Just Right

Stephen Harper speaks at Davos

2012-01-26T18:50:00.000-08:00

Interesting opening acknowledements:

... My greetings to Ambassador Santi,
To the governor of the Bank of Canada, known internationally as chair of the Financial Stability Board, Mark Carney,
To our hard-working minister of international trade, Ed Fast.
And to the best finance minister on the planet, Jim Flaherty....

The rest of it was good. He did an excellent job of blowing Canada's horn, saying in effect "...we're in good shape. Look and learn." I just wish he wouldn't encourage the megalomaniacal WEF globalists by appearing at Davos.

More commentary.

Ezra at the Northern Gateway hearings: "Builders vs Destroyers"

2012-01-24T17:50:00.000-08:00

More Ezra here and here.

Northern Gateway - depressing opinion poll

2012-01-23T13:27:00.000-08:00

Claudia Cattaneo:

... According to the poll of 1,211 randomly selected adult Canadians conducted on Jan. 13, right after the high-profile start of community hearings by federal regulators on Northern Gateway, more Canadians (43%) said they are opposed to the proposed pipeline than they are in favour (37%).

According to Mr. Bozinoff, environmental organizations enjoy higher credibility than the oil industry because they are perceived to be fighting for the environment and not gaining monetarily.

This is nonsense and Canadians should know better.

... Great play for U.S. greens and Mr. Obama’s re-election machine. Poor outcome for Canada and those Canadians who don’t see how they are being played.

Between the massive anti-oil, anti-corporate propganda campaign being waged by foreign lobbyists, and the Indians in the middle I see Northern Gateway going the way of the MacKenzie Valley pipeline.

Oil sands - following the money

2012-01-22T19:05:00.000-08:00

Lawrence Solomon:

... Big Philanthropy is the greatest environmental advocacy effort in history, of which the controversies involving Northern Gateway pipeline, the Keystone XL Pipleline, and the Tar Sands form a small part. ...

... no issue holds a candle to the #1 priority for the U.S. funders: global warming.

... If we don’t act boldly in the next decade to prevent carbon lock-in, we could lose the fight against global warming,” explains Design to Win, a major report commissioned by six funders, including the $7-billion William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (the Hewlett of the Hewlett-Packard Corp.), the $6-billion David and Lucile Packard Foundation (the Packard of the Hewlett-Packard corporation), the $1.6-billion Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (heiress to the American Tobacco Co. fortune), and the $900-million Joyce Foundation (lumber).

... When Americans tell us what is good for us, we rightly take the source of the advice into consideration. We should do no less when the advice comes from Canadians in the pay of Americans.

Vivian Krause: Oil sands money trail

... The thinking behind the U.S. funding of the campaign against Canadian oil is explained in a 2007 strategy paper titled Design to Win: Philanthropy’s Role in the Fight Against Global Warming...

... As I see it, the campaign against Canadian oil, put on steroids by U.S. foundations, has created a negative foil, a background of bad press and fear ...

Class warfare

2012-01-20T17:52:00.000-08:00

Class warfare is the Dem strategy for getting Obama re-elected. It's all they've got.
Adam Carolla analyzes:

[Via]

Child abuse

2012-01-20T16:54:00.000-08:00

Another shocking case of parents abusing their child to test radical social theory:

A couple who concealed the sex of their child and raised it as ‘gender neutral’ for five years have finally revealed - it’s a boy. ...

It's not as if there isn't plenty of evidence of huge biological differences between the sexes:

... Reflecting the fashionable idea that male and female roles have been "socially constructed," most commentators speak of gender instead of sex. ...

... There's only one problem with this beguiling vision of androgyny. Whatever we might like to believe ... sex distinctions remain a deeply rooted part of human nature. ... a wealth of scientific evidence showing that these differences are "hardwired" into our biology.

What are the odds that "Sasha" won't be deeply psychologically scarred? There oughta' be a law.

[Via Blazingcatfur]

Next ice age deferred by human CO2 emissions

2012-01-20T13:31:00.000-08:00

Finally, people are starting to seriously consider the upside of AGW:

In the journal Nature Geoscience, they write that the next Ice Age would begin within 1,500 years - but emissions have been so high that it will not.

... The broad conclusions of the team were endorsed by Lawrence Mysak, emeritus professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, who has also investigated the transitions between Ice Ages and warm interglacials.

... UK lobby group the Global Warming Policy Foundation [states]: "We must look to a sustained greenhouse effect to maintain the present advantageous world climate. This implies the ability to inject effective greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the opposite of what environmentalists are erroneously advocating."

Assuming that CO2 has as great an effect on climate as AGW hysterics claim then it's a no-brainer - we should be doing nothing to curb emissions. In fact we should be promoting emissions.

Our governments must get off the insane, economy destroying AGW bandwagon and reverse all "climate change" policies and programs. It's in Canada's long term interests to grow economically and to avoid being obliterated by another ice age!

More here and here.

[Via]

The new Marijuana Party

2012-01-17T11:30:00.000-08:00

“The Iron Lady” - another liberal hit-piece

2012-01-17T11:14:00.000-08:00

Peter Foster wasn’t impressed:

... looks an awful lot like revenge on a figure the lefty liberal arts community has not merely never understood, but actively hated. Ms. Streep’s thanking the English for allowing her to come and “trample all over their history” was also telling.

... one can’t help concluding that this movie was at best misconceived and at worst a hatchet job on one of the most significant political figures in the past 50 years.

... In the movie ... her principles are portrayed as the tedious platitudes recalled by a demented old woman. This is not merely mediocre art and bad history, it is shameful.

Damn, I was looking forward to seeing that movie!

The myth of settled science

2012-01-16T19:28:00.000-08:00

Watts Up With That:
... the same mantra used in efforts to silence critics of AGW is now being deployed in defense of climate change or AGW light: The science of climate change is settled. In reality, the assertion that any science is settled is essentially a political slogan that misrepresents the nature of science....

Pissing on the Taliban

2012-01-15T12:21:00.000-08:00

This just about sums up my feeelings on the issue:

... I have to say I can’t seem to work up any outrage. ...

And Jerry Agar's take is fine too.

Update:
Ezra Levant notes the Media Party's phony outrage and the media/Dem/Obama double standard.

Pushing the limits

2012-01-14T13:29:00.000-08:00

[h/t hunter]

Armed thugs: Part II - the video

2012-01-13T17:17:00.000-08:00

[Video thanks to Blazing Cat Fur]

Armed thugs bully 82 year-old

2012-01-11T12:19:00.000-08:00

In today’s Vancouver Sun:
An 82-year-old Cranbrook ... stone-cold-sober pensioner with poor lung capacity was unable to blow hard enough to activate the roadside screening device, Margaret MacDonald was cited for failing to blow, her licence was suspended, she was fined $500 and her car was towed.
Old but no fool, she quickly went to the local hospital where she had her blood tested for alcohol and obtained a medical certificate that said there was none — zero, nada — in her system.
... the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles adjudicator still found her guilty under the province’s controversial drunk-driving laws.
... MacDonald estimated she was forced to stand for nearly an hour in the middle of the cul-de-sac in the glare of the cruiser’s headlights, her neighbours watching from their windows.
... she maintained [a senior RCMP officer] roughly grabbed the roadside screening unit, inserted it in her mouth and sharply ordered her to blow.
“I could not blow at all,” she said. “... the senior RCMP banged his fist on the squad car and shouted at me: ‘Blow, blow … Your tongue is in the tube. You are doing this on purpose. You are slurring your words. You are drunk. I can smell alcohol on you.’ I said, ‘I don’t drink.’ He barked: ‘They all say that!’”
.... Her attempt to seek redress in B.C. Supreme Court was put on hold late last year because the drunk-driving provisions were already under review.
This is an example of what happens when you combine draconian laws with poor police judgement and an insular state bureaucracy. But Bravo! to Margaret MacDonald for standing her ground and fighting back.

EVERYBODY knows that Republicans are EVIL!

2012-01-08T18:09:00.000-08:00

The caring, compassionate, empathetic left

2012-01-07T17:58:00.000-08:00

Mark Steyn on Alan Colmes mocking Rick Santorum on the death of his baby:

... In 2008, the Left gleefully mocked Sarah Palin's live baby. It was only a matter of time before they moved on to a dead one. ...

Santorum accepts Colmes' apology:

What we don't know about climate

2012-01-07T17:11:00.000-08:00

From a comment by Robert Brown at WattsUpWithThat:

... What is the temperature that it would be outside right now, if CO_2 were still at its pre-industrial level?

I don’t think we can begin to answer this question based on what we know right now. We can’t explain why the MWP happened (without CO_2 modulation). We can’t explain why the LIA happened (without CO_2 modulation). We can’t explain all of the other significant climate changes all the way back to the Holocene Optimum (much warmer than today) or the Younger Dryas (much colder than today) even in just the Holocene. We can’t explain why there are ice ages 90,000 years out of every 100,000, why it was much warmer 15 million years ago, why geological time hot and cold periods come along and last for millions to hundreds of millions of years. We don’t know when the Holocene will end, or why it will end when it ends, or how long it will take to go from warm to cold conditions. We are pretty sure the Sun has a lot to do with all of this but we don’t know how, or whether or not it involves more than just the Sun. We cannot predict solar state decades in advance, let alone centuries, and don’t do that well predicting it on a timescale of merely years in advance. We cannot predict when or how strong the decadal oscillations will occur. We don’t know when continental drift will alter e.g. oceanic or atmospheric circulation patterns “enough” for new modes to emerge (modes which could lead to abrupt and violent changes in climate all over the world).

Finally, we don’t know how to build a faithful global climate model, in part because we need answers to many of these questions before we can do so! Until we can, we’re just building nonlinear function fitters that do OK at interpolation, and are lousy at extrapolation.

Yet many scientists, most mainstream journalists, most politicians and government bureaucrats, many millions of ordinary people, Al Gore and many other flakes remain utterly convinced that AGW is a proven threat to the planet. And there's a much longer list of things we don't understand about climate.

