viceroy
Member since Mar 28, 2010

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Re: “Comic nerd Christmas: Scott Pilgrim trailer out today”

Looks faithful enough, and I'm especially pleased with the sound effects bringing an added dimension to the video game theme that didn't exist in the comics. I wont lie, I'm pretty stoked about this flick.

Not sure how it will play with non-devotees, but I'm definitely going to see it no matter how bad the reviews are. That's my way of saying I'm biased.

Posted by viceroy on 03/30/2010 at 5:30 PM

Re: “War on Earth”

Once again, a discussion about the Canadian military uses comparisons to an American mission as some kind of proof. May I remind you that you are citing a mission that Canadians, despite enormous pressure from the Americans (our closest ally, primary trade partner, and undisputed world superpower), did NOT participate in. Why? Because it was completely unjustified. Everybody in Canada already knows that. Stop preaching to the choir. Any time somebody mentions the Americans in Iraq, it is demonstrating an instance of how different we are, not how similar. So can we just drop that little tactic?

It is amazing that two people can see how terrible things are elsewhere in the world and draw opposite conclusions. I don't know where your mother is from, but playing the odds alone, it's probably not somewhere as nice as here, nor is it someplace that hasn't seen real war in 200 years. History and geography have made North America a freakshow in terms our security. Here, the military is seen on the news, or during a parade. In many other places in the world, the military is seen firsthand on the streets, shooting at people. Ask someone from Sudan, or Honduras what they think about the military, and then ask someone from Lethbridge, or Rimouski. They are not talking about the same thing at all.

I hate being a military apologist, and I guess I'm mostly playing devil's advocate here, but when people start acting like we should get rid of the military altogether, they are just living in fantasy land. A luxury much of the world does not enjoy.

Posted by viceroy on 03/30/2010 at 4:52 PM

Re: “War on Earth”

This is a deliberately misleading article that plays on readers' emotions and biases. If I can decipher this mess accurately, the piece is about excessive Canadian military spending in the face of apparent environmental poverty.

Honestly. Does anybody actually believe that the military is completely useless and serves no purpose other than to make some industrial high-rollers a lot of money? People complain about spending on the Navy, and nobody appreciates the economic benefit of NOT having our fish vacuumed into Europe by fishing trawlers. Why do you think they stay away? Treaties? International goodwill? The Coast Guard? Get real. And yes, this is done in cooperation with fisheries and oceans, so to say that military spending is somehow supplanting funds that would normally go to them is ridiculous. Fisheries patrols are a major part of what the Navy does out here.

Also your math is specious. 1.8 million for 100 jobs is a bargain, as I see it. That's 18,000 per job, for jobs that start at, I dunno 50 000 (probably a lot more), and this is over several years, not just one. And then in the very next parragraph you say something about how many environmental jobs could be bought for 1 billion dollars? How in the world did you equate 1.8 million (which, let's face it, is not a large amount in the grand scheme of things) to 1 billion dollars? If the government ever spent 1 billion dollars to hire 6000 useless pencil pushers, there would be friggin' riot! Perhaps you mean the 2 billion for the ships? Well I would much rather have 12 modernized and capable pirate chasing, fishery patrolling, sailboat rescuing frigates than 1 billion dollars worth of ineffectual studies that are probably fudged and, in the end accomplish nothing. Yes, the environment needs money, but if I have any qualms about giving money to the military, I have even greater qualms about giving it to a bunch of Ottawa bureaucrats.

You say that Canadians never place military spending as one of their top priorities, but that's to be expected in a safe and secure society. If you asked people whether they believed that policing should be a priority, their answer would be much different than if you asked them if they would support the purchase of 1,000 guns. But it's the same difference. You just don't want to see it.

Fully one third of your piece doesn't even talk about Canada, and meanders into scare tactics about Agent Orange and other environmental favourites. Why does every environmental piece have to mention either Agent Orange, DDT, or Dioxins? God, do you even realize how tiresome you sound? I doubt it.

It's sad that we here in the Western world are so sheltered that we have no idea the kind of death, and destruction that is happening in the world, even when it does make headlines. Afghanistan is not the kind of place where you can go without guns. If you want to build a hospital or a school, you need guns there while you do it or it wont happen, and even when it does happen, you need guns there to protect the people who go. And frankly, a gun is more expensive than a hammer, a syringe, or a couple of chalkboards.