Another day older and closer to... · Monday March 5, 2007 by colin newell
Ok. Do not really want to harp on this too much. But this animation pretty much sums it up.
Recent reports suggest that the Bush administration is considering using nuclear weapons against Iran. The very fact that nuclear weapon use is being discussed as an option—against a state that does not have nuclear weapons and does not represent a direct or imminent threat to the United States—illustrates the extent to which the Bush administration has changed U.S. nuclear weapons policy.
The last time a nuclear weapon was used against another nation was… well heck. You know the answer. It was the U.S. against Japan – and some analysts point out that the war was pretty much won by the U.S. – you know, it just seemed like a good idea at the time to let this thing off over a civilian target just to see what would happen.
Anyway – the past is gone. Back in 2007 for a moment.
Check out this marvelous animation on the folly of bunker busting technology.
Another day older and still radioactive · Monday February 26, 2007 by colin newell
According to The London Sunday Times, Israel is planning to use nuclear bunker busters to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The report says that Israeli airforce squadrons at Hatzerim and Tel Nof Airbase are training to use low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”.
Some of Iran’s facilities have been built underground (read: Underneath hospitals and schools) and would thus be difficult to hit using conventional weapons. No kidding!
Targets would include the uranium enrichment facilities of Natanz, a site near Isfahan where gas for the enrichment process have been stored underground, and a heavy water reactor in Arak.
“As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished.” said a source. The tactical nuclear weapons would only be used if conventional weapons were “ruled out” and if the United States “declined to intervene”, the article continues, based on “senior” military sources.
Ok. Everyone shout with me: “God help us all!”
The instantaneous human casulties would be in the order of tens of thousands. Within days, the body count could be in the hundreds of thousands. Prevailing winds would carry fall-out hundreds, if not thousands of miles into Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Kazkhstan, Turkey and beyond.
Military analysts say that disclosure of the plans could be intended to put pressure on Iran to halt enrichment (which Iran says is for peaceful purposes), prod the United States into action or soften up world opinion in advance of an Israeli attack, according to the report.
soften up World opinion huh? I am going to need a lot more softening than this. Nukes have not been used against civilians since the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs of WWII – and there are still survivors suffering from those original attacks.
If I were a space alien (and I clearly am not a space alien…) I would be asking: If the following countries have nukes, then why can’t… you get the picture…
The Global Nuke Club
United States
Russia
China
France
Israel
United Kingdom
India
Pakistan
Is it because the above countries are all benign, harmless, peace loving and generally little or no threat to their neighbors?
Somehow, I do not think that this is the real issue.
You decide.
Still don’t think we are on the eve of destruction? Read here
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Canada - sane and more free... · Saturday February 24, 2007 by colin newell
The top court in Canada has ruled against the constitutionality of security certificates. article
Basically, the certificates allowed the Federal government of Canada to detain, without charge, non-citizens of Canada pretty much… forever.
Not only that, the detainees have no access to their accusors, legal representation, the evidence or… well… anything.
Nice. No. Not nice.
It’s not Canadian to treat people this way – Canadians or not.
We don’t do it. When we see 15-century style laws like this, we challenge them.
This kind of nonsense might fly in 21st century America but it doesn’t here.
And the last time I checked, we were a separate country.
Meantime, the U.S.A, which has gone totally insane in their economy-draining quest to find the perfect spook is slowly introducing a new form of X-Ray technology to gaze beneath the clothing of its law abiding citizens. link
In our daily (monday-friday) coffee roundtable at my place of employ, we have some pretty lively debate.
One misguided drinking companion (a loudly acknowledged ultra-rightwing christian neo-con) said: “If ya got nothing to hide… ya won’t mind showing us what ya got…”
My feeling is: A steady erosion of personal freedoms in the name of protecting us from some imaginary threat is bad for society.
That is my opinion and I welcome your comments.
Tickets to Police 2007 Tour in Vancouver? Dream on! · Saturday February 17, 2007 by colin newell
Ok. So it is no big deal… but come on!
Quite a few of us have been sucked into the 2007 Police reunion tour
hype.
And I was one.
For starters, I heard that by signing up for a free newsletter on BestBuy.CA that I would have access to pre-sale tickets.
Yea. Right. Those tickets were long gone within minutes of this promotion first being offered.
Yet they kept the hype up getting thousands to sign up to their retail shill with virtually zero hope of getting tickets for any Police concert anywhere.
So now I have to take the 3 seconds to sign off of the stupid BestBuy newsletter.
Then there is TicketMaster. How I have learned to loathe TicketMaster. Many acts and performers avoid them too.
My story.
Like a good consumer I showed up at the TicketMaster website with plenty of time to queue up for the 10AM sale of Police 2007 tickets.
Right on the money, I clicked in. I requested any ticket at any price… at 10:00:05 AM today. Within about 1 and one/half minutes of waiting the TicketMaster web site spat back there all tickets were gone.
Ok. Fine. So they sold X number of thousands of tickets in 1.5 minutes.
But did they? Did they really?
No. They did not. Let’s count the number of online ticket sales scams that are under way here.
Yesterday (Friday) I could have taken advantage of a Police Fan Club pre-sale for a paltry 120 dollars… 120 bones just to join the fan club and that is prior to actually getting a ticket.
That and all the other pre-sales, corporate sales, and coupons that (I imagine) the uber-wealthy get. And what’s left for the rest of us?
Nothing? Nope. Not quite.
Within minutes of todays TicketMaster sale being complete, a ticket-auction appeared on the TicketMaster website!
Yup. I could bid upwards of 600$+ on a ticket to see the concert.
But I thought there were no tickets left? What is ticketmaster now? Ebay? Well maybe.
I guess it is free enterprise – but for the love of pete, make it a little bit fair and a little more honest.
Thankfully, I only lost about 5 minutes of my life.
I will certainly listen to The Police in a slightly different way in the future.
this just in… a second show has just been added for Vancouver. Tickets go on sale on Feb 27 at 10AM. Of course they do… sign me up…
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