Depressing - Week 173 - Aug 18-25

We need to start the week by talking about Lac Megantic.  I'd forgotten how many people had actually died in this accident.  Nearly 50, if you forgot.  Anyhow, I think this accident points at a whole lot of bad things in society.  Overworked people blamed for the shortcomings of the system (the railroad had to get special permission to run with only one engineer...and he's pretty much been the scapegoat for the company...not to diminish his part in all of this).  A government increasingly hands off of safety regulations and requirements.  A company pursuing profits above everything else.  And a government blinded by the need to harvest and ship oil around the country.  Terrible.

So lets lighten the mood!

Following the money trail, it looks like the murderous Mugabe regime was directly supported by American hedge funds looking for sweetheart mining deals.  Wait, that's even more terrible than the first few links.  Please do click through and read the Businessweek article.

The Harper government prevented publicly funded scientists from talking about their research into oil sands pollution.  A non government scientist did present the findings, and the response from the government was to call him "biased" and figure out ways to discredit him.  Well...that sucks, but we're getting better!

Shit.  They've also blocked government scientists from talking about low arctic ice levels.  How is that going to help anything?

Christy Clark decided to cut funding to several RCMP programs, including a gang task force and missing persons investigations.  Oh...man...that's not helping

The government has concluded that they did nothing wrong by targeting specific charities with CRA audits.  Wait...they get do decide whether or not they should investigate themselves?  I'm not feeling any better.

I'm sorry, but tickets for pot possession is just about the stupidest thing I've ever heard.  What are you saying?  This is legal to do, but we're going to fine you if we catch you doing it?  And oh, we're really keen on making sure all of this is supplied via the black market.  What a stupid fucking idea.  Peter McKay is an idiot.  He doesn't cheer me up at all.

MacLean's does some digging into plans for anti-Marijuana advertisements.  They find that there have been absolutely no plans to air ads until very recently.  Which makes it hard for the Conservatives to argue that this is anything but a recently concocted political strategy to use public money to fight Justin Trudeau.  And Rona is hard at work defending it.  This is sort of funny.  Not in a "ha ha" way though.  So I'm still depressed.

Canada Border Services has suspended three officers.  Three officers who responded to a direct request from the RCMP to help with an arrest.  Which they did.  But shouldn't have?  Oh man...make me feel better, world!

Maybe some of these next few will?

The Walrus highlights Canada's somewhat shameful record of voting equality.  Nope.

A look at the lack of criminal justice resources for both prosecuting and researching the effects of all the new Conservative tough-on-crime laws.  Nope.

Toronto Police teamed up with the CBSA to deport illegal immigrants through some sham "safety inspections".  Oh...I might have already used that one last week.  So that's good news, right?

Not Happy with the Media - Week 124 - Sept 9-16

The Tyee has determined that the Robocalls saga stinks.  Which is a pretty undramatic revelation.  This Michael Sona thing is getting complicated.  Lucky for us, the Conservatives have dug up witnesses that are able to blame the entire thing on Michael Sona!  Good thing they don't have a vested interest in making him a scapegoat or anything.  Heck, he may have made the whole thing up!  He is prone to exaggeration.

Stephen Harper hired a new spokesperson.  Man.  Who would want that job?

I think Joe Oliver is taking over for Largest Conservative Dipshit now that Vic Toews is gone.  "Hey guys.  All these things we announced we will do just happen to be similar to what the US asked of us.  They're not concessions though.  We just didn't plan on doing them before we were asked to.  By them.  In exchange for things."

What a loony country we live in.  Quebec continues to discuss their "Charter of Values" that limits peoples freedoms...and the Conservatives are going to be the voice of reason behind stopping it.  And then the BQ expels an MP for criticizing it.

This Sun News guy thinks Trudeau is incapable of governing because his stats on Pot arrests don't add up.  Well none of Stephen Harper's stats on crime add up.  What does that suggest?

Pretty staggering information on income distribution in Canada.  Staggering in how little (relatively speaking) it takes to bust into the top 1%.  Staggering at what "average" is.

I know that this is a train disaster, but this is precisely why we need to be careful with who we let build pipelines and where we put them.  As we learn more about Lac Megantic, we learn that this company really cut corners, broke rules and didn't have the public's interest at heart.  Then, before they could be held accountable, they threatened bankruptcy.  I realize that there is a lot of red tape in this country for starting a business, but at some point businesses have got to be held accountable.  This country seems to be all about just letting companies do whatever they want, claiming a pittance in taxes and then yelling at anybody that complains that they're going to cost jobs.  We need a system that:
a) Makes it easier to start a small business.
b) Requires more out of large business (insurance, procedures, trusts, etc.)
Oh.  What am I talking about?  The Lac Megantic train was carrying crude that was far more explosive than labelled.  It should have been classified in a more stringent category.

So many stories about rape chants, so little information.  I commented last week, alluding to stupid things said by University students.  But after seeing some of what was chanted, this whole thing seems even more puzzling.  I never really liked the whole organized frosh/school spirit bullshit that happened when I was in University.  It all seemed a bit too forced.  This whole thing seems so, so odd.  How can similar chants pop up on opposite sides of the country?  What kind of idiot would be putting together a large group event and think that this was a good idea?  We said stupid things, but not quite this stupid.  Not as a group.  Not as a chant.  I do remember somebody leading a busload of students on a pub crawl with a song about beastiality...but that seems a lot more harmless than this.  I don't think anybody went out and raped a goat though, afterwards.

Oh boy.  This article is just kind of sickening, talking about the insane practice of re-adopting kids by people that can't deal with them.  And I totally, totally realize that I'm doing something I hate hear, assigning some sort of master blame to an issue.  But honestly, if there was ever an argument for what government does, why we need governmental organizations and what taxes should be used for, this is it.  No.  I know.  The free market will figure it out.

Why you shouldn't believe everything that you read.  I personally know Mike Zupan and the insinuations of this article are ridiculous.  Can't believe that I'm even linking to this story.

Here is different than there.  Harrison Ford is nearly deported from Indonesia for speaking too directly to a government minister about illegal logging that he witnessed.

I stumbled upon this article when the author was complaining in another story about death threats he had received after writing it.  I read the original piece and all I can think is "This is why people hate 'Liberals'."  I understand what he is saying - Blindly aping the "Support Our Troops" mindset does us no favours.  But come on.  His stance is just such over-the-top, academic, hoity-toity, look-at-me-I'm-a-professer garbage.  You can just see this guy going to every single party, letting a conversation carry on for 10 minutes, and then interrupting with an ill-timed "Well...actually" that just kills the participants will-to-live.  Okay fuckface.  We get it.  War isn't good.  Soldiers are the instruments of war.  Etc.  But you do realize that the average soldier really has no control over these decisions, right?  You realize many of these guys end up in the Army through less than ideal circumstances?  You realize that some of us recognize that these guys are doing a hard job and facing death due to the machinations of corrupt politicians and that perhaps it's not a bad thing to express a degree of support, no matter how hollow, towards that idea?  So fuck off with your pedantic lectures.  Even though that's your job, I guess.