Peter Kent Didn’t Age Well

Kent looks the same… but his mind has left him.

Amazing CBC coverage of climate change from the early 1980s. Bob McDonald, Peter Kent, and others make appearances:
Attention Washington: Peter Kent explains Climate Change (the briefing you won’t see).

“The natural preoccupation with the weather tomorrow, the next day, or even Thursday, has distracted public attention from the longer term implications of the Greenhouse Effect.” – Peter Kent, 1984 on CBC

“The Greenhouse Effect must be considered as the world’s most serious environmental concern.” Now he’s the nation’s Environment Minister, and he acts like a POS. What he says does not match his, or his government’s actions. “December 2011 [Kent] announced Canada will withdraw from the Kyoto accord. Canada is committed to getting a new agreement, he says, but it won’t be easy.”

Some of the best/worst parts of the video included “adaptationalists” thinking increased temperatures and acidified oceans can just be adapted to (as mass plant and animal extinctions go on around us while we supposedly soldier on). Mass delusion allows humanity to carry on as it does to its certain demise. I think I know how things will go if an asteroid is observed & predicted to hit Earth within a decade… nothing, until the crash. Humans are pathetically bad at taking immediate action to prevent long term ‘fuzzy’ catastrophes.

This video shows how the Canadian Environment Minister has known for THREE DECADES of a coming calamity to his country (and the world), and now he’s in a position of power to act, and does nothing. Worse than nothing, since pollution is still increasing. His duplicitous actions (or incompetence) make me sick, and they are sealing humanity’s fate.

Oil Spills Create Jobs

I’m severely disappointed in the lack of vision that conservatives have regarding our economy. Faced with information that burning a lot of fossil fuel is not able to be sustained without Catastrophic, Repulsive, Atmospheric Pollution (CRAP), their response tends toward ignoring evidence of damage to their environment in favour of delaying the predictable economic train wreck that would occur if fuel production were to halt in the span of months or a year.

Jobs are being created to create the doomsday device known as the KXL pipeline. Jobs will be required to [partially] clean up the many spills it will create. Doctors will be needed to treat the cancers created by the soil and water contamination, and the burning of the fuel.

@Rhino_Bob @votelau the long term goal *is* to wind down oil production as much as possible. Cleaner forms of energy are better for life.—
John Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) March 31, 2013

@JohnKleinRegina @Rhino_Bob @votelau
Sorry, NO viable solution to end use of fossil fuels (cars, plastics, power prod, etc) = pipe dream.—
Chad (@Chad4Mayor) March 31, 2013

Yet when asked if they’d like to wind down fossil fuel production in favour of renewable sources, they answer “No!” because they can’t envision it ever being an equivalent and essential source of power. When you ask them if they believe in higher education, most will say they do, choosing (at that time) to instead embrace the idea that short term expense and investment can lead to longer term gain through a change in skills and information. There are plenty of conservatives at schools of business.

So, why rush into upgrading ‘ethical’ oil infrastructure, instead of renewable energy manufacturing and design?

Group says latest oil spill is a preview of Keystone's "nightmare scenario" huff.to/10jaGJI—
HuffPost Canada (@HuffPostCanada) April 01, 2013

And seriously, if the tar sand oil companies can’t stave off repeated spills in the months leading up to an approval of KXL pipeline, how can anyone believe they’ll suddenly stop leaking oil all over the place once there is less pressure to behave because they’ll have the pipe built?

Wab Kinew at UofR Minifie Lecture

On Tuesday I tried to live blog Wab’s lecture from my smart phone, but the WiFi or something else wasn’t working right. The lecture will be online soon, and is on Access Communications coming up very son on Friday and again on Sunday I think I heard. Check it out, it’s awesome.
One story involved how he protested against a memo from CBC brass.
“Survivors” of residential schools were to be called “former students” according to CBC. More than 3000 children died in those schools. The brass did not heed his caution.

Wab threatened to resign from the CBC. The CBC reporters were unanimously behind Wab.

