Saturday, May 31, 2008

Saturday Afternoon Commercials



I actually remember this one. It was how I learned the Winston song.



Chesterfield must of been one of the last companies to introduce filter tips. Filters were brought in to reduce or "filter out" the tars. It was the tobacco companies way of addressing the growing awareness that smoking might be bad for you. Of course according to this ad Chesterfield was the first company to get them right.



I was a always big fan of Wilson Bryan Key's theories of subliminal advertising and implanted messaging. I think I still have a foil hat with his name on it. But even ignoring the fact that their brand name was Kool, this ad looks packed.

Saturday Morning Funnies



If you are in sales, this is one of Robert De Niro best scenes.

Friday, May 30, 2008

Night Music with the Band



It Makes No Difference



I Shall be Released

Alberta’s Legally Blonde Finance Minister to share oil funds with Ontario

As reported here Alberta Finance Minister, Iris Evans “says Ontario and the federal government receive half the tax from the oilsands”.

Who knew! Hey, this have-not province thing is working out pretty well. Last week it was that crazy Danny from the new NL and now we have this Reese Witherspoon, look-a-like, doll, from Edmonton stepping right up there, to help us too.

I take back every bad thing I’ve ever said about Alberta. 

Remember how I used to compare my three years, living in Edmonton, to doing time in a gulag. I won’t say that anymore. 

Remember how I used to say, women in Edmonton were easy to meet, because they all had their names sewn on the sleeves of their blue ski jackets. I won't say that anymore. Remember when.. well you know what I mean.

No wonder those Albertans are Steve’s chosen people. And they think he is doing a heck of a job too.

Hey Iris, I guess sarcasm doesn't work for either one of us.

Welcome to Toronto, babe.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Scott McClellan is acting like he's at Nuremburg

Integrity could be viewed as defining one's own personal honesty, and then acting in accordance to those beliefs and values. And at at some point in our lives, we all have a moment or moments when we have to question our own integrity. 

As a salesman I've sold a lot of stuff over the years to a lot of people that didn't originally want to buy or in reality need what I was selling, but on my worst day Scotty I couldn't even carry your shoes.

Your lapse in integrity, honesty, and personal values has cost hundred's of thousands of lives and made the earth a much more dangerous place to live on. Because Scotty you were one of the salesmen.

Oh, Scotty has a new book out. It contains nothing that most of us did not already know.

Hey, Tony when you sleep with the hogs...

In early May, Tony Clement, our Minister of Health was insisting that his government was open-minded about the issue of Insite. However by mid month, Tony admitted that even though the science and the numerous studies supported Insite, they were not the only factors to consider. The eventual decision must also make for good public policy not just science nor ideology.

And now after all his posturing to live up to his position and show concern for the actual health of the addicts involved, Tony toes the company line.
"the best way to deal with the health issues of drug addicts is to offer treatment and to prevent them from getting on to drugs in the first place." He then strongly suggested that the federal government is opposed to the continued operation of Insite.
You can't have it both ways Tony. You can either do what is ethically right, as our country's Minister of Health, or you resign from the position. 

Or I guess, thirdly, as you have chosen to do, sleep with the hogs and end up full of shit. (or however that old saying goes)

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

100th Post, Whoopie, Yahoo, Woot, Woot...

as the old unrrepentant hippies would say. Actually I don't remember anyone saying that. 

Anyway, look a that, 100 posts in our first 78 days.

And there were actually two that we thought we good, from back here and here when nobody was coming around.

But hell, if you want quality go to pogge or the Galloping Beaver, or any of the other sites listed in the side bar.

This could be Steve's longest, three day, short, trip yet

Steve is off to Europe for a whirlwind, 3 day trip to four countries to explain his views on global warming, prior to the July, G8 meetings.

This could be the longest three day trip on record for all us. There were already eight stories and two photo ops and Steve hadn't even left the tarmac. 

Of course for Steve, the trip might not seem long enough, with the continuing fall out from the Bernier scandal and all the continuing questions back home.

But on a more positive side for the Prime Minister, at least he didn't have to kiss up to Clark and he'll get to have his picture taken a lot.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Ironically, it took some insight to keep INSITE open


Justice Ian Pitfield of the BC Supreme Court, has granted Vancouver's controversial safe-injection site an exemption from federal drug laws until June 30, 2009, ruling that it would be unconstitutional for the federal government to shut it down at the end of June. CTV here.
From the 60 page ruling:
"Society cannot condone addiction, but in the face of its presence it cannot fail to manage it, hopefully with ultimate success reflected in the cure of the addicted individual and abstinence," says the ruling.

"While there is nothing to be said in favour of the injection of controlled substances that leads to addiction, there is much to be said against denying addicts health care services that will ameliorate the effects of their condition,'' he wrote.

