What do you do if you live in Gaza, have a passion for cinema, but all the theatres have been bombed out? Not only is making movies virtually impossible, the thrill we all take for granted of sitting in a real theatre with other real people is not even a
Continue readingeaves.ca: Not Brain Candy: A Review of The Information Diet by Clay Johnson
My body no longer kills me when I come back from the gym. However, I had a moment of total humiliation today: theoretically my ideal body weight is 172 pounds and I weigh 153 Ibs. The woman at the gym calibrated my fat/water/meat/bone ratios, made an inward gasp and
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Signs of Action On Climategate Hacker Investigation: DOJ and UK Police Probe Denier Bloggers
shutterstock_89773753.jpg Fantastic news for a change – the Guardian reports that the UK police are finally making some concerted attempts to identify the hacker behind the criminal invasion of the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit. The Guardian reports: On Wednesday, detectives from Norfolk Constabulary entered the home of Roger
Continue readingThings Are Good: Sustainable Power for Facebook
Greenpeace has worked with Facebook to convert Facebook’s coal-powered datacentres to environmentally friends power sources. In April 2011, a Greenpeace report, How Dirty is your Data?, calculated that 53.2% of Facebook’s electricity was generated by coal. Energy consumption by datacentres is growing rapidly and each of Facebook’s US datacentres is
Continue readingPeter MacKay’s critics say $1450 excessive for hookers
OTTAWA – Critics of Peter MacKay charged that the Defence Minister’s expenses at an overseas security conference in 2010 were out of line. Canadian Taxpayers’ Association spokesman Barney McMillan of Halifax claimed that a reasonably priced Euro-hooker should cost approximately $500, not almost $1500. McMillan added “For that kind of
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Facts are stupid things
But you’ll be pleased to know that the Harper Government™ continues to try and protect you from them even when it’s a matter of public health. And they’d be succeeding, too, if only those pesky journalists would stop making access to information requests. Two years ago, during the H1N1 pandemic,
Continue readingThe "one percent" win another one as health care CEOs clean up
As the Occupy Wall Street Movement campaigns against the unfair distribution of wealth in the United States, the “one percent” they hold accountable just keep on raking it in. According to the latest survey, American CEOs enjoyed pay hikes of between 27 and 40 percent last year. Meanwhile, wages for
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Why we fight: Weekly Updates from OpenMedia.ca
Hello! Here’s Lindsey with your weekly update: It’s week two of our December Fundraising Drive, and your support woud really make a difference in 2012! Please visit http://openmedia.ca/allies to chip in as our newest monthly donor. Thank you, The OpenMedia.ca Team read more
Continue readingThe "impartial" new Speaker
…caught with his pants around his ankles. [Liberal MP Irwin]Cotler says the calls were traced to Campaign Research, a firm with links to the Conservative Party. Records submitted to Elections Canada by [Andrew] Scheer’s campaign show he wrote cheques worth $8198.79 to Campaign Research. Just like the Conservatives to grab
Continue readingPample the Moose: Partisan dreck: Seat Redistribution Edition
The new seat redistribution bill recently passed the House of Commons, awarding new seats to Ontario, Quebec, BC and Alberta. Rarely have I seen commentary about legislation so thoroughly skewed by short-term partisan and regional interests, and it makes me ill. I’ll get my principles on the table. I favour
Continue readingPhilip Toone recaps his fall session
Finishing off my roundup of queer MPs, I caught up with NDP MP Philip Toone after QP on Tuesday. Q: What was your high point of the fall? A: Working with people back home – they’re not used to an MP that’s attending events, they’re not used to an MP
Continue readingBlunt Objects: The Most Disappointing Opposition Since Michael Ignatieff’s
That’s about how I would describe the NDP – or the Official Opposition, as they’re officially styled – and its career in the first session of the 41st Parliament. The New Democratic opposition has really failed to uphold the standard that came with its amazing breakthrough victory in May of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: My Letter to David Caton and His Florida Family Association
I just tried to send the following letter to the Florida Family Association’s David Caton. After hitting the submit button, the message was that my message could not be sent, probably because their server is being overwhelmed with messages. I shall try again later, but for now, here is my
Continue readingPeter MacKay: the very definition of ‘elite’
Proposed new entry in Canadian dictionary: e·lite <a href=”http://dictionary.reference.com/audio.html/lunaWAV/E01/E0110200″ target=”_blank”&
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Ball takes over as Liberal leader #nlpoli
The first sign of substantive and positive change in quite a while: Dwight Ball takes the job of leading the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador. The fact he is also interested in leading the party beyond the next leadership convention is also a good sign. – srbp –
Continue readingIs Peter Kent a POS?
Answer: No. Just a miserable excuse for a human being. Anyone who can publicly chide someone for not being at a conference that he himself prevented her from attending is both malicious and not very bright. In other words, just the man Harper needs to look after the sensitive and
Continue readingMorton's Musings: Tort of knowing assistance in breach of fiduciary duty
Harris v. Leikin Group Inc., 2011 ONCA 790 deals with an appeal from a summary judgment. The decision sets out the elements of the tort of knowing assistance in breach of fiduciary duty: [8] There is no dispute concerning the constituent elements of the tort of knowing assistance in breach of fiduciary duty:
Continue readingMorton's Musings: Striking pleading appropriate in the face of repeated non-compliance
Grewal v. Nijjer, 2011 BCCA 505 deals with striking pleadings in the context of (1) deliberate and persistent breaches of the Rules of Court and (2) a court order combined with a demonstrated intention not to comply. In such an extreme case the striking of pleadings was held to be
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Yes, it IS a Muppet movie, ya wingnut #nlpoli #cdnpoli
Just when you thought they could not get any more loopy, the fried folks at Fox manage to turn a Muppet movie into a tool of “class warfare to brainwash our kids”. You. cannot. make. this. stuff. up. – srbp –
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: One. Stop Subsidizing Fossil Fuels
Two. Put a price on carbon. These are two easy things to do in legislation which will have the crucial effect of curbing air pollution. If the market is the God of the modern political power brokers, then the market has to contain the solution to climate change. We have
Continue reading