Crack pipes for children in Vancouver

Further to the post below on the Supreme Court's sanctioning of dope injection is this video (via Robert at sda) about Vancouver's "...failed state of a neighbourhood in Vancouver's downtown east side" and the "...small band of ideologues at UBC and Coastal Health" pushing these insane policies:

 

Mark Hasiuk's story in the Vancouver Courier.

Aussie 'human right' to be offended affirmed

Mark Steyn: Bad news for Andrew Bolt (and most other Aussies):

... guilty verdict against Andrew Bolt...  Justice Mordecai Bromberg’s ruling is absolutely appalling in the precedent it sets for “freedom” of speech in Australia....

... Bromberg’s execrable decision has dramatically incentivized the willingness of favored groups to take offence – and dramatically constrained the ability of mainstream media commentators even to raise the issue. Shame on Australia.

Updates:

Andrew Bolt reacts -

My big mistake: "... The judge has ruled that none of the “fair skinned Aborigines” who took legal actual against me had a choice in deciding their “racial identity”, and I broke the law to say that they did and in the way that I did...."

To appeal against racial division is now racist: "... It’s a nightmare. A world in which things are the deemed the opposite of what they are, and we must choke on our dissent, is what we have come to. ... (Once again, no comments, because it has become too dangerous to print many. And so your free speech has effecitvely been limited, too, by this attack on my own.)"

Canadian connection - Justice Bromberg cited the SCC Taylor decision in his ruling.

Ilegal dope vs tobacco - mixed messages (and lying scumbag politicians)

Today the Supreme Court of Canada ruled (unanimously) that Vancouver's "supervised drug injection" site ('Insite') can stay open:

To force the site to close “would have been to prevent injection drug users from accessing the health services offered by Insite, threatening the health and indeed the lives of potential clients,” Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote in the ruling. 

It thereby constitutes a limit on the section 7 charter rights of drug addicts - life, liberty and the security of person.

So the Supremes ruled that enabling illicit dopers is good for their health, life, liberty and security.

Then we have another class of (legal) users - smokers, who have been attacked mercilessly and kicked while they're down.  In BC the health minister is now threatening smokers with another kick - forcing them to pay higher health fees:

“Some people, in B.C. about 14 per cent of the population, continue to smoke and they’re going to cost more,” de Jong said in an interview. “Maybe they should contribute more.”

Civil liberties and ethics experts think it's a crappy idea, primarily on "slippery slope" grounds. As far as I know, no one wondered if it might be unenforceable.

Also, Minister De Jong neglected to point out that the government is already taxing smokers to death:

The province collected $682 million from tobacco taxation in the 2009-10 fiscal year, $708 million in 2008-09 and $692 million in 2007-08.

That probably more than covers additional health costs. And I'm sure that De Jong would prefer that no one mentioned any studies like this one in the New England Journal of Medicine which found:

... In our study, lifetime costs for smokers can be calculated as $72,700 among men and $94,700 among women, and lifetime costs among nonsmokers can be calculated as $83,400 and $111,000, respectively. This amounts to lifetime costs for nonsmokers that are higher by 15 percent among men and 18 percent among women.

Altogether this spells "CASH GRAB" from (and harassment of) smokers to offset the cost of enabling dopers.

The Saudis are at war with the West

Charles Lewis in today's Post:

Textbooks used in Saudi Arabia's schools contain virulent forms of anti-Christian and anti-Jewish bigotry that fuel intolerance and violence around the globe, a new report says....

... "This is not just hate mongering, it's promoting violence," [Hudson Institute director, Nina Shea] said in an interview. It is exporting terrorism through textbooks.

Christians are referred to as "swine" and Jews as "apes," while being blamed for much of the world's ills....

Updated: More at Blazing Cat Fur.

Saudi textbooks are loaded with propaganda of a type that is used in wartime to dehumanize the enemy ("swine" and "apes") in the minds of  the warring nation's citizens and warriors.

The Saudi Wahabists are at war with the West and unless we realize that fact and act to defend ourselves and to aggressively take the offensive we are doomed to lose. Given our terrorist-hugging leftist media, academia and ... our prospects seem poor.
 
Maybe a good place to start would be the introduction of Frank Miller's "Holy Terror" into our school curricula.
 


["Holy Terror" via Blazing Cat Fur].

Al Gore's faked science project

Anthony Watts:

"... I’ve discovered that by watching carefully it reveals an “inconvenient truth” of the worst kind...."

