Trapped in the Closet - Week 183 - Oct 27 - Nov 3

Stephen Harper feels bad that he hid in the closet.  I actually don't blame him for that.  

We're officially arguing over the semantics of the word "terrorism".  Mulcair thinks that because the man was mentally ill, it might not be terrorism.  Russell Brand points out that when a white guy shoots 3 cops, that's not terrorism.  Which makes me a bit sad.  This isn't even his country.  How does he come up with these amazingly relevant things to say?

The Information and Privacy Commissioners are encouraging us to not over-react with draconian laws in the wake of last weeks incidents.

I love that we're using domestic attacks by Canadian citizens who never left the country to justify a global spying enterprise.  Among other things.

I always root for the underdog.  I have no idea why.  I can't remember the last time that a team that I cheered for won a major championship.  Hell, half the time I'll switch allegiances if my underdog team starts winning.  So,today we'll talk about Dean Del Mastro.  Don't get me wrong, this man deserves no sympathy.  But I can't help but feel a bit sorry for him as all his buddies skitter away and leave him holding the bag.  How does Steve not get tarnished by all the buffoons that he has surrounded himself with?

How badly does the RCMP suck?  In Stephen Harper's Canada, the RCMP thinks that environmentalists are a greater threat than "religiously inspired terrorists".  That must have been some argument, trying to sort out which Boogieman is scarier.  As well, the RCMP have kept no records of their warrantless requests to snoop on Canadians, so have no idea how often it happened or if it breached privacy.  Lastly, it looks like up to 4 RCMP officers slept with witnesses over the course of the Surrey Six investigation and trial, throwing the verdict into question.  Four!

Canada won't be granting visas to people from "Ebola ridden countries".  Many people point out that this won't stop the disease from spreading.

Because it's nearly impossible to achieve one legally, women in New Brunswick are inducing their own abortions.

We don't have the budget to build all the arctic ships we are expecting to.

Income Tax Splitting could be really, really messy.  A dream for accountants.  We know that income splitting favours people that have high incomes.  So limiting the tax credit to $2000 is a step in the right direction.  But why is it limited to people with kids?

This is really embarrassing.  We've started photoshopping logos onto the Canadarm.

The overall best selling car.  In all of Norway.  Is the Tesla Model S.  Some people point out that it is hypocritical of Norway to make buying a Tesla cheap through funding provided by their Oil industry.  But I think that's awesome.  If Canada decided to jack oil and gas royalties and use it to fund clean energy programs, that would be a good thing, no?

An opposition Commander in Syria points out that 6 fighter jets isn't going to accomplish much against ISIS.  Biased opinion?  Sure.  Mysterious source?  Of course.

You know who doesn't have confusion about whether or not to buy in to an overly expensive, unproven fighter jet program?  Russia.  That's who.

Buried way, way in the back of an already long bill are some provisions to control working conditions within the CBC.

Hooray for Canada?  A student staged a fake act of racism and filmed it as a social experiment.  Somebody sucker punched the fake racist.  Somebody else pointed out that Islam isn't a race.

It's official.  Communication from Revenue Canada makes no sense.

This is a really great cartoon that explains Obamacare and what is wrong with US Healthcare.

Every once in a while, an issue comes along that is so confusing, you're not even sure which side you are on.  #Gamergate is just such a thing.  If you use that hashtag are you a sexist?  Against sexism?  What if you're criticizing #Gamergate?  Are you allowed to use the hashtag then?  Who the fuck knows.  Anyhow, this post is beautiful.  Not just for #Gamergate, for life.  Read it.

We sold our souls for rock and oil - Week 127 - Sept 30 - Oct 7

In a way, I get it.  We use Malaysian money to build an LNG plant and then we sell it to Malaysia.  But wouldn't we be better off building our own plant and then selling the LNG to whomever pays the most?  I thought everybody was begging us for the stuff?  Why do we have to let foreign companies own our resources?

So we used one of our spy agencies to spy on the Brazilian Mining Ministry and we got caught.

Oh these fucking assholes...Enbridge seems to think they'll have their pipeline up and running by 2018.  What a bunch of fucking cocks!  Arrogant cocks.  "Let's disregard all these people that fucking hate us and are accusing us of being a shit company that can barely run an office, let alone a pipeline, and just kind of show them that we don't give a fuck what they say because we've already bought and paid for the decision from the government."

Who knows best about prescribing heroin for a clinical studies?  The doctors who designed the study, hoping to find some specific results that will in turn help society in general?  Or a bunch of ignorant politicians?  Doesn't really matter.  Politicians get their way.  Fuck.  She actually lectures them about treating heroin with heroin.  Because everybody knows cold turkey is the only way, right?

There's not too many things/people in this world that blindly inspire me to think that the other side of the story is the correct one.  Fox News.  The NRA.  Chris Brown.  Anyhow.  The Canadian Gun Lobby thinks we should not sign a UN arms treaty.  So we probably should.  I also love that they think Harper signing this thing might cost him votes.  Yep.  I can just see that Albera farmer voting Mulcair because Harper caused his ammunition prices to go up a bit.  And the fuckin' shitheads caved in and didn't sign.

John Baird continues to tilt at windmills.  No shit we shouldn't blindly accept everything that Iran is selling.  Is anybody suggesting that?  Meanwhile, you're grandstanding at the UN while our fearless leader attempts to marginalize our place there?  What's the point?  Nobody is listening to us anyway.

Another Conservative MP steps out of bounds with letters to the CRTC on behalf of...I think on behalf of Sun News?  And the Province classifies it as "Entertainment".

Don't they know that it's the will of the lord? Christian Paradis announces that Canada won't fund programs to provide abortions to victims of war rape or forced childhood marriage.
So we've decided to take a human rights stand against Sri Lanka.  I'm guessing they don't sell us much stuff or want any of our oil, lumber or natural gas.

