Grandinite

Site is Down for a bit

2008-07-21T08:13:00.001-06:00

I'm having trouble with my web server, so the old domain has been forwarded to here.

In the mean time, I will be updating these links:

2008-06-17T08:55:00.000-06:00

I've never heard of this stuff before. It's an anti-tick dewormer for cows. you can put it in their feed and it does all sorts of good things to them. It shares the same chemical chains as sand, but is derived from diatoms - anchient precursors to shellfish - aka plankton.

There's not much research out there on the impact of plankton on human diets. But I found a paper:

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/6/4/394.pdf

I think this fossilized version is just the same stuff silica microchips are made from.

http://aquatic_microbes.sb-roscoff.fr/index.php?topic=603.0

It's good for humans, too. I might just buy a bag and try using it for a detox program.

http://freshwaterorganics.com/about.html

--
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> end of transmission

2008-05-23T07:36:00.000-06:00

From: American Free Press:

PERSONAL FROM THE EDITOR

BILDERBERG’S ATTEMPT TO FOOL the public into believing it had already met in Greece has been exposed.

We now believe Bilderberg will meet from Thursday, June 5 to Sunday, June 8 in Chantilly, Va., near Washington’s Dulles International Airport. The precise scene of the crime is the Westfields Marriott, 14750 Conference Center Drive, Chantilly, Va. 20151. 703-818-0300.

Plug the dates into their online booking tool. Yup - all booked up.

New Address

2005-06-11T01:18:00.000-06:00

GRANDINITE HAS MOVED TO

WWW.GRANDINITE.COM

Red Ensign Standard, XXII

2005-05-28T20:35:00.000-06:00

The Monarchist is hosting this issue of the Red Ensign Standard, and you should check it out.

Back by popular demand: The Tipping Point, Part II, the follow up to Part I.

Expand your personal blogosphere. Part IV

2005-05-28T18:41:00.000-06:00

Through Ryanne's Video Blog I came across Amyville.

Check out Amy's post entitled: movin'. It's funny. That girl is crazy man. In a good way.

Also, here's some tips on becoming an early riser. No, the usual kind.

Mad props: Chandasutra via James Bow.

Blogrolled!

Every last one of ya.

Just give 'er

2005-05-27T23:16:00.000-06:00

I think you should have a look at The Daily Dancer, a blog about a guy who has a passion to dance. I liked Eye of the Tiger the best.

Rad. Totally Rad.

Rant in A Minor, First Movement

2005-05-27T15:54:00.000-06:00

The Globe & Mail is ABSOLUTELY SHOCKED that in some political ridings, the Conservative nominees are affiliated, not with Freemasons or some other shadowy Cabal, but SoCon Christians. Wow. Someone has been reading their Goebbels propaganda handbook. As one commenter asked:

"If reporters who write about Christian fundamentalists taking over his party were to "insert the word Jew everywhere you've put Christian, do you think they would let you print it?" he asked. "I doubt it."

Oh, I'll print it.

BERLIN -- Jewish Zionist activists have secured Communist nominations in clusters of ridings from Dusseldorf to Dresden -- a political penetration that has occurred even as the party tries to distance itself from hard-line Jewish Zionism.

At least three riding associations in Freistaat, four in Rheinland-Pfalz, and one in suburban Hamburg have nominated candidates with ties to groups like The Learned Elders of Zion, a Jewish organization that seeks to corrupt our precious bodily fluids.

But organizers say many more will be on the ballot during the next federal election, a feat achieved by persuading synagoguers, particularly new members of the Reich, to join the party and vote for recommended candidates.

Some Jews argue that the selection of a large number of candidates from the Zionist camp is an unfortunate turn for a party that was accused in last year's election campaign of harbouring Jewish-ifluenced "Protocols."

Now, the government sponsored folks at rabble.ca have been ranting and roaring about the Nazi Pope while conveniently forgetting that Paul Martin himself is a Roman Catholic who, in some form or another, pays homage to a Pontiff who used to be a Hitler Youth.

It just doesn't add up. Or does it? Some people seem to stop just short of an open season on Evangelicals.

Applying the same methods as above to THIS post by a fine fellow Non-Partisan/Alberta Blogger, the Calgary Observer yields the following arguement. It sounds like something Tommy Douglas himself may have said:

"I hate to be the one to say, I told you so, but I told you so.

The NDP has nominated openly gay people for a number of ridings. Not that there's anything wrong with homosexuality, but sexual identity and politics should not be mixed. Whatever an individual politician or candidate does in their bedroom really his or her own private business, but the problem here is that these nominees have come out and stated that they will no longer be ashamed of who they are and that they will pursue their political goals guided by their beliefs.

"It's time we stopped apologizing and started defending who we are. The gay community in Canada, by and large, and socially liberal Catholics, are saying we have been far too gay and thus we have been of no political impact for far too long, on too many fronts." (Tristan Emmanuel)"

Funny how you just have to change the name of the people to make everything all ok.

Oh, wait, what if we again applied that same little word trick to THIS article by Mindless in Ottawa? Could you imagine if anybody had said this about Muslims?

" How to Fix the Conservative Party:

Here’s the thing. Canadians are scared of Muslims, that's just the way it is.

Have you ever met a Muslim? Tell me, weren’t you just a little scared? Be honest.

Unless you are a Muslim, in which case you are probably blowing a gasket as you read this, then you have at some point in your life been at least a little freaked out as you talked to a Muslim.

I personally know many Muslimss, some I like, and some I think are so stupid they would just as easily have joined a al Quaeda if it had free AK's with the Q'uran.

The Conservative Party is dominated by Muslims.

Don’t even bother to pretend this is not the case. I’ve been to the nominating meetings where 100 dark guys with that glassy eyed look show up with their non liberated wives. Wives who look lobotomized and struggle to keep six kids under the age of six from killing each other while their pompous blow hard of a husband rails against “argent et le vote western”.

Face it, that’s the way it is. You may not like it. You may wish the CPC was something else, but it isn’t. The real question is what are you going to do about it?

Criticizing Muslimss is no fun. It’s a bit like shooting bunny rabbits. They get that puffy look in their eyes, and they wail like a new born baby.

Nonetheless, I am convinced the only way we can renew the CPC, and by extension save Canadian democracy, is to start blasting away. The Party cannot be dominated by any one group and expect to win at the Polls, it's simply impossible. The sooner we acknowledge this 800 Lb Gorilla in the corner, the sooner we can find a reasonable approach that accomodates a diverse enough group of Canadian ideas to win."

The CPC is not dominated by Muslims - but what if it were? Would it matter? Would we say the same things about another group - be they gay, muslim or eep - Evangelical? Would we, in a Canada based on values of tolerance and acceptance, actually tolerate people with whose views we disagree?

Prairie Female Objectification

2005-05-27T15:53:00.000-06:00

Kate from SDA. Hot or Not? Cast your vote HERE.

Bush league, Pro. Bush league, Pro.

2005-05-27T01:45:00.000-06:00

Nice. Word Press is probably the coolest program I have seen. The new look is on its way.

Grandinite before and after MKBraaten figured out WP.

Conflict in the blogosphere

2005-05-27T00:25:00.000-06:00

Warren Kinsella is pissed off about the Canadian Journalist Blog that just fired up and he has some choice words about the whole project.

Hey, in my mind, journalists can be bloggers, just as long as they keep their comments on.

Warren.

Good thing he redeemed himself with THIS link. Maybe he's thinking about making the jump himself.

Way down in Kosovo

2005-05-27T00:02:00.000-06:00

From Darren Barefoot comes some hilarious video footage of some Norwegian peace keepers in Kosovo spoofing the 80's hit Kokomo. Some might find it offensive; others downright hilarious. I just don't know what to say.

WATCH

Scariest looking criminal. ever.

2005-05-26T19:11:00.000-06:00

Whoa. Check THIS guy out. Thanks, Blog Quebecois.

Make yourself costly to govern

2005-05-26T13:48:00.000-06:00

Jay Jardine and Polspy have come up with the idea of making ourselves "costly to govern". One commenter suggests mailing rocks to PMPM if the postage really is free.

Send rocks to:

PMPM
House of Commons
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
K1A 0A6

Probably the best way is to do your part to ensure that the Liberals do not have another huge surplus to play around with; try to do as much purchasing from the "underground" or "informal" economy as you can. Taking production out of the "formal" economy means although there is still the same level of economic activity, not as much of it is in the formal sector where it is taxed.

Also, I would suggest forming your own local currency to put a dent in the inflation tax levied on all savings.

New Stuff

2005-05-26T04:33:00.000-06:00

My blog has a new home on the web: my own domain at grandinite.com. Blogger went down recently, and I thought I'd try hosting the blog elsewhere. With the account, there's some extra domains, so Alberta Blogs also has its own space. It's going to be huge.

Also, I'm venturing into a fiction-writing blog started by Breebop called Welcome to the Neighbourhood. I created a character named Wes who is based on all the transplanted British Columbians I have met out in Alberta.

Trouble on the blogrolls

2005-05-25T19:11:00.000-06:00

Victor Marciano and the Calgary Observer , both members of the Blogging Tories and Alberta Blogs, have gotten into a bit of a tift concerning a theory about Belinda Stronach possibly being a Liberal Mole within the Conservative Party. Victor had some remarks about CO's theory, which I find interesting. Here you have Victor, who is somewhat of an insider, denouncing the theory altogether, calling it "nutty... tinfoil hat too tight - nutty". But he doesn't offer reasons why it's nutty. Nevertheless, it is an interesting theory, and you should check it out. The Calgary Observer has removed the Blogging Tories blogroll, but still links to Marciano vis-a-vis the Alberta Blogs blogroll. Let's hope they can stay linked through Alberta Blogs. If anything, it could serve as a test case that geography creates a tighter bind than political philosophy.

I would have flown the Alberta Red Ensign for the Queen

2005-05-25T18:57:00.000-06:00

Geez. As Mr. Rempel points out, the Federal Government may already be funding an Anti-Western Separatist initiative by giving out free Canadian flags out west. In the area of the country that is most pissed off about Adscam (besides Quebec) the Feds might just be slapping up Canadian flags wherever they can in order to promote the facade of unity. For those of you with short memories, slapping up maple leaves throughout Quebec was the modus operandi of promoting unity in Quebec.

Rempel wanted to wave an Alberta flag as the Queen went by, because afterall, this was Alberta's Centennial celebration. But for some strange reason, the kiosk that was handing out Canadian flags did not have any Alberta flags available. Go HERE and read his post and see if your blood doesn't boil.

What irony. I for one, would have proudly flown my Alberta Red Ensign for the Queen, if there were such a thing.

Torstar Blogs Bilderberg

2005-05-25T14:57:00.000-06:00

Huh. A while back, I commented that the Toronto Star would be unlikely to publish the fact that its CEO, Robert Prichard attended the 2005 Bilderberg meeting.

Well, as Antonia Zerbisias points out, they just did.

However, this was after the Globe & Mail reported the fact.

Pretty good, for a newspaper blog.

Now if only we could get Zerbisias to become a real blogger and turn her comments section on.

It would certainly take her off the MSM hitlist of Corporate Bloggers.

**NOTE** If you want to read the Globe & Mail Bilderberg article, go through Google News. Scroll down to May 23rd to find it HERE.

