Just Warming Up - Week 126 - Sept 23-30

Thank goodness nobody posts any comments here.  Popular Science is taking away comments on news stories because it's been proven, scientifically, that assholes in the comments section really do ruin it for everybody.

Oh man.  What a jag-off.  I'll bet Dean Del Mastro is regretting all of his "poor me...either charge me or let me go" speeches.  Well.  He's been charged.  Let's celebrate with a photo.

The Harper Fanboys at the NP think it's great that he isn't addressing the UN.  "Harper takes a pass on UN blowhard opportunity"  Like Stephen Harper has ever passed up an opportunity to blowhard.  And yes.  Let's celebrate our lack of participation in the International Community.

Yeah.  We're fucked.  Just thinking about the premise that fighting global warming will cost too much.  How much has the US spent on "Homeland Security" in the last 10-12 years?

I love this:
Harper - "When it comes to Keystone XL, we won't take no for an answer!"
Obama - "No."
Harper - "Well okay then!"

Thomas Mulcair has officially announced his intentions to include election reform in the next NDP platform.  Huh.  Perhaps this will become his ask when Trudeau approaches him to form a coalition?

A trio of Tyee articles.  A bit more on the bitumen leaks in Alberta that nobody knows what to do about.  Some speculation that the Canada Job Grant will be a spectacular failure.  And a postulation that Vancouver's housing situation is worse than the numbers indicate.

The RCMP will be investigating Pamela Wallin.

Want to feel worse about how you relate to capitalism?  Well, it's actually just computers initiating trades and fortunes won or lost based on a millisecond or two.

This is a news story?  New Brunswick sees its population drop by 1000?  I could see if that was all caused by some sort of food borne illness, that might be a story.  But that doesn't seem to be the case.

Two stories that struck a similar, kind-of-awesome, vein.  First, Russell Brand makes fun of Hugo Boss (well, points out their past links to the Nazis) while receiving some kind of ridiculous GQ award, and is then thrown out of said awards show.  Next, Godspeed You! Black Emperor...I don't even know...just kind of point out how stupid music awards are, shortly after receiving the Polaris Music Award.  And from a while back...this story actually made me want to hang up my writing hat.  In this stirring tribute to Margaret Thatcher, Russell Brand creates and discards a better idea for a movie than I will ever have.  Sorry.  The Hugo Boss story just reminded me of this.

When I first read about the AIG chief talking about "lynch mobs" and everybody getting upset, I started thinking that perhaps we need to cut him some slack.  Although it may be insensitive to the plight of other, "lynch mob" is a relatively common phrase and using it doesn't necessarily suggest that you're diminishing horrendous things that happened in the South.  But then I read his actual quote.  Man.  What a fuckin' idiot.  "was intended to stir public anger, to get everybody out there with their pitch forks and their hangman nooses, and all that -- sort of like what we did in the Deep South . And I think it was just as bad and just as wrong,"

Another "go kill yourself article".  In this one, big pharma keeps the meth epidemic alive by squashing any attempt to legislate tighter controls on pseudoephedrine.

I've always enjoyed Steve Albini's rants and ravings.  This one (a letter to Nirvana about recording In Utero) is just absolutely fabulous.  Just the antithesis of greed.  Amazing.  And Steve Albini made an unused recording of In on the Kill Taker for Fugazi?  The things you learn on the Internet.

Home - Week 125 - Sept 16-23

I've been away for the last week and haven't looked at the news much.  But doesn't this seem like it should be a bigger story?  Scientists are standing up to Stephen Harper.  Protests!  The key to good decision making is good data.  Doesn't a goverment that seems uninterested in data (science, the census) scare the shit out of you?

The Stephen Harper pre-election charm offensive starts.  All of a sudden, he's concerned with consumer rights.

Why can't/won't the RCMP tell us how much it will/has cost to destroy the gun registry?

What is Stephen Harper hoping to gain by continually shunning the UN?  Is he trying to diminish his failures within the UN environment by diminishing their import in the eyes of Canadians?

Oooooh Steve.....stickin it to the bad guys. Sex offenders may have to report in before leaving the country.

Huge surprise. Economic action plan ads don't work.

Vancouver's Insite program has been a crazy success by many, many standards.  No deaths through 2,000,000 injections over 10 years?  Yes, that much heroin is not good, but I'd rather have that much heroin and no deaths than the alternative.  And here's the crazy part.  I'll bet if you did a survey you would find that zero percent of people have found that Insite encouraged them to try heroin.

National Post is turning into nothing more than a Trudeau attack machine.

I think the NRA needs some training in public relations, crisis management...heck, in logic too.  Wayne Lapierre responds to another incident of gun violence by blaming it on everything other than an excess of guns in American society.

Hittin' the Pipe - Week 108 - May 21-27

Oh man.  Not only was Rob Ford smoking crack...Doug Ford was dealing hash.  And their sister was in the KKK?

A Canadian court ruled that widespread fraud occurred during the last election...that somebody with access to the Conservative voter tracking system was most likely at fault...that it was definitely organized and targeted...but that it didn't have an effect on the election results...even though some of these ridings were very, very close.

Stephen Harper has described the expense scandal as a "distraction".  What does that mean?  Why does he call anything that people ask a lot of questions about a "distraction"?  "I'm sorry, but you holding me accountable is distracting me from further screwing you over."  I love it.  "Don't worry about us stealing all this money from taxpayers.  Worry about the economy.  We're really good at that."  Oh.  Wait.  Steve.  Actually, you're not.  Actually, the economy is kinda messed up.

