Canadian convoy: history in the making

It is now day #16 of the Freedom Convoy's presence in the Canadian capital of Ottawa.  What began as a group of truckers all the way west in Vancouver has become a movement inspiring many, MANY more around the world.  The truckers and their supporters want little: just the lifting of mandatory vaccinations.  But Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau - who has called the truckers "fringe extremists" - refuses to budge.  This despite his falling hard in the polls.  If this were England there would be calls already for his resignation.

Needless to say, this is extremely FASCINATING to me and I've been watching the Freedom Convoy's story unfold and evolve since it began.  The truckers and their supporters aren't going anywhere in Ottawa, and more are still coming.  Trudeau is in a tight spot: he either gives up and ends the mandate, or he chooses to end the occupation by any means necessary.

Personally, I think the man is in much the same position that Nicolae Ceaucescu was in during December of 1989.  That didn't end well for Nicolae and his wife: thrown up against the wall and shot as enemies of the people.  Averse to violence that I am, I hope that won't be Trudeau.  No matter how sleazy and out of touch with the common Canadian that he is.

Well like I said, I've been following this with extreme interest.  And if you want to also watch as history unfolds with our friends in the Great White North (and soon to be coming to Washington D.C. and no doubt state capitals across the fruited plain) there are several online live streams coming in from Ottawa, Windsor, Coutts and wherever else the convoy is making waves.  One of my favorites is Ottawalks: they've been doing hours-long live feeds from throughout the streets of Ottawa all the way to Parliament Hill.  Here's their most recent stream, and does it seem like a party has broken out or what?  Definitely NOT a gathering of "extremists" who have "unacceptable" beliefs as Trudeau charged.

I really hope this same momentum will be moving our own truckers and their backers when the American convoy kicks into high gear.

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One hundred years ago today: the Battle of Gallipoli

Yesterday on this blog we remembered the one hundredth anniversary of the start of the Armenian Genocide.  One day after that came another historic event of World War I, also happening to be associated with Turkey.

It was on April 25th, 1915, that Great Britain along with most of her Commonwealth nations (Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and India) as well as France launched what is arguably one of the most ambitious operations of twentieth century warfare: the Gallipoli Campaign.

British infantry land on Lemnos during the Battle of Gallipoli

The Gallipoli offensive had as its goal the securing of the Dardanelles between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, which would have given Russia a sea route to its allies.  But the British and French figured that they'd do better than that... by capturing the Ottoman capital of Istanbul.  The amphibious assault landed on two beaches of the Gallipoli Penninsula: Cape Helles and what has become known as Anzac Beach, on April 25th.  Four other landings followed, bringing five divisions onto Turkish soil.

A few days later the real fighting began.

Eight months later the Allied forces were forced to retreat.   They came nowhere close to taking Istanbul.  The Dardanelles were still in Ottoman hands.  And of the more than half a million personnel who had been committed to the battle, almost half were casualties.  Nearly 45,000 never came home.

Even so, the Battle of Gallipoli became, and remains today, a point of pride for the Allied nations who fought in it, especially Australia and New Zealand, for whom today is known as Anzac Day.

And all of this began one hundred years ago today.

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United Nations has gone to the dogs...

Dachshund UN, a "a miniature version of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights where the world's leaders are replaced by dogs", has opened in Toronto and runs through March 4th.  38 dachshunds represent the United States, Canada, France, Germany and other countries.  Australian artist Bennett Miller chose dachshunds because they come in so many varieties of color and fur (akin to the racial makeup of the real UN) and because they "are impressive but restricted, you can match that to the United Nations".

CP24.com has an in-depth article about Dachshund UN  that will leave you wondering if the wiener dogs might do a better job at the real United Nations than us humans :-)

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Wanted fugitive found hiding inside WORLD OF WARCRAFT

Whatever the heck that thing is you see on the right ('cuz I don't play World of Warcraft) that's the on-screen persona of one Alfred Hightower, an American citizen who's been wanted since 2007 for drug dealing. But when he heard the fuzz was onto him Hightower jumped across the border and set up shop in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Hightower didn't leave World of Warcraft however. And that's where a Howard County, Indiana deputy sheriff was able to find him and with assistance from the game's producer Blizzard, wound up tracking him down and having Hightower extradited back to the United States.

Click here for the tale of Alfred Hightower and how one can't escape justice inside an MMO.

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Bush Administration defends NAFTA, declares "There's nothing broken."

If nothing else has convinced any among my fellow citizens who beyond all reason yet hold to an opinion but that the government of George W. Bush is completely and hopelessly insane, then perhaps this will persuade them otherwise. It's about the disastrous North American Free Trade Agreement. From the Associated Press story...

The White House on Friday vigorously defended the 14-year-old free-trade agreement among the United States, Mexico and Canada against sharp criticism from Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

"There's nothing broken. Why fix it?" said Dan Fisk, senior director of Western hemisphere affairs for National Security Council. He acknowledged the administration must do a better job of explaining the benefits of the agreement.

(snip)

Bush has suffered a major setback on the trade front with the derailing of a proposed free-trade pact with Colombia. Bush sent the agreement to Capitol Hill earlier this month, but the House, led by Democrats, decided to eliminate a rule forcing a vote on the deal within 60 legislative days. The House's decision probably kills consideration of the agreement this year, leaving it for the next administration.

"Leaders in Congress have made a serious error," Bush said in a speech. "A serious error for economics reasons. A serious error for security reasons. It's not too late, however, for them to get it right."

(snip)

"We think NAFTA works," he said. Fisk said the criticism from the campaign trail has gotten a lot of attention from U.S. trading partners. "Some of the statements that have been made here have made bigger headlines in Canada and Mexico than they have here," he said.