"I cannot agree with the Canada's submission that an addict must feed his addiction in an unsafe environment when a safe environment that may lead to rehabilitation is the alternative."
Pitfield's ruling demonstrates an accurate and intuitive understanding of the purpose of INSITE, the desire of the community at large and the position put forth by the Federal government. And then rightly removed them from the decision making process, at least for a year. 

Truly insightful.

The two best things that happened this week




Emerson's secret plan to fight crime one iPod at a time

Steve's Trade Minister, David (oops now I'm a conservative) Emerson has been busy working, away on a new trade agreement.

From the Financial Post here:
The federal government is secretly negotiating an agreement to revamp international copyright laws which could make the information on Canadian iPods, laptop computers or other personal electronic devices illegal and greatly increase the difficulty of travelling with such devices.
It is not that ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, has been a secret. Emerson spoke last year of Canada's involvement in the creation of the new initiative aimed at stopping large-scale piracy of movies. Hey, giving some teeth to the  laws that go after large scale, illegal, replicators of any media is a good thing. But of course that's not what it is about and not what is being proposed.

The ACTA discussion paper has been leaked here.  
The deal would create a international regulator that could turn border guards and other public security personnel into copyright police. The security officials would be charged with checking laptops, iPods and even cellular phones for content that "infringes" on copyright laws, such as ripped CDs and movies. The guards would also be responsible for determining what is infringing content and what is not.
It gets worse:
On top of these enforcement efforts, ACTA also proposes imposing new sanctions on Internet service providers. It would force them to hand over personal information pertaining to "claimed infringement" or "alleged infringers" -- users who may be transmitting or sharing copyrighted content over the Internet.
And no public input or parliamentary approval required:
The agreement is being structured much like NAFTA, except it will create rules and regulations regarding private copying and copyright laws. Federal trade agreements do not require parliamentary approval. The new document is reported to be drafted by the Office of the United States Trade Representative and is expected to be tabled at the G8 meetings in July.
As is the case with most of the crap that Steve and his neocons try to get away with, they claim the highest of intensions and then try to impose the most Orwellian, corporate protections that end up eroding the rights of the individual and our supposedly free society. 

Here's more information:
Michael Geist and many others have been ranting about this for a while, and you can learn a lot more at his site here. If so inclined you can do the 30 things he suggests and/or sign petitions here and here.
Of course the right slanted thinkers amongst us would claim that this is just hysterics on my part. Steve isn't out to confiscate my iPod, he is just covering loopholes in the protection of copyright. Well the point isn't whether he intends to confiscate my iPod, it's just that he could if he wanted to. 

And I will end up trying to prove to some crossing guard, that I just pissed off, that all 2,000 songs were purchased from iTunes since it will be illegal to copy them from the CD's I own. Unbelievable.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Talk about timing, this is a Stats Can Report worth reading

Statistics Canada has released their annual report on Climate Change here. It is a well laid presentation with plenty of charts and graphs that sadly explains how poorly Canada is doing to reduce greenhouse gases and emissions.
Canada has about 0.5% of the world's population, but contributes about 2% of the total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This puts Canadians among the highest per capita emitters, largely as a result of the size of the country, the low density of the population, the high energy demands imposed by the climate, our resource-based economy, and the volume of goods we export. In 2005, slightly more than 23 tonnes of GHGs were emitted for each person in the country: this represents an 8% per capita increase since 1990. 3
Certainly a timely report with the current meetings going on in Europe. The report goes into detail about types and sources of emissions, break down by province and population (Alberta you have been bad) and comparisons to other countries as well as the effects on our climate. Here's one of the charts comparing the performance by countries that do report emissions.

We do not usually get this much information in a readable format, so it well worth setting up as a bookmark for a future read.

Galen Weston, hire this kid

As part of a science fair project, a 16 year old Canadian teenager has come up with a way to get plastic shopping bags, which normally take up to 1,000 years to decompose, to break down in as little as three months. (h/t Agonist)
Daniel Burd, a high school student in Waterloo, Canada, reasoned that, because plastic eventually degrades, there is probably some some microorganism out there that breaks it down. If that microbe could be identified, you could expose higher concentrations of it to plastic and break it down faster. Daniel won top honors at the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Ottawa, where he took home $30,000 in prizes and scholarships. See detailed article here.
Absolutely amazing. You would think that with all the heat that they must be under, the companies that make plastic bags would have come up with this. Or for that matter any number of physicists or chemical engineers.

And I'm not being facetious about the title. I'm serious. Loblaw Companies Limited should hire Daniel or partner with him to develop his theory. Loblaw's has warehouses full of rotting meat (that's where unsold meat goes) that they turn it into President's Choice compost (a green idea actually). Why not devote one of them to decomposing plastic bags. Now that would be a commercial.

And besides Galen and Brian look about the same age. OK that part was facetious.

