the blue revolution

Today marks the 59th anniversary of VJ-Day, when Japan accepted the surrender terms of the Allies. It marks the effective end of Second World War.

The editorial of Daily Yomiuri is a vile blanket whitewash of Japan's war crimes as it sheds crocodile tears over the execution of war criminals and equivocates the veneration of said criminals at the Yasukuni shrine. I'm not going to link to it, but those interested can search on Google News.

This is a day to remember the brave men who saved the world from the Fascists of the East and West. We thank you for your sacrifice.

Yesterday, when Global National needed to talk to a reporter in Iraq, Kevin Newman found himself chatting with Fox News' Caroline Shively.

Today, I am (unfortunately) reminded once again that the National Post is printing columns by Sheila Copps.

I submit the above as evidence that Canwest Global is either schizophrenic or going through corporate adolescence as it figures out where it actually stands on the issues. Check out the comments on this Shotgun post for more theories on Copps' appearance in the NP today, which has been noted to be poorly edited.

Two news stories on homosexuality and politics crossing paths (again) in the United States: NJ governor James E. McGreevey resigns after admitting to a gay extramartial affair, and the CA Supreme Court voids the marriage licenses issued by San Francisco to same-sex couples.

First story: considering the sex scandals that pop up with relative regularity in American politics, it doesn't really have any impact on me. I see this not very differently than a scandal involving a heterosexual affair. What did strike me, though, was how fast McGreevey stepped down. As Mark Steyn recalled, Clinton set a new standard in sex scandal longevity (article title "Clinton in Clapham").

Anyway, when this radio station alerted me to the cabinet minister's difficulties, I didn't bother getting back to them immediately. What's the hurry? By now, I was sufficiently Americanized to assume I had maybe ten months of lucrative on-air punditry to look forward to. Davies would surely stay put, while subpoenas were issued to his secretary, and other cabinet secretaries protested his innocence, and he went on TV and wagged his finger and said, "I did not have sexual relations with that boyo!" and Welsh Office spin-doctors denounced the vast right-wing conspiracy, and members of the Rastafarian community said that he'd always stood up for their interests, and former sweethearts posed nude for Hot Stud Monthly, and DNA tests were run on the foliage of Clapham Common, and more young men turned up, and some of them had been offered high-profile jobs with the Welsh Language Unemployment Benefit Leaflet Translation Office in Llandudno, and Davies insisted that, according to his official Welsh dictionary, it didn't count as sex if no druids were involved, and a Royal Commission had to be appointed under a distinguished former Lord Chancellor, who was promptly reviled as an extreme right-wing sex-crazed religious whacko with links to the fascist National Front, and in the House of Commons Select Committee Labour Members of Parliament attacked the Commission for its unprecedented number of leeks. And through it all Davies would just sit at his desk, venturing out only for starry fundraisers with Welsh celebrities like Anthony Hopkins and, er, Tom Jones and, um, well--did I mention Anthony Hopkins?

But instead Ron Davies just...resigned. And, by the time I called back that radio station the following day, they didn't want to know. They'd moved on to Nick Brown, Tony Blair's minister for agriculture, who'd been outed by a fetching young man who'd sold his story to a tabloid. I was stunned. On the TV news, Bill Clinton was preparing to settle with Paula Jones, on the grounds that after four years, what with impeachment and all, he now had too many other scandals to give this one the attention it deserved. And Ron Davies couldn't even make his last a week.

Who said Bill didn't leave a legacy?

Second story: way too easy to call this one. With state law setting in writing the traditional definition of marriage, and this not being a constitutionality decision, there's no question on the illegality of the actions of the San Francisco city government. Indeed, it's so obvious that this will hardly be a blip in the long political war between traditionalists and radicals on the definition of marriage issue.

In summary: the biggest thing about gays on TV today was the double-header of Will & Grace, not the evening news.

It's no surprise that Vancouver beat Toronto, but Ottawa as the best city to live in the world? Wow all credibility shot out the window.

The South Korean government wants to move the capital from Seoul to the Gongju-Yongi area, closer of the geographical centre of the RoK. While I appreciate the security concerns of the possibility of North Korean artillery pounding Seoul and its vicinity at a rate of half a million rounds per hour, the stated economic purpose of the move sounds like a load of bull---- to me:

"The new capital site was found to be the best among the candidate locations in terms of potential contribution to the nation's balanced regional development, ease of access and living environment,'' Lee said.

That sounds a whole lot like something cooked up by an African megalomanical ruler or some former Soviet pseudo-democracy. It's not quite the sort of well thought-out process of a modern democratic state.

The newspapers in the RoK (well, at least the ones that have English web sites) mostly aren't pleased, but I can't tell how much of that displeasure comes from the fact that they're all based in Seoul:

• No More Unilateral Push (Korea Times)
• Halt capital move (Korea Herald)
• Will the Government Relocate the Capital Despite Public Opposition? (Dong-A Ilbo)
• Review the capital move (JoongAng Daily)

Only the Choson Ilbo doesn't seem to have a critical editorial, instead aiming their sights on the opposition GNP for their lack of a definite position on this issue.

And that doesn't even cover the real meat of this one: the ludicrous idea that Seoul's overpopulation can be solved by moving the seat of government. The overwhelming majority of Seoul's residents work in the commercial sector (as in any major world metropolis) and companies don't really give a flying fack about where the government works.

The only nations with some justification for building a planned capital are federal countries where the constituent parts all agree that the capital should not be buried in the middle of one subdivision. Hence we have Canberra, Ottawa, and Washington, DC. Well, Ottawa was a geostrategic choice as well, but nobody expected it to overtake Toronto or Montreal in population, and indeed it didn't.

Seoul is the historic capital of the Korean nation, and moving the capital isn't going to alleviate the regional disproportions in development and population. There are considerably more cost-effective means of protecting the government from attack (insert "Undisclosed Location" jokes here). I guess we'll have to see just how far and how successful will be this expensive attempt by the RoK government to dramatically change the people's freely chosen lifestyle.

My home in Coquitlam is a couple of kilometres away from the route of this car chase. Oh the stuff I miss these days.

The Olympics are fine, but the space-obsessed kid in me is waiting for the race a month later.

SpaceShipOne's initial X-Prize launch is on September 29th.

Wild Fire's initial X-Prize launch is on October 2nd.

The first fully reusable private manned spacecraft to make two flights into space within two weeks wins the Ansari X Prize of $10 million.

Meanwhile, it looks like Armadillo Aerospace and Space Transport Corp. (PDF) are not so close to liftoff (via Kate).

My co-op work term comes to a close at the end of the month, so there's a lot of loose ends that require tying up on both the office and home fronts. Blogging may be intermittent: bear with me for a while. =)

(I know usually I post twice as much a day after I put up a notice like this, but I think I might actually slow down this time.)

Don't forget the Shotgun for daily fixes of some of Canada's best conservative commentary!