Nothing is Anyones Fault - Week 104 - April 22-29

Isn't it great that people like Vic Toews can now throw you in jail with no charges and then hold a secret trial?  I feel better already.  Seems like he can decide who gets to talk to the media as well.

How on earth did I miss this story/picture?  Bieber shaking hands with Steve-O in overalls.

Steve-O is defending his right to use taxpayer dollars to send out attack ads.  Adrian Dix made some comments in an interview earlier this week when questioned about seeking corporate donations.  Paraphrasing, he said something along the lines of "These are the rules now and we will play by them.  But if we are elected, we will change them."  There's something troubling about the Prime Minster, who has the ability to change these laws, using a similar "these are the rules" argument.

Peter McKay is sick and tired of people asking him about the stuff he's supposed to be overseeing.

The Ontario Government is stepping in to support freshwater lakes research facility open.  The Conservatives are going to have to work extra hard to muzzle that research now.

This is just the funniest thing I've read in a long time.  George Bush: World Savior.

Have no fear!  Jason Kenney is on the case!  He's going to look in to the accused VIA train terrorists botched deportations of many years ago.

Oh fuck these people.  Fuck all of them.  It isn't bad enough that the "news story" about the persecution one of the accused VIA rail terrorists families contains a whole lot of editorialization...but the comments degenerate into a "ship them all home" lynch mob of "true Canadians".

Stephen Harper suggests that now isn't the time to "commit sociology" with respect to terrorism.  So when is the time to actually think about why this stuff happens and what we can do to reduce it?  Oh.  I forgot.  We're talking about terrorism.  All we can do is stick our heads in the sand, condemn it unconditionally, and pass more laws.  We should never try to understand something that we don't agree with.

Peter Penashue still claims nothing is his fault and dangles the "official voice in government" carrot in an attempt to win votes.  He also claims polls are wrong.

The EPA thinks Canada needs to improve things at the oil sands.  Joe Oliver thinks otherwise.  And can't figure out why they won't approve our pipeline.  Strange when a bully finds out his tactics don't work everywhere.

But it's all now going to be the fault of unions that the Keystone XL doesn't get approved.

Sometimes I hope that Matt Taibbi is just sitting at home, making things up.  How is it that he can so consistently track down these insane stories of banks and governments screwing people over so very, very badly?  How is it that he can uncover these stories and absolutely nothing happens?  This one sounds familiar (banks rigging interest rates).  These stories make me want to just stay in bed.

So.  Yes.  When a UN Human Rights council starts criticizing Canada's human rights record and some of the voices include North Korea and Iran, it might be a bit hard to take.  But lost in all of this...There's 81 other countries criticizing us as well.

The Canada Revenue Agency seems to have a hard time collecting taxes.  The amount of taxes owed to the CRA has jumped significantly in the last 7 years.

A symbolic victory for the Liberals?  The Conservatives defeat a motion to provide "free speech" for MP's in the House of Commons.  Nothing says irony like your members of Parliament voting against their own free speech.

The Conservatives are pursuing tougher sentencing on some specific violent crimes.  The sole purpose of this legislation seems to be about avoiding parole hearings.  None of the people convicted of these crimes end up getting out of jail (your Pickton's and whatnot).

Canada Post is trying to claim trademark to the term "postal code".

Take Some Responsibility - Week 98 - March 11-19

Sorry for the delay, folks.  I was away for a long weekend and lost touch a bit.

Starting off…This article from the Financial Post about the amount of tax money created by the 1% was forwarded to me by a friend.  It also prompted a lengthy discussion about income tax, entitlements, racism and on and on and on.  I have two points that I took away from this:

1) I tracked down where the Financial Post got their numbers.  I don't think any analysis of this was done.  I think it is ridiculous to publish a story like this without citation or links to the data.  It's easy to pull scandalous numbers from something like this without really understanding what it means.  I hope to follow up with a more thorough analysis of this later this week, because I think it is very important.
2) I think that what politics is really lacking right now is well-reasoned explanations on the impacts and reasoning behind government expenses and government programs.  My friend suggested that things would be "more fair" with a flat tax.  But what would be the impact of that?  What would that mean to society?  Nobody bothers to dig in or explain the impacts of policy proposals.  We're left to make up our minds using emotion rather than logic.

On a similar note, this NP article questions the payback of corporate income tax cuts.  Based on my preliminary analysis (mentioned above) I think they are on to something here.

Stephen Harper is expressing support for Peter Penashue.  “Best MP ever”.  Once again, it's all somebody else's fault.  "It was an inexperienced agent that did it!  Not me!"  Well why did you have an inexperienced agent running this portion of your campaign?

One would tend to look at the chart in this article and think that something is wrong.  The rate of temperature was relatively stable for thousands of years and then, bang-o, starts going crazy.  I can see the climate denialists figuring out some reason this isn’t valid.


Harper wants all government associated librarians to sign a loyalty pact, where they will promise not to criticize the government.

A strip mall owner is trying to prevent protests in front of Stephen Harper's constituency office.

Some more details on the HD Mining debacle.   Whose mine is this?  Canada’s or China’s?  Why are we allowing a company to hire miners...in Canada...using the chief requirement being that they speak Mandarin?

Remember the report from the US State Department suggesting that Keystone XL is A-OK?  Yes, much of the research was conducted by firms attached to the oil and gas industry.  Well, I guess if you're looking for expertise on pipelines, there's only a few places to go.  But still.  Maybe this is an argument for a government having it's own un-biased scientists.

Alison Redford accuses Thomas Mulcair of "trying to push his own agenda".  Nice.  Apparently it's okay to fly down to the US and state a position as long as it agrees with your own.

Great information on Bitumen here.
Investment required to create 1 Million Barrels of oil in the Middle East - $8 Billion
Investment required to create 1 Million Barrels of tar sands oil - $45 Billion.  + Refining costs
Barrels of oil used to create 1 barrel of oil in the Middle East - 0.05
Barrels of oil used to create 1 barrel of oil in the Tar Sands - 0.2

This Salon piece is incredible, and explains how Lockheed Martin forces the US Military to buy planes that it doesn't really want.  Could this explain why Harper and his buddies are so gung-ho on the F-35?

Peter McKay is expressing frustration at the inability of Government to purchase new fixed wing search and rescue aircraft.  Not his fault though.  Somebody else’s.

This Tyee article paints a very rosy picture of where Real Estate is heading and why.  I've been a doomsayer on Vancouver Real Estate the whole way through this boom cycle.  Every time I run numbers and compare renting vs. buying, it makes no sense to me.  People call me crazy (or worse), but it's coming.  Oh man, it's coming.

Speaking of doomsayers, Garth Turner used to be a Conservative MP.  He doesn't feel very good about things either.

A great visual on Canadian Housing Prices.  Boom times everywhere!

A soccer team in Israel signed a pair of muslim players.  Bad things happened.  An interesting insight into Israel via sports reporting.  No matter how often the Harper Government says it, this is not a simple and one sided issue.

Tackling yet another serious issue, the Conservatives are re-inserting the word "armed" into "Canadian Armed Forces".