In April, when President Barack Obama bowed to Saudi King Abdullah, he received much condemnation from both Americans and people around the world. While President Obama may have desired to produce a sign of respect, bowing before a monarch is usually a symbol of submission to his power. Now he’s gone and done it again, this time with Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.

As noted in American Digest, this will probably lead to the inevitable thousand photoshops.

And in the video, he doesn’t just bow once; rather he bobs his head like a veritable American pigeon.

Some of the wisecracks:

“May I shine your shoes, Sir?”
“I’m surprised he didn’t curtsy.”
“See, Obama is not a Muslim. He’s a shintoist.”

AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

There has been much made of the Fort Hood massacre and possible links to Islamist terrorism. Many of the most prominent critics of radical Islam have written about the incident at length. Tarek Fatah wrote that one cannot ignore the attire worn by suspect Major Nidal Hasan on the morning of the killings. He was wearing the “shalwar-kameez,” the traditional attire worn by Pashtuns on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghan border, and symbolizes the jihad waged by al-Qaeda and the Taliban against the foreign invaders.

Irshad Manji wrote that the distinction of motive helps to shed a light on whether religion plays a factor in the crime. If a criminal merely happens to be a Muslim, his religion is immaterial. But if the crime is committed in the name of Islam, then that religion can certainly come under scrutiny as the underlying motivator.

But it is Salim Mansur who makes the greatest stretch that this shooting was a collective act “in the war Islamists declared some three decades ago against America”, and the west in general. He argues that the point in his life that Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an American-born citizen of Palestinian immigrants, became in his mind a loyal soldier of the global Islamist jihad, is highly relevant in determining what happened in Fort Hood.

What I’m having trouble with is in brushing this incident as broadly as Mr.Mansur does, using rhetorically alarming phrases such as “Nidal Hasan went out as an Islamist warrior to kill as many infidels before he found his martyrdom”, because it presupposes that an act perpetrated by a person acting alone is representative of the collective actions of jihadists. This distinction matters because, if Mr.Hasan acted alone and without orders from a terrorist network, then it becomes more difficult to simply lob him into the pile of terrorists who seek to destroy America.

It isn’t “political correctness” that tempers my caution; rather it is my hesitation to attribute the wanton actions of one individual to the madness of the Islamist terrorists. If not only because, as in actions performed by the military against our enemies, orders do matter, but because we run the risk of creating terrorism out of criminality. For an example of this, one can merely look at how mass murderer Marc Lepine has been rebranded under his Algerian birth name of Gamil Rodrigue Liass Gharbi, presumably to create an insidious implication that Muslims have a tendency to go postal.

There is some circumstantial evidence to suggest that Mr.Hasan was motivated by radical Islam in the execution of his crimes. He shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he shot up a room full of American soldiers. It is alleged he was in communication with a Yemen-based jihadist. He owned a paper shredder in his apartment, which although not quite uncommon, isn’t exactly common either. And then there’s the alleged Pakistan connection, although for now that is based on hearsay from Congressman Michael McCaul.

George Jonas in the National Post chides Barack Obama for urging caution:

“‘I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we get all the facts,’ Obama said.”

Look before you leap is good advice — though perhaps shouting Allahu Akbar does offer “a little hint of the actual motive,” as the Ottawa Citizen’s David Warren put it. But journalists such as Warren who feel that a massacre in the hand is worth two witch hunts in the bush are rare birds. A favourite topic of the mainstream press these days is whether Maj. Hasan is a madman or a terrorist. Many in the media seem to believe the two are mutually exclusive.

While it does offer a “little hint” of the motive, it doesn’t constitute the act of Islamist terrorism unless it was ordered from a centralized command. It’s the same difference between an Afghan peasant shooting at an ISAF soldier in his village, and a conscripted foreign jihadist being ordered to set an IED on the road before a convoy approaches. Whether he was a madman or a terrorist can be determined by whether he acted alone or not. A man screaming about Jesus Christ before he shoots a crowd of people is no more representative of Christian terrorism than a man screaming about Allah before shooting soldiers in Fort Hood being representative of Islamist terrorism.

