All ISIS, all the time - Week 196 - Jan 26-Feb 2

The Cons seem pretty adamant that they won't tell Canadians how much the non-combat mission to kill Iraqi evildoers is costing.  Because ISIS can get key Canadian strategy from a single number provided by the government to the people of Canada.  That would be more helpful to them then telling them exactly how many soldiers we sent and crowing about the things they've accomplished.

Teens!  Armed Robbery!  Terrorism!  This is why we should be afraid of all these "you can't be a terrorist" laws.  Seriously?  A 15 year old kid is going to rob a store and fly oversees to fight for ISIS?  And he should be punished extra because of it?  Sorry.  This is armed robbery, not terrorism.  Thankfully, we don't seem to really have a choice.  The Libs have decided to join the Cons (maybe) and are supporting the legislation (I think).  And it sounds like some of what is contained in the new "ANTI-TERROR!!!" bill sound like Steve wants our spy agencies to be like a meddling parent.  Cancel plane reservations?  Block financial transactions?  Okay.  I'm fine with that.  But criminalizing language is all kinds of fucked up and extra-criminalizing people for an arbitrary "TERRORISM" target is unnerving.  They know it when they see it, I guess.

The PBO suggests we're heading for a "small" deficit.  Who to believe...him or Joe Oliver?  Income splitting has raised it's head again.  One report says families with incomes higher than $233,000 per year are going to receive the largest benefit.  Thank god the little guy is finally getting a break!  And it's easy to say the "middle class" receives the largest benefit when you arbitrarily pick a large income that qualifies you as middle class.  Joe Oliver thinks $120,000 is that number.

Hooray!  We're letting rich people cut to the front of the immigration line again.

This war on crime is fucking amazing!  Crime is the lowest it has been since 1969!  All thanks to the Cons and their awesome policies!  Woo hoo!  So...mandatory life in prison.  Many people have pointed out that there are already mechanisms in place to achieve this end - but that's never stopped the Cons from introducing laws to make already illegal things super illegal.  This time they're proposing life in prison with no chance of parole.

The government spent $650,000 in court (so far) trying to not pay seven Veterans injury benefits.

Anti-Marijuana ads cost $7 Million.  Which is quite a lot considering they only really came about when the Liberals started supporting marijuana legalization.

The damage to our information gathering capacity due to the loss of the mandatory long form census has become more apparent.  As well, the government continues to put out bad job data.  The actual 2014 numbers have been revised down 35%.

Tax revenues are actually up under the "tax-slashing" Conservatives.  That's a pretty neat trick they've pulled off.

Fucking idiots.  "Expert says spy agencies 'drowning in data' and unable to follow leads".  By "fucking idiots" I mean the "fucking experts", not the professionals within our National spy apparatus. (Hi there!).  I mean, who doesn't think monitoring every download on the planet isn't a sound strategy?

Some detail on how Health Canada doesn't seem to hold anybody accountable for not following their drug advertising requirements.

Transport Canada is thinking about letting small boats dump their untreated shit closer to shore.  This is a stupidly terrible idea.

Missed this from a few weeks ago.  James Moore is threatening exploding trains all over the place if we don't choose the correct false choice that he presents to us
"Yep.  You can either  have this clean, safe, responsible pipeline...or trains that explode all over the place.  The choice is up to you."
"Oh boy.  I don't want trains exploding all over the place.  What was that other choice again?"

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is wondering why they're putting this bleak bullshit on her doorstep.  Another reason to question the silly "Victim's of Communism Memorial".

The Fraser Institute looks at public sector wages and benefits and decides that we should all strive for the lowest common denominator.  Thank goodness they're still considered a charity.

Somebody took the time to lay out Thomas Mulcair's various election promises to date.

Elizabeth May points out that the Libs and NDP are probably too delusional to team up and take on the Cons.

With assholes like this running the US, we don't stand a chance.  "The hoax is that there are some people who are so arrogant to think that they are so powerful, they can change climate. Man can't change climate."  Don't worry though, the Koch brothers are going to make sure they have their way with the next election.

On to something - Week 194 - Jan 12-19

I'm diggin' these Palestinians!  Throwing shoes and eggs at John Baird sounds like a lot of fun!  At least he accomplished something there, unlike in Eqypt.

