Canada’s Missing Founding Fathers
Children who have an absent father are more likely to have low self esteem, to abuse substances, exhibit anti-social behaviour, and engage in criminal activity. That is the personal impact…
America
Sniffs from a Schiff…
(Originally written March 7, 2012. Part of Great Upload of 2013.) A colleague once showed me a book by Peter Schiff, in which the author and investment-house CEO purported to…
Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, 2012 (via GreenCarReports)
My new adventures as a Canadian correspondent for GreenCarReports.com begin with this post. Readers are encouraged to show them some love. 🙂 My ongoing efforts to track Canadian EV sales…
Why Banning Guns Is Pointless, Or Soon Will Be
Thanks to 3D printing, a government ban on guns soon will be as enforceable as a government ban on pictures of guns. That is because, not in the too distant…
Alberta oil selling at 50% discount to world price…
…which explains why the Canadian government is Hell-and-High-Water-bent on building a pipeline, any pipeline, anywhere. First, the stats Over the past few months, new stories have noted that Canada’s oil…
An American Makes the Case for Public Healthcare
Public healthcare works. Ask any American senior citizen. The Washington Post’s Harold Meyerson explains: …a funny thing happens to Americans’ life expectancy when they age. The U.S. mortality rate is…
The millionaire tax, American- and French style
(originally written Apr 19, 2012. Part of my Great Upload of 2013.) The American “millionaire tax” plan At the moment, Obama is facing stiff resistance from his proposal to tax…
Republicans Show Government Can Create Jobs
One month after the Sandy Hook shootings, with fears of an assault weapons ban, not only are sales for assault rifles at record highs, but all gun sales are up,…
EV stats for British Columbia (2012)
The kind people at CEV for BC sent over some statistics on Clean Energy Vehicle rebates issued by the provincial government. While the CEV rebates were available for electric, natural…
Your Country’s Finances Are Exactly Like Yours
Many scoff at the conservative analogy that the American government should manage its finances like a household, but little do they realize the idea doesn’t strengthen conservativism, it weakens it.…
Cumulative Canadian (PH)EV sales (through Nov 2012)
It doesn’t look as if this data has been centralized on the web yet, so I’ll start. Cumulative Canadian (PH)EV sales through Nov 2012 can be found at this link,…
The US once was, but will never again be, the Saudi Arabia of oil
The idea that the US might one day produce more oil than Saudi Arabia, popularized by an International Energy Agency (IEA) report, has gone viral in recent weeks. It’s like…
War on Drugs doc launches for free – Friday Film Pick: Breaking the Taboo
It’s too early in the day for us to watch a documentary on the so-called “war on drugs,” so we’re not actually endorsing this week’s FFP, Breaking the Taboo, which…
Scrap America – Friday Film Pick & Interview: Scrappers
An interview with one of the filmmakers behind the poetic documentary Scrappers.
Green byelection blues
Alas, the Green Party didn’t pick any seats up in the Nov 26 Canadian federal by-elections. While their strong showings probably count as a real moral victory, I imagine at…
Americans considered blowing up the Moon during the cold war to scare the Russian
The idea was to use a nuke to blow up the moon to scare the Russians. What did they think, that it was a small rock? Crazy!!