Yuri's Night

We can shed our skins and swim into the darkened void beyond
We will dance among the worlds that orbit stars that aren't our sun
All the oxygen that trapped us in a carbon spider's web
Solar winds are whispering, you may hear the sirens of the dead

-Starblind, from the Iron Maiden album The Final Frontier

April 12th, 1961, we took our first small baby steps towards shedding ourselves of this earthly skin and learning to swim in the vast emptiness that is space, the final frontier. A Soviet pilot, Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut, rode his Vostok-K modified ICBM from Baikonur Cosmodrome to make one single lap around the earth. He went faster than anyone had ever gone. He went higher than anyone had ever gone. And Yuri Gagarin proved that we, as a species; that our advanced breed of chimpanzees on a boring world orbiting a star considered smaller and less impressive than average; that we have a chance, an opportunity, a real capability to leave this pale blue speck and step into the cosmos beyond.

The Earth is infinitely small in a vast and awesome universe, to steal a phrase from Carl Sagan, and we are infinitely small beings upon it, yet we have found a way to leave this tiny spot of safety and refuge, and in it, we have become greater beings. It is entirely possible that no intelligent species flourish in this universe, but it is more possible that some do, and manage to find only their destruction as they harness new power and abilities. We have split the atom and not found total failure, despite possessing for over fifty years the ability to strike our civilization asunder and damn it to failure. Gagarin rode a rocket into space and proved that we can take a weapon of war and make it into a mission of science and peace.

The true battles of the Cold War were not won in the hills of Korea and the jungles of Vietnam but in the minds of people who watched how the West rose above the USSR's space challenge and conquered the moon, but instead of sticking a star-spangled banner into the Earth and claiming it for the United States and capitalism, the Americans who went chose the words "In peace and hope for all mankind" to leave behind. Gagarin was a Soviet pilot, trained to kill other men in aerial combat, yes, but that doesn't lessen his impact to peace and greatness, and indeed, our ability to survive beyond our fragile Earth.

This man was brave. He was heroic. He looked at something designed to explode and kill thousands and sat atop it, pointed it high, and rode it where it was never designed to go: into a future where Russians, Americans, Europeans and Asians and all the good folk on this blue dot can communicate peaceful, exchange information, friendships, and work a little more towards not being Chinese and Australian and Mexican and Egyptian, but being humans.

When Gagarin was in orbit, he wasn't just the Soviet Union's representative in space; he was humanity's representative. He was one lonely man in a small capsule that represented our hopes and dreams. He was a hero back then, but is more forgotten today, thanks to his sad, premature death in 1968, the inherit politics surrounding his launch, and the supercession of his legacy in 1969 by three other brave explorers named Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins.

I urge you to remember him. Remember Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepherd and the other early explorers of the Final Frontier; and I dare you to find ways to emulate his bravery and accomplishments.

On Military Spending

Let's face it, the F-35 purchase program from the Harper government is one of the big triggers of Canada's current election. Military appropriations is a very difficult issue south of the border as well, especially given the United States' current debate over budget reductions. This contentious issue needs to be considered carefully, and I don't think that military appropriations should be considered with the same "axe" that often guts other programs.

Both Canada and the United States maintain our levels of defense by waging a qualitative war; we have accepted that, in the pursuit of a professional, non-conscription based army, we will not outnumber our foes in any hypothetical conflict. As a result, our military expenditure per soldier is significantly higher than other nations. Canada spends around $191,000 per soldier per annum; the United States $236,000 per soldier, while a country like China spends approximately $21810 per soldier. We do this to ensure that the few can protect the many. We have to ensure the hardware that is deployed is better than what our likely foe deploys.

This means staying current. If we fight a war against a major foe, such as Russia or China, they will have current-generation fighters (5th generation fighters and 4++ generation fighters) that can match our fighters (the CF-18, a 4++ generation fighter). We don't actually expect to fight Russia or China, but if we do, we will expect pilots to die fighting a foe capable of putting a qualitative match in the air. What the Canadian Forces has been used for over the past twenty years, however, isn't fighting a qualitative equal - it's fighting a second-or-third world ruler such as Qaddafi or Milosevic.

