Thursday, November 27, 2003
Er. Check out the post re: Master and Commander, a few down from this one. I definitely did not write the totally bizarre ending to that post. It has the classical utter meaninglessness of a computer glitch. Oh, sure, it's glitching up by putting someone else's post into that spot, but it still manages to turn it into computer garbage by repeating itself at disjointed intervals.
Very weird. I should look into backing up my archinve. In fact, I might bump that to the head of the queue, in front of stuff like spell checking and a layout.
Joel M.
Very weird. I should look into backing up my archinve. In fact, I might bump that to the head of the queue, in front of stuff like spell checking and a layout.
Joel M.
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Wow. Tiny old lady fends off home invaders with a Great War Era saber.
Let's just hope that she doesn't get arrested for attempted assault with a deadly weapon or sued for mental cruelty.
Joel M.
Let's just hope that she doesn't get arrested for attempted assault with a deadly weapon or sued for mental cruelty.
Joel M.
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
This is exactly why I never listen to my dad when he tells me that there is a bright future in the construction industry. Next thing you know, some guy is going to build a 20 meter cube that slurps up wood pulp, water, sand, cement mix, plastic pellets and copper wire that spews out a whole frickin' house in less than a week. And don't forget the 100 meter cube that fires itself into the air on a contrail of office building, only to be picked off the top by one of those big double-rotor choppers.
One of these days, we as a society are going to have to have a little sit down and figure out what we are going to do with the people who are both no longer necessary and lacking in desirable skills like art or whatever.
Joel M.
One of these days, we as a society are going to have to have a little sit down and figure out what we are going to do with the people who are both no longer necessary and lacking in desirable skills like art or whatever.
Joel M.
Sunday, November 23, 2003
Warning: this is getting pretty rambly and off-topic. Read at your own risk.
Warning Downgraded: I am going through and editing for clarity and spelling.
Warning Upgraded: Upon editing, I've realized that this is a pretty straight-forward description of how I see the problem in terms that I can wrap my head around, as opposed to any revolutionary thinking. Once again, read at your own risk.
Would Jesus dowload mp3's?
A Catholic monk on the ethics of file-sharing, and he's a surprisingly cool guy about the whole thing. Who knew?
Seriously, this guy gets into the very meat of the matter. "Just because Sony could sell CD's at a big profit for 15 years, it does not follow that they have a moral right to continue doing so. The market changed. They have the duty to change their product or accept that it is of less value now."
Things were a certain way and the labels got to like things being that way. It's only natural. But then things changed and the labels are resisting. This is also natural. Ultimately, the natural outcome is that they will do a lot of damage, in this case to the legal system, the freedoms that westerners are accustomed to, and to the lives of their victims, and then stop existing as we know them.
At the heart of the matter, labels, like any other business or occupation, are only temporary in the grand scheme. They exist to solve a problem, usually in a temporary and expensive way. In this case, they were charged with solving the problem of distributing music. Now, the problem of distribution has pretty much been solved permanently and, more or less, for free. Therefore, the main reason for the existance of the labels is gone and things will have to change.
Here's a little analogy to help the idea go down: There used to be people who were paid to solve the problem of how to control a new-fangled piece of machinery called an elevator. This was just fine, and these individuals made a decent, if not handsome, living at it. At least they did right up until someone solved the problem better, and permanently, by creating an elevator control that a chimpanzee in the process of stroking a lobe could use. The result? No more elevator operators.
That analogy isn't perfect though. Let's say that I am a musician. All I need to do to get my music out to the fans is to rent a little time at a recording studio, take my shiny new CD home, stick it in the 486 that my nerdy friend gave me for free, fire up Kazaa, and then start letting people know that they can download my awesome music if they want it. The distribution problem is fixed. No more labels, right?
Not quite. There are a couple of problems that the labels have been taking care of as a side-line to the distribution business, and solving these problems might not be a bad way for some people to still make a living. Specifically, these problems are publicity and payment, with more publicity resulting in, hopefully, more payment.