Corrupt, cozy concensus media

Great rant by Brian Lilley:

... The state broadcaster is the biggest customer of the Canadian Press. The Globe and The Star own the Canadian Press. The National Post relies on sports content from CBC to keep itself and its website alive and CTV’s parent company, Bell Media, just launched a joint bid with CBC for Olympic coverage.

... They won’t tell you the state broadcaster is thumbing its nose at taxpayers and refusing a court order because it goes against their financial interests, they could even lose advertising from CBC’s generous ad budget which it uses to keep other media outlets in line. ...

So that's how they get their share of the CBC's $1.1B taxpayer subsidy.

The next great pipeline debate.

Globe and mail:

Debate around the Keystone XL pipeline has been rancorous and divisive ... has mostly played itself out in America.

... But the next great pipeline debate will unfold right here in Canada.

... the proposed $5.5-billion, 1,700-kilometre Enbridge pipeline. It would run from Edmonton to the coastal port town of Kitimat, B.C., ....

National Geographic recently devoted a cover spread to the pending tussle ...

... Vivian Krause. ... the tenacious Vancouver-based and independently financed writer has parted the curtains on the extent to which environmental groups in Canada are funded by American organizations. (Her website, fair-questions.com, is visited regularly by everyone from the RCMP to the federal auditor-general to the Oval Office in Washington.)

... Ms. Krause estimates there’s $50-million in American funding pouring into the Canadian environmental movement every year.

... $30-million in funding from the U.S. green donor, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation of California ...

... Rockefeller Brothers Fund of New York paid a couple of Canadian environmental groups a total of $200,000

Pamela Geller on creeping sharia and 'Islamophobia'

Hate speech laws are symptomatic of sharia creep in the West, says Geller.  And anyone who dares criticize Islam is a "racist, Islamophobic, anti-Muslim bigot" - "It's a lie".



[video thanks to blazingcatfur]

Delingpole: "It isn't about the science, it's about politics"

Via Watts Up With That?:



Delingpole's book: Watermelons.

String theory for idiots

Lubos Motl's string theory primer

Leftist nitwits in action

In Vancouver greeting Dick Cheney.

More from Kathy Shaidle and Brian Lilley.

And, in Ottawa protesting, of all things, ethical oil.

And also from SunTV (via blazingcatfur video service), classic Ezra Levant: "Shut The Front door" and "That's just BullShivism"

 

Saudi women allowed to vote

Daily Telegraph:

King Abdullah, the Saudi ruler, conceded that a study of Muslim history had shown that women were capable of rational thinking and decision making. [Who'da thunk?] 

.
.
.
.
.
.



When it was learned they would have to show their driver's licenses to vote, King Abdullah was asked if that meant women would now be permitted to drive. The King replied: "What? Are you nuts? In a burkha? Way too hazardous!" 

Bottled water baloney

Based on spurious leftist/eco-activist/dimwit notions, a Surrey CUPE union president and school trustee urged the city to ban bottled water:

... You really should be using reusable bottles [Thank you. Now bugger off and mind your own business.]
... Other cities ... have said 'no' to bottled water [Idiots unite!]
... Bottled water leads to water shortages; [Blatant bullcrap!]
- bottled water contributes to climate change because of the fossil fuels burned to transport the water; [Bwwaahahaa!]
- landfills cannot support bottled water because many of the single-use bottles are nonrecyclable; [Bollocks!]
- bottled water is not safer than tap water; [And so?]...
- water is a human right as recognized by the United Nations in 2010. [Where's my 'right' to choose the bottled variety? And, as if the UN were a credible organization!]

Not surprisingly some dissenters .. begged to differ.

Sadly, it's all busybody, eco-do-good nonsense that school trustees bought into, unanimously. 

And it's more evidence of how our 'education' system has morphed into an indoctrination system run by idiots.

Netanyahu vs Abbas

Netanyahu's and Abbas's words yesterday at the UN were juxtaposed in todays Post. The bottom line:

Netanyahu: ... The truth is that Israel wants peace with a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians want a state without peace. ...

Netanyahu's UN speech (and more) at Blazing Cat Fur.
Also, former Sudanese slave: “Calling Israel a racist state is absolutely absurd and immoral.”

