Each day, Google serves me a banquet of the latest news stories from around the world on selected topics including climate change, drought and floods. It’s an amazing service that helps one stay atop developments in areas of interest. They’re only news reports and, therefore, subject to all the vagaries
Continue readingAuthor: The Mound of Sound
The Disaffected Lib: We Can’t Go On Meeting Like This
From The Guardian, video of what a lot of Chinese are enduring these days.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: You Might Not Like It, But I Think They Nailed It.
The Stones, “Doom and Gloom”, from GRRR (volume up, full screen)
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Is Harper Begging for Trouble?
A nagging worry I’ve had about the plans to ramp up supertanker traffic through Vancouver’s inner harbour and Kitimat and the Douglas Channel is their extraordinary vulnerability to sabotage or terrorism. It wouldn’t take much to block the Second Narrows or Lions Gate and it probably wouldn’t take much more
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Liberals Infiltrating the Tea Party?
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell is in trouble. Kentucky Tea Party activists want him out and could spoil his re-election bid. That’s got McConnell lashing out, claiming his opponents have been infiltrated by, gasp, Liberals. In a campaign fund-raising email Monday, McConnell’s campaign manager, Jesse Benton, said every conservative in
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Mali, Chuck Hagel’s Cautionary Tale
If Chuck Hagel does become America’s next Defense Secretary he plans to steer clear of entanglement in the war against Islamist insurgents in the Sahara. In prepared questions to the Senate Armed Services Committee ahead of his Thursday morning confirmation hearing, the former Nebraska Republican senator said he’d back the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: What Can You Build in Canada in 90 Days?
A Chinese company has announced plans to build the world’s tallest building which, of itself, would be an enormous achievement. But, from start to finish, they claim it will take just 90 days.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: You Know You’re In Trouble When
An enterprising, multi-millionaire starts selling clean air in soft drink cans. Chen Guangbiao, whose wealth is estimated at $740 million according to the Hurun Report, sells his cans of air for five yuan (A75¢) each. It comes with atmospheric flavours including pristine Tibet, post-industrial Taiwan and revolutionary Yan’an, the Communist
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Sure, Okay, Now Do It In a Supertanker
Garret McNamara is believed to have become the first surfer to ride a 100-foot (30m) wave. Pretty big wave. But they also record 30 m. waves in the Hecate Strait, the very place Steve Harper wants opened to bitumen supertanker traffic. Maybe Canadians can look forward to a world record
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Oradour Re-Opened
On 10 June, 1944, troops of the 2nd SS Panzer Division, Das Reich, descended on the tiny French village of Oradour sur Glane. Women and children were herded into the church where they died under a barrage of hand grenades before the soldiers set it on fire. The men were
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Congratulations – You’re Richer than Zimbabwe
Yes, indeed, if you have more than $217 in your bank account, that makes you richer than the government of Zimbabwe, or at least you were last week. Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Tendai Biti has said that the country only had $217 (£138) left in its public account last week after
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Harper’s Priorities for 2103 – Environment Missing, Believed Dead
Steve Harper’s priorities for 2013, announced in a “rousing” speech to his caucus, are families, safety, pride and financial security. “Hear me on this, my friends,” the prime minister told fellow MPs. “For you, for me, for all of us – the economy remains job one.” “This spring, we must
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Elizabeth May on Canada’s Emperor Constantine
In the latest Island Tides, Green Party leader Elizabeth May draws a piercing comparison of Roman emperor Constantine and our emperor, Stephen Harper. It may seem a strange parallel, but what Stephen Harper isdoing to Canada reminds me of what Roman EmperorConstantine did with Christianity. He took a clandestine andillegal
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Kinder Morgan’s Bold Play
Kinder Morgan has dropped a bomb. The bitumen pipeline trafficker wants to triple its existing pipeline capacity. From Island Tides: Citing ‘additional customer support’, KinderMorgan recently announced that it intends toincrease the capacity of its proposed new ‘twin’oil pipeline from Edmonton to Burnaby. The current capacity of the existing TransMountain pipeline
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Could a Drone Cop Become Obama’s Biggest Nightmare?
He’s Ben Emmerson, a 49-year old British lawyer and U.N. special rapporteur for human rights and counter-terrorism in which capacity he’s embarking on a 5-month enquiry into drone warfare. That could spell problems for the leaders of the one country active in worldwide drone attacks, the United States. Accountability, Emmerson
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Schrumpf Effect or Why Soldiers Can Learn to Enjoy Killing
An article in Scientific American reveals that at least some soldiers actually enjoy killing, particularly when they’re not at much risk of being killed themselves. The article recalls one, “Sgt. Eric Schrumpf, a Marine sharpshooter, saying, “We had a great day. We killed a lot of people.” Noting that his
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: They Are Not Of Us
An interesting essay from George Monbiot today on the grooming of oligarchs and why, even though they govern in our name, they don’t rule on our behalf. They rule as they were born and raised to rule. An excerpt. In the Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt explains that the nobles
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The South Will Rise Again and No Good Will Come Of It
The American south is often seen as the white trashiest place on the planet. Even American comedians mock it as the home of rednecks, racists and rectums. Canadians tend to have little knowledge of the Deep South although we may know a good deal about the United States generally. For
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Of African Jews, Birth Control and Israel
With Israel under a spotlight, the director of its Ministry of Health has issued an order that gynaecologists should not inject women with the contraceptive Depo-Provera without their knowledge or consent. Of course no woman should be given IV contraceptives, or any other drug, without her knowledge or consent but,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: GOP Won’t Bend on Climage Change
Congressional Republicans see climate change as a minefield for the Democrats. “People want jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Um, should I say it again? Jobs,” one Republican said. “Far too many more-important issues. Republicans should be happy if Democrats go out on a limb on global warming … and saw it off,”
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