Expand your personal Blogosphere (Part III)

2005-05-25T13:16:00.000-06:00

Breebop is trying to start a short-fiction blog of stories; I have signed up and am pretty pumped about giving short fiction writing a shot.

Also, check out THIS example of fine creative blogging that involves a mutant Tiger Mole, a gas-guzzler graveyard in winter and a blogger in the role of Pierre Trudeau. I give it a 10/10 for creativity in blogging. Amazing.

Also, if you are dummy and are new to blogging, you might want to check out Andrew's tips for making a great blog.

On being more creative

2005-05-25T12:42:00.000-06:00

Via THIS post over at Breebop, I cam across an interesting post at the Gaping Void entitled "How to be More Creative". Just read it. There's a lot of wisdom borne from experience tied up in those words.

Getting to know the Liberal Spin-masters

2005-05-24T15:38:00.000-06:00

Well, things are getting even more dirty. The Liberals, as reported in THIS National Post piece, are billing Canadians one million dollars to protect them from the Gomery stench. The Libs have set up a special "war room" to deal with the Gomery fallout; what's interesting is WHO is spinning the spin.

"Revelations from the inquiry, which is digging into the $250-million sponsorship scheme, forced the Liberals to set aside $750,000 in a trust fund to pay back money improperly obtained by the party.

One memo to Mr. Himelfarb indicates the strategy office was set up almost immediately after the Martin government launched the inquiry in February 2004 upon the release of Auditor General Sheila Fraser's damning report on the sponsorship program.

Dated Feb. 18, 2004, the memo describes "the intergovernmental co-ordination group" being set up in the PCO, the nerve centre of the federal government, under the proposed direction of bureaucrat Guy McKenzie. However, the summary and attachments are mostly blanked out, under section 23 of the Access to Information Act, due to "solicitor/client privilege."

Guy McKenzie

From the Canadian Press, February, 2004:

"Fraser plans next week to hand the House's public accounts committee another list of people who authorized sponsorship transactions involving departments and Crown corporations.

Also named Friday were Jim Judd, secretary of the Treasury Board; Ran Quail, former deputy minister of public works who oversaw the troubled sponsorship program; Pierre Tremblay and Chuck Guite, former directors of the sponsorship plan; Guy McKenzie, executive director of Communications Canada; Marc LeFrancois, president of Via Rail; and Christina Sirsly, a Via Rail vice-president."

Translation: One of the people under investigation in the Gomery Inquiry is responsible for setting up the department responsible for de-torquing any Gomery fallout. Interesting.

Ursula Menke

"The office's operating budget now totals $1,068,000 after its first-year budget of $534,000 in 2004-05 was renewed for a second year, according to Hali Gernon of the PCO.

Ms. Gernon said the office has a small staff of about "four or five" employees and since June 2004 has been under the direction of lawyer Ursula Menke, the former deputy commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard and inspector general of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Claiming "solicitor/client privilege," the PCO did not release any of the meeting minutes or briefing notes of the co-ordinating committee in response to the Access to Information request made by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin."

Translation: Someone with CSIS ties is now managing the Psy-op to de-torque the Gomery Inquiry. However, to Menke's credit, she did, in 1993, detail how a CSIS report of its own activities was incomplete. I hope that she is able to report how the Gomery Inquiry is an incomplete investigation of Liberal corruption. Read more about Menke HERE.

"Menke's career in the public and private sectors has helped her to develop policy development and problem solving skills. Prior to joining the CRTC, she held such positions as Vice President, Council and Secretary General at the Metropolitan life insurance company. She was also Inspector General of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Senior Corporate Adviser in the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions of Canada, as well as Legal Adviser in the Department of Finance."

So the Department of Finance might be her connection to PMPM.

The end of Canada?

2005-05-24T14:14:00.000-06:00

From American in T.O., I found THIS interesting analysis:

"I've been predicting it for years. And ever since I've been thinking about it, I've also thought--contrary to conventional wisdom--that it would be the western provinces, and particularly oil-rich Alberta, that would be the first to leave, rather than Quebec.

. . .

If the confederation comes apart at the seams, which I do genuinely expect within the next few years at most, BC and Alberta would thrive as independent countries. With a loss of revenue, Ontario would be forced into the impossible task of funding its socialism on its own, and I say that's for the best because it's probably the only thing that might force them out of that mindset."

Whoa. Read MORE.

Liberals bill taxpayers $1million to spin Gomery fallout

2005-05-24T13:55:00.000-06:00

From the National Post:

"The Liberal government has set up a secret war room -- at a cost of about $1 million to Canadian taxpayers -- to handle the fallout from the Gomery commission.

Documents obtained by the Citizen through the Access to Information Act reveal that the rapid-response war room, which is in almost daily contact with the Prime Minister's Office and the government's top bureaucrat, Alex Himelfarb, operates out of the Privy Council Office.

The cost of the strategic office, which does everything from preparing answers for question period in the House of Commons to keeping the Prime Minister's Office abreast of testimony at the inquiry, covers the salaries of staff and expenses.

The war room and its cost came to light on the heels of last week's complaints from Justice John Gomery about officials exaggerating the cost of his inquiry."

Calgary-Edmonton Highway renamed - after the Queen

2005-05-24T13:20:00.000-06:00

From the CBC:

"On Monday at a dinner with the Queen, Klein announced that Alberta was also renaming Highway 2 in her honour.

Alberta's busiest highway – which runs between Calgary and Edmonton – will now be known as Queen Elizabeth II Highway.

New road signs went up on Tuesday."

I will try to get some photos of these new signs. In the meantime, CLICK HERE to view pictures of Alberta's busiest transport corridor.

MSM Blackout: GG linked to Anti-Harper website

2005-05-24T12:33:00.000-06:00

Read THIS and THIS.

MSM Blackout: 15,000 protesters convene on the Hill

2005-05-24T11:59:00.000-06:00

705 Tory asks the MSM and the blogosphere to focus on something other than Belinda and the Queen: the fact that 15,000 protesters have taken up residence on the Hill to rail against the Liberals and gay marriage, among other things.

As 705 Tory points out, the protest by 8,000 people and even the March 19th protest of 500 people received more media coverage than this single article from google news.

Focus people, focus.

Blogging: You'd be surprised

2005-05-24T01:00:00.000-06:00

Okay, so one of the most popular blog posts I have going on right now is THIS one on the fact that Paul Martin scheduled the confidence vote on the same day that Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith opened in movie theatres.

I guess my blog comes up #1 when you google ' "revenge of the sith" budget'.

Well, go and check out IMDB.

Fishing the Red Deer River

2005-05-24T00:29:00.000-06:00

Here's a picture of my Dad fishing the Red Deer River.

Oh, and here's the small Cutthroat Trout he caught on a red and white lure. The Dog's name is Tony, after Tony Montana, the main character in Scarface. He's a nice, albeit somewhat creepy little black lab.

Non-corporate Bloggers

2005-05-23T23:58:00.000-06:00

Partly due to the popularity of Alberta Blogs, I have gone and started an anti-blog ring of all the corporate bloggers out there who are perverting the blogosphere with their Mainstream Media pulpits. Folks like Lorne Gunter and Paul Wells who claim to be bloggers, yet strangely turn their comments off. Sort of like Andrew Coyne has done.

As I have stated before, Newspaper writers are not bloggers, and in full concurrence is MKBraaten.

Here is why Andrew Coyne suspended his blog's comments feature:

"The comments have frankly gone to seed, overrun with western separatists, Bilderberg conspiracy theorists and various other cranks."

Hey, I am the only person in Canada to mention the name "Bilderberg" without the words "conspiracy theorist" in the same sentence. The Bilderberg meetings are an important global consensus-forming mechanism.

Furthermore, Coyne lumps in Western Separatists with the Bilderberg "Conspiracy theorists". What a crock. Alberta Separatism is a real channel of anti-liberal angst in Alberta, and to dismiss it as crankdom is foolish. It's real. So maybe that means that the Bilderberg cronies really do have some influence on Canadian affairs, eh?

The suits at the National Post must have gotten nervous with all the comments featured on Coyne's blog and they have probably pressured him into turning the feature off until a non-anonymous blog comment feature is invented or used. He's the new Zerbisias.

Coyne has just stepped out of the blogosphere and has become an ONLINE NEWSPAPER COLUMNIST. I therefore have added him to the Non Corporate Blogger Hitlist of MSM bloggers who do not enable the comments feature on their blogs. To his credit, however, he still links to the technorati threads that are commenting on his posts.

Until then, they are just newspaper columnists posing as bloggers. In Skater terms, "Poseurs". They would be better off bloggin anonymously as the blogger at Right Ho! has done.

If you can agree with the Non-Corporate Blogger Manifesto, then boycott the blogs on the MSM hitlist until they enable true, two-way blogosphere communication on their blogs.

If you want to join me in the fight, not to rid the blogosphere of these MSM bloggers, but to get them to become true bloggers by turning on their comments, then fly the non-corporate blogger button and link it to the Manifesto.

Victoria Day Red Ensign Standard

2005-05-23T22:34:00.000-06:00

This time, the Monarchist is hosting the Red Ensign Standard. Check it out. See also the Tipping Point.

Some fine, fine blogging worth reading.

Google: yes, it gets more personalized

2005-05-20T01:41:00.000-06:00

Check out the newer, more customizable Google page: google.com/ig. Pretty soon it will serve you beer, scratch customizable body parts and give you free life advice. It's true.

Stronach Parachuted into CSL-influenced portfolio

2005-05-19T20:03:00.000-06:00

I'm just trying to understand the miscellanea of Carlyle-group-esque consulting firms such as Lansdowne Technologies and Auresco Consulting that may somehow be related to the Stronach defection.

It seems as though Paul Martin has parachuted Belinda Stepford into a Liberal-friendly department: HRSDC.

Check out the client list of Lansdowne Technologies.

HRSDC is among them.

Who owns Lansdowne? According to their site, it's sort of complex:"In 1989, Canadian Shipbuilding and Engineering (CS&E) became a shareholder in Lansdowne to support their requirement for project management and integrated logistics support. In 2003, CS&E sold their shares in Lansdowne to the Upper Lakes Group (ULGI). "

So CS&E used to own Lansdowne technologies, but they sold their shares to the Upper Lakes Group. According to the Port Weller Dry Docks, a division of CSE, the company named CSE "was formed in 1986 by the merger of the shipbuilding and ship repair divisions of two of Canada’s largest private shipping companies: Canada Steamship Lines (CSL), now part of the CSL Group, and Upper Lakes Shipping, now named Upper Lakes Group Inc".

Okay, so Lansdowne is owned by ULGI, which in turn, "merged with" or had a significant interest acquired by, CSL.But then, read the rest of Lansdowne's history:

"In April of 2003, Lansdowne merged with FirstMark Technologies Ltd. and the combined companies now operate under the Lansdowne banner."

Now, according to the Canadian Competition Act, the definition of a merger is:91. In sections 92 to 100, "merger" means the acquisition or establishment, direct or indirect, by one or more persons, whether by purchase or lease of shares or assets, by amalgamation or by combination or otherwise, of control over or significant interest in the whole or a part of a business of a competitor, supplier, customer or other person. R.S., 1985, c. 19 (2nd Supp.), s. 45.