In this case, we are outnumbered, but we win because our fighters are better than their fighters and air defences. If we keep our current 4++ generation fighters, the people we are most likely to fight in 10, 15 years will start getting their hands on surplus 4++ generation craft from countries like Russia, China, and Pakistan. When we lose our qualitative advantage, we put our military's ability to participate in international missions like the Libyan No-Fly Zone at risk; we lose a lot of our diplomatic clout, and most importantly, Canadians die.

There is also the fact that military hardware has to be replaced over time. I won't deny that our Cold War-oriented military isn't properly prepared for the combat tasks of today, and appropriations need to be altered to reflect this. But with the Liberals promising to scrap the F-35, the NDP talking about "re-evaluating" the process without mentioning alternatives, and the Bloq Quebecois not really being a federal party, I am reminded of the need for a Sea King replacement in the 1990s. This isn't a pleasing reminder. Canada's CH-124 Sea King helicopters were ordered in the 1950s and deployed in the 1960s and remain in current service with the Canadian Forces, despite being 48 years old and having exceeded their service life by almost double. Our Labrador helicopters also need replacement. Several of these two chopper types have crashed, and Canadian service personnel have died since the Jean Chretien government cut the early 1990s replacement program.

If you cut a program, you have to have a replacement, because people's lives are riding on those hardwares. Sure. You don't like the F-35 at $150 million a pop. There's options out there - the F/A-18E Super Hornet at $55 million an airframe, or the Eurofighter Typhoon at $125 million an airframe. What the Liberals and NDP aren't saying is that the CF-18 we currently fly is at the end of its lifespan. They've already started to crash and break up, and 9 Canadians have died in them. This number will increase if the replacement program is cancelled.

If you outright cancel the fighter replacement program, Canadians will die. Period.

In which @ZOMGitsCriss gets me to blog again.

I think Cristina Rad is awesome. Her YouTube channel is fantastic (I'd link to it, but I'm at work currently, and can't get on YouTube from here), and she has a lot of really awesome things to say on her Twitter feed. But comments like this one just make me riled up:

Kinda hard to maintain a positive attitude when the entire world is falling apart.

No.

I don't know how much more emphatically I can say this. No. The entire world is not falling apart. Now, this might be in reference to some personal issues, and I can appreciate that. When your entire personal world is falling apart, life is pretty horrible.

But the world? The wide world, the grandiose world of humanity?

Let's be honest: we're doing okay. In fact, I would argue that the human condition is, today, better than it has ever been.

Sure, we have horrific campaigns of slaughter, torture, death and disease going on throughout the world. People are being murdered, raped, bombed. Riots are tearing apart Kabul over a book getting burned. And if you look at things on the outside, the world is a pretty shitty place. I won't deny that.

But the fact of the matter is that it was a shittier place yesterday. And an even shittier place ten years ago. And 10,000 years ago, it was absolutely undeniably horrific. Life used to be short, brutish, and violent, and the human condition was often plagued by terrifying diseases that left you dead at best and horrifically maimed at worst. Wars were frequent, and civilian casualties as a percentage of populace were much higher. Entire cities were systematically slaughtered with only a handful of survivors. Disease was a prevalent weapon.

So ask yourself this: when was the last time an entire city was destroyed by Christian crusaders, with over 90% of the people killed and the rest remaining mostly raped girls between the ages 12-16, forced into becoming wives (aka: slaves) for the conquerors?

When was the last time someone you knew died of polio, cholera, bubonic plague, or the measles?

When was the last time an entire race of people was systematically eliminated and the world didn't find some way to care?

Sure, some of these horrors are recent and still terrifying, your chance of dying in a violent or diseased manner is low. Much lower than it was a hundred years ago; a thousand years ago, dying of old age was almost unheard of. The quality of life everywhere in the world is getting better and better. Slowly, a crawl, in some places, such as sub-Saharan Africa, but a crawl is better than nothing.