PS: To the PR firm or legal aids that scans the web for Loblaw Company references. Pass this one on to Britannia, it's a good idea.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Here's some Laugh In for Dick Martin

The Globe article here, on the passing away of Dick Martin, describes how Rowan & Martin first teamed up.
The two were both struggling actors when they met in 1952. Rowan had sold his interest in a used car dealership to take acting lessons, and Martin, who had written gags for TV shows and comedians, was tending bar in Los Angeles to pay the rent. Rowan, hearing Martin was looking for a comedy partner, visited him at the bar, where he found him eating a banana. "Why are you eating a banana?" he asked. "If you've ever eaten here, you'd know what's with the banana," he replied, and a comedy team was born.



Here's a short Laugh In clip that includes one of Rowan & Martin's opening bits.



And if you were a fan, here's a longer clip of "Laugh In" out takes. You knew it had to be like this behind the camera. Their show was the first show that both the kids and their parents laughed at. It was really a bridge between the generations. Programming certainly changed after it's run.

Harper to teach Europeans about climate change

This can't be good.

From the Globe article here:
Harper plans to lay out the Canadian position on climate change when he meets with the leaders of four key members of the Group of Eight industrial nations before the annual G8 summit in July. Harper wants to have some frank discussions of what Canada's doing, because I think there's a feeling that people don't understand the depth and the range of Canada's national programs of action.
Guess what Steve the Europeans already understand your position.
“They're frankly getting very, very upset,” he said. “If Canada's not going to be serious about respecting the penalty for non-compliance, then frankly their view is ‘listen, get out then.' Because what you're doing is completely compromising the regime.”
Great, either Canada becomes the first country thrown out of Kyoto or Canada becomes known as the country that destroyed it.



PS: On a slightly positive note George Bush will have someone to sit next to this time.


You can just hear Harper turning to Bush now "Don't worry George, the oil is still going flow. No one in Canada even reads the reports. Thank God for the cold spring and the high price of gas. Oh and let Larry know I got a chuckle out of his Senate appearance, last week."

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Countdown: Clinton you invoked a nightmare

Come on Steve, buy my vote too or at least try

Steve's government likes to announce things. And since they really don't like to talk to the press that much, unless of course there is a good patriotic, picture opportunity for Steve or some ministerial screw up or back room blunder that needs to explained, compared to worse misdeeds by the liberals and/or white washed, they profusely release proclamations via their Canada News Centre. This month alone, since May 1st, Steve and his gang have made close to 600 press releases.

For the most part these are somewhat trivial announcements covering traveling schedules, and statements of support for various causes, organizations and individuals. Everything from honoring hockey, to ongoing support of Cuban democracy (?), concern about world disasters, to a minister showing up in their local riding to open a library. Oh and stay away from Smith's Small Clubs and ground beef from the Paradise Halal Meat Market. But the site also announces how and where Steve is spending our money.

So far this month Steve has announced that he has awarded, granted, funded, promised and spent over a $1 billion dollars of our money.

The largest amount of almost $300 million went to a research program to develop ways to reduce damage to the heart from resuscitating oxygen-deprived newborns. With a newborn grandson, this is certainly important to me and I'm sure the rest of Canadians. But where did Steve decide to spend the rest of our billion dollars.

While April was all about awarding grants to ethnic community associations and career counseling for new immigrants (part of Steve's "our new immigration proposal is really for you" roadshow and promotion) May is getting down to hard core vote buying in key target ridings.

Well over a third (with more announced this week) of our billion dollars is going into key ridings in rural Quebec where Steve believes that he has a chance to either retain or garner new Quebec seats in the forth coming election. Recipients included tourism, societies, projects, infrastructure and initiative investments as well as direct support of select small businesses that I would assume make up the largest employer in some towns. (see list below). 

No wonder, I'm about to be living in a have not province. Unfortunately I live in the 905 and apparently the only way that Steve is going to even attempt to buy my vote is if I move to Whitby or Oshawa. Of course that could be Flaherty's own private promotional fund.

Yes Steve likes to announce things and similar to the crazy, right wing, neocons south of the border they actually tell you about how they are manipulating the system to their advantage. On the premise of course that the opposition can not afford to criticize in fear of loosing the riding and that we the citizens that are funding Steve's re-election campaign won't read what is in right front of us. 

I really miss the Liberals. They were like the cook in a mining camp, you expected them to steal some of the food,  just as long they didn't take it all, flaunt it in your face and the meals tasted good.

Unfortunately with Steve, it's flaunted in your face and you are left with nothing but a bad taste in your mouth.