Social justice indoctrination at UBC

2012-01-05T19:29:00.000-08:00

Just came across this article about the UBC Faculty of Education's new program for "infusing" students with politically correct thinking:
Social justice, diversity and aboriginal perspectives will be dominant themes in all courses offered by the University of B.C. education faculty starting next fall as a result of a program overhaul that’s been in the works for several years.
The subjects won’t be taught as separate courses but will be infused throughout the curriculum, Associate Dean Rita Irwin said in an interview this week. “The program will have a very different look and feel,” she noted.
Good grief! This isn't "education" it's Orwellian indoctrination in leftist group think.

Northern Gateway poll: Glass half empty?

2012-01-05T11:44:00.000-08:00

CTV News:

Nearly half of British Columbians support Enbridge Inc. ’s proposed Northern Gateway project, according to an Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of company.

That's it? Less than half! That means more than half have their heads up their asses.

Kill the Indian Act

2012-01-04T19:12:00.000-08:00

Gerry Agar has solid advice for Indians:

[h/t blazingcatfur]

UN Agenda 21 - global, totalitarian “sustainability”

2012-01-02T18:08:00.000-08:00

A Democrat speaks to a Tea Party meeting about how UN Agenda 21 is being foisted on a largely unsuspecting public and subverting individual rights:

From the UN web page for Agenda 21:

Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment. ... [Agenda 21 originated from the 1992 Rio Conference, thanks to Maurice Strong.]

Canada and Agenda 21:

Canada has signed or ratified at least 45 multilateral environmental conventions and agreements and is signatory to numerous agendas for action (e.g., Agenda 21, the Habitat Agenda, the World Summit on Sustainable Development [WSSD] Plan of Implementation, and the Kyoto Protocol) ...

Local community involvement:

Originally known as the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), today the group simply calls itself “ICLEI—Local Governments for Sustainability.”

In 1992, ICLEI was one of the groups instrumental in creating Agenda 21. The group’s mission is to push local communities to regulate the environment—and it’s having tremendous success. [Note that 30 Canadian member communities are listed]

British Columbia is using its carbon tax to bribe communities to get on its "Climate Action" programme:

“The Climate Action Revenue Incentive program will be a new conditional grant equal to what local governments pay in the carbon tax, with only one string attached – to be eligible, communities must sign onto the Climate Action Charter and commit to becoming carbon-neutral by 2012,” said Premier Campbell. “If communities do that, and publicly report on their plan and progress in meeting that goal, they will be eligible to receive a grant equal to 100 per cent of their carbon tax costs.” [Big surprise: all 176 BC communities signed on.]

Ann Coulter says Romney's the best choice

2012-01-02T13:03:00.000-08:00

Ann Coulter:

In the upcoming presidential election, two issues are more important than any others: repealing Obamacare and halting illegal immigration. If we fail at either one, the country will be changed permanently. ...

... All current Republican presidential candidates say they will overturn Obamacare. The question for Republican primary voters should be: Who is most likely to win?

... That leaves us with Romney and Bachmann as the candidates with the strongest, most conservative positions on illegal immigration. As wonderful as Michele Bachmann is, 2012 isn't the year to be trying to make a congresswoman the first woman president.

Update: Dick Morris agrees: "Only Mitt beats Obama"

In a Rasmussen Poll among all likely voters in the U.S., taken on December 27-28, 2011, Romney leads Obama by 45-39. [All other candidates trail Obama.]

Stephen Harper "worshipped Pierre Elliot Trudeau"

2012-01-01T12:34:00.000-08:00

From the Edmonton Journal - David Staples' article with some interesting anecdotes about the young Stephen Harper:

... That's how Frank Glenfield remembered Prime Minister Stephen Harper ... Glenfield was his boss. The two formed a lasting bond.

... This past weekend, Harper fulfilled a promise and delivered a eulogy at Glenfield's funeral, telling many stories of Glenfield ...

Harper's appearance at the funeral reminded me of an interview I had done in 2008 with Frank and his actress wife, Mary ... At that time, they related the story of their relationship with Harper and his formative time in Edmonton....

[...]

"CTV News, Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife crossed the line "

2011-12-30T19:02:00.000-08:00

From HonestReportingCanada:

Good grief! CTV is morphing into the CBC!

Looking forward to the Sun News crew doing a job on this one.

[via]

White-knuckle landing

2011-12-30T18:28:00.000-08:00

"... only eight pilots are qualified to fly into Paro ...the world's number 1 most dangerous airport"

[via]

BC's radical sex-ed agenda

2011-12-30T17:38:00.000-08:00

We've heard a lot lately about Ontario's controversial sex-ed program. Now BlazingCatFur highlights a similarly radical agenda being pushed in BC. (See also.)

It's part of a broader program of social engineering/indoctrination in public schools and beyond as is made obvious by the BCTF's "Social Justice" web page:

... an organization of professionals, we accept and act on our broad responsibility to be involved in the social development of the communities and the province we live in, and we do this in the interests of the children we teach. ["... broad responsibility ..."? According to who?]

... The social justice initiatives of the Federation focus on poverty, child and youth issues, race relations, gender equity, homophobia and heterosexism, bullying, environmental issues, globalization, and violence prevention. In addition, the Federation has an advisory committee on Aboriginal education. [They haven't left out many of the social activists' favourite buzz words.]

This can lead nowhere good. Parents - Rise Up!

Dumb-assed Post editorial trashed by readers

2011-12-30T13:16:00.001-08:00

Today's National Post editorial "Don’t help drunk drivers get away with it" was, deservedly, given a big thumbs down by readers. What's with the Post these days? Too much Jonathan Kay?

Obama a foreign policy flop - Ron Paul even weaker

2011-12-29T18:29:00.001-08:00

ForestEthics running a protection racket

2011-12-29T15:46:00.000-08:00

Peter Foster's Conflict bananas:
The oil sands has become the main target ... for radical green groups. The recent decision ... to hold up approval of the ... Keystone XL pipeline was a major coup, and has encouraged radical NGOs to up their campaigns of lies and intimidation.

Last year, ForestEthics, a veteran of anti-corporate thuggery, sent a demand to Chiquita. ... a grovelling response committing “to directing our transportation providers to avoid, where possible, fuels from tar sands refineries ...”

... California-based ForestEthics, an anti-capitalist organization that is ... has run roughshod over truth and jobs for too long. Its previous corporate victims included U.S. clothing giant Limited Brands... Rather than attempt to refute ForestEthics misrepresentations, Limited Brands paid to “work with” the NGO, thus setting a precedent for green extortion. ... Trader Joe’s ... Walmart and Safeway...

... British bath products company Lush, which gets its scientific objectivity from ForestEthics’ fellows Greenpeace and the Rainforest Action Network. ...

... another enormous symbolic victory last year ... an agreement with the Forest Products Association of Canada ...

... ForestEthics used Chiquita’s letter to bolster its attack on rival fruit company Dole. “Dole Bananas: Brought to you by dirty Tar Sands oil,” claims the ForestEthics website ... Dole’s response? To grovel.

... let’s have a full accounting from ForestEthics of all the money they have received from the corporations who have been bullied into “working with them.”

... green-cloaked shakedown artists dictating corporate policy on the basis of misinformation and intimidation.

Four years ago, Chiquita paid a stiff fine for buying mafia-style “protection” from South American thugs masquerading as freedom fighters. Is trying to buy protection from the mendacious green lobby any different?

What Canadians want their military to do

2011-12-28T19:29:00.000-08:00

Pace my last post on the Harper government’s approach to defence and foreign policy comes an Ipsos poll that says Canadians may not be quite in tune with their government:

... Disaster relief in Canadian communities selected the top priority mission by 73 per cent
... followed by search and rescue, selected by 68 per cent,
... patrolling Canada's air space, land and maritime areas by 66 per cent.
... Enforcing sovereignty in the Arctic ... 52 per cent while
... fighting the war o[n] terrorism came last at 51 per cent.

That’s back-asswards to the military’s actual set of priorities which are defence and sovereignty followed by peacekeeping, search and rescue and lastly aid-to-the-civil-power (eg. disaster relief and riot control).

But hey, let’s look on the bright side. Maybe the Canadian penchant for “disaster relief in Canadian communities” can be turned to military advantage. If we’re going to do it properly (Canada’s a big country) a doubling of uniformed personnel is called for. Also whatever equipment is bought should be dual-roled for disaster relief and defence operations. That calls for a lot more tanks fitted to accept a snowplow blade and more APC’s fitted to accept street-sweepers (cleanup after riots) and even a Zamboni kit for special hockey emergencies. And we’ll need a much bigger fleet of CC-177 Globemasters to get the snowplows and cleanup equipment to where it’s needed. That’s just my back-of-the-envelope estimate of equipment possibilities - think what real military planners could come up with.

John Baird: “... undoing years of damage wreaked by Liberals”

2011-12-28T18:15:00.000-08:00

There is a long list of things to congratulate the Conservative gov’t for and foreign policy and defence are two that top my list:

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird knows some of his government's positions on the world stage are unpopular....

... "We don't develop foreign policy to be popular around the world," he said ...

... Gone is the so-called "soft power" and "human security agenda" of the previous Liberal government ...

... The Canadian military has emerged as a major player in Canadian foreign policy in recent years, bolstered by the fact the Defence Department budget has increased nearly $5.6 billion to $20.3 billion since the Conservative government came into power. [$20B is about double what it was when I left the military.]

... Baird said the government is simply undoing years of damage wreaked by Liberal governments in the 1990s and early 2000s. "The military was gutted for 13 years," he said. ... the government is pre-paring to spend billions on new F-35 fighter jets..

... Baird indicates those who are most critical of Canada's stances aren't likely to be friends anyway. ... "We've taken a tough stand on human rights in some parts of the world, and that makes some people feel very uncomfortable," he said. ...

As always it takes a Conservative government to clean up after years of Liberal weakness, neglect and folly. The last time there was any serious boost to defence was under Brian Mulroney and the Harper government has easily surpassed that.

Kudos to Harper, Baird, MacKay, et al.

Warm, fuzzy conservatism

2011-12-27T18:00:00.000-08:00

Speaking of "altruism", Joanne at BLY hits on an example of Conservative warm-heartedness:

... the prime minister's government is also quietly bankrolling one of the largest social pilot projects ever seen in Canada, paying generously for cutting-edge research that is changing the lives of hundreds of homeless people.

