B r o l e y

Blog Update II

2006-01-25T19:53:00.000-08:00

Note that we are in the process of updating our blog and changing domain names. This should be completed by the end of this weekend. We thank you for your patience. Future Site: www.broley.org For a great site offering a variety of up to date news items, please go see Bourque: www.bourque.org

Dear Mr. Harper,

2006-01-25T19:51:00.000-08:00

Dear Mr. Harper, I want to extend sincere congratulations on your success in today's election. It was a hard-fought campaign and you have received a very significant vote of confidence from the Canadian public. I know the feeling of exhilaration when the people express confidence in your leadership and vision. It has been a great privilege for me to serve as Canada's ambassador to the United States throughout the past year. I was most grateful for your personal support and that of your party during my committee hearing on the appointment. It has also been a tremendous personal satisfaction to have been able to serve with the outstanding men and women of this embassy and consulates across the United States of America. Canadians may not fully appreciate the strength and commitment of these dedicated public servants who serve our country so proudly. I've always placed great value on the importance of the Canada-U.S. relationship, and, in a short period of time, have learned much about how this critical link can be improved and expanded. In that regard, I would be pleased to offer my full co-operation in sharing insights on management of the many significant and crucial issues that we deal with on a daily basis. However, I believe you would agree that the enormous value of a political appointment to this position is based on the ability to work intimately with the Canadian government. It is this perception of closeness that provides a strong platform for the Canadian ambassador to advance Canada's interest. While I would have no difficulty working with you or your government, it would be virtually impossible to establish the appearance of total confidence and support in a jurisdiction where political ambassadorial appointees traditionally resign immediately after an election. Consequently, it is in the best interest of our nation that I submit to you my resignation as Canada's ambassador to the United States. I would be pleased to continue to serve until such time as a replacement is named or, I could depart more expeditiously if it is your wish. With warmest personal regards and best wishes for a productive mandate. Sincerely, Frank McKenna

Frank McKenna

2006-01-25T18:06:00.000-08:00

The Frank McKenna Resignation just made Harper's job a lot easier.

Blog update

2006-01-25T11:11:00.000-08:00

Bush congratulates Harper (SORRY FOR THE TEXT LAYOUT. BLOGGER SOFTWARE IS MALFUNCTIONING)

2006-01-25T09:57:00.000-08:00

U.S. President George W. Bush called prime minister-designate Stephen Harper on Wednesday, offering his personal congratulations on this week's election victory. Many people may think that this bit of news flash is relatively insignificant, but believe me it is. In diplomatic terms, each of the various ways an international leader can choose to recognize a recently elected Prime Minister of Canada are significant. The best is a personal phone call. Even better is when that phone call takes place the day or the day after the election result has been made public (ie today). Down the list are other forms of recognition such as a phone call made later on (but still within a week of the election), a personalized letter, a phonecall made by a senior official (in the US case someone in the Whitehouse such as the spokesperson for the president or Condi etc.), or absolutely nothing. If I may guess I think that this gesture is an improvement upon previous gestures made by the US since the second election of Johnny C, during the Clinton years. More food for thought: Could the best candidate for ambassador to the U.S. be Preston Manning? Note: I have met Preston and even with my then ill-founded bias at the time, I was very impressed by the sense of integrity that one felt when speaking with him. While he likely would be well suited for the position, I think that unless McKenna wants to leave his post he will remain ambassador. Harper will not want to appear that his first order of business is a partisan political appointment. (note now that the hedgemony has been broken, if this government plays it's cards right, I think that there is an opportunity for expectations to be well exceeded, especially on the Fed-Prov and constitutional front - the NDP,BQ and Liberals will keep the Conservatives in check regarding social issues ).

Privacy, Google and the USA

2006-01-24T19:40:00.000-08:00

Most of you know that there has been quite an issue recently regarding the privacy of internet search strings. In my opinion there are two main issues: a) Governments obtaining search records; and b) The amount of data search engines are compiling on individuals for commercial purposes (how much and what limits are the reasonable). In many ways Google, through the intergration of various mediums (e-mail, search engines), has become the ultimate medium for consumer espionage. While I believe that Google is honestly collecting the information to allow their products to be tailor-made to suit consumer preferences (which helps for commercial applications), if this is cross referenced with the information that government agencies are collecting (see NYT story below) it may amount to one of the largest invasions of privacy that we have seen in quite a while. I should note that in the domain of combating money laundering and terrorist financing this already happens. Businesses, Credit Bureaus, and Financial Institutions collect tons of data on their clients. This data is often public (so are urine test results in some US states) leaving it free for governments and business organizations to purchase. For more information on the potential issues: Google case boosts furor over US privacy threats Google Balances Privacy and Reach Google Privacy Center Internet Users Thinking Twice Before a Search

Broley.org

2006-01-24T17:31:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Broley.org is under construction. We are by no means world famous but it is definitely time to take this to the next basic level and at least have our own domain. More importantly our format will change improving things for you the reader.

The International Community and the Canadian Election

2006-01-24T13:03:00.000-08:00

Here are some links that highlight the response of the international community to our election results. The take from the Chinese is rather amusing: From China:

Socialist NDP pledges vital role in Canada's next parliament

From the US:

Canada's new right-wing leader faces uphill fight U.S. says hopes to solve Canada lumber dispute (ironic annoucement timing?)

From the UK:

Conservatives vow to change Canada

From France:

Au Canada, le Parti conservateur revient au pouvoir sans éclat

Observations from the results and polling experience: a) All in all looks good. The Conservatives can proceed with changing the way Ottawa functions, Federal-Provincial relations, and introduce new economic initiatives; the voice of the country now also includes the voice of the west; a minority government will keep the fundamentalists in check; Liberals and the NDP have the numbers to introduce and influence social policy; the Bloq Quebecois have been dealt a setback. Notes from voting: b) Watching a newly arrived Canadian from Iran plead with election officials to allow his children to accompany him to the polls to experience what voting is like made me appreciate the time spent in voting line. c) Incredibly there was an argument among idi_ts in the line up. One woman started shouting obscenities about the Bloq Quebecois and Francophones. The converstation started to reach fever pitch among a few people with anglophones and westerners even chiming in to shut her up..I can only imagine what it was like here 10 years ago. d) Why were Bloq Quebecois officials in charge of the voter registration booth? I am contemplating writing a letter to Elections Canada about this. I find it completely innappropriate that a member of the Bloq Quebecois was the only person in charge of registering my application to vote. That said he was a pleasurable bloke and we had a nice conversation about L'Extranger in French of course.

Election Results

2006-01-23T18:36:00.000-08:00

I have been asked where to find early election results, prior to them being officially released. In a nutshell I have no idea and even if I did I would not divulge this information as it is against the law. That said the links below may contain information that is helpful for readers.....or they could be complete bunk....I have no idea: Odds Blog The Captain

Greening the Torino Winter Olympics

2006-01-23T13:55:00.000-08:00

Greening the Torino Winter Olympics: an EU success story "The upcoming 20th Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Torino in February and March, respectively, will be the first ever truly “green” major sports events in Europe. Both events will achieve this goal by making good use of EU voluntary environmental tools, in particular the EU eco-management and audit system (EMAS) and the European eco-label. At a press conference today, Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas congratulated the representatives of the Torino Winter Olympics Organising Committee (TOROC) for rigorously applying these EU standards and tools from the planning to the execution of work at the Olympic sites."

The Privy Council Office

2006-01-23T12:22:00.000-08:00

I just cannot help but wonder what is going on in the minds of the upper mandarins who work in / have been appointed to the Privy Council Office. While it is true that they have been rather demoralized by Paul Martin's lack of direction and constant waffling...(just imagine the Canada-US secretariat where it must have been on the agonizing side to at the same time try to improve relations with the US on behalf of the Prime Minister watch him stick a verbal pitchfork to all things American)... ..yes the amount of indecision with regards to the preparation of cabinet documents may make a woman go bald by the age of twenty. However the question has to be asked as to what will happen to the brass high up who generally are appointed directly by the Clerk (for how long???) on the advice of the PMO and Prime Minister (for how long???) via an order in council. In some cases the PM directly reaches them by telephone. While they are selected to provide non-partisan advice, they definitly have personal viewpoints that often represent the government in power. My prediction is that there will: a) be an orgy of change at the top; b) we will see an increase in the number of Secretariats in the PCO so that the new government can avoid having legislation go through a partisan system of government machinery...until new orders in council and appointments have taken place and the machinery has adjusted. c) even though the people in the Privy Council have lost sleep this election campaign due to the late release of political party plaforms....making the preparation documents a living hell.....it still will be a while before they can get some shut eye. ***** Among other things here is a story that some people do not seem to be fond of: Strange Bedfellows

La vache qui rit ou la vache folle?

2006-01-23T12:09:00.000-08:00

Will the cows get the last laugh? I am not going to sound off about the latest cow to be found to be a little on the mad side. However I am going to provide you all with some links to make your own decisions. While I am not generally found up a tree barking like a fanatic (my wife may disagree), a system in where cows need to be fed antibiotics to be able to digest food that they naturally would not consume (without these antibiotics their stomachs would explode), as well as one where fish can be fed animal waste...may need some improvement, even though the status quo is more profitable. Queensland, Au: Animal health in beef cattle feedlots Infectious diseases Mayo Clinic: Mad Cow FAQ: Do Not Panic Organic Consumers Association (US-Based Interest Group): Mad Cow and USA and Beef Safety New South Wales: Cattle Health and Feedlots Bayer Pharmaceuticals: Beef and Feedlot Cattle

Property rights and Stephen Harper

2006-01-22T10:41:00.000-08:00

Stephen Harper has promised to enshrine property rights in the constitution. This might sound fairly innocuous, but this one act would have enormous implications for the effective enforcement of environmental regulations throughout the country. First of all, the constitution is the "prime directive" of government. It overrides all other federal, provincial and municipal laws, and is not something to be tinkered with lightly. The Conservative plan would put property rights on the same legal footing as human rights. The result could be demands for compensation whenever an environmental law prohibits a property owner from doing something (like putting a toxic site in the middle of a community), or requires them to do something extra (like building subdivisions to a higher density to prevent urban sprawl). This has already come to pass in Oregon, where "Measure 37" voted property rights into the state constitution in 2004. The Washington Post commented, "the property-rights law …is on the brink of wrecking Oregon's best-in-the-nation record of reining in sprawl, according to state officials and national planning experts." Put more bluntly, "Measure 37 blew up our land-use system," said Democrat Senator Charlie Ringo, from suburban Portland. In Canada, such a measure would undermine the ability of all levels of government to encourage smart growth of sustainable cities - a major challenge of the 21st century. Since property rights would be in the constitution and protection of the environment is not, it could also effectively trump any environmental law in the country. Nor is this intervention even needed. Our common-law system of justice was primarily designed to protect private property, and it does a superb job of doing just that. What Canada needs, instead, is a constitutional guarantee of a clean environment.

Michael Moore wieghs in on the Canadian election!

2006-01-22T08:17:00.000-08:00

Click here for Mike and his open letter to all Canadians

Paul Martin describes Alfonso Gagliano in Colour and Love

2006-01-21T21:28:00.000-08:00

This is wild..watch it..Paul Martin's opinion of Alphonso Gagliano Check out the rest including a link to Gagliano's security clearance here at the Western Standard

