Border crossings - profiling

We travelled to Bellingham, Washington last week to spend Christmas at a seaside hotel and spa. The trip went smoothly. No delays for weather and the hotel and Christmas dinner were excellent.

But speaking of delays - the only significant one was crossing the border. No problem entering the U.S.A. at the Peace Arch - it took all of ten minutes including the time actually speaking to a U.S. customs official. After handing the border agent our passports we answered a couple of pertinent questions - how long staying, purpose of visit, anything to declare? Welcome to the United States.

Crossing back into Canada two days later it was a slightly different story. The crossing at Sumas, Washington near Abbotsford was backed up at least a half hour. Not that the line was very long - there must have been about twenty cars ahead of us waiting to go through one of two open gates. It turned out that Canadian customs was being extra thorough:

Customs agent: citizenship?
Me: (handed her our passports)
Agent: (a little more forcefully) citizenship?!
Me: Canadian.
Agent: Where were you born?
Me: Canada.
Agent: Where do you live?
Me: Victoria.
Agent: When did you cross into the U.S.?
Me: On Sunday.
Agent: Anything to declare?
Me: No.
Agent: You didn’t buy anything?
Me: Nothing.
Agent: Any alcohol or tobacco?
Me: Nope.
Agent: When did you cross into the U.S.?
Me: On Sunday.
Agent: Is this the same vehicle you crossed into the U.S. with?
Me: Yes.
Agent: What is your occupation?
Me: I’m retired.
Agent: What was your occupation before you retired?
Me: Military.
Agent: Are you carrying any weapons in your vehicle?
Me: No.
Agent: What was the purpose of your trip?
Me: A short vacation.
Agent: (long pause) Welcome back.

No wonder there was a backup. Makes you wonder though. Certainly the thorough grilling couldn’t have much to do with Canada’s post 9/11 security concerns:). My guess is officiousness, posturing and going after taxes on purchases in the U.S. Or, maybe we were being profiled. Whitebread anglos get the grilling. The swarthy, bearded guy with the Arabic accent, wife in full burqha and ragged passport stamped in Syria they let by in a flash.

Happy New Year!

Eco-hypocrites

I rather liked this column by Brigitte Pellerin in today's Victoria Times Colonist. She's had it with sanctimonious eco-bores who constantly harangue the rest of us with their self-righteous caring for the environment - but do nothing about it. Taking Quebecers as a prime example:

...front-page story in the Dec. 23 edition of La Presse trumpeted the discovery that the "Planet's fate worries Quebecers." Wow. A recent survey found that Quebecers "remain the most preoccupied about their planet's future in the world." .... Fully 90 per cent of them "are now convinced of the dangers connected with global warming." .... Except the same poll found that a majority (56 per cent) are against any kind of tax increase to help fight climate change. But hey, 58.5 per cent say they wouldn't mind a special tax on SUVs .... you know, the kind of vehicle nasty rich people own. As long as it's some other chump's wallet that's getting hit ...

....a Pollara survey published in the Dec. 4 Maclean's that showed a certain disconnect between saying you're concerned for the environment and being prepared to do anything useful about it. "Quebecers," it said, "were the least willing to cut back on air conditioning or turn down the heat -- only 37 per cent ould. With 62 per cent, Ontario led."

Or take another recent front-page headline, also in La Presse, about a study by Quebec's public health institute showing Quebecers react to well-publicized smog alerts by immediately and determinedly doing ... nothing whatsoever.

As a Vancouver Islander this theme rings familiar to me. Islanders pride themselves greatly on their ecological commitment. But for all their verbal devotion to a clean environment they still cling to some distinctly odd customs. Take burning day in the Greater Victoria area, for example. Most communities set aside days when residents are permitted to burn garden and other waste in their yards. On designated burning days it's not uncommon to see thick, toxic smoke wafting from one yard to the next. Talk about second-hand smoke! Then there's the wood (and other noxious fuel)-burning stove, a favourite heating source on the island. Cough, cough! How quaint! Cough!

Dion's democracy - The Canadian Wheat Board

Among the many lovely features of economic life in Canuckistan are its totalitarian agricultural marketing cartels. These cartels, or 'marketing boards', are legally enforced monopolies which act as single buyers for specific farm products, setting production quotas as well as prices. Farmers must, by law, sell to the marketing boards. Violators risk fines and jail.

This draconian system of marketing is, naturally, controversial. The new Conservative government has been attempting to curb the power of the Canadian Wheat Board over opposition objections. And this week Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl, fired the CWB President because of his intransigence on the issue. Liberal leader, Stephane Dion has been gaming the situation and making strange noises. So I sent him an email:

Dear Mr. Dion,

Re. Your position regarding the Canadian Wheat Board.

You are quoted in this Globe and Mail story as follows:

"We have a democratic process, and the government is jeopardizing this democratic process. It's an additional reason why we must condemn what the government is doing," Mr. Dion said.