TDSB subverting and confusing kids

Full page ad by the Institute for Canadian Values in today's National Post:

Quotes from the TDSB Curriculum - JK to Grade 3: *"Encourage girls and boys to play opposite roles... At times boys may play girls and rely on sexist stereotypical behaviour with which they are familiar."  *"Discuss ways to challenge these notions so that people have more choice in who they are and what they want to do. ... *"Search Images of of Pride Week ... make posters for the TDSB float and/or school bus that are in the Pride Parade. Additionally, students could have their own Pride Parade in their school ..." Page 54-56

Supplementary reading: The War Against Boys

Mark Milke: CTV undermining Canadian freedoms

Mark Milke's Troy Media column:

... too many Western media outlets and businesses capitulate to tyrannies, or worse, help them injure freedom.

... Here in Canada, the latest cave-in comes from CTV. That television network has refused to air EthicalOil.org advertisements about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.

... CTV’s lawyered-up excuse is hollow.

... CTV’s lawyers and executives are poster boys for the deliberate obtuseness and moral betrayal of core Western freedoms.

Mark on SunTV (CTV's "useful idiots"):



[Video via BlazingCatFur]

Jason Kenney on the UN "human rights" farce

Great speech:



[Via Blazing Cat Fur]

See also Vancouver Sun story.

Modern day witch hunt

Italian seismologists on trial for not predicting L’Aquila quake:

Six seismologists and one government official in Italy are on trial for alleged negligence and manslaughter by failing to warn the residents of the city of L'Aquila of the earthquake that hit the area in 2009.

... If found guilty they could be imprisoned for up to 15 years.

... Most of the deaths were blamed, however, on the collapse of buildings that had not been constructed according to the standards required for a quake-risk region.

Nuts! The location, timing and magnitude of earthquakes cannot be predicted. Period. Besides, l'Aquila lies in a zone of known earthquake vulnerability with records dating back centuries. If there is a crime here it wasn't the seismologists who committed it. Rather, look at those responsible for building construction (for negligence) and the prosecutors (for stupidity).

Ethical Oil - John Baird's office responds

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird's office issued a statement regarding the Saudi lawfare against EthicalOil.org:

... the office of Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said that he would defend the right of "the press and third-party organizations ... to speak their minds."

A mite milquetoast, but at least it's something.

Ethical Oil: Jonathan Kay's defeatism

A signed editorial in today's Post has Jonathan Kay pooh-poohing EthicalOil.org and its TV ad, saying:

... the group's mission - to "encourage people, businesses and governments to choose Ethical Oil from Canada, its oil sands and other liberal democracies" - is pointless.

... Whatever oil Saudi Arabia or Canada (or Venezuela or Nigeria or Russia) produces will be bought by someone ("...China and about a hundred other countries...") — every last drop of it.

... let’s not pretend this will help Burka-imprisoned women in Riyadh.

... If you want to hurt the Saudis, there is one thing you can do: Depress the global demand for oil by using less of it. Get out of your car and walk. Buy a Prius instead of an SUV. But these are steps that you’ll never hear from oil sands-boosters — for reasons you can all figure out on your own.

So the "one thing" we can do is down to something he's already said can't work and would wreck our own economy to boot.  And somehow I suspect those "reasons you can figure out on your own" have everything to do with greedy "oil sands-boosters" (Kay's eco-boosterism).
  
Also, Kay all but ignores the fact that the Saudis are ticked off enough to engage in a scurvy lawfare campaign to suppress EthicalOil's ad which has in turn brought more attention to the ad and to Saudi human rights abuses. Where's the downside?

The column is nit-witted on many levels most of which are pointed out in all 17+ responses in the digital edition of the Post.  Here are some teasers:)

Jonathon is out of his depth again....

Nothing like attempting to throw cold water on a hot issue, Mr. Kay. ...

Maybe if we use less of Jonathan Kay it will depress his wages and he can get a job selling used Toyotas instead....

... the ehtical oil ad makes a point that need to be made. It isn't about decreasing anyone's dependence on Saudi oil, Jonathon, it is about defending the integrity of our own oil sources.

... This is a great argument for the individual or a state to do nothing - to absolve oneself of moral responsibility.

How on earth did a right-of-centre paper appoint such a shallow scribe as its editor? ...

Seems JK is fully trained to remain morally neutral (neutered) when considering sharia laws to be ethical....

Ms Kay, (to quote SNL) "you ignorant slut". It's not about the oil stupid. ...

... Mr. Kay has completely missed the point here. Poorly written; poorly thought out.

Jonathan needs to go over to his Mom's place for dinner so she can straighten him out.

Stock Day: "The Saudis will regret this..."

