With Harper and his band of geniuses running around the UN this, it’s actually been kind of interesting. As I pointed out back in May, Harper’s foreign policy has served primarily to isolate Canada on the world stage, and continue the far-right narrative about the “irrelevance” of the United Nations.
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The Cracked Crystal Ball II: NY Times On Harper’s Abuse Of Science
Over at Huffington Post, someone noticed that the New York Times spent some significant column space raking Harper over the coals for how he has abused Canada’s science community. I have talked about the consequences of Harper’s micromanaging of science before on this blog (here, here, and here … for
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Legalize It, Control It
One of the most devastating problems that our society faces is that of addiction. Whether that is to tobacco, alcohol or narcotics – any substance addiction can have long term consequences for the addict, those around them and society at large. Smoking is known to cause cancers, alcoholics can destroy
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Analyzing The Manning Centre Report "City Council Vote Tracking"
The Manning Centre released a report this week, "Growing the Democratic Toolbox: City Council Vote Tracking". The first thing about this that I find interesting is that this appears to be a sign that the Manning Centre is going to start positioning itself in a manner similar to the Fraser
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Remember Harper Muzzling Scientists? He’s Doing It To Veterans Too
Under the Harper Government, we have been fed enormous amounts of propaganda pablum in the name of “Support the War in Afghanistan Troops”. The “highway of heroes” when our troops were being returned in pine boxes on a weekly basis; goodness knows how many photo-ops of Harper and Mackay on
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Let The Astroturfing Begin
It seems that the astroturfing of Calgary has begun, with the Manning Centre sitting right behind it. Common Sense Calgary has been launched using funds from the Manning Centre. Started with $10,000 in seed money from the Manning Centre, content for the website is being provided by the Manning Foundation.
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Harper, The UN and Aboriginal Issues
Once again, we find The Harper Government (which, I am more and more convinced is not a Canadian government), squabbling over the UN’s initiatives to review Canada’s treatment of our Aboriginal population. Countries have their rights records reviewed every four years by the Geneva-based UN forum, but the Harper government has
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Slates In Calgary Municipal Elections
While Calgary’s municipal elections are ostensibly “non-partisan”, in so far as we don’t have the various political parties directly involved, it is naive to think that we don’t have slates of candidates backed by interest groups of one sort or another. In the last several elections, we have had what
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Corcoran Misses The Point On Income Disparity
On CBC’s “The House” this weekend, I heard an interview with the Financial Post’s Terrance Corcoran, in which he was basically poo-pooing the very real issue of the growing disparity between Canada’s top earners and the rest of Canadians. He made a comparison between a pensioner pulling in $20,000 a
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Mulcair’s Beard Is Not The Point
There are days that I am positive that the “image consultants” who hover around our political leaders don’t have a clue what they are talking about. Today, we find the discussion of the week is whether or not Mulcair should shave off his beard. But media consultant Barry McLoughlin told HuffPost that
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Watch As Our Prison Costs Go Up
Travis Baumgartner was sentenced today. He was sentenced to the equivalent of “40 years to life” for a bloody robbery that left three dead. Previously, the standard sentence that Baumgartner would have received was “25 to life”. That was until the Harper Government passed a law which changed the sentencing
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Think I’m Joking About Corporate Feudalism?
Perhaps you think that I’m being somewhat Pollyanna about the issue of corporate feudalism and its rise in both Canada and the US. I’m not kidding. This is possibly the most serious issue facing Canadian workers in the last 100 years. Just as the Temporary Foreign Worker program has served
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: The PQ’s "Charter of Quebec Values"
Lately, there has been much of an uproar made over the PQ’s “Charter of Quebec Values” in the news. Frankly, the entire thing strikes me as a ridiculous bit of pot-stirring on the part of the Marois-led PQ government. The proposed Charter imposes a set of arbitrary limitations on religious
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Canada’s Far Right Next Attack On Nenshi
It’s no big secret that the Conservative power base in Calgary was profoundly pissed off when Naheed Nenshi won the Mayoral race in 2010. The amount of vitriol seen in the Sun’s pages after election day was astonishing, and since then, they have taken every opportunity to snipe at Nenshi.
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Creating Hierarchies of Rights
Recently, we have had a series of stories where there have been arguments put forth that there should be “exemptions” in non-discrimination laws for religious beliefs. Yesterday’s column by Licia Corbella in the Calgary Herald positively oozed with a smug sense of religious entitlement, and attempted to hold atheists responsible
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Ms. Corbella Argues That Atheists Are Bad People
In her column in today’s Calgary Herald, Licia Corbella gets on her high horse about atheists. The title of her column is ridiculous enough: “Will Atheism Be Held To Account Like Other Creeds?” Well, hallelujah, praise the Lord! At long last, atheism is being declared a creed and is endowed
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: A Case Against Invading Syria
With the UK and the United States arguing that it’s time to take action against Syria, it seems a good time to consider the consequences of such involvement from the NATO powers. On general principles, I do not believe that there is a particularly strong case for any of the
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: RoboCalls Scandal – It’s Still Alive
For those who had lost track of the Robocalls fraud perpetrated by the Harper Conservatives during the 2011 election, it hasn’t gone away. Harper has done an enormous amount of work to bury this case. Not only have they fought the allegations tooth and nail, they have hobbled the ability
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: On Keystone XL … Why?
I’ve generally stayed quiet on the subject of Keystone XL. Not because I don’t have opinions about the pipeline, or questions about it, but because the entire proposition has struck me as rather ridiculous from the outset. Think about it for a moment. Here we are, investing billions of dollars
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Apparently Ms. Landolt Doesn’t Read Her Own Words
Over at LifeSite News, we find REAL Women Canada’s Gwen Landolt trying to backtrack on what she said so publicly last week. The pro-family, pro-life conservative organization REAL Women of Canada is calling a CBC report “absolutely not” accurate that quoted president Gwen Landolt as if she tacitly approved Uganda’s
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