... taking their cue from Harper, officials decided to zero in on a sub-group: the mentally ill.

... Then they narrowed their focus further. In five cities across the country, they targeted a particularly vulnerable sector of the mentally ill homeless population.

Interesting story, but I have trepidations. As long as this is research oriented, limited in scope and under Conservative watch I don’t mind the feds taking the lead. The targeted group is certainly the most deserving of help. And it beats the hell out of “safe injection sites”. However, how long will it be before this morphs into an unsustainable “national strategy” to fulfill the peoples’ bogus “right to housing”. A Lib/Dipper coalition would certainly attempt to turn it into that in a heartbeat - shades of their National Daycare Plan.

... When governments, both federal and provincial, see the final results, he is convinced they will see the need to take housing-first to a national scale and someone will step up with funding.

And don’t proponents of these schemes always promise that they will be saving a pile of money? Sure they do:

"Once it's finished, we're going to make sure that every government in the country knows we saved them a whole pile of money,"

Be afraid.

"... leftism is a form of moral poison"

2011-12-27T16:48:00.000-08:00

Dennis Prager:

... [leftism] causes otherwise decent and kind people ... to say and/or do cruel and sometimes evil things.

...a major new scholarly book, "Pathological Altruism" (Oxford University Press), explores this phenomenon of people wanting to do good things yet ending up doing bad. It applies to The New York Times ... columnist Thomas L. Friedman, who has a deep altruistic urge to bring peace to the Middle East. But because he sees the world through the liberal/left prism, he says morally reprehensible things ...

... Leftism poisons everything it influences -- from journalism to the arts to universities to religion to government to male-female relations. And ultimately leftism poisons character. This does not mean that everyone with left-wing views becomes a bad person [or] that everyone with conservative views is a good person....

... But it does mean that leftism leads to pathologic altruism, ... Just as Mahatma Gandhi's hatred of violence led him to tell the Jews of Europe not to resist Hitler, so too has leftism led decent people who would weep at Israel's destruction to mouth the very same lies about Israel as those who seek its annihilation.

Ok, that sort of fits with the idea that much, if not most, of what passes for "altruism" is narcissistic do-goodism, mainly a trait of the left. Perhaps that (plus the malign sentiments and consequences) is what makes it "pathological" (and leftist).

U of M climbs aboard the apology bandwagon

2011-12-26T17:57:00.000-08:00

The December issue of my alumni journal included the University of Manitoba’s statement of apology for its supposed role in the Indian residential school system. Some excerpts [subtext in brackets added]:

The University of Manitoba wishes to take a leadership role in helping expose the national shame of the Indian Residential Schools system and the consequences of such a system. [The back of the line is over there.]

... For over 130 years, the University of Manitoba has worked to create, preserve and communicate knowledge. Moreover, our academic institution has a long history of encouraging debate, building excellence and fostering innovation. [Admittedly, back in the day, the residential schools and assimilation innovations were all the rage in academia].

... it is clear that we did not live up to our goals, our ideals, our hard-earned reputation or our mandate. [Even though our predecessors’ goals and ideals included residential schools.]

... That was a grave mistake [with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and currently fashionable political correctness]. It is our responsibility [No it isn’t]. We are sorry. [Boo hoo!]

...Instead of being positive influences on Aboriginal peoples, education and religion became tools of assimilation, thus undermining the rich diversities of First Nations, Métis and Inuit cultures, communities and families. [If only our crude and ignorant ancestors had known better.]

... Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized ... The next day, then Manitoba Premier Gary Doer ... and Northern Affairs Minister Eric Robinson ... Churches that operated schools – Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian and United – have also issued statements of apology and reconciliation.
[And we thought: “We’ll look really bad if we don’t climb on this bandwagon!”. And so,]

... Today the University of Manitoba adds our voice to the apologies ...
... We apologize to our students.
... We apologize to our Indigenous faculty and staff.
... We apologize to First Nations, Métis and Inuit leaders and Elders. ...
[We, the uninvolved, apologize to everyone.]

[There, that feels much better!!]

Signed,
David T. Barnard,
President and Vice-Chancellor

There's something weird and unseemly about people who had little or no role apologizing for the decisions and actions of well intentioned predecessors who operated under different assumptions and knowledge. I wonder if they give any thought at all to the possibility that what they are doing today their distant future successors might feel obliged to apologize for - eg: suppression of free speech on campus; rampant political correctness, and; the indoctrination of students in highly dubious theories of multiculturalism, radical feminism and postmodernism (and that's the short list)? I think not.

Christmas

2011-12-25T11:12:00.000-08:00

Senator Grant Mitchell's closed mind - Part III

2011-12-23T13:02:00.000-08:00

Further to my two previous posts here's a video of Grant Mitchell bloviating on climate change:

Mitchell is a closed-minded true believer. I left these comments at YouTube where Grant's approval is required. Will he approve?

There is no scientific debate about AGW? Really? If Mitchell believes this it's because he keeps his head buried in the sand, listening only to proponents of the AGW hypothesis and catastrophic AGW alarmists. The scientific literature is replete with peer reviewed work that is at odds with that hypothesis. Open your closed mind Senator Mitchell, and learn to think for yourself.

Liberal Senator calls skeptical scientists conspiracy flakes

2011-12-22T19:55:00.000-08:00

See the video (at the 1hr 50min mark) in the previous post re the Senate Energy and Environment committee hearings (previous post) for the remarks of committee Deputy Chair, Senator Grant Mitchell (Liberal, Alberta). Note that earlier he had declined to ask the first question (as is his normal routine) stating he preferred to go last. From his remarks it's easy to see why.

Senator Mitchell (a political 'scientist' and smirking full time), said that while he didn't doubt the sincerity of the four contrarian scientists, there was an "overwhelming concensus" [there we go again!] of equally sincere scientists who subscribe wholeheartedly to AGW as a serious problem requiring action. He referred to the IPCC as "the strawman that's been raised here") [Uh oh!] adding that many scientists who hold the opposing view are not IPCC scientists but "independent scientists all over the world". To believe these (skeptical) arguments is "to believe some kind of strange conspiracy theory" and to believe that "the Harper government is clamping down on scientists to enforce elite climate science concensus" ... "it's the last government that would enforce concensus". Before ending Mitchell claims that "there is devastating science that confronts and overwhelms what you are saying" and it's "the same as saying that vaccines are dangerous ... that cell phones cause cancer or that evolution is not true.... If humans aren't causing this we have to be very, very afraid ... then we can't fix it."
[Wow! Just wow! Them's fighting words! Mitchell is a closed minded twit and an asshat!! Is he alone on the committee in this line of thinking? Perhaps not but he's the only one to show his true colours here. And note that he gave a speech with no intention of asking questions and getting a response he clearly isn't interested in hearing. He pretty much ran out the clock.] Prof Veizer asked whether he could speak off the record to address Mitchell's remarks. I think given the chance Veizer would have clocked the pr*ck (verbally of course).

Now we're getting to the nub of the problem. That there is "scientific concensus" is widely accepted dogma. Senator Mitchell certainly has no doubts.

Climate realists testify before the Canadian Senate

2011-12-22T11:33:00.000-08:00

Excellent presentations by very credible people - Ross McKitrick, Ian Clark, Jan Veizer and Tim Patterson. There was a goofy event during Ian Clark's (U of Ottawa) briefing on CO2 and the paleoclimate record in which he used several graphs which unfortunately were not being displayed. The chair, Senator Angus interrupted Prof Clark (at about the 27 min mark) to explain that the graphs were not being broadcast to TV and web audiences because they were not bilingual. Idiotic but, hey, this is Canada. Happily, this lead to a good discussion by Clark of greenhouse gases and the dishonesty exposed by the Climategate emails.

Professor Patterson hit one of my favourite contentions - that global cooling is a much greater threat than warming, especially to Canada. If we were properly looking out for our own interests we'd be promoting anything that might lead to warming not trying to suppress it.

Senator Paul Massicotte (Liberal) brought up the "concensus" issue. He asked why should he, a non-technical political decision maker, believe the skeptics when the vast majority of scientists including government scientists believe in AGW? Tim Patterson attempted an answer but Massicotte wasn't impressed.

Senator Banks (Liberal) believes that we should be following the precautionary principle. Gaaakk! He laid out four extreme but uncertain scenarios and asked: Where should we place our bet? McKitrick responded that Banks had set up an impossibly difficult decision-making problem and suggested that rather than betting on one of a set of bad options a carbon tax based on global temperature could be set up (McKitrick's T3 Tax).

Senator Richard Neufeld (Conservative) said he agreed with Massicotte. They hear from scientists on one side that it that it's so simple, AGW is happening [probably that's all that they've heard until this session] and from the other side not so or not necessarily so. He said he's not sold either way and asked how many scientists would be "on the same wave length" as the four presenters. "Are there a lot of them? Are they just quiet? Why are they quiet? Because the other side is very loud." [Good point! Thank you Senator!] The chair, Sen Angus, then spoke up to confirm that the committee had heard much, much more from AGW true-believers (not his words) than from skeptics. Good answer from Prof. Veiser starting with a bandwagon analogy and his experience with bandwagon thinking in communist Czekoslovakia. He moved on to the corruption in the UN IPCC process, including suppression of contrary views and intimidation tactics.

Senator Robert Peterson (Liberal) brought up the tipping point ("break point" or catastrophic AGW) scare. Clark said these "break points" are based on speculation about the predictability of how climate will behave. Climate is too complex to reliably predict. He referred to such talk as "alarmist" and "wild speculation" (giving as an example the prediction by the scientific advisor to the British government that "in 100 years the only habitable place on the planet will be Antartica").

More to follow (next post) re idiot Senator Mitchell's disgraceful, insulting remarks.

Christopher Hitchens - mixed feelings

2011-12-21T17:16:00.000-08:00

John Derbyshire

... Hitch was a court jester for the liberal elites. He took care never to violate their most sacred taboos. Like Stephen Jay Gould, who also died too young, also of cancer, Hitch carried the banner of soft Marxism forward into the post-Soviet era. ...

Raymond De Souza

... For many of Hitchens’ fellow journalists, the virtuosity of his brilliant writing and bracing conversation earned him a pass on the hatred. But hatred it remained. His commercial genius was to harbour hatreds sufficiently vast and varied that a lucrative constituency could be found to relish all of them....