The world's not falling apart. It's got a lot of horrible things that we see on a daily basis due to the nature of information exchange. But we have lived at relative peace for the last 65 years, thanks to the Pax Americana; my generation, and my parents' generation, hasn't known a sustained, violent war that has truly destroyed nations.

Things still suck, but they aren't falling apart. They are getting better. Even the fact that we know more about how terrible the human species can be is in itself a victory, because the only real way to getting away from the things that make us sad is information exchange and education: two things easier to find now, than ever before. Maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel...

A Fated Meeting

It had been two years since the abbot died. Two years for the church in this village to lie empty. The heavy iron key to the door had difficulty turning, and if it wasn't for my careful and slow application of strength, I might have snapped it in the tumblers. It opened, reluctantly in the end, and I got my first look inside the small building.

It was stout; a stone base, wood walls, and a thatch roof made it rather more luxurious than many of the near homes. However, it was not a building of luxury. Decay filled my nostrils when I looked inside, and what sunlight existed on the gray Derbyshire day failed to penetrate the two filth-covered windows. I stepped inside, and immediately my first thoughts turned to how long it was going to take to make this house of God Godly again. A little laugh passed my lips; why should I care?

There was room inside for maybe fifty people, comfortably; no doubt double that. The donkey and cart I'd brought with me waited both outside as I stepped into the little church. A scurry answered the sound of nails on stone; I'd disturbed some number of rats or other rodents, without doubt. Yet another problem to worry about.

After a few moments of looking about, my eyes began to adjust to the lack of light inside. The back wall of the church had once had two tapestries hang down. I could still see the Cross inside of them each, but the bright colours were faded and holes gaped where moths had eaten away the cloth. The Cross nailed to the back wall of the church wasn't in bad shape, however; the floor was brown with rat shit.

My tongue touched the top of my mouth and clicked against it; a displeased noise I picked up from Brother Francois some years ago. He made that noise often; he was very usually displeased with the world, and especially the men he had to share his life with. But that is what made him an excellent teacher and Master of the Order – he demanded the best, and very often got it.

I am not so young as I was when I came to Derbyshire, and at the time I was not young either, and perhaps my hearing was vanishing even then, for when I turned around, I was surprised by the form shadowing the doorway. Lean, tall, with a faint hunch about the neck, someone was waiting to great the Friar come from London to see to the flock of Derbyshire. This fellow looked probably as unpleasant as I did about the smell attributable to two years of rats; his nose was wrinkled up and the corner of his lips twisted wryly. Unlike many of the men I'd met in the English countryside of late, this fellow was clean-shaven. Most wore facial hair of some form, but not this man.

“Might we talk outside, Friar?” he asked in English. At the time, my grip on the tongue wasn't strong enough to reply fluently, but I understood well enough. My head dipped into an acquiescent nod, and I stepped out of the building after his lead. Again, the day wasn't so bright, though the threatened rain had not fallen of yet, but it was well enough to let me see the man in better detail.

I'd thought he was lean at first, almost hungry looking, but the light brought things into better detail. He wore a brown tunic, almost black, and that had disguised some of his form. Yes, his torso was slim, or slim enough for his height, but both of his arm were densely muscled. His legs, too, looked strong. Not thick or fat, but more than serviceable to run for a goodly length of time. There was a wicked scar over his chin, from just below the left ear to two inches before his chin, and perhaps this went a long way towards explaining why he shaved.

Over his shoulders he wore a cloak, waxed against the rain ponderous in the air, but the sides were tucked back over his shoulders, and I could see that he went armed. Most did, and still do, I imagine (though I rarely see outsiders these days), but the usual means of arms were a long knife or a stout club. This fellow wore a sword and dagger on his left hip, and a thick quarterstaff rested on the wall outside of the church. He also had on a cuirass of hardened leather that had obviously seen hard use; a series of pits and gouges were evident to even the casual glimpse of the untrained eye, and my eyes are not untrained nor casual in such things.

