The U.S. National Drought Mitigation Center, in conjunction with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is predicting that the devastating drought now sweeping most of the American bread basket will persist throughout the remainder of the summer. The drought is expected to hang on in the Midwest and expand into
Continue readingAuthor: The Mound of Sound
The Disaffected Lib: Because Helping Canadians Stay Healthy is No Business of the Minister of Health
Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq seems strangely disinterested in keeping Canadians healthy. She has rejected the advice of her own advisory panel of food experts to renew monitoring of trans-fat levels in processed food. Food experts informed the minister that monitoring trans-fat levels would be a net benefit to Canadian society
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Giant Chip on Our Shoulder, The One You Supposedly Can’t See
I wonder what the Chinese and the Russians must be making of our current obsession with stealth warplanes? My guess is that they view our focus on stealth as a terrific strategic advantage – for themselves. Here’s what I’m thinking they’re thinking. 1. They know the F-35 is insanely expensive
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Zimmerman Blames God for Shooting Trayvon Martin
Hell, he was only fulfilling “God’s plan” when he shot and killed Trayvon Martin. And, because it was God’s will, what’s not to like?
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: IMF Calls Bullshit on Brit Tory Austerity Farce
David Cameron’s boneheaded austerity fetish isn’t working. Even the International Monetary Fund, the IMF, says that much is plain. The Guardian’s Jonathan Portes has this take on the IMF report. A non-technical summary of Thursday’s International Monetary Fund report on the UK economy would be that we are up the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A Brit Rallies Support for Canadian Science
Harper’s war on science is the subject of an op-ed piece in today’s Guardian calling for international support for Canadian scientists and warning Harper’s funding cuts could have global impacts. [Protesting Canadian scientists] were sticking up for the right to ask difficult questions and provide uncomfortable knowledge, in particular when
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Not Now, Not Yet
Canada’s military brass seem intent on blundering their way, make that their soldiers’ way, back into combat without first explaining what went so wrong with their performance in Afghanistan. Make no mistake about this. The miserable performance we achieved in Kandahar wasn’t the fault of the rank and file troops
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: US Report Says as Much About Harper as Enbridge
The American Transportation Safety Board report that slammed Enbridge over the 2010 Kalamazoo River bitumen spill disaster in Michigan actually tells us as much about Harper and his EnviroShill Peter Kent as it does about Enbridge’s miserable lack of fitness as a pipeline operator. Kent has come to the defence of
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Will Generation X Face Revolt?
If Generation X, the class of ’61 to ’81, is truly disengaged, disinterested, disbelieving of global warming and its impacts, what does that hold for the future? As the Boomers retire and fade in both economic and political influence, it is the X’ers who inherit the reins of power or
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: About that Dry Spell
Last week it was the worst drought since the 80’s. Now it’s deemed the worst drought since 1956. And, with at least two more weeks of hot, dry conditions forecast for America’s west and mid-west, it’s expected to impact upwards of 80% of the continental United States. Corn prices were
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Inherit the Earth
Generation X may be squarely in the crosshairs of global warming but a great many of them just don’t care. A survey conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research found just 5% of American Gen X’ers, born 1961 to 1981, claimed to be “alarmed” over global warming.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Coastal Chaos
Living on coastal B.C. we get used to seeing a lot of marine life. But this video, recorded in Hyacinthe Bay on Quadra Island, is breathtaking. Watch a pod of transient orcas hunt a large school of white side dolphin.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Harper Moves to Reinstate Fear & Helplessness For Terminally Ill Canadians
That sounds like hyperbole. It’s not. The Harper government is appealing a B.C. Supreme Court decision upholding the right of the terminally ill to physician-assisted suicide. Harper wants to restore dreadful fear and hopelessness to the dying. What’s really at stake is not about death, not really. It is about
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Canadian Farmers Hard Hit by Climate Change
Farmers in far more than half of the United States are now busily filling out forms for emergency drought relief. This year’s corn crop is said to be particularly devastated, sending prices up some 30%. But it’s not just America’s bread basket that’s being hit by early-stage climate change impacts.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Time to Give the Armed Forces a Reality Check
It’s time to hit the “reset” button on Canada’s military, or at least its top ranks. That much was plain from reading the jingoistic remarks of General Walt Natynczyk from a Canadian Press interview. While I won’t quote broadly from the interview it’s apparent that Natynczyk feels he’s presiding over
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: In Our Allies’ Eyes, Canada Failed in Kandahar
For many years I have argued that Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan were betrayed by dismal political and military leadership in Ottawa and a mass media too inept to recognize the chronic failures at the top. According to the CBC’s Brian Stewart, others, outside Canada, held the same opinions. Increasingly, foreign
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Britain’s Conservative Deluge
Conservatives have become a one-trick pony. They’re all about austerity; code for cutting spending and lowering taxes (for some). And Conservatives are very, very good at distancing their austerity campaigns from the usually undesirable consequences that result. Britain’s Cameron Conservative government has been gung-ho on austerity, especially austerity for the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Canada’s First Failed War
The generals who conned our political leaders into signing on to an unwinnable war talk of “success” in Afghanistan but they’re blowing smoke, trying to cover the stench of the defeat they and their fellow generals engineered. The story of our collective Western failure in Afghanistan is neatly told by an Afghan
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Dutch Bail on F-35
It was close – 77 to 71 – but it was enough for the Dutch parliament to cancel their planned purchase of 80 F-35 stealth light attack bombers. Lockheed is trying to put the best face on the setback, saying the Dutch could always change their minds – and votes
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Unlike Sarah Palin, I Really Can See Russia From My Backyard
Well I can see something of Russia anyway. I can see smoke from Russian wildfires creating a haze over local mountains. At first I thought it was just water vapour from our recent warm spell but, no, it’s smoke carried by high altitude wind currents across the Pacific. While I’ve
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