Obviously I enjoy wargaming the War of 1812. I like the period and the novelty of it. I did not, repeat not, start this blog as a response to the anniversary of this conflict. I was trying, one night and with perhaps too stiff a drink, to communicate with a friend through a blog comment (long story) but was frustrated by my un-registration. So while trying to sign-up it said "want to blog? it's easy" or some such. Having done a lot of my wargaming vicariously through other's blogs I decided to start my own. Of course without any such plan or concept of what to say or convey. I had an 1812 set up on the table top so started with that.
So really it was just a coincidence.
But what really has me going is the news story that the Canadian government is going to spend 28 million dollars (currently the Cdn$ is near par with the US$) Yes 28 million! for "cultural activities" surrounding the 200 anniversary of the war.
#$*$@!! What the heck will all that money get us?? A couple of demos by a half-dozen fat reenactors looking confused on a field, randomly firing off a musket into the air and calling it a battle?! Perhaps a small pamphlet , printed in the millions for the mere hundreds who might actually care to have one, the rest into land-fills at the cost of hundreds of thousands? Flashy huge posters for the politicians to stand in front and give speeches of how it is to be Canadian, blah blah, and reading from a script written by the assistant who copied it from Wikipedia...
It will not give us value for money of course, and only if the government would just hand out copies of Pierre Burton's two-part set who wrote some very well writtenchapters on the very topic to those who care, we could save a ton of tax payers money. Of course the government might turn around and spend the savings on the overblown celebrations of the importance of the beaver for our nationhood (no, I will not even contemplate what nonsense the assistant of the assistant deputy minister's sub-committee could come up with for that!) (they probably will google it and come up with porn...but I digress as usual)
For me I will wargame it a little, read some of the efforts of the few to defend their homes, give them a quiet thanks, and enjoy the hobby. See, that did not cost the taxpayers a dime.
rant over
sorry for the inconvenience
DougH