After 12 straight days of work, I think I deserve a little break. Or perhaps more appropriately, a little foray into the imagination as aided by these beautiful pictures.

1. The Path

2. Prohodna cave, Karlukovo, Bulgaria

3. Untitled

4. Wengen, Switzerland. Photographer: C.Spracklen

5. The garden of morning calm. Photographer: Elena Razdolina

6. Untitled

7. Starnberger See, Upper Bayern

8. Quebec fall foliage

Haven’t had enough of incredible photographs yet? Check out:

Photographer Collection: David Guttenfelder in Afghanistan

After watching the interview, you can read the story from any number of news sources about how this degenerate tried to steal $10,000 from world war two veterans.

While the story ended well, and the robber was thwarted, it could very well have ended tragically:

Asked why he reacted the way he did, Dietsch, who served with the Navy in the North Atlantic in the Second World War protecting convoys, said: “Because of the time we served in the military, and the fact we’d been out all last week collecting money with the poppies that made me think, ‘You’re not getting away with this.’”

The money goes to support veterans, but also worthy community programs and institutions.

However, “In retrospect, the more I think of it, I was stupid,” Dietsch said, who added he’s more frightened now than he was at the time of the robbery.

A hero at time of war, and now a hero in time of peace. As for the robber, let’s hope they find him, and let’s hope he also “falls down a flight of stairs accidentally” on the way to the police station.

An article by Joel Connelly in the Seattle Post Intelligencer indicates that because of a lack of governmental marketing, the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver is unlikely to add the 12,000 jobs that Premier Gordon Campbell once predicted. A new independent study by Price Waterhouse Coopers accounting firm, commissioned by the province and federal government, reveals that no more 100 jobs, and as few as 25, have been created.

That may be somewhat unsurprising news coming during an economic downturn which has shed jobs from forestry and construction in the province. But it certainly sheds light on the perception that the Olympics have been the impetus for the boom in B.C., something that should be put to bed by this study:

The study looked at tourism from 2003 to 2008. It does not present a flattering picture of benefits trickling down from the upcoming Games.

“The 2010 Winter Games have not had a measurable impact on tourism’s gross domestic product and share of the economy,” it found. On the whole, “tourism impacts did not materialize,” it added, itemizing the lack of forecast results.

Visits to “Beautiful British Columbia” from within Canada have increased but “the 2010 Winter Games cannot be held responsible,” the study concluded.

It’s important to note that the study doesn’t measure the impact, obviously, that is yet to be felt when the visitors do begin arriving in late January and early February. But what it does measure is the truthfulness to the myth that the Olympic Games function as a means of promoting a locale for tourism; in this case, that myth has been debunked by information that the total number of international inbound travellers to Canada declined 22 percent in the years since the Olympics were announced to be held in Vancouver.

The biggest problem, it would appear, is the lack of coordination in tourism marketing from the province, as well as the fact that the IOC has blocked attempts to promote Vancouver’s Olympic Games during the build-up to the 2008 Beijing Games, as noted by Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer.

So now that we know the pre-Olympic boom expectations have been a bust, we await to see what the post-Olympic expectations will deliver. Here’s hoping it creates more than 25 jobs.

Ontario’s new vanity government-issued licence plates that are designed with the yellow ribbon signifying support for our military, does not actually do a whole lot of supporting. Progressive Conservative MPP Bob Runciman is critical of the new plates because a very small portion of sales go to the Canadian Forces Personnel Assistance Fund. The plates, which were unveiled yesterday on Remembrance Day, will be issued in February. But while each plate will cost $77.25 to purchase, only $2.25 will go to the Assistance Fund, or just under 3% of the proceeds:

A set of personalized plates with the yellow ribbon will cost $314, with $4.50 going toward the fund.

Runciman said it is “misleading” for the government to pass this initiative off as a “significant” way for the public to raise funds for the Canadian Forces.