And Harper might be trying to blacklist a journalist that asked him a question.

Oh boy.  Our new Supreme Court appointee is a 64 Year Old White Man, who argued strongly against repatriating Omar Khadr.  And then lied about getting drafted by the Detroit Red Wings?  This is roughly the Canadian equivalent of claiming you walked on the moon.  What an idiot.
An 89-year-old lady is going to court after refusing to fill out the census.  Kind of an interesting story, actually.

Awesome!  Pirate Joe's won his legal fight!

Rob Ford continues to be Toronto's main carnival attraction.

Patrick Brazeau still exists, is taken to hospital.  May have done something stupid beforehand.  Maybe not.

Another Conservative Senator is in the shit.  This one accused of illegal fundraising in Quebec.  Kickbacks from Construction companies, really.
The London School of Economics has determined that piracy isn't hurting the entertainment industry.

Alex Pareene has an interesting take on his appearance on CNBC.  He seems to have generated a bunch of positive news though, contrary to his own opinion that he botched it.

Should Canadian public archives be stored behind a paywall?  Probably not.

Wasting Time - Week 92 - Jan 28 - Feb 4

The first half of the week is covered here.

Hey Canada.  You voted for these guys.  Tory backbenchers have asked the RCMP to investigate late term abortions.

I don't really know what to say about this.  Israel bombed a military target in Syria.  Canada doesn't seem to have expressed an opinion about this yet.  I'm not against military intervention into Syria.  I'm a bit cloudy on bombing shit in another country just because.

So, the Supreme Court is going to decide if we can abolish the Senate?  Could this really happen this quickly and this easily?

Well this is a step in the right direction.  Actually charging companies what it costs to repair the environmental damage that they create.  However, there's some pretty great logic represented by an environmental organization in this article.  If we had reasonable environmental safeguards in place, it wouldn't be as necessary to put mechanisms in place to recover vast amounts of money for environmental disasters.  You know...try to prevent them in the first place.

I'm getting sick and tired of the pseudo-Libertarian brigade insisting on people paying for their own rescue.  Emergency Services are there to bail people out of emergencies.  People sometimes make questionable decisions that lead them to trouble.  I would suggest that most emergencies are the fault of a questionable decision.  If we become a society where we punish every victim with a massive bill for bailing them out, Canada will be a very sad place to live.  Are we going to require 911 operators to run credit checks?  Will we need a questionnaire to be filled out before a rescue is made?  If this guy had burnt his house down after falling asleep with a cigarette nobody would be saying anything right now about repaying the fire department.

I think it is probably too early to accuse the Conservatives of planning a partisan celebration for Canada's 150th Birthday.  However, it's not too early to wonder why they refuse to plan it using an independent committee.

I love this Tyee article.  It points out that the price gap Oil companies keep talking about is largely imaginary.  I also love that the standard response by oil companies to low oil prices is "We should dig up more of it and send more of it away, faster."  Canadians need to remember something.  This oil belongs to the country, not to the oil companies.  Well.  Alberta would argue that it all belongs to them.

I'm glad our National Revenue Minister is concerned with dealing with really critical matters important to Canada.  Like getting a Revenue Canada employee fired for creating a game that made fun of stupid things said to him on the phone while on the job.

Wait.  What?  Georges Laraque is the Deputy Leader of the Green Party?  You'll probably get kicked out of this link by the terrible Vancouver Sun paywall.

The Alberta PC Party seems to be doing all sorts of bad things lately.  It has just been disclosed that they received 45 illegal donations over the last few years.  The scary thing is that if these bozos get thrown out, the guys waiting in the wings (Wildrose) are even bozoier.

2012 Best Of - Week 87 - Dec 25-Jan 1

The whole purpose of this blog is for me to be able to track all of the crazy shit that the Conservatives are going to do over their 4 year term.  As I look back over the past year...Gawd...I'm just overwhelmed by how much crazy shit they've done.  It's too much for me.  I think that in order to understand how crazy this year was, we need to look at some of the stories that I had to gloss over as I made my list.  Allowing two major Canadian oil companies to be purchased by foreign state controlled enterprises?  Didn't make it.  Allowing a northern British Columbia mine to ship in all of its employees from China at a discounted rate?  Didn't make it.  Closing down a groundbreaking freshwater research station (perhaps because of some troublesome research into the oil sands)?  Didn't make it.  Stripping a layer of environmental protection from our lakes and rivers?  Didn't make it.  What about their continual re-introduction of anti-abortion laws?  Their no questions asked support of Israel?  Looking back, things are way, way worse than I thought.

Lessons in short-sightedness
After years of a ridiculous pro-asbestos position that was mocked by the rest of the world, the asbestos mine responsible for this ridiculous stance closed down.  And somehow the Conservatives are trying to blame the Parti Quebecois for this reckless swerve towards acceptability.

The War on Terror reaches new levels of awesome
A Muslim man in Quebec sent a text message to some work colleagues encouraging them to "blow away the competition" at a trade show.  He was arrested on suspicion of terrorism.  Reddit agrees that this is awesome.

Government cuts lead to a pretty good idea for a comedy sketch
Did you know that Canada is surrounded on three sides by oceans?  I don't think the Conservatives do.  Coast Guard and other naval safety cuts seem to be a favourite of theirs.  In addition to closing the Coast Guard base in the largest port in Canada, they also seem to be struggling to provide effective services in the places that remain open.  This poor Newfoundland fisherman had his emergency medical call transferred to a non-English speaking doctor in Italy when he phoned in for help.

Model citizens
Have you heard about these Queen's Jubilee medals?  Ya, there's something like 60,000 of them being awarded and it sounds like it is largely at the discretion of individual MP's.  One Saskatchewan MP has decided that a pair of ladies who have continually been arrested for anti-abortion related harassment.  He's praised them as "heroines of humanity".  Surprisingly, he's a Conservative.

