So apparently Kate changed outfits five times in 24 hours.  Now this is pure speculation but the only reason I can think of to change your clothes that often is if you poop your pants.  Now if it’s true that our little Katie has continence issues then maybe she should have stayed home.  Which I assume is Cambridge.  I mean that would be ridiculous to have a title and not actually live in that place.  You know, that must be dreadfully inconvenient for Chuck and Camilla, what with the former living in Wales and the latter across the water in Cornwall.

Now I realize this is all very childish and petty but I don’t haven any other options.  By their very nature, royalists are immune to logic.  I’ve tried.  They just continue to swoon over the celebrity of these unemployed individuals.  So maybe if I can convince people that she poops her pants (which still makes sense even if she’s wearing a dress due to the dual meaning of the word “pants”) then maybe they’ll find her less alluring.  But with my luck it will just make her “earthy.”

Of course I’m being facetious and there are other explanations for Kate’s frequent wardrobe changes.  Like maybe she peed her pants.  Or maybe she’s a sloppy eater.  I bet they had her eating some stereotypically Canadian food and we all know how sticky maple syrup can be.

On July 17, 1941, continuing from a conversation started the previous day, TD James Dillon (possibly the greatest Irishman of the 20th century) gave an impassioned speech to the Dáil Committee on Finance.  Appealing to the deeply Christian nature of the Irish nation he, among other things said the following:

I say to-day that the German Nazi Axis seeks to enforce on every small nation in Europe the same beastly tyranny that we successfully fought 700 years to prevent the British Empire imposing on this country. I say—and I say it on the authority of Our Holy Father the Pope—that Germany in every small country which she has conquered has sought, not only to establish political domination, but to impose on the conquered peoples an atheist church which derides Christianity and which forbids the people of those States to serve God according to their consciences. I say—and here again I claim the authority of the Holy Father for the statement—that the Nazi domination, in every small State in Europe where it has been established, imposes upon the Christian peoples of those countries the obligation to choose between the Reich and Christ, and that statement is quoted further from the Pastoral Letter from the German Bishops to their own people.
Naval and air bases are required in this country by the United States of America and Great Britain.

The immediate response from deputy Andrew Fogarty summed up the views of every other Irish politician on the threat posed by Nazi Germany: I say the Deputy should be removed out of the House. I will put him out—quick, the corner-boy. If he does not shut his —mouth we will shut it for him.

In reality, I do believe aid should be given to the Irish but I think it should be accompanied with a formal condemnation of their actions, past and present, of moral relativism.  Neutrality is a war crime unto itself.

Much ado has been made about Chancellor Merkel’s comments in regards to multiculturalism in Germany, that it has “utterly failed.”  At least they tried.  Certain former leaders of Germany were decidedly against multicultarism.

But frankly, I’m not surprised.  Multiculturalism is doomed to fail because too many immigrants are stuck in their ways, unwilling to integrate themselves into their new home.  This is partly why the whole idea of emigration has always baffled me.  Here you have people who are so proud of their country that they decide to leave it.  Huh?  Sure, many countries are poorer but if you truly loved your country you would stay there and try to build it into something great.  Of course the receiving nations’s national pride often evolves into xenophobia which is never a good thing but is worse if your country is the kind of place people like to immigrate to.

Of course it goes without saying that this doesn’t apply to refugees.  Refugees are those that leave their homes due to persecution: they don’t have a choice.  I love refugees, but said love has little to do with the people themselves.  I love refugees because I jump at any and every chance to ridicule foreign states possessing subpar human rights records.

Now here comes the twist: none of this applies to Canada, and to a lesser extent, Australia.  Founded by British subjects and populated with an assortment of European immigrants, our two countries were forged in the fire of the two world wars.  Since then it has become increasingly evident that our national identities are fairly shallow.

The Canadian nation began to die after the fall of the Diefenbaker government and we’ve been constitutionally multicultural since 1982.  As for down under, after the demise of White Australia their proximity to Asia and it’s plethora of unpleasant regimes made mass immigration inevitable.  With each passing year the Anzac legend dies a little bit more. Canada is beyond hope but republicanism could still save Australia, provided they want to be saved.

And it is only here, in countries void of a strong central identity, that multiculturalism can truly flourish.

Formal organizations like the Tongmenghui (later the Kuomintang) and the Democracy Party; and loose groupings that emerged from the New Culture, May 4, May 30 and Tangwai movements, the Democracy Wall, the Tiananmen square protests, etc. produced many worthy peacemakers.  And so here is the complete list of Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureates:

Liu Xiaobo.

…Well, better late than never I suppose.

Some other possibilities/missed opportunities:
Sun Yat‐sen
V. K. Wellington Koo
Y. C. James Yen
Elsie Tu
Wei Jingsheng
Shih Ming‐teh
Hu Jia

Here’s hoping that this decade of prizes won’t be as terrible as the last one.