I hope that Thomas Mulcair is sitting somewhere...in a cave maybe...polishing up his "I told you so!" speech.  While Stephen Harper works to convince us that he's the only man that can get us out of this mess that he created.  The Germans also point out that we're kind of fucked.  I don't even know what the fuck Joe Oliver is talking about any longer.  He's "on track to achieve a balanced budget".  Yet the budget is delayed because they don't have enough information.

I love this.  The MP with the worst voting record admits that there isn't really much point in her being in the House of Commons.

This would have been an awesome hoax if the news organizations hadn't beat us to it.  Jihadists are making oil money up north before shipping off to the middle east.  Well.  Before they get laid off, that is.

The driving terrorist, who ran over a Canadian soldier in the fall, was known to police.  They even tried to lock him up.  More intrusive surveillance will not help.  More resources might have.  I'm not certain the ability to lock people up for thought crime is the answer.

The new copyright laws have resulted in companies lying to Canadians, threatening to sue them for vast sums of money.

All the scientists are trying to get rich again.  Here they are, making things up about it being the warmest year on earth.  Again.  I distinctly remember a couple of cold days last year...

A story on they myth of defensive gun use statistics degenerates into an argument in the comments about what the term "regulated" means...There's just no satisfying these gun toting yahoos...who all have multiple instances of saving the day with their guns.

I find it really, really weird that we let people with jobs jump the immigration queue.

A Stephen Harper insider...and creator of the "Ethical Oil" campaign...is spearheading the "no to public transit" referendum in BC.

War on Expensive Cheese - Week 129 - Oct 14-21

So a train derailed and then exploded.  Again.  I guess we couldn't even get that barn door closed after the first horse left.  We're still talking about it in the throne speech.

The Globe rounds up the throne speech.  More "tough on crime" and a highway to the arctic.

Great news everybody!  The Conservatives are on our side!  Un-bundled cable TV!  Cheaper cell phone plans!  They're saving the world and all about the "middle class"!  In additional "Stephen Harper Saves the World by Making Things Marginally Cheaper" news, now they're going to tackle the US/Canadian price gap.  Slashing tariffs?  No, no.  Nothing like that.  After all, it's all the fault of suppliers.  Good luck on that one, buddy.

I feel like somebody is trying really hard to make us think the EU trade deal is nothing more than an easier way for us to buy cheese and send more pigs and cows to Europe.  Perhaps there is more to it than that?  This guy suggests that they're coming to steal our water, and points out the always lovely "Corporations can sue the Canadian government if they pass harmful (economically harmful, that is) environmental legislation".  Call me crazy, but if I'm running a country, I don't sign anything that allows people to sue us if we decide to better protect our environment.

This sounds like a reality show.  Come up with a great business idea, win permanent residency in Canada!

I had no idea the Federal Information Commissioner was such a radical.  She must be, because she's suggesting that our government is doing bad things with access to information.

Edward Snowden points out that people that suggest that China or Russia have stolen his files seem to be full of shit.

I have no idea who Darrell Dexter is.  But I wish I lived in Nova Scotia, just so I could have not voted for him.  Always classy when you blame voters for "not understanding" when you lose.

Liberal MP's have started posting their expenses.  People have started questioning every single thing.  Why do people become so irrational when talking about politicians expenses?  They have a job that requires lots of travel.  That will cost money.

The Senate is hoping to suspend Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy.

Some protests in New Brunswick have erupted over fracking of shale gas.

Unfortunately, when you're a blowhard, people will work to tear you down.  As Rob Ford mobilizes to fire a sleeping City worker, a photo is dug up of him sleeping while on the job as a City worker.  I'm sure his situation is totally different.

This is just the coolest thing I've heard in a while.  For anybody who doesn't know Greg Gillis/Girl Talk, he's awesome.  He's a musical genius that justifies the mash-up craze of a few years ago.  And...a study was just released that tracked sales of songs that he sampled both before and after he released an album in 2010...and...sales went up after his album came out!  So much for the has been musicians suing the shit out of samplers.

This is great.  A journalist followed up with several people that Sean Hannity interviewed about "Obamacare being a disaster" and pointed out the holes in their theory.  Of course, absolutely not one single person that watched the Sean Hannity piece will read this debunking.

Buried in Laura Dzendri story...Police used an undercover operation to illicit a confession from a murderer.  Would be interested in hearing the details of that.