Jonah Goldberg

... He was no conservative. You can’t really be a conservative in the Anglo-American tradition and hate religion. You can be a non-believer, I think. But you have to at least have respect for the role of religion and maybe a little reverence for the role of transcendence in people’s lives. Hitch had nothing but contempt. It was one of the last truly asinine Marxist things about him.

... I’m not inclined to sugarcoat my take on the man given how he could be absolutely cruel when spouting off about the deaths of others. He could be mean, pigheaded, and insensitive (though never dull!). He could also be generous and kind. He was a brilliant and gifted polemicist who sometimes took the easiest way out by going after his opponents’ weakest arguments rather than their strongest. He defied easy categorization while having a gift for categorizing others. He’ll be missed because he was so damn good at being Christopher Hitchens.

Ann Coulter on 'Occupy' mobs and Mitt Romney

2011-12-20T12:37:00.000-08:00

[via]

The niqab (aka 'the vile veil') - a Post Media puff-piece

2011-12-18T19:04:00.000-08:00

A Post Media column ("We are not a threat") (Minna Ella in the photo) appeared in yesterday's The Vancouver Sun. I left the following comment at the digital edition:

This column is a puff-piece (by and for gullible Westerners) promoting Islamist ideology.

Very few Muslim women residing in the West wear the niqab or burka. With the exception of the most repressive nations (eg Saudi Arabia) many Muslim women elsewhere don’t wear it either. Some are forced to do so by radical Muslim patriarchal authority figures for cultural/religious reasons. Others, the most radicalized of Muslim women, claim to choose to do so also for religious/cultural reasons. Either way it is the most radical of Muslim women who wear the niqab or burka in Western countries. Tarik Fatah has said that it is a deliberate flashing of a middle finger to Western infidels.

Radical Islam makes no bones about its hostility to Westerners and to Western values (including gender equality among other personal freedoms). It seeks to propagate its hostile ideology in the West through propaganda and subversive legal tactics. It also poses a serious direct threat to security and safety (remember 9/11 and the Toronto 18).

Is Minna Ella a radical Muslim? Some evidence (from least to most significant):

(1) her claim of theological justification for wearing the niqab is highly debatable. It’s a point of contention even among Islamic scholars. Most Muslim women don’t wear it.
(2) she chooses to wear a niqab knowing full-well that most of her fellow citizens are intimidated by it or, at best, uncomfortable with it. This is not what you’d call sociable behaviour.
(3) she works as an administrator for a school sponsored by the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC). According to one report (Ref below) "The MAC are adherents to the teachings of Hassan Al Banna, an admirer of Hitler, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and a preacher of genocidal jihad against Kuffars [infidels]."
[Ref. http://blazingcatfur.blogspot.com/2011/07/muslim-brotherhood-approves-of-toronto.html].

You be the judge.

Christopher Hitchens ... 1949 - 2011

2011-12-17T18:01:00.001-08:00

Speaking of pieces of sh*t

2011-12-15T14:04:00.000-08:00

A close resemblance:

Supplemental update - Ezra Levant on the Kyoto brouhaha:

UNFCCC: "We won't let Canada out of Kyoto"

2011-12-13T20:55:00.000-08:00

From Anthony Watts quoting UNFCCC email:

... I regret that Canada has announced it will withdraw and am surprised over its timing. Whether or not Canada is a Party to the Kyoto Protocol, it has a legal obligation under the Convention to reduce its emissions, and a moral obligation to itself and future generations to lead in the global effort....

Canada to UNFCCC: "Blow it!"

CBC's Kyoto Poll

2011-12-13T12:58:00.001-08:00

And check out this CBC video (at the 1 hr mark) with Evan Solomon's flabbergasted sputtering when Tom Flanagan and John Ivison say they're AGW skeptics. It seems never to have occurred to him that some of his carefully selected pundits might not be true believers.

No!! to the niqab

2011-12-12T18:51:00.000-08:00

Jason Kenney says no niqabs at citizenship ceremonies:

And Tarek Fatah on the vile veil:

[via]

The dopey push for legalized pot

2011-12-07T13:23:00.001-08:00

Brian Hutchinson asks some pertinent questions:

What is it about Vancouver and its determination to make pot smoking a regular activity, like drinking coffee?

... four former Vancouver mayors [Mike Harcourt, Philip Owen, Larry Campbell and Sam Sullivan] ... waded into matters well beyond any local jurisdiction, penning an open letter last month that demanded the end of marijuana prohibition in Canada.

... Last week, sitting Mayor Gregor Robertson chipped in with a tweet: "Good to see 4 Vancouver ex-mayors calling for end of cannabis prohibition. I agree, we need to be smart and tax/ regulate."

... A key flaw in the legalization and regulation argument, what proponents such as the four ex-mayors and Mr. Robertson ignore, is the assumption that underground markets would just disappear. In fact, they would continue to thrive. [True. In my hometown in Manitoba the RCMP spent most of their time chasing bootleggers. Also the drug gangs who peddle marijuana also peddle just about every other illegal and dangerous substance. They’ll continue to sell it all.]

... What damage, one must ask? The mayors weren't talking about physical and mental health, which would seem paramount.

... The facts are: Cannabis products are laden with harmful chemicals; marijuana smoke contains carcinogens and damages respiratory systems; consumption impairs cognitive functions, especially among youth, who are susceptible to more serious psychological and physiological effects than adults.

... What about long-term health and productivity effects? Have those been punched into any cost-benefit analysis? ... work-related intoxication, and certainly impaired driving .... Would a bus driver be free to smoke a joint - or three, or five - before or during his shift? How could anyone detect if he had?

All good questions.

Assisted suicide and euthanasia - the slippery slope

2011-12-07T12:44:00.001-08:00

What always begins as a campaign for legalization of physician-assisted suicide in strictly defined circumstances quickly morphs into easily acquired suicide and euthanasia. There were a couple of examples in today’s Vancouver Sun.

From Oregon, a letter from a doctor:

... my 76-year-old patient had a sore on his arm which turned out to be cancer. I referred him to a cancer specialist for evaluation and therapy.

... he became ... depressed, which was documented in his chart.

... He expressed a wish for assisted suicide to the cancer specialist, but rather than taking the time and effort to address his depression, ... she asked me to be the "second opinion" for his suicide.

I told her that I did not concur ... two weeks later he was dead from an overdose prescribed by this doctor.

In most jurisdictions, suicidal ideation is interpreted as a cry for help. In Oregon, the only help my patient got was a lethal prescription intended to kill him. Don't make Oregon's mistake.

In Holland, mobile clinics for euthanasia home-delivery:

Mobile medical teams able to euthanize people in their own homes are being considered by the Dutch government. The teams of doctors and nurses would be sent out from a clinic following a referral from the patient's doctor.

... Dutch medics have been accused of practising euthanasia on demand.

... Twenty-one people diagnosed with early-stage dementia died with the help of their doctors last year, according to a 2010 report on euthanasia.

The figures showed another year-on-year rise in cases with about 2,700 people choosing death by injection compared to 2,636 the previous year. ..

Attawapiskat - John Robson's fearless take

2011-12-06T17:39:00.001-08:00

Robson's rant in writing.

Attawapiskat - "a disgrace not a surprise" says Blatchford

2011-12-03T14:23:00.001-08:00

Maybe it's a disgrace, but like Ezra (below) I don't feel guilty. If it's a problem that has a solution, only the Indians themselves can figure out how to solve it.

Christie seems to think we can, and should, do it for them. For example:

Christie: "... I’d dispatch the Canadian army, with its fabulous engineer corps, up to Attawapiskat pronto. ... I’d have them repair or throw up housing sufficient for the 2,300 residents ..."
['Giving' them stuff, doing it for them, solves nothing. Among the biggest problems on the reserve is that the residents have no employment and, worse, have no skills. If crappy housing is the problem wouldn't it be better to train the locals and get them to build their own houses? A bonus would be that they'd be more able and likely to maintain them later (and to build new ones when needed). A further bonus would be that they'd have skills they could take south with them should they choose to escape the reserve.]

Christie: "... The longer term one would see some of the big brains in Canada (that would necessarily also include some strategic thinkers from the military) locked in a small room until they figure out something better than the infantilizing Indian Act and the paralysis engendered by the reserve system. ..."
[Here we go again, the "big brains" in the south figuring out how to solve the Indians' problems. Infantalizing them further. The Indians need to figure out for themselves what they want, and what it is practical to do. Christie gives the Indian so-called "leaders" too easy a ride. They've been a giant flop up to now. Make them get their act together. And perpetual welfare subsidizies (throwing more money at it) isn't a solution.]

Attawapiskat - everything you need to know

2011-12-02T18:52:00.001-08:00

Via Five Feet of Fury where you'll find the rest ot the show.

Peter MacKay’s helicopter trip - a tempest (and a couple of dumb-ass colonels) in a tea-pot

2011-12-02T12:42:00.001-08:00

My initial reaction to the press generated ‘furor’ over Peter MacKay’s ride in a Cormorant SAR chopper was near complete indifference. It’s much ado about bugger-all. I don’t see the scandal in the MND commandeering a ride in a military aircraft once in a blue-moon. Big deal!

Having read the latest story about the "scandalous emails" I’m still indifferent about MacKay’s helicopter trip, but disappointed in some of the military officers involved. If there’s any embarrassment in this situation it will be mostly because of stupid, indiscreet comments and speculation in emails that have been leaked [or FOI’d] to the press:

... At one point during the discussion, a different officer, Col. Bruce Ploughman of One Canadian Air Division Headquarters in Winnipeg, raised concerns about the optics of picking the minister up from a fishing trip with a military helicopter.

"When the guy who's fishing at the fishing hole next to the minister sees the big yellow helicopter arrive and decides to use his cellphone to video the minister getting on board and post it on YouTube," Ploughman wrote, "who will be answering the mail on that one?" [And he puts this in writing?! Good grief!]

Ploughman expressed reluctance to have the military accept the mission. [If true, Ploughman is truly an idiot. A tasking coming from high up the chain, in support of the MINISTER of Defence, isn’t something you’d expect a mere colonel to“express reluctance” about “accepting”.]