So, just because Lansdowne merged with Firstmark, we are led to believe, from Lansdowne's website, that they are the only two parties involved with the company. On one level, yes that's true, but CSL still owns ULGI which in turn owns Lansdowne.

Look back to 2003, when Lansdowne made headlines:

"Increased scrutiny of his business holdings prompted Martin to transfer control of CSL to his sons in August.

However, the move has failed to silence critics who say that as long as the company remains in the family, the man who will likely become the next prime minister hasn't solved his problem.

Government documents obtained by the Alliance show that Lansdowne Technologies Inc., a company owned indirectly by Martin's shipping empire, won $12.2-million in federal contracts between January, 1993 and June, 2003.

Lansdowne is an Ottawa company whose key customers include the RCMP and a variety of government departments. It's a subsidiary of Canada Shipbuilding & Engineering Ltd. (CS&E), which in turn is a subsidiary of Canada Steamship Lines."

So, Paul Martin has parachuted Belinda Stronach into a ministry that his Lansdowne subsidiary consults. Here are some of the things that Stronach is in charge of:

Canada Student Loans Program

Employment Insurance (EI)

Foreign Worker Program

Social Insurance Number (SIN)

I wonder what sorts of kickbacks will happen in terms of Magna International, Lansdowne Technologies and this corporate kleptocracy. Whatever did happen to the EI scandal? Where'd that money go? Something's fishy here, and I can't quite put my finger on it.

Alberta Blogs - Join it!

2005-05-19T18:15:00.000-06:00

I am looking for fellow Alberta Bloggers to join the Alberta Blogs blogroll.

If you are interested, click HERE.

Government stays

2005-05-19T17:44:00.000-06:00

In other news, Kyle drew this one up:

Hey, just anticipating market demand.

For my purposes, I like this one, though.

UPDATE:

Thanks to the photoshopping skills of Makhno, we have yet another Alberta Red Ensign.

The other woman

2005-05-19T17:24:00.000-06:00

Via JBUG I found a link to THIS post from AGWN about Paul Martin's "other" woman who ran against Stronach on the Liberal ticket and lost.

I wonder if the CPC will recruit her to run again against Stronach. It would ony be fair, since the voters of Newmarket-Aurora voted in a Conservative.

Sweet, sweet justice.

Decriminalize the Liberals

2005-05-19T15:04:00.000-06:00

Click it!

P-Mann on BS

2005-05-19T02:10:00.000-06:00

Just like the last article was courtesy of Complacent Nation, so is this one by Preston Manning, writing about Belinda Stronach, stating "the right prescription for dealing with our present political malady is an old one -- ordinary people rising to the occasion under trying and difficult circumstances, and taking charge of their own political destiny and that of their country. It's called democracy -- the real thing. Canadians should try it some time."

Ah, Canarchy.

Cadman hints at voting Liberal

2005-05-19T02:05:00.000-06:00

From CBC news:

OTTAWA - Chuck Cadman, one of two Independent MPs whose votes will decide the fate of Paul Martin's Liberals, is hinting that he will support the government, a vote that would keep the Liberals in power.

Oil-for-food: Ouch

2005-05-18T22:06:00.000-06:00

Check out this quote by Galloway from Xymphora:

"I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.

Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies."

Creepiest story of the day....

2005-05-18T20:55:00.000-06:00

From Nealenews comes one creepy story from old E-town:

Blood running down his nose and shirt, White caught up to the man. "He said, 'You have to wipe that blood up.'

"Then he took me by the back of the head and tried to lick the blood off. I pushed him away. It was like something you watch on TV."

The assailant tried getting into two other cars before jumping into a third, White said.

Gagnon said the suspect threatened the man and ordered him to drive him downtown and the man agreed.

Cops are looking for a native male, five-foot-nine, 200 pounds with short, red-dyed hair. He was wearing a black tracksuit with tear-away pants. He has tattoos up past his neck.

Ramblin' fever

2005-05-18T20:49:00.000-06:00

In the spirit of Jim Bobby and now Edward T. Bear: some lyrics for Beelinduh.

Hardly had to change a thing here.

Artist/Band: Haggard Merle
Lyrics for Song: Ramblin' Fever
Lyrics for Album: The Ultimate Collection

My hat don't hang with the same party too long.
My ears can't stand to hear the same old song.
An' I don't leave the party long enough,
To bog down in the mud.

'Cos I've got ramblin' fever in my blood.

Caught this ramblin' fever long ago,
When I first heard about Paul Martin's blow.
If someone said I ever gave a damn,
Pete, they damn sure told you wrong.
I've had ramblin' fever all along.

Ramblin' fever,
The kind that can't be measured by degrees.
Ramblin' fever,
There ain't no kind of cure for my disease.

There's times I'd like to bed down on a sofa,
And let Peter MacKay rub my back.
And spend the early morning drinking coffee,
Talkin' about when I'll be coming back.

But I don't let no no MP tie me down,
And I never get too old to get around.
I wanna die a Prime Minister and rot away,
Like some old backbencher troll,
Rest this ramblin' fever in the soul.

Ramblin' fever,
The kind that can't be measured by degrees.
Ramblin' fever,
There ain't no kind of cure for my disease.

Ramblin' fever.

Ramblin' fever.

Ramblin' fever.

Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano a Big Polluter

2005-05-18T17:58:00.000-06:00

From Yahoo: Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano a Big Polluter

Huh.

VOLCANO, Hawaii - Kilauea volcano, one of Hawaii's most popular tourist attractions, is also by far the state's worst air polluter. Researchers now are trying to determine if that also makes it one of the state's biggest health risks.
ADVERTISEMENT

Since it began erupting on Jan. 3, 1983, the volcano has been sending an average of 1,000 metric tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere each day, according to the Hawaii chapter of the American Lung Association.

This is 6,000 times the amount emitted by a major industrial polluter on the mainland, making Kilauea the nation's top producer of sulfur dioxide.

Parliament to become a Red Light District?

2005-05-18T16:30:00.000-06:00

From Jay Jardine comes this story:

Gatineau Businesses Suggest 'Red-Light' District

"Some business owners in Gatineau are suggesting city council create a red-light district to contain prostitutes.

They're upset that customers, and tenants, are being scared away by the sometimes-aggressive hookers.

Since they feel prostitution won't go away, they feel there should be a zone that prostitutes be allowed to patrol. Business owners suggest an area around the federal government buildings on Laurier.

But Gatineau police say that's unlikely since solicitation is still against the law."

Belinda Stepford in charge of student loans?

2005-05-18T16:23:00.000-06:00

Check out THIS excellent piece over at Babbling Brooks, where Damian has coined the name "Belinda Stepford" to describe the billionaire who is in charge of student loans and housing, among other things.

Alberta Government Laughs at "Code of Silence" award

2005-05-18T14:53:00.000-06:00

I just received an email through the Canadian Association of Journalists with a link to THIS Calgary Herald article stating that the Alberta government has mockingly accepted the CAJ's "Code of Silence" award for the most secretive government in Canada.

Here's what Hugo Rodrigues, from Woodstock ON had to say in that email:

"Klein's office released a statement on having been chosen as winners, even
calling the award a "cone of silence." I can't find the release on Klein's
or the AB gov't's website. But his statement has drawn some reaction, with
CAJ president Paul Schneidereit being interviewed on it.

The Edmonton Journal ran the story yesterday, here the canada.com version
reprinted by the Herald (subscriber access).

Alberta Tories accept Code of Silence award
The Klein government mockingly said it will accept the Canadian Association
of Journalists' annual Code of Silence Award, which it earned last year as
the "most secretive government body in Canada."

Ah, the Stalinist Republic of Oilberta.

Harper, you're screwed

2005-05-18T03:31:00.000-06:00

So Stephen Harper claims that the Tories will vote in the original budget, but will oppose the "Buzz Hargrove/NDP" amendment to it.

CBC, quoting Harper:

"It's our intention to support Bill C-43, the original budget," Harper said on Tuesday night. "We'll oppose Bill C-48, which was the deal with the NDP, which is complete irresponsible fiscal policy."

Okay, and what if Paul Martin somehow retracts the amendment, or the NDP introduce an amendment to amend that amendment? What if PMPM somehow whips out his playbook of constitutional technicalities, citing "You didn't say Simon Says"?

Either way, the original budget will pass, and maybe Martin will somehow weasel his way out of the amendment vote.

What if, eh? I seem to recall that the original budget wasn't that popular with everyone, so maybe Martin has concocted the Hargrove Amendment (Which, by the way is meaningless due to its wording) in order to make the original budget look better by comparison?

So if the original budget passes, this is a vote of confidence in favor of the government.

I'm waiting to see which Jedi Parliamentary trick will follow the vote on the first budget.

Magna Competitor files for bankruptcy after Stronach's move

2005-05-18T03:18:00.000-06:00

Check out this post at Reality Expanded.

This is a mind-numbing thought. Good-bye Bombardier and Bell; hello Power Corp. and Magna! Wow.

"And today, Tuesday, Magna's US competitor, Auto-parts supplier Collins & Aikmans filed for bankruptcy protection. They must understand the Canadian Liberal Party's mehodologies: now that all of Jean Cretien's family and friends are no longer able to feed from the public trough (ref. the Gomery Commission, Bombardier's recent loss of Federal funding and subsequent stock market plunge... beware Bell Expressvu!) there will be billions of freshly paid taxpayer dollars available to throw at "non-advertising" based Canadian companies who know how to hide from the likes of, sharp as a razor: Shiela Frazer, such as , oh... say Magna!"

Good discussion of Power Corp.

2005-05-18T03:06:00.000-06:00

There's a good discussion of Power Corp going on over at Andrew Coyne's Epic "1,000 comment thread".

Here they are, in order of appearance:

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

And it keeps going.....

Mark Steyn: Big Brother Caused our hooded youth

2005-05-18T02:25:00.000-06:00

THIS explains Whyte Avenue in Edmonton very, very well.

Expand your personal Blogosphere (part 2)

2005-05-18T01:05:00.000-06:00

From this post at Breebop comes one really interesting story. The writing at that post and at Breebop does seem to have a strong Vancouver sense to it. Dunno, but that blog just really reminds me of Vancouver.

Also, check out No Turner Left Unstoned. Finally someone discusses Belinda's defection without using the word "Whore". Besides the OC I mean.

Also, do your part to help Andrew break 1,000 comments on this 12-word post.

One good Boog

2005-05-17T19:50:00.000-06:00

Via The Heart of the Matter comes this link to Jim Bobby. Jim Bobby has been justaphukn givin 'er since Feb-u-ary and if you don't like his writin', then jes change the channel.

Buddy reminds me of the down home wisdom of theWarren Kommishoner.

Make sure you listen to Jim Bobby's song about Bee-lin-duh.

Summer/Fall Political Predicitons

2005-05-17T18:57:00.000-06:00

Well, it may be that Stephen Harper is the man who might be seeking a new job over the summer, and it will be interesting to see if any other bombshells could top the defection of Belinda Stronach. Only in the realms of the absurd could one find a political situation that could top this one. Here are just a few.

August 1, 2005. Ralph Klein announces his retirement from the Alberta PC's and says that he will move to an undisclosed Atlantic province to take advantage of the money that exited Alberta eastward.