Stephen Harper and The Council for National Policy in Montreal, June 1997

2006-01-21T09:26:00.000-08:00

A lot has been said about Stephen Harper's speech that he made to a right wing group in the US of A a few years ago. Yes it is true that some of it was tongue in cheek and may not be fair to drudge up. That said, people should be able to know what was actually stated and then left alone to make their own judgements. I warn you that the text is long......it is in the Globe and Mail today also. Some of it is spot on, some of it a little tongue and cheeck funny, and some of it out of line. STEPHEN HARPER in his own words “Ladies and gentlemen, let me begin by giving you a big welcome to Canada. Let’s start up with a compliment. You’re here from the second greatest nation on earth. But seriously, your country, and particularly your conservative movement, is a light and an inspiration to people in this country and across the world. Now, having given you a compliment, let me also give you an insult. I was asked to speak about Canadian politics. It may not be true, but it’s legendary that if you’re like all Americans, you know almost nothing except for your own country. Which makes you probably knowledgeable about one more country than most Canadians. But in any case, my speech will make that assumption. I’ll talk fairly basic stuff. If it seems pedestrian to some of you who do know a lot about Canada, I apologize. I’m going to look at three things. First of all, just some basic facts about Canada that are relevant to my talk, facts about the country and its political system, its civics. Second, I want to take a look at the party system that’s developed in Canada from a conventional left/right, or liberal/conservative perspective. The third thing I’m going to do is look at the political system again, because it can’t be looked at in this country simply from the conventional perspective. First, facts about Canada. Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it. Canadians make no connection between the fact that they are a Northern European welfare state and the fact that we have very low economic growth, a standard of living substantially lower than yours, a massive brain drain of young professionals to your country, and double the unemployment rate of the United States. In terms of the unemployed, of which we have over a million-and-a-half, don’t feel particularly bad for many of these people. They don’t feel bad about it themselves, as long as they’re receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance. That is beginning to change. There have been some significant changes in our fiscal policies and our social welfare policies in the last three or four years. But nevertheless, they’re still very generous compared to your country. Let me just make a comment on language, which is so important in this country. I want to disabuse you of misimpressions you may have. If you’ve read any of the official propagandas, you’ve come over the border and entered a bilingual country. In this particular city, Montreal, you may well get that impression. But this city is extremely atypical of this country. While it is a French-speaking city -- largely -- it has an enormous English-speaking minority and a large number of what are called ethnics: they who are largely immigrant communities, but who politically and culturally tend to identify with the English community. This is unusual, because the rest of the province of Quebec is, by and large, almost entirely French-speaking. The English minority present here in Montreal is quite exceptional. Furthermore, the fact that this province is largely French-speaking, except for Montreal, is quite exceptional with regard to the rest of the country. Outside of Quebec, the total population of Francophones, depending on how you measure it, is only three to five percent of the population. The rest of Canada is English speaking. Even more important, the French-speaking people outside of Quebec live almost exclusively in the adjacent areas, in northern New Brunswick and in Eastern Ontario. The rest of Canada is almost entirely English speaking. Where I come from, Western Canada, the population of Francophones ranges around one to two percent in some cases. So it’s basically an English-speaking country, just as English-speaking as, I would guess, the northern part of the United States. But the important point is that Canada is not a bilingual country. It is a country with two languages. And there is a big difference.(Robin's comment: He is right) As you may know, historically, and especially presently, there’s been a lot of political tension between these two major language groups, and between Quebec and the rest of Canada. Let me take a moment for a humorous story. Now, I tell this with some trepidation, knowing that this is a largely Christian organization. The National Citizens Coalition, by the way, is not. We’re on the sort of libertarian side of the conservative spectrum. So I tell this joke with a little bit of trepidation. But nevertheless, this joke works with Canadian audiences of any kind, anywhere in Canada, both official languages, any kind of audience. It’s about a constitutional lawyer who dies and goes to Heaven. There, he meets God and gets his questions answered about life. One of his questions is, “God, will this problem between Quebec and the rest of Canada ever be resolved?” And God thinks very deeply about this, as God is wont to do. God replies, “Yes, but not in my lifetime.” I’m glad to see you weren’t offended by that. I’ve had the odd religious person who’s been offended. I always tell them, “Don’t be offended. The joke can’t be taken seriously theologically. It is, after all, about a lawyer who goes to Heaven.” In any case. My apologies to Eugene Meyer of the Federalist Society. Second, the civics, Canada’s civics. On the surface, you can make a comparison between our political system and yours. We have an executive, we have two legislative houses, and we have a Supreme Court. However, our executive is the Queen, who doesn’t live here. Her representative is the Governor General, who is an appointed buddy of the Prime Minister. Of our two legislative houses, the Senate, our upper house, is appointed, also by the Prime Minister, where he puts buddies, fundraisers and the like. So the Senate also is not very important in our political system. And we have a Supreme Court, like yours, which, since we put a charter of rights in our constitution in 1982, is becoming increasingly arbitrary and important. It is also appointed by the Prime Minister. Unlike your Supreme Court, we have no ratification process. So if you sort of remove three of the four elements, what you see is a system of checks and balances which quickly becomes a system that’s described as unpaid checks and political imbalances. What we have is the House of Commons. The House of Commons, the bastion of the Prime Minister’s power, the body that selects the Prime Minister, is an elected body. I really emphasize this to you as an American group: It’s not like your House of Representatives. Don’t make that comparison. What the House of Commons is really like is the United States Electoral College. Imagine if the Electoral College which selects your President once every four years were to continue sitting in Washington for the next four years. And imagine its having the same vote on every issue. That is how our political system operates. In our election last Monday, the liberal party won a majority of seats. The four opposition parties divided up the rest, with some very, very rough parity. But the important thing to know is that this is how it will be until the Prime Minister calls the next election. The same majority vote on every issue. So if you ask me, “What’s the vote going to be on gun control?” or on the budget, we know already. If any member of these political parties votes differently from his party on a particular issue, well, that will be national headline news. It’s really hard to believe. If any one member votes differently, it will be national headline news. I voted differently at least once from my party, and it was national headline news. It’s a very different system. Our party system consists today of five parties. There was a remark made yesterday at your youth conference about the fact that parties come and go in Canada every year. This is rather deceptive. I’ve written considerably on this subject. We had a two-party system from the founding of our country, in 1867. That two-party system began to break up in the period from 1911 to 1935. Ever since then, five political elements have come and gone. We’ve always had at least three parties. But even when parties come back, they’re not really new. They’re just an older party reappearing under a different name and different circumstances. Let me take a conventional look at these five parties. I’ll describe them in terms that fit your own party system, the left/right kind of terms. Let’s take the New Democratic Party, the NDP, which won twenty-one seats. The NDP could be described as basically a party of liberal Democrats, but it’s actually worse than that, I have to say. And forgive me jesting again, but the NDP is kind of proof that the Devil lives and interferes in the affairs of men. This party believes not just in large government and in massive redistributive programs, it’s explicitly socialist. On social value issues, it believes the opposite on just about everything that anybody in this room believes. I think that’s a pretty safe bet on all social-value kinds of questions. Some people point out that there is a small element of clergy in the NDP. Yes, this is true. But these are clergy who, while very committed to the church, believe that it made a historic error in adopting Christian theology. The NDP is also explicitly a branch of the Canadian Labor Congress, which is by far our largest labor group, and explicitly radical. There are some moderate and conservative labor organizations. They don’t belong to that particular organization. The second party, the Liberal Party, is by far the largest party. It won the election. It’s also the only party that’s competitive in all parts of the country. The Liberal Party is our dominant party today, and has been for 100 years. It’s governed almost all of the last hundred years, probably about 75 percent of the time. It’s not what you would call conservative Democrat; I think that’s a disappearing kind of breed. But it’s certainly moderate Democrat, a type of Clinton-pragmatic Democrat. It’s moved in the last few years very much to the right on fiscal and economic concerns, but still believes in government intrusion in the economy where possible, and does, in its majority, believe in fairly liberal social values. In the last Parliament, it enacted comprehensive gun control, well beyond, I think, anything you have. Now we’ll have a national firearms registration system, including all shotguns and rifles. Many other kinds of weapons have been banned. It believes in gay rights, although it’s fairly cautious. It’s put sexual orientation in the Human Rights Act and will let the courts do the rest. There is an important caveat to its liberal social values. For historic reasons that I won’t get into, the Liberal Party gets the votes of most Catholics in the country, including many practicing Catholics. It does have a significant Catholic, social-conservative element which occasionally disagrees with these kinds of policy directions. Although I caution you that even this Catholic social conservative element in the Liberal Party is often quite liberal on economic issues. Then there is the Progressive Conservative Party, the PC Party, which won only twenty seats. Now, the term Progressive Conservative will immediately raise suspicions in all of your minds. It should. It’s obviously kind of an oxymoron. But actually, its origin is not progressive in the modern sense. The origin of the term “progressive” in the name stems from the Progressive Movement in the 1920s, which was similar to that in your own country. But the Progressive Conservative is very definitely liberal Republican. These are people who are moderately conservative on economic matters, and in the past have been moderately liberal, even sometimes quite liberal on social policy matters. In fact, before the Reform Party really became a force in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s, the leadership of the Conservative Party was running the largest deficits in Canadian history. They were in favor of gay rights officially, officially for abortion on demand. Officially -- what else can I say about them? Officially for the entrenchment of our universal, collectivized, health-care system and multicultural policies in the constitution of the country. At the leadership level anyway, this was a pretty liberal group. This explains one of the reasons why the Reform Party has become such a power. The Reform Party is much closer to what you would call conservative Republican, which I’ll get to in a minute. The Bloc Québécois, which I won’t spend much time on, is a strictly Quebec party, strictly among the French-speaking people of Quebec. It is an ethnic separatist party that seeks to make Quebec an independent, sovereign nation. By and large, the Bloc Québécois is center-left in its approach. However, it is primarily an ethnic coalition. It’s always had diverse elements. It does have an element that is more on the right of the political spectrum, but that’s definitely a minority element. Let me say a little bit about the Reform Party because I want you to be very clear on what the Reform Party is and is not. The Reform Party, although described by many of its members, and most of the media, as conservative, and conservative in the American sense, actually describes itself as populist. And that’s the term its leader, Preston Manning, uses. This term is not without significance. The Reform Party does stand for direct democracy, which of course many American conservatives do, but also it sees itself as coming from a long tradition of populist parties of Western Canada, not all of which have been conservative. It also is populist in the very real sense, if I can make American analogies to it -- populist in the sense that the term is sometimes used with Ross Perot. The Reform Party is very much a leader-driven party. It’s much more a real party than Mr. Perot’s party -- by the way, it existed before Mr. Perot’s party. But it’s very much leader-driven, very much organized as a personal political vehicle. Although it has much more of a real organization than Mr. Perot does. But the Reform Party only exists federally. It doesn’t exist at the provincial level here in Canada. It really exists only because Mr. Manning is pursuing the position of Prime Minister. It doesn’t have a broader political mandate than that yet. Most of its members feel it should, and, in their minds, actually it does. It also has some Buchananist tendencies. I know there are probably many admirers of Mr. Buchanan here, but I mean that in the sense that there are some anti-market elements in the Reform Party. So far, they haven’t been that important, because Mr. Manning is, himself, a fairly orthodox economic conservative. The predecessor of the Reform Party, the Social Credit Party, was very much like this. Believing in funny money and control of banking, and a whole bunch of fairly non-conservative economic things. So there are some nonconservative tendencies in the Reform Party, but, that said, the party is clearly the most economically conservative party in the country. It’s the closest thing we have to a neo-conservative party in that sense. It’s also the most conservative socially, but it’s not a theocon party, to use the term. The Reform Party does favor the use of referendums and free votes in Parliament on moral issues and social issues. The party is led by Preston Manning, who is a committed, evangelical Christian. And the party in recent years has made some reference to family values and to family priorities. It has some policies that are definitely social-conservative, but it’s not explicitly so. Many members are not , the party officially is not, and, frankly, the party has had a great deal of trouble when it’s tried to tackle those issues. Last year, when we had the Liberal government putting the protection of sexual orientation in our Human Rights Act, the Reform Party was opposed to that, but made a terrible mess of the debate. In fact, discredited itself on that issue, not just with the conventional liberal media, but even with many social conservatives by the manner in which it mishandled that. So the social conservative element exists. Mr. Manning is a Christian, as are most of the party’s senior people. But it’s not officially part of the party. The party hasn’t quite come to terms with how that fits into it. That’s the conventional analysis of the party system. Let me turn to the nonconventional analysis, because frankly, it’s impossible, with just left/right terminology to explain why we would have five parties, or why we would have four parties on the conventional spectrum. Why not just two? The reason is regional division, which you’ll see if you carefully look at a map. Let me draw the United States comparison, a comparison with your history. The party system that is developing here in Canada is a party system that replicates the antebellum period, the pre-Civil War period of the United States. That’s not to say -- and I would never be quoted as saying -- we’re headed to a civil war. But we do have a major secession crisis, obviously of a very different nature than the secession crisis you had in the 1860s. But the dynamics, the political and partisan dynamics of this, are remarkably similar. The Bloc Québécois is equivalent to your Southern secessionists, Southern Democrats, states rights activists. The Bloc Québécois, its forty-four seats, come entirely from the province of Quebec. But even more strikingly, they come from ridings, or election districts, almost entirely populated by the descendants of the original European French settlers. The Liberal Party has twenty-six seats in Quebec. Most of these come from areas where there are heavy concentrations of English, aboriginal or ethnic votes. So the Bloc Québécois is very much an ethnic party, but it’s also a secession party. In the referendum two years ago, the secessionists won 49 percent of the vote, 49.5 percent. So this is a very real crisis. We’re looking at another referendum before the turn of the century. The Progressive Conservative Party is very much comparable to the Whigs of the 1850s and 1860s. What is happening to them is very similar to the Whigs. A moderate conservative party, increasingly under stress because of the secession movement, on the one hand, and the reaction to that movement from harder line English Canadians on the other hand. You may recall that the Whigs, in their dying days, went through a series of metamorphoses. They ended up as what was called the Unionist movement that won some of the border states in your 1860 election. If you look at the surviving PC support, it’s very much concentrated in Atlantic Canada, in the provinces to the east of Quebec. These are very much equivalent to the United States border states. They’re weak economically. They have very grim prospects if Quebec separates. These people want a solution at almost any cost. And some of the solutions they propose would be exactly that. They also have a small percentage of seats in Quebec. These are French-speaking areas that are also more moderate and very concerned about what would happen in a secession crisis. The Liberal Party is very much your northern Democrat, or mainstream Democratic party, a party that is less concessionary to the secessionists than the PCs, but still somewhat concessionary. And they still occupy the mainstream of public opinion in Ontario, which is the big and powerful province, politically and economically, alongside Quebec. The Reform Party is very much a modern manifestation of the Republican movement in Western Canada; the U.S. Republicans started in the Western United States. The Reform Party is very resistant to the agenda and the demands of the secessionists, and on a very deep philosophical level. The goal of the secessionists is to transform our country into two nations, either into two explicitly sovereign countries, or in the case of weaker separatists, into some kind of federation of two equal partners. The Reform Party opposes this on all kinds of grounds, but most important, Reformers are highly resistant philosophically to the idea that we will have an open, modern, multiethnic society on one side of the line, and the other society will run on some set of ethnic-special-status principles. This is completely unacceptable, particularly to philosophical conservatives in the Reform Party. The Reform Party’s strength comes almost entirely from the West. It’s become the dominant political force in Western Canada. And it is getting a substantial vote in Ontario. Twenty percent of the vote in the last two elections. But it has not yet broken through in terms of the number of seats won in Ontario. This is a very real political spectrum, lining up from the Bloc to reform. You may notice I didn’t mention the New Democratic Party. The NDP obviously can’t be compared to anything pre-Civil War. But the NDP is not an important player on this issue. Its views are somewhere between the liberals and conservatives. Its main concern, of course, is simply the left wing agenda to basically disintegrate our society in all kinds of spectrums. So it really doesn’t fit in. But I don’t use this comparison of the pre-Civil War lightly. Preston Manning, the leader of the Reform Party has spent a lot of time reading about pre-Civil War politics. He compares the Reform Party himself to the Republican Party of that period. He is very well-read on Abraham Lincoln and a keen follower and admirer of Lincoln. I know Mr. Manning very well. I would say that next to his own father, who is a prominent Western Canadian politician, Abraham Lincoln has probably had more effect on Mr. Manning’s political philosophy than any individual politician. Obviously, the issue here is not slavery, but the appeasement of ethnic nationalism. For years, we’ve had this Quebec separatist movement. For years, we elected Quebec Prime Ministers to deal with that, Quebec Prime Ministers who were committed federalists who would lead us out of the wilderness. For years, we have given concessions of various kinds of the province of Quebec, political and economic, to make them happier. This has not worked. The sovereignty movement has continued to rise in prominence. And its demands have continued to increase. It began to hit the wall when what are called the soft separatists and the conventional political establishment got together to put in the constitution something called “a distinct society clause.” Nobody really knows what it would mean, but it would give the Supreme Court, where Quebec would have a tremendous role in appointment, the power to interpret Quebec’s special needs and powers, undefined elsewhere. This has led to a firewall of resistance across the country. It fueled the growth of the Reform Party. I should even say that the early concessionary people, like Pierre Trudeau, have come out against this. So there’s even now an element of the Quebec federalists themselves who will no longer accept this. So you see the syndrome we’re in. The separatists continue to make demands. They’re a powerful force. They continue to have the bulk of the Canadian political establishment on their side. The two traditional parties, the Liberals and PCs, are both led by Quebecers who favor concessionary strategies. The Reform Party is a bastion of resistance to this tendency. To give you an idea of how divided the country is, not just in Quebec but how divided the country is outside Quebec on this, we had a phenomenon five years ago. This is a real phenomenon; I don’t know how much you heard about it. The establishment came down with a constitutional package which they put to a national referendum. The package included distinct society status for Quebec and some other changes, including some that would just horrify you, putting universal Medicare in our constitution, and feminist rights, and a whole bunch of other things. What was significant about this was that this constitutional proposal was supported by the entire Canadian political establishment. By all of the major media. By the three largest traditional parties, the PC, Liberal Party and NDP. At the time, the Bloc and Reform were very small. It was supported by big business, very vocally by all of the major CEOs of the country. The leading labor unions all supported it. Complete consensus. And most academics. And it was defeated. It literally lost the national referendum against a rag-tag opposition consisting of a few dissident conservatives and a few dissident socialists. This gives you some idea of the split that’s taking place in the country. Canada is, however, a troubled country politically, not socially. This is a country that we like to say works in practice but not in theory. You can walk around this country without running across very many of these political controversies. I’ll end there and take any of your questions. But let me conclude by saying, good luck in your own battles. Let me just remind you of something that’s been talked about here. As long as there are exams, there will always be prayer in schools.” - Stephen Harper, speaking to American far right group, The Council for National Policy in Montreal, June 1997 “I don’t think my fundamental beliefs have changed in a decade, but certainly my views on individual issues have evolved.” – Stephen Harper (Globe and Mail, January 12, 2006) Authorized by the His Own Words Coalition. Members include: Council of Canadians; Carpenters Union Central Ontario Regional Chapter; Egale Canada; First Peoples for Progressive Government; Friends of Nature.

Guns + religion + politics = fun

2006-01-21T08:57:00.000-08:00

Please jump here then come right back.

This is one of the places where politics, guns, and religion love to congregate. These guys, for the most part, aren’t plain nuts – the genuinely believe America’s freedom is under siege from all sides. I haven’t read enough stories to be critical and doubt I will get there (ya I probably will) but what has really blown me away is the general…. “environment” this particular piece of web real estate has managed to construct.

There seems to be little debate yet there is tons of coverage with what some would see as valid points. Usually anything unchallenged remains unrefined. Some of the posts on this site go forever just bleeding passion. Intriguing.

Check out a few posts, it is really quite intriguing. If by chance you want to make Iran disappear you’ll love this place.

Parrot drops bomb

2006-01-21T07:41:00.000-08:00

Just imagine you wipe down for prints, wash the sheets, hide the phone bill and tell all your neighbours you and your ‘brother’ like to have loud passionate discussions late into the night. You even start feeling a little cocky as if you yourself had not only invented cheating but perfected it. No one suspects a thing.

Damn that parrot.

In a story that would usually be attributed to the loyalties often associated with mans best friend, the hero in this story is an African grey parrot named Ziggy.

Chris Taylor was at home one day with his girlfriend Suzy Collins when his parrot Ziggy started up with an unfamiliar tune: “I love you Gary” – over and over again. Chris, being a computer programmer, had an eye for detail and noticed a look of embarrassment mixed with ass on his now former girlfriends face. Turns out she had been having an affair for over 4 months!

Cheaters beware there is a new sheriff in town!

There are left wing Christians - there always has been

2006-01-20T22:11:00.000-08:00

This is just a quick reality check on the very loud, proud, dominating, RICH, oppressive and very right wing Christian movement in the United States and Canada. It didn’t start out this way in the very beginning.

A few quick points:

Jesus was the first socialist.

The first churches were houses of communism (big concern for Karl Marx).

God was originally a source of hope (later to become fear).

Christians were intimately linked to poverty.

Christians were intimately linked to the sick and disabled.

Christians were charitable.

Gay marriage was low on the priority list.

Christianity, believe it or not, was not based on abortion and gay marriage. Real world Christians, back in the day, spent their time helping people rather than trying to oppress them. Early Christians, like most left wing Christians, also had a couple of other wild and crazy beliefs: egalitarianism and peace!

