DADT discharged

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell ended today.

In other words, a non–event happened.

More random stuff

In no particular order:

• Leon Panetta, the American Secretary of Defense, has signed a certification to formally end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (via).
• And bigots, the sky hasn’t fallen.
• More proof that correlation does not equal causation, or why emptying your spam folder is good for the economy (via).
• Someone Rick Perry respects is strongly urging him not to run for president.
• Too bad Michele Bachman, Herman Cain, and Rick Santorum didn’t get the message.
• There were terrorist attacks in Norway, and several people have been killed. My condolences.
• This is so sad. “Half of US Social Program Recipients Believe They ‘Have Not Used A Government Social Program’“. The ignorance, I can see it.
• Team Japan won the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Congratulations to them. A major morale booster after their devastating earthquake.
• As my own team did not play like CONCACAF champs, I’ll admit to cheering for the US.
• The game was also the most tweeted event in history.
• Update: Negative aspects of and problems with gender stereotypes.

I’m back

Near the beginning of April, my mother accidentally broke the network card on my computer (don’t ask; it’s a long story), and I was cut off from the internet for a month. But now, I’m reconnected. Here’s a month’s worth of posts, all rolled into one:

• Canada’s general election was yesterday and the Harpercons and Reformatories won a majority. Fuck. I feel like my country just died, its beating heart ripped out by the grimy hands of a reactionary. Women will suffer under the new regime. I’d like to be wrong about that and hope I am.
• If it’s any consolation, the Bloc–headed separatists were basically blown away by an orange wave in Quebec. Good.
• The Green Party has now entered the club of “serious” political parties as it won a seat.
• Premier Christy Clark is running in a by–election in Vancouver–Point Grey. I predict that she will crush the NDP candidate and gain a seat in the legislature. Various governing parties’ by–election losing streak will finally come to an end.
• An Epic FAIL for wingnut economics.
• O RLY? Barack Obama released the long form of his birth certificate. To the surprise of no rational person, the birthers were wrong. He really was born in Hawaii. Of course, to conspiracy freaks, all evidence is created by the New World Order™, so this won’t really sway them. I wonder why such a conspiracy theory ever managed to gain hold. There are plenty of legitimate criticisms of Obama, and therefore conspiracy theories ought to be beneath the dignity of everyone.
• The same reasoning as above applies to Parentism involving Trig Palin.
• Team USA won the 2011 Women’s World Ice Hockey Championships. Congratulations to them. This is their third consecutive title and fourth overall. Just like in every other final, they faced Canada. Just like in every previous tournament, Finland played in the bronze medal game. They won, beating Russia who had their best showing since 2001. My prediction from last May was correct. Despite beating Finland, Switzerland didn’t medal.
• In the Division I tournament, China was relegated. For a team that played in the last Olympics and at one time was a medal contender, it truly is the Great Fall.
• Osama bin Laden was killed by an American special forces team. Good fucking riddance.
• I wonder if my absence has caused a frequent commentator here to finally leave. Part of me kind of hopes so, as he commented semi–on topic on virtually every post, resulting in threadsurrections and endless discussions, sometimes with dozens of comments. Real people have a life outside of commenting and blogging. If you are still here (you know who you are), please, shut up a little.
• I really like this picture (hat tip: Blag Hag).
• Many people here in BC are boycotting Carrie Underwood. This is because her husband, Mike Fisher, plays hockey for the Predators. Seriously, folks? Ms. Underwood has minimal control over which team her husband plays for. She is in no way responsible for the fact that our local team is playing her husband’s team, and as a matter of fact has nothing to do with it. I’d like to think that we live in a civilized society where a woman is not seen as subordinate or lesser than her husband.
• Just before I was cut off, I downloaded music composition software called MuseScore and since then have been loads of fun with it.
• Also a note to this guy. MuseScore is free, so there’s no need to shell out hundreds to get the next version of Sibelius or Finale.

DADT dishonourably discharged

The United States has taken a step to truly joining the 21st century, as its Senate has voted 65–31 to repeal its outdated, ineffective and harmful policy of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. As the House has passed an identical bill, the only thing that has to be done to repeal DADT is President Obama’s signature, which is expected.

As thousands of troops, including badly–needed translators and specialists have been dismissed under this policy, this is the correct decision. Lots of other militaries handle LGBT soldiers just fine, and the US military will be no different.

Lastly, yet again, the sky has refused to fall. Has any wingnut freakout ever actually come true? Any?

Some random stuff

In no particular order:

• What were you doing 1954/04/11? For me, that was decades before I was born, but if you were alive back then you weren’t doing much, as that day was the least exciting day in the twentieth century. I wonder what that Turkish academic and those Belgian voters think about having that day to themselves. Today, with the amazing democratization of information the internet provides, you can find out about some public figure’s sneezing fit two minutes after it happens. Clearly, the idea of an uneventful day is so last century.
• The United States Department of Defense has released its report on the consequences of repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Guess what? It will be a complete non–event. Other countries have gays and lesbians in their militaries with no ill effects, and the same will happen to the United States. About two–thirds of personnel think that repeal will have no ill effects or no effect at all. A strong majority support repealing DADT.
  • Unsurprisingly, the only group opposed to repeal is American evangelicals. They continue to deprive their country’s military access to badly–needed personnel and specialists, a pretty funny way of “supporting the troops”.
• The 2010 Pacific hurricane season ended yesterday, and was the least active season since the weather satellite era began in 1971. Despite that, it was pretty eventful, with hundreds of people killed and a Category 5 hurricane forming. This record low inactivity does not disprove global warming or climate change, not the least because the Atlantic was very active this year, and the fact that climate models do not predict that there will be a greater number of tropical cyclones.
• If you see bits of white falling down when you view my blog, you are not seeing things. Rather, that is a snowfall decoration to celebrate the holidays. It will remain visible until January 4.

Remembrance Day

Lest we forget.

Stooping to tactics so low

Rather than trying to convince Canadians to come to their point of view on the purchase of Joint Strike Fighters, our government, led by the Right Wrong Dishonourable Stephen Harper, has instead tried to influence public opinion by rewriting Wikipedia articles. Their attempt at a wikiality failed. From CBC:

A Defence Department spokesperson confirms computers at the department’s research agency were used to alter a Wikipedia page entry about the Joint Strike Fighter jet and the Conservative government’s decision to spend as much as $18 billion on the aircraft.

Those edits included the removal of information critical of the government’s plan to buy the jets and the addition of insulting comments aimed at Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.

As first reported in a story by Postmedia, Wikipedia traced the edits to computers owned by Defence Research Development Canada’s Ottawa offices. Wikipedia locked down the entry, labelled the changes as vandalism and only allowed recognized editors to work on the page.

See, they are defacing web pages. Vandalizing. In addition, there is the rather authoritarian tactic of removing the dissents of others. It’s entirely possible that a reasonable case could be made for purchasing these jets, but wikiality is not the way to do it.

In one entry, all information outlining the criticism of the jets and the plan to buy them was removed. In another, someone added that Ignatieff thought the deal to buy the planes for Canada was an “awesome, amazing decision to proceed with this contract.” In reality, Ignatieff has been critical of the sole-source contract, calling for a reconvening of the defence committee to examine the decision.

Another version of the entry inserted that Ignatieff has six toes on each foot.

Putting words in your opponents’ mouths and misrepresenting their positions, and making up juvenile stories about them. I would expect the government to know what’s going on with their own computers.

This incident is of course a good reason not to vote for the Conservative Party whenever the next federal election is held.