“Trust Us.” That’s the theme behind Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline PR campaign. The company is desperate to get the public convinced they’re trustworthy. They’re pros, they know what they’re doing, they can handle any pipeline problems that come their way. Bollocks. At some point Enbridge is going to have to
Continue readingAuthor: The Mound of Sound
The Disaffected Lib: HELP, We’re Trapped Beneath a Dead Prime Minister and We Can’t Get Up
Sometimes it can feel like Stephen Harper is a giant dead body that’s fallen on top of Canada. He’s not really dead but you can look at him a good long time and not spot any signs of life either. And that’s a technique he’s brought to the prime minister’s
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Boiling Frogs
Ours will not be the first civilization to foresee its own demise yet do nothing to prevent it. It’s sometimes called the “boiling frog” syndrome. Place a frog in a pot of hot water and it will leap straight back out. Put it in a pot of cold water atop
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Would You Like Fries With That?
Steve Harper really should find a way to globally franchise Steve Harper. The world’s woes, claims Harper, would be solved if only other nations could be just like Harperland, er Canada. Because Canada has been blessed with the vision of Steve Harper – reforming immigration (allowing Big Oil to use
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Loaded Dice of Climate Change
Trying to attribute specific weather events to global warming is impossible. Long before man got the notion to industrialize there were hurricanes and tornadoes, droughts and floods. They happened before, it’s to be expected they’ll continue to happen. But where do we see the face of global warming? It’s there,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Don’t Get Uppity. Remember Your Place.
These are hard times for the honest man and they may get a lot harder yet. There’s a societal sort of continental drift underway. Our once cohesive, strong society is ever so slowly but nonetheless steadily being divided, separating. This is apparent, in part, from the growing gap between rich
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Proof of the Pudding
Americans are catching on to the concept of anthropogenic global warming, finally. That’s mainly because from the Colorado wildfires to the sustained drought across the southwest to the flooding of the midwest and the extended heatwave of the eastern seaboard to “pre-season” tornadoes, they’re up to their eyeballs in climate
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Is Syria Cold War II’s First Proxy War?
Another sign that we may have entered a new Cold War is the alignment of major powers behind rival forces in Syria. The Russians and Chinese tentatively back Assad. The Americans and their minions (that includes us) oppose Assad and demand his ouster. And, according to Asia Times, our side
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Welcome to the New Planet Earth
A lot of Americans will be spending this 4th of July indoors, at home. At least those who still have electricity and air conditioning perhaps. Reuters reports that scorching heat and extreme dry conditions are causing plenty of cities and towns across the U.S. to cancel 4th of July fireworks
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: God Damn, But He Might Be Right
It might not be just the climate that’s at risk this century. We might be on the brink of a much larger sea change sweeping through our political, economic and social structures. Democracy, which after all is political egalitarianism, may be on its way out. The United States, with its
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: 200 Year Old Triumphalism a Bit Stale
Stephen Harper obviously likes wars. His type, the kind who are never actually around for the killing and the dying, often do. Perhaps because he so royally screwed up his own war, the one he made his own, Canada’s war in Afghanistan, Steve is so desperate for some, any measure
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: We Need To Resist the Lure of American Exceptionalism
American exceptionalism is an intriguing, occasionally lethal, notion. Americans, it seems, are brought up to believe the United States is exceptional, the best, “number one.” From Main Street to Pennsylvania Avenue there’s this rich messianic broth that sets Americans apart, above all others. But what is American exceptionalism absent a
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Let’s Not Get Backed Into Another Cold War
Nobody wants to talk much about it but the Harper/MacKay pinwheels seem intent on signing Canada on to America’s next Cold War, this one in Asia. Already announced by Obama/Panetta, America’s military posture has pivoted away from the Middle East into the direction of Asia. The Pentagon is already conducting
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Farewell, Voyager
It’s been hurtling through space since May 5th, 1977. Now, almost 35-years later, NASA’s Voyager 1, has made it through our solar system. Voyager completed its intended mission 30 years ago but somehow it just kept working, measuring and recording and relaying its data back to earth. And it’s still
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: If It Looks Like a Duck and Quacks Like a Duck, It’s Probably Global Warming
You may have heard about the waves of wildfires sweeping across Colorado for the past several weeks that continue to rage with no end in sight. Welcome to the new era, the era of Global Warming. “‘What we’re seeing is a window into what global warming really looks like,” said
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A World of "More"
I know there are many good, thoughtful, well-intentioned, intelligent, generous. honourable, even noble Americans. I also know there are not nearly enough of them. They don’t hold sway in their homeland which is genuinely, deeply unfortunate for America and for the rest of the world. America is the linchpin that
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Our Cowardly Governor-General
Ex G.G. Michaelle Jean agreed to prorogue Parliament in December, 2008 apparently because she was intimidated by our thug prime minister, Stephen Harper, and feared that the Tory slime machine would subvert Canadian democracy if she refused. Constitutional scholar Peter Russell told OntarioNewsWatch.com this week that weighing on Ms. Jean’s mind
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Define "Adapt"
ExxonMobil CEO Ralph Tillerson has a comforting message on climate change – don’t worry, be happy – we’ll adapt. Tillerson acknowledged that burning of fossil fuels is warming the planet, but said society will be able to adapt. The risks of oil and gas drilling are well understood and can
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: FOX News Bundled With Rupert’s Sitcoms
Rupert Murdoch is restructuring his media empire. There’ll be two divisions, publishing and entertainment. The publishing arm will control Murdoch’s book and newspaper holdings – the information stuff. The Old Fart’s pay-TV, movie and other broadcast interests will be hived off to his entertainment division. Guess where Rupe’s all sitcom
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