What I love best about the left however is the consistency. While the modern left wing Christians differ on their beliefs surrounding gay marriage and abortion there is a very large group among them who subscribe to ‘consistent life’. Yes they are pro-life, but they are against war, capital punishment and poverty. They are consistent unlike their right wing counterparts who simply go along with what suits them best. I can respect that.

Right wing Christian movements? Wrong. It is THE right wing Christian movement here in North America. This is something we let happen. Something that is mostly a non-issue everywhere else except here.

Long story short there are a ton of left wing Christians out there doing a great job trying to save the world by concentrating on the real world issues affecting real world people who need help. They are not pushy, rude, or nearly as political as their counterparts.

Left wing Christians have credibility as a group while right wing Christians are a special interest group.

JUMPS

Wiki
Lerner
Turn-Left

Harper not getting approval from right wingers down south

2006-01-20T21:19:00.000-08:00

It wouldn’t be a big surprise to see the religious right down south frothing at the mouth with the very likely prospect of a Harper led conservative government.

Not the case. Believe it or not they are fairly critical of Harper’s leadership because they think he is getting way too close to the centre on social policy issues. WTF?

Excerpts from the story:

“Conservative Leader Stephen Harper has successively come down more and more against even openness to social conservative causes within the party. The original position of the Party was to allow for private members bills on moral issues including abortion and for free votes in the House of Commons on those measures. However, in response to increased pressure from the Liberals and the media, Harper vowed to "use whatever influence I have in Parliament to be sure that such a matter doesn't come to a vote."

Even on the issue of traditional marriage Harper has backed away from social conservatives indicating that legislation on the matter is by no means a priority.

In the United States where such harsh politicking is commonplace, social conservatives have at least one mainstream political leader to speak up for them - the President - who, rather than being afraid, is proud and usually confident to affirm that he is pro-life, pro-family and pro-faith. This publicly projected confidence in his beliefs, totally lacking in many Canadian social conservative politicians, has had a powerful effect in disarming the influence of opponents on those issues.

Surveys have shown that television is where most Canadians receive their news. However, television is by far the most uniformly biased form of communications, with hardly any meaningful socially conservative Canadian presence represented on mainstream stations whatsoever.

So just in case you missed the above it says, in a nutshell, we are lacking a right wing Christian leader and we watch way too much TV. Immediately following the above however is my personal favorite:

“Fox News, in the United States, while not socially conservative, is at least usually 'fair and balanced', leaving openings for socially conservative views to be expressed and respected.”

Fox News fair and balanced? Fuck right off you moron. Unbelievable. I’m not voting for the conservatives but I feel a lot better about them knowing the lunatic religious right down south doesn’t completely approve of him. The entire story is worth a read, they continue on to tell us that we need to do a better job searching for the truth on something called the “i-n-t-e-r-n-e-t”. By the way, per capita, the only nation in world that accesses the net more than us in those crazy Aussies.

I’m pissed, look for more religious stories to follow.

Paul Martin and Tattered Flags

2006-01-20T16:40:00.000-08:00

The crew of a vessel owned by Prime Minister Paul Martin’s family is afraid the company is only waiting for the election to end before reflagging the ship and replacing the sailors with a foreign crew. The Atlantic Superior, a 220-metre bulk carrier that usually works in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, is in Halifax for repairs to its engine. The rumour on the docks is that Canada Steamship Lines Inc., the company Mr. Martin built and eventually handed to his sons, plans to register it abroad and hire a cheaper foreign crew, but is waiting until Tuesday, because the news might hurt Mr. Martin’s electoral chances if it came out in the middle of the campaign. "That’s why he might have kept the Canadians on board until just after the election, because he knows that it would kill them if he would do so right now," said a union source, who asked not to be named. The rusty ship, flying a tattered Canadian flag, is tied up at Pier 34 in Halifax, with a skeleton crew aboard.

Google defies US over search data

2006-01-20T16:39:00.000-08:00

The internet search engine Google is resisting efforts by the US Department of Justice to force it to hand over data about what people are looking for. Google was asked for information on the types of query submitted over a week, and the websites included in its index. The department wants the data to try to show in court it has the right approach in enforcing an online pornography law. It says the order will not violate personal privacy, but Google says it is too broad and threatens trade secrets. Privacy groups say any sample could reveal the identities of Google users indirectly.And they say the demand is a worrying precedent, because the government also wants to make more use of internet data for fighting crime and terrorism. However, the Department of Justice has said that several of Google's main competitors have already complied. Act blocked The department first issued a request for the data last August. It wants: * A list of terms entered into the search engine during an unspecified single week, potentially tens of millions of queries * A million randomly selected web addresses from various Google databases. The US government is seeking to defend the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, which has been blocked by the Supreme Court because of legal challenges over how it is enforced.Google's refusal to comply prompted US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to ask a federal judge in the state of California on Wednesday for an order to hand over the records. But Google's lawyers said it would fight the order."Google is not a party to this lawsuit and their demand for information overreaches," associate general counsel Nicole Wong said in a written statement."We had lengthy discussions with them to try to resolve this, but were not able to, and we intend to resist their motion vigorously." Search decisions Google has also said that providing the data would make its users think it was willing to reveal personal information about them, as well as giving competitors access to trade secrets. One of its search rivals, Yahoo, said it had already complied with a similar government subpoena "on a limited basis and did not provide any personally identifiable information". And Microsoft said in a statement that it "works closely with law enforcement officials worldwide to assist them when requested". "It is our policy to respond to legal requests in a very responsive and timely manner in full compliance with applicable law," it said.

Dumb and Dumber - Genuine Idiot Savants

2006-01-20T11:24:00.000-08:00

I admit that I am one of these A(*&holes who really do believe that most people are genuine idiot savants. Actually even this nomenclature may be awarding too much credit to the masses. The question I have in reference to the article below, is if this is indeed the case what about the rest of society?..or at least what will these idiot savants resemble in the years to come when they are not forced to read or attempt to write?

Johnny still can't read – in college More than half of students at U.S. four-year colleges – and at least 75 per cent at two-year colleges – lack the literacy to handle complex, real-life tasks such as understanding credit card offers, a study has found.

....this does beg the question that if people cannot understand basic instructions should we even encourage them to vote? Good luck understanding a political party plaftorm...nevermind even knowing what one is.

Rate of sexual infections increasing in Canada

2006-01-19T19:17:00.000-08:00

Rates of sexually transmitted infections in Canada have increased so much from 1997 to 2004 that experts are calling the phenomenon a "hidden epidemic" and demanding a national strategy. * The rate of chlamydia rose by 70 per cent to almost 30,000 cases in 2004. People aged 15 to 24 mostly had the infection. * Gonorrhea infections went up by 80 per cent to 4,013 cases in 2004. Men aged 20 to 29 had the highest rate of infection. Among women, those aged 15 to 24 had the highest number of cases of gonorrhea. * Syphilis infections rose by a whopping 908 per cent to 598 cases in 2004. Men mainly over the age of 30 had syphilis, with a significant proportion of its transmission occurring between homosexuals. According to medical officials in Edmonton, the STI infection rates in Alberta are even higher than the national average. STIs counted for 62 per cent of all reported diseases in Alberta in 2004. That rate was just 37 per cent in 2000.

Whack Job: Why Is Martin Not Focusing On These People?

2006-01-19T18:33:00.000-08:00

Watch the movie here Ajax--Pickering--Candidate: Rondo Thomas Email: info@rondothomas.ca Phone: (905) 619-0039 Web Site: http://www.rondothomas.ca

Best grilled cheese ever

2006-01-19T18:24:00.000-08:00

There are a few things bachelors, former bachelors, students and former students pride themselves on cooking. The two most famous both involve cheese and neither would ever claim to be substantively valuable from a nutritional point of view. This time we will be paying homage to the all mighty ‘Grilled Cheese Sammich’. I’ll let you figure out what the other ‘cheese’ recipe is that I am referring to.

Recipes in no particular order:

George Foreman Mexican Grilled Cheese
Bread: Bolillo Roll (Torpedo shaped roll with crusty outside and moist inside)
Cheese: Monterey Jack
Spread/Filler: Tomato and Avocado

White Trash Special
Bread: Wonderbread
Cheese: Cheapest extra thick slices you can find
Spread/Filler: Bologna and Mayo
Once the outside of the sammich has been coated with butter lightly sprinkle brown sugar on both sides for caramelized effect.

Snobby Special
Bread: Olive Bread
Cheese: Herbed Goat Cheese
Spread/Filler: Pesto, tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste.

Jude Special
Bread: Nutty Multigrain
Cheese: Stilton infused with Guiness
Spread/Filler: Canadian Bacon with a hint of blackberry jam (just a hint)
This sammich needs to be cooked on cast iron in a very unhealthy amount of swine juice. The sandwich is done when it appears to be deep fried.

Best Ever Grand Prize Winner(s)

Way too complicated, make the jump here.

The best site for balls for your truck

2006-01-19T15:04:00.000-08:00

Gold Pure Gold

EKOS, SES, IPSOS, DECIMA, GREGG

2006-01-19T14:49:00.000-08:00

Who do we believe? Wild variations: CPAC-SES Jan 15-17 CP 36.9% Lib 31.5% Gregg Jan 14-16 CP 42% Lib 24% Decima Jan 12-15 CP 37% Lib 27%

Libido, Castration and Beer: Proof that Women are Gaining on Men

2006-01-19T14:14:00.000-08:00

Man the world is going crazy... Broley Darwin Awards of the year go to the men: Nev. Man Castrates Himself to Lower Libido RENO, Nev. - A 50-year-old Reno man who was hospitalized after he castrated himself told police he learned of the procedure on the Internet and did so to lower his libido. The man, whose name was not released, called 911 at about 1:30 a.m. Monday and asked for help because he could not stop the bleeding from a self-castration operation, police said. Reno police and medics responded to the man's home and he was taken by ambulance to the hospital. Washoe Medical Center officials cited privacy issues on why they could not release any information on the man, including his condition. But police said hospital officials confirmed Wednesday the man successfully castrated himself."The man obviously needs some sort of counseling, (duhh do ya think?)" Reno police Lt. Ron Donnelly told the Reno Gazette-Journal. Man Locks Himself in Pizzeria for Beer PRAGUE, Czech Republic - AP - It will be the most expensive keg of beer he's ever had. A 32-year-old Czech man got himself locked up in a pizzeria late Wednesday to have free access to beer overnight. When the restaurant's staff left, he broke into a cooling box containing a keg, disconnected the pipes leading to the tap, put them in his mouth and drank as much as he could. The man, drunk and fast asleep, was found by cleaners in the early hours of Thursday. Police spokesman Vit Cvrcek said he will now have to pay for the beer he drank and faces up to one year in prison or a fine of $346 for the damage he caused to the cooling box.

Oh the world turns - A Photo Mugging of Paul Martin

2006-01-19T12:59:00.000-08:00

You know that the centre of the world "Downtown Toronto" has started to change when they put pictures of the Prime Minister like this in the Toronto Star....bye bye, bonne soirée, bye bye

Hell is freezing!

2006-01-18T12:36:00.000-08:00

I do not know which one of these is more bizarre: Liberals scramble after Hargrove calls Harper separatist Martin forced to issue statement praising Tory leader's patriotism William Shatner sells kidney stone for charity

To aid your decision - note the CLC people can resemble Cracker-Jacks

2006-01-18T12:14:00.000-08:00

Here is a website from the Canadian Labour Congress that summarizes the platforms of the major parties in the upcoming Canadian Election: www.betterchoice.ca ... the commentary and analysis contain major biases but the bullets appear to be accurate...read the bullets and make your own decision... For your information here are their excerpts from a the Green Party's platform: Platform Summary Health Care * Enforce the Canada Health Act more rigorously, oppose the drift towards two-tiered Medicare and respond to the needs of marginalized communities. * Work with provinces for a national Pharmacare plan. * Move towards a system more focused on preventative care, concentrating on 'wellness' over 'illness'. * Increase research on 'lifestyle-related' causes of illness, including environmental pollution and obesity. * Create a $500 million fund ($100 million per year over five years) for a National Cancer Strategy that concentrates on the genetic and environmental causes of cancer. * Work with the provinces to overhaul the accreditation review process for foreign-trained doctors. Pension Protection, Retirement Security & Older Canadians * Enforce policy measures to ensure workplace pension plans are adequately funded. * Establish a Canadian mentorship network to enable contact between seniors and youth. * Empower the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporate to offer more low cost loans for seniors' housing. * Advertise the existence of federal public pensions for seniors. Post-Secondary Education * would work with provinces and higher learning institutions to reduce post-secondary tuition; * would harmonize government programs such as the Millennium Scholarship Fund to provide a single need-based grant program to reduce student debt; * would increase investments in post-secondary education and ensure that public funding plays a major role in research and development initiatives. Child care and early learning * Increase funding for locally run child care programs. * Expand child tax credits and benefits, as well as tax-incentives for employers to establish on-site child care. * Increase funding for early childhood education and link local child care and education centres into a national network. Good Jobs * Like the NDP, the Green Party places a major emphasis on new jobs that would be created by responding to environmental challenges such as global warming and resource depletion. Unlike the NDP, they favour more business tax cuts and have nothing to say about industrial development policies in “traditional” sectors. * Beyond a general call for corporate social responsibility and support for a 35-hour work week, the Greens have little to say about labour rights and standards. Workers' rights * Jim Harris and the Greens have urged a Corporate Social Responsibility Act for Canadian firms operating here at home and elsewhere in the world. * The Greens have pledged tax credits for firms meeting the highest standards in pay equity. * The Greens have also declared their full support for the rights of disabled Canadians. International Trade, Canadian Jobs and Public Services * The Green Party calls for renegotiation of trade agreements to restrict the export of raw logs; to stop bulk water exports; enable Canada to protect natural resources; foster fair trade for clean energy technologies; and to protect Canada's cultural identity. * They say Canada should “renegotiate our multilateral trade agreements, such as NAFTA and the upcoming FTAA, to include fair trade tariffs that work to protect human rights and our ecosystems, as well as terminate investor-state dispute mechanisms that erode Canada's sovereignty and environmental laws." * They also propose placing the WTO under the authority of the United Nations and shift the direction of international trade away from "free trade" to "fair trade" focusing on the global protection of human rights, labour standards, cultural diversity, and ecosystems. The Party Platform

Broley Blog Comment of the Month: "Euthanizing a Mindfuck"

2006-01-18T12:13:00.000-08:00

"Saw the negative Liberal ad in full last night on the news. It selectively edited some remarks made by Harper last September to insinuate that Harper would put "troops in the streets" as a harbinger of draconian law enforcement measures that the Conservatives would enact once in power. Not only was the ad distasteful, but the mindfuck that dreamed it up should be euthanized. The Liberals are now so desperate that they give evidence of Forrest Gump's expression, "Stupid is as Stupid does.""

Logic??

2006-01-16T12:38:00.000-08:00

"But when a party has been in power for four terms and 12 years, you have to start thinking about alternatives...The result is usually stagnation and corruption; witness the sponsorship scandal, which sprang directly from the sense of entitlement that develops when a party considers itself the only one truly fit to rule: a natural governing party." While I agree the Liberals definitely need to be spanked at the polls for their sense of entitlement....and being around too long does get musty....the quote above highlights another reason why I voiced what I did below. Folks you need a better example! Quit rehashing la mode du jour and come up with something insightful. The Sponsorship Scandal happened within 4 years of the election of a new government. When the program started it would qualify as arrogance by a government more recently elected....not a bunch of PRI relics. Yes the Liberal government started to stagnate....but it would be nice if the brain trust for Canada's national newpaper would be able to come up with a more insightful and logocally consistent example. Band-Wagon-Burners~

Why Unfortunately I cannot put any stock in the Globe and Mail Editorial Section

2006-01-16T12:29:00.000-08:00

Check out this interview with Marcus Gee: Marcus Gee discusses The Globe's endorsement of the Harper Conservatives Not that I ever blindly listened to the Globe and Mail Editorial Section, but unfortunately I will not be able to pay them much more attention. Do not get me wrong this has nothing to do with the choice itself to endorse the Conservatives....although I think that they are kissing serious "fesse" to make up for a liberal bais in the past that only the Toronto Star and CBC could rival. My issue is with the editorialist himself. I had to sit at a roundtable with Marcus Gee (the editorial page editor of The Globe, and international affairs columnist) at a meeting (that was way above my rank) on Canada's place in the world and within a greater North American space. To put it mildly the only thing I would call swift were the odd quick glances. I do deserve a spanking for thinking that it was Ibbitson or Simpson that was in charge of the commentary.

