the end is not yet

The premise: Global Frequency is an international rescue operation that answers to no government. There are a thousand and one ordinary people scattered across the world who are a part of the organization. Each is an expert in some field.

And each is willing to drop whatever it is they're doing to help rescue strangers from, for example, the end result of some almost forgotten cold war plot that's been activated by mistake.

"The whole planet is an unexploded bomb," says Miranda Zero, the mastermind behind the conspiracy. "That's why we're here."

Ian introduced me to this excellent comic by Warren Ellis recently. I consumed all 12 issues as quickly as I could. Today we watched a copy of the - illegally - downloaded pilot episode for the television show that died on the table.

Think the best episode of The X-Files (except better) and you have an idea of what we're talking about here.

This fucking thing had me tearing up in places. And not because it was sweet or sad. It was mind-numbingly hardcore. But it was so inspiring and that's what touched me. It's about regular people deciding in an instant that they will help because they're needed. Even if it's dangerous. Even if they might die.

Through Ian, I've been reading Kung Fu Monkey lately. He (John Rogers) was involved in making the pilot. This post (which I see that Ian has linked to already today) about making the pilot is just astounding. Can you imagine someone working on a television show breaking out in tears at the mere IDEA of something like this being real? Read this post and you'll start to understand.

And they had the writing team behind Angel onboard!

I'm so fucking angry.

Christa has posted again.

Google Spreadsheets.

This one didn't count as random since I sought it out.

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." - Sun-tzu, The Art of War. Strategic Assessments

From Ian: Go here and look through random quotes until you find 5 that reflect who you are or what you believe.

"A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval." - Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

"There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity." - General Douglas MacArthur (1880 - 1964)

"A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of." - Burt Bacharach (1928 - )

"Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories." - Arthur C. Clarke (1917 - )

"Ideals are like stars: you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the seafaring man on the ocean desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them, you reach your destiny." - Carl Schurz (1829 - 1906)



Other quotations I found along the way that I like:

"The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task in hand covers both bases, but not often. This tense duality will always play center stage. It will never be transcended." - Hugh Macleod, How To Be Creative: 7. Keep your day job., 08-22-04

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there." - Lewis Carroll (1832 - 1898)

"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)

"If this was easy it wouldn't be so hard." - Yogi Berra (1925 - )

"Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence." - Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818), 1780

This post over on Kung Fu Monkey about the 'War on Terror' was so good and so funny that Ian called me up five minutes ago to tell me to read it. I did. It's brilliant, especially the part where he paraphrases FDR and Churchill.

Your turn. Read it now. It'll take two minutes. I promise you'll laugh.

I'm reading a book by a pschologist about evil, where he operationally defines evil as causing intentional harm. He approaches evil from the perspective of the people who do evil in a largely (so far) successful attempt to better understand it. He also distinguishes evil in the real world from the myth of pure evil so often found in popular culture.

It strikes me as odd that I would find a succinct explanation of the concept behind real honour in such a book.

Idealism leads to evil primarily because good, desirable ends provide justification for violent or oppressive means. Evil is not likely to result when people firmly believe that ends do not justify means. If they evaluate their methods by the same lofty standards by which they judge their goals and purposes, evil will be held in check.
-Roy F. Baumeister, Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty

He doesn't refer to this as the basis of honour, but it is.

It's tragic that so many of the people who speak most often about honour and who refer to honour and its defense as motives for terrible actions don't seem to have a grasp of this concept.

If interested, here is where I found that interview. There are others.

I found a great interview with the creator of Calvin & Hobbes.

Here's an exerpt:

Christie: Do you think you'll ever need a ghost?

Watterson: No, that's against what I believe about comic strips. In fact, I'd go even further and say I don't think a strip should ever be continued after the death or retirement of a cartoonist.

Christie: Well, you know, a lot of the very good ones used assistants.

Watterson: Yeah, Pogo did. Schulz has a good comment on that: "It's like Arnold Palmer having someone to hit his chip shots." I spent five years trying to get this stupid job and now that I have it I'm not going to hire it out to somebody else. The whole pleasure for me is having the opportunity to do a comic strip for a living, and now that I've finally got that I'm not going to give it away. It also gives me complete creative control. Any time somebody else has their hand in the ink it's changing the product, andI enjoy the responsibility for this product. I'm willing to take the blame if the strip goes down the drain, and I want the credit if it succeeds. So long as it has my name on it, I want it to be mine. I don't know, if you don't have that kind of investment in it...I guess that's the difference between looking at it as an art and looking at it as a job. I'm not interested in setting up an assembly line to produce this thing more efficiently. There are certainly people who could letter the strip better than I do; I don't enjoy lettering very much, but that's the way I write and that belongs in the strip because the strip is a reflection of me. If cartoonists would look at this more as an art than as a part time job or a get-rich-quick scheme, I think comics overall would be better. I think there's a tremendous potential to be tapped.