Whenever he hears Mansbridge say “survivor” in the context of Residential school students, he does a little fist pump. I feel like doing one when I hear the media use that word too.

@saskboy feather is a sacred item, I use it to keep me grounded in a spiritual sense—
Wab Kinew (@WabKinew) March 20, 2013

High School Isn’t What It Used To Be

Imagine the embarrassment of being a teenager again, except now your source of torment is not limited to forced school interaction with ruthless bullies, but now occurs at home and around the WWW too.

Sexual attitudes need to quickly change, and treatment of bullies needs to radically evolve if we’re to save kids like Amanda Todd from social torture and early deaths.

ADDED:

Two years ago a child at King George School committed suicide due to #bullying, from what I hear the kids are at it again #PrairieSouth—
Robert Thomas (@Rhino_Bob) January 09, 2013

President Harper of Electoral (Fraud) Democracy

Democracy is eroded in Canada. The media shows glimmers of understanding the threat to democracy, but then let up and treat everything as normal, so Canadians calm down and go about their daily chores pleased to kick a reckoning down the road.

If a scandal on F-35 scale – total failure of ministerial oversight, costs understated by 2/3, etc etc – is not grounds for resignation…—
Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) December 07, 2012

The book proposes a solution. Canada should follow the lead of its sister Commonwealth countries Britain, Australia and New Zealand and codify the principles of parliamentary democracy to ensure the players — voters and politicians — understand the playbook and stay within the rules.

“The other systems have rules about prorogation and dissolution, especially dissolution,” said Turnbull. “And a lot of other systems don’t use prorogation at all. They just have a parliamentary calendar.” Unlike prorogation and dissolution, a parliamentary calendar levels the playing field, binding government and opposition equally.

The current occupant of 24 Sussex has unleashed a torrent of deliberate misinformation about the tenets of parliamentary democracy in his amazingly successful drive to further confuse Canadians about the manner and traditions of their form of government.

Canadians don’t elect a government or a prime minister. They elect a Parliament. But Prime Minister Stephen Harper has described the parties who form Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition as “losers”.

Misinformation has been flowing from the Conservatives’ senior ministers since at least 2008, as you can see here:

More recently you can watch a senior minister being schooled by a PMO lackey on how to lie on camera. The media points out the deception, but will go on to invite the lying scum onto the program again as if it didn’t happen.

As a result we get legislation that is a long way off from what people want or even expect (Remember “Made in Canada”?). It certainly isn’t what the governing party promised during their election campaigns. The token changes to GST, and tax credits may fool a few thousand, but the bigger issues that remove power from the Canadian electorate and Members of Parliament go unnoticed by people too busy and uneducated to recognize or respond to the threats to their country and their peace.

It has some fine Canadians vowing to be Idle No More.

Inspiring lunch w Rt Hon John Turner "Democracy does not happen by accident, we have2 fight 4 it" #cdnpoli #demreform http://t.co/i4GuWN3r—
Carolyn Bennett (@Carolyn_Bennett) December 19, 2012

Workin’ For The Money

I always find it so interesting to see people making well in excess of $100,000/year. I really have to stretch to find ways to spend it all in my imagination. Feels a bit like Brewster’s Millions.

There are some jobs where I think it’s acceptable to make well more than average wages, and some professions where it’s really not. The problem is our economy doesn’t do a very great job of rewarding all of the people doing work that can keep civilization viable a very long time. It tends to reward hockey players, CEOs of shell companies, and movie stars far beyond what is reasonable. It’s gone on so long though, most people think it’s both reasonable, and acceptable, even though the inequality is striking when someone has more disposable income than a hard working janitor could hope to make after two years of full time work at two jobs.

It’s unfair for society to shame individuals making piles of cash that is rightfully theirs according to the economic rules we’ve all agreed to. It’s not easy to turn down offered money that you’re told is yours to accept. If we didn’t have such a negative view of taxation, and intentionally fail to see how it can be used to provide for public goods, there’d be an easier solution available for individuals and society. That’s one reason why you’re told to be leery of taxes and why there are well funded advocates for lowering tax rates for the wealthy in particular.