He began to speak in English. Forgive me, as I am paraphrasing what he said, but it was something to the lines of, “It's good to see a man of God come back to His house, Friar. The Church's presence was missed. These are sad times, and the folk of Derby could use a prayer from one such as yourself, from time to time.”

“English,” I started, and then I held up a hand, taking a second to close my eyes and gather my thoughts, to put together the words I needed. “My English is new. Please to forgive,” I began, but then he smiled and switched over to French.

“Is this better, mon frère?” he asked. I nodded, and then he continued, as if I hadn't interrupted him at all, “I'm sorry if I startled you earlier, but I had heard you were coming and wanted to see you for myself. The last cleric here was someone who was poorly received by the locals.”

“I was not aware my arrival was announced,” I said in return. Years and years of training to keep my face impassive may have worked, for the stranger quirked an eyebrow and laughed to me.

“It wasn't, but I hear things many people do not. I'm a funny fellow that way.” His eyes were bright blue, like a Saxon's might have been when Hengist came to the island, but they were juxtaposed by hair that was half red, half blond. They twinkled with restrained glee – the fellow had me at a disadvantage, and I knew, all of a sudden, that he knew rather more than he was letting on. “But you can hear a lot from this person or that person about a man, and not know a thing about him, if you understand my meaning.”

Yes, he was a little infuriating, but he was also completely right. I'd found that out more than once in my life. My head tilted forward in a single nod before lifting. “You are, of course, correct, monsieur. I hope that the words you've heard about me were ones describing a kind and humble man, and that I have so far lived up to them.”

“Mon frère, I can assure you, I heard that you are a humble and kind man. But that is not all I heard, and I will admit, I had to wonder why a simple monk come to serve God in peaceful England brought with him two heavy chests locked with Arabian locks. So I think, my dear Friar, that the words I heard on you were mostly true. That you have some skeletons locked in that trunk. Or perhaps bits of steel that you can't forget and don't necessarily want to remember.”

The man with reddish-blond hair and bright blue eyes had caught me unawares. Yes, I had more luggage, but knowing the locks were Arabian? Guessing that my mail was secreted inside? And knowing enough to know that I have come here for reasons other than the usual reasons a monk is sent to a small church – that piety isn't why I've come across the known world? This fellow obviously had friends in high places, or ones who know how to listen amongst them.

It must be that my incredulity showed, because the fellow laughed and clapped a hand on my shoulder. He wore a half-glove that covered his palm, and it was of thick leather, like the armour he wore. His fingertips were massively calloused, and I could all but feel their coarseness through my travelling cloak. Again, his hand was strong, his arm powerful. He was still smiling, as he said, “Don't worry, Friar. Your secret is safe with me, and I promise what I've heard was complimentary. As for your reasons for being here, they are truly your own, and I judge no man on what he's done in his past, but for the future he tries to make. It has been good to see you.”

“I,” I began, but the fellow shook his head.

“No time, Friar! When next we meet, I promise you shall join me in my home, and we shall break bread and share honey and ale, but for now I have things to which I must attend. Keep those trunks safe, but don't bury them too deep. Even in peaceful England, it seems, there are times when men must make ready for war. Even men of God,” he said, as he turned, gathering his quarterstaff and sliding his cloak back over his form. The hood raised and the twinkling eyes were shadowed from my sight.

“But, you have me at a disadvantage, sir. How will I know where to go? You didn't even tell me your name!” The rain finally began to fall, in a soft, fine mist that filled the sky. His lips twisted into what I knew was a smile, and he laughed as he turned to head back along the path through the trees. As I had suspected, he walked quick, faster than I could, even in my youth, a score of years ago.

When he spoke he was almost gone into the mist, though I hadn't tried to pursue him, it still took an uncommonly short time for the lean fellow to be gone. His voice carried over the rainy mist that was starting to thicken. “Don't worry about such things. And as for my name? You'll hear what they call me soon enough. Au revoir, mon ami!” he cried, and then he stepped off the path suddenly, into the forest, and was gone.