There's some definite legalese here...but the MPAA seems to be arguing that a judge shouldn't consider actual damages to their bottom line in awarding them a judgement, just the imaginary ones that they made up.

Not Good with Numbers - Week 49 - April 2-9

Peter McKay gets the photo this week, for ratcheting up the stupidity level.  See a few posts below.

If there is one thing that we've learned in the last few years, it's that corporations know how to do things.  Nothing can be accomplished better than a group of office slaves working towards maximizing profits at the expense of everything else.  Why not give them the responsibility of determining who can and cannot enter the country?  I'm sure there's absolutely no chance that this could fail or be abused.

I initially missed the irony of this story.  But Vic Toews, the killer of privacy, is requesting that we respect his as he gets his carcass hauled off to the hospital.  And he's probably going to bring his bill back from the dead.


The Fighter Jets are becoming a bit of a shitstorm, as the Auditor General has formally pointed out that the whole process is "stupid and crazy".  Okay, perhaps that's not an actual quote.  More of a paraphrase.  Why does it take the auditor general to change their course of action after years and years of everybody telling them that this is wrong?  And according to Peter McKay, it's all just "accounting".  They knew that it would cost this much, they just chose not to tell us.  But it's all above board.  Just a 40% accounting interpretation.

Great.  There's more polar bears than people expected so obviously Global Warming is a farce and we shouldn't worry about it.

Perhaps I need to create a new label - Why Democracy Does Not Work.  I'm not sure who to blame for this, but apparently the NDP has decided to just talk for several days during budget discussions.  The Liberals are angry because they don't get to share the spotlight.  And the Conservatives are probably happy because they get to point out that the other parties look stupid.  This is an actual paragraph in the story.   

By his own estimation. Mr. Julian talked non-stop for the better part of 14 hours over the course of four days. His voice had started to wear thin and he was forced to drink repeated sips of water just to keep going.

Initially, I chalked this story up to the NDP being kind of stupid and wasting time.  But then I started thinking...what else are they supposed to do?  They have absolutely no other mechanism to make any sort of impact on this legislation, or on anything, really.  Which is kind of scary.

The Norther Gateway Pipeline Environmental Review process has started.  And the panel shut things down for a day because there were some children outside and they got scared.  And they're not going to move the schedule.  They're just going to ignore that period of time and pretend it never happened.  It got me thinking...who are the review board?  First, there's Ms. Sheila Leggett, who seems to be a professional energy review board member.  Then, Mr. Kenneth Batemen, who also seems to be a professional energy review board member as well as a lawyer for energy companies.  Then, Mr. Hans Matthews, a geologist and aboriginal rights type dude.  Okay...maybe this isn't actually a completely terrible group of people.

Remember a few years ago when the Conservatives sold off some of our really expensive diplomatic properties as they were deemed "lavish and extravegent"?  Well, now we're going to stick our diplomats way out in the suburbs as their rental places are costing too much

And speaking of cuts, goodbye CBC!  Who needs a non-corporate run source of news and entertainment anyhow?

This is a great headline for a story.  Misleading, but great.  Baird pulls plug on Rights and Democracy.  I finally understand why newspapers capitalize headlines the way that they do.

Justin Trudeau beat up some long-haired guy.

Fighter jets.  Becoming a problem.  Auditor general.  Rejigging.  Doesn't really say anything.

Smears - Week 44 - Feb 27 - Mar 5

This weeks picture is "Sleepy" Rob Anders.  Who wouldn't trust that face?

So, we'll start not with the biggest story of the week, but on my favourite story of the week.  Conservative MP Rob Anders has been accused of falling asleep on the job.  Not in the figurative "neglecting to do his duty" sense.  In the literal, showing up to meetings and Parliament and then falling asleep sense.  And, in the new Conservative Party of Canada tradition, not only is there no apology or admittance of guilt...no...anybody pointing this out is a "hack" perpetrating a "smear job".  There's since been a bit of an apology, but it seems a bit too little, too late.

Of course, the big news this week continues to be the robo-call scandal.  It all comes so wonderfully together with Stephen Harper blaming others for this "smear campaign".  Which is a pretty amazing response, when you take some time to think about it.  And now...wow...really upping the ante.  Suggesting that it's actually the Liberals fault with regards to another batch of robo-calls.  And now...lawsuits.  Protests.  It's really getting crazy.

