Victor Davis Hanson: nothing can be taken for granted

Correct. That attitude also signifies that the Americans can't count on intimidating its allies indefinitely with a raising crescendo of 'serious consequences'.

Eventually, they too will tire of the shrillness and progressively ignore the dire warnings. Not because the U.S. won't retalitate but because Americans will ostracize any country that disagrees with theirs. No matter what the ostracize country will do to reconcilate, it can be taken for granted that relations will be cold. So keep the communication lines open but presume that America will thwart you in the little things.

The game is certainly up and there'll be a sourness in international relations for some time to come. I can live with it but can the rest of the world?

L'anniversari de l'invasió de Normandia

Avui es le 56^e anniversai de l'invasió de Normandia i l'acabament de la Segona guerra mundial. A tota que sacrifiqueren llurs vides, la apreciem i honorem vostre memòria que la llibertat no havia morida pas i floreix avui dia.

Den Beste and blogging: an international perspective

I popped by Den Beste site and I came across this thoughtful post In general I agree with him but I wanted to add an international perspective. One of the factors that Den Beste overlooks is cost.

Sure Moveable type is relatively inexpensive... if you're an American. As a Canadian, my dollar has been quite low until recently. 60$ U.S./year ( i.e. 5$/month) is rather expensive for me. Even as the Canadian dollar has risen to near 75 cents U.S. that's still a 25% difference in the exchange rate. It adds up over time. Other countries,like Australia, have an even more unfavourable exchange rate.
I agree that if someone is really into blogging, he'll find the money but budgets are also much about allocating scarce resources giving priorities; blogging would probably be the first to go as it's still a luxury for most people and unfavourable exchange rates simplify the decision.

As for the tools I use, I myself work bloggar a free GUI interface that's compatible with all of the major blog sites. It's easy to use and you can see both the raw HTML code in colour and what the posts will look like on the blog via tabs. There's a spell checker but as I sometimes write blogs in different langauges, the speller isn't a helpful tool. I particularly like the latest version (3,0) because I can configure my default browser- Mozilla- to check out my blog postings. I loathe Internet Explorer and deeply resent that both Blogger and bloggar require it. I already have a browser and don't need a second one.

To write my blogs, I use Note tab I use the free version as it's more than adequate for my needs.From time to time, I'll use Wordperfect (version 9 or 10; soon 11) for my longer posts or when I write in Catalan or Spanish. I'll have to sit down a write a few macros to automate the tag placements via a keyboard to speed up the writing. Using the mouse to place tags in Note tab is awkward. Usually I add the formatting tags later on when I'm finished while the hyperlink tags are added as I write. With respect to the archives, I always save my posts to a ZIP disk. I have every post I ever wrote. Eventually, I'll burn them onto a CD. That precuation is due to reading about the infamous Blogger archive bug long before I had my own blog, I decided that I'd back anything I wrote if I had my own site.

So for now, I'll stick with Blogger but that doesn't mean that at some future date I won't switch to some other blogging service or pay for Blogger's more professional services

  ¶ 13:09

 

Charet et le virage idéologique de la province

Hier, Charest avait donné son discours qui envoualit sa vision de gouvernance. Bon il n'avait pas de surprise et je sympathise avec un dégraissement de l'état. À voir comment
La seule chose qui m'a irritée c'est que l'abiassement des impôt ne débutera qu'à l'année prochaine? Pourquoi? Si Charet veut fair un impact immédiat aux vie de Québecois, je propose qu'il baisse la TVQ dès maintenant. Je ne vois pas la nécéssité de payer 7,5% de la TVQ et payer 15,56% pour les taxes haramonsiée quand le gouvernment provincial precepterait autant d'argent s'il bassât le taux. Personnellement, je préconsiera une baisse à 3% pour la TVQ. Un tel taux donnera un signe très clair et claironnant que le gouvernment est vraiment sérieux de reformr l'imposition pour que les Québécois ne sont pas le plus taxés en Amérique de nord.

Harry Potter's new book

I read in various news sources that the new Harry Potter book due out in 2 weeks or so has presold a million copies via Amazon. That's somewhat astonishing but unsurprising. I order 4 copies for various members of the family and friends. The deal was too good to pass up: 40% off and free shipping for order 39,00$CDN since my address doesn't qualify for the free Saturday shipping. You'd think that Canada Post- Amazon's partner would make an exception and deliver the copies to all those that place an order in Canada. To be honest, I look forward to the book.

Hillary's sci-fi/fantasy novel memoirs

Which contrasts with hype over Hillary's memoirs. I couldn't care less if the book is published or not. I opine that the book will be a great disappointment precisely because it won't divulge how Hillary really felt about her husband's filandering; her role in the attempted nationalization of American health care and other events throughout teh Clinton presidency. The book will be platitudinous muck like It takes a village. In many way, I bet it'll be smiliar to Bluemnthal's book but without the nauseating sychhophancy of Clinton as the brilliant genius in the room.

America and peacekeeping:

Donald Sensing wrote an interesting post about the post war resconstruction in Iraq. I agree with him that both sides of the debate are correct. I'm still skeptical that the Administration will call NATO for help. I leave aside the obvious dispute between France, Germany and Belgium which excludes them; the problem is one of resources. Other than Spain, Portugual and Italy, I don't see the other NATO countries able to contribute much. I'm not denigrating the others but Canada, for example is already past the breaking point between Bosnia and Afganistan. The other Western European allies like Norway weren't exactly enthusiastic about the war; Turkey is out in the cold for its conduct during the war. The Eastern Europeans as enthusiastic and competent as they are, stationing troops there is a real economic burden. America can't foot the bill (nor would the Eastern European much appreciate it; no matter how noble the gesture) and it'll take some time for Eastern Europeans to
Mind you I think it's worth asking the NATO allies to help out. If Iraq can become a peaceful, prosperous and open society, that'll be an important step forward.  ¶ 16:58

 

Martha Stewart to be indicted: some quick thoughts on corporate goverance

I heard yesterday in the news that Martha Stewert was to be indicted for her role in the Imclone insider trading scandal. I shook my head because it highlights a problem in contemporary corprorate goverance: it's useless and reforms are obligatory. What kind of reforms is a political matter that sthe society will need to debate. I want to return to the indictment.

