It’s been a little over thirty six hours since North Korea revealed that Kim Jong Il died from an apparent heart attack on Saturday. It was well known that Kim was in ill health for years but his passing poses a huge risk for the West. Having dealt with Libya
Continue readingTag: Canada Politics
Blast Furnace Canada Blog: What’s in YOUR drinking water? In Hamilton it could be Scotchgard ™
Several months ago, back in the spring of this year, Radio Canada ran an investigative report regarding the run-off of chemicals from John Munro International Airport at Mount Hope, the highest point in Hamilton. This was prompted after a lot of fish and turtles were turning up dead downstream in
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree (Justin edition)
I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. And it did yesterday when Justin Trudeau, son of Pierre, called Environment Minister Peter Kent “you piece of shit.” At least Justin apologized. Of course there was no excuse for it — but entirely understandable given that Kent was giving
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Kyoto backlash
It’s been over a week since my last post. Too much has been going on but I did want to talk about Peter Kent announcing Canada is pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol, or rather forcing the world to pull out of Canada so we don’t get fucked with $14
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Channeling the Mad Man of the Airwaves
No sooner did a “third party” manager come to take control of the financial affairs of Attawapiskat than he was told to get the hell out of Dodge. Chief Theresa Spence must have channeled Howard Beale when she said that her band of 2800 Cree were “not going to taking
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Harper’s "Office for Relgious Freedom": Another Newspeak front?
Dubya got into a lot of hot water in many circles with his so-called “faith based initiative” (which President Obama has actually continued and broadened to include people of faith who are LGBT) and now Harper appears to want to go down the same path with something called the “Office
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: The Attawapiskat Outrage
It is simply inexcusable that people should have to live in third world conditions in Canada. Yet that is how people in many First Nations (FN) communities across Canada do live. And it gotten so bad in Attawapiskat FN, Ontario — 694 km (432 miles) northeast of Thunder Bay, and
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Who’s protecting YOUR water?
This should really make us all wake up: Someone from Russia (it could have been the government or a private interest, we don’t know yet) was able to remotely shut off then back on a second later a pump in Springfield, the capital of the state of Illinois — and
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: A reply to my tar sands entries
In response to some of my recent posts about the tar sands, I got an e-mail the other day in reply that was quite compelling enough that I asked the writer if I could use it here. He agreed provided I not use his last name. I am okay with
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: If you can’t track the guns, you can’t track the criminals
The Brady Law in the States, which is supposed to ensure felons don’t have access to guns (they are supposed to be flagged by a background check), has proven to be a joke, the NYT reports today. In just one state — the State of Washington — nearly 3300 convicts have had their "right to bear arms" that they forfeited, restored. In one case, a man out of jail for just two months shot dead his
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Keystone XL delayed; and how many Wal-Marts does Hamilton need?
It was a big surprise but also a delight to hear that Hillary Clinton’s State Department has ordered Trans Canada Pipelines to reconsider the proposed route of the Keystone XL project, in particular the section that would have gone through Nebraska’s S…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Berlusconi out, not because of "bunga bunga" but bonda bonda
After sticking around what seemed like forever, and beating off one sleaze scandal after another, the world’s most powerful womanizer, Silvio Berlusconi, has finally said he’s going to resign after bond markets pushed up the yield of Italy’s 10 year bo…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: There are overprotective trademark lawyers, and then … there’s the Legion
It is just me, or has the Royal Canadian Legion become a laughing stock for calling in the trademark lawyers to go after — ready for this — a group of veteran bikers who raise awareness about the sacrifices the men and uniform make for those of us wh…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: CBC v Quebecor — at least wrastling’s fake
The ongoing between Quebecor Media and the CBC has gotten really intense this week, if the Toronto Star is to be believed. I agree that the CBC has some issues with transparency and that it would be wise to answer at least some, if not nece…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Link away as much as you want, sez SCC
The Supreme Court of Canada has handed the blog world a big victory. Writing for a unanimous Court in Crookes v. Newton, Justice Rosalie Abella wrote that merely providing a hyperlink to a definitively or potentially defamatory websit…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Grapes admits he was wrong, but is it enough?
A week after his half-hearted “apology” Don Cherry tried Take Two. This time he actually said, “I was wrong.” He also attacked a current player for doing a mocking “nighty-night” pantomine after taking out an opposing play…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Bye Steve, and bye-bye (maybe) Tim
Hard to imagine a world without Steve Jobs … I’ll always be a “PC” (personal computer) but I love iTunes ™ — which made possible the podcast and the ability to download a lot of favourite radio and TV shows as well as discovering new ones, all for…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Quick weekend thoughts (2010-10-02)
Quick whip of two items so let’s go:Good on the Supreme Court of Canada for ruling the Insite clinic in Vancouver does not run afoul of drug control policies; more technically that it does but to deny it a “constitutional exemption” would be a far wors…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: (Provincial) election week in Canada
It would be nice if we did it as the States do — schedule all federal, state and local elections and by-elections such that they all happen on the same day (except in the case of death). Would save a ton on multiple manual revisions of th…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Carney: €1 trillion to bail out Europe
We’re all used to the concept of “shock therapy” when it comes to finances. Canada went through that process a decade and a half ago in an unpopular but successful attempt to balance the budget and start paying down our debt. We…
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