As well, Steve-O seems to be making a big deal about the fact that the Liberals used American telemarketers (and therefore, by extension, this is all their fault)...but...well....Ahem...glass houses and such.

Hey!  Look!  Over Here!  More smears.  Steve-O does his best Houdini and tries to draw some attention back onto Vikileaks.  Is it still a "smear" if the information that you presented is true?


This week also seemed to be the week of surveys and polls.  I've seen three poll results this week that make me very happy that we don't live with US proposition-style politics.  If we're to believe all of this, Canadians are in favour of:

- Severe cuts to public services

- An online police state

- Throwing "bullies" in jail

Can you imagine if these surveys had been binding?  Because nothing would make Canada better than  cuts to social programs, increased police powers and throwing people in jail for vague and arbitrary crimes.

The Conservatives tightened the belt today and announced $12 Million in ad spending to promote their "jobs first" times-are-tough budget.  Tomorrow they're expected to announce their controversial "Beatings to Prevent Violence" campaign.

And if you don't think Copyright is a fiasco, the Canadian Music Industry is already demanding more rights, control, policing, etc.  This is on top of the demands that they've already made that are before Parliament as we speak.  On top of SOPA style proposals they made a month or so back.  Talk about forward thinking.  "We know we said the first batch of legislation was what we needed, and we know that we came back and said that we needed more after that, but just in case you decide to approve all of that stuff...we've got a few more things on top of that."  These guys won't stop until the very concept of sound and/or noise falls completely under their control.


The Canucks took on a burlier presence today and the Liberals followed suit.  Announcing their intentions to not get pushed around any longer, the Liberals admit to being the source of Vikileaks.

The Conservatives break the silence on the hiring of the candidate that lost to Irwin Cotler.  Surprisingly, they did nothing wrong and everybody else is making things up.

Steve-O announces that everybody else is going to see cuts, so MP Pensions are going to be cut as well.

And Jason Kenney suggests that Corporations should be more involved in determining which immigrants are allowed into the country.  Yes, I can't see a problem anywhere in that plan.

Stephen Harper.  Benjamin Netanyahu.  Iran.  Blah blah.

Dealing with Absolutes - Week 42 - Feb 13-20

It's a busy week.  Angry John Baird gets our photo of the week.  I've been waiting a while to see this guy again.

One thing I've learned in life is a healthy respect for absolutes.  Right or wrong.  Black or white.  Ham or cheese.  There are no middle grounds in anything and anybody that thinks so is delusional.  It's a digital world, people need to accept that.  That's why I think this new statement about either being for child pornography is great.  I mean, what bad things could come from the government having complete visibility of everything that we do on our computers?  I mean...this certainly couldn't have anything to do with all of these new copyright laws.  That's child pornographer talk.

Righteous indignation is awesome when somebody else has done something and you have no proof.  Kind of overshadows your own dirty tricks...push polling ridings to make them think their recently voted in MP is going to quit comes to mind.  I kind of hope the NDP is behind Vikileaks.  I would respect their nefariousnous.

And, apparently, the police and government have been working pretty hard to fabricate justification for this law, as none appears to be readily apparent. And...and...apparently they want to not just give access to police, but to government appointed inspectors as well.

Oh, it gets better.  Apparently Vic Toews was surprised when the CBC asked him about the provision that "any" police officer could ask for data from an ISP.   "This is the first time that I'm hearing this somehow extends ordinary police emergency powers."  So, who exactly drafted this bill?

Now, as I trolled through comments on a variety of stories on the above, I came across the oddest rumour...It's just so strange...but appears to be all over the place.

Some specifics around the environmental/animal rights groups targeted as "extremists" by the Harper Government.  The list includes Greenpeace and PETA.

More bad news on fighter jets.  It seems pretty silly to stick with this program.  It's like when you pre-order your Benz 4 years ahead of time and they keep jacking up the price and deleting options.  I hate it when that happens.

A study just came out claiming the oil sands aren't as bad as coal.  I've got a problem with this study.  They took the total reserves of different types of fuel and projected what the effect would be if they were burned in their entirety.  In essence, if we burn all of our coal, we're in big trouble.  If we burn all of our tar sands sourced oil, it's not a big deal.  But there's got to be a lot more coal throughout the world than tar sands, no?  This study doesn't help us understand the difference between heating out house (for example) with one over the other.  It just seems a bit confusing to me and I see this as Stephen Harper's get out of jail free card on the oil sands.