First, what is "democratic" about forcing farmers to join a marketing cartel they do not wish to belong to? Truly democratic choice would give individual farmers the right to decide how they sell their product - not be forced by law, under threat of jail, to sell it to one government mandated buyer. If the Charter doesn’t support this most basic of freedoms then it isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

Second, why should Western farmers be singled out for this abuse? Unless you are proposing to similarly abuse ALL producers including those in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes then I suggest that you, sir, are being spectacularly disingenuous.

You are respectfully encouraged to rethink your position on this matter with a view to supporting true democracy and to desist from purely political gamesmanship.

Sincerely,

cc. Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl

Environmentalism “an attack on the world’s poor”

Envirophilosophy 101 - poor people should stay poor.

Mine Your Own Business is a documentary film about multinational environmentalists’ arrogant, bigoted and dishonest efforts to halt mining projects which would provide valuable opportunities for otherwise chronically unemployed, impoverished people.

Peter Foster provides an excellent review of the film in today’s Post:

The film is devastating because it combats prejudices and fantasies with pictures that refute thousands of [environmentalist] weasel words.

World Wide Fund for Nature’s Mark Fenn ...[while] building a luxury home in Fort Dauphin, Madagascar ...is also fighting a mining proposal by Rio Tinto ...[claiming] a mine will ruin the town’s "quaintness" and that poor people are happier, smile more and have less stress ... if they acquire money they will "just spend it" on fripperies such as beer, stereos and jeans. ...they don’t value housing, nutrition and education.

In Chile, at the site of [a proposed] mine ...a community desperate for jobs but being manipulated by the distant forces of organized environmentalism.

Greenpeace representative Herwig Schuster ... interviewed from Vienna... sounded like Peter Lorre at his most sinister ... claimed that poor people didn’t need air conditioning and "big cars".

Noted development economist Deepak Lal is left to deliver the bottom line: Much of environmentalism is effectively an attack on the world’s poor.

Mr. Foster notes that a segment of the film aired on CBC’s The Current last Friday - "in marked contrast to a piece on The Current three years ago ... which largely swallowed the environmentalists’ party line."

Mine Your Own Business deserves the widest possible publicity.

"The Big Blow"

Back up after four days without electricity! Thank God for natural gas!

Last Thursday night strong winds hit the west coast causing massive damage to power lines on Vancouver Island and the lower mainland. Over 250,000 BC Hydro customers lost power. The Victoria area experienced hurricane force winds and many were left without electricity for five or more days. A few are still down.

Climate change HYSTERIA!!! ... and climb-down

Sierra Club off the deep end


Last week, on the front page of the Victoria Times-Colonist, we were treated to a Sierra Club horror story complete with color map of Victoria showing the flooded city after a six to twenty-five meter rise in sea levels. According to the TC story: "Sierra Club B.C. executive director Kathryn Molloy said the six-metre rise is a "best-case scenario" that can be averted only if steps are taken right away."

This was followed the next day (to my surprise) by several letters from readers who decried the Chicken Little alarmism being promoted by the Sierra Club and the Times-Colonist. One, an actual UVic climate scientist, wrote to complain that "...the silly and counterproductive Sierra Club of BC .....would so overstate the case as to make it ridiculous".

Today the Sierra Club’s Kathryn Malloy is back in the TC with a more measured analysis trying to explain away its earlier alarmism. Now, according to Malloy:

Well, the last time Earth became 2C warmer was 130,000 years ago, and sea levels were roughly six metres higher. [my emphasis]

At least the Sierra Club admits the earth was warmer prior to the current modern period of human industry. Though, apparently the more recent (800-1300 AD) ‘mediaeval warm period’ (MWP) is still too ‘controversial’ to mention in polite company. This warm period was, until very recently, part of accepted climate science - accepted, that is, until it got in the way of global warming theory. The UN IPCC (author/publisher of the thoroughly debunked junk science global warming ‘hockey-stick’ graph) is one of the main sowers-of-doubt about the MWP’s significance.

Kofi Annan - good riddance!

Kofi Annan is nearing the end of his double five year tenure as UN head honcho. Yesterday, in a final official speech from the Truman library in Independence Missouri, the heart of the UN's host country, he attacked President George W. Bush and the USA for failing to measure up to Kofi’s high expectations. Being a ‘diplomat’ Annan tried to be ‘nuanced’ - praising President Truman as a leader who [unlike Bush] understood the way the world should work.

Robert Fulford, in his National Post column today, does a masterful job of exposing Annan for the feckless blowhard that he is:

"...President Harry Truman, a great leader who would have regarded Annan with contempt."

"Never addicted to the truth, Annan has clearly decided he won’t abruptly change his ways during his last weeks at the UN."

"...few have given a more flagrant display of mediocrity than Annan."

"Annan’s UN declined in effectiveness while deteriorating internally. Scandals...rapes habitually committed by UN troops in the Congo...failure in Darfur [and Rawanda] ... [Oil-for-fraud] Billions of dollars were used improperly."

"...Annan seems to talk nonsense just to keep in practice."

"...moving his lips and emitting sounds as if he had something of value to say."

The good news is that Kofi Annan will soon be gone. Good riddance!