So far there have been a few cracks at fixing these problems. Publicity-wise, word of mouth isn't bad, but getting rotation on a radio station is better. Oh, and I don't mean web-radio. If you can't get it on the busted radio that painters haul around, in a tractor, or while you're driving your old beater, you aren't accessing the mainstream market. Payment-wise, voluntary micro-payments are stupid and will not happen. Here in Canada, the government is just taxing the sales of all media and passing the money to someone, probably the labels. If bands could, or are, getting at that coin, then it might work. Maybe broadband ISPs or whoever maintains the fundamental Internet infrastructure could do something similar, or else require that all users pay into a mandatory micro-payment fund. I don't really know, and if I knew I wouldn't tell you without the intervention of a stack of money or a lead pipe.
I suppose that there are problems beyond the simple procurement of an audience and money that aren't as obvious from my stand-point. Maybe artists are like 'ho's and need a big-daddy pimp to slap them into producing. Don't most bands already have a manager or two though? I just watched Almost Famous and they had one, so a band like the Stones must surely have one of those too. And then there are rock-star clothes, hair and cars, and the bodies of groupies to dispose of. Plenty of cash to go around for enterprising problem solvers.
Maybe that's it right there. Enterprise. The labels don't want to die, which is natural, but they lack the enterprise to do something else. These people have spent their lives betting that their hard work, ass-kissing, and accumulated music-biz know-how will pay off big, but the castle is crumbling. Combine that with a lack of enterprise and the result is that they're pissed and hauling out the lawyers.
This all applies to the big game distibutors, too. At least it does to the extent that a really good title needs a lot more highly-paid people behind it than an album does, so the problem of getting paid for the work is magnified. Also, the creative team behind most good games can be orders larger than most bands and the content can take years to create, so it is harder to put something together on the cheap and release it. Movies are similar, but a little different, too, since the studios control a resource that can't be cheaply digitally simulated yet: the theatres. Both of these businesses could, and should, be taking lessons from the music business, though. When someone creates a head-pasty that lets your brain think that you are in a big theatre watching a new release, it'll be a huge shit-storm. Even worse if it happens soon, since the theatre companies are probably leveraged to the hilt for their Silver Cities and so on right now.
I dunno. I think that this is mostly a problem for the managers, and I can't really make myself feel sorry for them. I mean, I understand the need for it, but I really think that management is the part of the machine where huge, institutional problems are most likely to crop up while simultaneously being the most expendible part. A doctor can help sick people without a health-care manager, and a sick person can be helped without a health-care manager, after all, but a health-care manager can't manage without a doctor and a sick person. Sure, a dozen doctors want someone to handle the paperwork when they've got a hospital with thousands of sick people, but it's pretty easy for the manager to decide that he's a leader, that he deserves a fat paycheque, and that the doctors and the sick people are here for him instead of the other way around.
Maybe that's where it's at. Maybe managers need a sense of "noblesse oblige" and a pay cut to reflect their real status of facilitators to the really important work. Maybe managers shouldn't be allowed to go right into management without having to come up through the ranks, as it were. Sure, they do in some businesses, but not the big-time Dilbertesque managers that I'm talking about. I bet that not too many of the Ray Krok wanna-bes in the process of sinking McDonald's started off as fry-cooks. Likewise, I don't think too many university administrators have spent a lot of time doing any actual edumacating.
Bah. High-falutin' garbage from a guy with no reason to think he's got any clever ideas and no idea how to make things change. First class management material.
Joel M.
Warning Downgraded: I am going through and editing for clarity and spelling.
Warning Upgraded: Upon editing, I've realized that this is a pretty straight-forward description of how I see the problem in terms that I can wrap my head around, as opposed to any revolutionary thinking. Once again, read at your own risk.
Would Jesus dowload mp3's?
A Catholic monk on the ethics of file-sharing, and he's a surprisingly cool guy about the whole thing. Who knew?
Seriously, this guy gets into the very meat of the matter. "Just because Sony could sell CD's at a big profit for 15 years, it does not follow that they have a moral right to continue doing so. The market changed. They have the duty to change their product or accept that it is of less value now."
