Steve Harper knows how to weasel out of commitments. Remember how we were in Afghanistan “to stay” until we had the Taliban crushed and the country safe for democracy? Harper wrung every drop of political gravy he could squeeze out of that one and then walked way. Then he upped
Continue readingAuthor: The Mound of Sound
The Disaffected Lib: Check This Out
Want a good idea of what’s happening in our world? Two views of the same spot in Shanghai, one as it was in 1990, the other as it was just 20-years later.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Who Shipwrecked America’s Economy?
Bill Moyers points a finger Bill Moyers Essay: Who Shipwrecked Our Economy? from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Is Mutiny Waiting in London for Rupe Murdoch?
What happens when you have a newspaper mired in scandal, several of its key personnel arrested, and a gaggle of unruly journalists suspicious that you’re about to throw them to the wolves? That’s the predicament that has Rupert Murdoch winging his way to London to supposedly rescue his beleaguered Sun
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A Central American Free Drug Corridor?
Guatemalan president Otto Perez Molina is proposing that Central America become a zone where drugs are legal to make, possess and transport. Mr Perez Molina will test the waters by discussing the subject with Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes when Mr Funes visits today. The Guatemalan president said the war
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Fantastic Voyage of the Rubber Duckie
20-years ago off the Aleutians a cargo ship lost some containers in a heavy storm. Among that cargo were nearly 30,000 bath toys. Since then some of these toys have circumnavigated the world. Tracking the several paths those toys wound up taking has given science valuable insights into ocean currents.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Britain May Be In a Deep Freeze But It Remains In Drought
Soggy old Britain is facing the prospect of mega-drought. Even at the height of winter, aquifers are being used to keep English rivers and lakes from running dry. Andrew Chapman, a senior environment planning officer with the agency warns, ‘…the position is becoming very serious. In simple terms, unless we
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Real Hoax Behind Global Warming
Oh there’s a hoax all right, a well-funded, carefully scripted hoax that’s being played out by the denialist community and its backers, the fossil fuelers. And, as the pieces continue to fall into place, the scam becomes so obvious the deniers are being faced with something they won’t be able
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: What Business Does a Sitting Government Have Proclaiming Policies Another Government Would Have to Introduce?
When Harper was in Davos he was practically busting to tell the high priced nobs that he was going to trim Canada’s sails, especially our nation’s Old Age Security programme. That promptly backfired sending Tory MPs slithering for cover into their favourite dark places. Not to worry. Tiny Jim Flaherty,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Okay, I Get It. Harper Needs China to Buy Bitumen So Canada Can Buy F-35s to Defend Canada Against China.
Okay, now it all makes sense. According to PostMedia’s howler, Matthew Fisher, Canada needs the F-35 to defend Canada against the creeping Red Menace, China: Despite its staggering cost, the jets’ capabilities have appealed to western governments deeply concerned with how quickly China is acquiring aircraft carriers and expanding its
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: What Were We Thinking? Libya Dissolves.
Steve Harper likes to boast how Canada and our NATO allies saved Libya by bombing the hell out of Gaddafi’s forces. It sounds nice but it’s hogwash. As the United States and coaltion did in Iraq, as we all did in Afghanistan, so we got into the Libyan war utterly
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: How Screwed Up Is Afghanistan? Look at Their Schoolbooks.
The Afghans have figured out a way to produce a history textbook that everyone can accept. Make sure it stops at 1973. Afghanistan’s newly approved history textbook is free of the last four decades of the country’s history. No Soviet invasion, no Mujaheddin, no Taliban, no American invasion, all the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Are the Petro-Pols Setting Canada Up For a Crash?
Michael Ignatieff referred to it as the “beating heart of the Canadian economy in the 21st century.” Prime ministers, Liberal and Conservative alike, have dared to dream of Canada as a global “energy superpower.” Stephen Harper has led the charge as no other, championing high-risk pipeline projects to the American
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Why Big Oil Can’t – and Won’t – Let Go
Ever wonder why Big Oil doesn’t take its massive profits and take over the alternative (“clean”) energy business? Why do the fossil fuelers make such an expensive and concerted effort to thwart the spread of renewable energy? There is a reason, a very big one, and it pits the fossil
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Aussies Fight Back Against Big Coal Propaganda Mill
What you’re looking at appeared in full page format in the Sydney Morning Herald. It was published in reaction to a call by whacko global warming denier Lord Monckton for Australia’s “super rich” to fund an Aussie equivalent of FOX News. The ad/public service announcement was the doing of an
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: F-35 Programme – "Aquisition Malpractice"
It May be Overpriced Crap But We’re Good with It. The man now in charge of the Pentagon’s weapons purchases has lambasted the F-35 programme, denouncing it as “acquisition malpractice.” “I can spend quite a few minutes on the F-35, but I don’t want to,” Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s Acting
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Post Mortem – Madonna’s Half Time SuperBowl Show
If you watched the Super Bowl, not that there’s really something wrong with you if you didn’t, you might have enjoyed the half time show. Madonna staged an elaborate presentation and did a decent job of it. That said it was the Super Bowl and it wouldn’t be right if
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Robert Reich on America’s New "Downward Mobility"
What goes up must come down. Who knew that might be the epitaph of America’s once mighty Middle Class? Robert Reich sees through the latest unemployment numbers. They may look good but they’re a harbinger of a new “downward mobility.” “Most of the new jobs being created are in the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Global Weirding, European Style
One feature of climate change is the erratic arrival of weather extremes. Australia, for example, is enduring its second year of massive flooding following many years of extreme drought. Meanwhile, Europe is caught up in a severe cold snap. These photos via Der Spiegel: The Forum – Rome Trevi Fountain
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