Tuesday digest

- Nothing like a reality check on good ol' Che Guevara, hero of the malleable undergraduate. More here.

- Newt Gingrich is coming under a lot of fire for candidly discussing the decline of Motown. If there was ever a place that was begging for reform, that would have to be it, but do you expect the unions and race-baiters which make up the establishment of that community (and I use that term loosely) to do anything other than cry "I'm offended"?

Transcript here.

- A very interesting look at the oil supply, here.

- The CRTC (our government agency here in Canada that controls the airwaves) is imposing a requirement on a burgeoning Christian radio station to give over an hour a day of time to other religious faiths to satisfy a "balance" requirement.

I have three questions:

a) What is precluding members of these other faiths from starting up their own radio stations?
b) In the absence of these other efforts, why is the government forcing some other guy who has laid out the cash, time and effort to launch his own radio station, and isn't even a member of those other faiths, to do what people of those faiths won't do on their own?
c) Would the Canadian state impose a similar requirement for Christian points of view on, say, an Islamic radio station?

- Another reason why Metallica is best ignored these days: guitarist Kirk Hammett says that the most important moment of their career is probably not their first #1 album, debuting as a headliner, or even putting together the the comeback from the widely-held-as-absolutely-craptacular St. Anger album and the embarassing pity party, "Some Kind of Monster", which one hopes they are focused on right now.

No, in fact, likely the most important moment in their over 25-year existence according to Hammett is quite possibly their performance at Live Earth. Sayeth he: "You know, if we can make that much of a difference, and make that much change, by all means. Because I love the Earth, I love the environment, I love nature. And it's so important."

Hey, at least he believes, and that's the most important thing, right?

- Things that annoy:

Use of the word "frick".

Those new cellular ringtones that sound like the type of rotary outfit that your doctor's office used to have with the series of clear buttons on the bottom with one red one. Hey, asshole - the set of the Johnny Carson Show called, they want their phone back, and by virtue of having your volume set to 8, you will never be understated or subtle enough to be considered a renaissance man, so just give it up already.

Being accosted by Amnesty International activists on the streets of downtown Ottawa asking me if I have a "few minutes for human rights". Actually, no, I don't, because I'm trying to quickly grab a sub so I can get back to my desk and do some work, thank you very much, you holier-than-thou, left-wing John Bircher.

Monday digest

- Here's a story about a Canadian who would have been left on the cutting room floor had he been interviewed for "Sicko". Context here.

- Speaking of deviating from the dominant narrative, could it be that the surge might be working?

- I couldn't have said it better myself ... the #1 reason the Left adores the theory underpinning communism is because they think everyone is stupid and in need of their intelligent guidance.

- According to this poster at the Daily Kos, it's a good thing that the members of the Armed Forces are feeling a little fatigued these days - all the better to resist the inevitable order to impose military rule, which should be coming from the White House any day now, apparently.

By the way, this web site's convention is hosting every single Dem nominee save Joe Biden this weekend in Chicago. You may say that there's a lot of nonsense spouted off by bloggers all over the political spectrum - fine - but do you see Presidential candidates lining up to legitimize angry and cruel discourse like that which is found at the Daily Kos?

- On that note, this is a complete outrage. I want someone to ask Hillary, the only hope for a centrist voice in the Democratic party (and a bleak one at that), what she thinks of her party's antics on this issue.

- A dissenting voice from a community that has been irreparably damaged by government paternalism over the years who urges fresh thinking and a new approach is dismissed as inauthentic by his rivals. Where have we seen that before?

- The NAACP is reaching out to Michael Vick and seeing how they can be of assistance to him. Is this what the civil rights movement has come to in the year 2007?

- Pierre Trudeau has been nominated as the worst Canadian ever. What I'd like to know is, who the heck is Chris Hannah?

Book Review: "Suicide of the West" by Richard Koch and Chris Smith (2006)

... (T)he denial of authority can engender subjective sterility, where any point of view appears as good as another. Postmodern philosophers assert that everything is relative. Truth becomes 'privatized', a matter of importance arrived at by scientific investigation and public debate. Not only is nothing better than anything else, but also we can never know the nature of truth. This dubious philosophy has been used to justify ignorance and elevate emotion and opinion above reason and science.

Relativism corrodes the sense of responsibility without which liberal society cannot work. Reasoned debate can only impose obligations on members of society if the acknowledge that there is such a thing as 'the public good' and that some policies and some forms of behaviour are better than others.

The sense of personal responsibility is also being undermined by another development. Increasingly, personal disadvantages, or the defects of society, are regarded as an excuse for antisocial behaviour. Whole swathes of Western society have come to see themselves as 'victims' who are therefore not liable for the consequences of their actions. The mass manufacture of 'victims' has done untold damage both to them and to the sense of citizens' mutual responsibility that liberal communities require. History furnishes countless examples where the human spirit has overcome war, disability, plague, oppression, famine, flood, poverty, social discrimination, and even concentration camps. It is insulting to assume that disadvantaged people cannot rise above their tribulations, that the suffering and difficulties of all human life somehow justify antisocial or criminal activity. Liberal civilization - in both its Anglo-Saxon and social-democratic guises - rests on overcoming problems and bad behaviour, not multiplying them; on taking responsibility, not denying it.

Indiscriminate respect for all cultures, all peoples and all views shades into acceptance of anti-intellectualism and anti-liberalism. If everything is relative, then anything - cannibalism, genocide - can be justified. Liberals can be soft touches. An attempt to see all points of view, filtered through the liberal mind, can lead to a belief that if fanatics such as suicide bombers hate us, then we must have done something terrible to generate this hatred. That way lies our own suicide - if fascist enemies cannot be recognized, and if liberals will not fight for liberal values, then the barbarians will won. Many Western liberals are perversely unwilling to recognize the unprecedented virtues of Western liberal society - something that other societies could not have produced, something that is worth defending and, by mutual consent, extending. Perversely, the most dangerous enemy of liberalism is liberalism.

