I’m going to be taking a bit of a break from posting on the site. Blogging fatigue happens every so often, so it’s no big deal really. Of course, the website’s other authors with continue to post entries while I’m absent.

Two quick bits of news before I delve headlong into demoing this morning.

The first is that Hospital Music has been nominated for a Juno for Best Rock Album. As many of you are aware, I’m not the biggest fan of award shows, but I thought this time around I would leave it in your hands to decide whether or not I attend. So leave your views in the comments and I’ll be sure to read them. (Of course I’m not going, but it was a fun exercise!)

The second is that the CIA has finally publicly admitted that it has employed the practice of waterboarding. Mind you, they’re claiming that they haven’t for some five years now, but given that it’s taken this long to get a public admission, giving them the benefit of the doubt seems foolish.

Oh, and I also wanted to congratulate Dale and Sara on their new place.

Have a great day everyone.

For those of you that signed up for an account for the purpose of commenting on my recent entry regarding Ezra Levant and the larger issue of the publication of the Danish cartoons, please keep in mind that, unlike other sites, we have policies that clearly define what we consider appropriate discourse.

One thing I will not tolerate is wholly irrational, xenophobic, and bigoted individuals leaving comments that openly call me anti-Semitic and sympathetic to terrorists, or ‘Islamofacists’ as has become the popular term amongst many that have no actual understanding of the definition of fascism, an ideology that is decided opposed to religious inclusion as it detracts from the concept of nationalistic authoritarianism.

As I have stated in the past, the North American political misrepresentation of what is technically rightwing and leftwing has been entirely skewed. Leon Trotsky was a leftist, which is a far cry from the American Civil Liberties Union.

With regards to painting 2 billion inhabitants of the planet as potential terrorists, and claiming that their way of life, because of their religious beliefs, is steeped in intolerance, one wonders if the majority of the world’s history books have been dumped into the ocean so as to provide a massive displacement of what Christianity got up to for the better part of 1,500 years at the hands of radical zealots and imperial dreamers. While there certainly is no defending those of the Muslim faith that would employ violent threats against others, or that believe in the ultimate subjugation of other societies with regards to the implementation of Islamic law, it is ignorant to overlook the fact that, when compared to the global and vastly devastating conquests of Christian nations, the Islamic world historically has far less blood on its hands. Were that not the case, one would imagine that vast swaths of Latin America would currently be speaking Persian or Arabic, having had their ancestors decimated by numerous Islamic conquests in the New World.

That is not to say that there weren’t Islamic conquests in the past, but certainly not on the scale of those of the Christian world enacted through loyal proxies that had at their disposal forces of considerable might.

Of course, it can be argued that it isn’t the same thing, that Christians never flew airplanes into buildings killing thousands of innocents. To that I would ask one simple question. Which is worse, a terrorist act carried out by a handful of individuals that believed in a warped ideology, or the army of Cortés, sanctioned by Charles V and the Vatican, engaging in genocidal practices in the New World? Simply because one took place four and a half centuries ago and the other seven years ago does not make them any less relatable in their infamy.

Given the vitriol aimed at Muslim communities throughout the world because of massive generalizations since 9/11, it’s easy to see why many Muslims are angry, and why they might find themselves acting in a fashion that they might not otherwise. Persecution has that affect. Again, that is not to say that there aren’t those looking to capitalize on it and warp it for their own purposes, a phenomenon that is, by no means, limited to the Muslim world. Those that would engage in such behaviour are, in truth, the real problem, as are those that believe in denying the fundamental human rights of others based on religious doctrine or the use of it for the sake of appearance to maintain power (the House of Saud provides a perfect example of this).

Put in another light; look at the response of many Americans to how they have been stereotyped by others throughout the world because of the unscrupulous actions of the current administration. There is no questioning the fact that, since the adoption of the Wolfowitz Doctrine as official US foreign policy in late 2001, the United States has done things that many Americans adamantly disagree with now that they have seen the fruit that that policy has produced. In some cases, it has encouraged some US religious leaders to make wild claims regarding everything from Islam to homosexuality. They have even promoted the use of violence, such as Pat Robertson’s assertion that Hugo Chavez be assassinated.

