Steve Harper, perhaps unwittingly, set out to be the Defence department’s butt boy and today he finds himself with a blinding hangover, lying in an alley in a pool of his own puke, surrounded by empty bottles and with his pants curiously down around his ankles. The Auditor General, Michael
Continue readingAuthor: The Mound of Sound
The Disaffected Lib: Pack Up Your Bags – The Weather’s Coming. Word Is Canada is Still Nice This Time of Year.
As the world transitions into a new and dangerous climate state, no nation is going to be immune to extreme weather event disasters. That’s the conclusion of the latest IPCC report. “One of the striking things, when you look at the report, is that there is disaster risk almost everywhere,”
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Trial of Stephen Harper, Part II
As suggested I have now contacted Avaaz.org and the Council of Canadians seeking their assistance in organizing a petition demanding our federal and provincial governments take immediate action to decarbonize our economies and our society. This can’t be done overnight but that doesn’t mean we can’t do it. Earlier this
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Trial of Stephen Joseph Harper
I imagine the day, probably within twenty years, when Stephen Harper, former prime minister of Canada, will sit in the prisoner’s dock to stand trial. Harper and his co-defendants will be tried for crimes against humanity and treason. He will be tried for his instrumental role in subverting action to
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: We’ve Been Warned
We’re down to the home stretch in the fight to save civilization from the ravages of runaway global warming. A report in Scientific American warns we’re within just one decade of tipping points that will trigger natural feedback mechanisms to drive irreversible warming. The headline speaks volumes – “Global Warming
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Time to Take Stock – On Turning 500,000
Stay or go? I feel like a Bill Moyers zygote. I have never achieved his serene altruism, not even close. I don’t aspire to his higher moral purpose. Yet I’ve always felt a deep affinity for the man since I encountered his work four decades ago. He seemed to find
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Green on Blue Now #2 Cause of Allied Death in Afghanistan
Three more Western soldiers gunned down by their Afghan counterparts today, two Brits, one American. Attacks by our Afghan allies on Western forces now rank second only to improvised explosive devices in our fatalities. Almost one out of three recent fatalities has been from ‘green on blue’ attacks. The problem
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: American Support for Afghan War Tanks
Four months ago a bare majority, 53% of Americans, thought US soldiers should no longer be fighting that conflict. Today that number stands at 69%. In November less than half of Americans surveyed thought the war was going “badly or very badly.” That’s up today to 68%. The CBS News/New
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: All the Enviro-News Fit to Print
There’s a new climate news aggregator, the Climate Desk, www.climatedesk.org. It’s a joint effort of The Guardian, Grist, Wired, Mother Jones, the Atlantic, Need to Know, Slate, and The Center for Investigative Reporting. Mother Jones offers a tale of the mutant heat waves of March depicted in the chart below:
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Washington Post Off Its Perch on Climate Change
The editorial policy of the Washington Post now acknowledges that global warming is not only real but a very real threat to the United States that demands urgent action. The paper has also come out unequivocally in favour of effective carbon taxes. No word yet how the paper’s official policy
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: How A Degree or Two Makes a Huge Difference
RealClimate.org has published a very informative article, “Extremely Hot“ by Stefan Rahmstorf and Dim Coumou that explores the impacts of even modest one or two degree C warming on severe climate events such as heatwaves. The article uses these graphs to demonstrate that the impacts of even modest warming create
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Dobbins on Mulcair – Serious Doubts
Tom Mulcair makes Murray Dobbins uncomfortable. In the latest Tyee, Dobbins succinctly lays out the problem: Two things shocked me about this race and its final two days. The first is that so many NDPers, part of a tightly-knit, hyper-loyal political culture steeped in progressive values could so casually elect
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Fundamentalist Dominion of Canada
Another warning that our federal government is “beholden to a religious agenda averse to science and rational debate.” This time it’s Andrew Nikiforuk writing in the latest Tyee. Any Canadian listening to the news these days might well conclude that the Republican extremists or some associated evangelical group has occupied
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Sayonara Time for Christie Clark’s Neo-Con Liberals
When trying to make sense of some of BC unelected premier Christie Clark’s recent machinations I was left wondering whether she’s indifferent to offending voter sensibilities because she knows her government, and party, are heading down the drain in the next election? Is Christie Clark determined to make hay while
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Mitt’s Cousin Denounces Mormonism as a "Cult"
Park Romney was once a Mormon high priest. Unlike his more famous cousin, Mitt, Park Romney left the church that he now labels a fraud. “There’s compelling evidence that the Mormon Church leaders knowingly and wilfully misrepresent the historical truth of their origins and of the Church for the purpose
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Magic 2C By 2100? We’ll Hit 3C by 2050.
A joint BBC/climateprediction.net simulation relying on mid-range emission scenarios concludes it’s likely global warming will exceed 3 degrees Celsius by 2050. That pretty much blows out the long-established target of just 2C by 2100. The forecast was based on 10,000 climate simulations run on volunteers’ computers.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Our Buggy Stealth Buggy
Okay, the F-35 isn’t a buggy, it’s a bomb truck – a very buggy flying bomb truck. The F-35 has had more than its share of lurches, stumbles and controversy along its path to become the most overpriced, overdue and underperforming fighter aircraft in history. Originally intended to be operational
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Sin of Political Despair
In some people’s holy book, despair is a sin. I always figured that idea came from somebody who wasn’t quite done with you yet. Is Stephen Harper the Prime Minister of Despair? Is that his secret agenda, to get Canadians so despairing of their government that they become alienated, detached
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: How Far, How Fast, How Hard?
We now have a new liberal NDP leader and he’s wasting no time pronouncing himself his party ready to govern Canada. Fair enough and more power to Mr. Mulcair. If he can take down Harper, I’ll vote for him. But let’s not forget about Harper and his pre-emptive ways. If
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: I Hope They Incinerated the Old One
Dick Cheney has had a change of heart – no, really, he has changed his heart. The old one was cut out and a dandy new one implanted. The rotten Dick has survived five heart attacks, the first suffered at age 37. What a waste of a perfectly good heart
Continue reading