“The cost to produce the plates are pretty modest,” he said. “This could’ve been a potentially significant way to raise money for the military and their families.”

But Government Services Minister Harinder Takhar said the plates were never meant to be a fundraising method for military families.

“The purpose is not about fundraising. It’s meant to create awareness about our defence forces and the kind of job our defence forces do,” he said.

I beg to differ. I think a great number of people would assume that the plates would go toward supporting our military in more than just “awareness”. Indeed, this sounds more like a mere copyright licencing opportunity for the province of Ontario, paying into the military fund for the right to use the logo in the same way they would pay the Toronto Maple Leafs for the rights to theirs.

The matching plates are discounted even more, with just 1.4% of sales proceeds going into the Canadian Forces Personnel Assistance Fund. It’s one thing to say you’re creating licence plates with the yellow ribbon on it in order to create awareness about our military, but without explicitly explaining that the plates only donate certain portions of the proceeds to the military, it is misleading.

In fairness to the government of Ontario, the “vanity plates” are the same cost as other “Personalized, Graphic and
Sample Plates” on their website. A regular 2 to 6 character plates with a graphic [like the yellow ribbon or some other logo] will run you $314. Without knowing exactly how much the government pays in licencing to other registered trademarks and logos, it’s difficult to know whether they’re being generous or cheap.

“There’s a lot of costs involved in these plates, designing the plates, IT costs, distribution costs . . . we have to take all those costs into account. We’d like to give them as much as we can, but our intention is to create awareness and support,” said Mr. Takhar.

Knowing what all those costs are, broken down into the cost effectiveness of the service, would go a long way to helping Mr.Takhar’s statement. But given that the announcement was made on Remembrance Day, one is left with the sense that this is a mere marketing ploy that has really very little to do with honouring our veterans, and our soldiers.

REUTERS/Jim Young

While Barack Obama waffles and dithers on Afghanistan, the Taliban are enjoying the political gains of a government perceived weakened by the electoral fraud allegations, and a clearly demoralized western Army that protects it. It’s been rumoured that Barack Obama is being primarily influenced by his inner circle, notably Vice President Joe Biden, who is advocating a so-called “small footprint” approach to America’s mission in Afghanistan.

A much-reduced military presence would instead focus on the original aims of the American response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks by targeting al-Qaeda, and relying on airstrikes and special forces, instead of military patrols and bases. This plan takes the morally bankrupt position that the United States has no business in keeping the Taliban from seizing power again [indeed, it rather accepts the inevitability of it], only to deter the regime from hosting al-Qaeda training camps.

Something about relying only on airstrikes and unmanned drones in order to quell terrorist activity in Afghanistan leads me to believe it’s a dubious proposition at best. As Thomas Hegghammer writes in Foreign Policy’s online magazine, one of the key assumptions behind an American withdrawal from Afghanistan is that the violence will become limited to only the really “bad guys”. The common insurgent will quietly return to whatever it is he does, and life will go on as normal, or as reasonably normal as can be expected under the Taliban again, it is argued. However:

This may be true for local insurgencies such as the Taliban, but not for small transnational movements such as al Qaeda. In fact, a significantly smaller U.S. presence in Afghanistan may paradoxically generate more anti-Americanism outside Afghanistan and ultimately more anti-Western terrorism than a more conventional military approach. This is because jihadi propaganda today relies on visually powerful symbols to mobilize people, and intermittent “surgical” strikes, and the casualties they cause, may create more such symbols than continuous conventional warfare.

And then there’s the propaganda war, as Mr.Hegghammer touches on in the above article, which the Taliban are winning quite handily. A Taliban government would do anything and everything to ensure that American airstrikes were exaggerated to contain the maximum number of “civilian casualties”. It’s already clear that the Taliban have managed to proliferate widely believed lies about their military successes against Canadian soldiers.

The fact is that President Obama should be listening to his top General, Stanley McChrystal, who has advised that 40,000 extra troops are required to reverse the recent gains of the Taliban. President Obama is believed to be weighing four options right now, but his public display of wrestling with the decision is a sign of great weakness from the superpower.

