This week twelve climate scientists and energy experts penned a letter to Canada’s Natural Resources (aka “Oil”) Minister, Joe Oliver, to express their concern about his ongoing support for building new pipelines and expanding fossil fuel production in face of the threat of climate change. Mr. Oliver was an international
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On party positioning
Leaving aside whether Stephen Harper’s previously-undisclosed media monitoring is actually right in substance, Brian Jean isn’t entirely wrong as to why he and other Con MPs are facing it: Conservative MP Brian Jean, who is on the list, said he’s not sure why he was flagged, but also said he
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: Star self-flagellation: the latest
This is starting to look like a ritual humiliation of a veteran reporter who doesn’t deserve it, at all. Oh, and the “award-winning” guy giving everyone civics lessons? His M.O. is to call at the last minute, and to be as general as possible. Everyone makes mistakes. Admit ‘em, apologize,
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: And now, from the world’s greatest band
I still love the Menzingers, but me (and my kids) love these guys the most. The are the best-est. They are godlike geniuses. Buy all of their records, now.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Insular World Of The Police Mentality
I have written several posts in this blog about institutions and their many shortcomings, shortcomings that seem directly proportional to their age. The longer one exists, the more prone an organization seems to becoming increasingly insular, self-referential, and self-reverential. One of the institutions most frequently targeted here is law enforcement.
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: Just goes to show, once again
You can be book-smart, but that doesn’t actually mean you are smart.
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: Q: Which BC political party ran attack ads, and which one didn’t?
A: If you’re a regular at this web site, you already know the answer. (Justin Trudeau, are you paying attention? Hope so.)
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how all of Canada could lose out if Christy Clark’s B.C. Liberals are able to follow through on their plans to eliminate the Therapeutics Initiative which has provided needed information about the effectiveness of prescription drugs. For further reading…– More background about the current status of the Therapeutics
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – George Monbiot writes about the absurdity of the right-wing choice to promote inequality in the name of competition among the wealthy when the ultimate results are worse for everybody: The capture by the executive class of so much wealth performs no useful
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: May 8: The story that isn’t there
It seems there are two kilometres of pipeline with oil residue in it running through St. John. It’s an Irving line that that went out of use over forty years ago – Irving forgot it was there. There is also no record of it in city files. When asked if
Continue readingWise Law Blog: 140 Law – Legal Headlines for Thursday, May 9, 2013
Here are the leading legal headlines from Wise Law on Twitter for Thursday, May 9, 2013: Italian court upholds Berlusconi’s tax evasion conviction Enron’s Jeffrey Skilling: Govt Agrees to Substantial Sentence Cut Paralegal motion to extend services withdrawn hours before law society AGM | Canadian Lawyer Legal Feeds Macfarlane Study
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: talking politics
I went last night to a wonderful event put on by a grassroots media collective. They wanted to encourage local writers and local activists. There was lots of good conversations. It was helpful for me as a younger person to hear the stories of activists who have been involved for multiple
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: You Can’t Believe A Word
Andrew Coyne has an interesting take on the National Research Council’s new mandate. The NRC was originally established to do the kind of research which business could not and should not do: Hence it is well-established economic principle that basic research is the sort of thing governments should fund. By
Continue readingROAR!: RU486 Ready Canada – Abortion in PEI
Saw this the other day over Twitter … Abortion pill now a reality. Australia sits poised to list RU486 as part of their Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which will make the once very expensive drug, available to all Australian women at a hugely lower price. Medical abortion.Safe, effective and ACCESSIBLE. So I google RU486 and I see
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Why Congress is Failing – It’s the Republicans, Stupid.
Bill Moyers almost always has interesting guests and topics of discussion. The topic of this video is why the American Congress has been so ineffectual as of late(?). A long view, but interesting none the less. Filed under: Politics Tagged: American Politics, Bill Moyers, Congress Fail, Republicans
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: Is God dead?
Quote: “…although the proportion of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs is on the rise in Canada, the marked demographic trend is the increasing number of people who claim no religious affiliation at all. The new survey suggests that nearly 24 per cent of the people living in this country do
Continue readingwmtc: london, day two
We had breakfast in a little cafe (what New Yorkers call a coffee shop, a real working-person’s breakfast spot) in R’s neighbourhood. This was my only opportunity to have a full English breakfast on this trip, and it was yummy. We got a bit of a late start, but that
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Kremlinology 44: the 2009 Rift in Cabinet #nlpoli
Trevor Taylor left politics in 2009 in an unseemly hurry. One minute he was there. Next minute? Gone from cabinet and the House of Assembly. Very odd. Then right on his heels went Paul Oram, who muttered something about unsound financial management by the Conservatives as he ran from the
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Survey Says: Many Canadians Are Unreflective About Religion
The latest census is out and for one reason or another, one of the several numbers upon which media attention has been fixated are the religion figures. This sort of ties into my new series on science, evolution, and the future of humanity, but actually it’s a separate question which
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Mutilated Census and the Madness of Stephen Harper
He had done a lot of monstrous things, before he woke up one morning and decided to gut the census.For no sane reason.But for me it marked the moment when Stephen Harper crossed the desert of twisted ambition, and entered the dark valley of his personal demons.For it was that crazy, and look
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