Things were a certain way and the labels got to like things being that way. It's only natural. But then things changed and the labels are resisting. This is also natural. Ultimately, the natural outcome is that they will do a lot of damage, in this case to the legal system, the freedoms that westerners are accustomed to, and to the lives of their victims, and then stop existing as we know them.
At the heart of the matter, labels, like any other business or occupation, are only temporary in the grand scheme. They exist to solve a problem, usually in a temporary and expensive way. In this case, they were charged with solving the problem of distributing music. Now, the problem of distribution has pretty much been solved permanently and, more or less, for free. Therefore, the main reason for the existance of the labels is gone and things will have to change.
Here's a little analogy to help the idea go down: There used to be people who were paid to solve the problem of how to control a new-fangled piece of machinery called an elevator. This was just fine, and these individuals made a decent, if not handsome, living at it. At least they did right up until someone solved the problem better, and permanently, by creating an elevator control that a chimpanzee in the process of stroking a lobe could use. The result? No more elevator operators.
That analogy isn't perfect though. Let's say that I am a musician. All I need to do to get my music out to the fans is to rent a little time at a recording studio, take my shiny new CD home, stick it in the 486 that my nerdy friend gave me for free, fire up Kazaa, and then start letting people know that they can download my awesome music if they want it. The distribution problem is fixed. No more labels, right?
Not quite. There are a couple of problems that the labels have been taking care of as a side-line to the distribution business, and solving these problems might not be a bad way for some people to still make a living. Specifically, these problems are publicity and payment, with more publicity resulting in, hopefully, more payment.
So far there have been a few cracks at fixing these problems. Publicity-wise, word of mouth isn't bad, but getting rotation on a radio station is better. Oh, and I don't mean web-radio. If you can't get it on the busted radio that painters haul around, in a tractor, or while you're driving your old beater, you aren't accessing the mainstream market. Payment-wise, voluntary micro-payments are stupid and will not happen. Here in Canada, the government is just taxing the sales of all media and passing the money to someone, probably the labels. If bands could, or are, getting at that coin, then it might work. Maybe broadband ISPs or whoever maintains the fundamental Internet infrastructure could do something similar, or else require that all users pay into a mandatory micro-payment fund. I don't really know, and if I knew I wouldn't tell you without the intervention of a stack of money or a lead pipe.
I suppose that there are problems beyond the simple procurement of an audience and money that aren't as obvious from my stand-point. Maybe artists are like 'ho's and need a big-daddy pimp to slap them into producing. Don't most bands already have a manager or two though? I just watched Almost Famous and they had one, so a band like the Stones must surely have one of those too. And then there are rock-star clothes, hair and cars, and the bodies of groupies to dispose of. Plenty of cash to go around for enterprising problem solvers.
Maybe that's it right there. Enterprise. The labels don't want to die, which is natural, but they lack the enterprise to do something else. These people have spent their lives betting that their hard work, ass-kissing, and accumulated music-biz know-how will pay off big, but the castle is crumbling. Combine that with a lack of enterprise and the result is that they're pissed and hauling out the lawyers.
This all applies to the big game distibutors, too. At least it does to the extent that a really good title needs a lot more highly-paid people behind it than an album does, so the problem of getting paid for the work is magnified. Also, the creative team behind most good games can be orders larger than most bands and the content can take years to create, so it is harder to put something together on the cheap and release it. Movies are similar, but a little different, too, since the studios control a resource that can't be cheaply digitally simulated yet: the theatres. Both of these businesses could, and should, be taking lessons from the music business, though. When someone creates a head-pasty that lets your brain think that you are in a big theatre watching a new release, it'll be a huge shit-storm. Even worse if it happens soon, since the theatre companies are probably leveraged to the hilt for their Silver Cities and so on right now.