NATO is adamant that the 40,000 new troops are imperative to mission success, and its secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has said as much to the remaining members of the ISAF in Afghanistan:

“Basically I share Gen McChrystal’s view, his assessment, his recommendation of a broad counter-insurgency strategy.”

The numbers may be in debate, but the math isn’t difficult. This war can’t be won by leaving the country to the Taliban.

Carly Lamont

A thirteen-year-old girl with epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and a spinal deformity known as scoliosis, is embroiled in a dispute between two orthopedic surgeons and the wishes of her parents that has resulted in a delay in surgery that could correct her posture.

The girl, Carly Lamont, is one of 150 B.C. children that was put on a waiting list for what is deemed “non-emergency” surgery in February of 2008. At that time her parents, Susan Watson and David Lamont, were shocked to find out that the waiting list could be as long as 18 months. This August marked the passing of the 18th month that Carly would have been on the list. But her surgery was never performed, and her name was removed from the waiting list, stemming from a disagreement among the orthopedic surgeons and the parents.

Scoliosis, from the Greek word meaning “crooked”, is a medical condition in which the patient’s spine is curved like an “s”, and can be very painful. It is usually classified as congenital [vertebral anomalies present at birth], or as a neuromuscular symptom of a secondary condition such as cerebral palsy, which is what Carly has.

There are only two doctors in British Columbia qualified to do such an operation on children, while there are only four in neighbouring Alberta. One of the doctors, Dr.Firoz Miyanji, met with Carly Lamont and her parents back in October of 2007. Before that they had been seeking treatment in Portland, Oregon, for her condition, but were not satisfied with the results. Hopeful to find a better solution, they contacted the BC Children’s Hospital Spine clinic for more options.

After meeting with Dr.Miyanji, the parents agreed that it would be prudent to go ahead with the surgery, and they were accepted under the condition that they would meet with the doctors recommendations. Since the surgery would provide a great improvement in the quality of life for their daughter, the parents agreed.

But shortly after joining the list, they were told of an 18 month wait time. The parents were horrified. Nobody had indicated there was any wait time for the surgery in previous consultations. Although her doctor agreed that the list was long, the hospital officially reported that Carly’s spine curvature appeared to be stable, and that if her doctors felt her organs or her life were in danger, they would expedite the surgery.

That wasn’t good enough for Carly’s mother. She began a petition online, wrote protest letters to the Prime Minister and the Premier, health ministers and hospitals, and spoke to the media. Ms.Watson felt very strongly that children shouldn’t be asked to wait a year and a half for necessary surgery.

“I was looking out for the interests of my daughter, first and foremost,” says Susan Watson. “I was afraid that her condition would worsen while we waited.”

Premier Gordon Campbell made mention that “if wait times for a specific surgery or procedure become unreasonable, B.C.’s health system would need to shift resources to meet patients’ needs.” But nothing specific was done to help Carly. And while others have expressed sympathy for Carly Lamont’s situation, the wait time remained at 18 months.

In May of 2008, the parents went to B.C. Children’s Hospital to meet with Dr.Miyanji and the department head of orthopedic surgery, Dr.Chris Reilly. From the outset, Ms.Watson said that Dr.Reilly, whom she had never met before, was hostile and aggravated toward her. They recommended that Carly take off her back brace, arguing that it would let her bones and muscles settle into a position that would make the surgery easier. But with surgery still over a year away, Carly’s parents asked if she could be fitted for a new brace to wear for half the wait list time because she was undergoing physical changes and puberty at the time. That request was denied.

At this point Dr.Reilly said he was displeased to hear Ms.Watson speaking to the media and the government, and asked her to remove her petition site. The meeting concluded. Two months after hearing nothing more from the hospital or the doctors, they were suddenly informed in August that Carly had been removed from the waiting list, and was told to seek help in Alberta. The letter read:

“We have reviewed in detail all of our correspondence and our detailed notes. It is clear that you are not in agreement with some of our medical recommendations.”

