Thursday 29 January 2009

Edmonton Plan to End Homelessness is due soon

Lat week Tim HEARN, former CEO of Imperial Oil wrote an op-ed piece on the extent of Homelessness across Canada. Much of the data used to prepare this "study" are compromised by poor research design and are suspect. One of the figues mentioned was that the true cost of homeless is $100,000 per year. This was taken from the conversations with 2 cops in Reno NV who recount their experience with a homeless man they called "Million Dollar Murray".

Edmonton - East MP Peter GOLDRING was quick to pour cold water on the article reminding readers of exaggerations in this "study". This is not to say I have no compassion for such people - just that by misrepresenting the problem we are not doing them any favours. More affordable housing - and not just inner-city ghettos - would go a long way to reducing the scope of this problem. He mentioned his experience on the city's plan "To End Homelessness" committee and told me it is expected soon.

Then today the CBC had a piece on the high suicide rate of homeless people, mentioning 47 people who died last year and were memorialized.

Here are my recollections of experiences at the Old Strathcona "Out of the Cold Shelter" which ran for 3 years.

Wednesday 28 January 2009

Can Israel negotiate with Hamas?

I found this article by George JONAS difficult to follow in light of the unilateral cease-fire put in place by Israel last week. (The typically twisted reply's from Hamas remind me of the Monty Python skit with the Black Knight who continues to challenge his opponent to battle even though he has lost his hands and legs, and then calls him a sissy.) This political calculus is complicated by the upcoming Israeli Election (Feb 10, 2009).

If I may summarize:

1) Andrew Higgins in the Jan. 24 issue of The Wall Street Journal describes Hamas as Israel’s creation and that just because they have a mission statement that calls for the eradication of Israel, it should not be taken as a political problem to peace.

2) Efraim Halevy, a former head of the Mossad, doubts that Al-Fatah the Palestinian Authority's leaders who “sat back and did nothing at all, silently applauding Israel’s campaign against their bitter Palestinian political and ideological foes" can hope to gain power in Gaza again.

3) Halevy also says “... the prospect of weaning Hamas from the hands of President Ahmadinejad is worth a try.” What else would Israel, the United States and Egypt have to lose by examining the a peace accord.

So all of these positions make a Peace Accord the most likely outcome?

I don't buy it -at least not in my lifetime.

Tuesday 20 January 2009

John MORTIMER + Patrick MCGOUHAN

With in the past week these two characters have passed away. I have fond memories of both.

Patrick MCGOOGHAN, author/actor died last week (Jan 14, 2009) at age 80. I remember him from his TV show "The Prisoner" - one of the most cryptic and puzzling TV dramas of the late 1960's in the genre of James Bond spy/thrillers of my childhood like "Danger Man", "The Man from U.N.C.L.E", "The Avengers", "The Fugitive" and "Get Smart". It exploited the political climate of extreme distrust in the post-cold war era that existed between the West and Soviets Union after the JFK assassination. (Image Courtesy: BBC News Online, Patrick MCGOOHAN in character on set of "The Prisoner" c 1963 in Portmerion, N. Wales UK)









John MORTIMER also passed away today (Jan 20, 2009) and also achieved fame as author of popular TV show "Rumpole of The Bailey" based on his life as a Barrister, later spun off into a series of books. It was a remarkable hit for BBC starring actor Leo MCKERN - who also coincidentally had a starring role in MCGOUGH's "The Prisoner" but died on July 23, 2002. (Image Courtesy: The Guardian Online, Sir John MORTIMER left, Sir Leo MCKERN right)

6 million reasons

6 million reasons why Israel has the right to defend itself.



I believe this is Holocaust Awareness Week. This upsetting clip is from "Diary of Anne Frank" film.

Monday 19 January 2009

Israel/Gaza - Operation Cast Lead

On Dec 26, Israel launched its military response to the relentless Hamas-directed missile/mortar attacks into adjacent Israeli territory (about 2-3 attacks per day over past 6 months) - code-named "Operation Cast Lead".

Without any precise targeting intelligence, Hamas's rockets they fall where they may. Such indiscriminate tactics allows Hamas to disingenuously claim they are not targeting civilians! Luckily for Israelis, their sophisticated military defenses/counter-measures are able to intercept most of the incoming ordinance - rendering it harmless. Nonetheless, these missile/mortar attacks have continued unabated since the June 2008 truce was abandoned by Hamas and have created a queasy climate of fear in the Israeli City of Sderot, situated on the boarder with Gaza. Not all counter-measures have been successful and some rockets have caused causalities but they only amount to a handful - compared to what they could be.