Do Americans protest at foreign embassies because of the publication of cartoons resulting in elements within that assembly turning to violence? Not of late. Then again, on the other side of the coin, we are talking about a country that up until fifty some odd years ago was still witnessing the violent murders of African Americans for simply having the audacity to demand their rights under the Constitution. Of course, those that opposed the Civil Rights movement were in the minority, but it doesn’t detract from the fact that an element did exist in the country that was opposed to what we now view as something that is only right and proper.

Ultimately, the employment of violent threats against those that would publish cartoons is utterly ridiculous. But what it is not is a representation of an entire religion.

All of that said, there are plenty of sites on the web that welcome the views of those that would, without hesitation, stereotype an entire religion based on the actions of a small percentage of it. I would suggest to those that are inclined in that direction to frequent them rather than this website. Because I do not view it as a matter of free speech, I view it as a matter of willful ignorance and bigotry.

That one wasn’t accidental, just yours truly wanting to blow his brains out.

You know what the worst part of penning a politically based blog that’s almost a decade old is? You have to continually repeat and defend the same tired positions over and over again because people just can’t seem to grasp how to use the archives.

Ah, the archives. You’ve heard of them. You’ve seen the link up there on the menu and wondered – “my, what secrets lurk beyond that link?”

Good news, no secrets, just archives. The archives are where you go when you want to find something that has been posted on the site in the past that just might contain information that’s pertinent to a current post so that the author of said post doesn’t have to continually repeat himself.

The archives. Disneyland with links, buried treasure, the lost scrolls, Atlantis.

Not unlike KY and sex, fruit and roll-ups, fingers and Chinese traps - the search function works well in conjunction with the archives. Give it a whirl.

Anyway, Benji, x-rays today. Over and out.

I have no clue why, when editing certain entries, they somehow end up being deleted. It’s happened twice now and it’s really starting to piss me off.

Well, at least there’s always zombo.com and today’s super duper hot pic by way of Hot Chicks With Douchebags…

That’s right, sweetheart - that’s the international sign for eating…

I think I did something wrong there and lost a post while trying to edit it. We’ve been having a lot of weird things happening lately, which has been driving The Hobbit up the wall. So sorry about that. The link to the story that I mentioned is here if you want to read or bookmark it.

There seems to be a lot of ghosts in the machine lately. For one thing, my iChat on my new iMac is completely screwed and I have absolutely no idea why. I have tried everything that I, and a host of others (including friends at Apple), could think of with zero results. Basically, the chat function works fine, but once I try and video chat with someone the application crashes. Another bizarre thing is that every time I open it up, an empty chat window appears that is linked to the last person that I was talking to, even though I closed the application and the window. I have to admit, for all its advances, Leopard is becoming a bit of a pain in the ass.

Plus, my fucking caps lock key is still screwed.

Music Crap

I have been doing a lot of demoing recently and have completed half of my next release. I most likely won’t step into a studio until the fall, at the earliest, so you just know that I’m going to forget 90% of the guitar parts and have to spend two weeks figuring them all out again.

Damn it!

My DVD War With John Amato

John Amato, owner/operator of Crooks & Liars, and I have been engaged in an all out contest to see who can watch an entire television series on DVD in the shortest amount of time. And while that might make us sound like slackers, the reality is that John has been rather ill, and therefore bedridden, and I just haven’t been able to sleep for two weeks.

So far, John is ahead, though I did recently watch all of Ken Burn’s ‘The Civil War’ (for the 400th time) in one sitting, so I might have stolen the crown. I’ll have to wait and see what he comes up with next. Of course, he has the ever-evolving Presidential race to cover, among other things, so his time is going to be limited.

An Observation Regarding One Of My Favourite Blogs

It’s no secret that one of my favourite daily reads is Hot Chicks With Douchebags. Why, you ask, given the altogether serious nature of my own website? Well, probably because of the altogether seriousness of my own website.