"If we are tasked to do this we, of course, will comply," he wrote. "Given the potential for negative press though, I would likely recommend against it, especially in view of the fact that the Air Force receives regular [freedom-of-information requests] specifically targeting travel on [military] aircraft by ministers." [Oh the irony! It doesn’t seem to have crossed Ploughman’s pea-brain that his own email musings might be even more damaging should they be made public.]

The next day, July 7, 2010, Lt.-Col. Chris Bulls wrote that the "mission will be under the guise" of search-and-rescue training. [“ ... under the guise of ...”!!? Kee-ryste - how about (at least) “... the mission is search-and-rescue training”??]

What a couple of dumb-asses! My bet is that those colonels’ careers will be suffering a severe set-back. Their bosses, right up to the CDS, will be livid.

Stanley Cup riot charges

2011-11-30T18:33:00.001-08:00

Finally! But it's only the first 25 names and 61 charges:

No Nathan Kotylak or Camille Cacnio in that list - maybe in the next batch.

It's a long overdue beginning but I suppose slow justice is better than none. However, given our hug-a-thug system, the outcome is far from sure.

Climategate 2.0

2011-11-30T12:06:00.001-08:00

Some fascinating looks at what's in latest Climategate emails [via]:

Interview with Marc Morano:

Gavin Schmidt (NASA 'scientist', purveyor of RealClimate.org and winner of a climate science communication award):

Gavin: Frankly, I would simply put the whole CRU database (in an as-impenetrable-as-possible form) up on the web site along with a brief history of it's provenance (and the role of the NMSs) and be done with it.

James Delingpole:

... This is the real significance of the climategate emails. They show that major scientists who inform the IPCC can't be trusted to stick to the science and avoid political activism. This, in turn, has very worrying implications for the major international policy decisions adopted on the basis of their research....

Europe circling the drain

2011-11-29T18:54:00.001-08:00

via

Climate change is a scientific issue, not a moral issue

2011-11-29T18:35:00.001-08:00

Peter Foster: Part I - The moral climate and Part II - The left`s climate moralism.

What is social justice? - Part II

2011-11-28T12:23:00.001-08:00

Charles Kadlec's "Social Justice, Greed And The Occupy Wall Street Movement":

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has provided a rare up-close and personal look at a social system animated by the desire for political power that disrespects, if not completely disregards, fundamental property rights. What we can see is a society that fosters squalor, theft, rape and pillage and a political movement based on the very greed it claims to abhor.

... Finally, the OWS movement demonstrates that “social justice” is based on unjust policies similar to those they condemn. The protestors rightfully assail the bailouts of banks and Wall Street executives, but their solution is more of the same including bailouts for student loans and individuals who took out mortgages on houses they could not afford.

In truth, the OWS protestors are only skirmishing over the distribution of the spoils system they claim to abhor. Their demands for higher tax rates on the “1%” shows their desire to join those who pillage through the power of government. They call it social justice. But its credo is the same as the crony capitalists who exploit the American people through government handouts: Both seek to use political power to satisfy their needs by taking the income of others rather than through voluntary exchanges. In each case, its true name is “greed.” ...

[via]

What is social justice?

2011-11-27T12:22:00.001-08:00

Dennis Prager cuts right to it:

"Social justice has nothing to do with justice."

[h/t Blazing Cat Fur]

Muslim misogyny

2011-11-26T17:04:00.001-08:00

"In Arab Spring, a Young Man’s Fancy Turns to… sexual assault."

To which a commenter responds:
Ok, I guess I am starting to see the reason why muslim men want their women covered. ... Christianity teaches men to be self-sacrificial and to restrain their animal impulses. Islam teaches men to cover their women.

Climategate 2.0

2011-11-24T15:54:00.001-08:00

Terence Corcoran: "In the wake of Climategate 2.0, action on the IPCC is more needed than ever."

Anthony Watts has the all the ~~details~~ dirt on the latest Climategate email dump.

The trouble with Canada

2011-11-21T12:54:00.001-08:00

In a post yesterday I wrote that there was little appreciation in Canada of the British origins of of our liberty.
I realize I should acknowledge that a few do have such an appreciation - as proved (in spades) by William D. Gairdner in his recent book "The Trouble With Canada - Still!":

Insurance industry hyping global warming

2011-11-20T18:12:00.001-08:00

It was front page news last Thursday:

... Canadians renewing their home insurance are likely to find their premiums have risen sharply from last year, and the Insurance Bureau of Canada says the main culprit is climate change.

... Henry Blumenthal, the chief underwriter for TD insurance, left no doubt he is a firm believer in global warming. “Not only do we believe, it’s a proven fact,” he said in an interview, adding premiums for his customers are rising 10% to 15% because of the issue. “It’s the number one headache issue the property and casualty industry is facing.” ...

“Headache” my arse, unless that’s insurance-speak for “excuse to jack up rates”. Only a complete naif could believe such hype from an industry that stands to gain billion$ from it. On Saturday Lawrence Solomon nailed it:

... home insurance premiums — and the insurance industry’s profits — depend largely on the industry’s skill in making two types of investments: in the stock market and in marketing that scares the bejesus out of its customers.

... The insurance industry wants more money to cover its poor stock picks. And more money again to cover future global warming risks. With the government’s blessing, insurers will now jack up your home insurance premiums by 10% to 15% in the coming year.

... The insurance industry earned every dollar that it makes from global warming — its sharp-eyed marketers spotted the potential before anyone else. In 1973, Munich Re, one of the world’s largest insurers, warned that rising temperatures could result in receding glaciers and polar caps, shrinking lakes, and rising ocean temperatures, with carbon dioxide as the culprit.

... Canadian insurers like TD Insurance claim “it’s a proven fact” that climate change is driving rate increases. This is true, not because the science justifies rate increases but because government regulators and many in the public accept the claim as valid. The actual facts, from those not associated with the IPCC, say quite the opposite, and emphatically so.

... Last year, the American Meteorological Society published a peer-reviewed study that investigated insurance claims from extreme weather events. ... The conclusion: “The studies show no trends in losses … that could be attributed to anthropogenic climate change. Therefore it can be concluded that anthropogenic climate change so far has not had a significant impact on losses from natural disasters.” ...

Thank you, Larry! Now, if only the insurance regulators read FP Comment and weren't in bed with insurers.

Our 800 years of British inheritance

2011-11-20T16:51:00.001-08:00

We owe our liberty, legal system and democracy to 800+ years of British legal inheritance dating back to Magna Carta in 1225 (first edition 1215). While "we" encompasses principally nations that were once part of the British Empire, it also includes those whose politics and laws have been heavily influenced by British notions of liberty and democracy (eg. France, Germany, Japan) - in other words it’s pretty much everyone on the planet who currently lives in a functioning free and democratic society.

A couple of books

The British struggle was enormous and it was not by any means a sure thing that it would be successful. To get a feel for the magnitude and significance of that struggle John Robson recommended two books:

"The Magna Carta: A Brief History of" by Geoffrey Hindley sets the scene with descriptions of British society circa 1200, the system of governance (mainly feudal tyranny) and the main players (the king and the barony) leading to Magna Carta in which the King John I recognized, in writing, the natural rights of the barons (and all freemen) and limitations on the royal prerogative.

"The Lion and the Throne" by Catherine Drinker Bowen. Magna Carta being just the documented beginning, there was inevitable push-back by subsequent monarchs. This book picks up the story 400 years later and covers the life and times of Edward Coke during the reigns of Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I. Along with his perilous run-ins with the monarchy (once imprisoned on charges of treason) fighting to keep hard won liberties, Coke is famous for the 1628 Petition of Right (reaffirming and updating rights recognized by the Magna Carta) and for his meticulous documentation of case-law (he was the most cited source for another 200 years). It’s a fascinating story including tales of Francis Bacon (a Coke rival and foe), Walter Raleigh (beheaded) and Guy Fawkes (his gunpowder plot, trial and gruesome execution).

Both books together drive home the significance of the monumental, centuries long effort to achieve the liberties we enjoy today. It’s history that should be a mandatory part of high school curriculum - but probably isn't. My recollection of my own high school ‘education’ on this subject is that it consisted of a few short sentences about Magna Carta from a text on British history; and, the answer to the exam question, if there were one, would have been the name of the event and its date.

Who cares?

The British contribution to liberty is appreciated to varying degrees around the world. Based on explicitly and publicly expressed reverence for it the list would run, in order of appreciation: Great Britain (though it has apparently slipped in recent decades), America followed by a few Commonwealth countries.

Of the 17 copies of the Magna Carta surviving from the 13^th century only two are held outside England - one in Washington DC and one in Canberra, Australia. British concepts of liberty figure prominently in the creation of American constitution and legal system and Americans readily acknowledge and honour their significance (eg. the American Bar Association erected The Magna Carta Memorial at Runnymede, England).

Canada ... not so much. Except perhaps in the legal profession there seems to be little more than lip-service paid to the origins of our liberties. We got ours in 1982, from Pierre Trudeau, in his Charter of Rights and Freedoms, didn’t you know?

Who's bankrolling the Vancouver mayor?? - Part II

2011-11-18T18:23:00.001-08:00

Brian Hutchinson in the National Post:

... the mayor’s lead in polls is narrowing over challenger Suzanne Anton, a moderately right-of-centre city councillor.

But there’s a far more important matter in front of Mr. Robertson and his municipal slate, Vision Vancouver. It’s a campaign funding story, first raised a year ago by local researcher and writer Vivian Krause but ignored by most media, and avoided by the mayor himself. ...

... Ms. Anton waited until this last week of the municipal election campaign to raise the issue. In a press release Tuesday morning, the NPA [presented the facts rooted out by Vivian Krause and ended with] ... “Anton says these are important questions, not only because it is illegal for charities to donate to political parties, but also because it gives the appearance of foreign-funded charities trying to influence public policy. ‘This is a serious issue and the Mayor needs to come clean on his knowledge and involvement,’ says Anton.”

It's odd that there's been so little about this in the local media. And Suzanne Anton should have been hyping it for weeks.

See also this Straight article about the story and their interview with Vivian Krause where she answered an attempted smear by a Robertson supporter related to Tides executive Joel Solomon:

... Krause told the Straight over the phone that she's not making much money doing this research.