Tories left two key promises

2006-01-16T04:53:00.000-08:00

An economist hired by the Tories to evaluate the affordability of the party's platform was not given two significant promises to evaluate.It does not include pledge to fix so-called fiscal imbalance and patient waiting-time guarantee

Knives, Politics, and Breasts

2006-01-15T18:25:00.000-08:00

Ok this blog is getting a bit too political...but hey break us some slack...it is one week until the election...after the election we promise to return to more interesting topics such as Sports, Truck Nutz, and all around arse...that said:

McKenna, le choix des stratèges du PLC Les stratèges libéraux qui ont permis à Paul Martin de prendre la tête du Parti libéral après des années de lutte interne ont déjà choisi leur homme pour lui succéder: Frank McKenna.

The biggest Canadian ass of the day award goes to Mr. Obnoxious himself:

Is this man still a virgin?

2006-01-15T18:11:00.000-08:00

Does anyone know if this man, the MP for Calgary Southeast is still the oldest virgin in Canadian politics?

A Political Orgy

2006-01-15T08:57:00.000-08:00

This free-fall is becoming humourous. Check out this latest TV spot by the Conservatives. Brilliant...click here

FREE SEX

2006-01-14T21:55:00.001-08:00

Culture: the beliefs, traditions, religions and techne that form a society. The word culture was derived from cultivation, directly related to agriculture; farming, cultivating, growing and prospering. Fast forward to aristocratic Europe; to be cultured was to be rich and have time to pursue the arty extras.

Culture was and is whatever it is and was.

What can not be disputed (as if my last sentence is undisputable) is ‘culture’ is often used to segregate. Fast forward to modern times. My buddies and I decide to go to a hockey game. Oilers vs Flames. Great time, great people, great tradition.

As a Canadian I absolutely cannot deny that I was taking part in an event that has arguably been a part of Canadian culture since the early 1800’s when we combined the rules of Ricket, Rugby, Cricket, Grass Hockey and Hurley to invent the wonderful game of Hockey.

There are those that disagree. They would label the above as a mass or popular event so barbarous, so corporate, and so consumptive that on the scale of progression versus regression, regression comes out the victor.

This sort of idea is of course centuries old. It was made famous most recently by the Matrix movies. We are all just plugged in to the mass culture advertising machine to keep us (un)happy. All of the above is just the plain obvious rhetoric that gets repeated night after night after night at every left wing cocktail party in all the major metropolitan centers on the continent. These events are my favorite. Lets talk about mass culture so everyone knows we are conscious. God forbid we counter that culture. Better still we can tell everyone that we know everything is bullshit so they know that we know….and so it continues.

At this very moment I may appear to be segregating myself from the segregationists. Admittedly I would like to separate myself. I would like to think that the strange and mysterious thoughts that fly through my mindset are special. They are not special and neither am I. I am going through a very typical pre having kids interim before mid life crisis crisis. My crisis has been brought on by this very clear yellow brick road that is suddenly ahead of me clearer than day. As hard as I try I can’t stop my journey down the path towards the light.

I want to step out of the Matrix. I want to get off the real estate ladder and rent. I want to forget credit history and live in other lands. I want a small apartment big enough to sleep and eat. Fuck cable. I want to be cultured. I want to really understand and live in some of the various cultures around the world. I want to play not watch. I want to pick up Dante rather than SI. I want to eat enough to survive rather than live to gorge. I want out of suburbia where I am surrounded by hundreds of long lost twins. I want back into the urban jungle so I can come face to face with the demons of capitalism.

I want freedom and it is staring me in the face.
I am afraid of freedom because it is not compatible with security.

Merdedes down with Rap and Hip-Hop

2006-01-14T20:36:00.000-08:00

Not only did they win but they straight-up kicked some damn ass. According to CNN (trustworthy non-partisan news source) Mercedes-Benz was mentioned 100 times in 2005’s top rap/hip-hop songs. Closest competitor was Nike at a pathetic and uninspiring 63.

I should however mention that very rarely was the full name Mercedes-Benz actually used. One urban white male rapper wanna be with a long history and association with the rap and hip-hop genre made it clear to this author that when referring to Mercedes-Benz most rappers use the common slang ‘Benzo’.

Eg: ‘Me and Lorenzo riding in my Benzo.’

Now you are all educated, my job is done.

Wifi will crush satellite radio

2006-01-14T19:49:00.000-08:00

That is my bold prediction for 2006. I think it is pretty simple. You can get about 114 channels (currently) on satellite. Maybe it is 200 – who cares. Wifi is spreading like the avian flu right now and there is no stopping it. It won’t be long and your computer or computer peripheral will just be connected. As I am sure most of you are aware there are quite a few stations available on the net. My search for ‘internet radio’ returned 258 M hits.

If I’m wrong about any of the above it will be cost, not availability. Let’s say it costs $35 for Wifi anywhere (and I’m not talking about the shitty performance you currently get through your cell phone on networks that still ain’t pushin 3G) and $15 bucks for satellite radio. I’d pay more than double for millions of stations, not to mention access to the internet.

Check out this story from 2002. As it turns out our satellite friends have been trying to mess with our Wifi. No dice.

Media IDA Vision and Liberals in the Penalty Box

2006-01-14T16:41:00.000-08:00

Warren Kinsella had a very good point on his blog today that I remember my father (who did have Media IDA Vision lop off a chunk of funding for his festival for doing absolutely nothing) metioning the same thing a while back. I think that his comments are widely shared by many Liberal's from across the country.

"I say this as a card-carrying Liberal who intends to vote for my local Liberal MP: The Liberal Party of Canada deserves to lose. We need a spell in the penalty box -- to get a new leader, new ideas, new caucus members. We need renewal. If a Stephen Harper minority is the best way to achieve that, that's a-OK by me."

Oddly enough I have contemplated in taking out a Liberal Party membership at least after the election campaign (even though I am likely voting green)....in hopes that the disappearance of the ancient regime will lead to major renewal.

Conservatives, Harper, and Contained Communities

2006-01-14T09:32:00.000-08:00

As much as I think most of the mud on these guys really does not have that much dirt....there are some serious troubles with the underlying philosopy. I do think they would be good on repairing relations between the feds and the provinces; the fiscal imbalance; democratic deficit; and potentially really address that productivity issue (and apparently national poverty groups while not endorsing the Conservative platform did state that it would benefit them more than the Liberal one because 7 million Canadians do not pay taxes as they are below the tax line...hence the GST rebate would have more benefits at the margin). Taken together a shift in power to the Conservatives could really stand up for Canada and help us to improve in many ways that I do not think the liberals would do. Apparently the real difference is this:

"Conservative candidate Tony Clement, who is running against Agriculture Minister Andy Mitchell in Parry Sound-Muskoka, says Canadians can expect visible change from a Harper government — and most visible, he says, would be the law-and-order changes. A new sheriff is coming to town, in other words. "The real difference (from the Liberals) is going to be on the crime and justice issue," said the former Ontario cabinet minister."

But talk about a negative campaign, how about a negative platform. Crime, Guns, Crime......what next should we all be living in Robert Mansell Style-Calgary-Suburb-Self-Contained-Socio-Economically similar grouping housing areas for our saftey? Note that fighting crime is important and likely more a focus now than ever before due to a) the media; b) our population is aging and getting more scared; and c) the old and scared vote more than the young and ignorant. But really crime rates since the 1990s across the board have significantly decreased, while violent crimes have remained constant (not that these would be lower but reporting of violent crimes has also increased): In the economics department at the University of Calgary Mansell (Harper's thesis supervisor who has a personality that makes Harper look like "tickle me elmo") did use the analogy that excessive sunlight makes people in developing countries less willing to work....whether true or not very innapproporiate.

Artificial light, melatonin, and breast cancer

2006-01-14T09:15:00.000-08:00

A team of U.S. scientists has discovered a possible explanation for why women in developed countries are at high risk of developing the disease. The answer at first glance may seem unlikely: nighttime exposure to electric lighting.

Vote Tory - why or why not?

2006-01-14T09:01:00.000-08:00

Albertans are conservative. This is no big surprise. Recently my wife and I were discussing politics when she related a story to me that should not have shocked me but indeed it has. While at work, she is a nurse, a bunch of nurses, clerical staff and others were engaged in political conversation. Most were stating who they would vote for etc etc. My wife and I take this voting business quite seriously and like many Canadians are struggling with our unwillingness to vote conservative and our unwillingness to vote Liberal after the recent fiascos. Whatever we decide to do we will do so based on our own research. We will have some inkling as to what is involved in the various party platforms and what the national AND local track records of our respective candidates are.

Back to the shocker. The majority of the people my wife works with are voting conservative (not shocking) – but they don’t know why (shocking). The small minority of people who were not voting conservative asked the majority why they were voting Tory and they generally had no idea. It seems it was just the thing to do.

The conservatives are now seen as the likely victors. Below are excerpts from their campaign and platform. Not intended to be positive or negative. Whichever way you go at least the below should help you justify your position.

Things to expect from the conservatives:

GST from 7% to 6% and eventually 5% over 5 years (already planning for the next election).

National network of provincial/federal child care is gone (4.8 B gone). To be replaced by $1200 per year (which may be more or less I have no idea).

Gun registry is gone.

People in the lowest income bracket are now taxed at 15%, that will increase to 16%.

Lower corporate tax (markets already responding).

Basic personal exemption will be decreased by $400.

44.9 B in tax savings.

30 B in new spending.

Bye bye Kyoto hello American style made in Canada pollution standards (some American standards are quite good).

November meeting in Kelowna outlining various native treaties and land claims issues will be scrapped. No word yet on the 5.1 B promised to help out with brutal housing conditions, poor education, etc etc.

Indian Act gone.

22.5 B in government cuts and spending.

Government spending capped at inflation/ population growth rate.

There you have it. Stay informed.

PS: People who vote for NDP or Green etc are not wasting votes. Canadians who choose not to vote are wasting votes. The next person who tells me anyone who votes anything other that Tory or Grit is wasting votes is getting smacked in the mouth.

Wacko Jacko Jackson!

2006-01-13T16:35:00.000-08:00

This post is for our loyal reader who cannot sleep sometimes without a Michael Jackson update.......Singer faces lawsuit alleging.?.?

Liberal candidate dumped over bribery accusation

2006-01-13T16:24:00.000-08:00

"The move came just a few hours after the NDP publicized a complaint to Elections Canada from NDP federal secretary Eric Hebert alleging Mr. Oliver, the Liberal candidate in Abbotsford, offered NDP rival Jeffery Hansen-Carlson a job in Ottawa and help contesting the next civic election if he publicly threw his support behind the Liberals. (from the Globe and Mail online)" ...(Note that the issue with the Conservative candidate will not stick....but true or not this will stick.)

Inexperienced Political Staffers and Lemmings

2006-01-13T15:24:00.000-08:00

Reading Warren Kinsella from time to time proves to be great comic relief and a good source to receive informative hypertext links (www.warrenkinsella.com). I do wonder about the Lemmings that this guy has following him from time to time. He really does seem to be very quick to turn his coat a la Jacques Dutronc "Je suis pour le communisme / Je suis pour le socialisme / Et pour le capitalism / Parce que je suis opportuniste / je retourne ma veste / Toujours du bon cote..... Do not get me wrong he is very good at covertly slinging mud and a great disgruntled punk rocker.... (had no idea that I actually saw him in Ottawa). But before the lemmings jump on his every word and the constant sticking it to the Martinites .. maybe he should take a lesson from his idol who I do believe was more intelligent and in an odd sense had more integrity than the current guy. (Note that Paul really does read his briefing books in more detail than the former guy...that could be the problem.....as too many options often result in poor decisions) Actually I think that Kinsella has a lot more in common with Paul Martin than Jean Chretien as they are both always innocent, oblivious to scandal, and act much differently in the public than private eye (although Kinsella likely did not have political staffers pad briefing books to withstand his temper tantrums like the current guy):

1. Kinsella, in his memo to Quail, indicated that Dingwall wasn't acting on his own in revamping federal strategy. There had been consultation with the Prime Minister's Office and Privy Council Office, he said.

2. On page 162 of Chapter VI the Gomery Report: "When CCSB was created in November 1997, it constituted almost exactly the consolidation of functions that had been advocated by Mr. Kinsella two years previously. At that time, Mr. Guite's position was reclassified from EX-02 to EX-03."

3.From the words of an angry westerner "So when you consider Warren Kinsella's musings, just consider what weight you should give an "inexperienced political staffer" guilty of a "highly inappropriate" attempt to interfere politically in the internal administration of the Ministry of Publics Works and who tried to give "the impression" of having the support of the highest levels of government when trying to put Chuck Guite in charge of this reorganization of government communications."

4. Again Gomery "On November 23, 1995, Mr. Kinsella, the Executive Assistant of Mr. Dingwall, who was then Minister of PWGSC, wrote a surprising memorandum to Messrs. Quail and Stobbe, which to be appreciated must be reproduced in full:" (not here but read it here)

The matter died there. Mr. Quail decided that Mr. Kinsella's memo was a mistake by an inexperienced political staffer who did not know better than to attempt to give direction to a senior public servant on how to organize his department.

Warren you are a sage....this could have been avoided if the current guy did as you seem to hve recommended in your musings and just swept it under the rug...... Come on Warrren..what the hell actually happened in the 1990s? Disclaimer: None of this could be true. For more information you can obtain a copy of Phase 1 of the Gomery Report on line. The authors of this blog profusely apologize in advance for any errors that may have occured in the above hypocritical rant. PS: For the record the late release of party platforms in the election campaign completely ruined the Christmas vacations for my friends that work in the Privy Council Office, as well as made the start of the New Year very hectic and totally demoralizing. I could not imagine a worse place to be working at the present time....and the Conservatives will likely bypass them for a long while if they win the election...making the policy process even more political.

Strip malls are beautiful

2006-01-12T21:07:00.000-08:00

Before you completely dismiss what I have to say please consider that I did spend a portion of my life in planning and economic development in two different countries (3 if you count the planning exchange I was part of in France). I spent the early part of my university education towing the party line and learning to hate ugly strip malls. Admittedly they are sometimes a little repulsive from the outside, although I would also argue they have a certain character that beautifully engineered spaces sometimes lack. Now that I am outside of the urban centre the only commerce centre in walking distance is not one, but two small strip malls.

At first I shunned them like Betamax. Eventually I was desperate for some small food item and was forced to visit the local ‘mall’. It was amazing. Inside these small shops, most of which were a little on the seedy side from an exterior point of view, was character, service, conversation and above all community. I soon realized there were two specific types of tenants. Starters and lifers.

Lifers are the small corner stores, pizza shops, and paint stores. The starters are those restaurants looking for a cheap place to start and test recipes, systems, staff and theory. I am referring to restaurants because that is the case in my particular demographic.

Anyway this article is getting too long as it is. Explore your local strip mall. Beauty is on the inside. Hidden treasures are waiting to be found. I will continue my strip mall coverage with regular articles covering strip malls across the country.

Stay tuned.

Harper rejects Kyoto, native deal

2006-01-12T18:39:00.000-08:00

Statements like this really make it difficult to vote his way.......I am cursing Clark for leaving and creating the conditions for McKay to betray Orchard.....it would be nice to have the Progressive put back into Conservative.....I may yet give $1.75 to some nutjob party...... while Kyoto has its flaws....Canada will completley purge itself of a lot of international goodwill if we renege on Kyoto right after the Montreal conference. We will lose a lot of international credibility in this regard....granted we do not have much credibility with regards to environmental issues. What is also worring me is his lack of understanding for the machinery of government. Scrapping programs outright that have been in the planning stages for years with funding already allocated - is a complete waste of money that makes the sponsorship scandal look like my unborn daughter's piggybank - not to mention relatively unachievable. On another note: the Mandarins at the Privy Council are going to be completely subordinated to desks clerks as in the Mulroney era. Management will be at the political level. Harper rejects Kyoto, native deal Jan. 12, 2006. 08:36 PM OTTAWA (CP) — Stephen Harper has been telling voters every day what he would do for them as prime minister — on Thursday he told them what he wouldn't do. The Conservative leader said he wouldn't try to live up to Canada's commitments under the Kyoto climate-change accord or under a recent $5-billion federal-provincial deal with natives.