- From "The Suicide of the West", pp. 132-133

This extremely readable 200-page essay by British entrepreneur Richard Koch and former UK Secretary of State Chris Smith takes a look at what they believe to be the six pillars of Western civilization: Christianity, optimism, science, growth, liberalism and individualism. Each one is explained historically, compared and contrasted against each other, and evaluated in terms of the dominant discourse today in the media, universities, and governments across Europe and North America. In so doing, Koch and Smith find that there is lukewarm enthusiasm on the part of elites for the values that have built and made the West into the most prosperous, free and comfortable society in which humanity has ever lived, intellectually underscoring other recent and more practical works by writers like Bruce Bawer, Melanie Phillips and Mark Steyn. The one complaint I have is that the title of "Suicide of the West" is overly alarmist as the authors themselves don't even come to that conclusion, instead issuing a warning wrapped in an examination rather than some Chicken Little-type polemic.

Worth looking for.

Overall rating: 9.25/10

Saturday digest

- Overtaxing Canadians by $3.5 billion two months into this fiscal year (or, put another way, well over $100 for every man, woman and child in the country), and laying the groundwork for retreat from Afghanistan.

Just another day at the office for this so-called Conservative government.

- Quote of the day: "We have to understand there are differences between capitalist lobotomies and socialist lobotomies."

- The latest brand of save the earth/overpopulation hysteria includes calls for an agreement to stop procreating. Here's a short explanation of why that kind of zero-sum thinking is wrong-headed.

Book Review: "Billion Dollar Baby" by Bob Greene (1974)

This hidden classic, first published in November 1974 (when I would have been anywhere from four to eight weeks of age), is a first-person account of life in a top rock n' roll band by a newspaper reporter who was brought along to be part of the on-stage show during Alice Cooper's December 1973 jaunt across selected markets in eastern North America.

The deal was that he wouldn't be paid but would have full access and creative control to document what he saw, and Greene takes full advantage of it, in effect recreating the scene where the drape is pulled back in "The Wizard of Oz" but with America's most controversial artist as the subject.

Things begin in Manhattan where Greene is brought in to the studio to sing backup on tracks for the follow-up to "Billion Dollar Babies", which is followed by the launch of the tour in Nashville. All of the monotony, excess and logistical nightmares are brought into full view. In fact, it's so detailed and personal an account that to refer to it as a "tell-all" would almost cheapen it.

I'm totally surprised that this addictive read isn't better known by fans of the rock memoir genre, as the first I'd heard of it was on a metal discussion board this week. Even more disappointing is that it's now out of print and not even to be found within the entire Ottawa Public Library network. So how did I get a hold of it? Right here, baby. A word of warning, however: if you download this while at the office, you won't be getting a lot of work done.

Fascinating.

Overall rating: 9/10

Thursday digest

- A Liberal politican from Toronto throwing tax dollars around to buy ethnic votes?

I'm shocked.

- There's nothing wrong with teaching kids how to bounce back from failure.

- Oh, that nasty US government, sentencing native-born Americans who chose to attend terror camps in Pakistan to a whopping 15 years in jail. The reasoning? He might have been "naive", the poor thing.

What an outrage.

Wednesday digest

- Even the trendiest, faddiest, most pretentious poser/hipster mag out there can't deny the greatness of one of the last of the real, authentic American rock bands. "Appetite for Destruction", hands down the best debut album of all time and the record that changed my life, was released twenty years ago this summer. Danger. Soul. Sleaze. Riffs. Screams. Solos. Hunger. Piss. Vinegar. Larger than life. That was what the original lineup of Guns n' Roses brought to the table and is exactly why we'll still be talking about them twenty years from now and twenty years after that.

"Rocket Queen".

"Out Ta Get Me".

"Jungle".

"Nighttrain".

"It's So Easy".

Unmatched.

- Remember a few years back how the surest way to know an argument was over was when you heard the losing side accuse the other of being "anti-democratic"? I have a feeling that the accusation of "treason" is about to take hold in similar fashion. A few weeks back, after the Live Earth extravaganza, we had Bobby Kennedy Jr. tell us that anyone who didn't believe in man-made global warming was a "traitor". Now the far left/mainstream Democratic website the Daily Kos is upping the ante by running drivel like this as a recommended diary over at their site:

"Now is the time for us, as a nation, to stand together and face the criminals inhabiting and infesting our government. It's time for Congress to impeach, convict and remove all elements of this dangerous infection, preventing them from ever holding office again.

And anyone -- Liebercrat or Republican -- who stands to oppose impeachment, conviction and removal should be tried for their role as accomplice in the sedition and treason against the United States. No more should they be permitted to hide behind snivelling protocols and talk out both sides of their mouths -- either they are with the nation, or they are part of the criminal conspiracy currently thwarting the will of both Congress and the People."

You'll be hearing a lot more about Kos in the next few weeks as the Democratic front runners line up to kiss the ring.

- A look at the recent gun violence in Toronto, here.

Does anyone still think that kids who grow up without a father in the home aren't at higher risk of certain outcomes than those who do?

No government program is going to change the answer to that question.

- A look at the social spinoffs of economic growth, here.

- The man who left Canada divided, broke and decimated its founding political party beyond repair in the process loves Stephen Harper.

It's not like I needed yet another reason to spoil my ballot next time around, but I'll just add this one to the list.

Tuesday digest

- Lindsay Lohan was busted again for drinking and driving. Why, exactly, is this newsworthy?

- A carpenters' union in DC is paying homeless people minimum-wage money with no benefits to pose as members and picket for higher salaries.

- The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer? Nope. Everyone's getting richer, just some more quickly than others.

- It's been a while since I've posted a loony left play of the day, so here goes. I really hope this protest tactic doesn't come to Canada because seeing the fairer members of the federal NDP caucus unclothed is something no one wants to be subjected to.

- I posted this earlier in the month, but in case you missed it, I'm posting it again. It's a clip of the smug, Upper Canada College-educated CBC talking head Avi Lewis - son of David (all genuflect) and Michelle Landsberg, women's-libber from the Toronto Star, and husband of caviar socalist Naomi Klein - dismissively mocking Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch politician of Somali origin who has faced Sharia law, genital mutilation and numerous death threats for speaking out against violent Islam. Deconstruction here.

Monday digest

- Drew Carey replacing Bob Barker? I like it!

- Unfortunately, the observation that some Democrats have more in common with Karl Marx than they do Adam Smith would still put far too many folks four square in their camp. Luckily, there's this handy-dandy link to show them the error of their ways and save them from further embarassment.