"We want to find ways to, frankly, convince the American people from our perspective first and foremost that this is an arrangement that has worked for us and it's also worked for our neighbors," he said. "It's been a win-win situation."

So countless jobs lost because of NAFA, to say nothing of the millions more Mexicans who have crossed into the United States illegally because of NAFTA's effects, is a "win-win situation" to these people?!

Dear God in Heaven, we are at the mercy of idiots.

I was one of the people who wrote letters and made phone calls about NAFTA way back when. I remember the day the U.S. House passed it. You could say it was the beginning of my cynicism and little since has allayed my fears: that America is no longer controlled by the people but by the big money interests. Indeed, the remarks coming out of the Bush Administration very much confirm that. All they can conceive of are the profits on paper. They do not see, no do they care for, what this has cost the average American.

A few days ago I did something that I had never done in almost 17 years of published writing: I used what is considered the worst possible expletive to describe what is becoming of America. I haven't regretted that I chose to use that word but I have regretted that it was the last desperate arrow left in my vocabulary to convey my anger. Reading these comments out of the Bush White House now tempts me to fire an entire volley at them.

By the way, Lisa and I watched Part 5 of HBO's John Adams tonight. Go see it if you can, and listen to the speech that Adams gives to toast George Washington as the first President ends his term. Now compare that to the simpleton mangling of the current President's thought patterns: "Leaders in Congress have made a serious error... A serious error for economics reasons. A serious error for security reasons. It's not too late, however, for them to get it right."

Ladies and gentlemen, in contrasting between the Founding Fathers such as John Adams, and George W. Bush who we are told is the product after more than two centuries of their efforts, I posit that this is clear enough evidence that evolution into more complex forms of life is a fraudulent theory.

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TRANSFORMERS score CD update: "'Till All Have One!"

Just because yesterday was the release date, doesn't mean that the struggle is over with. We won't stop demanding Transformers: The Score ...

Bigtime props to Mike Halverson for coming up with that awesome line!

(It's a paraphrase of the '"Til all are one!" final quote from the 1986 animated Transformers movie, in case ya didn't know :-)

Now, on to serious business regarding the problems still plaguing the release of the score CD...

Am still trying to get hold of someone at Warner Records about this, especially the Canadian distribution issue. It may take another day or so before I can come back with something definitive on that though, but will keep working on it. Keep your fingers crossed for tomorrow 'cuz I hope to be able then to talk with someone who can provide some real skinny about what's going down.

Now about the orders placed through Amazon.com, which there have been all kinds of stories coming in about folks now getting e-mails from Amazon stating that their orders will be delayed. A source has said that "It's almost impossible!" right now to get Transformers: The Score shipped immediately from them because Amazon is running extremely low on stock. It is now being considered a "top priority" by Amazon to get more CDs sent to their warehouse (and Amazon is asking for "thousands!").

Unfortunately this means that anyone now ordering from Amazon will probably have to wait 1-3 weeks before their CD arrives!

Clearly, the demand for this was very unexpected. By everyone.

I am still looking for a couple of copies in the stores too, and went all over Greensboro (the biggest town around here) today and it's nowhere to be found. A dude in High Point has said he went looking for it to, but to no avail. Have also heard that Burlington is a complete bust.

Nothing much else to say at this point except...

"Transform and roll out... them CDs!!!" :-)

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TRANSFORMERS Score CD Roundup: "Good first day!" at Warners but distribution problems plague Canada and elsewhere

Okay, let's try to make sense of this...

Earlier today reports came in that Transformers: The Score was being found at a number of stores across the United States. I'm wondering how many copies those places got though 'cuz I've been asking these same folks who wrote in then and they all said that they got the last or next-to-last copy on the shelves. So some went out. But were they enough?

Apparently not 'cuz the vast majority of people who've written me are saying that they can not find the CD anywhere where they live. Count me among those 'cuz I haven't been able to find it either. I'm going to Greensboro tomorrow (the "big city" south of us here in Reidsville) and will be checking out Best Buy, Target and other stores, to see if it turns up there.

Like I said before, I'm not going to be 100% satisfied until I see the CD on the shelves with my own two eyes, and can put a couple o' copies down on the counter at the cash register. This Knight's crusade is still on: everybody needs to be able to get the score.

Unfortunately, I am hearing nothing but bad news from our friends in Canada: nobody there at all has been able to find it. Or at least nobody in Canada who has either written in here or on any of the Transformers-related forums has reported being able to find the score. Oddly enough, I'm hearing that the CD is on sale in Europe.

I intend to contact Warner Bros. Records tomorrow to ask about this. And if they can tell me what might be going on with Canadian distribution, I'll pass that along to y'all.

In spite of this, I am hearing from a source at Warner Records that "we had a good first day!" regarding sales of Transformers: The Score. "The results are better than we imagined: the pre-orders which have been placed all over the world just shipped out today, and web stores like Amazon are asking for more and more CDs!" The source later added that these outlets "can't handle the large demand for score CDs of Transformers."

Since Amazon was mentioned, according to its product page on Amazon Transformers: The Score is currently #30 on the music sales rank and is #3 on the movie soundtracks, after High School Musical 2 at #1 and then Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus.

I am already hearing that the unexpectedly high sales may bode well for the chances of a 2-disc edition of the soundtrack.

And that's basically it right now for the first day of this album's release: some folks are getting it, but most aren't and that needs to be fixed as soon as possible. Pray that the morrow brings better news :-)

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Last World War I veteran living in Canada has died

Dwight Wilson, 106 years old, passed away this week. He was the last veteran of World War I still living in Canada.

John Babcock, the last known Canadian vet of the Great War, is living in the state of Washington.

There are but 3 American soldiers who fought in World War I that are still with us, ranging in age from 106 to 108.

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