The Groove - Week 60 - June 18-25

Man.  60 weeks.  Can you believe that?  Maybe we will make it through all of this after all?

And how do we celebrate 60 weeks?  By passing the dreaded Copyright law.  I guess it could have been worse.  But how is this going to work?  Are companies just going to arbitrarily be able to send people a letter demanding $5000 for infringement?  Will there be a new government copyright enforcement agency set up.

So let's get this straight.  A few years ago, Jim Flaherty decides to loosen up mortgage requirements, delaying a US style housing correction for another day.  And now, just as the markets are starting to pull back, he decides that it is time to tighten up mortgage requirements in order to "cool down" the market.  This should be interesting.

More pipelines are leaking in Alberta.  It's almost like these companies have no idea what they're doing and all of their assurances that pipelines are "100% safe" are bullshit.  The cherry on top is that this one belongs to Enbridge.

I'm going to admit that I don't know a whole lot about this.  But I read Mulcair's statement and I can't help but feel like there isn't really anything wrong here with what he has said.  He's suggested that the Golden Temple "incident" is regrettable and should probably be investigated.  He hasn't said anything to suggest that events that came out of that (Air India bombing, etc.) is justified.

Stephen Harper has decided to praise a senior Mountie who was recently disciplined for bullying his employees.  Or in Stephen Harper's language, "strong-leadershipping his employees".  Another article points out that the budget for his security has doubled in the last 6 years.

Stupid experts, getting in the way of things again.  This time, ex-Directors of Fisheries are suggesting that closing a freshwater research facility is a bad idea.  Well.  They obviously have a vested interest in this and a can't be believed.  Somehow.

The Conservatives are angry at the Parliamentary Budget Officer for asking too many questions.

I'm not sure what this means.  But I don't think it is good.  The guy who appears to be heading up the Robo-Calls inquiry has quit.

This actually seems like pretty good news, in a really sad sort of way.  Stephen Harper's attempt to divide the country seem to be playing nicely with Thomas Mulcair's attempts to divide the country.  The result?  Regional support for the various parties gets a bit more entrenched.  Imagine what's going to happen when Stephen Harper realizes he doesn't need to keep anybody else besides Alberta and Saskatchewan happy?

Amazingly, in the never-apologize-for-anything world of the Conservatives, Jason Kenney actually apologized for calling the Deputy Premiere of Alberta a "complete and utter asshole".  Of course, it took several days and a whole bunch of people calling him out on it.  And after refusing to apologize several times.  So.  Really, I'm not sure if you could describe this as a "genuine apology".

Apparently our dairy and chicken farmer tariffs are keeping us out of a new Pacific Free Trade agreement.  Honestly, do we need more free trade agreements?  Why do we have chicken and dairy tariffs?

The UN has pointed out that the new law putting restrictions on freedom of assembly in Quebec kind of suck.  Of course, it's the UN pointing this out, so the right wing has to get all up in arms about this.  And basically their defense seems to be "Things are worse in Syria, so this should be okay."  Which reminds me of car ads, where they're all like "Better fuel mileage than the Chevrolet Cavalier.   Higher resale than a Ford Escort."  So...essentially this car could be 2nd worst in a whole bunch of areas is what you're telling me... Canada.  Better than the worst thing out there.

This is awesome, this Canada Revenue Agency kickback scandal.  First, I can't believe how stupid these guys would be.  Next, it's kind of awesome that it's coming to a head under the all seeing eye of Stephen Harper.

Margaret Wente claims that young people should join the Tea Party.  The holes in this argument are astonishing.  My favourite hole though, is the fact that there is no Tea Party in Canada.  And check out the comments.  One poster writes a rather long and well informed and documented piece about how the recession wasn't caused by excessive government spending on social programs and that cutting them probably isn't going to get us out of that hole.  And then people make fun of him for being stupid.  Which is pretty much the entire Internet in a nutshell.

A Crazy Week - Week 57 - May 28 - June 4

 Doesn't this look like a guy who takes the opinions and ideas of other people seriously?

What a crazy week for Canada.  Honestly.  A male porn actor murders a man and ships his body parts to several political parties?  And he somehow escapes to France?  How does that happen?

This made my week.  The Globe and Mail celebrity editor/caption maker/guy inserted some political commentary into this weeks celebrity photos.

Thomas Mulcair seems to be bowing to the pressure.  I'm not sure how a tour of the Oil Sands could so drastically and instantly change your talking points.  Perhaps there were 4 burly men with pipes following him around on the tour?

Oh, and apparently the fact that Thomas Mulcair has a whole bunch of mortgages means that he can't run the country.  Honestly.  How does this matter?  It's not like he's a million dollars in debt.  It's a series of mortgages that add up to $300,000.  I think the fact that he qualified for 11 mortgages actually suggests that he has a pretty good credit rating.