That said; if you spend some time looking at the photographs on the site you’ll begin to see an eerie pattern emerge. 98% of the girls in those pictures look identical. The same blonde hair, the same wavy extensions, the same facial expressions, the same clothes. Is there a handbook out there that details this stuff? Come to think of it, given my past, I suppose I should be able to answer that question, now shouldn’t I.

Shit, my coffee’s cold.

As is often the case here on the website, many readers fail to check which author is responsible for an entry. The last entry, for example, was posted by Dale, and is about his recent purchase of a loft in Hamilton, where he currently resides. But, as is often the case, some read the entry, don’t look to see who authored it, and assume that I have purchased a loft in Hamilton.

Case in point. While driving out to my parents today I was called by a friend who asked me when I was moving. I was, of course, confused. They then told me that they had just heard on the radio that I was moving to Hamilton, which, of course, I’m not.

I’m not really sure what we can do to solve the problem beyond having the name of each entry’s author appear above each post title in giant florescent pink letters. Until we get around to that, we urge readers to check the top of the sidebar on each post page to find out who’s posted what.

Here’s the information on the attack regarding Peter MacKay and the suicide bombing that took the lives of some 50 people in Afghanistan, including members of Parliament. I found this passage particularly interesting…

“You had rockets fired at you?,” asked Karzai as he waited for the end of a photo opportunity. “How close did they come?” he asked.

“Close enough,” replied MacKay.

“That is very, very bad,” sighed the Afghan president.

MacKay refused to discuss the possibility that the Taliban might be changing its tactics and focusing attacks on high-level politicians like the six who were killed - or even himself.”

The strong suit of any guerrilla movement is that it has the ability to alter tactics on a whim, causing confusing to those whose vision is clouded by the adherence to conventional military strictures.

The fact that the President of Afghanistan had no idea that a visiting Defence Minister, especially one who represents the third largest combat force in his country, was attacked says something very disturbing indeed.

Maher Arar Vs. The United States

From the CBC…

“Lawyers for Maher Arar, a Canadian tortured in Syria on false terrorism allegations, appeared in a New York court Friday to revive his lawsuit against senior officials in the U.S. government.

A legal team from the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights is representing Arar’s case in the U.S. Court of Appeals, arguing against a lower court decision to throw out the suit because of national security and foreign policy concerns.

Maria LaHood, a senior attorney with the centre, argued the lower court denied Arar a fair hearing when it dismissed his suit against current and former members of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.

Following the appearance, LaHood said she was “optimistic” the court would reverse the lower court’s decision.”

Secrets From The Mulroney Era

Again, from the CBC…

“Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday he will appoint an independent third party to review new allegations by German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber over his dealings with former prime minister Brian Mulroney.

Speaking to reporters at the National Press Theatre, the prime minister said the action was necessary “to review what courses of action may be appropriate.”

Harper said his government “can’t ignore” the allegations because they relate to Mulroney’s term in office and they must “always protect the office of the prime minister.”

“The person will be asked to give us a recommendation on how to proceed, what the most appropriate venue and most appropriate process is to proceed after reviewing all the documents,” the prime minister said, adding he hasn’t ruled out calling an inquiry into the allegations.”

What becomes of this will be interesting. That said, dirty laundry abounds elsewhere, and don’t think for a second that the Conservatives aren’t going to disinter the bones of others because of this. Ultimately, no matter who is guilty of wrongdoing, the people of this country have the right to the truth – I could care less what party, or member of that party, it involves.

Now, You Tell Me It’s Not Torture

By way of Current TV…

Wars are replete with confusions and contradictions. One of the most bizarrely overlooked is the ability of modern major powers, even if ultimately resigned to defeat, to never be faced with answering for their actions or truly seek swift and irrefutable justice on behalf of those that were wronged during their occupations of foreign lands.

Iraq, like Vietnam, has produced war crimes. Some have been committed by US personnel based on policy, some by soldiers gone array, and some by mercenaries based on the inability of those who employ them to apply proper oversight. In all three cases, the United States reserves the right to condemn and hold accountable others guilty of such crimes. But when the mirror is turned in on itself, the same cannot be said with vigor, or even realistic assertion.

