open to debate), so Canada should be doing everything possible to help people get out of harm's way. Still, I hope that as people throw stones at those who carry the passport but haven't lived in Canada recently, they ask themselves what they, here in Canada, are doing to fulfill their duties and obligations to our country.

Yes, I'm still alive

The in-laws are in town, this is the best I can do until later this week. Much going on though, I'll try to get a few posts in a row this week-end.

And then the Mariachi band arrived...

An awesome night, it seems that everyone had a really good time. Lots of praise for the food, and everyone loved it when the Mariachis arrived, even though I had nothing to do with it (props to my bro, eh?! DC!!!)

Tremendously exhausted by the whole experience, but happy that everyone was happy. The dancing part was a bit quieter, probably expected given the age of some of the guests, and although I won praise for a brief speech (short is sweet), many wondered why I didn't let Juliana say anything. For the record, when I asked her earlier in the evening, she didn't want to say anything. It's only after the other speeches that she changed her mind, but she didn't tell me until we were going to cut the cake. Pido disculpas mi amor, no lo sabía....:(

Anyway, I'm recovering and my house is slowly starting to look normal again. It's going to be a busy next few weeks with the in-laws around, but so far, so good. Hopefully they are enjoying Toronto!

Thanks to all who made this special night come true, and shared it with us!

Big Day Tomorrow

I love parties, but man are these things a lot of work to set up. I long for a quiet week-end with absolutely nothing to do, but in the meantime, let's have a ball!

Weeds

So being a home-owner now, means that I have a yard. It's not a big yard and, if you look closely, not a very nice yard. Several owners ago, cars were fixed in the backyard, so there are parts of my backyard where not much grows because the soil is probably contaminated. Further back, there is actual grass, but also weeds.

Lots of weeds.

So many weeds that if I don't mow the lawn for a month, you'd think I had created a shelter for hobbits (or so my better half claims, referring to the backyard as "Hobbitland"). I've run them over with the lawn mower, and I've also spent a couple of hours uprooting them and throwing them out, but still they return.

So when I get the money, I plan to get rid of the whole back yard and replace it with flowerbeds, pathways or patio stones and a rock garden. Eliminates the need for a lawn mower altogether.

Unless there are non-pesticide ways to get rid of them easily and cheaply?

Just to be fair...

Since I was late with my Canada Day message, I figure it's ok to be late for my 4th of July message.

Happy 4th of July everyone! Never forget the principles on which the US of A was founded!

Crime and Punishment

A lot of ink has been used lately in Canada regarding our prison and parole system and, quite frankly, this is probably a discussion that most liberal societies are actively engaged in. In one case out in BC, a man with a criminal record the length of Canada managed to hoodwink parole boards on numerous occasions and, without fail, was promptly arrested and convicted of new crimes after getting out of jail. Seven people were killed while this man was on parole.

What has riled people up is that the bureaucracies running our prison and parole system investigated themselves in this case and, predictably, absolved themselves of any blame. The fact that the guy had a half-dozen 12 year sentences by the age of 25 didn't deter him from seeking and obtaining parole several more times after that.

A criminal justice system usually has several objectives the main ones in our liberal democracies attempt to merge are

a) deterring
b) punishing
c) rehabilitating.

We create criminal penalties under the belief that most people, knowing there are consequences for their illegal actions, while seek to avoid the punishment and therefore not commit the crime. I don't want to go to jail, so I'm not going to steal money from my employer or run over someone who pissed me off.

Where the deterrent isn't enough, then the punishment ensures that the person committing the crime will have certain rights taken away from them (such as freedom of movement) for a set period of time, in the hopes that they won't commit that crime, or others, again.

Concomitant with this is rehabilitation, providing criminals with the tools they need to return to society as productive members. The US, several years ago, opted to increase prison terms for a variety of crimes on the basis of locking more people up. Unanswered, of course, was the question of what to do with these people once they are released.

The over-arching problem with this approach is that assumes each criminal is equal. Judges are often given discretion in sentencing in order to allow them to tailor a sentence to a particular criminal. A first-time offender who made a mistake and shows remorse may be given a lighter sentence than the law states, while a repeat offender can reasonably expect a lengthier sentence.

A case in point is a youth in Alberta who, at the age of 15, went onto a bridge with some buddies and dropped a large rock over a pedestrian overpass. It crashed through the windshield of a school bus (empty) and killed the driver. The case remained unsolved for some four years before the youth finally succumbed to his guilt. In sentencing the youth to community service and probation, the judge noted that the youth made a stupid mistake and shouldn't be sent to prison where, presumably, his future life options will narrow considerably.

Another issue in this particular case is that the youth agreed to meet with this victim's widow. Their meeting was measured in hours, not minutes, and she gave her blessing to this light sentence, despite the loss of her husband. Too often, the justice system assumes what the victim wants instead of consulting with the victim, which is a function of the justice system preferring to keep things cold and rational, rather then getting into sticky emotional concepts such as vengeance or forgiveness.

Still, in my opinion, the main factor in building and maintaining a justice system is public safety. As Iraq shows, a society without security is simply anarchy, unable to function. If the citizenry no longer believes it is safe, then the government has failed in its primary duty towards its citizenry. While I do believe in noble and ambitious prisoner rehabilitation reforms and giving people a second chance to do right, people like Clifford Olson or Robert Bruce Moyes (see first paragraph) have demonstrated clearly that they are unable and unwilling to live within the rules of our society. As such, it is perfectly justified to eliminate their freedoms for the rest of their lives, but it also makes me uncomfortable to think that they will remain wards of the state for the same length of time.

So long as they can no longer harm anyone else, however, the justice system has served its purpose. In the Moyes case, the justice system has failed completely, and it's appalling that the bureaucracy refuses to acknowledge this.

Happy Canada Day!!!

One day late, but my internet is finally fixed after almost a week on the blink! YAY!!!