“There have been many communications regarding Carly’s care both through our offices, the hospital administration and also public media, including newspapers and the recent website.

“We feel that we have not been able to establish a therapeutic relationship with your family that will allow us to care for Carly.”

The letter was signed by Dr.Reilly and Dr.Miyanji. The hospital said they would not be providing further treatment for Carly Lamont, except on an emergency basis.

One more meeting was set up on December 4, 2008, with a mediator, in the hopes of coming to an understanding. But according to Susan Watson, Dr.Reilly merely told her that to be reinstated to the waiting list she must agree to all recommendations, stop talking to the media and the government, and delete her petition website. Ms.Watson refused, she says, to be be bullied.

In an interview with Susan Watson last week, she said that it is now November of 2009, and nothing has changed to ameliorate the situation. The parents have travelled to Alberta for consultations, but they are still upset that they can’t get the treatment they need for their daughter in the province in which they live. Visits to orthopedic care in Alberta has confirmed that Carly’s spinal curvature has deteriorated. Worse still, the situation has strained the family to the point where Susan Watson and her husband, David Lamont, have filed for divorce after 18 years of marriage.

Now Ms.Watson wants an apology from the hospital, and to have her daughter reinstated to the waiting list. While her ex-husband has been granted access to the orthopedic department of B.C. Children’s Hospital this past June to do check ups on Carly, Ms.Watson is not allowed to attend, she says. Her husband doesn’t want the surgery to be done in Alberta, and would not let Ms.Watson put Carly on a waiting list in that province.

Now she just wants the impasse to end and have her daughter receive the surgery she needs in B.C. She says she never wanted to queue-jump the waiting list, nor embarrass the orthopedic department of B.C. Children’s Hospital, but only to bring awareness to the long waiting times for non-emergency surgeries for children.

As the months pass by without the surgery, Ms.Watson becomes increasingly despondent. And just recently in Vancouver, B.C. Children’s Hospital had a breakthrough surgical technique with an 18-year-old patient named Carmen Stolk to correct her Scoliosis. The new, less invasive surgery which reduces the trauma done to the patients’ back, allows them to get up and start walking the very next day. Carmen was the first patient in B.C. to receive the new technique.

As Carly’s parents argue over getting their daughter the surgery she needs in Alberta, a less invasive procedure awaits right here in B.C. Now they want a reconciliation with the hospital, an end to disagreements, and to get Carly up and walking like any other 12-year-old girl.

Dr.Firoz Miyanji and Dr.Chris Reilly were unavailable for comment for this article.

Susan Watson’s petition site can be signed here.

I realize that Mike Duffy still enjoys considerable favour among many conservatives who watched him on CTV during his time there, but the reaction to criticism of his expenses in the Red Chamber seems to be overblown. There is a rather disturbing trend among conservatives today to defend the actions of those in the Conservative Party, when they very clearly would not do so for a member of the opposition.

Whether it be pointing out that Stephane Dion would have run larger deficits than Stephen Harper, or that the Liberals have appointed more Senators than the Conservatives have [and we have to balance the Senate anyway, so it's all well and good to appoint partisans just like the Liberals did], or even trying to justify things like the Conservative logos on giant novelty cheques, it would seem that there is a good deal of patience for Conservative transgressions among conservatives.

The fact of the matter is that Mike Duffy expensed out $100,848 in travel and office expenses during his first three months in the Senate, a position he was awarded without apparent merit or electoral approval. If the job of these new Conservative Senators is to make such a mockery of the Senate that we become enraged enough to seek it’s reform or abolition, then mission accomplished.

But what a job Mr.Duffy has found himself in. If he is indeed meant to fill a Senate vacancy until such time that reform is on the table, he can treat the position with the utmost of contempt. Since he, and every other Conservative Senator, can claim that the entire institution is a fraud anyway, why not merely play the part to it’s fullest? If that means acting like a Liberal, throwing taxpayer money around as if it were a board game of Monopoly, so be it.

