What could a bunch of nerds on YouTube do?

Plenty!



If you're reading this, you can afford a computer. If you can afford a computer, you can afford to send a couple of bucks to Shawn, who is just some guy from Toronto who got tired of the world sucking and decided he was going to do something about it, and help make some lives better.

Higher, Faster, Stronger, Prettier

Nevermind what I think about figure skating for just a moment and go read the funniest thing I've read in a few weeks of reading silly, over-the-top, crapola about figure skating. Mind you, its not as creepy as the second half of this earlier piece by the same writer. If I were Mao Asada, I'd be looking into a restraining order.
Look, I won't deny that figure skating is very popular and major draw for the olympics. It draws a huge number of television viewers and that means moneny. I would never deny it is very athletic and requires a huge amount of skill, discipline and talent.  So does synchonized swimming. So does rythmic gymnastics. So does ballet. None of these are sports, they are artistic endevours which are for some reason forced into competition and judged on subjective criteria.
Anything in which your chances of winning can depend on the music you choose, the costume or make-up you wear and whether you smile while competing is not a sport.

My Canada does not include war criminals

In light of this, I think that it is undeniable that there must be a fully public, non-partisan inquest, preferrably by a provincial coroner or similar authority that is more than arm's length away from the federal government.

From the CBC:

Federal government documents on Afghan detainees suggest that Canadian officials intended some prisoners to be tortured in order to gather intelligence, according to a legal expert.

If the allegation is true, such actions would constitute a war crime, said University of Ottawa law professor Amir Attaran, who has been digging deep into the issue and told CBC News he has seen uncensored versions of government documents released last year.

If the allegation that Afghan prisoners were purposely sent to be tortured turns out to be true, I  want people sent to jail.
And by jail I don't mean country club Conrad Black minimum security jail, either. I want to see them walking the yard at Millhaven. And by people I mean every single person in the chain of command that approved or did not act to stop this - right up to the Cabinet level, including the Prime Minister. If it happened under the Liberals and Paul Martin knew about it, fine, jail his retired ass, too.
This is not about politics or the party currently in power. This about Canada upholding basic human rights. We may have gotten a lot of things related to human rights wrong in the past - from residential schools to head taxes to incarcerating the Japanese during World War Two - whichever party is in power, but we have never tolerated outright evil like this.
This must be investigated, fully and completely and in the full light of day, with nothing redacted or left unexamined to "protect operational security" or any other bullshit reason the people involved want to try to cite to save their asses. My Canada does not include torture.

Update: the Mound of Sound has more here, here and here