Limits to democracy
It's actually hard to keep track on the amount of times that the Conservatives limited debate, jammed through mountains of legislation via Omnibus Bills and just kind of messed with democracy by preventing people from asking question.  These are only three examples of a worrisome trend.

War on Crime

Look at that graph above.  See how there has been a steady decline in the crime rate since the early 90's?  See how we're basically at levels not seen since the 70's?  Ya, me too.  But even with all of that, the Conservatives decided to jam through a whole bunch of "Tough on Crime" laws (like mandatory sentencing) even though a whole bunch of people told them that it's a bad idea...And then, they actually have the balls to take all the credit for the last 20 years of dropping crime rates...even though there was a dramatic spike in homicide rates this year.

Not only that, they've decided to:
- Cut prison inmate reform programs - because what we really need is convicts getting out of prison with no real world skills or training
- Close a few prisons even though before their new mandatory minimum sentences can have an affect there are already overcrowding problems...honestly...double bunking!
- Decided that convicts earning between $10 and $69 every two weeks are living high on the hog and they're going to charge them more in rent money
- Created a law whereby it's illegal to riot in a mask...even though it's already illegal to riot in a mask.  Great prioritization, guys!
- Supported a bill to outlaw gang recruiting...ya...that's really going to put the brakes on gang activity

Enbridge and their Magic Pipeline
I actually can't believe that there is still a chance that this Northern Gateway pipeline might get built.  There is just so much wrong with this whole story, I don't know of any other way to tackle it but point form.
1. The Federal Government has suggested that opponents to the Pipeline are terrorists
2. They've also cut so many research positions over the last few years that there probably aren't enough people remaining to adequately research the effects of this pipeline
3. Enbridge created a promotional video that has a map that conveniently ignores all of the nautical hazards that will be faced by the hundreds of tankers steaming towards Kitimat
4. Their clean-up plan submitted to the government is for crude oil, not bitumen
5. While all this was going on, one of their pipelines in Wisconsin started leaking...and they didn't do a particularly good job in responding to it
6. A report came out that crucified the Enbridge response to a 2010 pipeline leak in Michigan...I don't think governments generally throw around terms like "Keystone Cops" lightly
7. After the above mentioned Michigan oil spill, Enbridge executives gave themselves some hefty bonuses
8. They've created a limited liability partnership that will, you guessed it, limit their liability in the event of an oil spill
9. And while all this was going on...while Alberta was screaming at BC for being selfish about not allowing a pipeline...leak after leak after leak after leak popped up across Alberta.
10. Is it a surprise though, seeing as people connected to big oil have had upwards of 2733 meetings with public officials over the last 4 years?

Honestly.  How are we still talking about this pipeline?

Robo-Calls
What is the worst thing about this Conservative government?  The fact that they might not even be legitimate.  The robo-call scandal continues to roll along.  Even worse is the Conservative response to the whole thing.  They demanded that Liberals release all records of "all calls made on their behalf" during the last election, but refuse to release their own records because, obviously, there's no possible chance they have done anything wrong themselves.  That didn't work, so once the cases finally made it to court, they attempted to shirk responsibility through a series of loopholes, smoke and mirrors.  First, they claim the cases were filed too late.  Then, they suggest the complainants should be ignored as they are made by "professional agitators" and the bills are paid by people with a "political bias".  Last, even though a pollster dug up information suggesting that there was voter suppression (they actually tried to have this evidence thrown out), they claimed that everything is okay because even if there were robo-calls, they didn't actually have an effect.


The next section I'm going to call the 2012 Conservative All-Star Team.  With guys like this, how can they possibly get re-elected?

Vic Toews

Where do you start with Vic Toews?  He's accomplished so much in a one year period, it's difficult to know what to talk about.  First, his fingerprints are all over the "tough on crime" section above.  But I think his crowning achievement for the year really was his internet snooping bill.  First, he suggested that if you didn't support his bill then you were "with the child pornographers."  Then, he freaked the hell out when somebody (well, a Liberal staffer) started posting (completely, 100% true) information about his messy, messy divorce (the babysitter?  really?).  At this point, Anonymous started threatening him and, despite his bluster, he actually admitted that he was powerless to stop them and temporarily threw in the towel on the whole thing.  Until he saw an opportunity to use the horrific Luka Magnotta murders for political gains and then reintroduced an even worse internet surveillance bill.  To heap further awful onto an already giant pile of crap, when a journalist asked a pointed question about a particularly over-the-top portion of the bill he became surprised and confused; It was almost as if he had no actual idea about the contents of the very bill he was championing.  (This is a bit of an aside, but I'd like to point out that while the Conservatives are all about using the forces of Government to eavesdrop on citizens, they don't believe that Canadians deserve any government help or protection from identity theft or other cyber-security matters.  That would be government over-reach)  I know you're thinking.  At this point, an ordinary man would sit back and be happy with his accomplishments.  But not Vic Toews.  He was just getting started.  He was the point man for Canada refusing to bring convicts back home via prison transfers.  He actively worked against bringing Omar Khadr home and then made a series of crazy statements once he finally did make it back to Canada.  And he allowed the RCMP and Canadian Border Agency to use information obtained from torture.  Nice job, Vic!

Jason Kenney

Jason Kenney didn't have enough actual immigrants for his press conference.  So he decided to have some of his staff dress up as as "immigrants" to celebrate their "citizenship reaffirmation".  As well, his department decided that the way to deal with the crazy backlogs of applications was just to ignore all applications made before 2008.

Rob Anders

"Sleepy Time" Rob has been caught sleeping several times on the job.  I know, I know, we've all dozed off for a few minutes at work.  But, I bet your little nappy time didn't come in the middle of a Parliamentary Question Period or during a presentation from a group supporting homeless veterans.  Of course, it all would have been alright if he had apologized.  But no, he doubled down and called the homeless veterans support group a bunch of "NDP hacks."  He did eventually apologize.  And then later in the year, he claimed that Jack Layton's death was Thomas Mulcair's fault.  And yes, that is a screen capture of one of his Parliament naps.