Stroking and Beating

2006-01-12T14:39:00.000-08:00

Oh gawd Janet....the horror! This is for Don Cherry....they do fight in Europe

You want dirty tricks?

2006-01-12T14:32:00.000-08:00

"Our wimps on the Rideau.: You want evidence of scandal in the sovereigntist camp? How about the destroyed ballots in the 1995 Quebec referendum? Tens of thousands of federalist votes ruled invalid. No inquiry. You want dirty tricks? How about the time when the separatists of the day ordered up studies on the effects of separation -- and were so crimson-faced with the results, they hid them. You want insulting treatment? How about the take of Bernard Landry, the former Péquiste premier, on the Canadian flag: "A red rag," he called it. But the free-riding Mr. Duceppe need not worry about any big whack back. Not from our wimps on the Rideau. He walks around with a halo, setting the agenda for this federal election, as he did the last one. He has Canadians so cowed that, despite his mission of dismantlement, two-thirds of them, according to a poll, have a favourable view of him."

Piggies et Dumont: What the Hell are we doing?!?!

2006-01-12T14:09:00.000-08:00

"Scientists in Taiwan say they have bred three pigs that glow in the dark." (unfortunately I think that I believe them) Dumont says Quebecers shouldn't vote for the Bloc Dumont said the Bloc is like a millstone and only serves to limit Quebec's influence on Canada's national stage. He said he will cast his vote for Stephen Harper's Conservatives on Jan. 23.

Vista to run on Macintels

2006-01-11T20:42:00.000-08:00

Looks like things are getting even more weird in the Macintel world. Apparently you will be able to run Windows vista on Intel based Macs. Apple has said they have no plans to directly block this possibility. I’m not really seeing any wild consequences as PC people who want Windows are going to buy the piece of hardware that suits them and their budget best. Occasionally someone may decide to void their warranty and buy a Macintel just to put on Vista but I doubt it. The chances of a Mac user wiping out Tiger and replacing it with Windows? Never. I can however see Macintels running two operating systems for various reasons. Being able to run both natively could be advantageous. We’ll see.

How to save a sinking ship

2006-01-11T12:38:00.000-08:00

Dave Malka: Who do you think won the French debate? John Ibbitson: To repeat: Harper won it, only because he was being listened to, which should never happen to a Conservative leader in a French-language debate.

Macintelworld 2006

2006-01-10T20:14:00.000-08:00

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you know about the Macworld Expo.

For full coverage check out Engadget.

The big news of course is the switch. They are rolling out the Macintels like crazy. They are no longer calling their laptops Powerbooks, they are now called MacBook Pro’s. Kinda catchy if you ask me. What I really like is their size and weight – something only possible if you really take advantage of the new Intel chipsets. It seems they are really taking advantage of the Intel Core Duo form factor. This has not been the case on the PC side for the most part.

The other aspect I am looking forward to, now that we are all running on the same hardware, is intensified competition in several areas. We will now be able to compare Apples to PC’s both from a hardware/form factor as well as software (how fast is CS2 on the Wintel vs Macintel). I don’t care who wins (as it will change weekly) but I look forward to the advantages it will provide the consumer.

It will also be interesting to see how the Macintel thing works. Apple is a hardware company, that is how they make their dough. They make hardware and they generally make it very, very, well. In the ‘old’ days Apple had their own hardware and their own software. Easy sell if you were onboard. Now you are going to walk into Best Buy look at a Vaio, then at the MacBook Pro. They will have the same specs and will look almost the same. Consumers who choose Apple (a hardware company) will be doing so strictly because of software – interesting and cool all the same. Also not a stretch considering how nice OSX is.

If the Ipod ever slows down, which it will once people figure out that being forced to marry yourself to one option like Itunes (and vice versa) sucks, it will be interesting to see what happens.

Beyond Distasteful: Liberal Attack Advertisements

2006-01-10T17:31:00.000-08:00

Nice to see how Liberal Spin paints an announcement that an increase in military funding could be used to aid cities, particularly the elderly, against natural disasters as well as helping to complete large scale public works projects: "According to Bourque reader Ben Hamilton, "CTV Newsnet is reporting at 7pm tonight that the Liberals have pulled one of the 12 ads they released today - the one saying Harper would put soldiers in cities. I'm not sure if it was aired, but the local CTV news in Toronto aired the commercial as part of their story during their 6pm news. They weren't out for a day and already they're having to pull them!!" Developing ..." www.bourque.org

Dodge Challenger Redux (ma nouvelle voiture neuve)

2006-01-08T19:16:00.000-08:00

LCD's and plasma's now obsolete

2006-01-08T12:40:00.000-08:00

The future of television is finally here. SED televisions have been around for quite some time but this is the first time we ever seen a demo of a model soon to be mass produced. Quite simply they take the best from the plasma/lcd world and mate it with the best from the CRT world. Slim, beautiful and huge while being able to display even the most subtle shades and contrasts in the darkest parts of the screen/display/movie/picture. One more thing to drive down the price of those old obsolete plasmas and LCD’s. Check it out here.

CES, cars and saving the world

2006-01-08T12:31:00.000-08:00

Since we are knee deep in CES and the LA Auto show it makes sense that we should also think about saving the world rather than thinking of more gadgets none of us need but do, rest assured, consume massive amounts of money to replace and run. This flash animation is pretty damn funny and of course gets us in the mood to save the world.

If you are interested in saving the world this is a great place to start. It would also be wrong of me to not at least point to the place that molded me into a nice little left wing robot.

Another Ipod killer

2006-01-08T09:37:00.000-08:00

(Photo courtesy of Engadget and their fantastic CES coverage)
The Toshiba ‘Gigabeat S’ isn’t the first Ipod killer it is just the latest and prettiest. I think the best thing about these devices is that they are running the latest version of Windows Mobile CE and are specifically designed to be extensions of your PC. Plug the thing in to your computer and whatever you have in your media folders (video, pics, audio) is now on your pocket size Gigabeat. It is also endowed with more video and audio options than the Ipod not to mention longer battery life. You can also use it with all the download services except Itunes rather than only Itunes if you own an Ipod. Check out Engadget for full coverage.

This is it!

2006-01-07T18:05:00.000-08:00

This could be what causes a flagging ship to finally sink: "the secret of how a shadowy federalist group, Option Canada, spent $4.8 million in the lead-up to the 1995 referendum might lie in a box of documents found near a Dumpster at a suburban shopping mall in the fall. On Monday, Quebec writers Normand Lester and Robin Philpot plan to publish a new book, Les secrets d'Option Canada, that details the information found in that box and also includes copies of the papers. "At last we know where all the money went, almost down to the penny, and it will be in the book," Lester said."" ****** (If this has anything of substance in it the liberals may dream of having the poll numbers below on election day. Note that the person who was responsible for giving out the Option Canada $$$, at the time, was Paul Martin's right hand man in Quebec.) CPAC-SES Jan 4-6: CP 35 Lib 32 NDP 17 BQ 10 GP 6

Google goes video

2006-01-06T18:36:00.000-08:00

Google has made the big announcement. They are now a video store. Looks like they will be using Divx. They will also be releasing DRM free stuff so those poor folks with iPods may actually have another choice besides iTunes. How far away can music be? Is Google smart enough to make the Rhapsody/Napster/Yahoo model work? IE buy our music we don’t care what MP3 player/audio device you use. Speaking of which HP has gotten Real and dumped Apple. Rhapsody will now be preinstalled in all HP machines complete with free trial. If Apple would just open the iTunes door to other Mp3 players they would rule the market.

Pat vs Ariel

2006-01-05T23:44:00.000-08:00

I looked briefly in an attempt to find the exact quote but thankfully not too many people are wasting their time with Pat Robertson clips. Long story short Pat had some explanations for Ariel Sharon’s recent stroke and altogether bad luck with respect to his health. Pat goes on about what a great guy Ariel is but he says that Israel is God’s land, just like it says in the Bible, and anyone who tries to split that land up will be struck down one way or another.

As George Stroumboulopoulos said on his show it is ridiculous for an idiot like Pat to tell the people in the middle east how to run their affairs with respect to religion and politics. It’s messy, very very messy and the people over there know that better than anyone.

Check out these Robertson quotes and you too will know why they call Pat Robertson (who once ran for president) the most dangerous sexist homophobe bigot pig in America.

CES 2006

2006-01-05T19:56:00.000-08:00

Big news at CES, there isn’t any so far. Sony said there would be no announcement at CES and mayhap they are not lying. They’ve done a couple of little speeches so far and breezed right over all the PS3 stuff. Interesting. Microsoft has had one of the more lively keynotes featuring Michael Dell and Justin Timberlake. Bill and his posse basically talked about there new viiv chip (rhymes with live), their new dual core, and of course how in the future everything will talk to everything and our lives will be easy.

I read the entire keynote and after having read it I actually felt stressed. Am I getting old or what? I would say the biggest news so far is the rumour that Google may be getting into the music and video business. Apparently deals have been reached with some major labels and networks. Furthermore HP has dumped the Ipod and there seems to be a general retreat from the PC side of things with respect to the Ipod for a variety of reasons.

“iTunes is exclusive. If you choose an iPod, then you also choose iTunes. Other services -- such as Napster -- are not compatible with the iPod. Through this proprietary arrangement, Apple has made filesharing nearly impossible. If you're hoping to share songs from one iPod to another (or to another computer), think again. Without some pretty complicated hacks or tricky file alterations, iPods are known to erase their contents if they perceive filesharing.” -stuffguide

This whole deal of trying to make all this stuff proprietary is useless. It can’t and won’t last. Someone will figure it out soon and make a mint. Whoever doesn’t will go the way of Betamax.

LA Auto Show

2006-01-05T19:20:00.000-08:00

Coolest car from the LA Auto Show? Why an RV of course. Made by the general and dubbed ‘The Pad’ this thing is the ultimate in futuristic style, function and adaptability. It just won the very prestigious ‘California Design Challenge’ and is apparently here to help Californians with their housing affordability issues. Check it out here for a couple more pics as well as some more info from GM.

It's better to green your diet than your car

2006-01-05T14:28:00.000-08:00

THINKING of helping the planet by buying an eco-friendly car? You could do more by going vegan, say Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin of the University of Chicago. They compared the amount of fossil fuel needed to cultivate and process various foods, including running agricultural machinery, providing food for livestock and irrigating crops. They also factored in emissions of methane and nitrous oxide produced by cows, sheep and manure treatment. The typical US diet, about 28 per cent of which comes from animal sources, generates the equivalent of nearly 1.5 tonnes more carbon dioxide per person per year than a vegan diet with the same number of calories, say the researchers, who presented their results at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco last week. By comparison, the difference in annual emissions between driving a typical saloon car and a hybrid car, which runs off a rechargeable battery and gasoline, is just over 1 tonne. If you don't want to go vegan, choosing less-processed animal products and poultry instead of red meat can help reduce the greenhouse load. From issue 2530 of New Scientist magazine, 17 December 2005, page 19

Warning: 1 of 1000s generic resposes below

2006-01-05T14:13:00.000-08:00

(yes the original letter form was generic) Dear Robin Kelley: I am writing in response to your correspondence to the Honourable Liza Frulla, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Minister responsible for Status of Women, regarding televised political debates by the leaders of political parties in Canada. The Minister appreciates your advising her of your views and has carefully noted your comments with respect to this matter. Televised party leaders debates, whether federal or provincial, are conducted by agreement among the different political parties and a consortium of broadcasters, in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. During the last federal election, the consortium of broadcasters was composed of CBC Television, CTV, CanWest Global, Télévision de Radio-Canada and TVA. Decisions regarding the participants in televised debates are made on editorial grounds by the consortium members. During the last federal election, the consortium invited only the leaders of the four most prominent parties that had sitting members in ParliamentCthe Liberal Party, the New Democratic Party, the Conservative Party and the Bloc Québécois. You might wish to share your views on this issue directly with the individual television broadcasters at the addresses provided in the enclosure. In the past, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) Guidelines for Broadcast Licensees required that the leaders of all registered political parties be included in televised election debates. Following a legal challenge, that regulation was repealed in the spring of 1995. The revised Guidelines reaffirmed that while election coverage should be left to the editorial judgement of the broadcaster, there is an obligation to provide equitable, fair and just treatment of issues, candidates and parties. However, the section also points out that Aequitable@ does not necessarily mean Aequal. In another related section, the Guidelines are more specific, stating that the Commission no longer requires that debate programs feature all rival parties or candidates as long as audiences are informed of the main issues and of the positions of all candidates and registered parties on those issues through other programming. In view of the autonomy of the CRTC, you might wish to share your concerns directly with the Secretary General of the Commission at the address provided in the enclosure. I trust that this information is useful. Please accept my best wishes. Yours sincerely, Luc Rouleau Director Ministerial Correspondence

New years rezzies!

2006-01-04T20:19:00.000-08:00

So it is now 2006 and like most morons out there I have resigned myself to lose weight. I have some confidence in my ability as last time I had some stability in my life I was a svelte 175 lbs – down from 220lbs. Then I moved back to Canada underwent some serious change, dumped my routine and promptly gained 28.5lbs. Christmas of course is only good for one thing and that is pigging out – which I did.

Now that is all behind me and I am back to my old ways like never before. I decided if I was going to replicate my success I needed to replicate my environment. The stability part has been taken care of. I also purchased a couple of scales. One for us (weight, water content, body fat) and one for our food (weight, cals, fat, salt, protein, fibre, etc etc ). All stuff we had when we were in England.

My biggest hurdle as a road warrior is not stopping at A&W or whatever. To combat this phenomenon I buy Slim Fast Optima shakes and snack bars etc. I like them because they contain sugar as opposed to Aspartame and also taste great (generally speaking). So I was bored at the hotel tonight and started cruising slimfast.com .

Incredible. My boring old journal of old has now been replaced by an online meal log, meal planner, water log, etc. Everything is there including daily intake recommendations, recipes, etc. I can’t say enough about this website – ALL FREE! Complete with advertising of course but that is par for the course nowadays.

Anyway I’ll keep all of you posted on my successes and failures. On a side note I should also mention their vegetarian recipes kick some serious ass.

Letterman kicks O'reilly's ass

2006-01-04T18:42:00.000-08:00

Bill O’reilly was on the Letterman show last night. Apparently Dave is not a big fan as he told O’reilly 60% of what he says is crap.

I’ve always been a fan of Dave, but after seeing him undress O’reilly in such O’reilly fashion I'm hooked. It is rare when you see Dave worked up and very prepared for an interview. One thing you don’t see in this clip is that prior to the interview Dave stirred O’reilly’s water with his pencil. Watch Dave smirk when he takes a drink.

Check it out here. You need Real Player.

Vancouver, Rumours and Dan Cloutier

2006-01-02T23:53:00.000-08:00

Rumour has it as you most likely know that the Canucks are working hard to land Doug Weight. More interesting news surrounds the status of Dan Cloutier. Rumour has it that there may be more to his blown knee that meets the eye. Owners of Cloutier may have been suspicious to find out that Dan the Man returned after his initial injury to only undergo the knife a few games later...not consistent with an ACL tear (he would have not been able to come back). Around the same time of his injury a high speed chase resulting in a hit an run took place near his house. After running a police road-block set to detect drunk drivers, a driver apparently struck and killed two people getting into a cab and seriously injured a third. The vehicle eluded police but was later found smashed at the side of a road. The occupants of the vehicle fled on foot. There was no evidence that the car had previously been tampered with nor had it been stolen. The model was a Porsche Cheyenne....one of a very few in the city. The accident happened near Cloutier's house. The make, year, colour, and model of the vehicle matches that of Dan the man. It was also near the time of the injury....more specifically after the first mild diagnosis and before the second major diagnosis. The police have not laid charges nor come public with evidence for fears that it will jeapardize the case.