Quebec Expenditures for May
  • $118 Million to Improve Productivity & Innovation
  • $86 Million to improve mfg productivity
  • $46 Million for tourism development
  • $32 Million to bolster Innovation Capabilities
  • $20.26 Million for Trois Rivieres project
  • $5.8 Million for Improvements
  • $5,15 Million for Waterworks Upgrade
  • $2.9 Million to help charities
  • $2.2 million for Water Filtration
  • $1.0 million for funding J. B. Martin
  • $175 thousand for Tourisme Abitibi
  • $175 thousand to Talkdynamics Inc.
  • $150 thousand transfer of gas exise tax
  • $130 thousand more excise tax transfer
  • $121 thousand again for excise tax
  • $115 thousand for infrastructure
  • $115 thousand to plastic company
  • $92 thousand award to ecological society
  • $51 thousand to radiator company
  • $50 thousand another company
  • $50 thousand in Funding to Brico-Lamine
  • $44 thousand to Entreprises Bizier Inc.
  • $41 thousand to Habitation de l'artisan
  • $37 thousand to Valléa d'Or
  • PS: Oh and the Maritimes also got a big hunk or at least PEI did ($270 million for infrastructure) must be conservative. No snipe, I like the Maritimes, but I prefer Hants County, Nova Scotia.

    Friday, May 23, 2008

    Willie the Pimp



    Joe's Garage, live in Paris 1980



    And Mothers Stairway to heaven

    Why the proposed labeling law is a red herring

    From 2003 to 2006
    Mexican agriculture imports increased 51% to $878 m
    Chinese agriculture imports increased 38% to $430 m
    Indian agriculture imports increased 27% to $152 m

    The major food stuffs, recording the largest increases were: fresh garlic, apple juice, cabbages, carrots, turnips, peas, beans, spinach, grapes apples, peaches, rice, pickled cucumbers and pet food. ref  Today's Farmer March 29, 2008
    The reason for the increase in imports
    Imports increased due to the strength of the Canadian currency versus the weakness of the US currency. The distributors and brokers in these particular countries deal in US funds and therefore our manufacturers/food processors and distributors can now buy their produce at reduced Canadian prices. It is the benefit of a strong dollar. On the downside our exports cost more and that's hurting the farmers as well.
    The manufacturing process (under the current rules)

    In manufacturing the raw materials, in this case the food, represents the lowest percentage of the cost of goods sold.
    In other words a can of Apple Juice (we’ll call it Willy’s Apple Juice because I like the name) that sells for $1.29 at the supermarket actually nets out at about 80 cents of revenue coming to Willy. Under the current laws: if in manufacturing that can of Apple Juice, Willy spent more than 41 cents in Canada, that Apple Juice could be labeled Made in Canada or Product of Canada.
    But in reality Willy has been spending more than the 41 cents in Canada to manufacture that can of Apple Juice. Because Willy wants everyone to know his name and everyone to believe that he has the best Apple Juice, Willy spends 15% of his revenue on Marketing costs or 12 cents per can.
    Willy has factories, machinery, trucks, employees, sales people, marketing people, and executives. They cost Willy 35% of his revenue or 28 cents a can.
    Willy also has a family to feed, and more importantly to Willy sometimes, shareholders and a stock price to keep increasing. Willy is a big time guy. And those shareholders expect a NBT or net profit before taxes of at least 18% of revenue each year or 14 cents of the price of the can.
    Also as an aside because they are profitable and the Willy Apple Juice Company pays 3 cents in corporate taxes for that can (about 25% of their NBT).
    Altogether Willy’s expenses add up to 54 cents per can, leaving 26 cents for Willy to buy the apples and deliver them to his factories for processing.
    And since our dollar went to parity with the US dollar, Willy can pay the brokers and/or distributors in China plus pay for the shipping of the goods to his factory (that’s the way it works with China), at a lower cost than he can buy the apples from the farmers in Norfolk County, Ontario and deliver them to his factory.

    And Willy’s customers didn't notice, the apple juice tasted the same.

    The result of the proposed legislation
    The only way that the apple farmers in Norfolk County, Ontario will benefit from these proposed changes, is if they are willing to sell their raw materials at the same price as the Chinese.
    Or if the consumer is willing to pay more for a can of Willy’s Apple Juice with the new Made in Canada label.
    Manufacturing and retail operate under fixed percentage costs. Their costs are at a fixed percentage of their selling price, for all of the reasons above.
    A five cent increase in the price of the raw materials to manufacture Willy’s can of Apple Juice means that Willy would have to sell his apple juice to the supermarkets for 97 cents as that is the way percentages and margins work.
    The supermarket has to maintain their gross margins (percentage of profit) and with their cost going up to 97 cents from 80 cents, their new retail price for a can of Willy's Apple Juice will be $1.56.
    And half the consumers will say why the hell did Willy's Apple Juice go up in price and buy a lower cost, imported brand and the other half will say good let's buy Canadian, at least for the next few months. 

    And the juice will taste the same.

    Willy and I both like the farmers as much as anybody, in fact I married the daughter of one. But this proposed label change has less to do with protecting the health of Canadians and assisting the farmers and more to do with Harper appeasing the rural voting block in Ontario by changing the 51% rule. A change that farmers have been lobbying about for a while now.

