What a curious ruler we have in Steve Harper. The guy readily embraces religious superstition but recoils from knowledge, preferring at every turn to run with his gut instincts. The papers are full of it these days. He’s cutting funding for science, just about everywhere. He’s hobbling environmental research, fisheries
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The Disaffected Lib: Tory Support Dips, Prince of Darkness Still Riding High
Support for the Harper Conservatives has fallen, a few points, to 34% but amazingly but old Beelzebub hisself is still riding high at 42% even after the robocall scandal and the F-35 fiasco. Okay, I have a hard time believing in God or Heaven. Why then do I have
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: How Much of Canada Could BC Power?
British authorities are meeting with their Icelandic counterparts to consider powering the UK with geothermal electricity. It’s a terrific, low-carbon solution. Take the heat the earth naturally brings to the surface in places like Iceland, use it to produce steam, use that steam to power turbines and run generators that
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Venerable Lloyd’s of London – Think Twice Before Exploiting Arctic Resources
Lloyd’s of London foresees $100-billion of new exploration in the Arctic in the coming decade. That has prompted Lloyd’s to speak out about the prospect for catastrophic environmental damage from the rush for Arctic oil.Richard Ward, Lloyd’s chief executive, urged companies not to “rush in [but instead to] step back
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: When Ships Were Made of Oak, and Men Were Made of Iron
This is one of those silly “blast from the past” stories. While commenting on another blog I briefly revisited my younger years as a working journalist in Ottawa. Trudeau was in power and I was immersed in the NFA (New Fighter Acquisition) programme story. While drawing upon that experience I
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: What Victory Looks Like in American Eyes
An American asks now that the US has won the Afghan war, isn’t it time to leave? The editor in chief of AirForce Magazine concludes that the American forces have come as close as they ever will to winning in Afghanistan and that Western forces have come as close as
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Of Fifth Generation Warplanes That Aren’t
No country, none, is going to get anything remotely like 50-years frontline service out of the F-35. It won’t be 20 years, maybe not even 10-years before its obsolete. Like any radical new technology system, it will be superceded, rendered obsolete sooner than the wise men today claim. That’s because
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Trayvon Martin Killer to Face Trial
A Florida prosecutor has announced that George Zimmerman will stand trial for killing Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman claims it was a lawful killing under Florida’s “stand your ground” law. He claims the much smaller, much younger, unarmed black youth had him on the ground and was beating him senseless when he
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Most Idiotic Journalist in Canada?
The ranks of journalism in Canada today sport no shortage of truly awful scribes. There are plenty that are openly biased, the odd one that might resort to a little light racism from time to time. Then we’ve got the loudmouths like Blatchford and shills like Fife. But, for my
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: More Questions Than Answers And That’s No Way to Buy a Warplane.
A common failure of military types is that they’re forever preparing to fight the last war instead of the next war. It’s human nature. They know the last war, they lived through it. They know where they had trouble, where they made mistakes, what they might have avoided, if only…
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: About All That Balmy Winter Weather
For the sake of argument let’s just call it – oh I don’t know – global warming. People in most parts of the country enjoyed a dry, mild winter and an astonishingly early and HOT spring. It’s the sort of thing that’s expected to recur more and more often. It’s
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Opposition Doesn’t Much Care But Canadians Do
Harper, freely aided and abetted by the opposition parties in our Petro-Parliament, has been pulling Canada’s political centre to what, in decent times, would have been considered the far right. It’s been almost assumed the Canadian public was like-minded. Maybe not. A survey commissioned by the Broadbent Institute has found
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A New Kind of Warfare – Computer Code, Not Missiles
Military history going back to the very beginnings of civilization has been an endless succession of technological advancement as each side tries to get ahead and remain ahead of its perceived adversaries. “Measure and Countermeasure” would be an apt name for this time honoured game. Rock. Rock tied to stick,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Greatest Fighter Pilot I Ever Knew
I only wish he was around today to pass judgment on the F-35. Douglas Bader. He lost both his legs before WWII in a flying demonstration accident. Bader struggled to get back into the RAF but with no luck – until Hitler sparked WWII. Then the RAF welcomed him back.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Homophobia is a Conservative Self-Phobia
In recent years we’ve been treated to numerous examples of homophobic right wingers who get later get caught in homosexual scandals. It’s said the biggest closet in Washington belongs to Congressional Republicans. Now a study from the University of England in Essex (?) and the University of California, Santa Barbara
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: What Does China Want for Christmas? Coal, More Coal.
China may claim that it ‘gets’ global warming and that it’s going green. It’s not. This chart from the Washington Post’s WonkBlog shows who’s who when it comes to coal consumption from 2000 to 2010. Coal consumption has pretty much flatlined or declined in most of the world. The exception
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Achilles’ High-Tech Heel(s) – F-35 Must Read
There’s no KISS when it comes to the F-35. Keep It Simple Stupid is not on the menu. The F-35 is all about complex, state-of-the-art complex. It may be too complex for its own good or ours for that matter. A report from Computer Security Organization online looks at hacking
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: First the Bad News, Then the Bad News
Apparently Israel’s air force is not capable of taking out Iran’s nuclear installations. That narrows Israel’s options to long-range missile strikes or sending Israeli special forces into Iran to attack the sites. Those are the conclusions of the authoritative Jane’s Defence Weekly which finds even a commando attack would face
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: When Two Crackers Shoot Five Blacks, It’s a Hate Crime.
“You could look at the facts of the case and come up with would appear to be a logical theory, but we’re going to let the evidence take us where we want to go.” Five shooting victims, three of them dead, all of them black. Two suspects, roommates, white boys
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Peter MacKay’s Dog Ate His Lunch
Of course he knew that original $9-billion figure was nonsense. And, sure, he knew that $15-billion figure wasn’t the whole story either. And, okay, he knew the $15-billion figure was shy $10-billion and should have been $25-billion all along… …but according to Harper DefMin Peter MacKay the difference between $25-billion
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