Conservatives find bias!

The scary/funny Conservapedia (most popular articles include Jesus Christ, Homosexuality, Atheism, Dinosaurs, Theory of Evolution and George W. Bush) notes shocking (shocking!) liberal bias in Wikipedia entries. Much of this bias is in things that Wikipedia writers have failed to note.

My favourite (from the article Examples of Bias in Wikipedia) is this one:

Wikipedia's article on atheism fails to mention that American atheists give significantly less to charity than American theists on a per capita basis.^[37]

There is a very simple explanation for why religious people donate more to charity than their atheist counterparts: Churches are registered charities, and, as a group, churches receive more charitable donations than any other organizations in the US. Take the churches out of the mix, and I'd be curious to know what the figures are.

Finally, aren't the Conservapedia contributors aware that anyone (including them) can edit Wikipedia stories? Surely they must be. But the vast liberal conspiracy would simply force their views off the screen, leaving them no choice but to flee to the safe confines of Conservapedia, where they can safely note that dinosaurs were probably created on the sixth day of the creation week, 6,000 years ago.

Ho Ho Ho

From the Taser International website. This has to be the most appalling use of Christmas imagery I have seen yet. You've got your cut-and-dried dualism (you're good and the rest of the world is bad), and you have Santa as a guy who will Taser you.

C'est une question de feeling

For some reason, public figures in Halifax are flagellating the media and citizens for the cancellation of the Céline Dion concert originally scheduled for August 23.

I am truly baffled.

Here is the story. The city was negotiating to bring a major act to the Halifax Common. On the eve of a major announcement, the Céline people jumped the gun and posted an August 23 Halifax date online. So they announced the concert prior to its official announcement.

Haligonians were not, ahem, unanimous in rushing to greet Céline. A couple of days later, René Angelil, Céline's husband and manager, said they were pulling out of the Halifax date. He elaborated in a phone call, saying, ""There’s no business decision, it’s a question of feeling." Apparently people said nasty things about his wife on phone-in shows and Web forums (can you imagine?) So he cancelled.

As a result, people in Halifax have been beating themselves up for being bush league.

Are they nuts? We are talking about one of the top-selling female artists of all time (how that happened is beyond me) and she -- or rather, her husband, because he says Céline has not seen any of the criticism, since it is his job to protect her from it -- can't take barbs from radio phone-in shows and Web forums? Oh, and from a columnist from the Halifax Daily News, who spent most of his column welcoming the show, but made the dreadful mistake of being critical in his opening paragraph.

Instead of chastising us for making it difficult to bring future acts to Halifax, the city ought to be talking lawsuit against Angelil.

All of this has had one positive effect. David Rodehniser, the columnist who scared the pants off Angelil, has produced a hilarious column today.

Hooray! Ozzy Osbourne is apparently coming to Halifax next January. This will be the best concert in the city's history - equalled only by all the previous concerts in Halifax's history, which were all equally amazing in their own unique and artistically diverse ways.

Just in case Sharon Osbourne is clipping newspapers from around the globe to see what people are writing about Ozzy, I want the record to show that I fully, 110 per cent, endorse this concert. It should definitely go ahead and local fans will certainly buy out every seat.

The Halifax Metro Centre is the perfect venue for Ozzy to play, although if he changes his mind and wants to rock the Halifax Common, there is no doubt that his fans would stand outside in a raging snowstorm to see him perform. He could call it the Blizzard of Ozz, like his quadruple-platinum 1980 album, which yielded such classics as the blistering Crazy Train and the heartfelt ballad Goodbye to Romance.

Read the rest of it here.

Walt and Skeezix

I have been reading comics from 1921 to 1924 the last few weeks. They are early strips of Gasoline Alley, collected in two books called Walt and Skeezix, and published by Drawn and Quarterly.

The comics feature the residents of Gasoline Alley, in Chicago, and are from the early days of a comics saga that would carry on for decades, with the characters aging in real time. If I look at Hagar the Horrible today, it is pretty much the same (and just as awful) as when I was a kid. Gasoline Alley is not like that. It was the first comic to have its characters grow older, year by year.

