h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

the canada fires have made the news here

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Did the Edmonton windstorm?

Actually, the fires are bad. They're becoming something close to an annual thing in the Okanagan (fairly near to Taliesin's area, BTW).


Did this mostly good news make it to your news? http://snipurl.com/njl4o

no mention of windstorm

just this http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8158210.stm

hope Tal is ok

ooppss

cant comment as i can't link to external sites here at work

will look at home in the morning

Tal is quite a distance to the south, if I remember correctly.

The story was about a joint Afghan National Army/Canadian Armed Forces operation in Khandahar Province which, while costing the life of a Canadian, captured four significant IED manufacturing establishments, including completed suicide vests and roadside bombs as well as large amounts of explosives, accelerants, and heavy weapons, including anti-tank munitions.

As I mentioned on the particularly Canadian thread, no one can argue that the operation which cost Pte. Courcy (the Canadian fatality) his life did not save the lives of countless others, both civilian and military.

I don't know if you and I have been in any conversations together about the Afghan thing, but I'm very conflicted. Unlike both those who are simply opposed to or in favour of the ongoing and seemingly endless struggle, I have a terrible time with it. I don't want anyone to be dying in Afghanistan except from old age. But what's the best way to bring that desire to fruition? Personally, I think something should have been done to get rid of the Taliban long before 9/11, before they dynamited a World Heritage Site, before they locked up women, and before they started torturing and executing their enemies by locking them in shipping crates in the summer heat for several days, followed by peppering the crates with machine gun fire and finishing it all off by lobbing a grenade or two inside.

I don't know what the answer is, but I'm pretty sure it's not to have the International Community abandon the country to the Taliban.

well as soon as they announced the invasion of afganistan, i said it was the wrong move, no one ever wins a war there

the russians were invited in and still ended up losing

the retreat from kabul by the british army saw one survivor

the taliban leaders are what was left from the mujhadien and they were trained in insurgency tactics by us.

the politicians seemed to have forgoten that.

have to go work bekons, back in half an hour

Ah, but you see, they've never faced the Canadians before!







We're leaving in 2011, no matter what (probably). All parties in Parliament are agreed on that.

But, you know, no body else could take Vimy Ridge from the Germans but the Canadians. Apparently the Germans in WW1 called the Canadian soldiers they faced 'Stormtroopers'.

That's quite a legacy to live up to.

Especially when the people back home all think of you as Peacekeepers rather than Stormtroopers.


I've read a fair amount written by the ordinary Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. They're highly motivated -- to help, not simply to fight. Clearly, they do not hesitate to fight when it's needed, but every single one of them would be more than happy to complete a tour having built a school and never having fired a shot.

All other Afghan interventions in history (with the possible exception of the Soviet one, which ended up being cast as Imperialism any way) were Imperial ventures. I can't speak for the other countries of NATO, but it is very clear that Canada has no interest in Empire (and I suspect that is clear to the rest of the world as well). If other NATO governments could somehow make a lack of imperial ambition believable, other than the course of many NATO countries ('don't every get anywhere near Afghans who might hurt you'), maybe there would be a chance of actually helping the people of Afghanistan get on with their lives in peace.

Other political leaders may have sent their soldiers over their to defend a pipeline or to prop up a government in Kabul, but our government has always been what has often seemed disturbingly vague: we're there to help the Afghan people to live in peace and help them to improve their lives. But as time goes on, I get the feeling that that seemingly vague goal is exactly why our soldiers volunteer to go over there. Trying to have a better life is actually something that's a heck of a lot easier to get a mind around than defending a pipeline, propping up a government, or taking part in a clash of cultures.

We're leaving in 2011. I hope another part of the International Community will feel that the Afghan lives saved by Operation Constrictor 4 in Kandahar Province were worth the sacrifice that Pte. Courcy made.

i dont know where to start

i have tried twice now to put in words what i think and am at a loss,

you do write very well and put things across very clearly, by the way

I'm at a loss as well. I feel that my last post was too much in favour of the operation, but . . .