I didn't do as I had originally intended and bury my chests deep, to be forgotten. Instead I hid them in the small room behind the church I was given, digging them into the earthen floor beneath my cot, and covering them with rushes, so that I could haul them out if needed quick enough, but that it would take a dedicated eye to locate the two inches of protruding wood. I began to clean the Church, and over the next days, people came to visit me. Some stayed and helped, others introduced themselves and then left. It wasn't until I met the blacksmith that I mentioned the mysterious stranger. The fellow guffawed and then looked at me.

“A strange man you must be, dear Friar, if Robin Hood chanced a meeting with you in Derbyshire by daylight,” he said, before going back to driving nails into broken boards as his contribution to the Church.

9/11

I wrote this awhile ago. It's no longer current, and it's not always exactly what I think today. But I want to share it here anyway. Mostly so I don't have to crawl through 3 years of old posts on Maidenfans again.

Edit: also read last year's thoughts.

It is hard for me to find things to say on this day. Half of me sits here and ponders that it is the day the world changed (indeed, for the worst), and that like so many others, I cannot forget exactly where I was when Al-Qaida struck down two of the world's mightiest buildings with the fire of their hatred. I remember the quiet aftermath of a terrorist strike deep into the body of a great nation, and I remember watching the great Union prepare to rise up and, as always, shake off the damage of an aggressor and prepare to move forward. Was it any different when the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, people asked. Was it any different when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor? Many people, many Canadians, have a lot of derision for the United States - I have a great respect for our allies, not least because in the past, the United States has been a beacon of strength, power, and inspiration.

What other country could drag itself, hand over hand, out of the deep pit of the Great Depression? What other country could rebuild savaged states in a matter of a decade? What other country could survive the destruction of an entire fleet at the hands of a surprise assault? You see, when the towers were struck, I, and many others with the sense to watch the world, drew in a breath and waited for the vengeance of America wounded, but not bowed. Certainly not broken under the terrorist's knife, for I believe there is not now and has never been any knife long enough to pierce the heart of America held by a foreign warrior. And the right things happened - all the world went to war against Al-Qaeda. The terrorist's bases in Afghanistan were broken by the assault of the world's free peoples; American, British, Canadian, German, Polish, Spanish, and more.

Political documents are somewhat of a hobby of mine, that is to say, I enjoy reading them and reading about their development and interpretation over time. I can remember being eleven and reading through the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and being enthralled by the idea it held - a universal contract we are born into that protects our rights to exist. As I grew and was educated, I read other documents like it, and of course, the pinnacle of those documents, the first and the originator of the entire idea of modern western democracy: the Constitution of the United States. It seems to me, that the heart of our West, that the soul of our combined being are these documents that protect and demand the continued protection of our rights as individuals.

Opportunism and fear run hand in hand, and we can sadly see the same opportunism and fear running hand in hand today, as we could before. Sometimes when someone says to me, "Remember 9/11! Remember the Twin Towers!" in my mind I hear, "Remember the Maine!" Because this same opportunism that surrounded a fearful New England in 1898 exists today in all of the United States - the simple fact that the greatest country in the world has placed their forces into a war they cannot win (not in Iraq, but vs. "terrorism") because of some very fuzzy pictures and a series of bold-faced lies. Instead of turning the strength of the unified West against the ability of Osama Bin Laden to make war, the crucible was poured in Iraq and there the bloodied arms of the United States were thrust, and slowly they writhe and melt against the constant heat of those who believe in their beliefs enough to give their lives.

We must remember the events of September 11th, and we must support the troops deployed overseas. They are dying because the West was fooled by their own fear. They are dying because we are stifled. The Constitution of the United States, a sacred document to me, indeed, the most sacred of all documents save for my own Charter, violated by the man who swore to uphold it, and the citizens are blinded by the flashing lights and screaming alerts of FoxNews. Our greatest rememberance would be, now, to urge the Congresses and the Parliaments back to the task at hand: hunt down the man who perpetrated a great attack on the greatest nation, and to do so without succumbing to our own fear. Benjamin Franklin said that, "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." If we allow our freedoms to be taken away, how long before we are not free enough to deserve safety? Our security *IS* our freedom, and we should fight to protect it.

