A Bronze Medal Column from Lawrence Martin

In the Grope & Flail today Lawrence Martin writes column (behind firewall, sigh) that suggests that an earlier withdrawal from Afghanistan is akin to settling for a bronze medal instead of going for the gold. Of all the stupid metaphors for military action this is one of the worst. Martin first of all insults Canada as a country that settles for second-rate accomplishments - or at least repeats John Manley's insinuation of the same. Then Martin goes on to suggests that staying in Afghanistan as long as Hillier wants is akin to going for a gold medal.

How stupid.

At a certain point discretion is the better part of valour - any military leader, hell, any poker player, will tell you that. At a certain point you need to realize that you can't do any more good by staying in too long. The question is not whether we could we muster the will and the resources to stay a long time, I'm sure that we could - if we thought this whole enterprise would work. The question is, will it do any good in the long term? We have an Afghan government that is composed in no small part of people who were warlords - just not Taliban warlords. We are trying to change a society that has rejected one occupying army after another. Overstaying our welcome doesn't deserve a gold medal. Please work on finding less stupid metaphors.

Copyright Law Round Up

Canada is proposing serious changes to copyright laws and yet, outside of the blogosphere and other geek domains, it would be hard for anyone to tell. If you search for "Canada copyright law" in Google News the top stories are dominated by sites like Slashdot with only one mention from the Grope & Flail over a week ago as well as Reuters story even older than that.

Among blogs I usually read, Saskboy has been relentless in following this issue while JJ points us to, among other things, a news aggregator on the topic.

Do you like the internet?

Do you own an MP3 player?

Do you like to backup your media from one format to another?

Do you enjoy satire?

If you answered "yes" to any of this, this law will affect you. For what it's worth, I was going to see if there had been any comment on this matter among the Blogging Tories (I was wondering whether the only conservative position on this was strictly corporatist CRIA-worship or not), but they haven't said anything at all.

The Canadian Latte Pits (Part 1)

Chris Tindal linked to this interesting column by Rick Salutin in which Mr. Salutin ponders the prospect of an all-retail economy. I do not think however we will be all retail, rather our economy will be shaped rather like a "V" with many jobs in resource-harvesting at one end at and many in service at the other. All of the refining and manufacturing, all the real "value-adding" will take place elsewhere. We will send our timber and oil to China and we will then sell Chinese-manufactured goods to each other.

Rick is gloomy about this, but there is one thing that he does not mention but which is broadly hinted at. Life in the retail/service sector is tough. I've slung espresso, I've worked in call centres, I've worked in electronic stores - the sort of thing that seems to be a rite of passage for my generation. My father paid for university in part through construction jobs, those of under 30 seem to have paid for it by life in retail. We know these jobs all too well. There are numerous things that we'd change about them if we could - more about that later.

A service-based economy need not be all bad. In one sense you could say that economies that run off of, say, banking are service-based. Banking is a service, in that sense a place like Switzerland is arguably service-based. The problem with retail/service economy as we now have it is in large part how those who work in it are treated. There are exceptions to be sure, but for many retail means unreliable hours (12 hours one week, 30 the next) not much in the way of job security and a general lack of respect.

More on this later...

NY Times no longer partially behind a subscriber wall!

I for one hope that the Grope & Flail quickly follows suit.

Shorter Tom Flanagan...

It's not right that the other parties try to use legitimate parliamentary mechanisms to thwart the Conservatives! (Subscription required to see the whole thing)

Where is "Gangster Culture" from?

Daimnation praises the Grope & Flail for this line:

"a gangster culture transplanted in part from Jamaica is sinking its roots into Toronto, and will not soon let go"

So until Jamaicans showed up, there wasn't a "gangster culture" around here? That must have come as quite a surprise to the Irish, Italian, Russian, and Chinese mobs to name but a few. Now those nice people at the Globe will tell you that of course they know about all the other crime gangs and the like - they watched The Untouchables just like the rest of us.

They will tell you that, but they are being disingenuous by doing so. The Jamaica line lingers there with a certain implication. Sure the Globe would never say it outright, but it's happy to leave the implication there that something about Jamaicans makes them a particular threat.

The fact is that "gangster culture" thrives in any immigrant group that is not well integrated into mainstream society. Any group where the prospects for good-paying legitimate work are minuscule and where relationships with the state (police et cetera) are uneasy will spawn organized crime. The history of organized crime is the history of marginalized immigrant groups in North America. The Italian mafia here has faded (despite remaining a force in southern Italy) mainly because Italians have become integral to the fabric of North America - like the Irish before them. That fading out is part of the pattern of organized crime.

There is little to suggest that "gangster culture" has somehow emerged anew from Jamaica. Rather because too many Caribbean immigrants are forced to eke out a living on the margins of Toronto, organized crime becomes a perfectly predictable choice. Don't bullshit us with soft racism, Globe & Mail.

Rex Murphy's Continued Ignorance

Today I read in the Grope and Flail Rex Murphy's sanctimonious take on Jeffrey Monaghan. In this case Murphy makes a big deal about how Monaghan showed up at a news conference in a shirt tie since Murphy insists that no punk would ever wear that anywhere.

Uhhh, Rex, it's been done. Yes there have been punk bands more than willing to rock dress shirts and ties. Care to try any other embarrassing generalizations about musical subcultures?

Corporate Thuggery

The Globe and Mail has more today on the saga of illegalsigns.ca versus Clear Channel (Clear Channel tried to sue the site's owner for having the temerity to inform the city that Clear Channel's billboards might be illegal). Spacing's Dale Duncan expands on the theme here.

Really I'm disgusted by Clear Channel. Get out of Toronto, Clear Channel, we don't want your bullying here. Also, I've heard from Americans that your radio stations suck - so there.

Edit: I just saw that Astral, another billboard conglomerate that wants to bid on Toronto's street furniture is also wanting to sue illegalsigns.ca. Astral, you aren't any better.