The Israeli Air Force highly targeted retaliation against Hamas rocket launchers - most of which are rapidly moved about by pickup trucks - has been devastatingly effective. (see youtube video below) Hundreds of deadly accurate strikes have been carried out against Hamas operatives. Scores of sites have been demolished. Hamas claims (as of Jan 18, the beginning of the Israeli ceasefire) thousands1 of causalities, many of them civilians.

However, in order to gain a propaganda advantage Hamas diabolically sets-up its rocket-launchers close to civilian schools, mosques, hospitals and parks in Gaza. They fire with impunity and when Israel Defense Forces (IDF) retaliate against such sites, the gruesome "collateral damage" is paraded about for the TV cameras. It is no longer debatable that many of these "photo opportunities" are actually situations faked or orchestrated by Hamas for the benefit of the captive Press Corps (who are only allowed to go where Hamas permits them to go - always accompanied). Hamas is funded by Iran.



On January 10, after significant air operations destroyed much of the public infrastructure of Gaza, the IDF moved-in with tanks and ground troops to "mop-up". They engage in house-to-house search missions to eliminate any lingering Hamas insurgents.

On Jan 18, Israel declares a truce brokered with the assistance of France and agreement of Egypt and the U.S. Hamas continues to fire at least 30 rockets but suffers instant retaliation before agreeing to cease hostilities 6hrs later for one week to allow IDF troops to withdraw.


Footnote:
1. Hamas claims 5,000 casualties (including civilians?) in Gaza. IDF places 1,300 Hamas casualties in Gaza and 13 IDF soldiers during the operation - half of which were "friendly fire" incidents. I have read that estimated civilian casualties in Israel are under 100, but I can not be sure of the time frame and so may be overstated. Clearly though, Hamas was pummeled. I understand Gaza population is 1.5 million.
2. "Why Israel Feels Threatened" by Benny MORRIS, 2008DEC08 NY Times. Hezbollah has re-armed since the 2006 war with Israel. The PA has an estimated arsenal of 30,000 to 40,000 Russian-made rockets from Syria and Iran. Inside Israel 1.3 million Israelis of Arab disent live and are growing rapidly (15% of population) - in fact projections have these Israeli Arabs constituting a majority by 2040-2050. This is also a reason why jewish immigration is highly encouraged.



[Update: 2008JAN20 Jerusalem Post "Palestinians are being rounded up and eyewitnesses said the detainees were being held in school buildings and hospitals that had been turned into make-shift interrogation centers". Oh my, call the UN! Oh - it's ok it's just Hamas having "fun" with Fatah.]

Saturday 10 January 2009

blogspot code tricks & tips

Over the holidays I did a bit of blog tweaking and thought I would share what I found.

1) CSS. This is an area I knew about but have not had time to study. I have started taking baby steps in customizing my blogger templates and I recommend HTML Dog as a good start.

2) *Templates. There are many free ones available but once you get the hang of the (simple) ones, you don't have to buy them as it is as simple as copying CSS code, although it is considered polite to acknowledge this and provide a link/reference to the creator/inventor.

3) *Inspector "Gadget". These "add-ons" for blogger have changed significantly over the past 2-3 years. No longer do you have to know python/php, C# or Java or even HTML (but it helps) as many of the tools are now wrapped as standardized API's. Blog Doctor is a cheesy example of one of these sites which is really just an amateur trying to make a few bucks, but it does have some good examples.

*This will save alot of grief later. Blogger has a some "backup" features - which is good in case something goes wrong (as I found out last year). But there are a few thing details "gloss'd over" that everyone should known about: 1) You must "export" the posts + comments and save as an xml data file. This will keep all of your and commenter "content" as well as encoded links and linked images (those you upload and store in Picasa may not be safe.) 2) Saving your "template" provides a copy of the basic CSS styles, including "some, but not all" gadgets and their content. For example my profile was intact because it was linked to my Google identity, but all links to blogs/websites I entered in the "links gadget" were lost! Other HTML/Javascript codes were obliterated as well. I suggest saving any unique HTML code a text file as backup.

Fox News Ticker

Apture