Quelque chose de sacré

2006-01-02T00:48:00.000-08:00

From the best paage: ""Cette citation cristallise parfaitement l'attitude pieuse et nous-valons-mieux-que-voutiste" de U2: "Je ne sais pas pourquoi, mais nous avons toujours eu cette sensation qu'il y avait quelque chose de sacré dans notre musique, quelle était presque sainte." -Bono, trou du cul prétentieux et pompeux, accessoirement leader de U2""

God, Love, Toronto, and the Ipod

2005-12-31T08:32:00.000-08:00

a) Why believe in Christmas? b) Why move to Toronto? As the minutes run out on 2005, here's one last backward glance at life in Toronto, and hereabouts. Bum steer: TTC chairman Howard Moscoe urges fellow commissioners to consider wider seats before finalizing purchase of 600 subway cars. "As a person who has long legs and a wide tuchas ... I have never felt quite at home in a TTC vehicle.'' Cockamamie defence: Despite conceding that he was "unusually large,'' a judge finds a Barrie man guilty of sexual assault, rejecting claims from the accused that he could not be guilty of the crime because his penis was too large to insert into the victim's vagina without consensual preparation. Unguided missile: A trucker transporting rocket launchers is pulled over for going the wrong way on Highway 407. Two-bit gangsta rap: Liberal MP Dan McTeague attempts to have American rapper 50 Cent — nine times a gunshot victim — banned from performing his Massacre Tour show in Toronto. Coffee-beaned: An Ajax mom is found guilty of assault for hurling java in the face of a hockey player after he'd levelled her son on the ice during a game. Hoser: Four years after renouncing his citizenship in order to become a member of Britain's House of Lords, Conrad Black — accused by the U.S. government of being involved in an $84 million (U.S.) fraud at his former publishing company — asks the federal government to give him back his Canadian status. Band-aid solution: Oakville resident J.D. Fortune, one-time Elvis Presley impersonator, becomes lead singer of comeback-hopeful band INXS after winning a TV rock-reality series. Once-upon-a-mattress: Bloodsucking bedbugs, largely eradicated in North America after World War II, make a comeback attack on Toronto. Licence-ious behaviour: A Toronto psychiatrist who had a five-week affair with his patient, then dumped him, leaving the man suicidal, has his licence reinstated by the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons. Beauty and the Beasties: The city's special events office bars Toronto's Natalie Glebova, the new Miss Universe, from appearing at a cultural festival at Nathan Phillips Square, citing municipal guidelines that ban activities degrading to women. Beauty and the bust: A former Miss Guyana, now living in Scarborough, is sentenced to two years of house arrest for smuggling 7 kilos of cocaine into Canada. Get off my back already: A Toronto couple takes first place in the wife-carrying competition at the Finn Grand Fest in upper Michigan. Open wide and say aaarrrghhh: A 58-year-old dentist who Toronto police say had the largest private collection of child porn in Canada receives an 18-month conditional sentence but no jail time. Homo-erectus: One of the world's first gay monuments is erected at the corner of Church and Alexander Sts. in honour of 19th century homosexual Alexander Wood, a magistrate who fought in the War of 1812. Road-swill: Highway 401 is shut down after a collision involving a Molson delivery truck spills 2,200 cases of beer. They should be working at city hall: The Miss Canada Pakistan Pageant proceeds under heavy security after receiving hate mail and death threats from critics who claim the pageant goes against the beliefs of Islam. Auto-cratic powers: The father of a 21-year-old Humber College student receives a $20,700.61 bill for repairs after his daughter wipes out seven safety pillars on Highway 407, despite the fact police laid no charges. Lavatory rat: Bystanders responding to a woman's screams take down a peeping Tom disguised as an old lady and armed with a mirror in a women's washroom at the Eaton Centre. Flagrant vagrant: A Good Samaritan returns the one metre, 9 kilogram crucifix that had been stolen from Holy Name Catholic Church, claiming he'd bought it off a homeless man. No, that's the lady who spends taxpayer money like a queen: A Grade 8 Whitby student is kicked out of Rideau Hall and suspended from school after an overzealous guide overhears the teenager asking about Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson: "Is that the lady who spends money on the Queen?'' X-rated: As part of a promotion, Famous Players theatres gives away free sheets of wrapping paper to kids depicting a female angel groping a male angel's crotch while he reciprocates by fondling her breast. X-mated: A Toronto millionaire who failed to fully disclose his assets to the former wife who dumped him for another man is ordered to pay $2.25 million for the legal and forensic accounting expenses she ran up during their nine-year divorce battle. Arms and The Man: Police seize T-shirts with slogans such as: "Rule One: Be Armed.'' Alms and the man: An unidentified male hands out $100 bills to strangers in a west-end restaurant. Rock-around-the-clock: After three days, three hours, three minutes and three seconds of non-stop rocking, a Mississauga man abandons his attempt to set a new Guinness World Record. Dead-letter box: A Hamilton man misses his own funeral when Canada Post loses his ashes, sent from Vancouver, in the mail. Canada Post offers the grieving family a $600 cheque and suggests they use the money to hold a funeral and bury an empty urn. To Hab and Hab not: The Hospital for Sick Children is duped by a man posing as a former Montreal Canadiens hockey player who charges families of ill children for his autograph. Sex and the city employees: Pam Coburn, executive director of municipal housing and standards, makes a stunning public confession about her relationship with a married employee. Both are fired — for unfair hiring practices, not for their allegedly unconsummated affair. Buttheads: A Toronto convict serving a life sentence for the vicious murder of his wife and daughter wins a $5,000 judgment against the federal government for being exposed to second-hand smoke in jail. Cougar's pet peeved: A 56-year-old Hamilton high school teacher has her licence revoked after pestering a teenage student for sex. Short-circuited: The founder of Toronto-based running group JeansMarines admits a number of her mainly middle-aged women runners cheated by cutting across the Mall at a prestigious Washington, D.C., marathon. Wanker: A Woodstock man who drove up to a Tim Hortons drive-through while stark naked and masturbating pleads guilty to committing an indecent act. City haul in camera: Behind closed doors, Toronto city councillors give themselves a 12.25 per cent raise. Pee-pee Tom: An elementary school teacher in Mississauga is charged with mischief after a video camera is discovered in the staff washroom. Cash bar: Fifty thousand members of Alcoholics Anonymous from 75 countries converge on Toronto for a four-day convention over the Canada Day weekend. Who's sari now?: The AIDS Committee of Toronto apologizes after Hindus protest a charitable fashion event that featured erotic depictions of Indian goddesses. Straight shooter is queer pro quo: Bill Blair becomes the first Toronto police chief to march in the Gay Pride Parade. Golf War casualties: An elderly Etobicoke couple, under assault by golf balls from a nearby course — they collected 1,500 of them in a wheelbarrow — is awarded $5,000 in damages for house repairs required by the flying projectiles. De-fence exhibit: A judge orders the golf club to dismantle the 7 metre high chain link fence it had erected along the street in front of the couple's home. Ursa minor in major trouble: A teenage black bear leads heavily armed police and natural ministry officers on a 12-hour catch-me-if-you-can romp through downtown Newmarket. B-arf: Thirty-five ugly dogs are dressed up in miniature tuxedos, evening gowns and tiaras as invitees to the first-ever "tea party for pugs." Photo-finished: Conrad Black and his chauffeur are caught on video removing 13 boxes of documents from the downtown offices of Hollinger Inc. Heiress-y: MP Belinda Stronach — multi-millionaire's daughter and failed challenger for the Conservative leadership — defects from the Conservatives to the Liberal cabinet on the eve of a non-confidence vote. Hen-pecked: Fast food chain honcho John Bitove invites former Baywatch babe and animal rights activist Pamela Anderson to lunch at any of his company's 481 KFC restaurants across Canada after she publicly declares a boycott of the chain for unethical treatment of chickens. Rot in heil: Notorious white-supremacist and neo-Nazi Wolfgang Droege is gunned down and left for dead in the hallway of his Scarborough apartment. But light up a cigarette and you are so busted: Free crack kits and a safe injection site study are among the recommendations adopted by Toronto City Council in a new drug strategy program. Pro and con: Legendary bank robber and jailhouse author Roger Caron, 67, is found not guilty on all charges arising from a slew of Toronto holdups. Caron objects most bitterly to being accused of robbing a Loblaws store — a slight to his professional reputation. Fraud-ian complex: Comely con-lady Tracy Lynn Sargent — sentenced seven years ago to federal penitentiary time for bilking various swains out of $350,000 — is charged with fraud anew after a paramour tells police he'd given a woman, who was posing as a cardiology student, $35,000 for medical trips to France and Dubai. Police say she entered a guilty plea this month to two counts of fraud over $5,000, and was sentenced to five months in prison. What's the holdup?: While thousands of Toronto police block traffic and stage a mass rally at Nathan Phillips Square, a robber tries knocking off up a bank one block away. Toss the rice, roll the dice: Some 300 couples renew their wedding vows at the opening of Canada's first casino chapel in Niagara Falls. Status interference: Then-chief Julian Fantino pressures Ryerson to ban a program on its campus radio that airs negative stories about police. It's called: Bad Cop, No Donut! Recycling crap: A formal study finds that only one-quarter of waste Toronto residents drop into their green bins is actually composted. The rest is flushed down the sewer, burned off as methane gas or trucked to a Michigan landfill. The merchants of penance: Two Toronto men launch Driving Rage Free, the first school to help drivers cope with road rage. The course costs $375. Slo-mo promo: After contest-winner Brian Diesbourg shockingly kicks a 50 yard field goal through the uprights at Rogers Centre, TSN explains that the advertised $1 million prize will be paid out over the next 40 years. Pot posse: Two Scarborough politicians go door to door in their neighbourhood looking for marijuana grow houses to report to police. Dorks R Us: Dozens of reporters flock to his hotel penthouse suite for an audience with Sean P. Diddy Combs, in Toronto to launch his urban clothing line, Sean John. Make that one order to go: Fraudulent refugee claimant Harjit Singh, who alleged that Immigration Minister Judy Sgro promised him asylum in exchange for free pizzas — leading to her resignation from cabinet — is deported to his native India. He later retracted his claim. The nod squad: City council passes a "gentle ban'' to prevent the homeless from sleeping in Nathan Phillips Square and other public places around Toronto. De-fault of delinquents: A report reveals that deadbeat motorists and other minor offenders owe Toronto almost $230 million in unpaid fines. Choking hazard: The father of a 9-year-old hockey player, enraged that his son had been benched, reaches over the Plexiglas partition at Chesswoods Arena and throttles the coach. Crack-head: A Toronto doctor, diagnosed as a "sex addict,'' pleads guilty to posting on the Internet dozens of photos of a drug-addicted prostitute performing oral sex on him. Stalling tactics: Three peepholes at a woman's public washroom at the Eglinton subway station are kept open for at least six weeks while TTC special constables try to catch the peeper. Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket: The final report on Toronto's computer leasing scandal concludes that city budget chief Tom Jakobek lied about taking a $25,000 payoff from computer salesman Dash Domi. Help Me Wanda, Help-Help Me Wanda: And former treasurer Wanda Liczyk violated ethical rules by not acknowledging a past sexual relationship with a consultant who built a new tax system for the city. Osama bin-liners: The TTC removes 1,600 garbage cans and 400 recycling bins from subway platforms to protect against a terror strike. Nine concussions might explain it: After years of long-distant courtship, Eric Lindros finally gets his wish and becomes a Maple Leaf. Armed with stupid ideas and dangerous: Toronto's only black city councillor calls for police to target young blacks with random checks in a bid to stop gun crime. B-lotto: The Ontario Lottery and Gambling Corp. spends more than $400,000 of taxpayers' money in a court battle over a $100,000 claim that ended up being settling at the last minute. While hug-a-thugs claim more basketball courts will solve the juvenile gun-crime problem: A 4-year-old boy is shot in the abdomen by two men who were allegedly after the child's 15-year-old brother — apparently because they were jealous of the teenager, a top-rated basketball prospect. Monumental ego: Steve Stavro erects a giant bronze statue of Alexander the Great astride his horse on a patch of Mount Pleasant Cemetery, where the former owner of the Maple Leafs will at some point reside for eternity. A town called Sue: Documents show Toronto settled nearly $49 million worth of lawsuits against the city over a six-year period — or about $3,000 per claim. Lager flout: After a moron throws a beer bottle at an officer from a 21st floor balcony, police following the trajectory discover a cache of drugs, cash and weapons, including a submachine gun. Knead in the groin: After a two-year battle, the city manages to close down a notorious rub-and-tug establishment licensed as a "holistic'' spa. Cinéma-vérité: An amateur video nails two officers punching a 22-year-old man in the face outside a Rexdale coffee shop. The victim had originally been charged with assaulting police. This Hertz: Despite access to a 4,000-vehicle fleet, the city spends $3.1 million on car rentals. Fowl play: Four hundred and fifty day-old ducklings en route to the Caribbean escape at Pearson. Tour de farce: Mayor David Miller describes incomprehensible tourism ads for the city that run in The New York Times — devised in a $4 million promotion campaign — as "an embarrassment and indefensible." Heisted by their own petard: Police issue a stolen painting alert after thieves make off with four Van Goghs from an Aurora house — except they're fakes, worth a measly four hundred bucks. Justice knocked unconscious: A Scarborough man, purported to be suffering from "sexsomnia,'' is acquitted of sex assault after claiming he was asleep when he raped a stranger. Cat burglar caught cat-napping: A suspect is arrested by police who find him sleeping on the couch in the house he'd just robbed. Till wealth do us part: The winner of Canada's biggest Jackpot lottery — $30 million — who withheld knowledge of his windfall while he divorced his wife, agrees to paying interim support as she continues fight for half of his booty. Fairytale ending: Elton John marries Scarborough filmmaker David Furnish in a London civil ceremony. Twisted sisters: Two teenagers convicted of drowning their mother in the bathtub post soft-porn photos of themselves on the Internet and solicit offers for three-way sex only weeks before their trial begins. Joint operation: Canadian soldiers around the world are told to seek medical advice after a woman — who pranced around Barrie base military shack parties in a pink thong and knee-high boots, trolling for sex — is charged with having unprotected intercourse and not disclosing her HIV-positive status. Mindbender: A Windsor-area high school teacher praises Osama bin Laden, calls the Holocaust an "exaggeration'' and tells students he'd like to have sex with their mothers. Welcome back Khadr: Osama bin Laden enthusiast Abdullah Khadr is arrested in Toronto on a U.S. warrant upon resurfacing after several years of alleged terrorist activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Barrie'd alive: Toronto loses Live 8 concert to Barrie, but international media reports make no distinction. Pedestrian crime: A member of George Brown College's Safe Walk program is struck in the leg by a bullet while on duty. Mad hatters: Police swap uniform hats for ball caps as part of job action for a new collective bargaining agreement. Run into the ground: For the second year in a row, a runner dies in the Toronto Marathon. Performance t-art: A dorm lap dance by a university student is posted on the web, garnering tens of thousands of hits. Loose lip synchs Jessica's even less talented sister: An over-refreshed Ashlee Simpson goes ballistic with obscenity-laced tirade directed at employees of a downtown Toronto McDonald's — "Do you know who I am?" — then jumps over the counter.

Vindication

2005-12-31T08:11:00.000-08:00

a) I feel vindicated....note the link between New York and Los Angeles on the sprawl-o-meter that Jude refers to in his previous post. b) This is a brilliant strategy.....the Conservatives may just take this one...

Smartgrowth North America

2005-12-30T15:23:00.000-08:00

I’ve been itching to do a very brief piece on North America’s best cities. After having done some mild research I realized it was a lot harder than I thought. I was more interested in a list of cities all scoring high in several ‘Smartgrowth’ categories. I found a few lists here and there and was able to find an excellent report from Smartgrowth America about US cities but was not able to find a similar list for Canadian cities.

Once you follow the link below click on the ranking table.

Link

If anyone out there in our multitude of readers has any useful links to determine this list please post or send.

Sony screws up...maybe

2005-12-30T15:15:00.000-08:00

In Microsoft form Sony has delivered itself a serious blow in the ongoing console wars. An insider named ‘Fishie’ who has been very reliable thus far, says the release of the PS3 will be nowhere near March. In fact Sony has inadvertly been helping Microsoft by telling all their loyal fans that their system would be here soon. Thanks to Sony a large part of the market has been momentarily delayed from buying a system. The result being that although Microsoft didn’t produce enough 360’s and did piss off a few people – it could have been worse.

I think most people, myself included, would have waited until March. Unfortunately we probably won’t get a Japanese release date until after March and a North American release date several months after that. This will hurt Sony big time. People are going to get sick of waiting and start considering their options all while 360 partners pump out games. Stay tuned for CES.

Jude's favorite people got nothin' on this chick!

2005-12-30T07:52:00.000-08:00

www.anncoulter.org Check out the archives

Jude's people of 2006

2005-12-28T11:04:00.000-08:00

This is my version of best people of 2006. The three pictured here are of course Bill Oreilly, Jim Cramer and Nancy Grace.