Bev Oda

Every time I see the above photo of Bev Oda, I'm actually a little bit sad that she left politics.  Poor Bev had a problem with her expense account.  It all came to a head when it was found she'd racked up crazy bills living it up in London during a conference on the immunization of children in poor countries.  She moved from one luxury hotel to another, charged thousands to have a car and driver at her beck-and-call and then washed it all down with a $16 glass of Orange Juice.

Patrick Brazeau

Doesn't that guy look like a Senator?  As well, he has an atrocious record of attending Senate sittings (you know...his job).  He's absent about 25% of the time.  And when somebody pointed it out and asked some questions, he called her a bitch.  He also may be fraudulently claiming a living allowance.  I will give him credit for his charity boxing match with Justin Trudeau...and his excessive pre-match bragging made it even funnier when he lost.

Selling Out the Country - Week 84 - Dec 3-10

So.  A Chinese state-owned oil company is allowed to buy a chunk of our Oil Sands.  A Malaysian state-owned oil company is allowed to buy a chunk of our Oil Sands.  Why don't we just run the whole place with a Canadian state-owned oil company instead?  No.  That's crazy talk.  Commie.

I don't think there is any comment required beyond the headline here: "Minister for Canada’s foreign aid agency says he was unaware of its key principles"

This is kind of a sad commentary of where we are and actually a personal justification for why I am doing this in the first place.  The Conservatives are trying to jam through another Omnibus budget bill.  And the Conservatives are limiting debate.  And I've just ignored it for the last few days.  I've come to accept that this is just the way that things happen.  And that's pretty fucking scary.

Interestingly, the morning after the Omnibus Budget vote I'm looking at the National Post and there is absolutely nothing on their front page and nothing on their "Canada" page either.  I guess it isn't newsworthy to them.  In fact, when I search "omnibus" on their site, absolutely nothing comes up.

Oh man.  Ohmanohman.  I'm going to quote an entire passage from this article on the latest Omnibus Bill.
As the final group of amendments proposed by the opposition went to a vote late Tuesday night, the NDP began to chant "2015," a reference to the next federal election, which is when they say the Harper government will be held accountable for the bill. (CBC's Kady O'Malley reported that the Conservatives chanted back, "Carbon tax. Carbon tax.)

A pretty fantastic opinion piece outlining just how fucked up Stephen Harper's policies are with respect to Israel and Foreign Policy.

Speaking of which.  We've voted for Israel again on an even more one-sided UN vote.  This time, only 6 countries voted with Israel (USA, Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau)  against a UN resolution calling for Israel to join the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.  As well, there were only 6 abstentions this time.  Slate explains why we might be on the wrong side here.

Not only are we blindly supporting Israel.  Now we're no longer going to provide any aid to Palestine.  As punishment for the rest of the World voting in their favour in a UN vote.

Boingboing provides a nice summary to the changes in the Navigable Waters Act.  Good info in the comments as well.

Looks like Stephen Harper's war on crime is working really well!  Homicide rates rise 7%.  The first time it has risen in a long, long time.

The Conservatives have learned from the various copyright lobbies.  Just keep trying until something sticks!  Didn't work?  Change it a bit and try again.  A Conservative MP proposes "condemning" sex selective abortion.


A great article from Slate debunking some recent claims on how there is no Global Warming.  I love, love, love this claim that all of these scientists that claim "Global Warming" just do it to keep the gravy train rolling.  Yes, thousands of scientists around the World have advanced a singular conspiracy just so they can keep their probably-mediocre-level-of-income gravy train rolling.  All those oil and gas companies that are making billions of dollars have absolutely no economic interest in this fight.  It's those greedy scientists!  Nor surprisingly, the article that is being debunked originates from the National Post.

I had to look long and hard to find any other reference to this story that I saw while perusing a Metro paper while waiting for my Breakfast Club.  There isn't any.  Anyhow, this is very interesting.  First, Stephen Harper did the right thing?  He rejected some insane proposals created by Vic Toews "firearms advisory committee".  These claims included easing restrictions on handguns and assault rifles and increasing gun control licenses from 5 year to 10 year terms.  So, good job.  But, my next...why do we have a "firearm advisory committee"?  Why is the committee composed almost entirely of firearms advocates and why is the head of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police not allowed on it?

The Harper Government has delayed enacting a law requiring every gun sold in the country to have a unique serial number.  Really?  They don't need one now?  But, as the article kind of mentions, it doesn't really matter any longer because we have no idea who has the guns anyhow.

Don't worry!  Everything is fine!  Sales numbers have dropped by 30% but look at the prices!  They're still okay!

Another story on potential Copyright Lawsuits.  I like that this one points out that the government promised that this wouldn't happen while they were putting together this legislation.

This is why we shouldn't give the Copyright Companies more control over our computers:  They don't even know what is on their own.  This story from Boingboing outlines attempts by various networks and studios to shut down "infringing content", some of which was their own websites.

I really like this story via boingboing about how some companies are saving money and improving product by relocating manufacturing to the United States.  Two points:
1) One, as an engineer that buys lots of expensive equipment, I'm very often surprised by how quite often the best equipment is also the cheapest equipment.  Not always, but it often seems like for two relatively similar parts, the company that does a better job of designing it and building it often can make it cheaper.  Great design transcends.
2) How long until somebody thinks "wait a minute...with all these production efficiencies that we've designed in, imagine how much cheaper we could make it in China!"
3) I'm also reminded of an argument I had a few years ago with my brother.  "My economics prof says that the Porsche Boxster is the cheapest car to manufacturer in the world!  And they sell it for $60,000!"  I pointed out to him that maybe it was possible that they manufactured it with the cheapest amount of labour as compared to any other car due to it's modular design and modern factory but that it was impossible for a leather upholstered, high performance engined, mag wheeled, high dollar suspensioned sports car to cost less to make than a Geo Metro.  But no, he wouldn't agree with me.

