Finance Minister Mike de Jong must demand resignations of the senior executives and directors of Pacific Carbon Trust. They are officials of a publicly owned enterprise but instead dedicated their loyalty to vested interests that do business with PCT. Additionally, director Mike Watson appears to have a conflict of interest
Continue readingTag: ethics
Dead Wild Roses: Adria Richards: How many more examples?
Patriarchal Nonsense. How many more examples do we need to understand that our society is still in love with patriarchy and misogyny? Adria Richards makes a reasonable gesture, calling people out for their crappy remarks, and for her trouble she is fired and gets rape and death threats. We’re completely
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Gender identity wins, and Justin proves he`s a loser
What a pleasant surprise to hear that the House of Commons gave third reading to an opposition bill, C-279, that would include gender identity as an aggravating circumstance in determining if a criminal act was motivated by hate and therefore deserved an extended sentence. More astonishing is that 18 Conservatives,
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Weekly roundup (ending Mar 16 / 13)
First and biggest news of the week was the upset election of 76 year old Jorge Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, who interestingly has taken the name Francis I. No sooner was he elected, and leading up to his investiture next week (since 1978, new Popes have refused to
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Prostitution – Hurting Women and Children; Always.
I’m not really into the whole prostitution is what happens between consenting adults argument. I find that it reeks with the notion that the experiences of a lucky few, a sub set of a sub set, somehow overlays what happens to most people who get involved in prostitution; that would
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Clarification for our Anti-Choice Friends: Life at Conception? Err..No.
One of the cheap rhetorical tricks that forced birth advocates often use is the idea that somehow “Science” (ya know science, that vast shadowy monolithic structure) supports their crappy arguments and thus lends weight to their assault on women and their rights. One of the easiest tells illustrating the rhetorical,
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Charles McVety vs sex ed
I really have to hand it to some social conservatives who are so sexually repressed they recoil at the word sex. I don’t know if Charles McVety of the Canada Family Action Coalition is quite that regressed, but his playing on people’s worst instincts would be comical were it not for
Continue readingbastard.logic: Ethics in Exile
Silly Prince George Citizen, holding a staff writer to account for generously liberating other writers’ work: To our shock and dismay, multiple incidents of plagiarism were uncovered from work over the last number of months. The staff member plagiarized various online new publications, while writing opinion pieces that appeared in
Continue readingbastard.logic: Ethics in Exile
Silly Prince George Citizen, holding a staff writer to account for generously liberating other writers’ work: To our shock and dismay, multiple incidents of plagiarism were uncovered from work over the last number of months. The staff member plagiarized various online new publications, while writing opinion pieces that appeared in
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Stuff from Duff ™ (with apologies to Hilary and Hailey)
Mike Duffy, a supposedly neutral journalist and Ottawa pundit for nearly 30 years for both CBC and CTV before he became transparently neo-con and did everything he could on air to make Paul Martin Jr kick the political bucket was rewarded for his total lack of journalistic integrity with an
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Hypothetical Near Birth Abortions – Why Pro-Life is *always* wrong.
Ah yes, the perennially wrong anti-choice, forced birth lobby loses again, and again and again. You never get to ignore the bodily autonomy of women and this comment from Pharyngula details precisely why. “I’ll tell you why I hate those hypothetical near-birth abortion scenarios. It’s not that they’re stupid, or
Continue readingNorthern Insight: P3 primer for British Columbia
Since the beginning of time, the public built facilities in partnerships with private industry. Typically, government determined needs according to its priorities, hired consultants for design and tendering, awarded work to the lowest bidder and financed with its usual sources, typically the lowest cost borrowing available. As long as all
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Is it too much to demand a REAL Parliament?
As the House of Commons is now back in session, I have the following questions: Is it too much to ask that titles of bills and acts are as neutral as possible so as to state the purpose — eg. “Criminal Law Amendment Act No. 1, 2013” rather than propaganda
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Feeding frenzy has begun
When a kid, I lived with a marvellous black Lab. A good-natured, well-behaved mutt, he discovered roast chicken unsupervised on the stove top one day. With no one around, temptation was irresistible. He made his move. When I walked in, that chicken was on the floor, being devoured. Commands fell
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Tell me again about Just War Theory
There are no just wars. The death, the depravity, and destruction should never have any pretense of being a noble endeavour. War is like being dragged face first through fifteen kilometres of shit, nobility and honour be damned. We’re going to look at a “bad” war, that is a
Continue readingCanada II: Yes to Capitalism, No to Greed
The political arena is strange. So much of the time it’s about "defining" the opposition. News flash – the left is not against capitalism.
Greed is visceral. We all know what it is. It is all around us every day but it is no longer directly visible to us. The direct connections have been disguised, hidden or broken completely.
It is often greed that drives someone to knowingly dump toxic
Continue readingCanada II: Yes to Capitalism, No to Greed
The political arena is strange. So much of the time it’s about “defining” the opposition. News flash – the left is not against capitalism. Greed is visceral. We all know what it is. It is all around us every day but it is no longer directly visible to us. The
Continue readingCanada II: Yes to Capitalism, No to Greed
The political arena is strange. So much of the time it’s about “defining” the opposition. News flash – the left is not against capitalism. Greed is visceral. We all know what it is. It is all around us every day but it is no longer directly visible to us. The
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The cheek of Jim Flaherty … expensing his Maybelline while preaching austerity!
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty before application of his Smashbox and Cover Girl. Below: Mr. Flaherty after his makeup makeover. Warning: Any resemblance to J. Edgar Hoover is certainly purely coincidental. Below that: FBI icon J. Edgar Hoover and the real Mr. Flaherty. Jim Flaherty portrait by Edmonton artist William Prettie.
Continue readingCanada II: AAND Under Harper Government
I will be the first to admit this post is somewhat speculative. However, given the blatant actions of the Harper regime over the years I don’t think I’m going to be proven wrong. Additionally, the Harper regime may not be the first Canadian governm…
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