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.
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