Crazed Idealogues - Week 83 - Nov 26 - Dec 3

So, Canada has gone from moderate negotiator of peace to crazed protector of Israel.  A vote for Palestine as a "non-member observer state" in the UN didn't go our way, so we packed up our diplomats and went home.  I'd imagine many of our diplomats aren't even bothering to unpack we seem to be calling them home so often.  When did we take this turn?  What is the reason for it?  Is it simply blind support for Israel through fear of a second holocaust?  Islamophobia?  Why does Canada get to decide the way this will play out vs. the other 138 countries that don't agree with us?  The 9 countries that voted against the motion...those would be Canada, the USA, Israel, Micronesia, Palau, the Czech Republic, Marshall Islands, Naura and Panama.  You remember all those times in the past when Russia has voted for things that make no sense?  And it just defies all logic that they're standing in the way of meaningful dialogue and the will of the UN?  Ya...that might be us now.

Have you heard about these Queen's Jubilee medals?  Ya, there's something like 60,000 of them being awarded and it sounds like it is largely at the discretion of individual MP's.  One Saskatchewan MP has decided that a pair of ladies who have continually been arrested for anti-abortion related harassment.  He's praised them as "heroines of humanity".  Surprisingly, he's a Conservative MP.

So.  I was thinking about the above mentioned Saskatchewan MP story and I was thinking about why we have so many prairie yahoos doing all kinds of stupid shit.  And I started to think that there must be something to this...some reason why a disproportionate number of yahoos from the praries are in Parliament to stir up ridiculousness.  To Wikipedia!  Check out the table a few scrolls down from the top of the link.  If Canada were evenly distributed, one MP would represent exactly 113,308 people (with the current number of MP's).  We always hear about how Quebec is over-represented, and sure enough, each Quebec MP represents around 100,000 people.  "The West" is kind of shafted with 114,000 for BC and 117,000 for Alberta.  Ontario actually sees a similar amount of shaftedness.  But you want to talk about crazy over-representation in Parliament?  Look at Saskatchewan, ground zero for MP craziness.  69,000 people.  14 Yahoos that represent around 69,000 people each.  This explains a lot.

I find it very interesting that Mark Carney gets so much credit for Canada "weathering the storm".  I'm far from an expert on this kind of thing, but it's very curious.  But two things jump out:
- I've seen him/Canada praised several times for "not having to bail out our banks".  Were the policies not put in place many, many years ago to prevent this from happening?
- Many people believe we're on the verge of some severe housing price corrections, which won't have a very positive effect on the economy.  Is it going to be the poor bastard that fills his shoes that takes the blame for this?
Looks like his landing might not be so soft after all.

This graphic doesn't make things look very good with respect to Conservative fiscal management.  When did these clowns start?  Seems like we took a big swing down around that time.  Ya, ya.  Global financial crisis.

Somebody at the National Post has rationalized that a Mayor getting tossed out for breaking the rules is un-democratic.

I can't believe that we actually have to praise a decision by the Federal Government to not allow gas drilling in a National Fucking Wildlife Area...but here we are.

Elections Canada has finally released some official information as to how widespread the robocall scandal was in the last election.  56 ridings, apparently.

An article on vote splitting.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure we'll ever make it to a point where a party is in power that is able to implement this.  Perhaps an NDP/Liberal coalition could push this through.  Perhaps.

There was an interview on the CBC yesterday.  The lady was explaining how "lucky" we are in Canada that damages for Copyright infringement have been capped at $5000.  She was telling us all about how forensic internet companies had moved into Canada and were now tracking torrent traffic.  Ya.  Lucky.  A thing that was legal is now illegal and a bunch of companies are working on suing Canadians (Michael Geist explains it in more detail here).  Awesome.  At least we're not Finland, where the fines for illegal downloading are hundreds of times worse than the fines faced by rapists and murderers.

I agree that if it isn't necessary, Government officials shouldn't travel in private aircraft.  But it seems sad that our country has only two private aircraft left for government use.  A bit 3rd World, really.

I'm really starting to hate the National Post.  And the Financial Post seems to be the place where "rich" assholes can go and talk shit about how much money they've made on stocks.  That's why I love this.  November 22nd...A story on how much money there is to be made on RIM.
November 27th...A story on the dramatic one day collapse of RIM stock.
I know that this doesn't mean anything long term.  I know that there is still an incredible potential upside to RIM.  As well as a potential that they will go bankrupt.  I just hate the certainty that these articles are written with.  When they're just so full of absolute shit and really have no fucking clue what might happen.

Oh fuck the hell off.  The government that seems to treat Parliamentary committees as a joke is drafting a motion to haul Trudeau and McGuinty in front of a committee for their "anti-Alberta" comments?  And some poor schlubs were waiting in the background the whole time this insane debate was going on?

Perhaps in an effort to prop up his image, Patrick Brazeau has created a video in support of finding missing aboriginal women.  Still...who is this guy?

I'm sharing this story for one reason only...I sent Joyce Murray the link to this fine blog and she claims that she read it and laughed.  She sends me invitations to stuff as well.

All Over the Place - Week 81 - Nov 12-19

I've been feeling a strange feeling the last few weeks.  And this isn't just a problem with Stephen Harper.  Why are we continually talking about the lack of money?  Sure, there was a recession.  But there were years of boom times when we should have built up a nest egg.  Why do we have crumbling infrastructure?  Why are people ending up dead because we have no mental health services?  Why is it just kind of accepted that things are worse than they used to be?  From service on airlines to general corporate culture, it seems like it is a given that there isn't enough money to properly do a job and that's just the way it needs to be because we need to save money.  What the fuck are we saving our money for?  To pay for shit that's worse?  And...kind of related, but not really...why do we accept a strange story about two girls in Thailand ingesting DEET and dieing, and then just stop talking about it?  What is our government doing to get some answers on this?  Why is a bullshit story just accepted?  What the fuck do we have a government for if they can't even ask a few questions about why two citizens are dead?