“Woman Is the Nigger of the World” – John Lennon wrote that song in the early ’70s and I only just recalled it when I was part way through this post. Sadly, although there have been many advances, the phrase still rings true today.

There’s also something else I read from this phrase though I’m unsure if Lennon meant it to be seen this way.  We are obsessed with the idea of racism as the king of all evils.  During the apartheid era, due to its treatment of black people as second‐class citizens, South Africa was ostracized by the international community, and rightly so.  But yet today, there are dozens of countries in Africa and Asia that treat women as second‐class citizens and not only do they escape ostracism but many are recipients of Western aid.

The common justification for all this is “tradition”, which is b‐b‐b‐bullshit.  Tradition is the reason people play the violin on top of buildings, it doesn’t justify the deprivation of basic human rights.

Last year I visited a local mosque, the Waterloo Masjid.  The imam seemed nice enough but there were a few things that really bothered me.  First, there were separate entrances for men and women.  That by itself, would irritate me but I could live with it.  What was completely unacceptable was that there were segregated worship spaces.  Only men were allowed in the main sanctuary and women had the “choice” of praying in an enclosed balcony above or in a separate room where the prayer leader was visible via closed‐circuit television.  Now I’ve heard various reasons for why this is done, most of them from non‐Muslim sources but really, I don’t care.  What if at my church (which, incidentally has a female pastor) it was decided that all the Asian people would be banished to a little room by themselves.  That would easily make the front page of the local newspaper; the outrage would be legendary.  Sex segregation is common in mosques worldwide.  Ironically one place where men and women worship together: Mecca.

Not to single out the Muslims, many churches, the Roman Catholics in particular, bar women from their most influential positions (e.g. priesthood).  Justification for this stems from an obsession with 1 Timothy 2:12 and a few other select verses, ignoring all evidence to the contrary. It should be noted that none of these passages are present in the four gospels but rather come from the letters of the Apostle Paul who has a reputation for inventing shit that Jesus himself never said.

I realize race and sex are not the same thing.  There are some forms of sex segregation that have proven quite useful, for example, sports and washrooms.  These relate to the biological differences between men and women and not some imaginary social constructs.  As far as washrooms go, I haven’t been in a women’s washroom for quite some time but from what I can recall as toddler, they truly were separate but equal.  I think more should be done to promote women’s sports although it has to be noted that Canada and the U.S. are way ahead of the rest of the world in this regard. Physically speaking, women have a tendency to be smaller and less strong but if need be they should be judged on those individual properties not on the fact that they are female.  If a job involves heavy lifting you would want to hire a strong person, male or female.  You wouldn’t hire a fat guy if the job involves tight spaces.

I could end this thing right here and I probably should but I’m not going to.

Now let me qualify all this.  I regard myself to be a first‐wave feminist, albeit with some modern adaptations.  While women in the Western world still have some obstacles to overcome, I believe they are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.  When faced with bride kidnapping, legal spousal rape and female genital mutilation, income inequality somehow doesn’t seem quite as important.  Well I’d prefer not to take such a materialistic world view, the social capital of Western women is often overlooked.  Money, while important, is far from the being only asset needed to get ahead in life.  I have some specific theories but no real hard evidence so I’ll leave them alone for the time being.  But take my family for example: While my father has always earned more than my mother, she has always wielded considerable, arguably more, power over the day‐to‐day workings of the household.  And I know the modern woman often wants to distance herself from being seen as a homemaker but domestic power should not be overlooked.

But women in much of the third world don’t have these powers.  For example, the withholding of sexual relations, a tactic that dates back at least to ancient Greece, is fairly useless in a society where rape is an accepted practice.  Third‐wave feminism was supposed to have broadened its focus to beyond the developed world but it really hasn’t gone far enough.  Action must be taken.  Societies not up to snuff must be penalized.

Again, I probably should have left those last two paragraphs out but that’s just not who I am.

But, lest I be branded a fanboy, or what hip hop fans describe using the wonderfully crude term “dickrider,” I also have some negative criticism too.

12GB of HD space is excessive.  I might be able to overlook it if the load times were fast, but they’re not.  They are painfully slow.

With StarCraft II Blizzard is obviously trying to appeal to people outside the traditional StarCraft/Warcraft fanbase (“Warcraft” referring to the original 3 RTS games).  Now this is perfectly sensible.  Video games aren’t like art, they generally need to be popular in the here and now.  In 40 years time noöne is going to rediscover Daikatana and declare it a lost masterpiece.

Some of the efforts are purely cosmetic, for instance the “Easy” setting is instead called “Casual” which is another way of saying “I suck but I don’t want to admit it.” All these little things make absolute sense from a commercial standpoint.  Nevertheless I will never be able to accept that Cylon lady as the voice of Kerrigan. In Glynnis Talken Blizzard already had a great, albeit unknown, voice actress.  Talken was originally confirmed and then unconfirmed for the role.  Tricia Helfer’s fees would have undoubtedly been much higher but I’m sorry to say that this ploy to rope in casual sci‐fi fans at the expense hardcore StarCraft fans (most of whom probably play the game primarily for its multiplayer aspect and therefore don’t care) will probably a successful one.