Some time ago I was emailed and asked why I hadn’t mentioned that those charged in connection to the Haditha massacre had been acquitted. I was questioned as to whether I would be retracting my initial remarks about the incident, being that the acquittals somehow suggested to that individual that the event itself had been blown out of proportion or that what occurred that day, for all intents and purposes, didn’t.

This, at long last, is my response.

Back Stories And Precedent

During the Vietnam War, an incident took place in the small adjoining villages of My Lai and My Khe in which 347 unarmed Vietnamese civilians, most of them women and children, were massacred. Prior to their executions, many of them were either raped or tortured, with numerous bodies being mutilated afterwards.

On November 12th, 1969, Seymour Hersh broke the story of the now infamous My Lai Massacre, having interviewed Second Lieutenant William Calley who had by then been charged with several counts of premeditated murder. It should be noted that the entire incident would never have come to light had Ron Ridenhour, a soldier that had heard first hand accounts of the massacre from soldiers present that day, not sent letters to various politicians, including President Nixon. Ridenhour’s letters were sent a year after the massacre took place. The only individual that gave it serious attention was Morris Udall, then a Congressman from Arizona.

Of all those that took part in the events of March 16th, 1968, only one would ever serve time in jail. The rest, including those in command positions, would receive acquittals or be beyond prosecution because they had been discharged. Lieutenant William Calley, whom Hersh had initially interviewed for his story, was sentenced to life in prison, but two days later was released by Presidential order on the grounds of a pending appeal. Ultimately, Calley would serve just four and a half months at Fort Leavenworth.

Were the same actions confronted at war crimes tribunals following the Second World War, those guilty of them, be they German or Japanese, would have faced the gallows. But in the context of Vietnam, even though the United States would find itself ultimately defeated, those that were responsible for war crimes would only ever face an internal form of justice that was not in the practice of selling out its own. They would never face Vietnamese justice for their crimes or international justice.

The Façade

What makes Western powers immune to the judicial ramifications of their actions on both local and international scales? Interestingly, to many it is impossible to conceive of any US soldier being tried for war crimes by an international tribunal or local government in the context of a conflict such as Iraq or Afghanistan, the prevalent belief being that they’d not receive proper justice. But then, isn’t the same true when they are faced with being tried for crimes by their own government or military?

Sure, in the case of Abu Ghraib a few token scapegoats were given prison sentences to allude to the existence of transparency, but the reality remains that no military intelligence personnel or member of the Pentagon or Department of Defense were ever held accountable, let alone anyone in the administration itself. It was swept away as a tragic occurrence that had no root in policy or mismanagement when, in fact, it was steeped in both.

In the case of the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, and the murder of her family, by US troops, justice was again only handed out after the incident hit the headlines. All of those tried by the military cut deals, receiving sentences between 5 and 110 years in length. Even the soldier that received the longest sentence, Pfc. Jesse Spielman, will be eligible for parole in a decade. The supposed ringleader of the incident, having been discharged before it came to light, is being tried in a court in Kentucky where he has plead not guilty.

Were the afore mentioned crimes to have been committed during the Second World War, those responsible, as well as the command infrastructure in place, would have faced prison or the gallows.

Haditha

The reality of Haditha is that we may never know what actually occurred that day. The initial US military press release reads…

“A US marine and 15 civilians were killed yesterday from the blast of a roadside bomb in Haditha. Immediately following the bombing, gunmen attacked the convoy with small arms fire. Iraqi army soldiers and marines returned fire, killing eight insurgents and wounding another.

Interestingly, no civilians were killed that day by an IED explosion, as was confirmed by the wounds sustained by the victims, be it the five individuals killed in the taxi, four students and the driver, or those killed in four nearby houses that were stormed by US troops.

Video taken by Taher Thabet, the founder of the Hammurabi Human Rights Group, shows women and children with bullet holes in them, which is consistent with reports made by the director of the local hospital. In fact, the wounds of those killed were inconsistent with shrapnel wounds which would have been present had an IED been the cause of death.