    And although the farmers might believe that it is a panacea for there problems, it  will not change the math. The only thing that would accomplish that would be tariffs, and I don't think that goes along with Harpers basic ideology or subsidies to protect our farmers. And Harper isn't willing to do that either.

    The stronger Canadian dollar (versus the US dollar) means the cost of our exports increases and the cost of our imports decreases. Unfortunately the farmers are now facing the same predicament that the our manufacturing industries are dealing with, in fact most Canadian businesses are dealing with, a rising currency that makes our products and services less competitive in an international market. And unfortunately the solutions are also the same: lower the production costs, improve productivity, specialize and develop the produce, products, services or markets where you can compete. 

    Or I guess, elect a new government that will bring in laws that will actually protect key market segments. The problem there, is finding one.

    Thursday, May 22, 2008

    Brodie booted

    Hey Ian, as Steve would say look on the bright side. You can now go back to Western and continue your education. Personally I would recommend studying diplomacy, you know the part that covers not openly sabotaging the presidential incumbent of your largest trading partner. 

    See CTV article here.


    Definitely not a good day, Steve

    Yesterday was supposed to be big day for Steve. One in which Steve is shown as a leader in action, protecting our food supply. The intent in part, (my assumption here), was to overshadow the release of the presumably, forewarned, negative, economic numbers.

    Unfortunately for Steve his two appearances on Global last night, revealed nothing more than an arrogant, regionally focussed politician, who is either unaware of the impact of the economy on the average Canadian or is in fact only capable of serving the interests of his very narrow constituency.



    Just prior to this clip, Global shows the heads of the oil companies being called to an emergency Senate hearing. They show Bush actually going to the Saudis to ask for help with some crazy let's increase production idea and the Saudis saying no, not our problem. 

    And then complete with arrows showing a 1.7% rise in inflation, oil supposedly going to $200 a barrel and the Ontario auto sector forecasted to decrease by 14.7%, we cut to Steve saying “Look on the Bright Side... generally speaking the Canadian economy is in pretty good shape”. 

    Not a lot of bright side over here Steve, if you are an autoworker in Ontario, or if you drive a car or are on a budget.

    And then when the next reporter does his lead saying "all political parties coming together to create a positive vision, about how they would create prosperity". They again cut to Steve telling us he's not going to panic or act like a drunken sailor, or "raise carbon taxes, just because somebody thinks that something should be done".

    Well sorry, Steve, most of us, you know the 90% of Canadians, that don’t own oil stocks, or do not have jobs in the oil industry, think that something should be done. Something that actually helps the rest of us, not just the oil industry. 

    And about this small clip, where you are going to protect us by making sure our fruit cans are labelled correctly. Unless those peaches are literally grown in my own back yard, they are going to start costing me more money. And frankly Steve I don’t care what the fucking label says, I’ll only be able to afford the cheapest ones.



    Definitely not a good day, Steve. Even Global looks a bit pissed by the way they cut these pieces.

    Wednesday, May 21, 2008

    CNN talking head implies Hillary is a bitch



    "This is Hillary Clinton we are taking about. Some women, by the way, are named that, and it's accurate," Castellanos said. He went on to buttress his case by pointing out that Hillary is "abrasive, aggressive, irritating." Raw News

    And maybe she is.

    Big sigh of relief for Harper

    According to this article from our government's own News Centre, our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maxime Bernier has managed to meet with up to three Croatian leaders yesterday without causing Croatia to back out of the Afghan mission, withdraw it's NATO bid or apparently any other intl incidents. 

    Although a big sigh of relief for Harper, he still has his fingers crossed as Bernier moves to Italy to meet with his Italian counterpart and eventually participate in a traditional weekly general audience with the Pope

    I mean what is the worse that can happen. Can the Pope excommunicate a whole country?

    Just to play it safe Bev Oda has been told to have her bags packed.

    Now, how does that grab you

    When you can't write like pogge (come on, a one word title, twenty one word article and more hits than I get in a week) or actually have an informed opinion and some background knowledge about what you are going to write about (like these guys here, here, here, here or here), you end up picking a topic from the 1,500 RSS feeds you receive each day. Then to hopefully grab the readers attention long enough that they might actually read your article you need to come up with a great headline.

    But it appears all writers must have the same problem. Here's one from the business feeds that caught me tonight:


    Besides the fact that Home Depot's profits actually dropped by 66% for the quarter, that is a very funny title. I think I want to become a staff writer for the Globe business section. I could write articles about mundane topics and then through humorous titles send subliminal messages to corporate Canada. Yep, I want to do that.