Are you familiar with the 'Responsibility to Protect' commission?

let's see if I can find it . . .

http://www.iciss.ca/menu-en.asp

In a nutshell, in response to an undirected call by Kofi Annan, while General Secretary, Canada's then Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, struck an international panel (which included present Canadian opposition leader and likely future Prime Minister Michael Ignatief) to study the question of what the international community should do when a nation's government was unable or unwilling to protect the rights of its own citizens. The conclusions of the panel, again, in a nutshell, were:


Intervene! By all means necessary.

The Commission called for a fundamental change in international law and a fundamental change in the inviolability of national sovereignty.

I confess I am something of a convert.









And thanks for the compliment on my writing.

And it's far later than it should be for me to put the kid to bed.


I'll try to check in again in a bit.

how old is 'the kid'

'how old is 'the kid''


a question surprisingly complicated to answer.


chronologically, almost sixteen.

Due to developmental delays, as they are called these days, who knows?

How old is a person who can easily distinguish Jupiter and Venus in the night sky but still can't quite get that reading thing?

And the medical challenges are almost constant.

At least the epilepsy seems to be gone.


We've had great laughs this evening, in fact.

She's sleeping, which is something I'll be doing quite soon as well.

sleep sounds good

i'll be there in an hour,

i have 2 kids, boy 6 girl 4.

summer holidays have just started here, 7 weeks no school,

luckily i am off 6 out of the 7 weeks

I have the great good fortune of having taken ridiculously early retirement about five years ago, of having an unimaginably civil relationship with my ex-wife, and, as a result of the above and many other good fortunes, of having the ability to do pretty much whatever I bloody well want with my life (within the bounds of being effectively a single parent because the child seems to have developed a pathological attachment -- to the point of calling out 'where are you' when I go the to loo. After having announced loudly 'I'm going to the loo. Do you understand? I'm going to the bleeding loo!'

It's summer holidays here as well. We're about three weeks into about eight weeks. I'm feeling quite good about how it's going.




On the subject of the storm last night:


a woman was apparently injured by falling concrete downtown as a result of the wind last night.

my neighbourhood is full of mature American Elms and a large number of them, as well as a goodly number of Green Ash and Poplar have come down, strangely managing to fall parallel to the street, missing cars and houses.

Although most of the power outages have been restored, I passed one intersection this evening, almost twenty-four hours after the storm, which was still reduced to what we call a 'four way stop' from a traffic light.

Although it seems to have been low on the loss of life/injury scale, it was something that could have been much worse.

know exactly what you mean

you sit there with the kids watching telly and not a peep, the moment you go and start to fill the dish washer, or empty it or anything....as soon as your hands are full its 'DAAAAAADDY can i have'.....'DAAAAAADDY can i have'......'DAAAAAADDY can i have'

exasperating is the word i think,

son is going to my mums for a week in august, while we paint his room

I must go

hello

hows things with you??

hot and muggy.

We've had a very, very hot and dry summer up until about a week ago (I mentioned the storm, didn't I?) Now it's hot and damp.

I've been trying to concentrate on things other than inarticulate rants about conspiracies, mathematical proofs of god, and religion -- oh. That's redundant, isn't it?

It's getting to bedtime here. This is the time that I find a few old things on youtube to listen to, read my books, and try to cool off.

how did the garden survive the storm

last time i was pondering your garden and the power failure in a post apocaliptic mad max cenario, was there much damage

over here the met office have revised their prediction for the summer

it was a BBQ summer now its changable???????

Actually, the garden did well. The hail poked a few holes in leaves and topped a pepper plant or two, but there were no major losses.


Tonight I got back to a book I started quite some time ago and I feel the urge to recommend it to anyone interested in this religion thing:

Constantine's Sword by James Carroll http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Constantines-Sword-Church-Jews-History-James-Carroll/9780618219087-item.html?ref=Books%3a+Search+Top+Sellers

The man is an exquisite writer and the book is both wonderful History and wonderful Autobiography, woven together in a most enlightening way.

But I'm off for a bit to read Hawthorne's 'Wonder Book for Girls and Boys' to the kid.

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Wonder-Book-for-Girls-Boys-Nathaniel-Hawthorne/9780554558165-item.html?ref=Search+Books%3a+%2527wonder+book+for+girls+and+boys%2527