At this point one has to ask the question – is this the result of immense internal confusion or something altogether different? If the official press release stated that 15 civilians were killed by an IED explosion, but that it was later discovered that the majority of those killed were found in houses and had wounds completely inconsistent with the affects of such an explosion, then how was that initial conclusion drawn? To me, this one element renders the validity of everything that came afterwards suspect.

In a 2006 report written by Major General Eldon Bargewell regarding the incident, Bargewell included the following…

“Statements made by the chain of command during interviews for this investigation, taken as a whole, suggest that Iraqi civilian lives are not as important as U.S. lives, their deaths are just the cost of doing business, and that the Marines need to get ‘the job done’ no matter what it takes. These comments had the potential to desensitize the Marines to concern for the Iraqi populace and portray them all as the enemy even if they are noncombatants.”

To me, such a conclusion speaks volumes, and it is certainly backed up by the testimony of Sergeant Sanick P. Dela Cruz, who was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony.

Dela Cruz asserted that he watched Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich shoot five Iraqis that were attempting to surrender, that both of them had fired into the bodies after they were dead, and that Dela Cruz then relieved himself on one of the corpses. This was, of course, after Lieutenant William Kallop, who ordered the assault on the four houses, testified that the rules of engagement were followed that day and that nothing suspect occurred.

Added to this convolution is the testimony of Major Dana Hyatt. Hyatt testified that eight of those killed that day were insurgents, four of whom were in the taxi, with the remaining four being killed in a single house. The problem, of course, is that nineteen of those killed that day were killed in three other adjacent houses and included women and children.

Of those killed in the taxi, four were students from the Technical Institute in Saqlawiyah – Mohammed Mahmoud, Akram Flayeh, Khalid al-Zawi, and Wajdi al-Zawi. Ahmed Khidher, the fifth victim, was the taxi driver.

Of the houses, only one contained four men, all of them brothers – Jamal, Chasib, Marwan, and Qahtan Ahmed. The other residences were occupied by civilians as young as one and as old as seventy-six. Between you and me, I honestly can’t remember the last time that I saw an infant fire a weapon, but maybe things are different in Iraq. In this case that logic would also apply to a three year old, a four year old, two five year olds, and two eight year olds.

The fact that the various charges brought against those involved have been dropped does not come as a surprise to me. What does is this…

The incident took place on November 19th, 2005. The official military press release, which claimed that 15 people had been killed by an explosion produced by an IED, was released the next day. Since then, the evidence has shown that that press release was entirely inaccurate and wholly based on a Marine Corps communiqué, which was issued the day of the massacre. On March 19th, 2006, the United States military confirmed that, contrary to that initial report, 15 civilians were accidentally killed due to the actions of Marines and not an IED. In the testimony that would follow in the years following the incident, there was no reiteration of the initial statement that involved the IED scenario as the chief cause of civilian deaths.

Again, I could care less who was acquitted. The question remains, how do you go from an initial ground report to a press release a day later to the uncovering that both were fraudulent without suspicion remaining ever-present?

Two things are for certain regarding what happened that day in Haditha. The military, given the convolution of events and testimony, was afforded the ability to spare their own, the damage having already been done with regards to Iraqi public perception. The second is that when an assault on a group of houses by professional soldiers results in the deaths of infants and old ladies, and it is claimed by those that commanded it that it was done ‘by the book’, then the time has come to question whose book it is and who it does, and does not, apply to.

I wanted to touch on a few things to do with the website because it seems that things have been getting a little unfriendly lately.

