We like to call ourselves progressives but very little of what we write, what we advocate for, is genuinely progressive. Far too much of it is simply whining, bitching. How many times can we chant, “Stephen Harper is a shit, Stephen Harper is a shit,” before we accept that we’re
Continue readingAuthor: The Mound of Sound
The Disaffected Lib: One More Freaking Day
It has been such a long time coming but tomorrow we will end the arrogant and abusive reign of British Columbia’s corrupt and dishonest provincial government. The cheap hustlers, thieves and fixers collectively known as the British Columbia Liberal Party will be kicked to the curb where they can indulge
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: What? How Did This Get Past the G&M Editors?
This is incredible coming from the pipeline promoting, bitumen boosting Globe & Mail. An urgent appeal to our next provincial government to deal with our environmental challenges. That includes saving our remaining stocks of old growth trees like this giant from the Upper Walbran valley on Vancouver Island. Is
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Let’em Eat Grubs
Think we don’t have a global population problem? Think we’re not exhausting our environment? Well has the U.N. got a grub for you. A new report from the U.N. Food & Agriculture Organization says if the world wants to achieve food security, a lot of people are going to have
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Crap That Comes Out of Peter Kent’s Mouth
Harper EnviroShill, Peter Kent, is one of the sleaziest actors in Ottawa. His latest pitch – we have to get out from under the U.S. dilbit discount – i.e. get those pipelines up and running from the B.C. coast – so that the Athabasca oil barons will be able to
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: How Will Harper Handle Hadfield?
There’s nothing Steve Harper likes better than to bask in the glory of a celebrity. He gets his nose so far up their bums that sometimes you wonder how they’ll ever get away. So, what’s in store for Canada’s latest global phenom, Chris Hadfield? I think Colonel Hadfield presents more
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Canada Has Never Been Cooler. Never, Ever.
It’s a fighter pilot, natch. Did I mention he’s a fighter pilot? What’s with those guys anyway? Oh wait, I remember, they’re Fighter Pilots – the coolest variant of humans ever to exist. Vocals by some guy named Chris Hadfield. Oh wait, that’s right, the Fighter Pilot guy. I’ll be
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Relax, It’s All Recycled Pee Anyway
This Guy Not Only Drank Your Water First, He Made It. London’s Thames Water utility is polling city residents for their views on drinking recycled sewage water. It’s one solution being considered for a looming water shortage facing the British capital. London residents are being asked by the company for
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: On Vancouver Island, Women Still Get a Taste of Frontier Justice
If you’re going to run afoul of the law on Vancouver Island, you had better hope and pray you’re not female. If a man is arrested in Victoria and goes before the court and his case is adjourned for a few days for a bail hearing, he arrives at the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: And the Walls Come Tumbling Down
Another look at the century old and ongoing, lethal aftermath of the way Britain and France carved up the Middle East following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire post WWI. It’s a topic addressed here in several posts, the most recent just yesterday. We’re now witnessing the walls, built by
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: You Know a Guy’s Nuts When…
Let’s say you’ve got a neighbour and your neighbour has a really big bulldozer and your neighbour becomes fond of using that bulldozer late at night to dig seemingly random holes. Chances are that guy’s nuts. Port Angeles, Washington resident Barry Swegle is a logging contractor and, you guessed it,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Is Trauma Counselling Actually Harmful?
It seems standard these days that survivors of traumatic incidents of man-made or natural disaster are quickly whisked into trauma counselling. It seems pretty intuitive – people are traumatized, people get counselling. A report from The Observer claims new studies show counselling can actually worsen mental health outcomes for trauma
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: But Would It Still be "Royal"?
This is what can happen when Conservatives become too full of themselves. Britain’s Conservative government is openly talking about privatizing the Royal Mail, a crown corporation, and not just going private with it but selling it to offshore buyers. [Britain’s business minister, Michael] Fallon said the government would sell Royal
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Climate Sensitivity in a Nutshell
There’s a very useful, and usefully concise, primer on climate sensitivity in The Guardian. It runs through the major ambiguities, probabilities and mere possibilities and deserves a quick read. To pique your interest, here are the final three paragraphs. So far we’re about 40% of the way to doubling atmospheric
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: On the Cusp of Mankind’s Century of Mass Migration
There’s nothing magical in reaching a record 400 ppm concentration of atmospheric CO2 but it’s not symbolic either. It’s a benchmark of how far we’ve come and where we’re headed. It allows us to examine the changes in our environment, to our biosphere, for example that have occurred since we
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Truer Words – Governments Hide in Silence
Today’s Times Colonist editorial goes straight to the heart of the darkness that lurks within the Harper government. A group of professors at the University of Victoria has asked the federal information commissioner to investigate the muzzling of government scientists. The university’s Environmental Law Centre is concerned that experts employed
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Who Cut Duffy Slack and Why?
A more than curious omission in just one of the Senate standing committee reports on Senators Mac Harb, Patrick Brazeau and Mike Duffy and their housing expense claims. What distinguishes these three? Well, Harb and Brazeau claimed expenses for residences that were actually within the provinces they were appointed to
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Bill Maher Gets Taken to the Mat on Islamophobia
On Bill Maher’s RealTime show last night, journalist Glenn Greenwald stood up to Maher on Muslims, Islam, and American foreign policy. It’s a long clip. Greenwald’s retort comes in around the 7-minute mark.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Monbiot – You Can’t Win on Climate Change Without First Vanquishing Plutocracy
Guardian enviro-scribe, George Monbiot, took the arrival of a recrod, 400 ppm concentration of atmospheric CO2 to deliver a few thoughts on our losing battle against climate change and what really stands in the way of our hope for progress. “The data go back 800,000 years: that’s the age of
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Aerial Castro’s Hard Case
It’s an old legal adage that, “hard cases make bad law.” What it means is that when law is made in response to monstrous crimes, the sort that truly shock the public conscience, it can often result in inappropriate and unintended consequences for ordinary or lesser crimes. In some circumstances
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