I love these comics, and I have been trying to figure out why. They can be funny, but mostly they are very gentle. Unlike other comics you might describe as gentle though (Family Circus?) they are almost never sappy or sentimental. The stories move slowly and gracefully, and even though they are clearly set in another time (just look at the cars) they still seem very familiar. I don't feel like I'm reading something written almost 90 years ago.

Drawn and Quarterly have committed to producing many of these collections (unbelievably, almost none of the Gasoline Alley comics had ever been published in book form before). The books themselves are beautiful, including essays on creator Frank King and his work and some truly amazing old family photos. Plus they come with endnotes that help point out little extras a reader like me might not notice (like the Skeezix doll in one of the panels).

The books are normally priced at $39.95 in Canada, but I noticed on the Drawn and Quarterly online store that they are now selling for $29.95. It is a bargain.

Gone Surfin' online games edition

My latest Gone Surfin' web column is here. This time, I look at some online games that combine education and fun (it's true!). Much of the column is devoted to ElectroCity.

Really, every game – even the simplest one – has underlying assumptions that teach something. Two of North America's most popular games – The Game of Life and Monopoly – not-so-subtly enforce the consumer culture notion that whoever has the most money and stuff wins. (The new version of Life comes with no cash – instead you get a Visa card that allows you to keep playing even when you're broke. Now there's a great lesson.)

ElectroCity (www.electrocity.co.nz) is an addictive little sim-type game that helps drive home lessons about power management and environmental impact. It was originally designed for school children in New Zealand, but anyone can play and show off their finished cities in a gallery on the site.

You control the destiny of a small town, deciding what kinds of power sources and amenities to build. Coal plants are cheap, but the population is not pleased when a cloud of smog hangs over the town. And when your own coal supplies run out, you're dependent on fluctuating market prices. Go nuclear, on the other hand, and you'll have abundant power but really annoy your citizens.

Previous Gone Surfin' columns are archived in the links to your right.

Harlan Ellison sums it up

Speaking of rants (see previous post), here is Harlan Ellison on the subject of paying writers. Note that he uses what my buddy Vern would call "some choice language" so this one may not be safe for work.

I suspect that pretty soon most every writer I know will have this posted. (Hat tip to writer Allison Finnamore, who turned me on to it).



On a related subject, in her most recent column, Heather Mallick notes that "Ironically, Viacom sued Google for $1 billion in lost online profits over pirated video, but tells writers that their work is worth nothing online and they don't deserve a royalty."

Why I love Christopher Hitchens

I don't always agree with Christopher Hitchens (his defence of the invasion of Iraq has seemed to become more and more strained), and I don't think I'd like to meet him. But agree with him or not, I do love his writing. He manages to take a thundering tone, to be unequivocal in his opinions, and to use an impressive vocabulary while somehow not seeming too showy (unlike William F. Buckley Jr). He's also superior without being smarmy.

I am currently reading his polemic God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything -- which, so far, is very cutting but has hardly proved the thesis that religion poisons everything (except for noting that it does, in italics, a couple of times).

I was reminded of just why I love Hitchens when I came across a sentence referring to this book as "unlikely even to rate a footnote in the history of piffle."

Brilliant, dismissive, concise. Great writing.

Bob Dylan quote of the week

We sat in an empty theater and we kissed,
I asked ya please to cross me off-a your list.
My head tells me it's time to make a change
But my heart is telling me I love ya but you're strange.
("Abandoned Love")

Yes, you could just consider it maudlin. But somehow it's still evocative. Is the theatre empty because they snuck in? Have they stayed late after the show? And the head and heart in opposition to each other -- now there's an old theme. But here instead of the sense of a tortuous relationship, we just learn that she's "strange." What might come off sounding like an insult turns instead into something truly endearing.

No less lame

Celine Dion has cancelled her Halifax date. If the city had cancelled, I might consider us slightly less lame.