First, this website is not monitored 24 hours a day. Being that I’m on the road, I don’t have access to the web in some cases for several days. Likewise, Dale is not always available to monitor what goes on either. The Wordpress platform that we use does have a comments moderation feature that, at times, will hold random comments. This happens whether we’re online or not, and is simply a glitch in the feature itself. In fact, the spam feature that we use also holds perfectly acceptable comments from time to time as well. Once we realize that they’re there we approve them. For the most part, it’s more a headache for us than anything else, but is a part of the system we use. As many of you are aware, we do our utmost to keep the site updated and operating at the highest levels possible, as it sees a great deal of traffic on a daily basis. But sometimes, things do slip through the cracks. Are there better platforms out there? Some believe that there are – everyone has their preference. A lot of people swear by Drupal, others by Moveable Type, and even some by Blogger. Every one of them has aspects that have to be troubleshot when they’re used to run a site that contains the magnitude of content that a site like this does. Unlike a lot of sites, this website is not run by a hired company. Dale and I run the website ourselves, I pay for the hosting out of my own pocket, and when problems arise sometimes we’re not around to deal with them. In a perfect world I’d have three people dedicated to the site that could deal with issues immediately as they arise, but I can’t afford that sort of luxury.

You know, I’d like to say that there’s something diabolically autocratic going on because at least that would be interesting. But the truth is that there are small speed bumps in the system that, from time to time, holds completely random comments. Thus, trying to turn it into an issue of censorship is a little much.

Second, with regards to constant accusations that the website is frequented by nothing more than sycophants, let me be very plain about my views pertaining to them. I have absolutely no control over who joins the website. If an individual adheres to the site’s policies then they’re left alone. Those who spend their time trying to make an issue out of it fall into the troll category because they’ve chosen to make it personal and thus inflame situations that are not otherwise confrontational. It is one thing to disagree with someone’s opinion; it is another altogether to attack it by claiming it sycophantic and therefore pointless. That is not an argument it’s vitriolic and therefore counter to site policy. In short, we don’t have the time for it, and I could really care less if that angers those that think it their right and attempt to pain it as counterpoint.

Lastly, with regards to the incident involving my bus, let me put it in terms that everyone can understand.

Imagine waking up one morning to find your house covered in derogatory slogans attacking you. Not simply graffiti, but personalized attacks specifically directed at you.

How would you feel?

Would you shrug it off, as some have suggested that it is easy to do? Would you consider it the act of individuals simply seeking attention that had no real malicious intentions by committing the act itself? Would you say that those who had done it were simply ‘artistically expressing themselves and their discontent’, as was suggested in the comments of the entry I have since deleted?

I am not a politician. I do not hold public office; therefore the political ‘expressions’ of those that might disagree with me are not a form of dissent. Simply because I have some public notoriety does not justify vandalism, let alone hateful slogans being spray painted on the side of a tour bus. Attempting to justify it is, in my opinion, ridiculous. Attempting to compare it to something far more drastic, such as being attacked by a suicide bomber, is also ridiculous, as it doesn’t apply to this issue. It’s merely people’s inability to place themselves in it and thus attempt to produce worse scenarios to make the incident appear of little import.

Being that this is my personal website, I write about a variety of things, including my personal experiences. This incident was obviously of concern to me, so I made mention of it. If it did not seem severe enough to mention to some, then what am I to say? Sorry? Should I wait until something that others consider truly horrible to occur to bother penning a personal entry? If that’s the case then I’ll get back to you the next time that I get shot at. And being that I’ve never been shot it, that could be a while.

As promised, I am posting an update about the “full scale riots” predicted by Chief superintendent Steven Cullen at the APEC summit in Sydney. As I mentioned on the 5th, Cullen was warning that protestors would get out of hand and that it would lead to widespread violence…

“Chief superintendent Steven Cullen, head of the state Public Order and Riot Squad, said he had never been so worried about a demonstration in his career, predicting “horrendous” implications for public safety.

“Police lines will come under attack and a full-scale riot is probable,” Cullen told the Supreme Court.”

Well, the results are in. According to Agence France-Presse, three protestors out of thousands in attendance were arrested, and 2 police officers were injured. The protest itself was “mostly peaceful” according to the article.

As I have stated before, there are always going to be a handful of idiots that show up at these things and cause problems, but that doesn’t render the process pointless…

“Deanna Adam, who attended the protest with her two children, India aged seven and Kyle, eight, told AFP: “We are here because we oppose the war in Iraq. It’s costing too many lives. I have children and I am worried about their future.”

That said, it was certainly a far cry from the “full scale riot” that Cullen claimed was probable.