I dunno. I think that this is mostly a problem for the managers, and I can't really make myself feel sorry for them. I mean, I understand the need for it, but I really think that management is the part of the machine where huge, institutional problems are most likely to crop up while simultaneously being the most expendible part. A doctor can help sick people without a health-care manager, and a sick person can be helped without a health-care manager, after all, but a health-care manager can't manage without a doctor and a sick person. Sure, a dozen doctors want someone to handle the paperwork when they've got a hospital with thousands of sick people, but it's pretty easy for the manager to decide that he's a leader, that he deserves a fat paycheque, and that the doctors and the sick people are here for him instead of the other way around.
Maybe that's where it's at. Maybe managers need a sense of "noblesse oblige" and a pay cut to reflect their real status of facilitators to the really important work. Maybe managers shouldn't be allowed to go right into management without having to come up through the ranks, as it were. Sure, they do in some businesses, but not the big-time Dilbertesque managers that I'm talking about. I bet that not too many of the Ray Krok wanna-bes in the process of sinking McDonald's started off as fry-cooks. Likewise, I don't think too many university administrators have spent a lot of time doing any actual edumacating.
Bah. High-falutin' garbage from a guy with no reason to think he's got any clever ideas and no idea how to make things change. First class management material.
Joel M.
Watched Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World this afternoon at the matinee.
It was an excellent movie. Not once did I catch myself wondering how they did such and such a special effect, and only rarely did I try to an did last week. Thanks for the support!!!
I'll be heading to my mother's, or she may be meeting me out here, for dinner. Hopefully Thanksgiving will turn out pleasant. It's been a while since we've all been together. Anyway, hopefully you all will have a great one.
Hey, I think it's almost been a year since I had this website blogger up. How neat. Time flew.ce I had this website blogger up. How neat. Time flew.
It was an excellent movie. Not once did I catch myself wondering how they did such and such a special effect, and only rarely did I try to an did last week. Thanks for the support!!!
I'll be heading to my mother's, or she may be meeting me out here, for dinner. Hopefully Thanksgiving will turn out pleasant. It's been a while since we've all been together. Anyway, hopefully you all will have a great one.
Hey, I think it's almost been a year since I had this website blogger up. How neat. Time flew.ce I had this website blogger up. How neat. Time flew.
Friday, November 21, 2003
The Victorian Internet.
Historians thousands of years from now are going to be cursing the inventors of Photoshop.
Joel M.
Historians thousands of years from now are going to be cursing the inventors of Photoshop.
Joel M.
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Holy shit! You mean someone is actually worried that Michael Jackson is molesting children? I just can't imagine it!
Joel M.
Joel M.
Monday, November 17, 2003
Interesting article about the militarization of space. The slant taken is that the US has little or no choice but to militarize space if it wants to maintain its warfighting superiority. This is something that I am in total agreement with, since the simple nature of the human animal will require some form of space-borne weapons someday, whether we will it or no.
The author's point is that the US needs to create a Space Service, much as it created a seperate Air Force after WWII. He feels that the time to do so is now, before potential opponents seize the high ground. I am a little skeptical about the urgency that the author seems to feel. China is probably the least moral of the nations that currently have a growing space program and, while I have no doubt that they view space as a new territory to be expanded into at all costs, I don't think that there is a huge worry that they will be dropping asteroids onto American soil any time soon.
Nevertheless, I am fully in favour of the author's contention that a Space Service be formed. The way I see it, anything is better than the way that the Americans are handling their space program, and maybe an independant Space Service would be able to do it better.
Joel M.
The author's point is that the US needs to create a Space Service, much as it created a seperate Air Force after WWII. He feels that the time to do so is now, before potential opponents seize the high ground. I am a little skeptical about the urgency that the author seems to feel. China is probably the least moral of the nations that currently have a growing space program and, while I have no doubt that they view space as a new territory to be expanded into at all costs, I don't think that there is a huge worry that they will be dropping asteroids onto American soil any time soon.
Nevertheless, I am fully in favour of the author's contention that a Space Service be formed. The way I see it, anything is better than the way that the Americans are handling their space program, and maybe an independant Space Service would be able to do it better.
Joel M.
Check out the Design Conspiracy's brand name generator.