- More here on a guy who is a disgrace to the journalism profession - and that's saying quite a bit. Contrast his work with sophisticated yet accessible social science like this and you'll see why I can't resist bring him up over and over again.

- This might just be the quote of the year, from Newt Gingrich: "I have no interest in trying to figure out how I can go out and raise money under John McCain's insane censorship rules so I can show up to do seven minutes and twenty seconds at some debate".

Speaking of McCain, it's pretty sad to see his partner in crime, Russ Feingold, running around talking about censuring the President when the biggest issue by far these days should be what to do about Pakistan and al-Qaeda's base there.

Then again, Feingold's a far-left Democratic Senator, a group which continues to insist on playing amateur hour, which, especially taking the guy at 1600's disastrous second term into account, is no small feat these days in DC.

- Gold: Hitch tells Galloway that he's waiting to write a review of his prison memoirs.

- Yet another reason to give props to Oz, here.

- After seeing these pics, it's pretty safe to say that Madonna is officially past her prime.

DVD Review: "Synchronicity Concert - The Police" (2005)

Just in time for the reunion tour of The Police, which is hitting central Canada this week, HMV has this DVD priced at a can't-go-wrong $8.99. As a casual fan at best who saw Sting in June 1993 at the late, great Kingswood Music Theatre just north of Toronto as part of the Canada's Wonderland $12 concert series, I passed on getting tickets for this summer's jaunt, finding this purchase a much more reasonable proposition.

Directed by Godley and Creme and released as a home video in 1984, this effort has not aged well. Sting looks like he's wearing something from the set of his film debut "Dune" and the cheesy background singers are laughable. Even worse is the Atlanta crowd. I lost count of how many Puma T-shirts I saw. Lame effects are inserted into the presentation, too, like strobe lights and that kind of thing. Don't get me wrong - if I was a twenty-year old new waver living in my parents' basement in the mid-80s and got a hold of this, I'd think it was pretty cool, but it's 2007. Musically, things are decent, but this video reinforces that the band's hits were head and shoulders above their album cuts. It is also a good look at the drumming of Stewart Copeland, often overlooked outside of certain circles. Moreover, the show itself is your basic lighting kit with dry ice here and there - nothing spectacular.

Take a look at Message in a Bottle and you'll see for yourself. A decent addition to your shelf of live DVDs, but only if you're a collector - otherwise, you aren't missing much.

Overall rating: 5/10

Album Review: "AIn't Life Amazing" by Kim Mitchell (2007)

What would summer in Canada be without the Toronto Blue Jays fighting for a playoff berth, the smell of a campfire, bug spray, a four-beer buzz, and the sweet sounds of Kim Mitchell wafting through the air?

Priced at an agreeable $9.99 at HMV, I'm happy to say that this independently-released album from the Can-Con legend does not follow the Eric Clapton/Phil Collins/Rod Stewart route whereby 50-something artists cash in by writing or performing embarassing tunes that would find their way onto either a children's soundtrack or an album of "standards" that would both fit perfectly on your local easy listening station's playlist. Instead, like every Kim album before it, it sounds different from anything that he's done before, while retaining that undeniable Mitchell sound, usually through a clean, uptempo guitar sound and layered vocals that aren't going to blow you away but are perfectly serviceable given the can't-quite-put-my-finger-on-it material underneath them.

Some people might be dismissive, but I think it's great that this fella is still creative, and strongly so at that, despite earning a paycheque these days that comes from playing the odd county fair and doing the drive-home shift on Toronto's Q107. While "Ain't Life Amazing" isn't on par with my personal favourite album from Mitchell, the overlooked 1992 release "Aural Fixations", it gets one-and-a-half enthusiastic thumbs up from this long-time fan. Now does anyone know where I can get an OPP hat?

Overall rating: 7.5/10

Book Review: "Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd" by Nick Mason (2005)

I flipped through this rock autobiography after seeing last Saturday's amazing Roger Waters show in Toronto, and I'd place it somewhere between a couple of other books by drummers which I've read over the last year - not quite as entertaining as this, nor nearly as insufferable as this.

The first half of "Inside Out" is dominated by stories of the band's formation in England in the mid-1960s, which is a little dry but is made up for from the period of about 1970 onward, whereby founding member and clinically insane original guitarist Syd Barrett was sidelined in favour of the elegant David Gilmour. The Dark Side/Wish You Were Here years are covered in detail, as is the infamous Olympic Stadium show in 1977 on the "Animals" tour, which led to the birth of The Wall, Floyd's magnum opus. Mason comes across like detached observer here, more interested in racing cars than the trappings of fame. As for keyboardist Rick Wright decides to pretty much float along, content to let the others do the work, and Waters (as is well-documented) takes over the Floyd apparatus as Gilmour focused on his solo work. Of course, the whole Wall phenomenon, along with accompanying mini-tour and film, was the breaking point for the original lineup with the dismal epilogue "The Final Cut" putting the nail in the band's coffin, revealing Waters' complete arrogance in promoting himself as "The Creative Genius of Pink Floyd" on his latest tour as he really held the pen only on these latter two projects.

Throughout the 80s, the reunion of Mason and Gilmour as Floyd along with the accompanying "Momentary Lapse of Reason" album and tour is chronicled, situated as it was amongst a myriad of lawsuits from Waters and feeble attempts by Gilmour to co-write with the likes of Carole Pope, among others. Wright is once again brought back into the fold for the "Delicate Sound of Thunder" tour, which opened in Ottawa in 1987, with Waters' comments in the press underlining the observation that most musicians are twenty degrees to the left when it involves other people's money and twenty degrees to the right when it involves their own. The part of the book I found most fascinating was the lead-up to the massive 1994 "Division Bell" album, an album which easily places within Floyd's top five albums, and on same days, I'd even say top three.

Things conclude with the Live 8 performance of 2005, footage of which I haven't seen, but all said, this is a decent look at the history of one of rock's superstar outfits from one who had the perfect vantage point. However, it's not written for a general audience, and I'd suggest listening to a few albums before picking this one up as serious fans will enjoy it much more than casual ones.

Overall rating: 8/10

Friday digest

- Last night, the lead story on O'Reilly was Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock who was discussing the Michael Vick dogfighting scandal. Whitlock suggested that Vick's participation in dogfighting is linked to a "hip-hop/prison culture" that is glorified by many black athletes.

