What’s next, Kevlar helmets? The latest sign of America’s worsening dysfunction is ballistic armour for school kids. Send your child to school with a bulletproof backpack so when the rounds start flying, and you know they will, the kid has a chance to take cover in the shelter of her
Continue readingAuthor: The Mound of Sound
The Disaffected Lib: Is America’s Military Edge Slipping?
Imagine a world in which the U.S. and the rest of us could not count on America having the dominant military technology. Put another way, imagine China, not the U.S., having the “latest and greatest” things that go boom. Imagine us being the technological underdogs, vulnerable to a less than
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: You Can’t Begin to Imagine What Your Life Would Be Like If This Happens
A strong warning from the 6th European Conference on Space Debris. The conference, hosted by the European Space Agency, offers scientists an opportunity to gather to assess the state of the problem of junk whirling around in space. What they’re trying to figure out are the odds of a “cascade”
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Decisions, Decisions
The Tyee has me tied up in knots. According to the paper, the BC NDP are poised to mop the floor with Christy Clark and her decidedly-conservative Liberals, ending their twelve year reign of terror. That’s the good news. The bad news from The Tyee comes from their riding by
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Now They’re Coming for the Krill
People of the Pacific northwest know full well that krill are the foundation of our marine food chain. Krill process plankton. Krill feed the fish that feed the fish that feed the fish. We eat the fish that ate the fish that ate the fish that ate the krill. We’re
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Liberals’ Renaissance in Quebec.
Quebec’s federal and provincial Liberals appear to be enjoying something of a renaissance. The Toronto Star’s Chantal Hebert figures the Trudeau Libs now give Mulcair’s New Dems’ Quebec-centric power base a serious challenge. In an ever-expanding forest of positive polls for the Liberals, the latest CROP snapshot of Quebec public
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Society of Ob-Gyns Wants Boys Vaccinated for HPV
Canada’s Society of Obstetricians & Gynecologists has set the cat among the fundamentalist pigeons this time. They want all Canadian provinces to follow Prince Edward Island’s lead and make HPV vaccination available to boys as well as girls. HPV, or human papillomavirus, is generally considered a disease transmitted unknowingly by
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Why Does the F-35 Have Just One Engine? Blame It On Those Damned JarHeads.
A huge limiting factor of the F-35 is that it has just one engine. In a vast, sparsely populated country with extreme weather (yes, that would be Canada), twin-engine reliability is a huge bonus. One engine goes out – from a bird strike or mechanical failure, whatever – and you’ve
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Crunching the F-35 Numbers. It’s Anything You Want.
There’s one thing F-35 pilots won’t be seeing as much as they’d like – the inside of an F-35. Instead they’ll be spending a good deal more time pretending to be inside an F-35, in a simulator inside some cavernous hangar. Now how the balance between actual stick and rudder
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Give Me a Boilin’ Hot Cup of Joe
Ol’ Joe is in the hotseat in the House of Commons today. The New Democrats plan to grill NatResMin Oliver over his remarks smearing leading climate scientist James Hansen. Oliver who is openly inimical to parts of the country, including the entire province of British Columbia, accused the former head
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: English as the Official Language of the European Union?
There’s a move afoot to have English declared the common language of the European Union and it’s a German who is pushing the idea. Here The Guardian gives a pretty clear reason why a common language might be helpful when representatives of the constituent nations sit down to parlay. Money
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Americans Settling In to Reality of Terrorism
The American people might just be getting terrorism fatigue after more than a decade of efforts by their politicians and media to keep them in a heightened state of anxiety. How long can anyone do that and stay sane? What price has already been exacted of them by those who
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: It’s a "No Lose World" Once You Have Captured the Political Process
The Great Recession of 2008 devastated broad swathes of the population of the developed world. Foreclosures, unemployment, insolvency, homelessness, the gamut of economic misery. For most but not for all, not for some. A new report from the Pew Research Center finds that the first two years of the recovery
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: How Do You Like Your Odds?
A decade ago, Britain’s Astronomer Royal, cosmologist Martin Rees, wrote “Our Final Hour, A Scientist’s Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind’s Future In This Century – On Earth and Beyond.” In it he makes compelling arguments that, with bio-terror and bio-error and similar man-made hazards that confront
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Trudeau Wastes No Time in Showing His Hand
If the polls are right and Justin Trudeau’s Liberals manage to reclaim power from the Harper Cons in 2015 all signs are that Canada will continue to be governed on the principle of cynical opportunism. The spinelessness of the Liberals in joining Harper on the undemocratic terrorism amendments and the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Don’t Mess With Texas, It Doesn’t Need Any Help From You
In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings last week, word got out of a horrific explosion at a fertilizer plant in the town of West in Texas. By some accounts the West Fertilizer Company was a disaster waiting to happen, poorly monitored and regulated. Just reading about the disaster
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A Sensible Response to Terrorism
We North Americans are unduly susceptible to acts of terrorism if only because terrorist acts on our doorstep, while dramatic, are infrequent. In the reign of Bush the Junior, an act of terrorism could call down All the King’s Men and All the King’s Horses on the perpetrators, real and
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Sinn Fein’s Sordid Moment
Gerry Adams’ brother, Liam stands in the dock, but it’s Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein that are on trial. Liam is accused of molesting and raping his daughter, Aine. She claims to have been sexually assaulted by her father from 1977, when she was four, until 1983. The greater question
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Japan Threatens Force In Confrontation With China
Eight Chinese government ships have entered disputed waters apparently headed for the Senkaku-Diaoyu islands. Japan has warned that it will “expel by force” any Chinese landing on the islands. The latest clash over the islands came as nearly 170 Japanese lawmakers visited the controversial Yasukuni war shrine in central Tokyo
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Need for Speed, Why Go Anywhere Without It?
When you’re going “state of the art” you always run the risk that the adversaries you have in mind will quickly find the Achilles’ Heel(s) in your latest & greatest technology. It can be a lot easier and infinitely cheaper to find ways to counter a dramatic new technology than
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