Quodammado is my moniker now. Not quite Quasimodo, not quite damned, but all mamoth, thrusting organ of doom. Dooooom!
Joel M.
Quodammado is my moniker now. Not quite Quasimodo, not quite damned, but all mamoth, thrusting organ of doom. Dooooom!
Joel M.
Got this link of of my friend Mack in France. It will make you die. Especially the one about Custer, and especially Boon-Ga Boon-Ga.
Joel M.
Joel M.
I'm still laughing!
The first bits are a little dull at times, but the finale is worth it. The whole site is a guy who reviews '80's stuff with his tongue hanging out of the big hole it bored in his cheek.
Joel M.
The first bits are a little dull at times, but the finale is worth it. The whole site is a guy who reviews '80's stuff with his tongue hanging out of the big hole it bored in his cheek.
Joel M.
OK. I "know" that some places in the world are a little crazy, but this is frickin' unbelievable! The cops in South Africa hear about rape every 26 seconds!?! Women carry anti-retrovirals around in case they get raped!?! What the fuck is wrong with people?
However, I find the concept of a tampon that lops off the end of a rapist's penis sublimely hilarious.
Joel M.
However, I find the concept of a tampon that lops off the end of a rapist's penis sublimely hilarious.
Joel M.
Thursday, November 13, 2003
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
VOIP: Voice Over IP. Basically, as this article discusses, it is an essentially free method for conducting telephone calls. VOIP is no different than routing any other sort of data anywhere in the world, except that now it is infringining upon an existing business.
It is amazing how new technology is the shit until it steps on someone's (big) business. First the music industry, and now this.
Of course, these crybabies are already running to Big Momma government for help now that someone else is in their sandbox.
The weird thing is this: stuff like business and government and the police and everything are just temporary measures in the long run, but nobody is willing to admit it or fold them up when their time is over...
Hmm. This is a complicated idea. More later, maybe.
Joel M.
It is amazing how new technology is the shit until it steps on someone's (big) business. First the music industry, and now this.
Of course, these crybabies are already running to Big Momma government for help now that someone else is in their sandbox.
The weird thing is this: stuff like business and government and the police and everything are just temporary measures in the long run, but nobody is willing to admit it or fold them up when their time is over...
Hmm. This is a complicated idea. More later, maybe.
Joel M.
An article about the eerily beautiful tales of Miami street-kids.
Honestly, reading this made me weep. I can't even believe the sort of impoverishment and abuse that occurs on the lowest levels of society, as hinted at in this piece. It just boggles my mind.
Joel M.
Honestly, reading this made me weep. I can't even believe the sort of impoverishment and abuse that occurs on the lowest levels of society, as hinted at in this piece. It just boggles my mind.
Joel M.
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
Ergh.
OK. This guy, Nemitz, claims that he owns Eros (Asteroid 433) and is trying to charge NASA $20 to park their NEAR spacecraft on it for a century. He claims that he has this right as a result of a claim over the property filed with a claims registry at the Archimedes Institute.
Now, I'm all in favour of the little guy winning out over the government, but I prefer it if the little guy has a leg to stand on. As far as this guy goes, he's trying to waddle around on a couple of splintered hip-bones.
The only reason why this is getting any attention at all is that people are viewing it as a challenge that will play a small part in determining, basically, whether the private sector or the public sector owns space. Which is fine. Great, even. I really hope that the private sector does wind up able to own property in space. Space is big, after all. There is lots of stuff to go around.
My problem, though, is that this guy is basically saying that he owns it because he said so. So there. He hasn't developed the property, he doesn't live there, he's never been there and he can't even go there! I mean, come-fucking-on, Nemitz! Get a clue! Setting a precident for absentee land-owners to stifle development in space based on a land claim like this is insane! Sure, people should have presidence over artificial entities like governments, but people who are actually doing stuff should have presidence over people who twaddle around with bits of paper in the hope of getting rich without putting forth any appreciable effort.
Oh, well. Maybe NASA should just say that they are squatting and that if Nemitz can get an eviction notice up to NEAR within, say, fifty years, that they'll move right off of his asteroid.