I have to mention that while everyone seems to have their knickers in a knot over cruelty towards Dobermans and pit bulls, discussing cruelty towards, say, a fetus, remains completely off the table and considered the epitome of extremism.

Is a little proportionality too much to ask for?

- I love it: David Miller, socalist mayor of Toronto, and councillor/Toronto Transit Commission chairman Adam Giambrone (who also happens to be a former national president of the New Democratic Party) are mad because their tax hike got rejected by council, so instead of reining in the public sector unions or reforming in other areas, they're threatening to wreak havoc on bus and subway service across the GTA, protecting their buddies in CUPE and OPSEU from tough medicine at the expense of seniors, students and those who can't afford private transportation.

So much for looking out for the poor and vulnerable.

- If you really, really are concerned about global warming, the best thing to do is to go vegetarian.

Oh? What's that, you say? Something about "a sacrifice you're not willing to make"?

I suppose you'll be hanging on to that propane-powered barbecue as well, then.

- Want an example of how to be against the war in Iraq but still in support of the troops? Look no further than the one and only Mr. Toby Keith.

- And a new global survey shows that whoever said money doesn't buy happiness, was, well, pretty much wrong.

Thursday digest

- Note to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper: like Ernie Eves, Joe Clark and Kim Campbell before you, your Liberal-lite Conformatory routine is failing to put you in to majority territory. Maybe it's time to start acting like a right winger to differentiate yourself from the alternative.

- Eco-vandalism has taken root in DC.

- Here's a study which suggests that if you eliminate non-citizens, those who choose not to purchase health insurance and those who qualify for government health insurance but haven't applied, the number of uninsured Americans is far lower than the 45 to 47 million figure which is often claimed.

- Speaking of which, the City of Ottawa has decided to stop subsidizing crack addicts. Usually, I would totally applaud this decision, but under Canada's no-fault public health care system, it will probably end up costing taxpayers money in the long run because in the Great White North, individuals aren't held accountable for behaviour-driven costs but are instead expected to contribute to its financing based on only one variable: personal income. Take a look at this lengthy yet vital contextual piece for more.

- Ed Koch says he's done with Iraq.

- Valerie Plame, your fifteen minutes of fame are officially up.

- The Washington Post agrees: it's time to target northwestern Pakistan.

- Everyone interested or concerned with Third World poverty will enjoy this piece from The Economist.

- Other items a little less serious here and here.

Wednesday digest

- Former Labour MP George Galloway, friend of the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, CUPE and the Canadian Islamic Congress, has been booted out of the British House of Commons for taking oil-for-food money from Saddam Hussein and using it to fund campaigns against both sanctions and an invasion of Iraq. Short story here, long story here.

- Al-Qaeda has established a beachhead in northwestern Pakistan.

I think it's time for a fly-over.

- I'm 32 years of age. The good thing about that is that I'm perfectly positioned to make a fair bit of cake during my prime earning years. The bad thing is that the welfare state is going to take an increasing chunk of that income - who knows how much? - because we haven't reformed entitlement spending.

Meanwhile, it looks like Norwegians are about to launch a tax revolt of their own.

- Yesterday, I blogged about the declining consumption of newspapers, and commented that I think it's a generally negative trend. More on that subject here.

- If some Americans don't want to buy health insurance, why should they have to?

- Last summer, I warned my female readers about wearing those massive Nicole Richie-type sunglasses because in fifteen years, you'll look back on pictures of yourself and cringe. This summer, I have to say the same thing about crocs. And while I'm on the subject of things I don't "get", how about Harry Potter? (Then again, I once said about ten years ago that there would never be a country CD in my player, ever, and look at how that turned out.)

- Here's a sensible article for Ottawa readers concerning what to do with the soon-to-number two empty stadiums in town.

Tuesday digest

- Take a look at some of the donors to Al Franken's far left campaign to take one of Minnesota's Senate seats:

Robin Williams, Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Larry David, Jason Alexander, Dan Aykroyd - $4,600 each
Rosie O'Donnell - $2,300
Bill Maher - $1,000

A credible champion of the middle American who's just working to make ends meet, he ain't.

- Speaking of 9/11 conspiracy theorists, how about the latest from Fidel, who says that the United States government deliberately allows terror attacks to take place to justify its foreign policy? Um, last I checked, there hadn't been any incidents on US soil since the World Trade Center disaster.

- The guy from whom Castro cribs his talking points is a low-down, dirty sleazeball.

- Kids' TV in the Palestinian territories: aren't you glad the Canadian Prime Minister is sending your tax dollars to help fund this?

- A recent survey reveals that only 1 out of 3 Americans surveyed and over the age of 30 read the newspaper every day, while less than 1 in 5 under the age of 30 do so. As imperfect as the media is, generally speaking (see here and here), I find that troubling because television news is more sensational and derived of proper context than hard news, and an ignorant public is a precursor to a society in decline.

- A thoughtful piece on Western elites who have positioned themselves as self-styled experts on Africa, here.

- More on the book review below here, with other interesting pieces on the faith/politics intersection here, here and here.

Book Review: "The Political Teachings of Jesus" by Tod Lindberg (2007)

Christianity Organized religion is taking more of a beating than usual these days, with the non-fiction best seller list dominated by atheistic screeds (see here and here) and the Catholic church in particular having a rough past couple of weeks with the molestation settlement in LA on top of the Pope's most recent controversy. In addition, you have the usual secularists who blame Christians for everything from the war on terror to the 2000 election ("stolen", of course) to madmen firing guns outside of abortion clinics and all things in between, especially as we enter another election season in the United States. However, it's easy to focus on dogma and/or the foibles and errors of humanity while sidelining the spiritual teachings of Jesus himself as articulated in the Gospels.

In Canada, these teachings have been used to implicitly justify political programs from the far left to the new right, not to mention the brokerage Liberal party and their poorer cousins in the former Progressive Conservative party, leading to Prime Ministers who were uniformly if nominally Catholic from the period of 1968-2006 uninterrupted (except for Kim Campbell and her summer job back in 1993). Never easy to grasp at the best of times, I picked up this book wanting to make sense of it all as a former altar boy, libertarian-leaning yet practicing, and unfortunately, I found it of of little practical value, as it combines theology, political thought and philosophy - three of the dullest disciplines known to man - with not a lot outside of the abstract on offer.