Hmmmmmmm...The Conservatives aren't polling too well in the lead up to the Calgary Centre by-election.  If they can't win this seat...holy shit.

This is my favourite article so far about the US election.  And it comes from a hockey blog.  Anyhow, it details the meltdown of Romney's Project Orca.  And it includes:
- A Canucks playoff meltdown reference
- A Tim Thomas the Tea Partier reference
- A Kevin Smith "gretzky" reference
It's pretty awesome.

Don't worry everybody.  Real Estate is going to be fine.  Record debt loads growing at an even faster rate?  No problem.

Holy Fuck!  This newspaper is psychotic!  First up, a story about racism rising in Greece results in crazed racist lunacy in the comments section.  And this article about "support for unrestricted abortion"...my goodness.  It's like a pro-life reunion in the comments section.  I love the new term though.  "Unrestricted Abortion".  Like doctors are just going to drive around, randomly aborting things.

I like this.  Stephen Harper suggests that, wow, just in time for the next election, the budget will be balanced...probably until right after the next election.

This article...oh man...this article.  So it talks about how Thomas Mulcair is a crazy communist for suggesting that Canadian oil be processed in Canada.  And then it talks about how we'd be better off shipping our oil outside of the country for world market rate.  And that we'd be better off bringing gasoline in from China and India because it's much cheaper.  Which...I don't know.  Seems a bit contradictory to me.  And it's a bit short sighted.  Okay.  RIGHT NOW, we can sell our oil for more outside of the country.  RIGHT NOW there are some cheaper gasoline markets.  But does it not seem insane that we ship one thing out at a lower price, only to buy it back with a bit of processing at a higher price?  Why don't we look long term?  Okay, 10 years to build a refinery.  And then...we're golden.  We don't have to worry about "world markets".  We don't waste crazy amounts of energy shipping things around the world in the name of maximizing profits.  But no.  Thomas Mulcair is an insane communist and Alberta should be allowed to do whatever they want, even if it involves digging up the rest of the country.

I haven't followed this temporary-chinese-mine-worker story all that much, but it sounds kind of sketchy.  Apparently the jobs were advertised for a ridiculously low wage in Canada and when there were no takers they went offshore.  And the government is doing all that it can to avoid transparency.


Stephen Harper doesn't care that the CBC has no money.  In fact...I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that he's pretty darn happy about it.

11,000 Federal Government jobs have disappeared this year.

Can't wait for John Baird to grandstand about the latest UN "outrage" - declaring contraception a universal human right.

Oh boy.  A comedy of errors in the Federal Governments efforts to entice internationally known (Rob Base?) scientists to Canadian Universities for obscene amounts of money.  First, they hired the guy but made him languish in immigration hell.  Then, they offered his wife a job but balked at giving her an extra 11 days off.  Unpaid.  Then, well, then he actually went to Edmonton and tried to live there.  In the end, he went home.  And millions and millions get sunk into high profile scientists while homegrown programs are cut in the name of cost savings.  Sometimes fairly trivial amounts of cost savings.  Interestingly, some of the other famous science chairs is actually doing climate change research.  Surprised that was allowed!

This is an interesting article from Slate suggesting some real world ways to combat climate change.  I agree with these, for the most part, and appreciate that they don't dwell on trivialities like "buy a new refrigerator".  These all make sense.  Except cap-and-trade.  But maybe I can be swayed.  See, as an engineer, I'd probably be one of the people called upon to calculate the actual outputs of "polluters".  Having participated in exercises similar to this I can see how pointless and difficult and bureaucracy creating something like this is.  It's so, so difficult to even get an accurate representation of things like liquid effluent pumped into a pipeline, let alone an accurate idea of the amount of gases escaping into the air.  I just cannot see a meaningful measurement system that would work in any meaningful or reasonable form.  Perhaps you could make something work for the largest of large corporations and perhaps having something in place for the...I don't know...60%(?) of emissions that this would cover would be good enough.  But it just doesn't feel workable to me.  Too many workarounds and loopholes.  Honestly.  A carbon tax with some sort of low income reimbursement mechanism is probably the way to go.  Make energy more expensive and watch the "free market" stumble all over itself to save energy.

I didn't talk about this last week, when the data was published that supported "P2P users spending more money on music than non-P2P users".  Michael Geist dug into it a bit.  And discovered that the arithmetic presented in the chart supplied by RIAA associated group that published the study is way, way off.  They added a bunch of numbers into a subtotal, and then included the subtotal and the original numbers to get their sub-total.  When you do the proper math, P2P users actually spend 50% more than non-P2P users as opposed to the 30% claimed.  But how can you trust anything that these bozos produce anyhow?  And why are they trying to discredit their own study?

In other copyright news, House Republicans released a paper suggesting some sensible rollbacks on the psychotic copyright laws that exist in the States....and promptly retracted them due to (speculative) pressure for lobbyists.

Once again, stories from unlikely places.  Here is a story of a 1-percenters making of a fortune.  Long story short - buy a baseball team with borrowed money and interest free loans.  Run the team into the ground while dangling the promise of a "winner" to the fans.  Blame your woes on a poor stadium.  Threaten to leave town until your government subsidized stadium is built.  Fund your portion with government provided interest free loans.  Reap the profits.  This isn't a story of "working hard".  This is rigging the system to make a fortune on the backs of regular joes.  And then charging them to watch your shitty team.


