This time it happened in Webster, New York. Volunteer firefighters responding to a house fire were ambushed. Two of the firefighters were shot and killed. Gunman later found dead, apparent suicide.
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The Disaffected Lib: Arms Race Update – Christmas Edition – China Rising
It’s hard to know just how much America spends on its military but it is certainly upwards of $700-billion annually. It’s even tougher figuring out just how much the second-biggest spender, China, is pumping into its military. The Chinese claim it’s about $100-billion, others peg it at $160-billion, it could
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Meanwhile, Just Below the Surface, Canadian Discontent Builds
Canadians are quietly simmering. A poll finds a majority of Canadians now support grassroots protests as a vehicle to force political action. The majority of respondents said they supported grassroots protests, including the Occupy movement and the British Columbia referendum against the harmonized sales tax. People are looking at other
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Mister Wizard Is a Dick
Holiday funnies from Mister Wizard – unless you’re the kid
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Sure, But It’s All That Keeps the Bats From Escaping
Federal Court judge Luc Martineau isn’t impressed by Harper Public Safety and Family Values minister Vic Toews. The judge has given Toews 45 days to accept the transfer back to this country of a Canadian currently held in a U.S. prison. The judge found that Toews resistance to the transfer
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: NRA Booted From Pillar to Post
National Rifle Association boss Wayne LaPierre has sparked a backlash of anger and ridicule at his suggestion that the solution to schoolhouse tragedies like Sandy Hook is more guns at schools. The response was forthright from editors and opinion writers. “CRAZIEST MAN ON EARTH” was the New York Daily News’
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: John Baird’s Black and White World
Harper ForMin John Baird doesn’t like ambiguity. When it comes to foreign affairs he views the world as black or white. No time for trifling shades of grey. You’re either a good country or a bad country and nothing in between. In a wide-ranging end-of-year interview with Postmedia News on
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Steve Harper and that Vision Thing
The most myopic prime minister perhaps in all of Canadian history, Stephen Harper, may have diagnosed his own affliction. Shortsighted Steve, asked how his evangelist faith affects his decision-making, replied that he prays a lot “to ask for strength and vision.” Judging by how the self-proclaimed professional economist totally failed
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Massive Millstone Round America’s Neck
Fanaticism dooms Americans. As a people, Americans hold and are held captive by fanatical, irrational beliefs. The most terrible of these is the common conviction that their Constitution is sacrosanct. The Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland argues that tragedies like the Sandy Hook shootings lie squarely at the feet of Americans’
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: When Beijing Comes Calling
The people of Morococha situated on a Peruvian hill called Toromocho aren’t much to speak of. Morococha is a shanty town for its 5,000 inhabitants or at least it was until Chinalco, the Aluminum Corporation of China, got a 35-year deal to mine the hell out of their mountain. Chinalco,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: America’s War on Basra and Fallujah Grinds On
And you thought America’s war on Iraq was over. Remember Basra? Remember Fallujah? They were two Iraqi cities that endured extensive fighting when American and Coalition forces moved in. The guns fell silent years ago but the casualties continue to mount only now, instead of shrapnel wounds, the killers are
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The GunNutz’ Response to Newtown? Turn America into a War Zone.
American gunnutz are slowly responding to the Newtown massacre and, predictably, their solution is to transform the United States into an Israeli-style War Zone. Yes, if only your kids can grow up knowing that their survival depends on teacher’s automatic assault rifle. Jesus Christ on a crutch!
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A World Mad for Coal
There’s a big bright future ahead for coal and we’ll pay dearly for it. The International Energy Agency warns that, within five years, coal will rival oil as the fossil fuel energy source of choice. Coal consumption is increasing all over the world – even in countries and regions with
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Garrison Keillor’s Christmas Letter
Ah, yes. That time of year has arrived again. We have decked the halls and wrapped the presents. The shortbread lures us to the kitchen. And, as in years past, here again is Garrison Keillor’s Christmas Letter. Merry Christmas! “I love reading Christmas newsletters in which the writer bursts the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Is Canadian Progressivism a Farce?
The topic came up recently in a discussion I had with a prolific and thoroughly progressive blogger who will go unnamed. He lamented that he had become fed up with Canadian prog bloggers who seemed not terribly interested in progressivism at all and, by contrast, far less interesting than their
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Our Plastic Oceans
A museum in Berlin is introducing Germans to a massive and growing problem, the sea of plastic forming in the world’s oceans. Here are a few photos from der Spiegel Hawaii Thailand Brazil At Sea Berlin Museum Exhibit
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: It’s Over for Assad’s Syria
It’s over for Syrian president Assad. His key backer, Russia, has thrown in the towel. The Russian defence ministry has announced it has sent warships to the eastern Mediterranean apparently to facilitate the evacuation of Russian nationals from Syria. A flotilla of five ships – a destroyer, a tugboat, a
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Utah 6th Grader Takes Gun to School for "Self Defence"
Madness
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Killing Off Old King Coal While There’s Still Time
If we’re to avoid runaway global warming, we have to get carbon emissions down into the mid to low-40s by 2020. At the moment we’re at 52 and trending upwards. That is 52 gigatonnes, 52 billion metric tonnes of CO2 emissions annually. That’s where we’re at this year.A new report
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The People’s Republic of Athabasca?
Figuring out what’s going on and what lies ahead for Old Beelzebub and his cherished Tar Sands is like casting bones and reading entrails.For months there have been warnings that the Tar Sands were in trouble for a variety of reasons but especially because of the shale oil and gas
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