On extremism:

It’s been repeatedly observed that an Islamic extremist is held to represent all Muslims in the Western media, and indeed a black criminal is held to represent all people of that ethnicity, but a white murderer is strictly an individual, with no generalisations to be made. Such is the ingrained racism in much of white-dominated culture.

That’s what we do: we other the perpetrators of these acts. It’s a natural reaction, and up to a point it’s even psychologically healthy - we must distance our own identities from what we’ve witnessed, because we can’t accept that there’s any circumstance in which we could become such a person. As usual, we then take it too far, by making our sweeping judgements, and allowing fear and suspicion to make us victimise others with only coincidental attributes in common.

Islam isn’t the problem. Religion isn’t even the problem. The problem is that, as ever, there’s a section of humanity who are extremists.

Specs

also, have fun on the 27th. I'll still be in the Okanagan, but I wish I could join in.
Retirement is treating my folks really well, and I think living here has been a positive change for both of them.

howdy howdy howdy,

Tony's been creating plans with all kinds of people, apparently!

Also in the works (see the facebook invite):
hanging out on the 2nd of January, probably in the evening, to accommodate those of us who have to work.
Initially, Beer Revolution was proposed, but since that's not kid-friendly, I've opened it up to additional suggestions. After talking with a friend who takes her kids to all kinds of places, I've listed 3 easy-to-access restaurants: Boston Pizza, Brewsters, and Red Robin; all of which could be used as alternative meet-up locations.

Also in the list of approved-for-kids venues: Next Act (before 4pm), O'Byrnes before 8pm (perhaps babies only, but I don't know), Craft downtown (especially if we change to a weekend brunch hang-out), Sugarbowl, Blue Plate Diner, 3 Boars... So feel free to promote one of them as an option as well.

Let me know if you have preferences and/or it's not coming through on FB for you.

Hi Everyone!

So here is the plan as discussed between me and Tony:

When: December 27th (Saturday) 7:30 PM
Where: Brewsters Centrury Park

Hope you can all make it!

As of yesterday, I will be in Edmonton from the 25th through the 1st. I'm in for some festivities, including the 27th. Just don't tell my anyone in my family(on the off chance you see them), because it is a surprise. Yay Christmas!

I will be free that day.

Lessons from the Sony Hack from Bruce Schneier:

The worst invasion of privacy from the Sony hack didn't happen to the executives or the stars; it happened to the blameless random employees who were just using their company's email system. Because of that, they've had their most personal conversations­gossip, medical conditions, love lives­exposed. The press may not have divulged this information, but their friends and relatives peeked at it. Hundreds of personal tragedies must be unfolding right now.

This could be any of us. We have no choice but to entrust companies with our intimate conversations: on email, on Facebook, by text and so on. We have no choice but to entrust the retailers that we use with our financial details. And we have little choice but to use cloud services such as iCloud and Google Docs.

So be smart: Understand the risks. Know that your data are vulnerable. Opt out when you can. And agitate for government intervention to ensure that organizations protect your data as well as you would. Like many areas of our hyper-technical world, this isn't something markets can fix.