crazed monkey

For the second time this year, I marched against a war in Iraq. As expected, today’s rally was much larger than last month’s rally. I gauged the crowd at some 20,000. The Globe And Mail reports there were 10,000 in attendance, a gross underestimate, while the CBC reports that 25,000 were present. According to The Toronto Star, however, numbers were as high as 80,000.

In addition to attracting more people, this month’s rally seemed better organised than January’s. I was happy to see the same diverse set of people and also pleasantly surprised at the level of relevant placards. Hundreds of signs dotted the crowd, all but a few of which denounced a war on Iraq.

Everybody seemed to have a camera at the ready, as if they were representing Transmetropolitan’s SPKF. Victor took some pictures, and you can also view Frank’s pictures from the rally.

Posted on February 15th, 2003 in politics - No Comments »

The Globe And Mail has redesigned its site. I dislike it, mostly because it makes me feel as if I am viewing the site while squashed into a tiny box. A fixed width for content is never cool. The site redesign frustrates the whole online news experience, which is not to say that the previous design was any better. However, this new design leaves me feeling even more confined.

As if reading The Globe And Mail wasn’t frustrating enough, the redesign has introduced yet another URL format and has broken all old links. Each URL is still preceded by “servlet”, but now “/story” is appended to that instead of “/ArticleNews”. Why not just eliminate the “servlet” part as nobody but their server cares? A simple Apache rewrite rule could handle that and make the links that much easier to handle. Even though they’ve changed the format of their URLs, they are still not very human readable. At least it’s a far cry from their original parameter-separated nonsense. Now that was horrid.

Now the question is, should I try and update my links to The Globe And Mail? Even links found in entries posted this past Wednesday are broken.

Posted on February 14th, 2003 in computers, internet - No Comments »

Finding good satire is increasingly difficult these days. Thankfully, I’ve found some excellent American satire which ranks up there with the likes of This Hour Has 22 Minutes and The Newsroom. Surprisingly, this show, called The O’Reilly Factor, is produced in the States.

The O’Reilly Factor comes off as a cross between This Hour Has 22 Minutes and The Newsroom. Bill O’Reilly plays himself, if in name only, and can best be compared to the character of Jim Walcott, the dim-witted anchor in The Newsroom. The dialogue is excellent and sounds as if it is unscripted. Each episode comes across with the feel of a real political opinion show. And the guests! These guys manage to get the best people to come in and play along. A couple of weeks ago, The O’Reilly Factor brought in our very own Consul General, Pamela Wallin. Here is a sample of the excellent, natural dialogue:

O’REILLY: Look at Chretien. Look at your leader!

…

O’REILLY: Your leader is as left wing as they come.

WALLIN: We’ve been through conservative governments, left liberal governments…

O’REILLY: Look at your leader.

…

O’REILLY: He was elected. Chretien was elected. He’s as left as they come. He’s more left than Hillary Clinton.

WALLIN: Look…

O’REILLY: I’ll give you the last word, but the facts speak for themselves. You’re looking at a man here who’s a quasi-socialist. You elected him. He’s the problem because this country is going further to the right.

Another excellent show aired last week when the show brought in Jeremy Glick, a signatory of the Not in Our Name ad, whose father died in the 9/11 attacks. I thought it went a little too far, but the show successfully satired the unwillingness of the American news media to debate the issues surrounding 9/11. This episode, which I somehow managed to miss when it appeared on Tom Tomorrow’s weblog, introduced me to the satirical genius that is the The O’Reilly Factor. You really need to read the transcript to appreciate that show, but here’s an excerpt:

O’REILLY: All right. You didn’t support the action against Afghanistan to remove the Taliban. You were against it, OK.

GLICK: Why would I want to brutalize and further punish the people in Afghanistan…

O’REILLY: Who killed your father!

GLICK: The people in Afghanistan…

O’REILLY: Who killed your father.

GLICK: … didn’t kill my father.

O’REILLY: Sure they did. The al Qaeda people were trained there.

GLICK: The al Qaeda people? What about the Afghan people?

O’REILLY: See, I’m more angry about it than you are!

You wacky Americans really crack me up. Keep on producing that quality entertainment, guys! I am really looking forward to your new reality show. I think its working title is The War on Iraq, but I’m sure that will change to something like Operation: Iraqi Freedom.

Update (2003/03/18): Much to my surprise, the unofficial name for the impending war in Iraq is indeed “Operation Iraqi Freedom”. This decision has garnered hundreds of hits for this page, which is the only result for a search for “operation iraqi freedom”. I am embarrassed for the current US administration.

Posted on February 13th, 2003 in politics - No Comments »

The Globe & Mail: Send flowers for Valentine’s? Bah humbug! I’d have to disagree with Russell Smith on this one. Valentine’s Day, at least in Toronto, seems low key this year. At the very least, I haven’t been sickened by the store displays and ads. Maybe my tolerance level has risen. Ho ho, that’s a good one.

I’ve never understood Valentine’s Day. If you’re in a loving relationship, you should have special romantic days several times a year, sometimes spontaneously, sometimes planned. Why require marketroids to dictate when you should be romantic? And why be upset if nothing happens on that one particular day? You have three hundred and sixty five days to celebrate love. Do you truly lack the imagination to pick days other than February 14th?

Wait, ninety-nine percent of the planet doesn’t have the required imagination to do anything other than what they’re told. My mistake. I keep forgetting these things. As you were.

Posted on February 12th, 2003 in culture - No Comments »

Anyone concerned with the possibility of a war on Iraq should attend the international peace march and anti-war rally on February 15th. Those in the Toronto area should join the Toronto march starting at Yonge & Dundas at 1pm. Make your voice heard! I will certainly be attending.

Posted on February 12th, 2003 in politics - No Comments »