Christopher Mackay's Blog

Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow: “Facebook is not suited to the purpose of organizing political causes. It may be an easy place to mobilize people, but between it capricious management and the ease of mining it for social graphs, it is an authoritarian secret policeman’s best friend and a censor’s bosom buddy.”

A mashup of various online clips of Christopher Hitchens, pamphleteer. I think the swipe at the “gentleman” advocating genital mutilation is the most devastating (and that’s saying something):

Via Hemant Meta, the Friendly Atheist.

Human rights ruling against classroom crucifixes angers Italy —The Guardian.

Money quote:

Classroom crucifixes were made compulsory by two laws in the 1920s when Italy was a fascist state.

Fascinating that Italians would think of the crucifix as a nationalist symbol rather than a religious one. Can’t imagine seeing a crucifix and ever associating it with Italy, rather than Christianity… Precious few American Christians, for example, think they have an Italian symbol at the front of their sanctuaries, I’d wager.

(Via RichardDawkins.net.)

BBC NEWS | Americas | US Elections 2008 | Obama family dog ‘a major issue’: “…our preference would be to get a shelter dog.”

It’s when politicians talk informally like this — especially right after an election campaign — that you get to see who they really are. This is clear evidence that there will be a decent man in the White House next year.

Update (Sept 17, 2008, 7:30 am): Richard Levangie, of AnythingButConservative.com, has alerted me to the fact that the original CBC.ca story [http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/story/2008/09/16/williams-elections-cnd.html] had an incorrect URL. Premier Danny Williams’ site is at AnythingButConservative.ca, not AnythingButConservative.com.

Vote Anything BUT Conservative — an interesting new site from Progressive Conservative Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams.

Stephen Harper’s actions raise important questions of trust. Of integrity. Of character.

There are other reasons, besides Harper’s credibility, to vote Anything But Conservative, such as their backwards, socially-conservative stance on no-brainer issues like gay marriage, their treatment of MPs like Bill Casey who vote their conscience, or their draconian copyright bill, C-61, but Williams has a clear message.

These Conservatives are certainly not “Progressive” Conservatives. Their agenda is regressive.

And now the Conservatives are seeking a mandate and a majority government to continue to implement an agenda that is not fully revealed.

The real question is whether “anything” will end up splitting the vote on the left, leaving room for Harper to come up with a majority.