... "I'm not on anyone's dime," Krause claimed. "But I will say this. I am fighting for something here. It's not the big oil companies. It's not the NPA, and it's definitely not the Norwegian salmon-farming companies. It's the poor people in towns like Port Hardy on the north coast of Vancouver Island—which is the poorest part of our country—where there is up to 20 percent unemployment in those little towns. It's not boomtown Vancouver, like it has been here because of the Olympics. There are places that are hurting. They're the places where these billion-dollar foundations are shutting down what are actually fairly well-run industries. Yes, they have environmental impacts, but they're not the monsters that they're made out to be."

Who is bankrolling the Vancouver mayor??

2011-11-18T13:05:00.001-08:00

Vivian Krause asks fair questions in the National Post and Vancouver Sun:

... Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson is no stranger to Tides Canada. In fact, he was a Tides Canada director from 2002 until 2004 when he entered politics with the NDP. The treasurer of Vision Vancouver, the political party that Mr. Robertson rode to power, is Martha Burton, who has been a senior advisor to Tides Canada. Mike Magee, the Chief of Staff at Vancouver City Hall, was also a senior advisor to Tides Canada (2002 to 2007).

... according to my calculations, during the course of five years of politics with both the NDP and Vision Vancouver, Gregor Robertson has received $400,000, including $340,000 in campaign finance for Vision Vancouver, from sources that are affiliated in various ways with two registered charities: the Endswell Foundation and Tides Canada.

There's lots more, including info on Robertson's real estate holdings on Cortes Island:

... Tides USA announced that it had purchased Hank's Beach, a 150-acre ocean-front property on Cortes Island. [which is happily (for Robertson) located right next to] ... 82 acres of ocean front that is owned or co-owned by one of Mayor Robertson's companies, Treedom Ventures Inc.

See also, Terence Corcoran's "mystery Mayor".

Veeerrrry interesting!

Rubin: "Obama Administration Promotes Islamist Regimes"

2011-11-12T18:36:00.001-08:00

From The Rubin Report:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech justifying Obama Administration Middle East policy changes everything. ... It isn't a reluctant acceptance that Islamists might win elections and take over coutries. It is an enthusiastic endorsement of that idea. ...

Economics 101 for "Occupiers"

2011-11-12T14:51:00.001-08:00

"... One of Barack Obama's great gifts is the ability to say things that are absolutely absurd and make them sound not only plausible but inspiring… it's ludicrous but it's very clever ludicrousness."

Also: MYTHICAL INJUSTICE

[via]

"The season of negative celebrations"

2011-11-11T18:15:00.001-08:00

Naomi Lakritz:
With Halloween behind us, the season of negative celebrations is in full swing
... In fact, the actual holidays, from Halloween through Christmas, seem to mean less in and of themselves ... We mark these days by focusing on whom the holiday damages ( usually children or minorities) than on the day itself.
Once upon a time, we kids went trick- or- treating. We dressed up in costumes that appealed to us, ... We didn’t have to wear “caring” costumes, or suffer the indignity of adults putting toothbrushes instead of Tootsie Rolls in our treat bags ... Our lack of “caring” costumes did not prevent us from growing up to be caring adults.
...You know why all this was? Because common sense was in much greater supply in those days. ... There was no such phrase as “teachable moment”
... Remembrance Day. Instead of turning our full attention to honouring the war dead and the veterans, we will mark Remembrance Day with more disputes. ... There will be the white-poppy faction clamouring about its opposition to what it perceives to be the day’s militaristic focus.
... Once Remembrance Day is over, it’ll be time for that mother of all supposedly offensive holidays — Christmas. ... ceaseless bickering about “Merry Christmas” versus “Season’s Greetings,” and Christmas trees versus holiday trees, and whether a fat Santa sends a dangerous message about overeating and heart attacks, and all the other nonsense.
... The idea that children must be sheltered from the heritage, traditions and holidays of their society, their faiths and their country is ludicrous, especially when you consider the alternative is to consign them to the soul-destroying prison of political correctness.

Remembrance Day, Vancouver

2011-11-11T17:55:00.001-08:00

Vancouver Sun: Russian guests moved by Vancouver's Remembrance Day ceremonies

Vancouver riot: "Justice" for first defendant

2011-11-11T00:21:00.001-08:00

After pleading guilty the first defendant in the Vancouver riot gets his comeuppance:

An 18-year-old who was arrested by Surrey RCMP and pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property linked to the Stanley Cup riot has received an absolute discharge ...

Now that will send a strong message, won't it? A sign of things to come? Probably. Bleeding heart judges, useless police, incompetent prosecutors, gutless politicians - we've got it all!

Donny Cherry defended, again

2011-11-10T20:50:00.001-08:00

Fr. Raymond J. De Souza - Where's the courage at RMC? :

... The principal of RMC, Dr. Joel Sokolsky, issued an anodyne statement of disappointment ...

... it would behoove Dr. Sokolsky to correct the record and explain the consequences of reckless slander at an institution where character formation is central and which boasts the motto: "Truth, Duty, Valour." The truth was not told, and Dr. Sokolsky's hiding behind press releases is hardly valorous. ...

Donna Laframboise strikes a nerve

2011-11-10T12:38:00.001-08:00

Peter Foster: WWF’s tainted ‘witnesses’:

... Ms. Laframboise’s book claims that the WWF — along with other environmental NGOs such as Greenpeace — has “infiltrated” the IPCC. The WWF subsequently issued a press release describing the assertion as “ludicrous.” Her “sole evidence” was “some overlap between some of the thousands of scientists who have worked for the IPCC and members of a scientific advisory panel to WWF’s climate witness scheme.”

Funny how even the most tenuous link between any individual skeptic and Big Oil or Big Coal is considered to taint all skepticism, and yet to point out the implications of the very significant “overlap” between a radical activist organization and the IPCC is “ludicrous.” ...

Herman Cain's woes: "It's unfair ... "

2011-11-09T12:43:00.000-08:00

Andrew Klavan On the Culture:

Conservatives have been expressing genuine anguish at the recent treatment of Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain.

... It isn’t fair, they say.

... And yes, it’s unfair. But there’s a reason it’s unfair—a reason it should be unfair. There’s a reason we right wingers vet our candidates while the left adulates theirs, a reason we condemn our miscreants while the left elevates theirs, a reason our news outlets cover stories that the left covers up.

... The reason is: we’re the good guys. We have to do what’s right. The left doesn’t. Sorry, but that’s the way it works. It’s the price you pay for defending what’s true and good, the price of holding yourself to a high moral standard. Our politicians have to be better than their politicians. Our journalists have to be more honest. Even our protesters have to behave with decorum and decency—and still suffer being slandered—while theirs can act like animals and commit acts of violence and lawlessness and spew anti-semitic filth and still find themselves excused and glorified.

... Herman Cain is going to have to run the gauntlet, not just of a racist and dishonest left that wants to destroy him but of a fair-minded and decency-loving right that wants him to come fully clean and let the voters decide how we should proceed. The fight for truth, liberty and morality requires sacrifice and self-examination. The self-righteous quest for power over others does not.

The world is just as unfair as you think it is. You’ll never catch the devil hanging on a cross.

Calgary's breath-taking hypocrisy

2011-11-08T20:46:00.000-08:00

Kevin Libin on Calgary street minister, Artur Pawlowski:

For the past six years the city has hit him with injunctions, fines and arrests. ... Police have confiscated his signs and his Bibles.

... He’s spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, mortgaging his home twice in the process, in legal battles over what he believes is his constitutional right to preach the gospel, and help the needful, on city streets. The city, too, has spent a fortune prosecuting him. He’s long believed the city had a bias against Christians. The fact that the anti-capitalist occupiers have been left to openly flout, for two weeks, many of the same bylaws that he’s been routinely ticketed and arrested for, he says, is proof of it. ...

On The Source today, Ezra Levant asked that we email Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi to express our disgust, dismay and disappointment.

Don Cherry defended

2011-11-08T12:47:00.000-08:00

[video via blazingcatfur]

See also Chris Selley's column:

... I think he’s actually a rather good reflection of a Canada that exists despite the fondest wishes of people like Ms. Lord. But he’s certainly no more insufferable than your loud, least-favourite uncle — and he comes with a mute button.

Good column - Selley is honest - even though, as is typical of many snotty liberal elitists, he doesn't like Cherry or, by extension, the Canada he reflects. While I appreciate Selley's honesty, I don't share his antipathy. Don Cherry would be one of my most-favourite uncles.

Zero gravity

2011-11-07T16:17:00.000-08:00

Experience Zero Gravity from Betty Wants In on Vimeo.

Then there's Jeb Corliss in a wingsuit.

[via]

Cherry declines RMC honorary degree

2011-11-05T13:20:00.000-07:00

The Kingston Whig Standard:

Concerned controversy may take away from "a special day," Don Cherry has declined an honorary degree from the Royal Military College.

"I can't accept the degree and I won't attend the convocation," Cherry said in an interview Friday about the Nov. 17 ceremony in Kingston. "I am sad because I was really looking forward to spending time with the 800 cadets."

Perhaps instead they can line up to get their picture taken with French Professor Catherine Lord.

It is because of her bizarre and vitriolic complaints that the legendary hockey coach and commentator wont be there. ...

Too bad Cherry bowed to the loony objections of one pc nitwit. I hope RMC faculty and cadets don't let Lord forget what a fruitcake they think she is.

P.S. "Catherine Lord" is listed among RMC faculty not as a "Professor" but as "Teacher, Second-Language".

Update: Hunter at 'Climbing Out Of The Dark' notes that RMC Language Centre Director, one JEJ Lord (LCol retired), is related to his underling language teacher. (Thanks to Sean in the comments.)

Greeks despair

2011-11-04T12:32:00.000-07:00

Reuters:

Greeks watched the latest political drama unfolding in their capital with a mixture of despair and disbelief.

... "What happened this week was a disgrace. We looked bad and Europeans are already sick of paying for us."

"Looks bad"? "This week"? What's happening in Greece is bad. It's a disgrace, and has been for a lot longer than a week.