US #election2012

It bothers me how little regard professional media pays to math when “projecting” results. They have computers that can tell us if the race is clinched or not, just as they do for sports playoff spots. It’s a disgrace that it’s easier to know if a sports team has a mathematical chance of attaining a playoff spot, than to know from election results reported on election night actually predict a sure victory in a state or country.

Some notes from the night so far:
Bernie Sanders, Vermont Independent has won, which is great.
Warren may have won also.
Another independent senator has won, and may caucus with the Democrats.
It doesn’t appear Johnson or Stein reached 5% of the popular vote, which I’m not surprised about, just disappointed.
I’m sad that Obama is doing so badly so far in results too.
A CNN ad for “Clean Coal” just pissed me off. They are claiming it’s already benefiting the environment. Well, it’s not in production, and they are flat out lying, and ought to be sued for false advertising. FCC, are you listening?

I’m watching DemocracyNow.org coverage and CNN at the same time, along with Twitter of course.
More to come probably close to being live blogging.

ADDED:
Didn’t live blog, computer wasn’t co-operating, and I was keeping up on Twitter instead.

Predictions and Credibility

[This first appeared on Back of the Book]

I find the current political air in Canada to be insufferably stupid. Despite there being excellent, professional journalists everywhere, there are many more time/space fillers who skew the public’s perception of what is going on and what really matters. One thing the media has been terrible at is keeping the public’s focus on a threat to Canadian civilization greater than terrorism or even drunk drivers (drunks kill more Canadians each year than Jihadists or the fabled “ecoterrorist”). That threat is climate change.

If you recall last year, the airwaves were buzzing with the ridiculous prediction from a man named Harold Camping, that the world was set to end with a cataclysmic singular event wrought by God. Anyone reading these words knows that Camping is a fraud, yet he was given plenty of air time before and after his unfounded claim.

If you recall August 2005, (who doesn’t remember details from 7 years ago, right?) the journal Nature published a letter from Kerry Emanuel, that explained how tropical cyclone damage was on a trend to claim more lives and property due in part to climate change. As recently as this year, Emanuel was part of a team of scientists who predicted increased damage to coastal cities. New York City was explicitly mentioned as “highly vulnerable”.

Let us review using photos:
This man (Harold Camping):

Predicted this:

This man (Kerry Emanuel):

Predicted this:

Clearly Emanuel has credibility, while Camping has none. Emanuel’s skill can guide our civilization to prepare for preventable threats to our existence. Camping’s skill is to convince people that threats are not preventable, and hope should be placed where he directs it. Who will the media and elected politicians give their attention to in the near and distant future? They can continue to give crackpots the attention they crave and need for their money gathering, or they can start planning for the future by using science and vindicated models. It’s only civilization at stake.

Immigration

Working on campus: allowed. Work a shitty job at Walmart for two weeks, and declare the income: deportation. It’s the reality that international students face in Canada.

Those students placing their hopes in the hands of Jason Kenney, are going to need that church for a while.

Here’s a timely Sixth Estate summary of what sort of person Kenney has been while in government (and prior to it). Kenney is into mass-deportations, but maybe he’ll help two women in Regina to make it seem as if he has a heart.

[A] man who spent his formative years crusading as an anti-abortion activist at a religious school in California and who has, in just the recent past, ordered political critics barred from entering the country, staged bogus citizenship ceremonies for the benefit of the news media, and argued that he doesn’t have to allow Canadian citizens — genuine ones, mind — back into the country because as a Cabinet minister he is above the law. This is the man you’re trusting when he says that he’s satisfied that 3100 Canadians acquired their citizenship fraudulently.