Random 10

So this dude Sloth, who claims his generally pretty damn fine blog has only six readers or so (putting me in very exclusive company), has ripped off an idea from The Onion AV Club in order to try to launch his own meme thingy.

It's a damn fine idea. Shuffle the music on your music player, and write something about the first 10 songs that come up.

Here's my list.

1) The Grey Seal's Lament for its Pup/Miss Ann Moir's Birthday/The Duke of Gordon's Birthday/London Lasses/West Mabou (Buddy MacMaster)
This is a track from master Cape Breton fiddler Buddy MacMaster's album Cape Breton Tradition. The album is in the collection because my 8-year-old adores Buddy MacMaster. We even arranged the dates of a holiday in Cape Breton this summer around the date that Buddy would be playing the community ceilidh in Judique. I used to skip over Buddy's tracks when they came up in the shuffle queue, but now I listen. He is a true gentleman, an incredible musician, and listening to these tunes is a nice, quiet break from some of the more raucous stuff I have.

2) Twistin' the Night Away (Sam Cooke)
I like Sam Cooke in very small doses. Usually I wind up skipping the few tracks I have when shuffle spits them out. This one is particularly gentle. Nostalgia for an era I don't remember?

3) We Shall Overcome (Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band)
Title track from Springsteen's Seeger Sessions CD. When I first got this, I listened to the album over and over and over again. I have never been a huge Springsteen fan, but the sheer joy of the playing captivated me. This is probably my least favourite track. A little too over-earnest perhaps?

4) Right Now (Jerry's Kids)
Jerry's Kids were an incredible 1980s hardcore band from Boston, who shared some members with the also incredible Gang Green. "Right Now" ("I want it, right now / I need it, right now" -- nobody said you were getting lyrical complexity) is from their album Kill Kill Kill. I have always loved the combination of the name Jerry's Kids with the title Kill Kill Kill.

5) Just Got Lucky (JoBoxers)
I am not sure what this is doing here. I can't even claim nostalgia, because I don't remember the song from the 1980s, and if I did, I wouldn't have liked it. It was on the 40-Year-Old Virgin soundtrack, and I did rip a few songs for fun/nostalgia purposes. This one must have gotten scooped up as well. I have a bit more tolerance for Motowny peppiness from (mostly) white boys than I used to. But still, this is pretty awful.


6) War Pigs (Ozzy Osbourne)
From the Ozzman Cometh box set. I have probably heard War Pigs enough to last a lifetime at this point. This version does have some historical interest though, since it's an earlier version (with different lyrics) than the one that ended up on Paranoid.

7) Think About You (Guns N' Roses)
Axl Rose may be a buffoon and Guns N' Roses may have degenerated completely, and this may be one of the weakest tracks on the album, but damn, Appetite for Destruction still ranks right up there. It was one of the few albums that I knew I had to own the second I saw the cover. I actually saw Guns n' Roses open for, of all bands, The Cult, at the Verdun auditorium in Montreal. I was with my friend Billy Neale (aka William Scott Neale) and neither of us had ever heard of the opening band. I was blown away. So was Billy, but at a certain point he got tired of the band because hey, he'd come to see The Cult. Axl's ego was already starting to get out of control, and he was just in the opening act.

8) The Lengths (The Black Keys)
From Rubber Factory. Great album from this drum-and guitar blues duo. This is one of the quieter, more contemplative, least distorted tracks. On the same album, The Black Keys do perhaps one of the simplest versions of Stackalee ever. It's called "Stack Shot Billy" and the lyrics strip the legend down almost as close as you can get to the bare essentials.

9) Going, Going, Gone (Stars)
This band are Montreal indie darlings, but, you know, I cannot stand them, and I can't find anything in this potentially migraine-inducing song to like.

10) I'm Your Gun (Alice Cooper)
Over-produced, with a cheesy 1980s synthy sound. But still, Alice.

What's your random 10?

Closed captioning

I pity the people who have to rely on closed captioning of live broadcasts. If you had to rely on the captions exclusively to make sense of what you were seeing, you would be living in a very confused world indeed.