This is why Copyright reform angers people.  Honestly.  You're going to charge people for playing music at their weddings?  And what I love, it costs you $9.25 if your wedding is less than 100 people.  It costs you $39.  It costs you double that if you allow people to dance.  And then, if you hold an event with 100,000 people, it only costs you $42.  No word on whether or not that doubles if some people get out of hand and decide to dance.   In other Copyright news...well...see my other post.

The Conservative jackasses once again tried to shift the focus from themselves on to others.  They pointed out that the NDP hired 1 or 2 failed candidates.  Compared to the 30+ Conservatives.

Sometimes at work, when I get behind, I decide that I'm just not going to do any of the work that was assigned to me more than a few weeks beforehand.  It seems like the Conservatives think this is a pretty good idea, and to clear the backlog of immigration applications, they're going to ignore all applications made before 2008.  Essentially punishing persistence and forward planning.

There was also some talk this week on the census results and what that means to Canada.  How the distribution of different age groups will have serious impacts on the Provinces.  You know, really interesting and important information that will help plan into the future.  Thank God Stephen Harper is doing something to get rid of this!

How do you defend shutting down a probe in to your own wrong-doing?  Wait.  Lets back up.  How come the Conservatives have the ability to shut down a probe into their own wrong-doing?   Even the National Post seemed to question this.

Our good buddy Vic Toews is back in the news.  I'm not even sure what he is saying here, but he is talking about RCMP inquiries.  Which caused me to do some research.  I had no idea that he impregnated the babysitter (allegedly) which lead to his divorce (allegedly).  How does this guy get voted in and then elevated to the level of Minister?  What kind of stuff is in the closets of the other guys?  And then he tops it all off by suggesting that if he had his magic internet spying bill would help find the Porn Actor Dismemberment Killer.  Way to use a tragedy for political gain.

I will admit that it is unsettling that the UN is doing anything with Robert Mugabe.  But the fact that John Baird is just totally making things up about his reason for pulling Canada out of specific UN organizations is just as unsettling.  He said that Robert Mugabe was named a "UN Ambassador".  He wasn't.  It doesn't seem that hard to not make things up.  And I will agree that there are problems with the UN.  But that doesn't mean we should ignore everything that every UN organization has to say.  Like when we point out that we've sent people off to be tortured.

Peter Kent never seemed like the sharpest knife in the drawer.  It's pretty amazing that he has become the Conservative climate change expert and actually seems to suggest that there might be something going on.  Well done, Peter Kent.  Well done.

Exxon defeated the Canadian Government in a NAFTA challenge.  Apparently we wanted too much environmental testing from them.  Which is totally unfair.

Some guy bought CBC Vancouver's record collection.  Yes, this seems worth the cost savings.

Meh.  Robocalls...proposed regulation...whatever.  Who can even keep track any more?

We talked about this last week but it is a done deal.  Stephen Harper sends CP Rail back to work.

Isn't it sad that the only thing politicians seem to be able to agree on is that it's too hard to buy Canadian wine?  And then they screw it up by jumping all over themselves trying to attach themselves to the feelgoodness of the story?

Losing Interest - Week 55 - May 14-21

Leave it to a Canadian newspaper to not show a painted penis.

Please read this quote from John Baird.

"Why should taxpayers have to pay for more than 10 reports promoting a carbon tax, something that the people of Canada have repeatedly rejected? That is a message the Liberal Party just will not accept,” Mr. Baird said in response to a question by Liberal Leader Bob Rae during question period.  It should agree with Canadians. It should agree with the government. No discussion of a carbon tax that would kill and hurt Canadian families.”

We'll mention this for posterity.  Thomas Mulcair splits the country in half by pointing out that oil money isn't great for everybody.

The Auditor General comes out swinging, defending his report.

This war on bullying is getting crazy.  A Conservative MP, a man elected to our highest office by the fine people of Canada, has proposed a law that will outlaw the bullying of a Fetus.  It's good to jump on new trends, I guess.

Another Conservative MP is suggesting that people need to be willing to relocate if they are unemployed.  We're probably not too far away from mandatory re-locations.  And here is where that idea came from.  And here is another Conservative MP suggesting that any job is a good job.

And yet another Conservative MP has suggested that ripping a CD, a CD that you own, well, ripping that to your computer is the same as stealing a pair of shoes.

A Federal Judge has thrown out the election results in Toronto due to "irregularities".  And they've already started peppering residents with robo-calls.

This is more about the ridiculousness of the Toronto Police Department.  But remember all of those arrests at the G20?  Yes, this was has been exposed as a farce after many years of litigation.

I can predict the next department that will get de-funded by the Conservatives.  This report suggests that not adopting green standards is harming Canadian Competitiveness.

The Globe and Mail speculates that Vic Toews bill has died.