Thanks to 3D printing, a government ban on guns soon will be as enforceable as a government ban on pictures of guns. That is because, not in the too distant future, printing objects will be as easy as printing pictures, and if the government can’t prevent anyone from printing pictures
Continue readingTag: America
Eclectic Lip: Alberta oil selling at 50% discount to world price…
…which explains why the Canadian government is Hell-and-High-Water-bent on building a pipeline, any pipeline, anywhere. First, the stats Over the past few months, new stories have noted that Canada’s oil sector isn’t getting full price for its heavy oil — in large part because American pipelines are well-supplied with newly-flowing
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: An American Makes the Case for Public Healthcare
Public healthcare works. Ask any American senior citizen. The Washington Post’s Harold Meyerson explains: …a funny thing happens to Americans’ life expectancy when they age. The U.S. mortality rate is the highest of the 17 nations until Americans hit 50 and the second-highest until they hit 70. Then our mortality
Continue readingEclectic Lip: The millionaire tax, American- and French style
(originally written Apr 19, 2012. Part of my Great Upload of 2013.) The American “millionaire tax” plan At the moment, Obama is facing stiff resistance from his proposal to tax all income above $1,000,000 per year at a rate of 30%. This, despite the support of one-time world’s-richest-man Warren Buffett,
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Republicans Show Government Can Create Jobs
One month after the Sandy Hook shootings, with fears of an assault weapons ban, not only are sales for assault rifles at record highs, but all gun sales are up, ammunition sales are up, and even firearm stocks are up. The irony of all this is that all these people
Continue readingEclectic Lip: EV stats for British Columbia (2012)
The kind people at CEV for BC sent over some statistics on Clean Energy Vehicle rebates issued by the provincial government. While the CEV rebates were available for electric, natural gas, and fuel cell vehicles, my understanding is that the rebates break down as follows: – 308x EV’s – 0
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Your Country’s Finances Are Exactly Like Yours
Many scoff at the conservative analogy that the American government should manage its finances like a household, but little do they realize the idea doesn’t strengthen conservativism, it weakens it. After a fiscal cliff deal that only increased taxes, many right-leaning politicians are preparing for a fight in order to
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Cumulative Canadian (PH)EV sales (through Nov 2012)
It doesn’t look as if this data has been centralized on the web yet, so I’ll start. Cumulative Canadian (PH)EV sales through Nov 2012 can be found at this link, here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ah8gcGMaITi4dHdoZzJYdHFvZldnZkRCRWxGbjhicEE > The list is incomplete (for example, no Tesla data yet) but I’ll be trying to add that
Continue readingEclectic Lip: The US once was, but will never again be, the Saudi Arabia of oil
The idea that the US might one day produce more oil than Saudi Arabia, popularized by an International Energy Agency (IEA) report, has gone viral in recent weeks. It’s like the “Call Me Maybe” phenomenon, but for Very Serious People! 🙂 Alas, the idea that the US will out-produce Saudi Arabia
Continue readingArt Threat: War on Drugs doc launches for free – Friday Film Pick: Breaking the Taboo
It’s too early in the day for us to watch a documentary on the so-called “war on drugs,” so we’re not actually endorsing this week’s FFP, Breaking the Taboo, which has just been launched for free viewing on YouTube, but it looks like it will be an interesting hour of
Continue readingArt Threat: Scrap America – Friday Film Pick & Interview: Scrappers
An interview with one of the filmmakers behind the poetic documentary Scrappers.
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Green byelection blues
Alas, the Green Party didn’t pick any seats up in the Nov 26 Canadian federal by-elections. While their strong showings probably count as a real moral victory, I imagine at this stage they’d prefer amoral, real victories. 😉 As it turns out, Parliament’s composition is unchanged, “while my green heart gently weeps”. Despite donating to […]
Continue readingLeDaro: Americans considered blowing up the Moon during the cold war to scare the Russian
The idea was to use a nuke to blow up the moon to scare the Russians. What did they think, that it was a small rock? Crazy!!
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Republicans Are Like Liberals
Liberals had their leader defined by their opposition in 2006 and 2009. Republicans suffered the same fate in 2012 and Democrats are already attempting to define likely candidate Senator Marco Rubio (video below).
Liberals like to think they share a f…
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Norquist knee-capped by Koch-backed “Shift Disturbers”
Well, it looks like Grover Norquist’s support for a carbon tax shift last Monday (Nov 12) lasted as long as a mayfly. By the time Tuesday (Nov 13) rolled around, he was back to opposing it, and likening government to a tapeworm. I suppose it’s a brave thing to say, considering that the highly-trained, armed […]
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: It All Sounds Good Until They Shoot Back
It’s no accident that our fondness for resorting to military violence is inversely proportional to the risk that our target might inflict the same violence on us. Put another way, we’re all for whacking people so long as they can’t whack ba…
Continue readingChadwick's Blog & Commentary: Post-US Election Thoughts: The Blame Game
It didn’t take long for the blame, the vitriol, the accusations and the excuses to start spewing forth from the Republicans, after Obama won a second presidential term. You would think that the party would be chastened, introspective and look to…
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Terrible Reach of Citizens United
America’s advance as a true corporatist state was given a huge boost by the USSC’s decision in Citizens United. That decision launched the United States into its first $6-billion election.Money talks and it talks loud and clear in America’s…
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Blue Versus Red – a War of the Wealthy
The ever widening gap between Red and Blue America exists mainly among the wealthy.The New York Times reports that a study based on exit polls shows lower-income Americans, whether from Blue or Red states, tend to favour the Democratic Party. The…
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