But we shouldn't be too smug. Peter Foster says we're all headed that way:

... Greece is the result of mixing fundamentally Marxist principles with democratic governance (which the philosopher Karl Popper pointed out had happened by the middle of the last century in all Western countries), and then giving it a credit card with no limit. The anti-principle of “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” inevitably deteriorated into “From each productive sucker to each unionized public servant and policy wonk.”

This is a crisis not just of Greece, not just of the eurozone, but of nothing less than the dominant version of modern democracy itself. As Joseph Schumpeter pointed out 60 years ago, this is not the rule of “the people” but of politicians who compete to buy votes in order to wield power. Milton Friedman noted after the fall of the Berlin Wall that the collapse of Communism did not represent some kind of victory for Western forms of democratic economic management. It was just that, since they had capitalism to feed on, they were collapsing more slowly. Prof. Friedman also noted the shift in power from politicians to bureaucrats. “The government has become a self-generating monstrosity,” he said. “We don’t have government of the people, by the people, for the people. We have government of the people, by the bureaucracy, for the bureaucracy.” ...

Disgusting: David Suzuki and NFB indoctrinating school kids

2011-11-02T18:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today the National Film Board and David Suzuki were given exclusive access to thousands of school kids across Canada to spread Suzuki's radical environmental and political propaganda:

As many as 12,000 Canadian high school students and their teachers will have real-time access to renowned scientist Dr. David Suzuki on November 1 and 2 through a new virtual classroom experience. The virtual program is being delivered through a partnership between the National Film Board of Canada and the David Suzuki Foundation....

Ezra Levant featured video clips of the Suzuki 'education' session on The Source today. Suzuki openly stated that he is deliberately targeting impressionable young students because (paraphrasing) 'their dimwitted, dinosaur parents aren't getting the message'.

This is a disgusting travesty! The schools that permitted this one-sided, dishonest, hypocritical indoctrination should be ashamed of themselves. They should be raked over the coals and forced to apologize to parents and students alike, not to mention to taxpayers who fund the NFB.

Privatize the CBC!

2011-11-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

Today's Vancouver Sun ran an editorial (lefty rant), The CBC at 75, by Janice Kennedy:

Poor Rob Ford. ...

... it’s an article of faith among red-blooded Canadian neo-cons everywhere that the CBC is an instrument of the liberal devil, one you must never, ever watch, listen to or in any way support.

... The CBC, long — and unfairly — viewed as a mouthpiece for the left, has become one of the Canadian right’s favourite bugbears.

... For the life of me, I don’t understand it.

... we should be celebrating. Canadians across the spectrum — yes, even Rob Ford — have countless reasons to be thankful for the CBC. Let’s honour 75 rich years by demanding many more to come.

I couldn't resist sending in my comments (to the digital edition):

Privatize the CBC! It has become a fat, lazy, sloppy, unaccountable behemoth with an overblown sense of entitlement. That’s what its $1.16 billion dollar annual subsidy from taxpayers, more than 2/3 of its revenue, has done for it. If that isn’t bad enough it is also insular and arrogant in refusing to comply with legal orders to obey access to information laws. Instead, it wastes taxpayer subsidies paying its lawyers to fight these orders in court.

As for Janice Kennedy’s dopey claim that the CBC is politically unbiased and "bends over backward to provide balance", maybe she can explain why it is that the vast majority of complaints about its bias come from right-wingers while its apologists, defenders and enthusiasts are all left-wingers. If the left loves the CBC so much they should put their money where their politics are and pay for it themselves - like I pay for my SunTV and Fox News subscriptions.

The CBC is by far the largest media corporation in the country, and it competes directly against smaller companies who receive no taxpayer subsidies. Clearly this is just wrong. There is nothing in the CBC mandate that can’t be accomplished more effectively and efficiently by the private sector. So, again, privatize the CBC. And if there’s a need to subsidize any part of its current mandate then outsource it on a competitive basis to all private media companies. The product would be better and less costly to taxpayers.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T16:32:00.000-07:00

[H/t: Hunter]

"Be nice to us or we will hurt you!"

2011-10-30T18:20:00.000-07:00

Message to Fox News from hacker group 'Anonymous':

Pot, kettle?

[Via]

Gutless, pc, law-ignoring politicians, useless cops and Indian thugs

2011-10-28T19:18:00.000-07:00

Via Blazing Cat Fur:

Shut up!

2011-10-28T17:46:00.001-07:00

Atlas Shrugged, the movie - a plot rewrite

2011-10-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

Peter Foster’s review of Atlas Shrugged (Part 1), the movie, criticizes its implausible plot lines and suggests a re-write:

... its slightly off-kilter, futuristic, film noir look does capture - at least to some degree - the wonderful weirdness of the book on which it is based.

... The movie is set in today's not-too-distant future, but has kept Dagny in railroads and Hank in metals by positing a massive oil crisis due to the implosion of the Middle East. The Dow at 4,000 we can believe, but oil at $37.50 a gallon? At that price, a Chevy Volt might actually not be such a bad deal. Domestic oil is once again king (despite being utterly unaffordable) but is being carried by train. Whatever happened to pipelines?

None of this makes much sense. ... it should have been thoroughly reformulated to reflect statism's new threats.

... How's this for a rewrite? Dagny now runs a pipeline company trying to build a huge new system for a form of oil previously uneconomic but now made available by wonderful advances in capitalist technology. Let's say this oil is located in Alberta and her line is to go to the U.S. refineries of the Gulf Coast, to replace imports from dictatorships.

... Hank is still in the steel industry but his new wonder metal is now to be used to build a cheaper, stronger and safer type of pipe. However, he is opposed not by other steel or pipe makers, but by [new villains:] ... a pack of meretricious, politically savvy environmental NGOs ... fronted by naive chanting muddle-heads, who have no idea where their rich lifestyles originate, and backed by capitalist foundations (the irony!) that have been hijacked by socialists, and by CEOs either too cowardly or stupid to say no (or by those who seek to take advantage of government handouts to produce throwback technologies). These NGOs claim that the oil is "dirty" and destroying the climate and that Hank Rearden's new and better steel in unsafe, and threatens aquifers and environmentally sensitive areas. Their hysterical claims are eagerly swallowed by gullible liberal media. Meanwhile politicians, despite high unemployment, are prepared to sacrifice tens of thousands of jobs because they, too, are cowed by the ENGOs, and in any case attracted by the unparalleled power prospects of aspiring to control the weather.

... I know this is all a bit farfetched, but we are talking a movie plot here. ... [:-)]

Works for me!

Kill the Canadian dairy cartel

2011-10-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

The wheat monopoly is as good as gone. Now the dairy cartel needs to be put down.
William Watson responds to a column by Wally Smith, head of the Dairy Farmers of Canada:

... [US vs Cdn prices per 4 liters] Three and two-thirds bucks compared to more than six bucks. Anybody feeling milked? If not hosed?

... Why we pay more for dairy products couldn’t be simpler: Our dairy cartel artificially restricts supply.

... To make the legalized price gouging work, of course, it’s necessary to keep cheaper alternatives out of the market. Which is why, in addition to police protection against excessive production in Canada, we have enforcement at the border via outrageously high tariffs: 241% to 295.5%, including 277% for ice cream. Imagine! A country that puts punitive taxes on ice cream!

... Mr. Smith’s main justification for output restriction is that before it came along, dairy prices would fluctuate. ... (Note that one of OPEC’s official aims is “the stabilization of prices in international oil markets with a view to eliminating harmful and unnecessary fluctuations.” All cartels believe devoutly in “stabilization".)

The dairy cartel should go the way of the Wheat Board. But it'll be a tougher nut to crack given that it's a shared federal/provincial jurisdiction.

Ann Coulter on Obama's crony capitalism

2011-10-27T12:06:00.001-07:00

At the 3 minute mark:

Boot the government out of our kitchens

2011-10-24T18:14:00.000-07:00

I’ve long maintained that there is no such thing as junk food. Today, Wendy McElroy provides more ammo against the food fascists:

... food is .. one of the main forms of self-control you exercise over your own life. It means something different to everyone, and that's what makes attempts by the state to set one standard for all so offensive.

... The typical counter-argument is to say that since society pays for our health care, we owe it to society to lead healthy lives. In short, your neighbour has a vested financial interest in what goes into your body. If you won't take care of it, the government will make you.

This line of reasoning - rather than justifying a Nanny State or a nosy neighbour dictating your personal choices - constitutes a powerful argument against socialized medicine, but it doesn't do much to say that the government should control what you eat. If socialized medicine had been advertised decades ago as a government mandate to control the minutia of your daily life, then it would probably have never been implemented....

... We need to kick the government out of our kitchens.

Read the whole column.

UN IPCC corruption, incompetence exposed, again!

2011-10-22T13:32:00.000-07:00

Peter Foster on Donna Laframboise's new book about the thoroughly corrupt, incompetent UN climate change bureaucracy:

"... In a meticulously referenced and deservedly praised page-turner, Ms. Laframboise ... demonstrates how the IPCC is a thoroughly political organization. ... Far from objectively weighing the best available science, it cherry-picks egregiously to support its main objective: to serve its government masters. ... The organization, Ms. Laframboise demonstrates, has also been thoroughly infiltrated by environmental NGOs, in particular the World Wildlife Fund.

The book elucidates how the panel’s much-vaunted “peer review” amounts to a “circular, incestuous process. ..."

Book excerpt. Buy the book.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Yet Environment Canada is a participant in this charade and continues to publish this kind of crap:

"Climate change is one of the most important environmental issues of our time, requiring urgent action on the part of all governments and citizens."

Religion of peace

2011-10-21T16:21:00.000-07:00

Islamic killers behead Christians.

[Via Blazing Cat Fur]

The National Post smells like the CBC

2011-10-21T15:02:00.000-07:00

This latest lame screed from Jonathan Kay, attacking Mitt Romney and the Republicans while offering nothing but praise for Barack Obama, has a distinct whiff of CBC about it.

Kay complains that Romney, et al, fail to credit Obama for recent American successes in the war-on-terror (keeping Guantanamo open, drone attacks on al Qaeda, killing bin-Laden, killing al-Awlaki, etc.) and now for winning in Libya. He also thinks Republicans unfairly attack Obama for being a weak, even anti-American leader (dissing America’s friends while apologizing for it’s alleged past mistreatment of everyone else.)

