What Are Cyclists Lives Worth
While I cannot answer that question I can tell you what our society and its governments have decided cyclists lives are not worth. Cyclists lives are not worth the cost…
September 2014
The Wisdom of Plants? Caffeine’s Advantages and Disadvantages
Had your caffeine fix yet this morning? I look forward to my cup of coffee after breakfast mightily. The taste is not that great (as I tell my grandkids who…
Sharp decline in for-profit health insurance efficiency costs employers
A new study from the Canadian Medical Association Journal shows sharply increasing inefficiency in the Canadian for-profit health care insurance industry. The study indicates that less and less of the…
The Smell Of Desperation
http://notesfromachair.com/ If you want to really know what’s driving the Harperites these days, Devon Black writes, consider the tactics they are using: Twice in the last three months, Conservatives have…
Our gawker culture
Suddenly the Net lit up with headlines news: celebrity nude photos leaked! Videos too! Facebook timelines were replete with media stories. Shock. Horror. Voyeurism. Click, click, click the viewers racked…
Goldman Sachs Warns Investors About Tar Sands By Rail Challenges While Investing in Tar Sands By Rail
In 2009, Matt Taibbi wrote a piece in Rolling Stone in which he described the investment bank Goldman Sachs as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity,…
Star Readers And Mandatory Voting
In response to a recent column by Susan Delacourt discussing mandatory voting, Star readers weigh in with their usual perspicacious observations, the majority in favour of a less radical solution…
What Excuse Will Stephen Harper Use to Trigger An Early Election?
He is not supposed to call an election until October 19, 2015 according to his own fixed-date election law.But everybody knows that Stephen Harper won't hesitate to hold one if…
Everything has a price #nlpoli
Danny Williams famously once said that at some point, “principle converts to cash.” When his old friend Tom Marshall named a court house after Williams, the former Premier said this…
ISIS and The Real Terrorist Powers
The biggest terrorist powers in the world are located in Washington and London, as Chomsky and others have pointed out repeatedly. Millions were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan alone, to…
A fitting reminder #nlpoli
Tom Marshall has a few days left as premier so he figured the best thing to do would be to name the courthouse in Corner Brook after Danny Williams, Marshall’s…
Why the Scottish Referendum Is NOT the Quebec Referendum
I've been seeing a lot of stories in the Canadian and British media, comparing the Scottish independence referendum campaign to the one in Quebec in 1995.And I've resigned myself to…
Dispatches from your crazy Uncle Steve: It’s all the fault of the media elite!
“Isn’t that Brian Mulroney talking to some guy … Hey! Isn’t that one-a those Trudeaus?! Mulroney’s just another Trudeau lover! Like the Ottawa media elite!” Yadda-yadda… Below: The real Crazy…
Big Oil Madness: Gastem’s $1.5 million lawsuit against tiny Quebec village of Ristigouche
Gastem, a Quebec oil and gas exploration company is suing the tiny Quebec village of Ristigouche-Sud-Est to the tune of $1.5-million. The post Big Oil Madness: Gastem’s $1.5 million lawsuit…
Spain prepares for an autumn of discontent by buying €1bn of riot gear | World news | The Guardian
Spain prepares for an autumn of discontent by buying €1bn of riot gear | World news | The Guardian. The Spanish government is readying itself for an autumn of discontent,…
Can the NDP challenge Harper on the economy?
The NDP’s announcement that it will push for a national minimum wage if elected is good news and suggests that the party may finally be overcoming its decades-long aversion to…
Lies and Liberals, an inherent match
In November 2001, after NDP MLA Joy McPhail reported a government plan to increase medical service plan premiums, Canadian Press quoted Liberal Health Minister Colin Hansen, “Joy MacPhail needs a…
Industrious immigrant vs idle Indigenous meets reality
Here’s a familiar trope: immigrants are industrious and hard-working. Here’s another, opposite trope: First Nations are idle and lazy. And here’s a graph that beautifully calls into question this neat…