More from Ezra on the Saudi lawfare against "EthicalOil.org":



So far the only government reps to come out strongly in support of EthicalOil are Jason Kenney and Rona Ambrose. NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar was also critical of the Saudis. Good for them!

Nothing from the PMO or Foreign Affairs.
Nothing either from CTV or CBC (CowardlyTV and CowardlyBroadcastingCorp.).
Nothing from any other MSM outlet.
Nothing from any free press or free speech advocacy group.
Nothing ....

[YouTube video courtesy of BlazingCatFur]

Saudis threaten lawsuits against Ethical Oil ad

Story at EhicalOil.org.  This is the ad the Saudis want bannned from the airwaves: 




The pussies at CTV have caved in to the threat of a lawsuit.

Good news for the Wildrose party

Progessives 3, Conservatives 0:

... Saturday night, after votes had been tallied for the party’s leadership race ... top three contenders — Gary Mar, Doug Horner and Alison Redford ...
... Not a single one of the three front-runners hail from the Conservative side of the Progressive Conservative tent.
... Some ridings pulled in barely a couple hundred leadership votes. If this isn’t a sign of a political organization in decline, it’s hard to imagine what is.

... This can be good news only for the PCs’ rivals, most of all Danielle Smith, leader of the right-wing Wildrose party.

BC funding quit-smoking therapy

Predictably, doctors think it's just great.  But not everybody's happy about it, because quit-smoking schemes are:
 

notoriously ineffective.
notoriously ineffective and costly.
and, how come the gov't doesn't fund diabetes treatment?

Where's the medical justice?

"Fourth-trimester abortion"

That's how Mark Steyn referred to Katrina Effert's murder of her newborn son. Effert's 2nd degree murder conviction was downgraded to "infanticide" and given a 3-year suspended sentence by Alberta superior court judge Joanne Veit:

"...in what sense was Miss Effert a “mother without support”? She lived at home with her parents, who provided her with food and shelter. How smoothly the slick euphemisms — “accept and sympathize . . . onerous demands” — lubricate the slippery slope."

And even if you accept that "mother without support [etc]" bullcrap it's not as if there weren't alternatives to murder, like, say, adoption.  What's next? Fifth and sixth-trimester "abortion"?

More at Blazing Cat Fur.

Outrageous! And, except for Sun Media, barely a peep out of the MSM.

EDL's Tommy Robinson with Michael Coren

Tommy Robinson, just out of jail for speaking out against the official Brit refusal to do anything about creeping Sharia and other evil manifestations of Islam in Britain. Good on him.

 

A good example of why there's an EDL.

European debt crisis: “... the haircut looms ... for all of us”

Peter Foster:

... European banks are loaded with bad and potentially bad IOUs from subprime governments, starting with Greece.

... On Wednesday, European leaders pledged to keep Greece in the eurozone after assurances from Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou that his country was “determined to meet its obligations.” Ignore what those credit-default swaps on Greek debt are saying. Opa!

... yet markets respond to every straw in the drowning pool like the proverbially hyper-optimistic little girl who — when presented with a pile of manure on Christmas morning — beamed that there had to be a gift pony in there somewhere.

...China is reportedly to meet next week in Washington with the other BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia and India — to discuss how it might help Europe. However, the notion that they might be considering some kind of new “Marshall Plan” is delusional. Under the Marshall Plan, the United States helped a Europe ravaged by war and willing, indeed desperate, to work. Today’s Europe is ravaged by the delusions of social democracy, economic security and an ill-conceived single-currency area. Its economy has been undermined by its banks’ feeding its constituent countries’ debt habit.

... The biggest and most impractical plan of all is to deal with the problems of the socialist superstate by making it more super and more socialist. What is needed is a euro-wide fiscal and monetary policy. We know that this is a terrible idea because it is supported by George Soros. On past experience, the socialization of risk leads people ... to behave more like the Greeks than less like the Germans.

According to Mr. Soros ... the Germans are now too deep into the euro morass even to dream of escaping. Thus there should be a more powerful government in Brussels with the ability to tax Germans in order to spend like Greeks.

... ask not for whom the haircut looms. Given the scope of this crisis, it looms for all of us. Whatever the particular form in which the crisis is finally addressed, Greece will likely default, banks will go under, the consequences of government hubris will be felt around the world. And taxpayers will carry the can.

Michael Coren thinks Bernie Farber is a moron. Bernie proves it.

[Video You-Tubed by Blazing Cat Fur]

Coren with Ron Banerjee

Ron Banerjee of the Canadian Hindu Advocacy on The Arena today:



And here's the feisty Banerjee debating an Imam on The Oakley Show.