You know what I'm really sick of?  All these well educated foreign doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. that come to Canada and take all of our cab driving jobs.  And security guard jobs.  Somebody needs to put a stop to that sort of thing.  Some of them even claim that somebody is trying to kill them back home, which most likely is nonsense.

A study just came out claiming the oil sands aren't as bad as coal.  I've got a scientific problem with this study.  They took the total reserves of different types of fuel and projected what the effect would be if they were burned in their entirety.  In essence, if we burn all of our coal, we're in big trouble.  If we burn all of our tar sands sourced oil, it's not a big deal.  But there's got to be a lot more coal throughout the world than tar sands, no?  This study doesn't help us understand the difference between heating out house (for example) with one over the other.  It just seems a bit confusing to me and I see this as Stephen Harper's get out of jail free card on the oil sands.

Oh.  Ya.  Another study about downloading.  Bittorrent?  Not so bad.

Way to stir up trouble with a headline, Globe and Mail.  A Catholic couple sued the Province for teaching a mandatory course that taught students about the multitude of religions out there...as this somehow infringed on their religious right to believe that their beliefs are the only ones out there.  Somehow "Mandatory religion course doesn't infringe on freedoms" sounds a bit more scandalous.

Gun Registry legislation is done.

A member of the Harper Government wants to change the way Parliament is filmed on Friday's because there are lots of people missing and it looks bad.  There's no comment necessary for this one.

Apparently, you can bring your baby to work if you're an MP.

Online Arguments - Week 40 - Jan 30-Feb 6

John Baird gets the photo this week.  Way to go, man!

I'm sure everybody heard about this, but Jason Kenney's office decided to send some staff members to pose as recent immigrants when they couldn't find enough real immigrants to go along with their Sun News photo op/story.  The surprising thing?  They actually apologized.  I dig their disguises as well, with three of them wearing the same T-shirt.

Sticking with the Ministers doing weird and stupid things theme, last week I think it was, somebody at the Globe and Mail wrote an article that our good buddy John Baird didn't like.  I would imagine this probably happens quite frequently.  And I can only think that it's good government policy to not respond to every story that angers you.  But our good buddy John Baird decided to write a column in response.  Which seems kind of crazy.  If the guy is as out to lunch as John Baird claims, then why respond?  It seems crazy.  Like if Obama suddenly decided to cave in and provide everybody with even more proof of his birth certificate.  You're just feeding the lunacy.  What?  He did?  Oh, and then John Baird invokes Godwin's Law and brings Hitler in to the argument.

Nunavut has decided that Tough On Crime is kind of a dumb thing that will cost a lot of money.  When a place that experiences 24-hour darkness and that uses frozen rivers as major highways thinks that something is a bad idea, you should probably listen.

Stupid experts.  What do these "economists" know about the economy anyhow?  Now is the perfect time to cut funding to everything and anything.  There's no election to win.

After that, Boingboing points to an article that shows that the entertainment industry has experienced some pretty okay years recently.  Even growing while the rest of the economy was in recession.  Could constantly asking for more and more and more finally prove to be a poor strategy as even the mouth breather catch on to the fact that some of this stuff is crazy?  Wait, now, these same companies are pushing for SOPA style additions to Canada's copyright legislation...because it worked out so well in the US.

More Copyright.  Tom the Dancing Bug uses God Man to take on Copyright.  Pretty good stuff.

The F-35 has a few more problems.  It doesn't sound like anything serious, but it's feeling a bit Unsafe at Any Speed.

Stephen Harper has shown his hand for how he plans on dealing with the Senate.  Appoint idiots until everybody agrees that the Senate is a bad idea.  This guy suggests that we encourage convicted murderers to hang themselves.  Not surprisingly, a shocking number of people agree with him.  Which, of course, justifies the point of view.  Everybody knows that a 600 person mob legitimizes any behaviour.

And finally...How dare you point out the fact that we're threatening to do something that people won't like.  This is all your fault, Liberals and NDP.  Not ours for threatening to change pensions.

Tom Haverford is the 1% - Week 27 - Oct 31 - Nov 7

Tom Haverford said the greatest thing the other day.  I'm not exactly sure how it relates to the current financial climate, but it feels about right.  "They say you gotta spend money to make money.  I don't know what went wrong.  We spent all our money."