That said, what I did take from this book was of some use. Boiled down, way down, the author suggests that there are three things which basically underline Christ's teachings. First is the Golden Rule - treat others as you would have them treat you. Second is the primacy of faith in God above all other things - this is how it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man, not just any rich man but one who puts the pursuit of those riches above devotion to God, to enter Heaven. Finally, the concept of free will, whereby any charity or good works that are compulsed, either by institutions, guilt or some other misguided sense of duty, isn't authentic. In fact, we were created with the full power to choose our own destinies and through those choices one will find the way to the afterlife. Jesus himself reflected humanity's God-given free will by choosing to die on the Cross when He could very well have prevented the whole thing from happening by virtue of the fact that He was God made man - if you choose to believe it, of course.

Still, that doesn't take away from the fact that I kept thinking that this book could have been so much better if it was just a tad more down to earth, but it did clarify and develop my thinking on the subject a little bit.

Overall rating: 4/10

Monday digest

- Having breakfast yesterday in Scarlem over the Toronto Sun, I couldn't help but notice that the city's NDP mayor, David Miller, is leading the charge towards an increase in the land transfer tax, effectively doubling it, and introducing a new motor vehicle registration fee. He says that without imposing such a penalty for homebuyers and car owners, the city wouldn't be able to compete with Chicago and London because the T-Dot's public sector (and its unionized friends) would have to shrink itself - clearly, a choice far too horrific to contemplate.

We can only conclude that the socialist Miller thinks that his city is great because of its government, not in spite of it, which is why he wants to reach even further into the pockets of Torontonians, as obviously thinks he needs their money more than they do.

TUESDAY MORNING UPDATE: The council will vote on the tax raise once the October provincial election takes place, which, according to the Mayor, will be a victory for those who want to see the poor have less food in their stomachs. In other words, pack your bags, because the left is sending you on a guilt trip:

Miller's political strategy was to impose the new taxes, then tell the provincial and federal governments it's time for them to do what they can to solve the city's financial problems. It didn't happen.

And Miller warned councillors that programs are likely to suffer as a result – such as swimming lessons for a boy he knows who lives in public housing.

"If you believe in services like helping feed people, if you believe in services like recreation programs for people that have nothing – if you support this deferral, what you're saying in effect is: I want those services to be cut, because that will be the consequences," Miller said.

- The continuing saga of the goose and the gander, here.

- Although I didn't follow the trial closely, I can't help but notice how everyone is piling on Conrad Black, who was found by a non-sequestered jury to be guilty of obstruction of justice because he moved a few boxes out of his office after a court told him not to. Could it be that he's been sentenced for being a wealthy and intelligent right-winger with an air of pomposity more than anything else?

Note also that Patrick Fitzgerald, the same guy who decided to assassinate Scooter Libby's character and destroy his career by putting him on the stand even though he (Fitzgerald) already knew the identity of the leaker in the whole Plame affair, was the prosecuting lawyer in Black's case.

In particular, a lot of Canadians are relishing Black's fall from grace, particularly within the establishment. In fact, some presumptous observers have even predicted that he will eventually kill himself. Please.

Now while it's true that Black may come off as though he thinks he's above the law, but since when is that a crime, as opposed to, say, unabashedly dissenting from Trudeaupian orthodoxy for years and years and years?

- VDH on the New York Times' capitulation to fascism, here, or, if you prefer, Wahabbism.

- As a society, I don't think that three-parent families is a can of worms we want to open - or maybe I'm just a redneck for even raising it.

More here.

- A fitting epitaph for John McCain, here.

- The top 100 rock tours of 2007 so far, from Pollstar.

Live Review: Roger Waters, Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON, July 14, 2007

Much more a David Gilmour than a Roger Waters fan as far as individual members of Pink Floyd go, I wasn't interested in checking out Waters' lastest tour in the least until a block of $40 tickets were released for last night's show at what used to be called the Skydome. Things came together quite nicely so a buddy and I decided to head down to Toronto yesterday to check it out, and to say it was a pleasant surprise would be a massive understatement.

We settled into our upper deck seats and found that we had a perfect view of the stage. I had never sat up there before for a rock show, so I was happy to find out that things were looking good. However, I was wondering how the sound was going to be since the upside-down toilet bowl that is the Rogers Centre is notoriously poor for acoustics, but as the 30,000 other attendees and I found out, it was absolutely impeccable. Fans of Floyd know that they are the original headphone band, and it was recreated in full last night. From the opening notes of "In the Flesh?" through "Mother", it was clear that Waters had spared no expense sonically. Also, for a guy who has created most of his public persona as a musician on an intense dislike of the whole rock star experience, particularly in a live stadium setting, there were flashpots, pyro, dry ice, bubbles, floating astronauts and pigs, and lasers in addition to two large screens on either side of the stage and a massive one in behind the band which displayed tons of graphics and movies to go with each song.

Musically, this was truly a mind-blowing performance. The first half was comprised of mostly Floyd tunes stretching back to "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", the third track after which I knew that my money was going to be well spent on this evening. The highlights of the first half were "Have A Cigar" and "Sheep". The second half was made up of the entire "Dark Side of the Moon" album, and "Any Colour You Like" was tops here. You can find an entire set list here, and the footage I've linked to above is taken from the level where we were sitting, so it will give you a good idea of how I experienced it (although we were sitting a few sections over to the left, and not as high up, so the lighting truss didn't obstruct our view at all). Waters and various band members sang the Gilmour parts, depending on which song it was, and I have to say that to this Gilmour fan, they were done justice, especially considering Waters himself is in his early 60s - and I saw no evidence of vocal enhancements despite rumours to the contrary (see Wikipedia article above).

Quibbles? A couple. The keyboards during "Time" were way too low in the mix. Second, while I knew that Rog would have a bit to say about the state of the world today, there was absolutely no subtlety to his Chomskyist brand of secular cultural relativism. From the "Impeach Bush Now" written on the floating pig's ass to lyrics blaming the "Christian right" for the lack of peace in the Middle East to American and Israeli flags projected behind the band during "Bring the Boys Back Home", it was both a little over the top and frankly a tad clichéd by now. But that's the guy, right? I'm just glad I didn't buy $150 or even the $70 tickets to be told what to think by some hardcore socialist rock star who pisses all over the very society that has enabled him to have a platform from which to spout his beliefs in addition to making tons of money, even if his opinions do seem to be a little more well-considered than most that come out of the entertainment industry. No doubt dissenters in, say, Iran, Syria or the Palestinian territories are puzzled by such things that go on with regularity here in the West, where speaking ill of one's government is often glorified rather than punishable by death.