All three above are absolutely nuts. I don’t mean this in a bad way, all three are entertainers and do a fine job entertaining.

All three are hard core right wingers, and all three, when they are ranting, make up the biggest whoppers you’ve ever heard, just to be controversial. Jim and Nancy are obviously entertainment while Bill tries to pretend he is a journalist. Nobody is fooled.

Anyway I love disagreeing with all three. They are all very entertaining and I hope we get much more of the same in 2006.

Nancy Grace

Bill Oreilly

Jim Cramer

If you want the official info go the official sites. Keep in mind the people above are entertainers and have nothing to do with journalism, research or otherwise. They are there to stir things up. Don’t get taken in, sit back and enjoy.

MS vs Sony at CES 2006

2005-12-28T08:49:00.000-08:00

One of the major battles in the console wars is fast approaching. That battle will take place at CES 2006 in January. To date Microsoft has landed the first major blow by releasing their system earlier then the next generation Sony system. Furthermore games are being developed for the Xbox 360 at a tremendous rate and Microsoft machines are much easier to for developers to work with.

There was however a major counterpunch delivered – by Microsoft to Microsoft. Not enough machines, unimpressive games, and heat issues have been plaguing the Xbox 360 since its release. Sony has gotten into the fray by telling everyone their machine will be available early 2006 which is complete bullshit.

The Consumer Electronics Show is the biggest and best electronics show in the world with absolutely no competition. Microsoft will most likely be showing off their first batch of decent (not great) games to counter Sony’s exhibition which most likely will only show video with no playable demos. Unless Sony comes out with playable demos for the PS3 they will lose this battle (not the war, just the battle). Hardly anyone doubts that the PS3 will be more powerful than the Xbox 360; unfortunately for Sony consumers are now smart enough to know that both machines are Ferraris. One has 800 HP and the other has 785HP. They are virtually identical and the main focus will be on the games and online play. The games aspect will go either way but Sony will not beat Microsoft when it comes to integration with their windows base and incredible experience in the online arena. Many analysts see Microsoft as the underdog as they don’t have near the console base that Sony does. Analysts need to see the bigger wider picture. This is about the integration of our computers, cameras, pda’s, consoles, etc etc etc. The Xbox 360 is a jacked up Media Centre PC ready to integrate itself with your home video collection, online radio, photos, online communities, etc etc etc. Sony can not touch Microsoft in this arena. If Apple said they were releasing a video game console tomorrow I would give them a better chance than Sony as they know something about integration.

CES will be very telling. Stay tuned.

Merry Ho Ho - I'm out!

2005-12-26T09:31:00.000-08:00

Well my whole family is over and what a better time to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. There are a variety of definitions out there. Here are a few different ones:
The Christian meaning of Christmas.

Another Christian definition that is pretty cool.

Where the Christians got it all from – very interesting.

Encarta – Who is Santa?

First off let me say Christmas is a name, I couldn’t give a rats ass what it denotes for one religious group or the other.

The true meaning of Christmas, and by true I mean the reality we live in, is to buy loads of stuff and give it to people who don’t need it. More than half the time those people are ourselves. We live in a society with an incredibly guilty conscious – we need an excuse to buy something and Christmas is it.

Well I’m done with the whole shebang. I will continue to stuff my face every holiday season, but from here on in no one gets anything unless they need it. Next year friends will receive cards with little notices saying congratulations you just donated ‘X’ amount of dollars to so and so charity.

So the true meaning of Christmas, in my slanted view, is to remind us that there are those out there not nearly as well off as we are. Furthermore we are very lucky to have what we do, and those we love around us to share in our wealth – spiritual or otherwise. We live in an unfair world where not all living things are treated fairly or given a fair opportunity. I am going to continue doing my part to ensure that my favorite charity as funded all year round.

I am better than you

2005-12-22T08:14:00.000-08:00

Now that I am firmly located in middle class and moving up through the ranks of society I have decided to kick it up a notch.

In fact I already have.

Before I get started however I just hope that I don’t alienate a large section of our readership as they may feel, once I drop this bombshell, that they can no longer relate to me or those I associate with. Although there has been a major shift in my life and I am now better than you, I can still relate to you because at one time I was as poor, pathetic, and as broke as you.

Everything has changed however as I am now the new proud owner of the incredible, technologically advanced, Crest Spinbrush Pro!

What does this mean? I’ll tell you what it means. It means I dropped $6.58 of cold hard Canadian cash (plus tax) at my local Walmart. By local I mean a good 20 minutes away at some huge shopping mall with lots of parking for singles driving the biggest vehicles know to man. Although my vehicle isn’t that big it has a hefty turbo on it so rest assured I too am burning gas like crazy.

So unlike the rest of you plebs I have the honor of sticking a vibrating, girating, double A battery powered, beacon of modern technology in my mouth twice daily. If you are one of these people that enjoys handling a remote you need a Spinbrush Pro. I do the happy dance every morning. When I start brushing, and by brushing I mean ‘Spinbrushing’, I walk around my house, stand in front of the window, check for a paper outside even though we have no subscription….

Bottom line: I want the whole world to know I am now superior.

For those of you interested in the Spinbrush Pro or the Spinbrush enthusiast club of North America please contact your local chapter.

PS: I have no idea if my teeth are cleaner; that is however not the point.

How intelligent is this design?

2005-12-22T08:13:00.000-08:00

Intelligent Design has been given the cold shoulder in the United States. This is in fact old news in the blog world as this story has been running for several days. Just so we are all clear however Intelligent Design (ID) is a Christian supported idea that yes maybe evolution did happen, maybe even dinosaurs, but it was all part of Gods master plan. Furthermore, say ID supporters, anything else we discover (like an ancient cloning station set-up by aliens to start the human race) was all in the good Lord’s plan.

Isn’t that convenient. In other words you science people can research all you want, our little ID scheme will save us every time. Essentially we are looking at the modern day: ‘I’m rubber you’re glue, everything you say bounces of me and sticks to you’.

When these stories come out my favorite thing in the world is look up the most biased source possible and read their outright lies.

So I went over to www.christianitytoday.com. For those of you who don’t know this website is actually in favor of ID. Some have even gone as far as to say there is some sort of connection between ID and websites like the one listed above. Regardless it is all part of the good Lord’s plan anyway.

Check out the beauty of a quote below:

"Anyone who thinks a court ruling is going to kill off interest in intelligent design is living in another world," said John West, associate director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based think tank researching intelligent design.

The first thing you will notice is the sweeping broad statement. Those always workout.
The second part I LOVE is the “a Seattle-based think tank researching intelligent design.”

Think tank my fat overstuffed ass. This ‘think tank’ is linked to places like ‘antievolution.org’ which I am lead to believe is slightly biased in one way or another.

I find it amazing that people can lie there asses off, get employed to lie, create organizations to lie, in an attempt to fool people into converting.

When I say lie I am not referring to ID. That whole thing is fine. Believe what you want. The lie comes in when places like the Center for Science and Culture attempt to pass themselves off as anything but a special interest group. Regardless we can all rest assured that it is all part of the good Lord’s master plan.

I think we need to accept ID and start researching just how intelligent the plan has been to date. I can tell you I have some questions that need to be answered!

IS THE POST TOAST ?

2005-12-22T00:18:00.000-08:00

From a contact: Is the National Post not long for this world ? So claims Andy Ritchie, the Globe & Mail's VP of Ops, as he singlehandedly held up one end of the chi-chi Avenue Bar on the ground floor of the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Toronto on an icy-cold Wednesday evening. This in a conversation with a bearded bald-headed fedora-wearer who once edited the Toronto Star. "The Post is the enemy", claimed the bearded one, "look at the Post, it's all yesterday's news". Ritchie responded, saying, "I think the Post is going down. It's now a vanity ... I think they're going to close the Post down in January ... They're dead ... The Post is going to shut down". Who's this print media oracle Richie, you ask ? A tubby white wine enjoying fellow-well-met shorn in red tie and off-the-rack grey suit bearing a non-descript anglo accent, part New Zealand, part Liverpool. "The executive team of the Globe and Mail just had dinner here tonight", he divulged to his chit-chat pal and those nearby who couldn't help hearing the overflow conversation, "Phil Crawley is the best publisher in the country", he added, "I just sent an email to him, he's a difficult man, you know, he's had 16 VPs in 6 years. I told him Phillip, you're the greatest boss I've ever worked for, just stop listening to the bloody office politics". Soon, a young female arrived and the conversation moved on to other matters.

The most unbelievable workplace events in 2005

2005-12-21T09:27:00.000-08:00

You were fired for:

A German company has implemented a strict, no-whining policy, using a two-moans-and-you're out rule. Two workers have since been fired for whining and two others have quit.
In the U.S., one woman was suspended from her job in a library for spending too much time trying to rescue a trapped squirrel.
The U.S. National Labour Relations Board refused to strike down a security company's rule that prohibits employees from getting together away from work. The policy forbids workers from going to lunch together, attending each other's weddings, or doing anything else they might want to do with each other outside of work
Two Spanish-speaking hair stylists in Chicago claimed in a federal lawsuit that the company they worked for strictly banned the use of Spanish — even when employees were on their breaks. A sign at the establishment read, “Speaking a language other than English is not only disrespectful, it's also prohibited.”
A worker with a good record and no problems with his managers was unexpectedly fired from his job with a beer distributor. “While no reason was given, the firing occurred on the same day a picture of the worker drinking a competitor's beer appeared in a local newspaper.”

Scrooge is shifting staff back to the public payroll

2005-12-21T09:19:00.000-08:00

OTTAWA -- The Liberal Party will lay off much of its campaign headquarters staff over Christmas with no pay, and has told some on leave from the government they should collect vacation pay from the public payroll if they have it coming.
Read the whole article here.

Green Party v. CBC

2005-12-19T16:51:00.000-08:00

FROM: XXX TO:XXX >> First of all, I have always been a fan of the CBC, but the Green>> Party's exclusion from these debates is starting to strain that>> affection. It has also been a long-standing beef of mine that>> Victoria is the only provincial capital without a CBC TV station and>> we cannot even get CBC TV over the airwaves here - we are forced to>> pay Shaw for cable services if we want to watch the television that>> our tax dollars should have already paid for! But I'll come to the>> point. >> It is my understanding the broadcasting consortium agreed to not>> invite the Green Party to the discussions with the representatives>> from the 4 other main parties to set the rules for the debates. Was>> there a vote held by the consortium on Jim Harris' inclusion or>> exclusion? If so, how did the CBC vote on this issue?>> >> Since the CBC is publicly funded, the public deserves to know what>> stance it took on this important matter of democracy. As you are>> aware, the Green Party is also publicly funded. The CBC and the>> Green Party are publicly funded because public broadcasters and>> political parties are supposed to serve the public interest. The>> leader's debates should be for the public's benefit and should not>> reflect the interests of the old parties and the broadcasters'>> scheduling and commercial interests.>> >> My biggest concern is the apparent arbitrariness of this decision.>> Adriane Carr, leader of the Green Party of BC, was included in both>> the 2001 and 2005 debates without any Green MLAs in the legislature.>> We were told we required candidates in 90% of the ridings in 2001 and>> 10% in the polls in 2005 to be included. Did the CBC oppose those>> previous decisions to include the Green Party, or does only the>> Vancouver CBC TV station support an inclusive democracy? If the>> broadcasters are as unbiased as they claim to be, the only reasonable>> conclusion is criteria are picked from a hat.>> >> In last year's election, I received 12% of the vote running against>> David Anderson, the then sitting environment minister, who won the>> election with 35%. Because of our antiquated electoral system that>> is biased towards Eastern Canada, there are a handful of MPs who were>> elected with fewer than the 7,000 votes I received. The Bloc of>> course, received no votes in this riding because they choose to run>> no candidates outside of Quebec. It won't be long before BC will>> have a larger population than Quebec. Why must we be subjected to>> hear from the separatists, whom we cannot vote for, and not from a>> popular party whom we can actually can vote for?>> >> And easterners claim they cannot understand western alienation!

Year In Review

2005-12-17T08:39:00.000-08:00

I love non-stick...but I hate cancer

2005-12-16T20:34:00.000-08:00

The non-stick cooking deal has has been going on seriously since the 70's. The world almost fell on it head when:

"On May 16, 2000, the 3M corporation stunned the rest of the chemical industry with an unexpected announcement: It had decided to stop producing a family of compounds used in Scotchgard, Teflon, and a host of other consumer products. Saying that the "perfluorochemicals" it had manufactured for half a century had been found to persist in human blood and wildlife, 3M portrayed its move as that of a conscientious corporate citizen. "While this chemistry has been used effectively for more than 40 years and our products are safe," declared Charles Reich, a 3M executive vice president, "our decision to phase out production is based on our principles of responsible environmental management."

Read the whole article here.

With all the above said please understand the following. The end product is not carcinogenic. It is the manufacturing process that is the problem. Please don’t make one environmental atrocity even worse by throwing out your non-stick pans.

Besides, non-stick pans rule.

You like "No Stick Cookin"

2005-12-14T14:14:00.000-08:00

...I have never liked it...here is another reason why.. Dupont Fined For Hiding Teflon Dangers Dover, Del. — DuPont Co. has agreed to pay $10.25 million in fines and $6.25 million for environmental projects to settle allegations by the Environmental Protection Agency that the company hid information about the dangers of a toxic chemical used to make the non-stick coating Teflon, officials said Wednesday.

EPA officials said the settlement represents the largest civil administrative penalty the agency has ever obtained under any federal environmental statute.

“Frankly, we could have litigated this thing for several years,” said Stacey Mobley, general counsel for E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. “We wanted to get this thing behind us so we could move forward.”

The settlement involves EPA action taken against DuPont for allegedly withholding information about the potential health and environmental risks posed by perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) under provisions of both the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

The EPA alleged that DuPont withheld information for more than 20 years about the health effects of PFOA, also known as C-8, and about the pollution of water supplies near the company's Washington Works plant near Parkersburg, W.Va.

Among other things, the EPA said DuPont withheld test results indicating that the chemical had been found in at least one pregnant worker from the Washington Works plant and had been passed on to her fetus.

“This sends a strong message that companies are responsible for promptly giving EPA risk information associated with their chemicals,” said Granta Nakayama, EPA's assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance.

The supplemental environmental projects involved in the settlement include funding for a research program to evaluate the potential for biodegradation of chemicals such as PFOA and funding for microchemistry and green chemistry programs in West Virginia schools.

Susan Hazen, EPA's principal deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, said the studies should produce valuable information that would help scientists better understand the presence of PFOA “and any potential risks it poses to the public.”

Lawyers for DuPont and EPA told an administrative law judge Nov. 23 that they had reached a final agreement, but details were not released until Wednesday.

The settlement, which must be approved by the EPA Environmental Appeals Board, resolves four counts of reporting violations filed by the EPA last year. Four additional counts raised by the agency this year also were resolved, according to DuPont, which did not make any admission of liability.

“To date there is no human health effects that we know about that are caused by PFOA,” Mobley said.

Under federal law, DuPont faced a potential fine of more than $300 million for not reporting that the chemical posed a substantial risk of injury to health or the environment.

DuPont, which previously set aside $15-million to cover the costs of the EPA lawsuit, still faces a federal criminal investigation of its actions concerning PFOA.

In February, the company agreed to pay more than $107-million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed in 2001 by Ohio and West Virginia residents who claimed that DuPont intentionally withheld and misrepresented information about the human health threat posed by PFOA.

The EPA is continuing its risk assessment process for PFOA. In a draft report released in June, the majority of members on a scientific advisory board that reviewed the EPA's draft risk assessment concluded that the chemical is “likely” to be carcinogenic to humans. That finding went beyond the EPA's own determination that there was only “suggestive evidence” from animal studies that perfluorooctanoic acid and its salts were potential human carcinogens.

Beer Drinkers Unit

2005-12-14T14:10:00.000-08:00

Sign the "Beer Not Kids" petition.

Bingo

2005-12-13T19:14:00.000-08:00

Play here

This is how the Liberals Campaign...