August 5, 2005. Jack Layton and the NDP propose a new anti-pollution measure - the "Gomery Act" to contain the stench of Liberal corruption emanating from the Gomery site.

September 2, 2005. Stephen Harper resigns from the Conservative party and goes provincial, where he runs against Jim Dinning and Ted Morton for the Alberta PC leaderhip position.

October 6, 2005. Gomery inquiry finds that Paul Martin laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money for a global crime syndicate. RCMP and CSIS find a grow-op on his farm, along with several hundred thousand dollars in cash. Among the bills is a map to the location of Jimmy Hoffa's body.

October 7, 2005. Martin resigns and calls an election.

October 8, 2005. Jean Chretien comes out of retirement and announces that he will run for the Conservative leadership spot. Cites a 2-year tv binge of TLC's "Trading Spaces" as his inspiration.

October 9, 2005. Jean Chretien drops out of the leadership race after he is implicated in the laundering of money found on Martin's farm.

October 12, 2005. Stronach wins Liberal leadership bid. Promises to nominate Maurice Strong and Paul Desmarais for Senate seats.

October 17, 2005. Rona Ambrose wins the Conservative Leadership bid. Stronach fires catty comments across the bow "She's not rich enough to be PM". Rona Ambrose responds: "Bitch".

October 18, 2005. SUN newspaper headline: "Election 2005: Girl-on-girl mudslinging".

October 30, 2005. Harper wins the provincial election and faces a Separatist Opposition in the Alberta Legislature. His old professors from the U of Calgary, Tom Flanagan and Barry Cooper manage to win their respective ridings.

November 19, 2005. Harper names Cooper "Minister of Interprovincial Affairs". Vows to construct a natural gas pipeline around the Alberta perimeter to create a literal "firewall" of wellheads spewing flames 1,000 feet into the air. Minister of Environment, Jim Dinning, proposes giant fans along the border to blow the C02 eastward.

November 21, 2005. Federal election held. Result: Exact same seating arrangement as in 2004. Canadians throw arms in air. Stronach beats Ambrose.

December 8, 2005. Oil found underneath Alberta Legislature. Largest supply of oil found underneath Edmonton.

December 9, 2005. Borders to Alberta closed.

December 10, 2005. Alberta Finance releases a feasibility report detailing a secret PC Centennial plan to give every resident of Alberta $10,000 for every year they have resided in Alberta after 1995.

Stronach High enough in the gene pool for Alcock?

2005-05-17T17:56:00.000-06:00

Just a question.

Revival of political public may depend on blogs

2005-05-17T16:57:00.000-06:00

From the SUN.

"The political blogs appear to have captured a great many more young people in the net of politics than all of the MSM columnists combined. I've no doubt the parties are going to set up blogs and use them in the next election.

But there are dangers for the bloggers. It is yet to be legally settled whether blogs are subject to libel laws. They certainly can get you fired. A Delta Airlines flight attendant, Ellen Simonetti, was sacked for posting suggestive photos of herself in a carefully-draped uniform. Starbucks fired an employee for blogging about the company and its management.

Not everyone is persuaded that blogging will last. Paul Wells of Inkless Wells, thinks they are a fad -- "the CB radio of the 21st century."

Future headline: July 1, 2005

2005-05-17T16:53:00.000-06:00

I'll be waiting to see this headline on Canada day:

"Stephen Harper resigns to campaign for Alberta Progressive Leadership role"

Hey, he retreated from the Hill before, didn't he?

Line, over the line

2005-05-17T16:36:00.000-06:00

Line, over the line.

Echoes of concurrence. HERE and HERE

Oh, and one more poster, done by my dad:

Liberal Scarface Campaign

2005-05-17T16:33:00.000-06:00

Scarface Libranos:

Paul Martin on Canadian Politics: "In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women."

Make your own lawn sign HERE.

Belinda.ca down, but saved

2005-05-17T16:18:00.000-06:00

Belinda.ca is getting some red html code installed in it, but you can read the old one HERE.

Hat tip: Revmod.ca

Headlines of the Future: 2009

2005-05-17T15:59:00.000-06:00

Washington Post, January 13, 2009: "Hillary Rodham Clinton gets set for Inaugural Ball".

National Post, January 14, 2009: "Belinda Stronach, Canadian Prime Minister, to visit Washington for Inaugural Ball".

Globe & Mail, January 15, 2009: "Bill Clinton sowing seeds as U.S. Ambassador to Canada"

Toronto Star, January 15, 2009: "Peter MacKay, Official Leader of opposition to marry Frank Stronach"

Report on Business, January 20, 2009: "Magna International, Power Corp and Bombardier announce Merger, file for bankruptcy and ink new deal to supply an Ottawa-D.C. High-speed train".

Magna Stock

2005-05-17T15:39:00.000-06:00

Keep an eye on Magna International stock HERE.

Peter MacKay: What goes around comes around

2005-05-17T15:13:00.000-06:00

First: Let's be clear: Belinda owes the conservative party over $300,000 dollars!

Now, as for Peter MacKay,
From today's Toronto Star:

"Tory insiders now say he was one of the last to know of Stronach’s planned defection.

MacKay got the news early today and had the unhappy task of notifying Conservative Leader Stephen Harper.

“If he was smitten a few weeks ago, he’s probably smoked today,” said a party source.

Harper didn’t get a call from Stronach herself until moments before she appeared at Prime Minister Paul Martin’s side to make the jaw-dropping announcement.

Stronach would not discuss MacKay in detail, saying their relationship is a personal matter."

From Toronto Free Pess:'Back-stabbing Belinda' jumps ship to return to Liberals

All I gotta say is, in reference to Peter MacKay getting backstabbed is this: What goes around comes around. <- Click to see a photo with the caption: " David Orchard and Peter MacKay shaking hands in the hotel room where they negotiated and signed the agreement which ensured MacKay winning the PC Party leadership."

Gomery? What Gomery?

2005-05-17T13:51:00.000-06:00

The words heard all across Ontario after Stronach's defection to the Liberals.

Maybe Bill Clinton brainwashed her.

The CBC has just gone into Stronach-Queen visit overdrive just as the Forensic Auditors in the Gomery Inquiry get set to tetify this thursday.

Fire up the propaganda mills!

Red Ensign button

2005-05-17T03:13:00.000-06:00

For fellow Red Ensign Bloggers:

Download it and save it to your photo space provider.

Newspaper blogs aren't blogs at all

2005-05-16T22:45:00.000-06:00

Matt has an interesting post on the recent foray of established newspapers into the blogosphere. The blogosphere is abuzz about the fact that Lorne Gunter has a new blog, as does Arrianna Huffington as well as columnists at the Toronto Star, where Antonia Zerbisias states that "If anybody is wondering, I won't be linking much to the Star's rival papers, the Globe and Mail and the National Post, because they charge for some/most of their content".

Tranlsation: their content might be better than ours, as evidenced by people's willingness to pay for it, so there's no need to link to them. We have advertiser's interests at heart, after all!

Already Zerbisias has been receiving emails concerning her "corporate blog", but she's not just any journo. Heck no, in the intersts of upholding the Charter of Rights and freedoms, she has posted some of those emails!

Hey, don't get me wrong - I can understand why a corporate newspaper blog would want to turn their comments section off. They'll claim that it's to avoid "flamers", which relates to a tragedy of the commons type of outcome stemming from anonymous posts. It happened to the U of A Student Webboard, which was shut down recently.

Zaerbisias claims that: "In fact, you can bet that the suits are watching this blog very nervously because they know that, to maintain even a shred of cybercred, it has to be free-ranging. That they went with the intemperate me as their beta blogger -- others will follow -- suggests that they are either out of their minds or taking this enterprise very seriously."

Translation: The suits are trying to find a way around the Tragedy of the Commons outcome - to keep the content free of any comments that may tip of "da gubbmint" - yeah, it's the government's fault that they can't have a comment feature! What about advertisers?

In order to make the internet "safe" I would reccomend to the "suits" that they move the corporate blogs over to Internet2 and make them visible only in a Maurice Strong-approved ManyOne web browser and leave the rest of us hacks in the dirty, porn-filled cyberspace of the regular Internet.

But back to MKBraaten's post.

MKBraaten states:

"What benefit does corporate blogging actually have to a company’s profit? Especially for a news agency! Although, I can think of a few ideas such as advertisement, I cannot think of any way they could generate material revenues from a blog. Or, maybe they plan on making blogging a subscriber based business model whereby a reader pays a fee to access a blog. If that occurred, I would sell my computers, and never use the net again (ya right) but you get my drift, the one last medium us users have against big media would finally be ‘corporatized.’"

He laments the rise of a two-tiered blogosphere where "professional" journalists are given more credit and accolades than the regular Joes simply due to their affiliation with a newspaper. The new economy is an economy of attention, and the stars are those who command it. Attention = money in the Attention economy. The bloggers have been steadily drawing attention away from the Mainstream Media (we in the blogosphere call it the MSM), so the MSM has adopted the old adage "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!".

If you want to get inside the head of Lorne Gunter, for example, read this post where he welcomes you to his blog in the hopes that you will welcome him into the blogosphere. Gunter's blog is entitled "As I Please" and is befitting of the perversion of the blogosphere by the MSM where the largely one-way direction of communication is imported into the blogosphere. Lorne has noticed that the blogosphere is pissed off with the MSM, but that they are, at least in Canada at the moment, more pisssed off with the government.

Lorne drones on:

"A word about the name I have chosen: I stole it. "As I Please" was what George Orwell called his column at Tribune, a lefty British paper associated with British Labour politician and minister Ney Bevan. Orwell was literary editor there from 1943 until after the Second World War. His "As I Please" pieces were among the finest criticism he did in a lifetime of fine criticism.

I don't claim to be an Orwell, but I have always greatly admired his crisp style and iconoclastic thinking. I hope to do a little honour to his name here."

Translation:

“I’m a blogger too! I stole an idea from someone else, but only after the Canwest legal team advised me that it was okay, since Orwell is dead. I have named my blog after an obscure literary reference, just like many of you people have done! I have borrowed from not just anyone, but George Orwell, who fought tyranny and satirized the gubbmint!

Lorne, again:

“And now a word about me and this blog: I hate big government. Not just big Liberal governments and big NDP governments, but big governments, period. For a brief time in 2000-2001, I hosted an Internet radio talk show. I used to open each show with what I called the 10 most dangerous words in the English language: I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.

“That's where I'm coming from. As Ronald Reagan said in his first inaugural address in 1981, "Government is not the solution, it's the problem." If you trace back the source of most problems -- social, legal and economic -- you will find the root cause is not poverty or corporate greed or individual misbehaviour, it's the basic urge that drives most government action: the desire to centrally plan fairness.”

Translation:
See? I’m just like Orwell! I hate the big, nasty government too! Hopefuly your hatred for big government will obfuscate the fact that you are paying attention to big corporate media in reading this! My posts are so long that after reading them, you won’t have any time to stroll over to Smalldeadanimals! After significant market research, the marketers have told me that Ronald Reagan is the favorite president of right-wing bloggers the world over. I hope you like that I referred to him while casually failing to tell you that government spending skyrocketed under Reagan. As for central planning, well, We will talk later about how I selectively pick only the nicest and best emails rather than have you freely post your comments on my blog!