What strikes me most about the current scandal is how the indicted CEOs and executives were touted as living breathing buisness genisuses. As someone who's skeptical of capitalism, I was always suspicious of the sucking up. Turns out I was right to be disdainful. Indeed because the buisness press pumped up these executives like ballons, the stockholders let the former get away with pilfering the companies' assets as long as the latter made huge returns on the investments. The executives did for awhile but the methods were either elaborate Ponzi schemes or outright fraud.

What the failure of corporate governance has taught us is that Mandeville's adage of private vices public virtues is untenable. If a businessman steals from the company, lies to the stockholder, decieves the cutsomers and fools the regulatory authourities, how can businessman possibly be virtuous in his private life? There's no real separation because how one behaves in private will also be reflected in public.

Light blogging:sunshine and things to do

Sorry if the blogging has been lighter than usual. It's been suny where I live and since the sun only last half an hour before the clouds roll in, I'd figure, I should take advantage.

AOL a perdu 1 million d'abonnés

Ouais, on pourrait dire que les abonnés ont abondonné AOL. 1 million despuis l'année passée qui ont choisi aller à la concurrence n'est pas une blague et met en contexte la transaction qu'elle a conclue avec MS pour 750 million$U.S. Les raisons sont toujours les mêmes raisons: AOL a raté l'occasion d'offrir une service d'internet moins dispendieu, la service de la clintèle laisse beaucoup à désirer. Bref, il y a eu une certaine complaisance de la parte des exécutifs et le fait d'avoir englouti Time Warner maintenant paraît comme une idée vraiment sotte et stupide. Avec l'argent que l'entreprise a payé pour l'adquisition de Time Warner, AOL aurait pu améliorer ses services, offrir une vaste gamme de choixm, etc. Eh bien les exécutifs ne sont pas plus dotés de pérsispacité que les communs des mortels.
  ¶ 14:59

 

Why Canada is poorer than the U.S.: internal trade barriers

This article highlights one of the things i so loathe about this country. Canada was originally founded as a customs union among the British North American colonies who were suffering a serious recession and were scared to death of American expanionism in the post civil war era.

What an irony that the provinces are more protectionist towards each other than some countries are with Canada. It's far easier for a province to trade with another country than it's neighbour. Honestly, I'm exasperated that labour mobility is an illusion and that I have to pay high prices to preserve markets that really need a competitive kick in the ass. Of course that'll never happen better to protect inefficient, sclerotic industries ' cause that's the Canadian!

Els evangelics i els cristans àrabs

Aquest article sobre l'esforç dels evangelics americans a convertir els cristains àrabs es a la vegada graciós i patetic. El evangelics cauen en una il.lusió que el àrab cristians desconexien el Senyor i Déeu etc. Cosa força rídicul tenient en compte que hi ha esglésies de fa 1400 anys i alguns consagrads pels Apóstols. L'eccleisològia i l'història de l'església primitiva no son els punts forts del Evangelics que prefereixen una relació personal amb Déu i doncs anti-jerarcics.
En tot cas, em pregunto perque el Evangelics no prolistesien envers els muslmans. ¿Es perquè tenen por? Ho dubto;suspito que es altra vegada la profunda ignorància de la teològia islamica doncs que no han preparat cap apològia que respondria a les objeccions islàmiques. Ademés, els evangelics i els musulmans comparten alguns punts teologics generics en commun- ambdós afavoreixen una relació personal amb Déu, son anti-jerarcics, encoratgen les bones obres. Tanmateix es una pregunta légitima.

Edluinux: une altérnative

Aujourd'hui, j'avais participé au lancement d'Edulinux. C'est rein d'innovatif mais j'aime l'initiative qui permet les étudiants d'avoir une altérnative par rapport au monopole MS. C'est intérssant à noter que les serveurs à l'Université de Sherbrooke ont plantés grâce à la forte demande de téléchargements.
De plus en plus, les gens apprécient les implications d'une monoculture informatique ainsi que les conséquence des licences qui permettent certaines compaignie informatique à carrément imposer un dikat à l'utilisation des logiciels au profit de l'entrprise tout en payant une fortune pour le privilège de louer à long terme de logiciels chers et bougés. LINUX n'est pas une solution magique mais il coûte moins cher et donne de choix aux utilisateurs.  ¶ 15:21

 

Les bêtises des gouvernments

Honnêtement cet histoirem'outre. Ici on a des premier palliers de gouvernments qui refusent de reconnaître un jugement, ayant force de la chose jugée, qui donnait la garde de les 4 enfant à madame. Les fonctionnaire ont décidé de désobeir un jugement parce qu'il leurs lois fiscales les octroyent de la discértion. L'advocat de madame estime qu'il s'agit d'un exercice abusive. J'irai plus loin et dire que c'est illégale et commète outrage au tribunal. J'espère que le TAQ, à l'egard du Revenu Québec, ne done pas seulement raision à madame mais qu'il sanctionne sévèrevent le ministère avec des dommages exemplaires forts- dans la centaine de millier de dollars pour rappeler aux fonctionaire qu'ils doive impérativement obéir des jugements de tribuaux aussi et davantage.
  ¶ 16:04