I can't fucking sleep.

I wrote a journal entry. I played video games (Resident Evil 4, mercenaries sub-game) so long my hands ache. Still don't think I'll be able to sleep. Or that if I do, I won't rest. I don't seem to be resting much lately, regardless of how much I sleep. But I guess I better go try.

I've read more sickening things than this, but that's only because I read Nick Pron's book about Homolka and Bernardo when researching an article I wrote last year.

Read the linked article. All of it. Post a link to it in your blog. People need to know about this [expletive expletive expletive].

It's possible that the reporter got it wrong. It's happened before (with reporters in general, I don't know a thing about this specific reporter). But considering what she writes, I'm willing to bet she and her editor did everything they could to make it bulletproof. Their asses are on the line.

(I learned of this story from Ian, but Jer has also blogged it.)

I think I slept three hours last night. Maybe four.

Christa and I went to see a friend that needed some help last night and then I couldn't sleep.

No headlines today. I've got a bunch of other things I need to do.

So tired. But it was worth it.

And while stiffer penalties might deter some would-be sex offenders, Mr. Church said they probably wouldn’t give a psychotic person pause for thought.

"Not for somebody that’s been driven by the hormones where he’s got this compelling need to do something — that’s the least of his worries," he said. "If somebody (like that) is going to go commit a crime, they don’t care about the consequences. They really don’t."

Link

Stiffer penalties for repeat sex-offenders should not be about deterrence. They should be about incapacitation.

Stiff penalties will not deter a repeat sex offender. They would, however, keep them away from potential victims for a longer time and also allow for more institutionalized treatment. They would also make it easier (possible?) to designate the ones deemed to be at a "100 per cent" risk to reoffend, like Whitmore, as dangerous offenders.

Media crime coverage feeds fear: RCMP report contradicts 2004 study

A positive first for local youths and police

Go west young criminal, to find true prosperity in today’s B.C.

Girls talk sex, violence, multiculturalism in films

New centre reaches out to addicted teenagers

Victim to judges: put away pedophiles

Second-chance laws enabled Whitmore to play sick game of catch and release

Predators are lurking everywhere

The Brazilian military is transporting more than a hundred penguins home to Antarctica after they washed up on beaches in Rio.

They made the trip on ice floes that melted near Brazil's shore.

It apparently happens every winter and they usually end up in local zoos.

I'm starting a new blog. Not today or tomorrow, but in the next few weeks.

One of the elements of the blog will be a rundown of the top justice headlines of the day. That's what the last week and a half has been about; I'm working out a system for searching, selecting and categorizing these stories.

The blog itself will be about understanding crime.

There are two elements that I know I'll have for sure:

1. The justice headline links mentioned above. They'll be from across Canada and will avoid the crime stories, which already get enough play. I'll link to news stories, opinion pieces, editorials and features that focus in some way on the question of what to do with crime (or what's being done). I won't agree with everything I link to. But I'll link to it because I think it's important to know what people are saying and writing about what to do with crime.

2. Regular short to medium length articles that talk about recent and classic academic studies of crime in conversational language. My goal there is to start covering the science of criminology on a small scale.

It will be a public blog (meaning it will show up on Google searches). I'm still developing the idea and haven't written all the plans down here (so you shouldn't assume that because I haven't talked about something that I haven't thought about it).

Check this space for updates.

I can't believe how difficult it is to designate somebody a violent offender. Because it essentially means they will go to jail indefinitely, strict conditions are necessary.

But chronic pedophiles that the Correctional Service of Canada say are at "100 per cent" risk of reoffending, should qualify whether any of their individual sentences are for less than 10 years or not.

Top Story

This is something criminologists have been saying for years, but barely anybody heard.

RCMP report says media crime stories may unduly raise public fears

B.C. RCMP wants fewer crime stories in the media

RCMP report suggests less crime stories should be provided to the media

RCMP to go beyond 'just the facts'

Media crime reports spark irrational fear: RCMP


Guardian Angels

Cops: Beat it, Angels

'You're not welcome,' police tell Angels

Guardian Angels get lukewarm welcome from Ottawa police

General Scan

Crime stats program back in police arsenal (Saskatoon)

Ontario launches pilot project to assist victims of break-ins

Winnipeg's homeless youth struggle with drugs, mental illness, study says

Send criminals a message

Abduction national disgrace: advocate

Hundreds turn out for community anti-drug rally

Alberta group wants anti-gay websites shut down

Calgary turns to U.K. for police officers

Man charged in connection with Grand Manan riot