More Lorne:
“Government's can't keep their noses out of people's affairs. But since governments are also incapable of micromanaging all the details of our lives, all our preferences, all the nuances of our minds and decision-making, all the factors that go into each of our personal choices -- known and unknown -- then their attempts to do so are predestine to fail.”

Translation:
Market research has dictated that most blogs contain spelling errors and poor syntax, so I purposely spelled “predestinined” as “predestine”. Just you try to accuse me of being on a journalistic high horse now, blogosphere! The Government is incapable of micromanaging your life, but hopefully you will be chortling hard enough to forget that I will micromanage my emails and only post the nicest and best comments. More on this later!

Lorne:

“Yet when governments fail, they react like South Seas cargo cults. During the age of Pacific exploration, when whites first made contact with island natives, the would leave behind goods the islanders had never seen. After the strange visitors had left and the natives had used up the goods, a cult would sometimes form around legends of how the foreigners could be persuaded to return with more cargo. Sacrifices would be made, and when, inevitably, those sacrifices would fail to provoke the visitors to reappear, new and bigger sacrifices would be made until all the islanders' livelihoods and possessions had been consumed in a fruitless pursuit of perfection and bliss.”

Translation:
Market researchers have told me that many bloggers lament the lack of historical context in today’s MSM, so I will casually drop references without sourcing my information. I hope that a cult forms around my blog, for I am a legend in my own mind. You will have to make sacrifices in reading this absurdly long post, as you will not have enough time in the day to visit your blogroll, but both you and I know that would be a fruitless pursuit of perfection and bliss.

Lorne:

“Modern governments are like that. When they fail, rather than accepting that their myriad programs and regulations will never conjure an ideal world, they redouble their spending and intrusions on the theory that the only reason their schemes flopped the first time was lack of resources or insufficient meddling. More money and more micromanagement is bound to succeed.”

Translation:
See? It’s the government’s fault that the MSM is failing to deliver the goods to their readers in the pursuit of profits. Rather than accepting an ideal world where the press is free, the MSM has doubled their spending in firing up so many blogs, but hopefully your anger at da gubbmint will draw your attention away from that fact! I get a dollar for every positive email that flows into my blog, so my micromanagement of your comments is sessential to this blog’s survival! But more on that later.

Lorne:

“Frankly, I'm a great believer in individual initiative, enlightened self-interest, the free exchange of goods and ideas and the price mechanism.”

Translation:
After surfing the Amazon wishlists of Canadian bloggers, titles by Austrian Economists, Milton Friedman and Chicago School economists scored in the top ten. Then, after a thorough meta-analysis of the keywords found in this vast literature, several ideals of whimsy were devised to inspire you. Hopefully you are so caught up in Utopia that you fail to realize that even though I say I believe in the free exchange of ideas, I have no intention of actually doing it, because I believe in the price mechanism even more! I won’t post your comments because that would taint the public’s perception of me as an enlightened individual

Lorne:
“I lean toward conservative parties over liberal and socialist ones. I root for the Conservatives in Canada and the Republicans in the US, understanding that even they are far too enamoured of big government these days but accepting that even as bought-off as they are by taxing and spending they are seldom as bad as the alternative.”

Translation:
The CanWest market research team has found a higher quality of writing on conservative blogs than on progressive/socialist ones, so I’d rather be linked to by conservatives. Hopefully my reference to big government will fill your eyes with so much rage, you’ll forget that I am actually trying to “buy off” blogosphere attention!

Lorne:

“If that's where you're at, too, I think you'll enjoy "As I please." If not, I hope this blog will provoke you.”

Translation:
If you hate big government but love big media, then this blog is for you.

Lorne:
“There is no place here for you to post your views (it's called As I Please, after all), but if you want to send me e-mail, there is a link just below the tiny photo of me in the right-hand column next to the my most recent post. And I will respond in future posts to the best ones.”

Translation:
This relates to my comment about big government micro-managing your life. I support the free exchange of ideas just as long as I am “free” to edit the ideas appearing on my blog! Only the best queries will be addressed, since this is a forum of one-way communication, sucker!

Artificial Intelligence

2005-05-16T19:57:00.000-06:00

Hypothesis.ca has a link to 20Q (Click to play), an artificial intelligence game that can usually guess what object you are thinking of.

Think of an object and 20Q will ask you questions about it and then take a guess at what you are thinking. You can buy the handheld version at their website.

The Blue Revolution

2005-05-16T19:36:00.000-06:00

Looks like the Storming of Parliament Hill, as proposed by the Blogging Tories, did not go as well as hoped. At least according to one blogger, Paul Denton at Ravishing Light, who has pictures of the event. He's peeved at the farmers who were "city-slicker bashing".

Maybe I should become an undocumented worker

2005-05-16T14:26:00.000-06:00

Over at Last Amazon there is this post on an interesting Toronto Star article.

A resounding W.T.F. ?!?! must be sounded to the folks at the Star. What a bunch of goofs. Liberal fear-mongering at its apex.

"A plan to legalize thousands of undocumented workers in Canada's underground economy would be in jeopardy if the Liberal minority government falls as a result of a non-confidence vote on Thursday, says Immigration Minister Joe Volpe. The Toronto MP has already signed off on a final draft of the long-anticipated "regularization" plan, which is now "in the queue" for the cabinet's feedback and approval — provided there isn't an election call."

Oh, but wait, the Star writers must have picked one strange example concerning just how lucrative the underground economy is in Canada:

"According to Vilma Filici, president of the Canadian Hispanic Congress, part of a community coalition that has been negotiating with the government, the two sides had a consensus on the basic plan.

"We are very concerned that this (plan) won't happen if there is a vote of non-confidence by the opposition in the parliament," Filici said. "With a new government, we'd be back to the drawing board again and start from scratch."

Filici fears a Conservative government could dump the plan as, he says, the Tories tend to view undocumented workers more as security risks than as potentially valuable contributors to Canadian society.

Daniel Castro, his wife and their two teenage sons from Argentina are among those living in limbo. The family arrived here in early 2001 and had their refugee claim rejected last May.

Together they earn $6,000 a month, which they take in cash. Savings are stashed under a mattress because they're afraid to keep a bank account. They don't get to know neighbours because they move every few months to keep ahead of immigration authorities."

Now, that's not bad money at all.

When eldest son Walter was robbed of his pay at gunpoint near Jane St. and Lawrence Ave. W. last summer, the 18-year-old didn't dare go to the police.

"Our life is between work and home, but we are grateful when we see everyone home in one piece at the end of the day," Daniel Castro said. "We pray the family will still be together the next day."

Their lives are typical among those in the underground economy, who do jobs Canadians often consider undesirable, particularly in construction, the hotel and hospitality industries, domestic help and general labour. They don't qualify for social assistance or employment insurance, and if they get sick they pay for care out of pocket.

Yeah, just like they would have had to pay in their home country, only now they have doubled, tripled, quadrupled their real wage rate.

"They literally live their lives out of a suitcase — often for years — fearing every moment that they will be stopped on the street by police and deported from Canada. Authorities sometimes sweep down on construction sites, where undocumented workers help fill a shortage of skilled workers."

Uh, yeah, because they are here illegally.

What seems lost on the moonbats at the Star is that once these people enter the "legit" economy, their employer's wage bill will go up due to wage requirements and payroll taxes. But their disposable income could actually decrease as taxes eat up their previous cash earnings. That $6,000 a month translates into $36,000 for each wage-earner. That's the Canadian average GDP for cryin' out loud.

The Alberta Red Ensign II

2005-05-16T14:15:00.000-06:00

The Alberta Red Ensign just got a lot cooler, thanks to the photoshopping skills of M.K. Braaten.

Interesting statistics

2005-05-16T13:57:00.000-06:00

Shout out to Heartless Libertarian for digging up this excerpt from the National Post:

"Now the Library of Parliament has released a comparison of violent crime rates in the Northern Plains states versus Canada's Prairie provinces. The simple conclusion: Rates of gun ownership among law-abiding private citizens have no effect on crime.

Despite having nearly twice as many households with guns as their Canadian counterparts -- and similar economic, cultural and social demographics -- Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana and Idaho have lower crime rates than Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Researchers determined "both violent and property crime rates were two-thirds higher in the Canadian Prairie provinces than in the four border states."

Murder was 1.1 times higher; violent assaults and attempted murder, 1.5 times; robbery, 2.1 times; breaking and entering, 2.3; and vehicle theft, 3.2.

Harassing duck hunters, target shooters and gun collectors to register their firearms will have no effect on crime. But don't tell liberals. They take great comfort in their myths."

Feds admit Agent Orange death

2005-05-16T00:55:00.000-06:00

From the Ottawa Sun: Feds admit Agent Orange death.

The Sun has learned that 10 months ago, for the first time in four decades, the government quietly accepted a medical compensation claim from a retired Canadian brigadier general stricken with leukemia.

And my sources have told me that much of that Agent Orange was manufactured, along with Napalm, right here in Edmonton, Alberta.

A Dictatorship?

2005-05-16T00:47:00.000-06:00

Whoa. A bit hyperbolic, but good. Thanks to Rob's comments over at Small Dead Animals.

Mr./ Mrs. X's comments.

I'm still going to call it a state of Canarchy though.

What might have been

2005-05-15T22:41:00.000-06:00

Recalling may of my formative years growing up in Clive, Alberta, the memories that stick in my skull like slush to unwaxed stick tape are those surrounding the sport I loved the most: hockey. It's been a while since I last laced up my skates. They are custom-made Daoust brand skates my Dad bought for me ten years ago at Pro Skate in Edmonton for over 400 dollars. That was a lot of money back then; in fact it still is. Those skates meant a lot to me, because they symbolized the sacrifices of my father and his love of the game. If he loved it enough to fork out for some properly-fitting skates, the I figured I had a lot to live up to. Or maybe he just loved his sons and wanted the best for them.

But it's that sort of sacrifice that the NHL needs to tap into if the fans are going to come back to the game which, like me, they loved.

I remember 1995 as the black year. That year, may father was laid off from his job at Nova just as the economy in Alberta was going straight to pot. Eight dollars for a barrel of oil and less than fifty cents a liter at the gas pumps was nice, but not that good if one makes a living in the Patch. It was a rough year for the family because there was so little work. After re-mortgaging the farm and re-financing his debts every way possible, Dad began to sell off his prized possessions.

My Dad sold off the aluminum boat I often took fishing for Pike, at a lake just to the north people called "Chain Lakes". My Dad even sold the his prized possession: a vintage Coca-Cola machine that sold Coke in glass bottle for 5 cents, just like Dad may have remembered the price of Coke as a young man growing up in North Vancouver. I think he got 900 dollars for that old thing. I recently found one just like it, restored and polished and for sale in a shop in Caesar's Palace Casino in Las Vegas for $9,000 U.S. My Dad sold that old thing so he could afford to pay for his sons to play hockey. My Dad, when times were tough, framed basements for twelve dollars an hour (not easy for a guy over fourty) while Mom scrubbed the toilets of wealthier persons for half that. Yet we still played hockey.

If they could do it, I wonder why the boys in the NHL can't.