But one should concede, I hope, that outspending the Liberals in the Senate isn’t exactly going to make amends to the battered image that this political party hasn’t any fiscal conservative bones in it’s body. Mike Duffy’s pro-rated expense sheet of $403,392 comes ahead of Mobina Jaffer, a Liberal senator for B.C., who managed to hoover up $323,173 taxpayer dollars in 2008-09.

The simple reality is that if the Conservatives are going to continue to portray the Liberal Party as being endemic to surfeit consumption of the taxpayer trough, they’re really going to have to reign in their own gluttony. The Conservatives hired Mike Duffy because of his charisma and credibility as a journalist, a perception which is quickly being eroded every time he appears on some faux news segment which casts him as a journalist. He is no longer a journalist; he’s paid by the party to say what the party wants. And what the party wants is someone who still appears to be a member of the media being on message for the party.

Mr.Duffy is paid a generous salary to do a job that nobody in Canada really seems to understand the importance of. The least he could do is set a good example of how a good Senator should act, if and when such reforms render the Upper Chamber electable and accountable. All he’s doing right now is making it a prime candidate for abolition, along with his generous salary and all of his exorbitant expenses.

We finished the job today and the hotel is finally closed in and ready to be finished by the other trades. It was a brutal slog of 37 hours of overtime over the past 7 days, but in the end I think it was worth it. Trade workers often rely on overtime like this because of the inevitable project completion layoffs. [And just in time for Christmas.]

Working on a 48 story building in downtown Vancouver was a very interesting experience. Sometimes when you work in construction, you see so much dirt and filth, silica dust, black caulking everywhere, while you are immersed in such a loud and unrelentingly jarring environment, that it’s easy to forget one lives in one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

I saw many eagles fly by my perch while I was on this project, and I enjoyed watching them circle, a thousand feet above the city, scanning the ground for prey. Today we were nearly 460 feet above the ground, and the sea gulls were flying around in circles looking for food of their own, so we began tossing bread and crackers off the side of the building. The gulls would see the food falling and go into a nose dive of their own, catching the food after plunging 20 or 30 stories. Sometimes the gulls wouldn’t break off pursuit until the food had nearly hit the ground, but so far as we could tell they never failed to grab the prize. The aerial acrobatics of the birds playing this game with our construction crew was something I don’t think I’ll soon forget.

As the floors were built upwards, I got to see better and better vistas, until finally the view yielded to the Pacific Ocean in the distance and I could watch the cargo ships that slip in and out of the Burrard Inlet. I got to see Stanley Park go from the lush green urban forest that points toward the Lion’s Gate Bridge, to being hidden by an impenetrable fog last autumn as the leaves fell, to being covered by a blanket of white snow, to the stark naked trunks that shivered during the stillness of the winter, and finally to the rebirth in spring when the cherry blossoms covered the city in a snow of pink petals. Now the leaves have fallen again, and the snows threaten to fall.

A few weeks ago the bald crowns of the proud granite mountain tops known here as the “Lions”, were covered in a powdery white shroud. Sometimes while I was working I would look up and see far into the Eastern rim of the Coastal mountain range peaks which are now also covered in snow.

Today as I was wrapping up our tools on the penthouse of the tower, I looked over the Burrard Inlet and again became awed at the beauty that is ever present here, but which often goes unnoticed. A dark and foreboding sky covered North Vancouver, stretching all the way across the lower mainland toward the United States. The mountains were dark green from the fir trees, but their tops were covered in a white that contrasted with the black clouds that threatened to unleash the fury of the heavens. But even higher above those clouds there were two patches of sky that were peeking through. And the blue of that sky was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It was as though two holes had been drilled in the clouds, and an entirely different world existed above our own.

A moment later the heavens did unleash it’s fury, and white hail fell down on the roof top, covering the space we had occupied not five minutes previous with small balls of ice. The ice melted almost immediately, but were replaced by more and more. We retreated back into the building, and I noticed the clouds had mended the rifts in it’s fabric, closing that view into the world above ours.

I can’t say I’ll miss working on this job site, but I do envy the people who will now call these breathtaking vistas home.