What rot. I’ll bet Kenney can’t even name, off the top of his head, all the people who are about to be subject to his revocation orders. Go ahead, Jason. Try. Here’s a hint: if you can’t do it, there are too many. We’re talking about people’s lives here. There is no acceptable margin of error.

Second, and mainly because the immigration law was never intended to be used for purposes of mass deportations, Kenney will not even be following the normal due process that the government has to follow when someone is accused of committing a crime. They don’t have to find the person in question. They don’t have to bring them to court. They don’t have to present any evidence of fraud in front of a judge.

==

-Three cool guys at a Rider game in 2006.

While we’re on the topic of hate-fueled dirtbags like Kenney, check out the violent bigmouths on Facebook threatening to punch and soak protesters with urine or beer, while calling some of them “fags”. Some commenters on the ‘stadium at any cost’ side are pretty amusing (unintentionally):

Russ Germain:
Remember the Riders are community owned. They dont have an owner that can hand over all that money.

*ding ding ding* We have a winner!

Here are some of the violent ones:

Brad Matlock:
I know I will be throwing beer at these retards have fun tryin to stop A raging mob of rider fans.
You [occupiers] will be the disturbers in this situation and the menaces… Your anarchists and terrorists and breaking the law

Devo Victor:
You dumb fucks really think your gonna accomplish anything besides probs get punched out ? This city finally changing for the good accept it or move 2 fuckn moosejaw you fuckn hippies. Mite actually go to the game just to take a shot at one of you goofs !

Corey Selinger:
Couldn’t have said it much better Devo! Stupid people may get punched

Meanwhile, Nathan S. who says he’s neutral about the stadium construction offered Russ and other commenters to show the numbers that demonstrate how a new stadium makes a positive economic impact that the current stadium cannot. Russ’s answer was above – he unintentionally said it’s up to the taxpayers, and they don’t have all the money required to get the project done, and that the same fans would come regardless if it’s Taylor Field or Lancaster Park (new stadium). Plus, $10M profit Grey Cups every few years will really pay off the ~$300M loans fast enough. Do you think a bank would give you a $300K mortgage if you promised to maybe pay them $10K every 8 years, and $3K every other year?

[Russ] you just like to sit on facebook and call people stupid, and cheer on other people when they threaten people for no reason. You are a bully.

There IS a word for societies where people try to bully their neighbours into praising the government, so that they can go back to “making money.” It’s called fascism.

Congratulations.

Maybe, hopefully, some respectful Rider fans will ask Russ to be silent too. If the right one who Russ respects, interjects, maybe he’ll relent & stop making a fool of himself. I promise most Rider fans are not fascist goons who troll Facebook.

Storyteller Gil

My Dad’s cousin, Gil Dumelie, passed away last weekend. I was at his funeral today, along with about 600 (or more) other family and friends. Gil was a memorable guy, larger than life, and from the size of his family and crowd he drew to his farewell, others thought so too. He’s someone I always expected would be there in the background of my life, and his sudden passing was unsettling even though it was as peaceful as death can be.

Gil’s brother, Larry, was a Grey Cup champion in ’66, and that’s part of why I have stories of the Grey Cup being in my Grandparents’ basement in ’66 (or soon after). There’s even a photo floating around somewhere out there of their pet dog posing in the then short Cup. Ron Lancaster was asked to go knock on the door of my Great Grandmother, who was pleasantly shocked to find the quarterback on her doorstep, and Lancaster amused at the glee in a little old lady that he was there in small-town Sask, and at her door. Gil’s funeral procession was set to an uplifting, trumpet rendition of Green Is The Colour.

Last time I was at his place for a Dumelie family gathering I heard the story of how as a teacher he was taking kids to some place in the city like the Legislature, with a tall stairwell. Suddenly there were drops of rain. Wait, that can’t be rain, someone’s spitting! Looking up, he caught a glimpse of a Klein (I think it was) nephew above him and some others. Every good story needs a rascal, and Gil had a lot of stories and the right amount of good-hearted rascals to help make them with him and his very well extended, lovely family.