I am certain that such sacrifice is not unique, for there are thousands of families just like mine all across the country who have made similar decisions in order to play what has now officially become a rich man's sport. Dad did it not for luxury or the vanity of having three sons play elite hockey; he did it because to him, hockey was a necessity. He did it because hockey was such a part of rural Alberta life that to go without it would be simply out of the question. It was his love of hockey that initially drew me to the sport; I learned the basics on an outdoor rink in Fort McMurray before going into Atoms. Hockey-rich Central Alberta was where those seeds blossomed.

It's that sort of sacrifice that is lost on the owners, the managers and the players who now comprise the National Hockey League. That men of such able resources were allowed to scuttle the season that would have been is an abomination not only to the game, but a mockery of the thousands of Canadians who strive to make it to the show.

Sure, the boys can say that they tried and they tried to reach some sort of a deal, but they did not try hard enough. Money-blindness has made them lose the sense of perseverance and sacrifice they may have had when they were younger. For every league-minimum earning player in the Show, there are at least a dozen people like my brother who would give their left gonad just for a shot at what they have.

So, raise a glass of Molson and think of the spring that might have been. Think of which Canadian team may have made it past the first round to challenge some huge-payroll big-market Yankee team. Think of all the fun you would have had pre-drinking in your back yard after work before going to watch hockey at the pub. Think about the overtime tensions and the stupid-ass penalties called. Raise a glass not for the boys in the show, but for those who know real sacrifice and whose love of the game is what really makes this sport great.

Expand your personal blogosphere

2005-05-15T21:33:00.000-06:00

A few blogs worth checking out today:

Breebop did their apartment up Sims style. Pretty cool.

I think Maderblog should join the Red Ensign Brigade.

Optimus Crime has some pictures of an eco-terrorist in someone's back yard.

Flash Point Canada drops some shout outs to fellow Canadian bloggers.

Get the good, good news at Complacent Nation. I have them in my RSS feeds.

More news at Maple Leaf Web. Too bad they don't have RSS.

At last: someone in the blogosphere has realized that Gomery is a dog-and-pony show. A distraction, if you will. To read more, see the Boreal Blog.

His Gray Eminence Maurice Strong

2005-05-15T20:13:00.000-06:00

Have a read of His Gray Eminence Maurice Strong.

"Among Strong's closest friends are Kofi Annan; Jim Wolfensohn, the outgoing World Bank leader who once worked for Strong; Malloch Brown, a Brit who is Annan's Cabinet chief; Al Gore, to whom he donated $100,000; the sinister and corrupt Tongsun Park; Mikhail Gorbachev; Gro Harlem Brundtland, a former prime minister of Norway; Paul Martin, the embattled prime minister of Canada; and another Canadian power-lady at the U.N., Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette.

Ms. Frechette is not only a member of Paul Volcker's team investigating the oil-for-food scandal but also a subject of its scrutiny. A longtime friend of Strong, both of them were close to the executives of the Paris-based banking conglomerate, Banque Nationale de Paris, BNP. This was the bank selected by Annan that made at least 400 suspect payments to Iraq that could have been used for weapons and the support of terrorism.

Last month, Strong resigned as Annan's special representative in Korea. He gave as his reason a U.N. hiring mix-up that put his step-daughter on his U.N. payroll for the past two years.

Throughout his life, Strong has lived a "grace-and-favor" existence. His specialty is turning business moguls into friends of international bureaucrats to avoid the delays of democracy.

Recently, Strong was looking for an apartment in Beijing, where his Canadian interests are already enmeshed with the Chinese Red Army. "

Alberta government wins fifth annual CAJ Code of Silence Award

2005-05-15T18:15:00.000-06:00

From: Canadian Association of Journalists — - News Releases

Attention News Editors:

Alberta government wins fifth annual CAJ Code of Silence Award

WINNIPEG, May 14 /CNW/ - The Government of Alberta has been named the
winner of the Canadian Association of Journalists' fifth annual Code of
Silence Award recognizing the most secretive government body in Canada.

Premier Ralph Klein's Conservative government denied journalists and opposition parties access to public documents on the use of a government plane until after the 2004 provincial election. The Edmonton Journal filed a Freedom of Information request with Alberta Infrastructure, which waited six months, until two days after the provincial election, to release the documents.

"This year was exceptionally tough because all the finalists tried so hard to keep journalists in the dark," said CAJ President Paul Schneidereit.

"The Alberta government squeaked by with an astonishingly brazen performance by Premier Ralph Klein and his supporting cast. Ralph, the Code of Silence has landed."

The Journal's resulting four-part series showed the air transportation service was used like a private taxi company by Klein and his ministers, with virtually no oversight. An FOI commissioner has ordered a public hearing into how the government processed the newspaper's FOI request.

Other deserving finalists for the fifth annual Code of Silence Award included:

- The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, for its raid of Ottawa Citizen reporter Juliet O'Neill's Ottawa home while executing search warrants under the Security of Information Act.

- The British Columbia government, for a series of actions that have undermined the province's freedom of information laws.

- The federal Treasury Board and Liberal government, for their collective foot-dragging on comprehensive, effective whistleblower legislation.
- The Ontario Attorney General, for withholding court records from the public without explanation.

The award strives to ensure that those who work hardest to uphold a strict code of silence in dealing with journalists and the public receive appropriate recognition.

The list of finalists is based on nominations from journalists and the public.

Last year's winner was Health Canada, for denying meaningful access to a database of prescription drugs that could harm or even kill Canadians. A parliamentary all-party standing committee on health eventually slammed the department for failing to effectively protect Canadians. Health Canada finally relented more than five years after it was challenged.

Prior winners also include the Nova Scotia government for a year-long pattern of secrecy, including instituting the highest fees in the country for access to information requests; the federal Department of Justice for giving itself the power to override the Access to Information Act and withhold any information relating to international relations, national security or defence it deems sensitive; and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment for withholding information about the Walkerton water tragedy that claimed seven lives and sickened thousands more following contamination of the town's water system.

The Canadian Association of Journalists is a professional organization with more than 1,400 members across Canada. The CAJ's primary roles are public interest advocacy work and quality professional development for journalists.

For further information: Paul Schneidereit, CAJ president,
(613) 290-2903; John Dickins, CAJ executive director, (613) 290-2903

Rockanomics

2005-05-15T18:07:00.000-06:00

Hat tip to Jay Currie For digging up this Slate.com analysis of one kick-ass economics paper.

Letting the big fish swim away

2005-05-15T17:26:00.000-06:00

Just a great read.

Gomery: Letting the big fish swim away

An excerpt:

"Gomery watchers have grown accustomed to hyperbolic descriptions of the various testimonies, but as someone who spent the past year interviewing Alfonso Gagliano, Beryl Wajsman and others for a book, I can honestly say nothing surprised me until this past week, when former PLCQ director-general Benôit Corbeil told the commission that whenever the perennially cash-strapped Quebec wing needed money, a call would be made to John Rae, executive assistant to the office of Power Corp. chairman Paul Desmarais. According to Corbeil, Rae would then call Banque Nationale president André Bérard to ask that the party's line of credit be increased. In three years, PLCQ's debt soared from $30,000 to more than $3 million."

Retracted Newsweek Story: A Mistake?

2005-05-15T16:54:00.000-06:00

From REUTERS:

"The weekly news magazine said in its May 23 edition that the information had come from a "knowledgeable government source" who told Newsweek that a military report on abuse at Guantanamo Bay said interrogators flushed at least one copy of the Koran down a toilet in a bid to make detainees talk.

But Newsweek said the source later told the magazine he could not be certain he had seen an account of the Koran incident in the military report and that it might have been in other investigative documents or drafts.

The acknowledgment by the magazine came amid a continuing heightened scrutiny of the U.S. media, which has seen a rash of news organizations fire reporters and admit that stories were fabricated or plagiarized."

A mistake? I don't think so.

See: U.S. Planting False Stories Common Cold War Tactic

Also: Office of Strategic Lying?

As well as: CNN's Nuke Plant Photos Identical for Both Iran and N. Korea!

Yes, the CIA is only supposed to be active on Foreign soil. Whether or not they actually did this is not the point; the story was probably fabricated to stoke the fires of Muslim rage.

Necoro the robot cat

2005-05-15T16:02:00.000-06:00

This is possibly the creepiest thing I have seen in a long, long time.

Necoro the Robot Cat

Scarface Liberals

2005-05-15T13:43:00.000-06:00

Taking my cue from Andrew Coyne and Quotulatiousness, I'll use some Scarface quotes to explain the current state of Canadian politics.

Paul Martin's Closing words to the House on May 19th:

"Whattaya lookin' at? You're all a bunch of f*cking assholes. You know why? 'Cause you don't have the guts to be what you wanna be. You need people like me. You need people like me so you can point your f*cking fingers, and say "that's the bad guy."

So, what dat make you? Good? You're not good; you just know how to hide. Howda lie. Me, I don't have that problem. Me, I always tell the truth--even when I lie. So say goodnight to the bad guy. Come on; the last time you gonna see a bad guy like this, let me tell ya. Come on, make way for the bad guy. There's a bad guy comin' through; you better get outta his way!"

Say Hello to my little friend!

Photo: MKBRAATEN

Scarface Liberal Campaign Slogans:

Vote Liberal: We always tell the truth. Even when we lie.

Vote Liberal Because every day above ground is a good day.

Vote Liberal: Make way for the bad guys.

Vote Liberal: We'll take jou all to f*cking hell.

Vote Liberal: We got ears, ya'know. We hear things.

Paul Martin: Overheard

Paul Martin overheard talking to Jack Layton: "Money, money, money, money, money; that's all I ever hear in this house"

Paul Martin overheard in the Parliament foyer: "F*ck Stephen Harper and f*ck the f*ckin' Bloc, f*ck them all! I'll bury those cock-a-roches!"

Paul Martin overheard in Parliament washroom:""This is paradise, I'm tellin' ya. This country like a great big p*ssy jus' waitin' to get f*cked."

Paul Martin overheard in the Parliament foyer: "So you wanna vote, Chuck, or do you wanna sit there and have cancer?" (oooooo. Bad taste.)

Paul Martin overheard at a CSL board meeting: ""That's style, flash, pizazz; a little coke money doesn't hurt nobody"

Paul martin on Adscam: "Who put this thing together? Me, that's who! Who do I trust? Me!"

Paul Martin on Canadian Politics: "In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women."

Image source: scarface1983.com

My world view

2005-05-15T04:52:00.000-06:00

I wish there was a question: "You beleive that people's worldviews can be expressed using a computer, 32 questions and a bunch of simple statements. QuizFarm.com :: What is Your World View?

Utter state of Canarchy

2005-05-15T04:18:00.000-06:00

Via this technorati thread comes this post from the Urban Pundit entitled: "Canarchy".

I always thought that we were a totalitarian democracy as of this week, but Canarchy takes the cake.

Taking my cue from Wikipedia, I'll try my own definition of Canarchy.

Canarchy.

Anarchy (New Latin canarchia) is a term that has several usages, some of which may be contradictory. Specific meanings include

1. Presence of a form of state, coercive political authority, or coercive social hierarchy.
2. Presence of an illegitimate ruler, ruling class, political party or parties, or power elite.
3. Political disorder and confusion.