As a cyclist, I feel like I have some perspective on Lance Armstrong that has been formed by more than just a few headlines over the last 6 months.  Friends and relatives seem to get a bit confused as to why I so passionately hate this man and why I get riled up about any defense of this terrible human being.  The comments of "they were all doping so it was a level playing field" or "it's their bodies, why can't they do what they want" completely miss the point.  I don't want to get into it too much, but read through an article such as this one and you might gain perspective.  If it was simply a matter of Lance Armstrong doping and admitting his malfeasance when finally caught, I would probably be okay with how things have unfolded.  Indeed, I have a lot of respect for past dopers that admit their past wrongs and work towards a solution.  But Lance Armstrong bullied and intimidated his way to all of these victories.  He ruined careers.  And now he's acting like a smug little baby.  This tweeted photo sums up how much of an asshole this guy is.  It's like OJ Simpson showing off the receipt for the leather gloves a few weeks after his acquittal (okay...not that bad).  It would be pretty awesome if USADA got a special court order, busted down his door and took back those 7 jerseys.

Giving Thanks - Week 75 - Oct 1-8

This seemed like an incredibly slow week in Canadian politics.  Perhaps everybody was just excited about the US Presidential Debate?  Speaking of which, what a horror show.  Every time Obama spoke I was thinking "Okay...here it comes...coherent words..." but they never came.  Romney seemed absolutely certain of what he was speaking, even if it had no bearing on reality.  The worst moment for me was right after Romney launched into a passionate attack on Obamacare and I thought "Man...here it is.  A perfect chance to sell this program.  Talk about the millions of people that can't qualify for insurance and the bankruptcies and the fact that the US Government already spends more per capita on health care then other nations with fully nationalized health care and that it's insurance companies that are driving up the costs and all that."  But no.  A ramblingly incoherent spiel about...who even remembers?  Gosh that was terrible.  Anyhow, I think Obama needs to just Sara Palin the shit out of the next debate.  Memorize a series of 2 minute speeches on his key talking points and just ignore all the questions and talk about what he wants.

Somehow I don't think that this was big news.  The Canadian Government accidentally ran some ads on the Pirate Bay.  Which is sort of awesome.

Seems like the Conservatives have learned something from the Copyright Lobby.  If your immediate proposal isn't approved, tweak it a bit and keep trying.  Heck, even if you get exactly what you want, tweak it a bit and keep trying, but we haven't gotten there yet.  Anyhow, there's a new backbench motion to outlaw "sex selection abortion".  Don't worry.  They have reams of data to back up the need for this.  What?  They don't have any data?  They've only mentioned one study?

I know I promised to try to elevate the tone of political discourse by refraining from name-calling and such.  But "Sleepy Time" Rob Anders is throwing me off my game here by suggesting that Thomas Mulcair contributed to Jack Layton's death.  Who votes for these people?

Keeping going, it's like a rogue's gallery of Conservative incompetence.  Vic Toews makes comments about Omar Khadr that a government minister probably shouldn't.  Maybe he thinks he's a talk show host and not a government minister?  The comment of the story:  pointing out that a decade in prison had "radicalized" him.  Soooooo....because we kept this kid in prison for so long without charge or trial, we can't possibly let him out because he hates us too much for what we did to him.

Entitlement - Week 74 - Sept 24-Oct 1

There was an awesome comment on the National Post today about "Boomer Entitlement".  Somebody replied "I'm a boomer and the only thing I feel entitled to is what I've spent my life paying for."  Or something like that.  It made me wonder...

First up, please follow this link to a CBC article with an interactive chart on the Deficit.  Seems to me that we've run a deficit (more-or-less) from the early 60's to the late 90's.  So...that seems to me do be 30 years of not paying for what you've earned.  Thinks perk up for a few years.  Check out this graph.  You can see how the Liberals almost immediately cut the deficit, resulting in a surplus in their 5th year.  Steve-O inherits a nice surplus which he holds for...oh...10 minutes or so.  Really.  Startling, striking figures.  Trudeau does seem to be the worst offender though.

And on that note, we're soon going to have to really start defining which Trudeau we are talking about, as Justin confirms that maybe, well, he might just be running for Liberal leader.  Wait.  He didn't actually confirm it yet?  The National Post already called him out as the next Prime Minister.

In the political move of the year, Thomas Mulcair announces support for a pipeline from Alberta to the East.  His reasoning is that this can be built in a way that it won't be environmentally destructive (perhaps I projected that in there myself) and it will help to refine a raw product and generate value within Canada.  In one reasoned argument he's shown:
1) He's not opposed to all oil sands.
2) His opposition to Northern Gateway really is about the environment.
3) He's serious about creating value from our oil in Canada.
Really.  Well done.  I kind of hope I'd be saying the same thing if Steve-O had made this proclmation.

I love this farcical hard line on Iran.  First, the whole embassy/ambassador thing.  Because we only have embassies and ambassadors with countries that we like.  Now, the Canadian delegation storms out of Ahmadinejads speech at the UN (again...I'm pretty sure this has happened before).  Honestly, did they just go there so that they could storm out?  Did they sit there with an open mind for a few minutes and then decide that this whole thing wasn't really up their alley?

Omar made it back home.

Oh abortion.  How exciting you made this week.  First up, I think we should thank the good lord for this weeks vote on "exploring the definition of a human being".  What better way to flush out all the social Conservatives!  As well, read the comment boards on some of these stories.  All of a sudden it's all CONSERVATIVES FOR SCIENCE!  "We don't want to change anything, we just want to explore the science of it all!"  Unless you're using science for crazy things like exploring climate change or evolution, they're all for it.  Man.  I'm using too many exclamation marks lately.


And then there is Rona Ambrose.  Rona Ambrose, the "Status of Women" Minister.  The woman who is supposed to be out there, crusading for womens rights.  Voted for this crazy motion.  People pointed out that she's entitled to her opinion and how dare these crazy feminazis try to stifle her right to have these opinions!  Do they know she's not the "Status of this particular woman" Minister and the minister (supposedly) for all women?