But I digress.

All told, it was an incredible, incredible performance, and while not quite on par with Gilmour, Wright and Mason's 1994 outing, it was still a hell of an evening from a true professional, even if he does have the audacity to refer to himself as "The Creative Genius of Pink Floyd". Fans of the band who are hoping for them to get back together shouldn't hold their breath, as it's clear that Waters needs to be in charge of whatever he does. Moreover, last night may very well be the final time that he ever plays some of those songs, as it was the last date of the entire tour (which began in June 2006).

Amazing.

Overall rating: 9.5/10

(PS: We headed over to the Horseshoe Tavern afterwards and caught the one and only White Cowbell Oklahoma. Chainsaws, megaphones and beer-soaked strippers on top of Big and Rich-esque antics multiplied by AC/DC riffage - everything I've come to expect from these guys, with a rollicking cover of Deep Purple's "Space Truckin'" to close the affair. Great stuff, and what a way to end the night.)

Live Review: Just for Laughs Festival, Montreal, QC, July 12, 2007

Today is Mrs. H's birthday, so in addition to a weed eater and a Coffee Crisp, I surprised her with tickets to two shows last night at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, from where I'm writing this morning.

First, we saw a French comic by the name of Stephane Rousseau . Those of you who have seen "The Barbarian Invasions", one of the best movies of the 2000's in my opinion, would know him as the son of the main character. I understood at least half of what was going on, which for me is pretty good, and was also a pleasant surprise as French Canadian comedians are not known for their articulation. He was like a more clever, less frenetic Quebecois version of Jim Carrey.

Then, we stopped in at La Belle Province restaurant for a hot dog and a pogo before downing a beer at a sidewalk bistro and heading to the Nasty Show at midnight. I had heard that this English-language show was not for the faint of heart, and the five guys who comprised this bill delivered on that promise. From jokes about fisting Helen Keller to observations about how having sex outdoors usually involves having bugs crawl up your back door and bite your sphincter with the end result being something that looks like a UFC fighter's ear to getting married because you think to yourself that sitting at home with empty testicles and a full wallet is a situation that must be reversed to how Montreal women are so hot even the homeless ones have nice racks - it was all here. And even I was slightly offended at some of it, which is actually quite impressive.

Good times.

Overall ratings:

Stephane Rousseau: 8/10
The Nasty Show: 9/10

Thursday digest

- Lee Harvey Oswald, lone-acting socialist looney tune.

- After wishing she could kill George Bush, an Irish peace activist blames him for the suffering in the Muslim world - because apparently all was sweet and light before he came along.

- As a new study estimates that 3/4 of the US public will be overweight within 8 years, with almost one in two Americans approaching obesity is released, Mike Huckabee is met with mean spirited personal attacks from you-know-who's attack dogs for suggesting that perhaps a look in the mirror might be appropriate before mouthing off on rising health care costs. And while I'm on the subject of choosing whether or not to spend your time and money on taking care of yourself or blaming the government instead for all your problems, here's a great rant concerning the subject (even if its author doesn't know how to use paragraphs).

- Canadian PM Stephen Harper of the Conformatory party is reinstating funding to Palestine and prepping for a withdrawal from Afghanistan. How Liberal is this guy going to get in search of that elusive majority?

- A revealing interview with uber-producer Bob Rock, here.

- Speaking of music, I'm hoping that people will finally start recognizing this guy for what he really was ... a babbling, drooling, self-indulgent jackass.

- Brent Sutter and the New Jersey Devils: I love it.

Wednesday digest

- Why stop at government-run health care? Hell, let's try "food care" for everybody (evidence from the former Soviet Union aside, of course).

- The parents of an American girl who died after deliberately standing in front of an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza a few years ago are now blaming the manufacturer, suing them because they sold Caterpillars to the Israeli government knowing that their product would be used to carry out "human rights violations".

And their lawyer teaches at Duke.

You can't make this stuff up.

- Watch out for those redheads. I hear they have a pretty nasty temper.

Tuesday digest

- A website that I've come to enjoy is called "I Don't Like You In That Way". What I like about it is that it takes celebrities down a few notches (although it's not like the one pictured above has much farther to fall).

It's the perfect antidote to a culture where the news is often confused with Entertainment Tonight.

- The epitome of an unhinged liberal, here. Stay tuned to the end when he calms down, but not enough to resist poking fun at Dr. Sanjay Gupta's Indo-American heritage by lampooning his family name.

- Looks like Jessica Simpson has rubbed off on John Mayer - and not in a good way, either:

For John Mayer, the raised awareness that Live Earth U.S.A. brought to the issue of climate change made the event a success. "I think a lot of people at Giants Stadium today want to listen," he said. "Awareness works likes a vitamin. You go to the bathroom and 99 percent of it is gone but you hope that you retained 1 percent."

What?

And from the same article, if you're a man-made global warming skeptic, RFK Jr. thinks you're a "traitor".

- This just in: women prefer men with muscles, and the Pope considers Catholicism to be just a cut above.

Why are these two stunning observations making headlines? This may partially explain it.

- Wednesday morning update: Moore's temper tantrum continued last night on Larry King Live. See here. I've seen first-year university essays with more intellectual rigour than this guy's efforts at social science. Also gotta love it when he insists that Canadian health care is "free" and also how he dodges the question about which country's system he'd rather use if he was ever in need of a heart catheter - and it's not like Gupta is some free-market ideologue.

Jeffrey Simpson:

Canadians just love feeling more virtuous than Americans, and Sicko lets them wallow in their virtue. No serious Canadian, however, believes Mr. Moore's idyllic, quickie portrait of Canadian medicare, just as no one believed his assertion in Bowling for Columbine that residents of Windsor don't lock their doors.

Monday digest

- In the above photo, Al Gore takes the mike at Live Earth to tell all of us 9 to 5'ers to take public transit after whispering to Cameron Diaz that next time she wants to go to Peru with her Mao Zedong purse in tow, he'll be happy to dispatch her aboard his private jet so she can avoid a PR disaster the size of her carbon footprint by flying commercial.