    Here's some titles I'm working on for the tech stocks
    • Apple shares blossom after release of new gadget
    • Microsoft patches up it's new market strategy
    The oil and auto industry are easy
    • Exxon leaks that profits will spill over the top
    • General Motors runs out of gas
    Retail Chains are important, they service industry is a big segment now a days.
    • Canadian Tire keeps on rolling
    • Chapters worms it's way around US parity issue
    • Hudsons Bay Co. set adrift with loss of leader
    • IKEA assembles two new locations
    • Sears exposes itself with public offering (you have to think about this one)
    • Sleep Country dozing through final quarter
    • Wal-Mart eyes new suppliers with a different slant
    Doing Fast Food is relatively quick
    • Harvey's management gets grilled repeatedly at meeting
    • KFC licks it's production problems for good
    • McDonald's profit drives thru another quarter
    • Starbucks CEO has been roasted again
    • Tim Hortons PR strategy blown to bits
    It could also work for Politicians
    • Harper harpooned by mistake (sorry that is just a snark)
    Hey if you've got any good suggestions let me know. Believe me, I could really use the help.

    Tuesday, May 20, 2008

    Video: Microsoft's Ballmer pelted with eggs


    Microsoft's chief executive, Steve Ballmer, narrowly avoided getting egg on his face on Monday when a furious Hungarian student began pelting him with missiles during a lecture at a university in Budapest. Hungarian news reports suggested that the student was upset that the country's government has awarded a contract to Microsoft to provide software and IT training to local professionals under a program called Titan. Guardian UK
    In the video the student is congratulated by fellow students, one of they holding a Mac iBook. It is probably the Mac's fault.

    You see Pierre, boys have penises and girls have vaginas

    And sometimes a person has been assigned one gender, usually on the basis of their sex at birth, when in fact they are really the other. 

    Now read this part carefully Pete. It is the important part that explains why Ontario is re-instating coverage and why your latest blather, here is so embarrassing.

    According to psychologists and physicians this condition is known as Gender Identity disorder and one of the treatments for this condition is Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS). You know, the thing that doctors do in the big building with the H on the side of it.

    For Christ's sake Steve, I know Pierre Poilievre is the youngest sitting MP and all that, but could you not take him aside and have that, you know, little birds and bees talk with him. Or better yet, send him on one of your famous hotel room meetings.

    The boy really needs an education.

    Sunday, May 18, 2008

    Bizarro weekend: US protects their environment from Canadian Mining company, Canada tells Europeans don't worry about environment drill here

    US environmentalists support their government's move to halt Canadian Mining company

    Associated Press here:
    The U.S. Forest Service is requiring that a Canadian company post bonds before exploring or expanding a gold mine in Idaho. Before the Forest Service will issue a permit, it wants Atlanta Gold a Toronto based company, to provide the $1.3 million bond for 18 months and another $7.3 million bond after the exploration period ends. Environmentalists were pleased with the Forest Service's actions but want the agency to require the entire $8.6 million before exploratory drilling begins.
    Meanwhile Canada places "Drill Here" sign on Canada's North.

    Steve has sent his Trade Minister, David (oops now I'm a conservative) Emerson, to meet with the Europeans and advise them that Canada's North is open for business.

    From Canadian Press here:
    "Emerson said future development of Canada's natural resources in the North represents a powerful incentive for Europe to become involved. There is no reason Canada and Europe should not work toward a free trade agreement as both sides are democratic, affluent, and have few impediments surrounding issues of labour and environmental standards."
    That's right few impediments surrounding our environmental standards. I mean look what we let the Americans get away with in Alberta and we even speak French in parts of the country. Oh and the Polar Bear thing, don't worry, that's only in the US.


    It's a scary world if you are a conservative or an evangelical wingnut

    According to Day our somewhat paranoid Safety Czar and his site here, there is Organized Crime in my neighbourhood and I should post this page near my phone.


    I bet it is those Jamaicans across the street. Strange they keep their lawn, looking so good and the kids are so polite or it could be that old hippie couple two doors up. He's nice and polite but he always looks a little stoned to me. And then there are the Italians on the corner, yep it's the Italians...


    After Snark (as the cynics would say)

    For Christ's sake Day (ref intended) I realize that your government only panders to it's patchwork base of supporters, but surely you could also inform your own somewhat inbred electorate (there were long isolated winters in the early days of the west), that 911 could be used for other emergencies as well. 

    And as far as posting your notice next to their phone, come on it's three fucking numbers, memorize it or at least have them scribble it next to their Dial a Prayer number. 

    Saturday, May 17, 2008

    Texan with HIV gets 35 years for spitting on police

    Prosecutors convinced a Dallas County jury this week that HIV-positive saliva should be considered a deadly weapon. The defendent was convicted of harassment of a public servant. Because of the jury's deadly weapon finding, he will have to serve half of his sentence before he's eligible for parole. The police officer has not contracted HIV. Dallas Morning News.

    Nor could he. Everyone on that jury is two sandwiches short of picnic. As if Texans didn't have enough to be embarrassed about.

    The New Canadian Victoria Cross



    The Victoria Cross is awarded for “the most conspicuous bravery, a daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice or extreme devotion to duty, in the presence of the enemy." It is the highest honor Canada can bestow upon a member of it's armed forces. May we eventually no longer need to have them, but for now may few be awarded posthumously.