This is why I am a proud pirate and will never give these scumbags any of my money if I can in any way help it.  We just passed Copyright reform.  True, isn't wasn't the all encompassing police state that the various entertainment industries wanted, but it gave them a lot of stuff.  But no.  Not good enough.  They couldn't get their law through so they'll try another way to ram this shit through.  Internet disconnection may be a part of an international trade agreement.  Ohhhh...THIS is why all those people hate globalization.


The Globe and Mail continues their continually weird "Expat Dispatches" series.  They've put a lot of effort into tracking down Canadians that have bad things to say about Obama.  Honestly, you'd think that every single Canadian living in the US is some crazed right winger from reading this series.


Stephen Harper plans on a big "Buy Canadian" push for military procurement.  Too bad we have no military equipment manufacturing industry to speak of.  And then there's that whole pesky NAFTA thing.

Hey, did you know that there's a crazily disproportionate number of aboriginal women in Canadian prisons?  And it's feared that the tough-on-crime agenda will only make this worse?  Ya, I don't think the government did either.

How does this ground beef recall have you feeling about food safety in Canada?

Another big story this week was Margaret Wente and her plagiarism.  God.  I don't care if she shoplifted a chocolate bar.  If this gets rid of her, I'm all for it.  This Tyee article points out that it's probably not bigger news because journalists feel it is bad form to kick a competitor when they're down at risk of seeming petty...This isn't a problem at the National Post.

Here's another great Rolling Stone article talking about the US FBI entrapment machine: creating terrorist plots just so that they can knock them down.  This one on the 5 Occupy kids caught trying to blow up a bridge.

This article is very interesting.  I actually had to punch this in to a calculator to make sure I didn't have it wrong (the number is just so staggering)...but apparently 5.5% of all teenage girls in Mississipi get pregnant!  Which is crazy.  It seems even crazier, but the bastion of progressive knowledge example held up as the "right way to do things" (New York) is at 2.26%.  Yes.  Half the number.  But still very high.

Election Violation Beatdown - Week 58 - June 4-11

Too easy.  The Conservatives decide not to celebrate the birthday of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Hey!  Assholes!  Your pipeline is leaking into your river.  Spin this, Enbridge.

Vic Toews.  Man.  Vic Toews.  So, he gets absolutely beat down when he suggests a Canadian Internet surveillance bill.  So, what does he do?  He creates another piece of legislation and decides to allow the American Government to have unfettered access to Canadians information without a warrant.  What a guy.

So...after months of the robo-call scandal and after an election result is cast aside due to improprieties, how do the Conservatives respond?  With sketchy robo-calls that stretch the truth.

The "steady hand" of Stephen Harper is looking a bit shaky.  Jobs numbers have come way down.  And buried in the article is a note about a huge jump in the number of self-employed people.  Which kind of suggests something to me.

Remember those ads that used to come on every once in a while, about how proud we were about our UN peacekeeping participation?  Well, we now have 42 active peacekeepers (the UN says 33, but you can't trust those guys).

Stephen Harper has taken all of this "too big to fail" stuff to heart.  He'll probably still help out some banks and mega-corporations if they get in trouble, but he doesn't feel Europe is something that deserves attention or any of our money.

Wow.  This is really great.  Stephen Harper is announcing larger fines for tainted food producers.  Of course...there won't be any inspectors to catch anybody so we'll have to wait until people actually die.

Bob Mills, an ex-Conservative MP, is speaking out on some of the Conservative's environmental ideas.  But he can't be trusted because he's a part of the liberal global warming conspiracy.

I think we've found another reason why Stephen Harper hates the Census.  It proves that Conservative voters are old people.

Elections Canada is laying the boots to not just the Conservatives, as the NDP is forced to pay back some money to unions that paid for some events.  And I'm sure this will be used as justification for Dean Del Mastro overspending on his campaign.

This is why all of this Copyright stuff is BS.  This is why you can't trust the Hollywood and Recording Industry groups that are pleading poverty.  This is why it's ridiculous that the US calls Canada a "haven for piracy" at the behest of industry organizations.  Canadians buy tonnes and tonnes of online songs.  Third in the world.  And that's not per capita, that's real numbers.

Turns out the Canadian 1% isn't even all that rich.

Remember the guy that was "high on bath salts" that chewed the other guys face off?  This story suggests that might not actually have been true.  I have no idea if this is real though.  Good thing the Conservatives are on the case though and are going to get bath salts banned.

Remember the shitstorm that happened when that BC Conservative MP suggested that the budget was flawed?  Yet somehow a backbencher was able to introduce anti-abortion legislation to Parliament and Stephen Harper is "putting heavy pressure on members of the Conservative Caucus to vote it down"?  How did it get to this point if he's so against it?  He usually hauls guys that he doesn't agree with out behind a dumpster and kneecaps them.

This just sounds like a chance to pile on Peter McKay.  I'm not sure it's that big a deal.  But, they did spend $47,000 on AV equipment for their Fighter Jet press conference.  That's to rent AV equipment.  I'm pretty sure if you gave me $47,000 I could buy all of the equipment necessary to run a press conference.  So maybe it is fair to pile on Peter McKay for this.

A bunch of websites went dark in a protest against environmental regulation changes.  And a bunch of idiots went crazy making stupid comments about it on the Internet.

Here's a petition to stop the destruction of the National Archives.  I guess it's hard to re-write history with all of those troublesome documents and records hanging around.

The NDP is going to bring the filibuster to Canada, and is planning on holding up the budget bill.

Stay away from news article comment sections.  People out there are crazy.  Just look at this article about an EU "adviser" commenting on Canada's energy plan.  Crazy.

And then look at this story about the Fish Lake mine.  Apparently anybody who thinks we should look in to things a bit before we create a mine on top of a lake is a jobless hippie.