Post-mortems here, here and here.

- She's ba-ack: less than two months after saying she was quitting the anti-war movement, Cindy Sheehan has put Democratic pol Nancy Pelosi in her sights, threatening to run against Pelosi in her San Francisco district unless Pelosi launches impeachment proceedings against President Bush.

Comment? Well, like former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney once said, "there's no (publicity) whore like an old (publicity) whore." (Addition mine.)

Yes, it's crass, but also very appropriate.

- Toronto amusement park Canada's Wonderland has settled with a Sikh man who alleged that a requirement to wear a helmet in place of his turban on a go-kart ride constituted a human rights violation. To me, there should be a rule: if you don't want to wear a helmet for religious or any other reason, that's your choice, but in so doing, you would forego your right to a lawsuit claiming negligence on the part of the track and you would also have to pay the full cost of your own health care should you suffer an injury to your head which could have been prevented by wearing a helmet.

- A look back at the Democratic debate at DC's Howard University, here.

- It could be argued that often the cure seems sometimes worse than the disease when it comes to overseas interventions by the US government, but pulling out of Iraq would represent a massive sea change in traditional American foreign policy. We ought to be careful what we wish for, because we just might get it.

Album Review: "Lost Highway" by Bon Jovi (2007)

After hitting paydirt with Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles on "Who Says You Can't Go Home" about a year and a half ago, Jon Bon Hair Salon and the boys have offered up a country-tinged disc that has become the first #1 album for the band since 1988's "New Jersey".

I've often maintained that country music is the natural successor to the pop-metal that I grew up with and still love dearly, and so I'm happy to say that especially as compared with the dismal "Have a Nice Day", the fellas have their hearts right into this one all the way through. The title track (which opens the album) features a fiddle on top of a big "hey hey" singalong. Second track "Summertime" is irresistible, especially at this time of year. Lead off single "You Wanna Make a Memory" is perhaps the worst track on the whole record, which is saying something. And Nashville personalities like LeAnn Rimes, who appears on the emotional "Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore", and Big and Rich, part of the dumb yet catchy "We Got It Going On", make appearances as does Katrina Elam, a collaborator of Keith Urban's with an absolutely gorgeous voice, on "Everybody's Broken". And I'll call it right now: if I was in charge of the Grammy Awards, I'd name "Any Other Day" as next year's Song of the Year winner right now.

Check it out.

Overall rating: 8.25/10

Sunday digest

- "Private jets for climate change" Live Earth is now behind us, and whether the artists involved had any grasp of the facts of the issue, or, for that matter, perspective, is seemingly less important than, well, having your heart in the right place - on stage.

- A fascinating look at human rights before and after the invasion of Iraq, here. Meanwhile, the NYT says it's time to cut and run, despite, by their own admission, the inevitable chaos that would result in the region.

- A damning indictment of the ideology of "developmentalism" comes to us from the vital NYU economist William Easterly.

Album Review: "Libertad" by Velvet Revolver (2007)

"Libertad" is the second release from supergroup Velvet Revolver, following up their 2004 smash "Contraband". Unfortunately, it's not as strong as its predecessor. While there aren't any tracks that are downright awful or could be classified as filler, nothing really hits the listener right between the eyes the way "Slither" or other tracks off of their debut did. Lead singer Scott Weiland delivers a mediocre performance, and if you compare his voice to how it was 15 years ago on "Core", one can hear the damage that a decade and a half of substance abuse has done to the man. Instrumentally, combine any two tracks off of "Appetite for Destruction" and give them a listen because you'll hear more killer solos from Slash that way than you would by listening to the entire 50-plus minutes of this album.

Now, don't get me wrong - this is not a horrible album by any stretch of the imagination. It just doesn't do it for me the way I hoped it would. Perhaps if I shelve it for a couple of months and then bust it out again, I'll hear things that I haven't this week. I'm sure hoping so.

Overall rating: 6.25/10

Saturday digest

- Despite what you may hear, the US economy is booming - and good thing, too, because entitlement spending, which no one seems to want to speak about with honesty, depends on it.

- Understatement of the year: "Bush fatigue has set in".

- More here on the Glasgow cabbie who kicked a burning terrorist in the nutsack last weekend.

- Speaking of al-Qaeda, how about this article (excerpt below)?

Most Iraqis I talk with acknowledge that if it was ever about the oil, it’s not now. Not mostly anyway. It clearly would have been cheaper just to buy the oil or invade somewhere easier that has more. Similarly, most Iraqis seem now to realize that we really don’t want to stay here, and that many of us can’t wait to get back home. They realize that we are not resolved to stay, but are impatient to drive down to Kuwait and sail away. And when they consider the Americans who actually deal with Iraqis every day, the Iraqis can no longer deny that we really do want them to succeed. But we want them to succeed without us. We want to see their streets are clean and safe, their grass is green, and their birds are singing. We want to see that on television. Not in person. We don’t want to be here. We tell them that every day. It finally has settled in that we are telling the truth.

Now that all those realizations and more have settled in, the dynamics here are changing in palpable ways.

Since my reporting of the massacre at the al Hamari village, many readers at home have asked how anyone can know that al Qaeda actually performed the massacre. The question is a very good one, and one that I posed from the first hour to Iraqis and Americans while trying to ascertain facts about the killings.

No one can claim with certainty that it was al Qaeda, but the Iraqis here seem convinced of it. At a meeting today in Baqubah one Iraqi official I spoke with framed the al Qaeda infiltration and influence in the province. Although he spoke freely before a group of Iraqi and American commanders, including Staff Major General Abdul Kareem al Robai who commands Iraqi forces in Diyala, and LTC Fred Johnson, the deputy commander of 3-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, the Iraqi official asked that I withhold his identity from publication. His opinion, shared by others present, is that al Qaeda came to Baqubah and united many of the otherwise independent criminal gangs.

Speaking through an American interpreter, Lieutenant David Wallach who is a native Arabic speaker, the Iraqi official related how al Qaeda united these gangs who then became absorbed into “al Qaeda.” They recruited boys born during the years 1991, 92 and 93 who were each given weapons, including pistols, a bicycle and a phone (with phone cards paid) and a salary of $100 per month, all courtesy of al Qaeda. These boys were used for kidnapping, torturing and murdering people.