First up, Steve-O's privacy justification for destroying everything and anything to do with the gun registry is shot down.  It's amazing when people use things that they absolutely hate as an excuse for doing something, itsn't it?  Just wait until he decides to ban freedom because of "the environment".  And once again those crazy "experts" are contradicting the Conservatives.

The Iraqi Information Minister (John Baird) sez "There's no problem with the 54,000 jobs lost last month.  Everything is fine."

Quebec tells the federal government to pound sand on costs associated with the new crime bill.  Which is right up there with Poutine on the list of awesome things that Quebec has done.

So, Canada has decided that it will punish UNESCO for recognizing Palestine by not providing them with any additional funding.  This is kind of why the UN is a bit of a joke.  There's just too many political statements.  Too many vetoes.  Too much deciding to just go along with the stuff that you agree with.

Wow.  It sounds like John Baird is actually taking responsibility for the G8 slush fund.  I'm not exactly sure what that means though.  Maybe he just wants to collect the air miles or something?

Tough on Crime splits the Provinces.  BC, Alberta and New Brunswick on board.  Ontario and Quebec opposed.  Wonder how they'll vote in the next election?

The Conservatives have decided to ban loans to political parties.  On the surface, this seems like a good thing.  More news on how much the Conservatives are ahead with fundraising as well.

And getting down to the serious business of governing, a Conservative MP decides to single out a Justin Trudeau speaking engagement at a Catholic High School (the big leagues) with taunts and name-calling.  I think "Bad Catholic" would be a great name for a hair metal band.  Wow...there's actually a "big beat/techno/christian" duo based on Vancouver called "To Bad Catholics".  My hair metal project will need a new name.

Lots more copyright stuff.  The Conservatives have admitted that their legislation probably isn't in the best interest of the average Canadian, but re-assure sceptics that most of the rules are unenforcable, so they shouldn't worry too much about it.  Oh, and all that doom-and-gloom about piracy destroying the entertainment industry?  Ya, not so much.

The Conservatives are going their own way with a non-french speaking auditor general, even though bilingualism is a prerequisite of the job.  He promises to learn french over the next year.  Why don't they wait until he does until they give him a job?   In other job appointment news, the next supreme court nominee promises to apply for law school once his post is confirmed.

It's a moratorium!  The Conservatives announce a 2-year moratorium on family reunification immigration applications as they attempt to clear the backlog.  At least they have a contingency plan (10 year visas for those affected).  Other moratoriums announced today:
- A two year moratorium on cancer treatments - The contingency pack includes a container of sunblock and a large hat.
- A two year moratorium on drivers licenses - The contingency pack includes a bus pass and a new pair of shoes.

More Asbestos! More Asbestos! - Week 12 - July 18-25

I start this week with the most shockingly ludicrous thing I have encountered in an incredibly long time. How this is not bigger news puzzles me. Apparently the last Asbestos mine in Quebec (you know, the one that the Conservatives are selling out the rest of Canada for?) might be RUNNING OUT OF ASBESTOS. Yes sir. Apparently good leadership involves making your country a laughingstock over a mine that will probably have to close in a short period of time.

Youth advocates are worried that the "tough on crime" bill is going to have a negative impact on susceptible youth. Isn't it awesome that we have a government that completely dismisses the opinion of Criminologists? Why would the people that study this stuff for a living know what they're talking about. They must have a hidden agenda.

Adding to that, we have new statistics out showing that the crime rate is the lowest it has been since 1973. The Conservative response? "Unlike the Opposition, we do not use statistics as an excuse not to get tough on criminals." Wow. This is like a Trifecta of Conservative response awesomeness. Make the question asker feel stupid. Throw in a jab at the Opposition. Ignore and diminish all that silly sciency type stuff.

In this week's 2nd installment of Strange Stephen Harper Obsessions, we once again have the Arctic. Nothing new here, just more talk about Mr. Harper's blustering and an observation that what it lacks in substance is made up for in politicking.

It's funny that there is still a discussion about whether or not additional immigration will cause a drain in society. Most of the immigrants that I work with scare me, not because I fear I might have to pay for their health care. They work so damn hard and I fear that it makes me and my entitled ways look bad. So, ya, I don't think an extra 30,000 immigrants a year is going to ruin Canada.

