[PHOTO] Life advice

Life advice
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

I snapped this picture on the subway a couple of weeks ago. Here is one of the pro-atheist TTC ads that caused a minor amount of controversy when they were first announced.

[LINK] Angels and Demons and multiple-choice quizzes and tea

nwhyte has a poll up soliciting the opinions of readers on what they would do if they were characters in Dan Brown's novel (now film!) Angels and Demons.

(Myself, I'm a coffee guy.)

[BRIEF NOTE] Crime and punishment made irrelevant

This is an unsurprising ending to the story of Vincent Li, who this summer past murdered and cannibalized a fellow passenger, 22 year old Tim McLean, on a Greyhound bus while in the middle of a schizophrenic episode. (The police phrase "eating the corpse" briefly entered the national lexicon.)

A man who believed he was following God's orders when he stabbed and beheaded a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba has been found not criminally responsible to the consternation of the victim's loved ones.

Justice John Scurfield said Vince Li's attack on Tim McLean last summer was “grotesque” and “barbaric,” but “strongly suggestive of a mental disorder.”

“He did not appreciate the actions he committed were morally wrong. He believed he was acting in self defence,” Scurfield said Thursday.

Both Crown and defence psychiatrists had testified at Li's trial that he was suffering from schizophrenia and believed God wanted him to kill McLean because the young man was a force of evil.

Li, 40, was charged with second-degree murder but pleaded not guilty.

McLean's mother, Carol deDelley, was upset but not surprised by the verdict.

DeDelley said Li may have been mentally ill when he attacked her son, but the fact remains that a crime was committed.

“He still did it,” she told reporters outside court. “Whether he was in his right frame of mind or not, he still did the act. There was nobody else on that bus holding a knife slicing up my child. Nobody else did that. Just one individual did that.”

DeDelley said the law needs to be changed so someone can be found not psychologically accountable but still criminally responsible for a crime.

I respect the grief of McLean's family, but I frankly doubt that their attitude is worthwhile. Li wasn't sane at the time and was incapable of being rationally deterred from his act. No one else would be deterred by his act, since it's not exactly as if the murder and cannibalization of passengers by strangers on buses--or even on public transport in general--is common, in Canada at least. If punishing Li with criminal time wouldn't do anything meaningful for him or for the wider community and his act was the product of an untreated disease process, what would be the point?

[BRIEF NOTE] Gay and robot marriage

Joe. My. God links to a news report about a North Carolina anti-gay marriage groups deepest fears.

More than 1,000 people, many from Baptist churches across the state, stood on the ice-covered lawn outside the Legislative Building on Tuesday to demand that state legislators give them a chance to vote on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

The rally was a follow-up to a news conference last week during which Republican legislators reintroduced a bill that would allow North Carolina to hold a referendum on defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman. North Carolina law prohibits same-sex marriage, but advocates of the constitutional amendment say they want extra protections should a judge decide the current law is unconstitutional.

Two well-known conservative Christian commentators who spoke at the rally described a breakdown of society should gay couples be allowed to marry -- including a rise in single-parent households and in the number of dependents wanting Social Security and health insurance benefits.

David Gibbs III, a lawyer who in 2005 fought to keep brain-damaged Terri Schiavo on life support, told rally participants gay marriage would "open the door to unusual marriage in North Carolina.

"Why not polygamy, or three or four spouses?" Gibbs asked. "Maybe people will want to marry their pets or robots."

Gibbs' faith in the imminence arrival of artificial intelligences capable of informed consent is misplaced: What about the artificial intelligences already extant? Joe, not unreasonably, wonders about Skynet's reaction to this blatant anti-robot bigotry. Me, I fear Google--upsetting the noosphere at this stage could be catastrophic.

[BRIEF NOTE] Long live the Newfoundland and Labrador Bloc?

The Canadian Press report caught my attention.

The government has demanded the Liberal party expel a senator over his musings about Newfoundland and Labrador separatism.

Sen. George Baker told a St. John's, N.L., radio station that Newfoundlanders may resort to separatism if they continue to feel discriminated against by the federal government.

He said perhaps the province should have a party similar to the Bloc Quebecois to defend its interests at the federal level.

Newfoundlanders are angry at the federal Conservatives over a budget they say will cost the province more than $1.5 billion in transfers.

"People will soon be advocating, you know, that we can't remain in the Confederation in which we're discriminated against and not respected," Baker was quoted as saying.

"How much are we going to put up with? You know, this should be reason enough to, to have a Bloc Newfoundland and Labrador running in the next election if this keeps up - and a real campaign to get them all elected."

[. . .]

Baker said his province contributes far more to the rest of Canada in per-capita exports than other provinces, and doesn't get the respect it deserves.

He offered an unequivocal response when asked during the show whether a Newfoundland block could be effective in getting a better fiscal arrangement within Canada.

Baker replied: "Well, let me ask you the question: What about the Bloc Quebecois? Have they been effective? Of course they've been effective. . . . And just imagine the clout that we could present to the Government of Canada. The Government of Canada wouldn't dare to put into their budget a measure that's in there right now, stealing $1.7 billion from the people of Newfoundland and Labrador."

Paul Wells' noted the possible emergence of Newfoundland separatism back in August, with NDP candidate Ryan Cleary's flirtation with Newfoundland separatism. So far, as the comments to Wells' post point out, Newfoundland's national identity--yes, it has one; with its separate development for centuries it's as much a nation as Québec--is mainly expressed as a strong regionalism, a local patriotism that's quite compatible with Canadian identity, upset over the economic issues that Baker highlighted in his radio interview. aibheaog's 2007 post exploring the absence of Newfoundland separatism seems as valid now as when it was written.

Nonetheless, lately the idea of Newfoundland separatism has been interesting me. Maybe it's because we've been studying Quebec's Quiet Revolution in Canadian history. Maybe it's because I'm sick of the Harper government, and tired of the Canadian government in general. Maybe it's because every time I turn on the Comedy Network, there's some comedian making a crack about Newfoundlanders (Three in the last week!)

Either way, my curiosity had been piqued, and so I googled "Newfoundland separatism movement."

Nothing.

"Newfoundland independence movement."

Nothing.

"Newfoundland Liberation Army."

Nothing.

Well, not nothing. I got articles that mentioned a Newfoundland separatist movement in passing. However, there was no website that presented an organized view on the subject. Apparently all this talk I hear of a Newfoundland separatist movement is just that -- talk. Everything you see around Newfoundland indicating a separatist movement -- the Pink, White & Greens hanging everywhere around St. John's; the "Free Newfoundland" and "Newfoundland Liberation Army" t-shirts; the newspaper titled The Independent, for god's sakes -- all mean nothing.

This may be changing. Maybe. We'll see. I just wonder, if Newfoundland does develop its own regionalist/separatist federal political party, which region will be next. Alberta? Nova Scotia? Nunavut? Toronto?