I suggest not that we avenge but that we find justice for our dead. Justice for the dead of 9/11 is the capture and lifetime solitary imprisonment of Osama Bin Laden and his inner circle. Justice for the dead of Iraq is the impeachment and arrest of George Bush and his inner circle for violating his oath of office and misleading his nation into a war for no good cause. To cause the first I would see our nations join together again, to end a global terrorist ring. Our 54 dead of September 11th need their justice as well. To cause the second I urge my southerly neighbours to educate themselves towards politics. Your ignorance is the weapon of those who would see you without a voice, without meaning or matter. Mass media does not present the story that needs presenting, instead try newspapers, magazines, the Internet, and journals.

I believe with all my heart that the way our society will fall is not from without. Great societies have never fallen entirely due to exterior invasion. No - Alexander's Macedonian Empire crumbled when he died and left no clear successor. The Roman Empire fell to the corruption caused by the distance and time between cities and the inability of the Equestrian and Patricians to monitor the rule of the Emperors. Victoria's British Empire was auctioned by Attlee's Labour Party to the highest bidder after the Second World War, and the Soviet Union could not withstand it's public's cry for equality in a society that was supposed to exemplify it. If we forget that we are free men and women, born equal, for just a minute, that we all deserve the rights to free speech, religion, assembly, and press, then we risk losing our right to live the way we live. That we risk losing to those who would gladly take all in order to claim our wealth as theirs. That we risk losing our future, and the Age of Enlightenment's greatest child: liberty.

Album Review: The Final Frontier

It's that time of the decade that a real metalhead waits for with baited breath day-in and day-out, knowing that each time this day comes may be the last, and the greatest. A new Iron Maiden album has hit the shelves: The Final Frontier. Already the title begged the question, "Is this the last Iron Maiden album?" Luckily, Steve Harris and company have repeatedly said that it won't be. These guys range from 52 to 56 years in age, and they sure as hell don't sound like it on tour - nor on the new disc.

I've actually had my hands on this since it leaked on Monday, and no, I don't feel bad about it. I've already bought it three times (iTunes LP, Mission Edition via Amazon, and pre-ordered the regular disc for average car/CD use), so, if EMI thinks I'm a thief, they can shove it. When it comes to a band with the utter quality and power of Iron Maiden, they definitely deserve my money. I'll pretty much keep buying everything they throw out.

Deadliest Warrior: Season 3, Episode 2

The Second World War-era United States Marines, the elite landing troops that wrested back control of the Pacific from Imperial Japan.

The German Fallschirmjäger, the battle-hardened paratroopers of Hitler's Luftwaffe, used to overwhelm Nazi Germany's enemies and defend her borders.

Who is deadliest?

George Washington's Tea Partiers

Friends, today, I'd like to remind you that the tradition of the left's tax-and-spend politics is not a recent tradition; it is in fact one that true, conservative, freedom-loving Americans have battled for over two centuries. You see, one of the things that George Washington did as President was to raise taxes when he decided to tax several luxury items that he considered distasteful. One of the prime purposes of President Washington's un-American taxation plan (they would have called it socialist but it's over a hundred years before the Communist Manifesto) was to alter the way people in the United States behaved and believed. This clear violation of the 10th Amendment was no more than a shady attempt to usurp states rights, disguising their intentions by telling the people of the United States that the money was needed to pay off the massive "debt" left by the Glorious War of Independence Against the Tyrant George.

A well-known liberal, Washington ignored the will of the people and chose to implement a form of taxation designed to conform behavior to progressive, liberal norms: he taxed whiskey. Like all people who hate freedom, Washington has a set lifestyle he wants Americans to live, and he had illegitimately abused his power this enact the tax. I don't know if you were aware of this, but Washington's Congress had only one party. Do you know what other country only had one party? That's right. Nazi Germany.

New design!

Well, looks like Joé was right, and he was happy to help. He's designed this new...layout for me. Is it easier to read? Does it need new work?

Either way, thanks Joé!