2005-12-12T16:50:00.000-08:00

Date Posted: 15:56:38 12/12/05 Mon -----Original Message----- From: Gregory M Lang [mailto:gregory@alasi.com] Sent: Monday, December 12, 2005 1:23 PM To: Gregory Lang Subject: Random acts of political support Greetings, I have included you in this missive because I believe you to be a Liberal Party supporter. if not feel free to delete and disregard now - sorry to bother you. If you are indeed a Liberal Party supporter or know some, please read on and pass this along.. A number of us are going to contribute our time and efforts in support of the Party by forming a SWAT-TEAM like crew that will descend on different campaigns and provide huge impact through "one-offs" in neighbourhood blitzes, event swelling, or other appropriate activities. I am hoping that you might be interested in joining us for one or many of these occassions. We are currently putting together the complete schedule and destination ridings, but have already scheduled an intervention of support in Etobicoke-Lakeshore for Michael Ignatief for tonight, Monday December 12th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. We will be meeting at 5:45pm at 63 Charleston in Etobicoke. Rides will be arranged for you at your request. Generally, per the Party Campaign tactics, we will be volunteering in a low-key fashion until after the new year when we will pump up the volume to deafening levels, id est more often, and remember, if you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem. I hope you can join us. Please email me if you intend to come. Please let me know if you are generally NOT interested, so i may remove you from this distribution list, otherwise you will continue to receive "like-message" emails from me. Thanks, Gregory Lang.

Liberals posing as average Canadians in letter campaign

2005-12-12T13:55:00.000-08:00

Letters to the editor, television ads get out Martin's messageAllan Woods, The Ottawa Citizen NORTH BAY - Liberal party activists have launched a campaign to sway public opinion on child care, but it's operated largely by members of the Young Liberals, who are passing themselves off as average Canadians. They attack Conservative leader Stephen Harper in letters to newspapers that denigrate his child-care plan while promoting Liberal leader Paul Martin as the only worthy choice to run the country. But don't identify themselves as affiliated with the Liberal party. "This seems like yet another attempt to help those Canadians who, frankly, don't need the help, but whose vote Mr. Harper needs," reads one letter, published in Wednesday's Globe and Mail. The letter was written by Denise Brunsdon, who was, until recently, a former national director of the Young Liberals. "To give $100 a month per child leaves families looking for quality, affordable child care out in the cold and slaps the faces of those who make real sacrifices to have a parent stay at home as a full-time caregiver," reads a second, in yesterday's Globe and Mail, which was written by Amelie Crosson, a former speechwriter for Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan. In addition to the letter-writing campaign, Liberal television advertisements have also come under suspicion. One of the three spots produced by the party identifies the people who appear in it as Liberals. But it does not divulge just how committed they are to the party's cause. In fact, those who appear are closely linked to the upper echelons of Mr. Martin's government. There is Neil Dhalla, brother of Ruby Dhalla, a star rookie MP in the Liberal caucus. Joel Peterson, who is identified as a Liberal from Regina, is actually the executive director of Saskatchewan's Liberal party and a key organizer for Finance Minister Ralph Goodale. Peter Yung, noted as a Liberal from Burnaby, B.C., is, in fact, the riding association president who presided when one of Mr. Martin's hand-picked loyalists, Bill Cunningham, was parachuted in as the candidate in a controversial fashion in the 2004 election. "(Cunningham) made a lot of fans in the riding because of his performance last election and our riding association has certainly benefited," Mr. Yung writes on Mr. Cunningham's website. Mr. Harper could not say "without a doubt" that his own party has never engaged in such activities, and there is anecdotal evidence that some of his party faithful have written unattributed letters to newspapers as well. But the Conservative party's televised advertisements so far in this campaign have featured Conservative party MPs, or people who are clearly actors. "What I can say is that it doesn't surprise me the Liberals are doing that," Mr. Harper said yesterday. "I suspect for most of the Liberal campaign, if it isn't groups that are linked to the government or linked to the party, I think they'll have a lot of trouble finding anybody to support some of their policies." On Wednesday, Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine threw his support behind the Liberals and New Democrats, an endorsement that follows closely the signing of a $5.1-billion deal to improve aboriginal health, education, housing and economic development. Mr. Harper accused his detractors, or those who have come out in favour of Liberal policies in this campaign, of having "a vested interest in doing so." A second Liberal television spot has raised greater concerns for the party's opponents, as it fails to identify those who appear in the ads as Liberal party members. The same partisan links exist, however. A young Indo-Canadian woman, Bardish Chagger of Waterloo, says Mr.Martin's Liberals should be re-elected because "they provide the rights to people and minorities that otherwise would not be granted rights." Ms. Chagger's biography on the website of the Kitchener-Waterloo Young Liberals club identifies her as "a proud card-carrying Liberal for more than a decade." It notes she is currently a constituency office assistant for Liberal MP Andrew Telegdi. A second woman, identified only as Lamiley Lutterodt from Regina, is standing in a field of wheat telling viewers that "it doesn't matter who you are as long as you are a proud Canadian." Ms. Lutterodt was the business manager for a Regina Liberal candidate, Simone Clayton, in the 2003 Saskatchewan election

"Quebec Liberal candidate apologizes for remark"

2005-12-11T08:41:00.000-08:00

A prominent Liberal candidate in Quebec City apologized yesterday for saying that Quebec was a poor province dependent on Canadian federalism to keep itself afloat.Helene Chalifour-Sherrer, Liberal Leader Paul Martin's former principal secretary and now a candidate in the Quebec City riding of Louis Hebert, said yesterday afternoon that, contrary to popular belief, Quebec ''was a very poor province.'' (note that the majority of people in Quebec think they give more money to confederation than they receive)

Worse Than Fossil Fuel

2005-12-08T17:30:00.000-08:00

(required reading for all you biofuel proponents) by George Monbiot Z Magazine, Dec. 7, 2005 http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=57&ItemID=9285 Over the past two years I have made an uncomfortable discovery. Like most environmentalists, I have been as blind to the constraints affecting our energy supply as my opponents have been to climate change. I now realise that I have entertained a belief in magic. In 2003, the biologist Jeffrey Dukes calculated that the fossil fuels we burn in one year were made from organic matter "containing 44 x 10 to the 18 grams of carbon, which is more than 400 times the net primary productivity of the planet's current biota."(1) In plain English, this means that every year we use four centuries' worth of plants and animals. The idea that we can simply replace this fossil legacy - and the extraordinary power densities it gives us - with ambient energy is the stuff of science fiction. There is simply no substitute for cutting back. But substitutes are being sought everywhere. They are being promoted today at the climate talks in Montreal, by states - such as ours - which seek to avoid the hard decisions climate change demands. And at least one of them is worse than the fossil fuel burning it replaces. The last time I drew attention to the hazards of making diesel fuel from vegetable oils, I received as much abuse as I have ever been sent by the supporters of the Iraq war. The biodiesel missionaries, I discovered, are as vociferous in their denial as the executives of Exxon. I am now prepared to admit that my previous column was wrong. But they're not going to like it. I was wrong because I underestimated the fuel's destructive impact. Before I go any further, I should make it clear that turning used chip fat into motor fuel is a good thing. The people slithering around all day in vats of filth are perfoming a service to society. But there is enough waste cooking oil in the UK to meet one 380th of our demand for road transport fuel(2). Beyond that, the trouble begins. When I wrote about it last year, I thought that the biggest problem caused by biodiesel was that it set up a competition for land(3). Arable land that would otherwise have been used to grow food would instead be used to grow fuel. But now I find that something even worse is happening. The biodiesel industry has accidentally invented the world's most carbon-intensive fuel. In promoting biodiesel - as the European Union, the British and US governments and thousands of environmental campaigners do - you might imagine that you are creating a market for old chip fat, or rapeseed oil, or oil from algae grown in desert ponds. In reality you are creating a market for the most destructive crop on earth. Last week, the chairman of Malaysia's Federal Land Development Authority announced that he was about to build a new biodiesel plant(4). His was the ninth such decision in four months. Four new refineries are being built in Peninsula Malaysia, one in Sarawak and two in Rotterdam(5). Two foreign consortia - one German, one American - are setting up rival plants in Singapore(6). All of them will be making biodiesel from the same source: oil from palm trees. "The demand for biodiesel," the Malaysian Star reports, "will come from the European Community ... This fresh demand ... would, at the very least, take up most of Malaysia's crude palm oil inventories"(7). Why? Because it's cheaper than biodiesel made from any other crop. In September, Friends of the Earth published a report about the impacts of palm oil production. "Between 1985 and 2000," it found, "the development of oil-palm plantations was responsible for an estimated 87 per cent of deforestation in Malaysia"(8). In Sumatra and Borneo, some 4 million hectares of forest has been converted to palm farms. Now a further 6 million hectares is scheduled for clearance in Malaysia, and 16.5m in Indonesia. Almost all the remaining forest is at risk. Even the famous Tanjung Puting National Park in Kalimantan is being ripped apart by oil planters. The orang-utan is likely to become extinct in the wild. Sumatran rhinos, tigers, gibbons, tapirs, proboscis monkeys and thousands of other species could go the same way. Thousands of indigenous people have been evicted from their lands, and some 500 Indonesians have been tortured when they tried to resist(9). The forest fires which every so often smother the region in smog are mostly started by the palm growers. The entire region is being turned into a gigantic vegetable oil field. Before oil palms, which are small and scrubby, are planted, vast forest trees, containing a much greater store of carbon, must be felled and burnt. Having used up the drier lands, the plantations are now moving into the swamp forests, which grow on peat. When they've cut the trees, the planters drain the ground. As the peat dries it oxidises, releasing even more carbon dioxide than the trees. In terms of its impact on both the local and global environments, palm biodiesel is more destructive than crude oil from Nigeria. The British government understands this. In the report it published last month, when it announced that it will obey the European Union and ensure that 5.75% of our transport fuel comes from plants by 2010, it admitted that "the main environmental risks are likely to be those concerning any large expansion in biofuel feedstock production, and particularly in Brazil (for sugar cane) and South East Asia (for palm oil plantations)."(10) It suggested that the best means of dealing with the problem was to prevent environmentally destructive fuels from being imported. The government asked its consultants whether a ban would infringe world trade rules. The answer was yes: "mandatory environmental criteria ... would greatly increase the risk of international legal challenge to the policy as a whole"(11). So it dropped the idea of banning imports, and called for "some form of voluntary scheme" instead(12). Knowing that the creation of this market will lead to a massive surge in imports of palm oil, knowing that there is nothing meaningful it can do to prevent them, and knowing that they will accelarate rather than ameliorate climate change, the government has decided to go ahead anyway. At other times it happily defies the European Union. But what the EU wants and what the government wants are the same. "It is essential that we balance the increasing demand for travel," the government's report says, "with our goals for protecting the environment"(13). Until recently, we had a policy of reducing the demand for travel. Now, though no announcement has been made, that policy has gone. Like the Tories in the early 1990s, the Labour administration seeks to accommodate demand, however high it rises. Figures obtained last week by the campaigning group Road Block show that for the widening of the M1 alone the government will pay £3.6 billion - more than it is spending on its entire climate change programme(14). Instead of attempting to reduce demand, it is trying to alter supply. It is prepared to sacrifice the South East Asian rainforests in order to be seen to do something, and to allow motorists to feel better about themselves. All this illustrates the futility of the technofixes now being pursued in Montreal. Trying to meet a rising demand for fuel is madness, wherever the fuel might come from. The hard decisions have been avoided, and another portion of the biosphere is going up in smoke.

Australian Seeks to Sue Over Being Born

2005-12-07T21:03:00.000-08:00

(This is a rather sad story....but brings up a controversial subjst that seems to be becoming more and more relevant as the medical establishment ever continues to fight so hard to save babies that in a natural setting would have long ago allowed nature to take her swift course...) Nov. 18, 2005— A severely disabled 24-year-old woman asked Australia's High Court on Thursday to allow her to sue her mother's doctor for allowing her to be born. Alexia Harriton was born deaf, blind, physically and mentally disabled, and requires 24 hour a day care, the domestic news agency AAP reported. Her lawyers claim her mother's doctor was negligent in failing to diagnose rubella infection early in the pregnancy and wrongly reassured Olga Harriton that her child would not be affected. Harriton counsel Bret Walker told the court that her mother should have been told of the consequences if the pregnancy went full term. Had the mother been made aware of the disabilities, she would have aborted the pregnancy, he said. Keeden Waller, who was born through in-vitro fertilization and is now three years old, is also claiming "wrongful life" after inheriting a clotting disorder from her father that was detectable in foetal testing. The New South Wales Court of Appeal last year decided in a 2-1 judgment to reject the claims but both won special leave to bring their case to the High Court. Lawyer Kathryn Booth said her client was seeking damages to cover the costs of special care, medical treatment, housing and other expenses. Harriton's mother said she was seeking justice for her daughter and would not discuss compensation figures. "We're here for Alexia, for justice and simply that's all it is," she told AAP. "We've got to look after her interests and the fact that she's been a fighter all her life. "She's given us the strength and determination to keep going and we're her voice. She's got rights like all of us, whether she's disabled or not."

US changes torture policy

2005-12-07T17:23:00.000-08:00

As many of you are aware Con-ice (Condaleezza Rice) the US Secretary of State has been doing her world tour lately. Middle East issues, environment, trade disputes have taken up a large portion of her time but not nearly as much as the US torture policy. She was constantly denying, defending and of course lying her face off to get out of a variety of situations. Just as she was getting used to her official policy that torture is okay if we are doing it the administration has gone and changed everything. Now they have decided to honor the United Nations ban on cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, not just at home, but around the world as well.

“The White House has tried to argue that rules against torture don't apply beyond U.S. soil, in places like Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or Afghanistan. But on Wednesday that all changed.” – CBC

After the reversal in policy there were a few great gems from US officials (courtesy of CBC).

On the one hand, White House spokesman Scott McLellan called it nothing new. "Is this existing policy? As I stated earlier, yes it is existing policy."
But at the State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Rice's statement "is a statement of policy and it's been the U.S. policy ... at least since the secretary said it."

Bush vs Evil

2005-12-06T20:51:00.000-08:00

I’m done with Evil. Evil has no respect and is making life difficult for millions of people everywhere. No one however is having a harder time than my main man, number one source of comedy and entertainment, George W. Bush.

Dubya has been waging a war against the forces of Evil for many years. Has he had any success? Hell ya, representatives of evil have been getting their asses whooped all over the globe by Bush and his buddies. Now that is good enough for a few years (decade upon decade if we look into the recent history of the United States) but eventually evil is going to have to take the stand and answer some hard questions.

Has Evil bothered to show up? Has Evil even contacted Bush once? How about a quick email? The truth is Evil has been so elusive some are starting to believe that Evil (sex unknown) might not actually be a thing but rather a notion or concept. Some very reputable brainy types are even referring to Evil, much to the shock an awe of millions, as an adjective.

Unperturbed our main man Dubya keeps on challenging Evil at every opportunity. I am confident we will eventually be able to get Mr or Mrs Evil to comment on the various accusations that have been labeled against him or her and set this whole embarrassing debacle to rest.

The entire quote below, as well as other interesting facts can be found here.

“Bush has spoken about evil in 319 separate speeches, or about 30 percent of all the speeches he gave between the time he took office and June 16, 2003. In these speeches he uses the word "evil" as a noun far more often than he uses it as an adjective — 914 noun uses as against 182 adjectival uses. Only 24 times, in all these occasions on which Bush talks of evil, does he use it as an adjective to describe what people do, that is, acts or deeds. This means that Bush is not thinking about evil deeds, or even evil people, nearly as often as he is thinking about evil as a thing, or a force, something that has a real existence apart from the cruel, callous, brutal and selfish acts of which human beings are capable. His readiness to talk about evil in this manner raises the question of what meaning evil can have in a secular modern world.”

Religious homophobes give Ford a break

2005-12-06T20:01:00.000-08:00

The American Family Association, aka religious homophobes of America, has recently ended their boycott of Ford much to the dismay of religious zealots everywhere determined to trample on the rights of others in the name of God. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not against religion or anything like that; I also recognize that there are very prominent religious groups that support gay marriage – see here.

Anyway back to the homophobes. It just blows me away that such a prominent group can hide behind the auspices of religion to trample on the rights of gays. While we are at it lets not forget the influence they wield on women and their bodies, the bill of rights, constitutions, curriculums – feel free to add to my list.

All the above stuff, fine whatever. I have been brainwashed like the rest of the masses to accept your right to trample everyone else’s. I swear to god if the special interest groups (except for oil companies, unions, etc) start telling me and my buddies what cars we can drive I will snap. I will write a very eloquent letter to someone. I will at least send a short concise letter. At the very least I will email someone a one liner. I will at least tell someone I’m pissed.