    Friday, May 16, 2008

    Some electric music for the mind



    From the Fish. If you thought the cheer was their best you are wrong.

    If it takes a mascot to start cleaning up the tar sands, so be it.

    In response to Don Martin’s article "A False mascot for climate change" in the Post yesterday.

    His last line is partially correct. The Polar Bear is the Canary in the Global coal mine, fat or otherwise. But the increasingly numerous population part is incredulously misleading.

    Right now there are an estimated 25,000 bears worldwide in five countries. But scientists predict if current warming trends continue in the Arctic, two-thirds of the world's polar bears could disappear by 2050. ref here

    And in his reference to Canada’s (COSEWIC) passive concern about the status of the bears, the addendum in their most recent report states that they did not account for the potential influence of climate warming on the bears future population. ref here

    As for Baird’s wise decision to wait for further analysis until August. I think you give him too much credit. It is more probable that Baird was waiting to see if Kempthorne could continue to stall the predicted decision in the US.

    No, Mr. Martin the reason that the status of the bears is important, is not because they are cute and cuddly. It is is because the Protected Status in the US might finally force Canada to start addressing the increasing megatones of greenhouse gases that are spewing out of it’s coal mine. THE OIL SANDS

    Thursday, May 15, 2008

    God, Guns & Gall made Canada. Let's keep all three.

    You get nothing but arrogance and impudent behavior from Day, our so called Safety Minister, all the time. His latest Government news release here about his changes to the gun registry is nothing more than innuendo and of course a disparaging line about the Liberals. His changes amount to forget about it for another year and when we get our majority we will kill it. (wink, wink)
    “Our Government is committed to effective gun control and tackling the criminal misuse of firearms,” stated Minister Day. “We believe in targeting criminals, not duck hunters and farmers.” “Effective gun control requires high levels of compliance,” “These measures are designed to facilitate that compliance.”
    No Mr. Day, your government is committed to pandering to your patchwork coalition of right wing neocons, god fearing, gun toting, evangelicals and the remnants of a conservative party that Mulroney destroyed. With similar hubris I might add.

    Oh and don't worry about the duck hunters Day, there won't be any ducks left to hunt. At least in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

    I know this is old news, but I just get pissed off when I see it on Government letterhead. 

    Christ I feel like we're being governed from Macon, Georgia.

    Wednesday, May 14, 2008

    Catholic Church attempts to widen it's base

    From MSNBC here.

    Vatican says it's OK to believe in aliens
    The Vatican's chief astronomer says that believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God. The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said that the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones. In an interview published Tuesday by Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Funes said that such a notion "doesn't contradict our faith" because aliens would still be God's creatures.

    Not to be outdone the Scientologists responded with "I told you so" and the Evangelicals quickly added, "as long as they are not gay and don't use contraceptives".

    Einstein was right.

    Einstein wasn't so smart, I figured out the God thing when I was ten


    "In a note, written the year before his death, Einstein dismissed the idea of God as the product of human weakness and the Bible as “pretty childish.” from the Globe article here.

    I had a bit of trouble with the EMC thing though. 

    Both of them.

    Dallaire vs Kenney, one has a pair, the other is shaped like one

    "The minute you start playing with human rights, with conventions, with civil liberties in order to say you are doing it to protect yourself … you are no better than the guy who doesn't believe in them at all. You are either with the law or you are against the law." General Romeo Dallaire.

    General, unfortunately you are talking about concepts that these neocon, ideologues, do not understand. 

    Keep it up sir, the rest of us are listening.

    Tuesday, May 13, 2008

    Industry Minister in trouble: forgets to blame Liberals for gas pumps

    Steve will be all over his Industry Minister this morning. Prentice was on Mike Duffy Live yesterday to explain how the cons will get tough on inaccurate gas pumps and he didn't blame the Liberals once, for the pumps, carbon tax credits or anything else. I can see Prentice getting less air time in the future.

    You can read about Prentice's announcement here at CTV. There really is no plan. The stations will have to check the accuracy of a pump, every two years.

    Below is the best part of the interview. Duffy sets Prentice up and actually gets him to say that there is no collusion in pricing between the oil companies. It is just the gas station looking down the street.



    That's right Jim, it's the minimum wage employee working the night shift at my local Shell. "Oh look, Pedro over at Petro Canada has just raised the price again. Damn, I better phone the boss. What an asshole."

    Monday, May 12, 2008

    Why Thursday's Polar Bear decision is important to all of us


    I never understood the "Save the Polar Bear, Save the World" slogan until tonight.

    As posted earlier the US Fish & Wildlife Service, which reports to Bush's Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne has been stalling the decision on the status of polar bears. Well that is all changed. Environmental groups have sued and won. A federal court has ordered the Fish & Wildlife committee to make their ruling by Thursday this week.