This boingboing post explains precisely why we should not pursue a US style copyright system. Shortened version - Man creates song, posts it to the Internet. Major label likes song, wants Eminem to license it and use it as his own. Major label submits DMCA takedown notice to Youtube claiming it owns the rights to the song and that the youtube video is committing copyright infringement. Label initiates negotiations with the artist to take ownership of the song. Criminal. This is why music companies should not be allowed to arbitrarily decide what is and what isn't allowed on the Internet. This is what they are pushing for in Canada.

And to follow up on that, apparently there was a report commissioned to follow up on the purchasing habits of users of a raided and shut down file sharing site. The findings? Well, the average "internet pirate" on the site actually spent far more on legitimate entertainment expenses (movie theaters, media, etc.) than the average person. Which kind of reinforces the argument that piracy can help sell copyrighted items...but the company that commissioned the report didn't like the outcome so it was never released.

Lastly, apparently files are not always handed over from one MP to another in the event of a Parliamentary defeat. This does not seem like the best way for a government to transition, does it?

Stampede of Ridiculousnous - Week 10 - July 4-11

We start this week with an "Oh my god! They're talking about us!" article from Salon. It talks about Canada's experience with the recession as a rebuttal to an incorrect (surprisingly!) statement made by Michelle Bachmann about our fantastic unemployment numbers even though we lacked a stimulus plan. And this really got me thinking. It's hard to argue against this article. It's an unbiased viewpoint of how our country weathered the recession. It's sober and honest and could probably only be written by somebody far removed from all the yelling and anger and, quite frankly, by somebody that doesn't care all that much about what is going on here.

So here's my new theory for fixing democracy. Rather than voting for our own government, we allow our neighbours to vote for our government. Washington State can vote on behalf of British Columbia. Montana or somebody else handles the prairies. New York can do Ontario. Or Michigan maybe? Maine handles the Maritimes. We could tell them what our problems are, show them who we have to pick from and they can calmly and rationally decide who would be best to fix it. It makes nothing but sense.

With that, we move on to broken campaign promises. The Conservatives are starting to indicate that user fees are about to rise in a number of areas. But it's okay. They didn't break the promise. They aren't raising user fees as part of the "Strategic and Operating Review Process". They're raising user fees because 13 completely different government departments have just all of a sudden decided that they need to be raised. See. Promise kept. You're all a bunch of idiots for even asking a question about this.

A new round of government job cuts are announced, but not necessarily campaigned upon.

A BC Native Band accuses the Conservative Government of holding up the treaty that they (the Conservatives) negotiated. Sorry. Awkward sentence.

Early reports on the non-mandatory long form census don't sound very positive. Interestingly, The Huffington Post has the exact same article. Word for word. Globe & Mail cites "The Canadian Press". Huffington Post cites...absolutely nobody.

I really have to break away from the Globe & Mail. Nobody else really has anything of substance to add though, over and above what they provide. But take a look at this article. It makes no sense. None at all. It seems to be complaining about a loan provided to a small donut maker to expand their business. It brings up past ralings against "corporations" receiving government loans and handouts. This is the example that you can come up with as a strory about "corporate welfare bums"? A small donut maker in New Brunswick? I realize that a headline like Stephen Harper's Conservatives to pony up $190,000 for doughnuts is supposed to grab some attention. But isn't that precisely the kind of small business expansion loan that everybody and their grandma has been encouraging for the last 400 years? Maybe do a story on the massive tax breaks for Oil Companies? Banks? Etc? It's not even coherent in it's wrongness.

And this article...well...this is why people think Stephen Harper is a dick. He heads out to Alberta. He says stupid things to his rabid base of Conservatives. But it doesn't really matter because nobody really pays much attention. Except other politicians. And they just get all angry and sad.

Jason Kenney complains about the entrepreneurs immigration system being broken and of having "huge backlogs that we inherited." Well Mr. Kenney...you've had a few years to get that sorted out, haven't you?

If/When the long gun registry gets scrapped, the Conservatives have vowed to not offer any help to Provincial governments looking to create their own plan. They won't even turn over their records. Seeing as, if memory serves me correctly, one of the prime Conservative problems with the whole thing was the cost...why wouldn't they help a Provincial Government save some money in setting up their own registry? Their "re-purposing" and "privacy concerns" argument is a bit weak.