It's time for Friday funnies, and the top hit today is Ethical Oil: the Puppet Rap, which first popped up over at The Tyee. It's a foul-mouthed, satirical music video remix of Kathryn Marshall's ridiculous PR gymnastics to avoid answering a basic question from CBC's Evan Solomon whether Enbridge funds the
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Northern Insights / Perceptivity: Murphy’s laws always apply
har·bin·ger [hahr-bin-jer] Show IPA noun 1. a person who goes ahead and makes known theapproach of another; herald. 2. anything that foreshadows a future event; omen; sign:Frost is a harbinger of winter. Control system failed ahead of BC Ferry crash, Andrew MacLeod, The Tyee, Dec. 21, 2011 A problem with the Coastal Inspiration’s control system may have led to yesterday’s crash
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: ‘Consumer Energy Alliance’ Front Group Exposed by The Tyee and Salon
Consumer Energy Alliance.png In a must-read piece co-published today by Salon.com and The Tyee, Geoff Dembicki exposes the dark underbelly of the public relations and lobbying industry, revealing the interconnectedness between Alberta tar sands movers and shakers in Alberta and their oily compatriots in Washington. The investigative article focuses on the fossil fuel industry front group
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Luxurious new offices and enduring gratitude
News item: BC Ferries hiking fuel surcharges, Andrew MacLeod, The Tyee “Ferry fares will rise by 2.5 percent on Dec. 12 on the major routes as B.C. Ferry Services Inc. adds to the fuel surcharge. “A press release attributes the hike to the rising cost of marine diesel fuel…” I
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Liberal MLA’s search for the BC Rail story
Premier Photo-Op assigned her minions to look for clues in the BC Rail case. Drawing from DFO resource: SALMONIDS IN THE CLASSROOM: PRIMARY Don’t miss Bill Tieleman at The Tyee, Railgate? Asked and Answered, Says Clark A great reader comment at the Tieleman article linked above, from ‘metacomet’ By Audit
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Thomas Walkom suggests that the systematic eviction of Occupy camps from Canadian cities may only help the movement to evolve from its first form: City administrations in places like Toronto, Halifax and Vancouver are inadvertently handing demonstrators something they desperately need —
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Would they lie to us?
Nine Months before Olympics, Province Saw Big ‘Shortfall’, Bob Mackin, The Tyee, November 14, 2011
“…When VANOC revealed its post-Games financial report on Dec. 17, 2010, it claimed a balanced budget after $188.78 million in operations revenue fro…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: An impassioned gale
In 1908’s New Worlds for Old, H.G. Wells examined a nascent movement that he supported avidly. He wrote,
“The early Socialist literature teems with rash, suggestive schemes. It has the fertility, the confusion, the hopefulness, the promise of glowing y…
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: One person’s voice echoes widely
Alexandra Morton has been nominated at The Tyee for The People’s Order of BC and you are eligible to vote. These words — familiar ones to readers of Northern Insights — explain the nomination:
“Alexandra Morton has for many years sustained…
Accidental Deliberations: History repeating
In 2008, it was then-cabinet minister Gary Lunn who wound up embroiled in at least a minor scandal over coordinated third-party expenses.And in 2011, there’s once again some sign of shenanigans afoot. In particular, a cluster of third parties based in …
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Taking on Goliath
Salt Spring Forum and Salt Spring Island Conservancy hosted noted western Canadian journalist Andrew Nikiforuk Wednesday to hear details of his new book, Empire of the Beetle. It is an examination of “how human folly and a tiny bug are killing N…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: David Hahn skippers the M.V. Deficiencies
More worthwhile reading today at The Tyee, from investigative reporter Andrew MacLeod, a fine journalist who does not work in an echo chamber rewriting background papers issued by flacks working for government or industry.
“In 2007, after British Co…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: For service with distinction, to BC Liberals
The fatally flawed Order of British Columbia must be scrapped. Rushing to aggrandize themselves and their own financial backers, BC Liberals destroyed the award’s intended essence. It was supposed to recognize:
“those persons who have served…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week.- Simon Enoch rightly criticizes the Cons’ fair-weather commitment to democracy in the wake of a fairly resounding vote on the part of Canadian Wheat Board members to preserve the institution and its single-des…
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Labour Day warning: If you want your union and your rights in the workplace, you’d better be prepared to fight to keep them
Ideal workers, as seen by the Canadian corporate right. Below: Juan Peron, Catherine Swift.
This Labour Day in Canada, unions and the fundamental right of working people to be represented by them face an existential threat. Elected union leaders seem …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Selected text for your weekend reading.
– Edmund Pries points out how the right sees wasted public money and gratuitous tax slashing as tools to force cuts to programs which actually serve a valuable purpose:
During the Reagan era, a friend and former…
Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Crawford Kilian interviews Linda McQuaig on inequality, including this comment on how to handle the damaging effects of inequality politically:On whether inequality is becoming a serious political issu…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog - Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science: Tar Sands Industry Has Its Eyes On Vancouver For Asian Export Terminal
saudi-oil-supertanker.jpeg
In recent months, opposition to Enbrige’s Northern Gateway Pipeline has mounted as citizens, environmental groups and First Nations groups have protested the …
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