More CBC Liberal bias exposed

Big deal, you say. Anybody with half a clue knows that the CBC has a hopelessly blatant left bias. 
Maybe, but that doesn't mean every new instance shouldn't be exposed.  So, here's another one.

CBC's "Vote Compass", an on-line voter preference tool, is deliberately skewed in favour of Liberals.

Here's a National Post story.

[Via]

Election fatigue

Only a couple of days in and already I'm sick to death of this election. Whenever the news channels go to election coverage it's the same tired lines from the politicians and the commentators - so I switch back to Fox.

It's entirely unnecessary - so much for fixed election dates!  I hope most voters feel the same and severely punish the opposition parties for foisting it upon us.

That said, I also hope PMSH et al aren't feeling the same fatigue, and if so they don't show it.  The media sharks will smell it like blood in the water.

Here for Canada Rally in Burnaby

The Harper Rally starts in less than 2 hours.  I had best be on my way.

Update: Good rally of about 500-700 enthusiastic folks.  Harper's speech was excellent, as usual.  Two main themes: "coalition" and "unnecessary, foolish election" - though Canada's done relatively well compared with the rest of the developed world - this is no time to waste time and money playing political games.

Radiation hysteria based on flawed assumptions

Lawrence Solomon wants everyone to "turn down the dial" on Chernobyl-style Fukushima radiation fears:

Next to Chernobyl, the Fukushima accident is the worst nuclear power calamity in history. To minimize damage in Fukushima’s aftermath, the Japanese — and all of us — need first learn the lessons of Chernobyl, whose casualties number[ing] in the hundreds of thousands ... came not from the radiation it spewed but from fear of radiation.

... Should scientists assume that there’s a threshold dose, below which radiation is held to be harmless? Or is it more prudent to assume that any dose of radiation could be harmful?

... The UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation acknowledged its puzzlement in a 1958 report: “There may or may not be a threshold dose,” it wrote, explaining: “Linearity has been assumed primarily for purposes of simplicity.”

... “There is no scientific evidence of increases in overall cancer incidence or mortality or in non-malignant disorders that could be related to radiation exposure,” the UN reported after examining the actual mortality and morbidity statistics.

... One example involves 34,000 Swedes downwind of Chernobyl whose thyroids absorbed large doses of radioactive iodine-131. Instead of being afflicted with excess thyroid cancers, as would have been expected, they experienced a 38% decline. Another example: Epidemiological studies in Russia demonstrated that the population of the most contaminated region near Chernobyl contracted fewer cancers than Russia’s general population.

It seems there is growing evidence that low/moderate levels of radiation exposure have beneficial health/mortality effects. But it'll take a lot of effort over a long time to overcome the biases fostered by the media and others who prefer alarmism based on junk science and the flawed logic of the "precautionary principle".  Other examples of this include the Bispenol-A (Rubber Ducky) scare (and ban) and the absolute  nonsense of "no safe level" of second-hand smoke promoted by every government and cancer society on the planet.

Official 2011 Earth Hour logo unveiled

From sda:

Screw "Earth Hour" - celebrate electricity!

Ross McKitrick:

I abhor Earth Hour. Abundant, cheap electricity has been the greatest source of human liberation in the 20th century. Every material social advance in the 20th century depended on the proliferation of inexpensive and reliable electricity. Giving women the freedom to work outside the home depended on the availability of electrical appliances that free up time from domestic chores. Getting children out of menial labour and into schools depended on the same thing ....

... Earth Hour celebrates ignorance, poverty and backwardness. By repudiating the greatest engine of liberation it becomes an hour devoted to anti-humanism. It encourages the sanctimonious gesture of turning off trivial appliances for a trivial amount of time, in deference to some ill-defined abstraction ...

... Travel to a zone hit by earthquakes, floods and hurricanes to see what it’s like to go back to nature. For humans, living in “nature” meant a short life span marked by violence, disease and ignorance. ...

... No thanks. I like visiting nature but I don’t want to live there, and I refuse to accept the idea that civilization with all its tradeoffs is something to be ashamed of.

Amen!

"Liberals join the coalition of the unwilling-to-admit-it"

Matt Gurney:

... evidence of the 2008 coalition agreement between the Liberals, NPD and the Bloc, has disappeared from the Liberals’ website. This comes shortly after Mr. Ignatieff, when asked whether he would again back a coalition if the Liberals fail to win the upcoming election, forcefully answered a different question. No one’s sure exactly what the question he was answering was, but it had something to do with multi-coloured doors. Maybe it was like Parliamentary Jeopardy ...