"It is time, in the West, to defend not so much human rights as human obligations." -Alexander SolzhenitsynAnthony Furey has written an interesting "web-exclusive comment" for the Globe and Mail about The Dark Knight movie and it's political philosophy. It may be simple but it speaks to a problem that has been infecting us, at an alarming rate: our fellow man not being civic-minded or politically involved.
"[Bruce] Wayne realizes that, as a billionaire, he has the option of secluding himself from a society run amok. But he believes that as someone who has reaped the benefits of good society, he also has to stick it out with bad society. That's the social contract he feels he's signed. Thus, the story confronts our sense of citizenship."A certain level of idealism is necessary, which seems to disappear rapidly in the psyche as one ages, so active pursuit and maintenance of ideals is needed to fend of weariness and hopelessness. This is not easy and staying accurately informed takes effort, but is at least honorable and at most a duty.
"Batman is rejecting what has come to be known as the "lesser evil" approach, in which one can commit an otherwise undesirable act if there is an urgent and significant need. Underlying this rejection is the notion that society is greater than the sum of its parts — that the sheer fact coming together to form it is something worth fighting for."The Dark Knight movie entertains the masses, there is no doubt there, but it also holds an important, if not desperate, call to those masses to become engaged with their environment and do their part to move our societies forward, to improve ourselves and do what is right for the global community. To take our responsibilities seriously may not be the most fun thing to do, nor the easiest, but is by far the most important.
"The one basic, cogent argument that can be gleaned from Gotham City's embers: Nobody ever said democracy was going to be easy. The democratic tradition is one that asks its members to participate fully and to constantly reconsider its fundamental tenets and be willing to fight for them. The film challenges you, regardless of your views, to get in the game."
For the past couple of days our Health Minister, Tony Clement, has been travelling around the planet shooting off at the mouth about Vancouver's supervised safe-injection site, the first in North America, InSite."The Canadian Insite Supervised Injection Site commenced operation in in 2003. As well as public order and improving health, the major difference between the supervised injecting centres and the unsupervised European model is the more clinical nature of the service."But what is the worst and most ridiculous thing about the Conservatives' stance? Yesterday, at the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, Tony had this to say about the WHO's strong endorsement of InSite, "it's not my job to kowtow to orthodoxy."
Tony's Conservatives are now trying to say that a relatively recent, innovative program that has been embraced by only a handful of countries in the world and rejected by large powers such as the United States is orthodox. The Conservatives are trying to paint themselves as the progressive bunch who are going against the grain by attacking an established method. Safe-injection sites are hardly traditional! How dare the Conservatives try to even suggest otherwise? Worse still, now a whole lot of idiots are going buy the horse shit our Ministre de la Santé is serving us. Cheers!
While my motorcycle is out of commission, let's talk cars."Ford Motor Co.'s Mercury brand ranked second, followed by General Motors Corp.'s Cadillac. Toyota was fourth, and Honda Motor Co.'s Acura luxury brand was fifth. Land Rover, which Ford sold this year to India's Tata Motors Ltd., was the worst-performing brand, with 344 problems."I never would have guessed that my car's brand ranks second and I can now laugh at all the yuppies parading around town in their status symbol Land Rovers. There are more brands listed in the article, which also has a link to the annual study. Where does your car sit on the list? Are you as surprised as I was?
Words from Solzhenitsyn...
"For a country to have a great writer is like having a second government. That is why no regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones."
"Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence. Any man who has once proclaimed violence as his method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his principle."
"Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the 20th century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press."
Qantas chief executive officer Geoff Dixon said initial inspections showed the aircraft had sustained a hole in its fuselage, and it was being inspected by engineers.Thank you Captain Obvious! You can practically see an inspector looking intently up at the fuselage before pulling out his cell phone to call the CEO, "Mr. Dixon, it looks like, and this is just my initial report, there might be a hole in the plane. I don't think the passengers noticed though."
[Qantas] said the 747-400 involved in the scare was not the one used to fly Pope Benedict XVI out of Australia earlier this month after his visit to Sydney.How is this relevant? So that those who revere the Pope won't think he might have been in possible danger in the past? Or is it so that non-Pope worshipers can say that he caused the plane to deteriorate?
Raising hopes for the survival of the species, a rare critically endangered species of lemur, the greater bamboo lemur, was discovered in the Torotorofotsy wetlands of Madagascar some 400 kilometres North of where they traditionally live."Finding the extremely rare Prolemur simus in a place where nobody expected it was probably more exciting than discovering a new lemur species," said Edward Louis, a U.S. conservation geneticist who coordinated the joint research, in a statement.
On July 10th, a 10 kilogram (22 pound) lobster was caught off the cost of New Brunswick and has been held in a fish store tank since. The current owner of the the lobster dubbed Big Dee-Dee, (how East coast is that name?), has decided to give it to the Huntsman Marine Science Centre in St. Andrews where it will be placed in an aquarium and monitored. If Dee-Dee can't adjust to life in captivity he may be released back to the Bay of Fundy..jpg)
This Canada Day, Dr. Henry Morgentaler was appointed to the Order of Canada - our highest civilian honour. In 1969 Dr. Morgentaler single-handedly forced the issue of abortion in this country into the national spotlight and as a result, over the next two decades, abortions became legal. I give props to Dr. Morgentaler (who is also a Holocaust survivor) but of course, religious groups are calling for a reversal of the decision because they just can't help themselves when it comes to being loud and annoying."The Order of Canada was created in 1967 to honour those who have "enriched the lives of others and made a difference to this country.""Given this criteria, I'd hope that all groups, religious or not, would more vigorously appose the appointment of other recipients such as Buzz Hargrove or, for crying out loud, Paul Shaffer.
So now Olympic athletes may be using Viagra to enhance their performance outside of the bedroom. But I have nothing pressing to say about the article.
I've been away recently (Ottawa, Toronto, Saratoga Springs NY) for meetings and Dave Matthews Band concerts - a real mixed bag of activities. I'm sure pictures will follow soon, but for now, let us prepare for the long weekend (or long weekend interrupted by work on Monday for others) and Canada's very special day by perusing the Polls On Canada.
But more importantly, this news item came out on the same day. The cold, wet Spring we've been suffering through is threatening our pot crops! If the weather doesn't perk up soon, the price we'll pay for product will increase - and that's just not cool. In the Far West, we're not interested in paying what the saps to the East and South do. Let's start stockpiling!
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First CBC starts allowing comments on their news site and now they are scrapping a Saturday night Holy Canadian tradition. I've always been an ardent supporter of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, but they are really starting to piss me off."CBC has announced the corporation is moving in a "new direction.""What are they going to do? Use some old Rush song? Try and attract new viewers with a rocking techno vibe? We're talking about Hockey Night in Canada for crying out loud! It's an institution in this country! The unmistakable song they are axing is instantly recognizable and provokes many unique memories and emotions for each person who hears it. Maybe (perhaps sadly) more so than O Canada does. Remember those CBC montages of people on the street singing the song for the camera? And I've heard many NHL players refer to Hockey Night in Canada and its theme song from their childhood memories. There is a reason for that.
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"Hockey Night in Canada is a television broadcast of National Hockey League games in Canada, produced by CBC Sports. Hockey Night consistently remains one of the highest-rated programs on Canadian television. It is also the world's oldest sports-related television program still on the air." -Wikipedia
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