Party with the plutocrats
From Sister Sage's Musings "Local right-wing gadfly and embarrassment to the city, Vancouver’s Paris Hilton, Leah Costello, is hosting war criminal Dick Cheney at her very elite, very right wing…
Norman Farrell
Multinationals avoid income taxes
Some believe that businesses should pay no taxes and HST serves part of that purpose. A remaining aim of business is to pay no income tax but, because ruling parties…
Insatiable appetites
An apothegm repeated often in programs treating alcohol abuse: "One drink is too many and one thousand is not enough." The statement also applies to business leaders and their lobbyists.…
The master of red tape reduction
Humanists associate Dick Cheney with war crimes but his legacy of malevolence is broader. In 2005, the U.S. Congress passed legislation exempting hydraulic fracturing from oversight under the Safe Drinking…
Callow victims supported billionaires’ coup
Coup: A quick, brilliant, and highly successful act; a triumph. By extension, a takeover of one group by another. Guardian columnist George Monbiot provides his view of a coup against…
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…
Liberal scorn for sustainability
Before joining the Vancouver Sun, Fazil Mihlar was Senior Policy Analyst at The Fraser Institute. In his years with the newspaper's editorial board, Mihlar has continued to serve philosophical goals…
Our neighbour devours it greatness
The Fall of the United States, CommonDreams.org, John Atcheson "Welcome to the late great United States – a country in economic and moral free fall. A country in thrall to…
Cut that red tape again, please
Premier Clark is barnstorming around the province celebrating jobs week. Not wanting to incur more debt and commit new spending, she intends to repurpose planned expenditures. Of course, she also…
Next we sell off naming rights for schools
Private business promoters aim to eliminate public enterprises through privatization, contracting out and outsourcing. They promote the myth that delivery of services by private, often multinational, companies gains cost and…
Let’s play political football with Kitimat
BC Government Online Newsroom, British Columbia to develop liquefied natural gas industry, Sep 19, 2011: "Premier Christy Clark today announced British Columbia will take four key steps to create a…
Legends of journalism or dreary old white men?
Anonymous said... Uhmm, has your blog been hacked? Where did your header photo go? If this is a new "design" please go back to your old header/masthead. This one is…
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 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…
Americanization of heath care undesirable
We commonly hear claims that Canadian healthcare is not sustainable. Most of these statements originate with corporate PR institutes whose objective is to create business opportunities for private clients. The…
Conservation must be our central order of business
Unless we practice conservation, those who come after us will have to pay the price of misery, degradation, and failure for the progress and prosperity of our day. (Gifford Pinchot,…
Guest Post re Enbridge Northern Gateway
Hi Friends, I just registered to make an oral submission to the National Energy Board panel reviewing the Enbridge Northern Gateway project. I encourage you to do the same. Enbridge…
Hands-on, results driven, action oriented corpspeak
DuPont's Herbicide Goes Rogue, Jim Hightower, OtherWords.org In the corporate world's tortured language, workers are no longer fired. They just experience an "employment adjustment." But the most twisted euphemism I've…
Non-thinking tank
During the lead-up to the HST referendum, business advocate Fraser Institute complained, "...opponents of the harmonized tax have filled newspapers, broadcast media, and the blogosphere with inaccurate – and often…
Cluster bombs on aisle 4, torture gear on 3
British Defence Minister Liam Fox is proud of U.K. arms traders. He welcomed dealers and customers from around the world to the 2011 Defence and Security Equipment (DSEi) arms fair…