Month: November 2004

Please make your own cookies this year…

Link: Press Release – Food Gifts Can Be Mailed To The United States.

The USPS and FDA are protecting those of us in the US from Rogers Chocolates!

It is important to note that homemade foods are exempt from this prior notice requirement and travelers bringing food items with them, for personal use into the United States are not required to file prior notice.

So, if you want to send your correspondent foodstuffs this year, you will have to prepare them yourself.

Hey! Do you smell hypocrisy?

Link: The Volokh Conspiracy – Colin Powell condemns Ukraine election:.

The man says:

We cannot accept this result as legitimate because it does not meet international standards and because there has not been an investigation of the numerous and credible reports of fraud and abuse. We have been following developments very closely and are deeply disturbed by the extensive and credible reports of fraud in the election. We call for a full review of the conduct of the election and the tallying of election results.**

Where was he three weeks ago?

The Myth of the American Free Press

In an article posted on TomDispatch, Michael Massing discusses the impotence of the US Media in covering the conflict in Iraq. It is a good solid read, and should not come as a surprise to anyone who has been closely following the war in the “liberal” media.

The problem that this story highlights is that of the increasing lack of editorial control held by reporters themselves. The traditional view of the media has been one of an activist reporter selling a story on its merits to an editorial group. This group grasps that the sources are good and the story is important, and runs with it, damn the fallout.

Today, it is naive to hold that view of the media. For the Wal-Mart generation, news is only good and worthy if it:

  • Involves superstars
  • Embarasses and/or humiliates a person
  • Is a morality play
  • Shows the superiority of the American way of life

The lip service paid to the “free press” is becoming a worldwide laughingstock. Aljazeera and Alarabiya, the upstart Arabic news networks sneered at by the US Government and the mainstream media, provide more in-depth coverage of the conflict than the entire Baghdad press corps combined.

This extends to the homefront as well. The lack of critical coverage of the real reason the 9/11 Intelligence Reform bill died (it was killed by Rumsfeld and the Bush Cabal as a result of neglect) shocked me. Why would a bill that is so widely supported be killed?

This act did serve a political purpose, namely allowing the White House to tag the current session as lame duck, and allowing them to spin this bill (that they don’t want anyway) out into a session of Congress that they have more direct control over. But has this been covered or touched on in the mainstream media?

In its history, I would argue that only for the period from 1960-1980 was there any semblance of a free press in the United States. The humbling of Vietnam and Watergate, the Civil Rights battle, and the Iranian Hostage Crisis were the primary highlights of this period. These all served as embarassments to the United States, and helped galvanize and mobilize what is now termed the neo-conservative movement.

The shrieking, jingoistic, neo-conservative outsider of 1980 has become the rational, experienced commentator of 2004. Tempered by the humiliation of the free press, the neo-cons used their superior morality and deep pockets to create (by purchase or bullying) a media that would present the United States to the world as a simplified version of its own myth. The neo-con media agenda feeds a patriotic highlight film, not a critical analysis of American policy, foreign and domestic.

As was often argued on the campaign trail, John Kerry’s message was one that many Americans found complex, lumbering and tempered by the shades of grey found so often in the real world. The media, wrapped up in its new mandate to deliver news as quickly as possible, has lost the ability to delve into the subtlety necessary to handle complex issues. They want the instant gratification that comes with quick-change, sound-bite, easy-think MTV generation.

The coverage of the conflict in Iraq is a symbol for the decline of the American mainstream media. Television news is no better than the entertainment programs that bracket it. And when someone does question the coverage that they see, their patriotism is questioned.

Questioning the media — and the President — is succinctly summed up by Theodore Roosevelt.

“The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.”

Bill Moyers — Democracy in the Balance

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.

Andrew Coyne Nails Canadian Federal Politics

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".

Link: andrewcoyne.com: Politics makes strange goodfellas.

A sordid tale

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.

Hockey Night in Canada theme composer launches lawsuit against CBC

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

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