First, the American right (eg. virtually every commentator on Fox News) freely credits Obama’s prosecution of the war-on-terror and gives him due credit for Libya.

Second, Obama’s global “apology tour” is a fact. Obama campaigned on weak-kneed multi-lateralism and anti-Bush rhetoric (plus “Hope and Change”). The apology tours came early-on in Obama’s presidency and produced no discernibly useful results. His war-on-terror creds came later, after he began to acknowledge the real world (but continues to bash Bush).

Third, you’d think Kay was completely unaware that there’s a PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION in 2012 and that the Republicans are in the midst of choosing their candidate. Only an idiot would campaign for that job by praising Obama’s performance. There’s no way Jonathan Kay is dumb enough, or ill-informed enough not to know this.

Conclusion: Jonathan Kay is, just like the CBC, blatantly in the tank for Obama’s re-election.

What’s really weird is that he’s selling out his journalistic integrity on the dopey, narcissistic premise that what he writes might actually make any difference. How much more like the CBC could he be, short of actually joining them? It looks like the Post’s mega$ relationship with the CBC includes swapping editorial content.

Sun News v. the state broadcaster

2011-10-21T00:16:00.000-07:00

Further to this is Ezra Levant ripping into the CBC:

[Video from blazingcatfur]

Soft on crime, short on sense

2011-10-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Kay starts his column today with this nonsense:

The biggest problem for opponents of Bill C-10 ... is that criminals and prisoners have no political constituency.

I'm not exactly sure what he means by 'political constituency' but if he means political 'support' Kay is either being ridiculously naive or he's a brazen liar. Criminals and prisoners have in their corner the entire political left, most of academia especially criminologists and sociologists and a large percentage of nitwit pundits like J. Kay.

Anyway, with that kind of a start you can be sure the rest of the column is a waste of your valuable time. So let's skip to the end where Mr Kay closes his 'argument':

Stephen Harper and his cabinet ministers bristle when they are accused of inflicting an "ideological" agenda on Canada. So I put the question to them: In the absence of evidence or expertise to back up your policy, what other word would you offer me?

Well, we can be sure that they don't share Kay's ideology.

National Post shilling for the CBC

2011-10-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

Glen McGregor at NP:

... In an unusual move, the CBC posted a “Get the Facts” news release on its website that alleges the Quebecor chain has received more than $500-million in public grants and subsidies over the past three years.

... The public subsidies have allowed Quebecor to make profits, yet it “complains that its TVA television network ‘competes’ against Radio-Canada,” CBC claims.

... A document attached to the news release ... itemizes $61-million received through the Canadian Media Fund and $13-million that flowed through the Canadian Periodicals Fund to Quebecor magazine titles such as 7 Jours, TV Hebdo and Clin d’Oeil.

... Quebecor’s Sun papers and TV channel rail against the CBC on a nightly basis.

Sun responds:

... "We are totally astonished; flabbergasted that CBC would do this on the eve of Quebecor's CEO appearing before a parliamentary committee," said Quebecor spokesman Luc Lavoie. "It's contempt of Parliament by a creature of Parliament."

... Of the more than $500 million in "benefits" that CBC claims Quebecor has received, it cites $333 million in "savings" from a wireless spectrum auction. In 2008, the federal government set aside a certain segment of the wireless phone market for new companies in the hope of fostering competition.

... CBC also claims Quebecor's TVA television network receives millions of dollars from the Canadian Media Fund (CMF), but does not note that Videotron, also owned by Quebecor, pays more into the system than TVA takes out.

... CBC is also a beneficiary of the CMF, but does not pay into it. The monies received from that fund are on top of the annual $1.1 billion subsidy....

Now, for his next assignment, maybe McGregor can write a column detailing how much business the National Post does with the CBC. How much of that $1.1 billion subsidy is the Post raking in?

Update [via Xanthippa]: Ezra Levant on The Source today. And here on YouTube from blazingcatfur.

Remember the Alamo!

2011-10-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

The Mexicans are winning:

Students in a Texas public high school were made to stand up and recite the Mexican national anthem and Mexican pledge of allegiance....

"Evil corporations"

2011-10-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

From Blazing Cat Fur.

"Karl Marx was wrong!"

2011-10-16T19:00:00.000-07:00

A small sign of sanity at Occupy Toronto:

Bravo!

Occupy Adbusters!

2011-10-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

Terence Corcoran - "March of the global anarcho-crazies":

... U.S. President Barack Obama said “the protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration.” Mr. Obama obviously doesn’t read ‘Adbusters’, the anarcho-crazy Vancouver magazine that is credited with having started OWS last July with an editorial call-to-arms titled “#OCCUPYWALLSTREET: Are you ready for a Tahrir moment?”

... The bald and grotesque absurdity of comparing Wall Street (and the United States or Canada) with Egypt and other Middle East tyrannies should be enough to stop this exercise in juvenile political science.

... These are the same global anarcho-crazies — the same ideological anti-democratic trouble-makers who stormed the G20 in Toronto, attracted the Black Bloc, staged riots at free trade meetings, marched in the 1960s and 1970s — who are now using the same old violent property-seizing techniques they’ve always used to put forward an incoherent message that boils down to we don’t like the way things are, so let’s join a mob. ...

Never mind Occupy Wall Street / Vancouver / ..., someone, preferably CSIS and the RCMP, should occupy the Vancouver headquarters of Adbusters and start taking names and indicting nitwits. Adbusters’ declared aim:

Our aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we live in the 21st century.

In short the instigators of the “Occupy” mobs are engaged in treasonous agitation and promotion of insurrection against the most free, most successful political, economic and cultural system in the history of mankind. They want to “topple” it. To replace it with ... what?

"We Day"

2011-10-14T16:57:00.000-07:00

In Vancouver yesterday:

... Some 18,000 students ...[at]Vancouver’s Rogers Arena Thursday.

... "we are building a school in Haiti...” said Jacob Gebrewold, ... one of those youth, ... 15, a Grade 11 student at Port Moody secondary. Gebrewold, who was attending his second We Day...
“... my parents are from Ethiopia and there’s a huge Ethiopian community here in British Columbia,” he said. And they’ve raised me and inspired me to believe in the fact that I am as big a part of the change as any senator, any lawyer, any president.

... a range of speakers and entertainers from former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to NBA all-star Shaquille O’Neal, actress and activist Mia Farrow, the band Hedley, former child soldier Michel Chikwanine and others. [What?! GW Bush wasn't invited!]

Well it’s nice to see that kids are being encouraged to help the less fortunate. But that comes off as “the biggest part of ‘We’ is 'Me'" - exactly what we might expect from the narcissistic self-esteem generation. Young Jacob doesn’t seem to get that “senators”, “lawyers” and “presidents” may have done something to earn their status and positions of influence. Participating in “We” fests may be a start in that direction but no more than a start.

It would be more encouraging if we had some confidence that these students were getting a good grounding in the knowledge and skills needed for them to understand the real world and how it is that they came to be in such a privileged position, to be able to afford to help with “building a school in Haiti”. However, I expect they’re getting more “social justice” indoctrination - in the evils of racist, white, Western colonialism and capitalism - than anything. Look for them to be participating in tomorrow's "Occupy Vancouver" day.

Corcoran disses 'Ethical Oil'

2011-10-13T19:10:00.000-07:00

Terence Corcoran:
First with some praise:

... The ethical oil argument is a clever and compelling one, and good for a dozen laughs when it’s delivered — as it was at a Toronto Empire Club lunch the other day — by Mr. Levant. Most of the laughs come at the expense of the David Suzuki crowd, green campaigners and air-headed young campus leftists/activists such as Zoe, Mr. Levant’s caricature of a 20-something McGill student in vegetarian studies who has never been west of Hamilton but has a brain filled with ethical angst over dozens of global issues about which she knows nothing — human rights, environmental degradation, poverty, climate change and Wall Street domination. Zoe is probably preparing even now for Saturday’s march on Bay Street. ...

Then his objections:

... Ethical oil backers appear to have co-opted the liberal left’s concerns about rights and the environment by portraying the oil sands as a morally superior source of oil. In the end, though, ethical oil abandons the principles of free trade and cedes the economic argument to the anti-free trade left. Ethical Oil is too clever for its own good. ...

And Ezra responds:

Hi Terry. Thanks for coming to my speech yesterday!
Defending Canada's ethical oil does not mean creating trade barriers against conflict oil from OPEC dictatorships. For one thing, it's impossible: there is just too much conflict oil on the world market and too little of the good stuff. We see this now with economic sanctions against Sudan and Iran: America doesn't buy any of that conflict oil, but China, Japan and India are desperate to buy all they can.
The ethical oil argument is the opposite of a trade barrier; it is a call for more transparency in the marketplace to allow consumers to make a fully-informed choice at the pumps. Some people don't care if their oil is from Saudi Arabia. But others do. Why not let the market decide? Fair trade coffee shops don't depend on putting Tim Hortons out of business. They just give consumers a chance to pay for the goodwill inherent in ethical production methods. But the good news for energy consumers is that, unlike fair trade coffee or Polar Bear diamonds, ethical oil doesn't cost any more than the foreign stuff.
Terry Corcoran is worried about a fantasy scenario where world governments would sanction blood oil. The real risk is the opposite: right now the European Union, looking to distract from its own appetite for blood oil, is threatening to slap trade barriers on our Canadian ethical oil. Let's fight that real trade threat before going off to fight one that doesn't exist yet.

I'd add that Ethical Oil is a well reasoned response to relentless attacks by environmental radicals and other hysterics, on Alberta's oil sands ("dirty, immoral, environment destroying tar sands, Big Oil, capitalist pigs, ..., ..."). Big Oil was doing a crappy job of defending itself, so someone had to. Ezra deserves high praise for demolishing all the nonsense and makes the case that, contrary to the dearest wishes of the anti-oil mob and whether or not AGW is actually a problem, there is no alternative on the horizon. Furthermore, each of the various causes promoted by activists has to be addressed on its own merits. They are not all morally or ethically equivalent. Pushing for dubious "fair trade" in coffee beans is hardly equivalent to the anti-apartheid movement.