Stephen Harper actually apologized for something.  He was pretty much forced into it, but it's a start.  And really, who isn't sorry about Mike Duffy?  Some details on just how the Senate went about whitewashing Mike Duffy's audit report...as pointed out by the Liberals.  And...the RCMP is now officially digging in to this.

Like I said before, Stephen Harper thinks the UN is a joke except for when he wants something from them.  So of course John Baird is extremely pleased to announce that we will maintain our official joke organization Civil Aviation Headquarters.

More follow up on the shift in science focus to industry by the NRC.  Somebody has put together a chronology of Conservative cuts and attacks on science.

How is this a democracy?  $56 Million has been paid to congress by supporters of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Science says bitumen will sink.  Enbridge says it won't.  I'm surprised they aren't selling this as a feature.  "Hey.  We spill it.  It just drops away to where you can't see it!"

Joe Oliver is upset that somebody might have speaken ill of one of his beloved pipelines.

This is not new news...but how the fuck is speaking Mandarin a requirement for a mining job in Canada?  The court case over the HD Mining miners sounds like a farce.

Conservatives for Sona - Week 105 - April 29 - May 6

The first half of the week was pretty busy.  Just a few odds and ends to clean up here.

Some Guelph Conservatives are pissed off that Michael Sona has been hung out to dry over Robocalls.  They're quitting.

Steady-hand-on-the-tiller Steve is going to commission a fresh round of ads (government paid, of course) to talk about how great he's doing!  Big Government = Bad except when I get to use it for all of the stuff that I really want.

Harper has his next thing to argue about with the UN - Global Warming the cause of superstorms and arctic ice thaw.  How has this become such a partisan issue?

Canadian Diplomats are picketing their own embassy.

The National Posts suggest that Stephen Poloz was the Bank of Canada Governer Candidate most likely to follow Jim Flaherty's agenda and that's why he got the job.  I guess you probably wouldn't appoint the guy least likely to follow your agenda...but one would hope this would be a bit less political.

It looks like the Tory attack ads haven't had an immediate effect.  Would it show up right away though?

For an encore to his hilarious "Bush was the best" article last week, Charles Krauthammer spins a new doozy.  Oh boy.  He hits all the talking points.  Global warming a myth...CO2 at generational lows...drowning in debt and on and on.  Good stuff.

Where'd the Money Go? - Week 104.5 - April 29 - May 2

Steady hand on the tiller Steve has a $3 Billion gap in "anti terror" funding and has taken our search and rescue infrastructure to the point of failure.  According to the Auditor General.
Tony Clement clarifies that $3.1 Billion isn't missing...there's just no explanation as to what it was spent on.  Thanks Tony!

Oh.  Beautiful.  "It was the plan all along guys!  We swear!"  Peter "Competent" McKay lays out a review of search-and-rescue improvements.  Or something.  Not at the last minute after a scathing Auditor General's report.

Even the NP thinks the AG report might be bad news for the CPC.

Not to be outdone, the Parliamentary Budget Officer has released a report suggesting that the latest Conservative budget will cost jobs and stifle growth.  Ouch.

Noble John Baird refuses to "sell out Canada's principals" in pursuit of a Security Council seat.  How noble.  Who needs those guys, anyhow?

Except when we really, really need/want them.  With their ICAO aviation office.  Then the UN is A-OK.
Jason Kenney!  Stickin' up for Canada!  Yep, now if you want to bring in out-of-country workers and pay them a lot less money, it's going to be a lot harder.  There's a new fee involved.  Hooray for Canada!  Shit, if this had been done years ago, we wouldn't have had the HD Mine disaster.  "Hey, why don't we bring in a bunch of Chinese mine workers and pay each of them tens of thousands of dollars less per year than a comparable Canadian worker?"  "Boss.  You haven't thought this through.  There's a new fee for the application!"  Boss is pissed!


A Conservative MP made up some numbers about Polar Bears.  Scientists aren't happy.  But just you wait.  He'll probably be the next Minister of the Environment.  "You showed some real ambition there son."

Elections Canada is suggesting that hundreds of thousands of people may have voted "improperly" during the last election.  Good thing we're cutting their budget.

Nice job Alberta!  First up, a $30,000 donation limit?  Hmmm...I wonder if this gives the wealthy an unfair voice with politicians?  Next...hey, no problem if you want to just cut us a massive check and then pick a bunch of people at random to assign the $30,000 amounts to.  And hey, if you get one of those people wrong, don't worry about it.  We'll just cut you a cheque for that portion and send a sternly worded letter.  Don't worry though.  You'll already have bought your influence long before the election.

Even with their heavy-handed EI enforcement rules, the Conservatives aren't doing a good job of preventing EI fraud.  $300 Million in overpayments.  $110 Million in fraud.
Attawapiskat is still in trouble.

This Salon article kind of pisses me off.  It's the same standard "bullshit" about young people expecting everything to be handed to them on a silver platter without doing any work.  How about a new interpretation of things?  How about this one.  Our parents generation grew up with low tuition, low housing prices and tonnes of jobs.  Even with all that, they've ratcheted up the debt over the last, take your pick, 10, 20, 30, 40 years.  And now we're the greedy bastards for wanting some of the same things?  Now we're "entitled" because the old people in control have decided that we finally need to cut our debt so their taxes aren't too high?  We're materialistic because they created a marketing industrial complex that convinced us we need to buy all of this shit?  But heaven forbid we take away their health care.  No.  We're the ones that are "entitled".  Not that I'm a millenial.  Or materialistic.  Or don't have a decent job.  But just fuck off with this ridiculous narrative.