Sort of splitting hairs I know.  As I said initially, StarCraft II is, and remains, awesome.

Also, as a side note, in my imagination Blizzard has a special Subtitle Department.  Seriously, look at some of these:

Tides of Darkness
Lord of Destruction
Reign of Chaos
Eternity’s End
Terror of the Tides
The Burning Crusade
Wings of Liberty
Heart of the Swarm

Although, their originality may be slipping:
Path of the Damned
Legacy of the Damned
Legacy of the Void

Similarly, Eric of Pomeria possessed three separate titles: Eirik III of Norway, Erik VII of Denmark and Erik (XIII) of Sweden.  Although the Scandinavian kingdoms came under a variety of different personal unions, they always remained independent, at least on paper.

Now on July 8, 1821, a man whom I’ll call George Augustus Frederick Hanover was crowned George IV of the United Kingdom despite the fact that he was only the UK’s second monarch.  Now obviously math was not a strong subject for whoever was in charge of these things.  Perhaps it was George himself, or maybe the Archbishop of Canterbury, I don’t know but it is an error that persists to this day.

It’s true his father had already taken the title George III of the UK, but it’s well known that George III was a few bricks short of a load so we’ll let him off the hook for that one.  But our current reigning monarch, Elizabeth II is certainly of sound mind, so maybe just noone has told her there weren’t any previous queens named Elizabeth (actually…).

I can tell you with absolute certainly there was never a Queen Elizabeth I of Papua New Guinea. The only way the name “Elizabeth II” would make sense is if she was Queen of England or Empress of Russia.  But I know for a fact that the Kingdom of England ceased to exist in 1707 and modern England has yet to be given devolved government like the other countries in the UK.  Likewise, I’m pretty sure Vladimir Putin is the reigning Tsar of Russia.

• There are 54 Commonwealth countries, 16 of which have Elizabeth II as there head of state
• The United Kingdom (UK) is most definitely a Commonwealth country
• The reigning Duke of Normandy has travelled to and spent far more time in the UK than in Canada
• One does not visit one’s home but rather returns to it after visiting other places

In order for Mr. Harper’s comments to be true the UK must be considered the home of the former queen of Pakistan and thus not a place she can “visit.”  In turn since she does “visit” Canada then this country must not be considered her home.  Therefore, Elizabeth II, Paramount Chief of Fiji is indeed a foreign monarch.

All that being said, the Lord of Mann does speak fluent French so I’ll give her kudos for that.

But that’s not what happened.  Flying over 200,000 flights for a period of nearly a year the RAF and the USAF brought vital supplies to the 2.5 million civilians of West Berlin.

The dwellers of Gaza have no such guardian angels. Of course, the Berliners weren’t firing rockets at anyone.  But I don’t think you can necessarily blame the average Gazan for that.  True, they voted the terrorists into government but to me that’s just a sign of a truly lousy education system.

You won’t hear it in the news but Egypt, that’s the Arab Republic of Egypt has also kept a blockade of the Gaza Strip since 2007, seemingly with the full blessing of the Arab League.  This is the same Arab League that kicked Egypt out in 1979 for merely acknowledging Israel.

You see, the Arab world hates Hamas even more than the West does: they’re deathly afraid the religious crazies in their own countries will take power.

Hamas themselves have become the new Tamil Tigers in that their hunger for power has displaced any ideology they once might have had.

The West doesn’t care because there is no money to be made in Palestine.

The Third World has their own shit to deal with.

And finally the international activists are more interested in getting attention and ridiculing Israel which is why they never take Egypt or Syria or Hamas to task.

So when you break it all down nobody cares.  Those poor Palestinian people.  God help them… because no one else will.

Georgia’s entry to Eurovision 2009 was the most genius diplomatic manœuvre I have ever seen.  Faced with a militarily humiliating (but diplomatically empowering) defeat at Russian hands, Georgia was not too keen to be attending any contests hosted by Russia.  Adding to that is the possibility that should Georgia perform especially poorly on Russian soil would be to add insult to injury.

But at the same time, Georgia wants to take the high road and not look like they’re chickening out.  Enter “We Don’t Wanna Put In”: a song whose political connotations (i.e. “We don’t want a Putin”) are obvious enough to ensure disqualification, but yet subtle enough for Georgia to claim Russian interference.

As for the song itself, it’s not bad but it sounds a lot like “Disco Inferno” by The Trammps.

* * *

Speaking of the Eurovision Song Contest, this year was quite a disappointment.  I found the overall quality of the songs to be much lower.  But I did enjoy the winner, Lena:

I mean, isn’t she just ridiculously adorable?  Especially with that fucked up faux‐English accent that mysteriously disappears whenever she’s speaking German.

But most importantly, thanks to Lena’s victory, her grandfather, a former West German diplomat, now has his own Wikipedia page.