When used in the sense of "disorder and confusion," Canarchy generally references a situation in which several governments, gangs, leaders, or other political authorities are competing for control of a given set of resources, geopolitical boundaries, or peoples. This seems to be the most common modern usage of the word, despite the fact that such a situation, involving as it does multiple competing authorities, would more accurately be called a polyarchy. This causes consternation for those who espouse Canarchy as a viable form of social organization and others concerned with precise use of the word; it is a constant barrier to clear communication between Canarchists and people who are familiar with real world situations of chaos described by governments as Canarchy. Such situations in fact entail competition among rival governments rather than their absence, and are more accurately referred to as civil war than Canarchy.

Scrolling LED Belt Buckle

2005-05-15T04:09:00.000-06:00

This is the best use of $29.99 U.S. Dollars I have seen in a long, long time.

Thanks to Busted Tees for that one.

Right Ho!

2005-05-13T18:14:00.000-06:00

Via Political Staples, I came across a new blog entitledRight Ho!. The author is an anonymous blogger who claims to be a Conservative Canadian journalist.

12 Organized Crime Articles

2005-05-13T01:09:00.000-06:00

From Andrew Coyne comes an interesting link to a collection of news clippings entitled:

12 Organized Crime Articles

Just a good read

2005-05-12T22:46:00.000-06:00

From Quotatiousness comes a link to this great read.

"Elvis, Chuck Berry, and the rest did this as artists, not proselytizers. If they were the voice of those suffering social injustice and prejudice, they broke free by standing up for a joyous liberty of pleasure and expression, not by campaigning for campesinos and a ban on nuclear power. They were about flamboyance and excitement–especially their own highly individualized visions of such things–not dour attempts to institute Chumbawamba’s dream of endless town meetings.

It’s easy, of course, simply to accuse stinking rich entertainment celebs who talk about overthrowing the system that pays them so well of being hypocrites. Easy, perhaps, and necessary, since of course they are. It’s a pose that, however stylish, is just that. But there’s something more interesting going on than either conscious or naive hypocrisy.

What rockin’ leftists have the hardest time facing up to is rock’s reality as a product of capitalism. Chumbawamba claims it is playing the game of "exist[ing] within [the capitalist system] and at the same time trying to find ways to bring the bastard down." The members also admit that, thanks to their deal with a major label, they have "a decent standard of living for the first time in their lives." (These quotes all from the FAQ on their official Web site, www.chumba.com. On the site, they also fend off accusations from young fans who complain that Chumba should never suggest that it’s all right to get drunk if you enjoy it–that beer money, after all, could have been spent helping the downtrodden.)"

The Alberta Red Ensign

2005-05-12T14:44:00.000-06:00

I could not find such a thing as the "Alberta Red Ensign", so I made one myself.

Stay tuned.

Putin vs. Martin: Who's real leader? - Complacent Nation

2005-05-12T13:25:00.000-06:00

See: Putin vs. Martin: Who's real leader? - Complacent Nation

Source: Shaken, Occasionally Stirred

By PETER WORTHINGTON

Anyone who watched 60 Minutes last Sunday saw a fascinating interview with Russia's Vladimir Putin defending his version of democracy to interviewer Mike Wallace.

Putin was justifying why he appointed his people to head some regions rather than trust voters to choose the right guy. He defended a crackdown on corruption by questionable legal means and implied it was no one's business how he ran the country. Russian "democracy" wasn't U.S. democracy.

In some ways, Putin's version of democracy seemed to parallel aspects of Canada's democracy under Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Just as Martin ignores a vote in the Commons that shows lack of confidence in his government, so Putin ignores criticism of the way he shuts down opponents, tries to influence elections and puts controls on the media.

Canada has the CBC, which is a government-funded agency, just as much of the media in Russia is -- or has been -- controlled by government. Regardless of what we may think of the CBC, we should remember that who pays the piper calls the tune.

One can sympathize with Putin's desire to curb the corruption of neo-criminal billionaires who rose to wealth and plundered the economy while Boris Yeltsin was in erratic control.

Similarly, one can sympathize (sort of) with Martin's embarrassment over the corruption embedded within his Liberal party, as revealed in testimony at the Gomery inquiry about suitcases filled with cash for the faithful.

As for democratic differences and similarities between a Canadian PM and a post-Soviet Russian president, both have more individual power than one might expect in a genuine democracy. Neither Putin nor Martin has to persuade a skeptical Congress when they want to do something. The PM can choose candidates to run for elected office and can reject those of whom he disapproves. He appoints judges, without any system of checks and balances, and appoints senators without concern for the people's wishes. Our PM isn't even elected by direct vote, as is Putin (and the American president).

The PM is chosen by the party, and once chosen, controls the caucus and isn't accountable to the people. Heck, Martin isn't even accountable to Parliament -- which by a narrow margin this week registered its lack of confidence in him.

At the moment, Canada is in a state of near paralysis. Little is being generated except acrimony. A general election is necessary to clear the air -- if not to rid Parliament of the stench caused by Liberal corruption, deceit, cynicism.

Forget polls that show roughly an equal number of Canadians say they won't vote Conservative because they don't want an election, and others who say they won't vote Liberal because of their corruption. In Putin, we have an obviously tough guy who's cool and controlled and doesn't intimidate easily.

In Martin, we have a frenetic guy who seems fearful of everything and has to bribe or blackmail his own party to hold on. Putin, at least, knows what he is doing.

He's the guy in charge, and from the 60 Minutes interview seems to appreciate U.S. President George Bush more than Canadian leaders do, if only because, as Putin says, Bush is straightforward and does what he says he is going to do. Putin, too, has this quality.

Not Martin. He's not going to attend VE-Day ceremonies in Holland, then changes his mind, brings along opposition leaders as a security blanket, then is late for the ceremony, then makes an ass of himself in front of vets.

This is leadership? A guy who leads a party that's afraid to risk an election?

Let's get the damn thing over with, and if Martin's Liberals are re-elected, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Fighting Separatism Corrupts Governments

2005-05-12T13:23:00.000-06:00

From the Politic comes this interesting quote in the National Post by Henry Srebnik, who teaches Political Science at U of PEI:

"This obvious, yet rarely articulated, fact struck me with full force when I heard an analyst comment on George Bush’s recent trip to the former Soviet republic of Georgia. He explained the “Rose Revolution,” the popular uprising that forced former president Eduard Shevardnadze to resign in November, 2003, this way: in trying to stem secessionist movements in two parts of the country, the government became ever more corrupt. Does that sound familiar?"

Put this guy out of his misery and don't vote for him

2005-05-12T12:50:00.000-06:00

From The Globe and Mail: Kilgour criticizes Liberals' Sudan package

"Independent MP David Kilgour was harshly critical Thursday of a $170-million Liberal aid package and additional troops for Sudan — a move widely seen as an attempt to win him over before a confidence vote.

Prime Minister Paul Martin announced Thursday morning that Canda would provide the funding over two years for peacekeeping efforts in the war-torn region.

. . .

But Mr. Kilgour indicated earlier in the day that he may not be happy enough with what the government is offering to vote along with the Liberals."

C'mon Kilgour - what did you expect? The Liberals are running out of money, and people in Sudan can't vote on June 27th.

If I had 24 million dollars....

2005-05-12T01:43:00.000-06:00

Wow. Probably about the coolest use of 24 million dollars I have ever seen. Watch the video. WMV Quicktime

wally.com

Revenge of the Sith Budget

2005-05-12T00:25:00.000-06:00

May 19th:

Oh, according to the IMDB, the official Budget for Revenge of the Sith is 115 million dollars. This post disusses the fact that a Confidence vote occurred in Canada on the same day that Revenge of the Sith opened.

* Paul Martin tables his budget as a vote of confidence.

* Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith opens.

Everyone knew that Paul Martin was a Star Wars fan, but of another kind.

According to Kevin Smith's "Spoiler" review, it's a dark, dark film.

Perhaps Martin's "Revenge of the Sith" budget is fitting of an election that is sure to hail in a new Dark Age of Canadian politics.

Interestingly, May 19th marks:

1649: England declared a Commonwealth
1906: The last British soldiers leave Canada

2005: The date that the Queen will be in Regina.

Nah, I'd say it's the Star Wars thing.

Laurie Hawn: the Tipping Point

2005-05-11T23:03:00.000-06:00

Hey, I didn't know that Laurie Hawn had a blog! Laurie Hawn won the Conservative party nomination for his riding in the upcoming election, WITTW writes. Last I checked, that riding is the neighborhood of Grandin, Alberta,(Edmonton Centre) just west of the Alberta Legislature, from which this blog derives its name. He'll be running against Landslide Annie. Maybe I'll blog it.

Check out his post on Malcom Gladwell's The Tipping Point. Hawn writes:

"The three rules of the Tipping Point are the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. If we apply those rules to current Canadian politics, it's easy to conclude that Paul Martin and the Liberals are at their Tipping Point."

Well, in the context of the blogosphere, I'd say that:

* The "Few" are the bloggers who are hot on the heels of the Liberal Party and a somewhat apathetic Canadian media.

* The "Stickiness Factor" could apply to these sweet Libranos posters.

* The "Power of Context" relates to electronic communication itself - personal publishing democratizes media, and hopefully a democratic media will coincide with a better democracy.

Something to think about.

Alberta Blogs

2005-05-11T21:24:00.000-06:00

I'm trying to start a blogroll for Alberta-based bloggers. Visit albertablog.blogspot.com to find out more.

The Prime Minister’s New Budget

2005-05-11T19:54:00.000-06:00

The Prime Minister’s New Budget

NOTE: I re-tooled the ending to reflect just who the little kid(s) is(are).

By: Aaron Braaten

Adapted from:

The Emporer’s New Clothes

Hans Christian Andersen
(1837)

MANY, many moments ago lived a Prime Minister, who thought so much of his government that he spent all his money (and more) in order to maintain it; his only ambition was to be always in power. He did not care for his backbenchers, and the House of Commons did not amuse him; the only thing, in fact, he thought anything of was to drive out and show some governmental legitimacy. He had a policy position for every hour of the day; and as one would say of a Prime Minister, “He is in his cabinet,” so one could say of him, “The Prime Minister is in an emergency cabinet meeting.”

The great city where he resided was very gay (Toronto, er, Ottawa); every day many strangers from all parts of the globe arrived. One day two swindlers, Layton and McGuinty, came to this city; they made people believe that they were “saving Canada”, and declared they could manufacture a legitimate government. Their backroom dealings and spending promises, they said, were not only exceptionally expensive, but the government made of their spending promises possessed the wonderful quality of being invisible to any man who was unfit for his office or unpardonably stupid.

“That must be a wonderful government,” thought the Prime Minister. “If I were to base my government on such a complex array of technical budget promises, I should be able to find out which men in my empire were inbred Western slack-jawed yokels, and I could distinguish the Liberals from the Conservatives. I must have this government legitimized for me without delay.” And he gave a large sum of money to the swindlers, 22 billion to be exact, that they should set to work without any loss of time. They set up two agreements, and pretended to be very hard at work, but they did nothing whatever on the agreements. They asked for the most expensive budget items and the most precious portfolios; all they got they did away with, and worked at the empty promises till late at night.

