New Media

Meanwhile, in an alternate universe, the Arab League has shown unprecedented moral courage and decisiveness by handing over Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, accused of crimes against humanity, to the International Criminal Court. (New York Times)

The arrest came just after the emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani, greeted President Bashir at the airport with a red carpet treatment. “We lured Omar here with guarantees of sanctuary, which we never had any intention of honoring,” Al-Thani said. “The moron sure fell for it. It’s going to be a slam-dunk case for the ICC to prove that this thug enabled the rape, torture and pillage of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people, may of them in the decades before the current atrocities happening in Darfur. As good Muslims, we couldn’t possibly allow this monster to go free.”

“Look, we’re trying to get the rest of the world to take seriously the human rights abuses going on in Gaza, said Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, explaining in an aside that electrocutions, beatings with electric cables, and other methods to cripple and murder detainees would no longer be used in Syrian prisoners as of next week. “So it’s incumbent on us as responsible leaders of democra…, um, I mean, demographic countries, to cooperate with international standards of justice. That’s just fair, eh?”

A nice little daydream of what is possible in our world.

NERD ALERT – For those Currents readers who don’t care about the mechanics of blogging, you may want to skip ahead to my next post on life in Vancouver, politics, current events or my latest green sustainability rant. This one isn’t for you.

Still here? OK, my fellow geeks, let’s kick this pig. About two months ago, weird symbols started showing up on this Wordpress blog just above the header. At first, I feared my blog had been hacked. Then, a number of sober-minded friends pointed out that hackers weren’t likely to insert diamonds, question marks and other assorted oddities instead of links to porn.

Nonetheless, the problem didn’t go away on its own. My limited technical skills were not sufficient to fix it. My love for blogging diminished to the point where writers’ block became chronic.

I knew I needed professional help. I called up a guy I knew by reputation alone, Shane Birley, the guy who, as it turned out, literally wrote the book on blogging.

Turned out the bug wasn’t minor. But as you can tell, Shane did indeed fix this blog. He is my new hero.

The following stirring account of our success in rehabilitating this blog (well, except the links. I have to re-do those. Darn), recorded by Shane, should be read in a Churchillian, or possibly Gandalfian voice:

This is an account of the adventure that we experienced while attempting to make Currents stronger. It all started when Currents was upgraded.

1. First test the current database for corruption. None found.
2. Do a test installation of Wordpress and use the current Wordpress xml export to see if the data was harboring evil doers. None found.
3. Talk at length with techs at Bluehost who, apparently, know very
little. Get escalated to tier II support. Nothing happens. No changes. No fixes. Ignored.
4. Deal with crappy hosting solution and, finally, detect workaround.
5. Export data.
6. Create new database with new fresh installation of Wordpress
7. Import data
8. Data rewards us with love, affection, and – wow, it worked!
9. Find out that Wordpress hates links. No export function. No clear solution. Must return by hand.
10. Grumpy Shane sends feature request to Wordpress for any export/import feature for links.
11. Fight with Bluehost on some stupid crap with their domain vs. subdirectories.
12. Shane wins.
13. Test the guts out of Wordpress.
14. Jonathon hurrahs! Wordpress for the win! Bluehost not so much.
15. Shane pleased. Shane rewarded.
16. Shane does dance. He is still undefeated by technology.

Canadians will NOT be bullied by foreign devils that almost but not quite intrude on our sovereign territory.

They shall not pass.

True patriot love, my friends.

Let’s state the obvious – Gorgeous George isn’t a terrorist. But that doesn’t mean we have to let him into Canada.

Canada’s border security agency decided on security grounds that sitting British MP George Galloway won’t be allowed into our country. The reason given: supplying Gaza thugocracy officials Hamas with clothing, ambulances, medical supplies and $45,000 in cash.

Some like to split hairs and talk about how Hamas rules a territory and was democratically elected, which makes it different from a typical terrorist organization. But neither Canada, nor the USA, nor our European allies have ever bothered to make that distinction. Hamas is a terrorist organization, period. It’s on the exact same list as Al Queda.

Of course Galloway wasn’t supplying guns and rocket launchers. But let’s suppose Galloway had given money and material support to Osama bin Ladin’s terror network. Well, again, according to our own rules, and the rules of our allies and the UN’s own statements, that should be grounds for some pretty harsh punishment. Legally, there seems to be no difference between supporting Hamas and Al Queda.

So the question is not really why Canada is keeping Galloway out. The real question is why he hasn’t faced any legal consequences for his actions while in Britain.

As for Galloway’s supporters contention that this is a free speech issue, I’ve got a name for them to look up: Geert Wilders. He’s that Dutch politician banned from speaking in Britain (not because his statements against Islam would cause violence against Muslims, but the other way around. One wonders how the British government would have reacted to Salman Rushdie had the Satanic Verses been published in 2009).

Galloway said of the controversy at the time, “Freedom of speech is not absolute.” (Globe and Mail). Not only is this not a free speech issue, but it’s bit much for Galloway and his supporters to rally around that angle.

UPDATE-April 15, 2009- George Galloway blows a gasket. This is not about charity. It’s about politics.

Further proof that the Taliban movement that Canada and its Afghan and international allies are fighting may not be the unstoppable fighting force some claim it to be.

Blundering Afghan suicide bomber blows up 6 militants

A setback for the enemies of civilization. Not pretty, but every little bit helps.