Warren Buffett's taxes

Greg Mankiw (NYT):

I was disappointed to hear the President tonight raise the canard about Warren Buffett's allegedly low tax rate.  The story is, at the very least, deeply misleading.  I addressed the issue several years ago in this column:

...billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett said that rich guys like him weren’t paying enough. Mr. Buffett asserted that his taxes last year equaled only 17.7 percent of his taxable income, compared with about 30 percent for his receptionist.

... part of the answer is that Mr. Buffett’s income is made up largely of dividends and capital gains, which are taxed at only 15 percent. By contrast, many other top earners pay the maximum ordinary income tax rate of 35 percent on their salaries, bonuses and business income.

... Another piece of the puzzle is that Mr. Buffett’s tax burden is larger than it first appears, because he is a major shareholder in Berkshire Hathaway. ... The corporate tax would undoubtedly loom large if the C.B.O. were to calculate Mr. Buffett’s effective tax rate.

Also, since Obama claims his main concerns are "jobs, jobs, jobs" perhaps he and Mr. Buffett should give their estimates of how many more people Berkshire Hathaway and its subsidiaries (not to mention every other business in America) would be hiring once those tax rates are jacked up.

9/11 - "From ‘Let's roll' to 'Let's roll over'"

Mark Steyn at the OC Register:

..I found myself ... listening to a public service message exhorting listeners to ... tell their fellow citizens how they would be observing the tenth anniversary of the, ah, “tragic events.” [Some responses]: 

... clean.. up an area of the beach

.... discuss anti-bullying tactics with my grandson.”

... a special 9/11 curriculum that will “analyze diversity and prejudice in U.S. history.”

And it goes downhill from there ...

Don't do it!

That's Rex Murphy's advice to Libs and Dippers thinking about merging:

When I read of Jean Chrétien, the all-time Rocky Balboa of the Liberal party, its most successful leader in eons, openly advocating a merger with the NDP, I was deep in Bierce territory.

When ... at the height of his fortunes ... in no way would “Rocky” have wasted a second’s breath that the great Liberal party he led had need of the NDP.

... what real enthusiasm exists for any of this talk of merger comes from people whose digestion is impaired at the very thought of a Harper majority government. Distaste over Harper’s victory is stronger than any perceived virtue in the idea of a merger itself.

... The Liberals work harder and better when shadowed by the NDP; they lose some of their insufferable self-satisfaction. 

... 10 years back ... any voice in [Chretien's] caucus that suggested the Liberals should merge with the NDP .... would have been stilled, its possessor exiled and tossed on some ice-floe ....

Fast and furious 13

This happened about 10 days ago.  I watched the RCMP issuing tickets in downtown White Rock. All 13 perps were under 21 years old, half with restricted (novice) licences. Their high-end speed machines were impounded, initially for 7 days and now indefinitely pending consideration of full civil forfeiture.

Something I find odd is that despite 11 of the drivers being 18 or older, the police and media have been very careful NOT to identify the drivers - no names, nothing beyond that they are from Richmond and Vancouver.

Earthquake!

A magnitude 6.4 quake struck off of northern Vancouver Island at 12:41 PDT.  The only noticeable effects at our home in South Surrey were a swaying dining room chandelier and a pair of slightly spooked cats.  Otherwise we felt no tremours as were reported in downtown Vancouver and as far away as Kelowna.

"Making water the new oil"

Terence Corcoran on water agitprop at the Royal Ontario Museum:

... the demonization of water consumption has begun.

Also, "Water rights: All wet":

On July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that declared a human right to clean drinking water and sanitation. The resolution was approved by a vote of 122 to none. Forty-one countries abstained, including Canada ...

... in recent years the Canadian government has led resistance to the creation of international water rights, and should be congratulated for its foresight.

... Good water governance requires good governance, broadly conceived. International water rights do not achieve this objective, and are likely to threaten the enterprise of protecting and providing access to water resources.

Naturally Maude Barlow and her meddling leftist ilk figure large in this.

The Dalai Lama and other prominent nitwits

G&M (also FinPost):

The Dalai Lama and eight other Nobel Prize laureates want President Barack Obama to block TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline from the oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries.

In addition to the Dalai Lama, it was signed by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Irish peace campaigners Mairead Maguire and Betty Williams, Iranian activist Shirin Ebadi and American anti-landmine campaigner Jody Williams.

