Harper, to the extent he thinks at all, thinks regular inspection of bitumen supertankers and a bit more aerial surveillance should put coastal British Columbians’ concerns to rest. Harper curiously doesn’t know that the Hecate Strait is truly biblical. The massive winds that tear at the place can actually part
Continue readingAuthor: The Mound of Sound
The Disaffected Lib: Harper to Unveil West Coast Oil Spill Prevention Programme
The Harper government, or someone on its behalf, will show up in Vancouver today to announce that Ottawa has heard our concerns and has prepared a “world class” oil spill programme to mollify our concerns about a tanker disaster on the west coast. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver and Transport
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Strongarming of Kevin Page
In the thug gallery that passes for a federal government today this shouldn’t surprise anyone, least of all parliamentary budget officer, Kevin Page. On CTV’s Question Period, Page revealed the price he had paid and the intimidation he received from the Harper gang for outing them on the F-35 costs.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Putting a Clear Face on Austerity
The Cypriot people are discovering how austerity politics plays out these days. Like the Irish people before them, and the American public before that, they’re being fleeced to bail out their crooked, money-laundering banks. The European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund have approved a Cypriot
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: That’s One Way to See Rio de Janeiro
Kids, don’t try this at home.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Windfarm Wankers
The source of wind-turbine illness has been tracked down. The source is anti-wind farm campaigners who make people think those windmills are going to make them sick. Let’s call them “windfarm wankers.” It was obvious that there’s nothing inherently sickening about wind farms by the number of communities elsewhere, particularly
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Is It Just Me?
When the photos began coming in of Sarah Palin’s appearance at this year’s CPAC conference, something seemed amiss. Sure five years have passed since Palin was the heartthrob of angry old white dudes backing John McCain’s bid for the presidency. We’ve all gotten a little older and worse for wear
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Ditching Our Malignant Growth Paradigm
Infinite growth on a finite planet is impossible. That is all you need to accept to realize that our growth-based economics are invalid, even harmful and we need to move to a viable, long-term and sustainable economic model. Today this is called “full world” or “steady state” economics and we’re
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A First for Pakistan
For the first time since its founding in 1947, Pakistan has seen a civilian government complete a full term in office. Since Pakistan was founded in 1947, government were often overthrown in coups, toppled by political infighting or end in assassinations or murders. But overhanging the democratic transition is the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Good News – Dead Pigs in the River
One of Shanghai’s main sources of drinking water, the Huang Pu river, has had thousand of dead pigs removed from its waters. Recent reports put the total at 8,300 and climbing. Now it’s being said that the dead pigs may actually be a good sign. There’s speculation that these are
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: It’s Time that Canada Found a New/Old Economy
By the time you’re in your 60s you’ve developed a sense of a certain cadence to life, something like a master Circadien rhythm that regulates life on our planet. Every now and then something happens and mankind skips a quarter or half a beat. That’s what happened in the Great
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Richard Nixon, Traitor to the Republic?
It was 1968. Richard Nixon was squaring off against the Democrat chosen to succeed Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey. Johnson, meanwhile, had brought the leadership of South and North Vietnam to the negotiating table for peace talks that seemed to promise hope for an end to the Vietnam war. Nixon knew
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Our Very Dangerous Political Leadership
You might as well write off the grandkids right now because every day our political leadership is telling you that they already have. That could change. The day might come, probably sooner rather than later if at all, that our political leadership accepts that we can consume just a small
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Why Don’t We Start With the Easy Things First, the Things That Matter.
Sure, we all want rid of the Prince of Darkness, Beelzebub himself, Sideshow Steve Harper. Fair enough, we’re all agreed on that. But why don’t we start with the easy things first? Why don’t we change ourselves, our political parties? That’s easy because our politics are ours, meaning they’re ours
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Jeebus, He’s the New Pope! You Can’t Comp His Room?
Pope Frankie the Humble caught the media’s attention when, after winning the biggest contest in Christendom, he went back to his hotel, collected his bags, and then checked out, stopping to pay the bill himself. What? This guy’s the Pope. He’s Pope Frankie the First. He just became the biggest
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: And That’s Code for – More Chinese Guest Workers
In the fiscally dodgy Athabasca Tar Sands it was really only a matter of time before the call would come to bring in cheap Chinese labour. Still, it’s a little surprising that the opening salvo, complaining about Canadian contractors, should come from a guy associated with Beijing’s newly acquired Nexen
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: High-Carbon Fossil Fuel’s Achilles’ Heel
The Fossil Fuelers’ nightmares lie not so much with environmentalists and regulators as with shareholders and investors. The energy companies are pretty adept at fending off environmentalists and regulators but shareholders and investors pose even greater challenges. Lie to the public, lie to the government and big deal. Wall Street
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Liberal Party Could Use an Elizabeth Warren or Two
If you want to see the face of progressivism, take a look at Elizabeth Warren. If you want to understand what progressivism in the 21st century is about, listen to her. And then ask yourself why we don’t have that sort of leadership. Heavens to Betsy. Sen. Elizabeth Warren leapt
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Asia’s Destabilizing Water Woes
The Asia Pacific region faces enormous freshwater challenges triggered by overpopulation, industrialization, and climate change. What’s coming is bad enough if only Asia wasn’t starting so far in the hole. A report from the Asia Development Bank finds that two-thirds of the region’s huge population already has no clean, piped
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: War Without Heroes
The sort of warfare the West has been waging this century is largely without heroes in the connotation of that word in previous wars. There have been some to be sure. These are mainly infantry soldiers who actually do something incredibly brave and gallant in the midst of combat. We
Continue reading