Karzai’s Two-State Solution for Afghanistan. 9/11 for India.
Hamid Karzai is trying to broker a two-state within one state deal that would effectively cede control over Afghanistan’s Pashtun south to the Taliban. That Taliban we’ve spent the last…
The Mound of Sound
TARPing Athabasca?
It now seems only a matter of time before major investors start pulling their money out of bitumen. The markets are waking up to the reality of a Carbon Bubble…
Bad Moon Rising for Bitumen
It was coming. You were warned. Now brace yourselves. Some place in England called Oxford University today begins a four-year study to identify assets that could be left “stranded” by…
"The Worst Procurement in the History of Canada"
At least until the F-35 saga is wrapped up. “The Worst Procurement in the History of Canada“ is the title of a report released by the Rideau Institute and the…
Let The Rumors Begin
Pope Benny, a.k.a. Joe Ratzinger, is packing it in. The first pope to resign since the medieval period, the 85-year old has given barely two weeks notice. He’s out on…
Blowback – Drone Warfare
Send in the drones. Few grasp the significance of drone warfare. We don’t see them. Our people don’t get killed. We rarely know who does get killed and when, infrequently,…
The Endangered and Elusive "Eastern Bald Senator"
h/t Perry Williams, St. Catherines, P.E.I.
Afghan Govt. Jails 13-Year Old Boy for Sex With Men
When George w. Bush sent the Taliban packing in 2011 it was once again open season on little Afghan boys’ bums. A lot of Afghan guys, you see, like to…
A Tar Sands Compromise, One They’ll Have to Refuse
Today’s bitumen trafficking contemplated by Enbridge, Redford and Harper is beset by indefensible problems. The proponents are making it far worse than it needs to be. A huge part of…
Canada’s Sub-Prime Disaster Waiting in Harper’s Wings
One sector known for being a holdout on climate change is the financial community. Some of the most outlandish denialist journalism has come (and too often still does) from once…
About That F-35 Bill
The F-35 programme has been underway for, well, eleven years. Current plans call for completion of testing in 2019. Here’s a sobering look at F-35 development taken from Aviation Week.…
Here Come the Auditors
A Senate budget committee has called in outside auditors to scrutinize the expenses claimed by three senators and the status of their actual residency. Tories Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau and…
Canadian Trained Troops Fight American Trained Troops In Mali Again
Canadian-trained Malian paratroopers loyal to democratically-elected but deposed president Amadou Tourre are fighting again with the American-trained forces of our new ally and coup leader, butcher and probable mass murderer…
Criminalizing Mental Illness
Harper has probably got a tent in his puritanical pants over this one. Our prime monster is on the crime and punishment bandwagon and this time he’s got the mentally…
Could the U.S. and China Stumble Into War?
We like to think that the United States and China have become so inter-dependent, their economies so entwined, as to rule out any major armed conflict between them. But that’s…
Enbridge Pulls Out All the Stops
In yesterday’s paper there was a story that, contrary to eco-terrorists’ claims, dilbit floats and so is quite amenable to conventional oil spill recovery efforts. The claim, naturally, came from…
Is North Africa the West’s First Climate War?
We’ve witnessed unrest and uprisings in one form or another from Egypt to Morocco over the past two years. We, the West, intervened directly in two – Libya and Mali.…
China’s Top Guns
Wired.com has a sobering assessment of China’s recent aerial war games. Let’s set aside the jokes about parallel parking and realize that China has developed a world class air force,…
Is Duffy Toast?
This story has been kicking around for a few days. Former CTV News Conservative party apologist turned Harper senator, Mike Duffy, seems to be in a great deal of hot…
When The Rich Eat the Poor
You might think that Ethiopia is a country that would take its food supply very, very seriously. We’re regularly greeted by appeals for donations to help relieve starvation in the…