At first, he said, they would only target Shia, but over time the new al Qaeda directed attacks against Sunni, and then anyone who thought differently. The official reported that on a couple of occasions in Baqubah, al Qaeda invited to lunch families they wanted to convert to their way of thinking. In each instance, the family had a boy, he said, who was about 11 years old. As LT David Wallach interpreted the man’s words, I saw Wallach go blank and silent. He stopped interpreting for a moment. I asked Wallach, “What did he say?” Wallach said that at these luncheons, the families were sat down to eat. And then their boy was brought in with his mouth stuffed. The boy had been baked. Al Qaeda served the boy to his family.

Anyone out there still interested in debating whether these "combatants" still deserve the full protections afforded by the American legal system?

- The French intelligentsia is upset because Sarko is a jogger. Not only that, but he wears an NYPD T-shirt while doing so. I suppose they'd prefer it if he spent his free time sitting around hacking butts, eating butter croissants and reading Foucault.

- Scooter Libby was Marc Rich's lawyer. Who knew? While I'm on the office of the Vice-President, here's a week-long Washington Post series on his role within the Administration. I haven't read it all, but have put it up for those who may be interested.

- I am very impressed with Mitt Romney, and while it's too early to tell where he'll finish, it's looking like he'll end up doing better than McCain when all is said and done on the GOP side. Here's a look at the race in both parties from across the pond.

- The latest from another great Yankee pol, here.

- I tuned in to Live Earth last night and saw a bunch of young twenty-somethings on stage playing trumpets and decked out in T-shirts that said "Say No to Nuclear Energy". I wonder if they could explain the position they seem to have taken? I doubt it. Here's an article which reminds us to be skeptical when fame and public policy collide.

- This thoughtful article suggests that there would be much less cynicism and suspicion of the press if its members were more forthcoming about who they are and what biases they may bring to their reporting.

- Finally, brand-new Philadelphia Flyer and Quebec native Daniel Briere is being accused of selling out because he spurned an offer from the Montreal Canadiens. Perhaps the reason why Briere did that is because he appreciates a fan base that wants the best players on their team rather than just the best tribesmen.

Friday digest

- You know what word I am really starting to hate? "Dialogue". It's code for appeasement, appeasement of the likes of Omar Ahmad, Chairman Emeritus and co-founder of the Council for American-Islamic Relations, who, according to my buddy Neal Boortz, allegedly stated the following back in 1997:

"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."

No word if he'll be attending this conference in Oz this weekend.

Then, we have everyone pretending that Buddhists, Hindus, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, atheists and agnostics are just as likely to commit violence in the name of their faith as are adherents to the religion I conveniently didn't mention, just like new UK PM Gordon Brown would prefer.

Think about what columnist David Ignatius of the Washington Post said this week:

A chilling measure of Muslim anger is that several of the suspected bomb plotters arrested by the British are doctors. What kind of rage would lead a physician trained in the healing arts to pack together nails, explosives and propane gas in a mix that would shatter bones and rip apart flesh? This is a revolt of the privileged, the uprooted, the disconnected. It speaks of self-mutilation as much as mayhem against others.

How about the words of Irshad Manji, someone who, while we're handing out Orders of Canada these days, would be at the top of the list if I was in charge:

After rounding up the Toronto suspects, police held a press conference and didn't once mention Islam or Muslims. At their second press conference, police boasted about avoiding those words. If the guardians of public safety intended their silence to be a form of sensitivity, they instead accomplished a form of artistry, airbrushing the role that religion plays in the violence carried out under its banner.

They're in fine company: moderate Muslims do the same. Although the vast majority of Muslims aren't extremists, it is important to start making a more important distinction: between moderate Muslims and reform-minded ones.

Moderate Muslims denounce violence in the name of Islam but deny that Islam has anything to do with it. By their denial, moderates abandon the ground of theological interpretation to those with malignant intentions, effectively telling would-be terrorists that they can get away with abuses of power because mainstream Muslims won't challenge the fanatics with bold, competing interpretations. To do so would be admit that religion is a factor. Moderate Muslims can't go there.

Reform-minded Muslims say it's time to admit that Islam's scripture and history are being exploited. They argue for reinterpretation precisely to put the would-be terrorists on notice that their monopoly is over.

Does any real leader seriously think that twisting oneself into a pretzel for the sake of "dialogue" is going to stop people like those involved in last weekend's attacks, bent on destroying themselves and others, from carrying out such atrocities? Sadly, Muslims like Manji are in the microscopic minority, despite the ongoing effort of most Western politicians to pretend that no truth needs to be told about the tensions inherent with the dominant interpretation of Islam and the concept of pluralism.

While others would argue for the closing of Gitmo and the shutdown of the wiretap program, I'd argue that it's time for some tough love. Anything less is basically rewarding the efforts of the terrorists.

- Speaking of Boortz, he had a golden rant yesterday on his site (same link as the one above) concerning the mother of Chris Benoit, who said that if only federal agents had protected her 40-year old, steroid-injecting son from himself, he'd still be alive today.

Leaving aside whether or not you think this was caused by mental illness, as I do, or by decline brought on by years of substance abuse, is irrelevant. What's disturbing is that she expected the state to step in and tell her boy that what he was doing - injecting steroids - was probably not the best idea.

Memo: He knew. He didn't care. And the fact that he didn't act in a responsible manner is no one's fault but his own - not the government's.

- Is there anything more tragically pathetic than celebrity activism?

- Alan Dershowitz, certainly no GOP apologist, comments on the Libby commutation, here. Other perspectives here and here.

- Today my buddy Greenchief ranted at length about how much he hates American pro hockey player Jeremy Roenick, so for those of you who don't know who he is or would just like to reacquaint yourselves with some of his best moments, I thought I'd provide some, such as:

- JR cuttin' rug in Las Vegas;

- JR pimping on a late-night talk show (with some Mick or Scot, I don't really know), and featuring a cameo appearance by Chris Rock (note JR's classic mispronounciation of the word "drowned");

- JR revealing that he's a massive fan of hip-hop pioneer Tone Loc;

- and finally, a moment of greatness the Greenchief and I can agree on, JR knocking the Leafs out of the playoffs, in overtime, on Toronto ice.