Joel M.
OK. This guy, Nemitz, claims that he owns Eros (Asteroid 433) and is trying to charge NASA $20 to park their NEAR spacecraft on it for a century. He claims that he has this right as a result of a claim over the property filed with a claims registry at the Archimedes Institute.
Now, I'm all in favour of the little guy winning out over the government, but I prefer it if the little guy has a leg to stand on. As far as this guy goes, he's trying to waddle around on a couple of splintered hip-bones.
The only reason why this is getting any attention at all is that people are viewing it as a challenge that will play a small part in determining, basically, whether the private sector or the public sector owns space. Which is fine. Great, even. I really hope that the private sector does wind up able to own property in space. Space is big, after all. There is lots of stuff to go around.
My problem, though, is that this guy is basically saying that he owns it because he said so. So there. He hasn't developed the property, he doesn't live there, he's never been there and he can't even go there! I mean, come-fucking-on, Nemitz! Get a clue! Setting a precident for absentee land-owners to stifle development in space based on a land claim like this is insane! Sure, people should have presidence over artificial entities like governments, but people who are actually doing stuff should have presidence over people who twaddle around with bits of paper in the hope of getting rich without putting forth any appreciable effort.
Oh, well. Maybe NASA should just say that they are squatting and that if Nemitz can get an eviction notice up to NEAR within, say, fifty years, that they'll move right off of his asteroid.
Joel M.
Monday, November 10, 2003
I don't know about this.
"The reservists run many of the same risks as the regular troops they support, but they pay a different price. For an active-duty soldier, foreign deployment is an expected risk, and carries benefits in pay and promotions to offset the hardships. But for reservists, this is an unexpected detour in lives and careers whose course had seemed quite predictable just a year ago."
Yeah, it would suck to be in the National Guard, serving one weekend a month or whatever to make some extra dough, when suddenly you are called to spend a year in Iraq. But what do you expect? Isn't that sort of the point of the reserves? You serve a little bit, you are ready, but you run the risk of having to actually go to war.
If you don't like it, you shouldn't have joined. This strikes me as naggingly similar to smokers, who in this day and age have had plenty of frickin' warning about how dangerous their habit is, nevertheless spending their declining years trying their asses off to sue some tobacco company.
Or maybe the reservists are just getting lied to. In any event, you knew the risks people.
Joel M.
"The reservists run many of the same risks as the regular troops they support, but they pay a different price. For an active-duty soldier, foreign deployment is an expected risk, and carries benefits in pay and promotions to offset the hardships. But for reservists, this is an unexpected detour in lives and careers whose course had seemed quite predictable just a year ago."
Yeah, it would suck to be in the National Guard, serving one weekend a month or whatever to make some extra dough, when suddenly you are called to spend a year in Iraq. But what do you expect? Isn't that sort of the point of the reserves? You serve a little bit, you are ready, but you run the risk of having to actually go to war.
If you don't like it, you shouldn't have joined. This strikes me as naggingly similar to smokers, who in this day and age have had plenty of frickin' warning about how dangerous their habit is, nevertheless spending their declining years trying their asses off to sue some tobacco company.
Or maybe the reservists are just getting lied to. In any event, you knew the risks people.
Joel M.
Saturday, November 08, 2003
Thanks, the Onion!
"Alarmed by the unhealthy choices they make every day, more and more Americans are calling on the government to enact legislation that will protect them from their own behavior."
Read all about it!
Joel M.
"Alarmed by the unhealthy choices they make every day, more and more Americans are calling on the government to enact legislation that will protect them from their own behavior."
Read all about it!
Joel M.
Holy shit! Jesus, get out of my face!
I don't know where to start with this. I suppose to the right mind this is neat, but not to mine. I actually find the idea of Jesus "helping me out" with my day-to-day activites quite offensive. The notion pretty much sucks any value out of the tasks that I choose to accomplish and renders me impotent and irrepsonsible.
