No substantive post today. I’m in the middle of writing up a series of posts on military procurement which should be fairly interesting (predicting what I think will be the next, bigger scandal after the F-35), and I think I’ve said all that needs to be said with respect to
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The Sixth Estate: Theresa Spence, the Tibetan Monks, and Canada’s Hypocrisy
I was disappointed, but not entirely surprised to read this weekend that the Globe & Mail has officially joined Postmedia’s Christie Blatchford in denouncing the ongoing hunger strike in Ottawa by Attawapiskat chief Theresa Spence as an act not just of protest but of violence against the lawful order of
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Hunger Strikes are Terrorism and Other Racist Bullshit: A Brief Primer on Aboriginal Affairs in Canada
There’s nothing like some Injuns getting uppity and demanding political rights, etc., to draw out the kooky, paranoid racism from their fellow Canadians, including those who write about politics for a living. To wit, I give you Postmedia’s version of General George Custer, Christie Blatchford: Already, there is much talk
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Government of Canada Officially Recognizes Divinity of Christ
Every December, the government of Canada has two main functions. First, they spend an as-yet-unknown amount of taxpayer dollars granting a CF-18 fighter escort to Santa Claus, just in case some Al Qaeda sympathizers are lurking in the Barren Grounds with Stinger missiles. (A couple of years ago, Minister Jason
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Sixth Estate’s Christmas Message: There is No Santa Claus, And People Are Starving.
It’s Christmas time, and even Margaret Wente was feeling unusually charitable in Saturday’s column (and pretty much plagiarism free, for the time being). So if you’re hoping to get your regular dose of venom and bile from the chattering classes, you’ll have to settle for me. I’d like to juxtapose
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Religious Explanations Don’t Help Explain Tragedies. Or Crimes.
Sooner or later, after any incident in which a large number of people die, a preacher who thinks he has some sort of grand insight into human nature advances something like the following claim: evil events are happening because liberals have turned their backs on God. Sometimes God is the
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Postmedia Goes Fact-Free on F-35 Fighter
Once one has been a blogger for even a little while, one learns to develop a pretty thick skin when it comes to blasé incompetence from our paid professional betters. You see, the difference is that blogs are peer-reviewed. Commenters and other bloggers jump on us when we make an
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: DND Quietly Increases Sustainment and Operating Costs by $330 Million/Year in New F-35 Report
In my last post, I estimated that under Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s controversial new plan, the total cost of the F-35 Lightning fighter comes out to around $127,000 per hour. We’re kind of back in medieval territory here, where several lowly peons must labour for an entire year just to
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Media Still Missing Real Story: Thanks to Peter MacKay’s Fudged Numbers, “Official” Cost of F-35s Now Exceeds $127,000 Per Flight-Hour
I have to say, it’s pretty depressing that not one of the many, many professional journalists in Canada is literate enough to read a government report. To their credit, some are trying. But they also had a whole press briefing slash lock-up slash sleazy play-time with the people they’re supposed
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: New F-35 Numbers Based on 40% Cut in F-35 Flight Hours, Still Hiding Billions of Dollars
I was almost tempted to let the matter rest, but then DND said this: In 2010, the Department calculated that… the estimated cost for acquiring, sustaining and operating the [F-35] fleet… was $25.1 billion. Ha! Here’s what their website says DND’s original public estimate was: the total estimated cost and
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Harper Doublespeak Leaves Door Open for More Acquisitions by Foreign Dictatorships
Well, try that on for size. Let me be clear, says Stephen Harper: “Canadians have not spent years reducing the ownership of sectors of the economy by our own governments, only to see them bought and controlled by foreign governments instead. It is not an outcome any responsible government of Canada
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Expensive Government Study Confirms Sixth Estate’s F-35 Cost Estimate
You read it here first, on Sixth Estate: the F-35 jet fighter will cost $48.7 billion. Well, almost, anyways. The government spent a great deal more than Sixth Estate earns from this blog (presently zilch) getting a world-class accounting firm to estimate the cost for them. It turns out that
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Canada’s Oil Sands Run Red
You probably don’t need me to tell you that selling a controlling stake in this country’s largest energy resource to a foreign dictatorship is not really a good plan. We don’t even trust our own government with that kind of thing. I honestly thought we had a chance on this
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: CBC’s Science Illiteracy Fuels Downplaying of Climate Change
The Conservative Broadcasting Corporation has just published a howler of an article which appears to be basically an uncritical reprint of some pro-industry schmozzling intended to suggest that climate change is a relatively minor problem easily solved with some minor biotech tweaks. The author for this piece of trash is
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: BC Government Says It “Forgot” Documentation It Previously Claimed Didn’t Exist
The media has been breathlessly reporting the latest news from Quebec’s corruption commission as though there’s something unusually rotten in that province. I have to wonder, though. Every province should have such a commission. It’s a fairly safe bet that these sorts of shenanigans are bilingual. The most recent indication of this comes from Lotus […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: New Elections Canada Warrants Reveal Vote Suppression Operation in Additional Ridings
The Council of Canadians has posted a new series of documents in relation to their robocall litigation. As you can see, they are attempting to get an affidavit from an Elections Canada investigator, and Elections Canada is attempting to avoid this. More intriguingly, though, another couple of warrants have been released in the process. That’s […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Elections Canada Finally Investigates Election Fraud Allegations — And So Does Sixth Estate
Some new life was breathed into the investigation of election fraud in 2011 today when Elections Canada investigators filed court documents requesting that various phone companies reveal call records of complainants in more than 50 ridings across the country, which may be used to identify the source of a number of harassment and misdirection calls […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: National Post’s Anti-Science Piffle Worsens
Unlike the Globe & Mail, which claims that science is legitimate but that it has no really significant implications (regarding climate change, for instance), the National Post claims that science isn’t really legitimate at all. They even have an annual Junk Science Week devoted to the promotion of fringe scientific hypotheses, like radiation hormesis and […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Asymmetric Justice: Outside Contractor Becomes Fall Guy in Conservative Bogus Polling Scheme
Last year, as you may recall, the Conservative Party was caught bombarding residents of a Montreal riding with a misleading “poll” implying that their Liberal MP, Irwin Cotler, was resigning and that there would shortly be a by-election. The Conservatives soon admitted their guilt, but preposterously claimed that any criticism of this campaign would constitute […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Conservatives Establish House Un-Canadian Affairs Committee
From the Venerable Kady:
A Conservative-backed campaign to haul Liberal leadership contender Justin Trudeau and now former natural resources critic David McGuinty before the natural resources committee to explain their headline-making comments on Alber…