I understand that captioning something on the fly must be hard. Of course people will make mistakes occasionally. I fully expect typos, for instance. But there are a few mistakes that really stand out, and I got to see two this morning, on CTV Newsnet.

Exhibit A: A story on Benazir Bhutto's house arrest. On screen is Bhutto speaking to a crowd. The captions inform us that meanwhile, 5,000 of Bhutto's "support verbs" were arrested. She must be a truly extraordinary woman to have mustered this many verbs.

Exhibit B: A few minutes later, a story on how Canadian kids are hopeless when it comes to understanding the basics of our country's history. In fact, according to the captions, only a quarter of the kids surveyed could give the date of "confertion." You know, if I was asked, I don't think I could give it to you either.

Bob Dylan quote of the week

Don't wanna amuse nobody, don't wanna be amused.

(From "Do Right To Me Baby" on Infidels.)

I love this quote because we live in such a culture of amusement. To not want to be amused is almost incomprehensible. But Dylan is in prophet mode here. Amusement is a distraction from the serious business of saving souls.

Lame, lame lame

Halifax has been abuzz. A big concert is going to be announced for the Halifax Common next summer. A couple of years ago it was the Rolling Stones, and now various names were being tossed around: U2, the Eagles, AC/DC, Red Hot Chili Peppers.

You can see the trend here: big names, past their prime, but top-of-the-line in terms of of draw (and ticket prices).

So who are we getting? Well, early reports are indicating it will be... Celine Dion. Please. Can this town get any lamer?

Not entirely idiotic

Just when I was all set to post something about how the Nova Scotia government seems to have been taken over entirely by idiots, they go and do something truly praiseworthy and forward-looking.

But first, the idiocy.

1) It starts with the premier. Rodney MacDonald waits, and waits, and waits before calling the legislature back into session. Last year it sat for the fewest days in its history. This year it will sit for even fewer. Finally, the announcement comes that former cabinet minister Ernie Fage -- who was already embroiled in scandal before allegedly being involved in a hit-and-run from which he fled -- will be going to trial November 16 and 17. (Read my previous posting on the Fage saga here.) Now that we've got a trial date, MacDonald announces the legislature will reopen on November 22. How convenient -- no embarrassing questions to answer during the trial. MacDonald, of course, says there is no connection between the two dates.

2) It continues with the premier. On a tour to sell his government's proposed anti-strike legislation for health-care workers, he tells an audience that the workers have told him they want the government to take away their right to strike. Uh-huh.

3) And how about that minister of health promotion, Barry Barnet? As he's launching a strategy to get people to drink less, his colleague, environment and labour minister Mark Parent, is introducing rules loosening up alcohol advertising. Hey kids! Dollar shots at the Dome! Barnet seems taken by surprise by the announcement of the new rules in early fall. But apparently he doesn't do much else -- until he is surprised once again when the first ads actually launch.

4) And how about that education minister, Karen Casey? First, she fires the entire board of the Halifax Regional School Board. Then she threatens to bring the members of the Strait Regional School Board in line for their bickering. But she also reaffirms her commitment to democracy. It's just that the boards should stop squabbling. So.... democracy is good -- as long as you don't argue.

So what have this gang done right lately? Protection of the Blue Mountain - Birch Cove Lakes area, which would otherwise tumble to sprawl.

From a CPAWS news release:

The Blue Mountain – Birch Cove Lakes Wilderness Area will become one of Canada’s largest urban wilderness parks. It is located just west of Halifax near the Bayers Lake Industrial Park, adjacent to some of the fastest growing areas of the city, including Rockingham, Clayton Park West, and Timberlea, as well as the future Bedford West development.

...Blue Mountain – Birch Cove Lakes is ecologically-significant, containing over a dozen undeveloped lakes, numerous wetlands, old forest, rare plants, the highest point of land on the Chebucto Peninsula, and habitat for a small population of endangered mainland moose. It also boasts numerous recreational opportunities, including wilderness hiking and the only canoe loop near the city where nine lakes can be paddled without backtracking.