Of course, there is an up-side that I may not have considered: maybe Jesus is helping us all out. Maybe that means that that stuff like my tendancy to masturbate like a spider-monkey is actually Jesus' doing, and not mine. Maybe when I feel as though a giant hand is compressing me into my stinking computer chair, there actually is a hand: Jesus'!
Yes, maybe religion does have it's perks after all.
Joel M.
I don't know where to start with this. I suppose to the right mind this is neat, but not to mine. I actually find the idea of Jesus "helping me out" with my day-to-day activites quite offensive. The notion pretty much sucks any value out of the tasks that I choose to accomplish and renders me impotent and irrepsonsible.
Of course, there is an up-side that I may not have considered: maybe Jesus is helping us all out. Maybe that means that that stuff like my tendancy to masturbate like a spider-monkey is actually Jesus' doing, and not mine. Maybe when I feel as though a giant hand is compressing me into my stinking computer chair, there actually is a hand: Jesus'!
Yes, maybe religion does have it's perks after all.
Joel M.
Friday, November 07, 2003
Thursday, November 06, 2003
This article on Salon makes a pretty good case for the possibility of a draft in the U.S. over the whole Iraq thing. Interestingly, it also points out that a lot of the loopholes that current leaders used to avoid Vietnam back in their youth have been closed. If you want to read it, you'll have to get into Salon Premium by reading something else while an ad runs.
Does this mean that the children of the privileged will be forced to walk into the same meatgrinder that the children of the poor will? Naw. However, it's a fun idea that they might have to.
Now I, personally, think that the draft isn't the smartest idea going. I am rather in favour of mandatory military service. I don't like war and violence, but I'm not so dumb as to think that, as a species, we're anywhere close to getting over it. And Canada's head-in-the sand attitude on this issue is just going to get us in trouble one of these days. The difference is that you don't expect the draft. You aren't told that this is something that you will have to do ten years before the day. Instead, the government just gets itself in trouble and decides to throw a mess of poor kids at it.
In this case, though? I think that the States could use a draft. It might even turn out to be good for Canada: we could start exporting people to fill jobs in the States while, at the same time, benefitting from those of America's youth who decide that getting shot over one of Bush's pet hallucinations isn't the brightest idea. Granted, half of these guys will be smelly hippies, but some of them will have to be doing it out of sheer intelligence.
Another benefit might be that exposing a new generation of Americans to the horrors of war will make them all a little less likely to vote for guys who avoided their hitch and who go for the military option without a darn good reason.
And then there are the dead Americans, the transfer of wealth and raw materials into the local economy in the form of melted down fillings, dog-tags and shrapnel, and an increasingly burdened U.S. economy that will make the rest of us look better by comparison. Looks like a winner to me!
Joel M.
Does this mean that the children of the privileged will be forced to walk into the same meatgrinder that the children of the poor will? Naw. However, it's a fun idea that they might have to.
Now I, personally, think that the draft isn't the smartest idea going. I am rather in favour of mandatory military service. I don't like war and violence, but I'm not so dumb as to think that, as a species, we're anywhere close to getting over it. And Canada's head-in-the sand attitude on this issue is just going to get us in trouble one of these days. The difference is that you don't expect the draft. You aren't told that this is something that you will have to do ten years before the day. Instead, the government just gets itself in trouble and decides to throw a mess of poor kids at it.
In this case, though? I think that the States could use a draft. It might even turn out to be good for Canada: we could start exporting people to fill jobs in the States while, at the same time, benefitting from those of America's youth who decide that getting shot over one of Bush's pet hallucinations isn't the brightest idea. Granted, half of these guys will be smelly hippies, but some of them will have to be doing it out of sheer intelligence.
Another benefit might be that exposing a new generation of Americans to the horrors of war will make them all a little less likely to vote for guys who avoided their hitch and who go for the military option without a darn good reason.
And then there are the dead Americans, the transfer of wealth and raw materials into the local economy in the form of melted down fillings, dog-tags and shrapnel, and an increasingly burdened U.S. economy that will make the rest of us look better by comparison. Looks like a winner to me!
Joel M.