    Kempthorne, who previously served as a Senator for six years and scored 1% on the League of Conservation Voters' legislative scorecards, obviously became Bush's first choice for Secretary of the Interior in 2006. The Secretary of the Interior is similar to our Minister of the Environment. The most obvious reason for so desperately stalling the release of the report (last meeting postponed because the head of committee didn't show up), since the fall could quite possibly be that the Polar Bear is now on their endangered species list.

    A US endangered species status means:
    Such a listing for polar bears would commit the U.S. to not doing anything that could threaten the species further. Because the main threat to the bears is considered to be habitat loss from climate change, that could make it tougher to sell fuels that produce a higher amount of greenhouse gases, such as oil derived from Alberta's oil sands.

    "U.S. programs, policies and financial measures involving the U.S. government that would further jeopardize the survival of polar bears would come under extremely strong scrutiny,'' Ewins said. "Further increases in greenhouse gases, causing the sea ice to melt, would be deemed as clearly in contravention of the Endangered Species Act.'' from CTV here.
    Meanwhile Canada's government has been quietly keeping the Polar Pear off of our Endangered list also and for similar reasons. The Committee on the Status of Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) as it's name explains is responsible for status in Canada. They have five designations starting with i. Not at Risk, ii. Special Concern iii. Threatened iv. Endangered v. Extirpated. 

    Last months COSEWIC report on Polar Bears (the first since 2002) prepared for our Minister of Environment kept the Polar Bear listed as Special Concern. In the summary here they have painstakingly added "All projections are based on currently available data and do not account for the possible effects of climate change." 

    And the reason for not changing the designation in Canada:
    The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife In Canada recently said it would recommend the bears remain as a species of special concern. That would oblige Ottawa to address threats to the animal's survival, including climate change, but would give it until 2014 to come up with a management plan for Canada's estimated 15,000 bears.
    2014, the same year the Arctic is expected to be completely free of summer sea ice which the bears hunt from and one year before Baird plans to do anything about the projected 100 mega tonnes of greenhouse gasses that will be pouring out of the tar sands projects.

    All that could start to change on Thursday if the US places the Polar Bear on the endangered list. And with an incoming Democratic President, Canada might finally have to start addressing the greenhouse gases pouring out of the tar sands. 

    Our governments might not have moved to save the air, water and ducks, but they will move to save oil revenues. 

    Saturday, May 10, 2008

    Does this now mean that Harper's threats to sue constitutes the same conflict?

    Apparently just a threat of law suit is enough to prevent a member of parliament from participating in committees, and possibly the house itself.

    From the Globe this morning:
    Liberal MP has been barred from asking questions on the Mulroney-Schreiber affair in Parliament, raising fears that a libel chill is set to extend into the House and committee rooms on the Hill. Up until this week, Liberal MP Robert Thibault had been one of the opposition party's main questioners on the cash dealings between former prime minister Brian Mulroney and businessman Karlheinz Schreiber. 
    However, Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson has barred Mr. Thibault from raising the issue further in Parliament because Mr. Mulroney has launched a $2-million lawsuit against Mr. Thibault for allegedly libellous statements on CTV Newsnet on the matter. Ms. Dawson ruled that according to the conflict-of-interest code, Mr. Thibault now has a "private interest" in the controversy and he cannot debate or vote on issues related to it.
    Ms. Dawson, who began her investigation after a complaint from the Conservatives, did not impose any sanctions against Mr. Thibault, stating that he acted in good faith and that her ruling was a first on this type of issue.
    Unlike a Prime Minister that might be accepting funds, while in office, Harper's government thinks the bigger conflict of interest is the Liberal MP asking questions about it. 

    Does this now mean that Harper's threats to sue Liberal members constitutes the same conflict? That's one way to silence the opposition Steve.

    Here's the CTV article from November 15, 2007 where Mulroney announces his intention to sue. The same day that Thibault went on CTV's Newsnet with Duffy.
    According to Mulroney's statement of claim, Thibault said during the broadcast that Mulroney has previously claimed not to have known or had a business relationship with Schreiber, a German-Canadian businessman facing extradition to Germany for fraud charges. The documents also allege that Thibault said Mulroney began receiving $300,000 in payments from Schreiber while he was still in office in May 1993. Mulroney has denied the allegations, and none of them have been proven in court. He has maintained that he did not receive any money from Schreiber until after he left office
    Brian, I never could understand your indignation about the timing of the payment. It is not really the fact whether you were paid the night you left office, or a week, a month or six months later. Reading the articles in the press, the question becomes when did you arrange to be paid and wouldn’t that constitute a business relationship with someone you knew.

    Personally I somewhat agree with the blogging tories and wish Brian would go away, but he just keeps suing people to salvage a reputation that doesn't exist. At least not to the majority of Canadians that overwhelmingly threw his party out of office.