“I should very much like to know how they are getting on with the budget promises,” thought the Prime Minister. But he felt rather uneasy when he remembered that he who was not a Liberal or an NDP could not see it. Personally, he was of opinion that he had nothing to fear, yet he thought it advisable to send somebody else first to see how matters stood. Everybody in Ontario knew what a remarkable quality the budget promises possessed, and all were anxious to see how mad or stupid their neighboring provinces were.

“I shall send Ralph Goodale to examine the budget for me,” thought the Prime Minister. “He can judge best how the stuff looks, for he is intelligent, and nobody understands his office better than he.”

The good old minister went into the room where the swindlers sat before the2005 Budget. “Heaven preserve us!” he thought, and opened his eyes wide, “I cannot see anything at all,” but he did not say so. Both Layton and McGuinty requested him to come near, and asked him if he did not admire the exquisite number-crunching and the beautiful array of spending initiatives, pointing to the Budget. The poor old minister tried his very best, but he could see nothing, for there was nothing to be seen. “Oh dear,” he thought, “can I be so stupid? I should never have thought so, and nobody must know it! Is it possible that I am a Conservative? No, no, I cannot say that I was unable to see how the budget will legitimize the government.”
“Now, have you got nothing to say?” said one of the swindlers, while he pretended to be busily working for “the people of Canada”.

“Oh, it is very pretty, exceedingly beautiful,” replied the old minister looking through his glasses. “What a beautiful array of spending initiatives, what brilliant number-crunching! I shall tell the Prime Minister that I like these spending promises very much.”

“We are pleased to hear that,” said the swindlers, McGuinty and Layton, and described to him the budget promises and explained the curious discrepancies. The old minister listened attentively, that he might relate to the Prime Minister what they said; and so he did.

Now the swindlers asked for more money, budget portfolios and unconditional funds, which they required for buying votes. They kept everything for themselves and their corporate party affiliates, and not a cent came near the targeted areas, but they continued, as hitherto, to work at the budget.

Soon afterwards the Prime Minister sent another "honest" Liberal Party faithful to the drafters of the budget to see how they were getting on, and if the vote was nearly bought. Like the old minister, he looked and looked but could see nothing, as there was nothing to be seen.

“Is it not a beautiful piece of legislation?” asked the two swindlers, showing and explaining the magnificent promises, which, however, did not exist.

“I am not stupid,” said the man. “It is therefore my good appointment for which I am not fit. It is very strange, but I must not let any one know it;” and he praised the budget, which he did not see, and expressed his joy at the beautiful number-crunching and the fine selection of promises. “It is very excellent,” he said to the Prime Minister.

Everybody in the whole country talked about the precious budget. At last the Prime Minister wished to see it himself, while it was still on the media’s radar. With a number of Ministers, including the two who had already been there, he went to the two clever swindlers, who now worked as hard as they could, but without using any thought of a balanced future budget.

“Is it not magnificent?” said the two old statesmen who had been there before. “The Honorable Member must admire the promises and the grandiosity of vision for a unified Canada.” And then they pointed to the empty promises, for they imagined the others could see the budget.

“What is this?” thought the Prime Minister, “I do not see anything at all. That is terrible! Am I stupid? Am I unfit to be Prime Minister? That would indeed be the most dreadful thing that could happen to me.”

“Really,” he said, turning to the Premiers and McGuinty and Layton, “your deal has our most gracious approval;” and nodding contentedly he looked at the budget, for he did not like to say that he saw nothing. All his handlers and advisors, who were with him, looked and looked, and although they could not see anything more than the others, they said, like the Prime Minister, “It is very beautiful.” And all advised him to vow to follow through on the new magnificent budgetary promises at a great procession called an “Election” which was to follow the Vote of Confidence, which was soon to take place in May. “It is magnificent, beautiful, excellent,” one heard them say; everybody seemed to be delighted, and the Prime Minister appointed the two swindlers “Federal Ambassadors.”

The whole night previous to the day on which the Confidence vote was to take place, the Finance and Cabinet Ministers pretended to work, and passed around more than sixteen yellow envelopes. People should see that they were busy to finish the Prime Minister’s new budget. They pretended to take money from Ontario, and pretended not to take any from Alberta, and added in a kite, a pony and three lollipops for all the residents of Saskatchewan, B.C. and the Atlantic Provinces, and said at last: “The Prime Minister’s 2005 budget is ready now.”

The Prime Minister and all his Cabinet Ministers then came to Parliament; the other Liberal MP’s held their arms up as if they held the balance of power in their hands and said: “These are the expenditures!” “This is the expected revenue!” and “Here is the forecasted surplus!” and so on. “The budget promises are all as light as a cobweb, and one must feel as if one had made no promises at all to Ontario and the rest of Canada; but that is just the beauty of them.”

“Indeed!” said all the CBC commentators; but they could not see anything, for there was nothing to be seen.

“Does it please the Prime Minister now to graciously call an election,” said the swindlers, “that we may assist him in assuming a new mandate from the electorate of Canada?”

The Prime Minister called an election, and McGuinty and Layton campaigned for him, one riding after another; and the Prime Minister looked at his ratings in every poll he could find.

“How well they look! How well they fit!” said all. “What a beautiful budget! What fine promises! That is a magnificent spending of taxpayer dollars!”

The Speaker of the House announced that the bearers of CBC bias, which was to be deployed in the election campaign, were ready.

“I am ready,” said the Prime Minister. “Does not my budget redeem me marvelously?” Then he turned once more to the polls, that people should think he admired his budget.

The handlers, who were to ride on the campaign bus, stretched their rhetoric to the limits as if they could convince the media, and pretended to write something in their Blackberries; they did not like people to know that they could not see anything.

The Prime Minister began his campaign on the beautiful bus, and all who saw him in the street and out of the windows exclaimed: “Indeed, the Prime Minister’s new budget is incomparable! What a long list of items! How well it buys my vote!” Nobody wished to let others know he saw nothing, for then he would have been unfit for his office or too stupid. Never a Prime minister’s budget were more admired.

“But he has nothing in this budget at all,” said the bloggers at last. “Good heavens! listen to the voice of the journalistically untrained bloggers,” said the father, and one whispered to the other what the bloggers had said. “But he has nothing in that budget at all,” cried at last the whole blogosphere. That made a deep impression upon the Prime Minister, for it seemed to him that they were right; but he thought to himself, “Now I must bear up to the end.” And the handlers walked with still greater dignity, as if they carried a mandate which did not exist.

The other separatist province

2005-05-11T17:54:00.000-06:00

Probably one of the funniest blog posts I've seen in a while. Right on.

Liberal Scoundrels

2005 Bilderberg attendees include Torstar CEO, Frank McKenna and Irshad Manji

2005-05-10T15:16:00.000-06:00

I managed to track down a list of 2005 Bilderberg attendees, and I must say that apart from Irshad Manji's appearance, there were no real surprises. Oh wait - Robert Prichard, CEO of Torstar, Canada's last "independent" news source was there. I doubt you will read about it in the Star.

Heather Reisman invited a mixed bag of pals this year, that's for certain. Maybe Canadians should ask Manji to comment on the nature of her discussions at this year's meeting. It would certainly be very interesting.

CDN Manji, Irshad Author/Founder of "Project Ijtihad”

What's Irshad Manji doing at Bilderberg? Well, I will wait for her to reply to confirm whether or not she was able to attend, but nobody has their finger on the pulse of Islamic extremism better than she does. She's a magnet for fundamentalists who stand in opposition to her more liberal beliefs. Maybe the US is planing on bombing the Middle East with free copies of her books in order to bring about more Westernization of Muslim culture.

CDN Mau, Bruce Bruce Mau Design

This is the first time I have heard of Bruce Mau - probably because I'm not too familiar with Canada's industrial design community. From Mau's website:

"Bruce Mau Design collaborates with some of the world's leading architects, artists, writers, curators, academics, entrepreneurs, businesses and institutions. Since its inception in 1985, Bruce Mau Design has gained international recognition for innovation across a wide range of business and cultural disciplines."

Mau's firm has done work for Chapters/Indigo, so he likely received an invitation from Heather Reisman, who sits on the Bilderberg Steering Committee.

CDN McKenna, Frank Ambasssador to the US

No comment.

CDN Munroe-Blum, Heather Principal and Vice Chancellor, McGill University

Wow. Read this woman's bio.

In January 2003, Professor Heather Munroe-Blum became the 16th Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University. She is a member of the Faculty of Medicine and a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

Born in Montreal and raised in Ontario, Professor Munroe-Blum served at the University of Toronto as a Professor, as Vice-President, Research & International Relations (1994 to 2002), and as a governor of the University of Toronto. She was previously a professor at York University, at McMaster University and at the University of Toronto, where she also served as Dean of Social Work prior to becoming Vice-President. Professor Munroe-Blum holds the following degrees: B.A., B.S.W. (McMaster University); M.S.W. (Wilfrid Laurier University); Ph.D. with distinction (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

An epidemiologist, Professor Munroe-Blum has specialized in psychiatric epidemiology. She has led large-scale epidemiological investigations of the distribution, prevention, course and treatment of major psychiatric disorders, and has influenced the development of effective mental health policies and practices. She has received major support from the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, the Canadian National Health Research and Development Program, the Ontario Mental Health Foundation, and elsewhere. She is the author or co-author of over 60 scholarly publications, including four books.

She's been so busy accomplishing things that it seems as though she has forgotten about the students at McGill. Here is what they had to say:

"In her second full year as Principal, Munroe-Blum has demonstrated she is out of touch with the needs and wants of most McGill students. This year’s biggest issues were university underfunding and McGill’s support for the provincial tuition freeze. In Quebec City last fall, Munroe-Blum made her position clear: the university funding crisis would be fixed best by raising tuition fees, allowing higher-income students to make up the University’s lost revenues. She has been pressuring the province to lift its tuition freeze, despite opposition from many students and members of the University community, who argue that a tuition hike will further limit accessibility to postsecondary education. While Munroe-Blum also called on the province to put more money into education and promised to increase financial aid for low-income students, she has shown more solidarity with the University’s bankers than its students."

CDN Prichard, J. Robert S. President. Torstar Media Group and CEO, Torstar Corporation

Oh no. They got to Canada's last "independent" newspaper. I wonder if Prichard was there to discuss the rumored merger between Canwest and Torstar. I guess we'll see what happens to Torstar in the coming months.

CDN Reisman, Heather President and CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc.

She was the former Governor of McGill University, according to her bio. Similar to Munroe-Blum.

SOURCE - I will have to corroborate this Bilderberg attendee list with others, but they always seem to check out fine.

Some photos of two prominent Canadians, Heather Munroe-Blum and Frank McKenna can be found at staron.org.

Mckenna: PHOTO #1 PHOTO #2

Munroe-Blum: PHOTO #1 PHOTO #2

This looks like Robert Prichard, CEO of Torstar. PHOTO #1

Compare it with these photos: PHOTO #1 PHOTO #2

Pepe Escobar has a new Bilderberg article out

2005-05-10T14:30:00.000-06:00

Click HERE to read Pepe Escobar's 2005 Bilderberg article. It's a great backgrounder, but I'm waiting to see which Canadians attended this year.

Coachella

2005-05-10T13:50:00.000-06:00