The Nobel laureates reminded Mr. Obama that he campaigned on a pledge to fight climate change, and argued that blocking the Keystone XL pipeline would represent solid action on that front. ...

Ezra, please send these ridiculous clowns copies of your best-selling book.

The Dalai Lama's on a roll.  That's the second time this week he's stirred up trouble for Canada:

The Dalai Lama will join controversial Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan in Montreal on Wednesday for a conference on world religions and peace in the aftermath of 9/11.

... critics charge that the Dalai Lama is being duped into promoting Islamic fundamentalism. ...

It's time to revoke the little dweeb's visitor visa.

Update  from yesterday's Byline and BlazingCatFur (I'm a day behind in my Sun TV dvr's):

Mark Steyn audio interviews

Robert Ringer, Adam Tragone, Armstrong and Getty and Bill LuMaye.

Vancouver's green Orwellian nightmare

Harvey Enchin's column provides a rare, clear glimpse at where Vancouver's "Greenest City" plans are likely to lead:

... The foundation document that served as the basis for the measures city council approved in July (Vancouver 2020 A Bright Green Future: An Action Plan for Becoming the World’s Greenest City by 2020) opposes ... growth.

... If Vancouver’s green action plan was a benign program of backyard chickens and bike lanes, it could be laughed off as another zany flight of fancy by Mayor Gregor Robertson. But it isn’t. It is a radical departure from Canadian values, from enlightened capitalism and from our culture of freedom and democracy.

... There are no detailed costs in the green action plan, only a hint of the support expected from federal and provincial governments...

...The drafters of Vancouver 2020 are shocked by our ignorance of the environment and they propose that ecological literacy — or rather, their ecoideology — be part of the education curriculum on par with reading, writing and arithmetic. [If you think this is just a flight of fancy read this front page story in Friday's Vancouver Sun].

... That Vancouver city council approved ordinances to implement this self-righteous manifesto, its attack on freedom and its Orwellian Big Brother implications should have sent a shudder down the spine of everyone who lives here.

It certainly sends a shudder down my spine.

Harvey Enchin for Mayor!!

Climate debate - AGW alarmists: Lose, lose, lose

Lawrence Solomon on 'Our cosmic climate':

The 20-year-long global warming debate is in its final stages...

... doomsayers lost the argument in the court of public opinion ...
... Then, the doomsayers lost the economic argument ...
... And now, the global warming doomsayers have lost their pretended monopoly on the official science ...

...  they found not a scintilla of compelling evidence, absolutely nothing, that could pin more than a dollop or two of warming on human activities. All that the IPCC scientists have to show for their efforts are endless computer models that don’t work ...

... While this 20-year dead-end research was turning up failure after failure, the Danish science [solar modulation of cosmic rays, CLOUD] went from success to success....

Now, how long will it take to overcome the momentum generated by those decades of alarmist hype and hysteria? The alarmists won't be admitting defeat any time soon; and governments will continue taxing 'carbon' for some time to come while wasting our money pointlessly fighting AGW.  For example, in the Globe & Mail:

The federal government plans to regulate emissions on new natural-gas-fired power plants, posing a major challenge for an industry that is being forced to phase out traditional coal-fired plants.... The draft coal regulations were released in the Canada Gazette last weekend, and will be finalized after a 60-day comment period. They require that any new or refurbished coal-fired plant, commissioned after July 1, 2015, emit no more carbon dioxide than a high efficiency gas-fired station ....

More on CLOUD

Top climate astrophysicist Dr. Nir Shaviv interprets the results of CERN's CLOUD experiment:

... The results are very beautiful and they demonstrate, yet again, how cosmic rays (which govern the amount of atmospheric ionization) can in principle have an effect on climate.

... it naturally explains the large solar/climate links. As a consequence, anyone trying to understand past (and future) climate change must consider the whole effect that the sun has on climate, not just the relatively small variations in the total irradiance (which is the only solar influence most modelers consider). This in turn implies (and I will write about it in the near future), that some of the 20th century warming should be attributed to the sun, and that the climate sensitivity is on the low side (around 1 deg increase per CO2 doubling).

Here's an earlier (before CLOUD results) presentation by Dr. Shaviv explaining the cosmic ray connection with climate:



See also: Henrik Svensmark.

EU mad cow cure

EU Parliament votes to spend millions to cure cows by homeopathy:

The European Parliament ... agriculture committee has decided that the European Union will spend 2 million euros for homeopathical treatment of farm animals. ...

A hilarious primer on homeopathy [via Lubos' comment thread]: