Is Russia Re-Purposing Pro-Trump Troll Twitter Accounts To Attack Angela Merkel?

An interesting tweet, this:

Fascinating to see Kremlin trolls starting up the Merkel operation in real time today. Mostly repurposed pro-Trump accounts. pic.twitter.com/mlqQxFmf1k

— Angela Merkel (@Queen_Europe) December 20, 2016

Yeah, its a parody site .  But there's an interesting point made here.  Assume you have, like Russia does, a troll army that acts in the Russian national interest by, for example,  getting clowns like Donald Trump elected.  Suppose that assignment is over (successfully concluded), and the next one is to disrupt the German election and get Angela Merkel booted in favor of some far right alternative. What's the quickest way?  Well, you just use the 1,000's of twitter accounts you've already created to redirect their bile at the German Chancellor.  Better than starting from scratch.  But though these accounts are hard to distinguish from the genuinely useful idiots, if people are paying attention, they will see.  And that gives the game away.  So a sloppy bit of dark ops on the part of the Russkies, perhaps.

Kellie Leitch Fundraises Off Me

This appeared on CPC leadership candidate Kellie Leitch's Facebook page today.

She's got the twitter address wrong, but yeah she's talking about me, as Nick Kouvalis helpfully clarified:

@FraserFraserdw they all know it's @Bigcitylib2 that we're talking about. They don't like us. @EvanLSolomon

— Nick Kouvalis (@NickKouvalis) November 30, 2016

Firstly, I'd like to thank Ms. Leitch and Mr. Kouvalis.  I don't think anyone's ever called me "elite" before, not even my mom, or my wife, though I may ask her to start.  As for being a "prominent" Liberal, I'll include that in my Senate application form.  Speaking of which, where on the Senate website is there a floor-plan, so you can choose your seat?  Or do they leave that for a later date?

On Those Pipeline Decisions

Here is one of what will be many stories.

So, start with some facts and probabilities.

Northern Gateway is dead.  That's a piece of good news.  Line 3 nobody heard of until today, so who knows?   Also, who knows about Keystone.  That decision is not really in Canadian hands.

Energy East looks less likely to me.  The Trudeau gov. will take a big political hit for this in B.C. They won't risk the equivalent in Que. where they have more seats in the HOC.   Also, "the market" never cared much for Energy East; there's more money to be made if oil flows West to China than East to who knows where?

Now there's a pretty solid case to be made for the govs' position.  Put simply; Alberta deserves a pipe-line. I'm lazy right now so  I'll just quote stuff I wrote earlier on this, ironically enough about Energy East:

You have to think of this as the first step in a process.  Carbon is priced in Phase 1, and then in phases 2, 3, 4, and so on, that price is gradually ratcheted up.  Alberta has been told that, if it cleans up its act and gets with Phase 1, it will be given a chance to send its oil to the larger world market, where it might fetch a better price.  And so, at some political cost to the ruling government and economic cost to the province itself, it has attempted to do right.

So how do you then get a buy-in on phase 2, 3 and etc. if this good behaviour is not rewarded somehow?  If  no action the province takes will be rewarded why bother doing anything in future? So do we achieve our ultimate goal (hitting our announced carbon reduction targets) more quickly through cooperating or trying to steam-roll a whole industry out of business?

There's a matter of intellectual consistency at issue here.  If you are arguing that taking appropriate measures to obtain "social license" will get the province a pipeline or two, but really mean no way no how, than you are being  dishonest.   Why would a future Kenney government keep a Notley carbon tax if they could plausibly argue that it had brought them no credit?

That said,  BCers are going to go ape-shit.  When most people think of "Western Alienation" they think of whining Albertans.  But we BC natives range from artists to tech capitalists to first nation's warriors who can move unseen like a shadow in the night to hippies who've learned how to levitate by taking magic mushrooms to fishermen to whatever Van Der Zalm was.  And ranged against them is a bunch of ill-favoured, uncouth tar miners from Lethbridge.  If this becomes a political war, anti-pipeline forces will win in BC (opinion always tilts anti-pipeline when things heat up) and BC will win in the nation as a whole, and if Feds and Alberta try to NEP B.C., B.C. will tear this country a new one, sleep with its women, and leave for someplace better.  Yes, this could escalate into a National Unity issue.

And there's also the issue of the planet itself.  With respect to CO2 emissions, killing or even stalling pipelines is a bit like staunching the bleeding a little.  So I personally believe none of these pipelines go through.  But I'm willing to have the battles won at a more local level, and cut the feds some slack.

Small Mercies? Is Trump Softening Stance On Climate Change/Paris Agreement?

There are signs.  Climate change denier Myron Ebell may not get top spot at the EPA:

Myron Ebell, a prominent climate change skeptic who runs the Competitive Enterprise Institute libertarian think tank, has been leading Trump's EPA transition team, but sources said he is not likely to become the administrator.

Furthermore, the bottom couple of paragraphs from a recent article in  Utility Dive, quoting a "Trump Insider", suggest that Trump may have advanced a bit beyond crude climate change denial.  He won't lead an attack on renewables, and further:

There will be “enormous casualties among climate change activities,” the Trump insider said. But, he added, “Trump doesn’t want to turn his back on climate change.”

...which sounds bad, but better than claiming its all a Chinese hoax.  Interestingly enough, the first version of  piece is quite a bit more hard-line:

Trump's back-tracked on  a few issues over the past couple of days.  Maybe this is what we are seeing  here.   On this one it makes sense for him to retreat towards something like the G.W. Bush position.  That is, accept the underlying science and remain onside with the Paris Climate Agreement in theory  (I am hearing stories that his opposition to that may not be set in stone), but in practice do nothing.    Why choose active belligerence when inaction is enough?  Which is bad news, but not as bad as if he were to actively attempt to kneecap the renewables sector.

Life In Scarborough: Wisdom From Out In Scarborough

Was sitting in my favorite working man's pub out in Scarborough today, and heard something which I thought was quite deep.  One of the fellows at the bar said: "If you can't laid in Cuba, you can't get laid anywhere."  Which is a fact that many other people have told me is so.

Perhaps today more than ever we should acknowledge the inherent wisdom of the white working class.

Before You Cancel That Telus Contract!

because the company favors a price on carbon, read Rebel Media's (that's Ezra Levant's latest venture, if you haven't been paying attention) fight back letter!

Note the fifth and seventh paragraph.  While Holly the Rebel wants you to dump Telus now, she herself only plans to cancel someday, maybe, if the cards fall right.  That's about the lamest form of rebellion I've ever seen.  

PS.  They address me as Heywood J. because I am in the Rebel database as Heywood J. Blome.  Its an old joke.  I get a ton of email from these folks.

Bill Whatcott's Back

Last I heard, he had moved to the Phillipines because they hate the gays more.  But he's back in Toronto, his old stomping grounds, at least temporarily:

The class action lawsuit is a interesting idea.  You don't debate guys like Whatcott.  You figure out ways to take away their money.

If his name is unfamiliar, start here.

H/T@journo_dale.

Important News From Turkey!

I just googled it and turkeys don't actually come from Turkey. So no matter what happens, the 1st World should be OK for thanksgiving.

— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) July 15, 2016

Tim Tebow Says He Ain't Speaking At RNC National Convention

There is a list, and he's on it.  But then there's his Facebook message saying its all a rumor.  But that's a semi-official looking list.  Did the Trump gang stick Tebow on it without telling?  And if Tebow shouldn't have been there, how many other entries are false?

A Brief Note On Dope Regs: Make 'em Now Or Make 'em Never

 As you may know, I spent the last week and change  out on the Left Coast.  Probably the most interesting part was hanging with friends last Saturday at a beach BBQ, discussing the state of medical marijuana.  Half the table owned "green cards" or "compassion club" membership cards, and more than half of those were retired.  Trying to sound knowledgeable, I told them I knew a gal back in Ontario with chronic pain, who got a couple of vials of oil per month from the program.  And she'd told me the price of street weed, which she'd used previously to alleviate pain, had plunged during the last year. They cackled at my simplicity and one little old lady said: "We know that, sonny."

So there you have it.  The elderlies have gone rogue.  So if the Trudeau government plans to get ahead of the issue, they should act soon.  Otherwise Canada will turn into B.C.  Questionably legal pot shops on every corner.  Downtown T.O. smelling sickly sweet with the herb, just like Vancouver.

Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that, other than its pretty clear organized crime has a toe in the business. There's an incentive: open a dispensary and you have a legal reason to be driving around with 30 kilos of weed in your trunk.  And some dispensary owners have responded to $250-a-day municipal fines for being open illegally...by paying $250 a day.  This is suspicious behavior, in my opinion, and not something you would expect from a young hippy couple with shop-keeping ambitions.

And not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that either.  I'm sure there are many west coast bikers who, as they get older, would like to transition into selling a legal product.  Even tough guys dream of an easier life.  But if the federal government wants to shape the market rather than take what is there now,  they should move with more haste than they're currently displaying.   Some leeway seems to have already disappeared.  A too restrictive regime at this point will not supplant the status quo; it will be undermined by it.  Unless Justin Trudeau wants to start busting Vietnam vets, and maybe even his own mother.

What I'm Up To

Wife and I are out on the West Coast for a wedding and some vacationing, which for us has come to be associated with visiting the many, many wineries on Vancouver Island.  This

...is a shot from outside of one of our favorites, de Vine Vineyards on top of Devine Hill.  And this 

...is just a random bunch of wildflowers outside of Sydney By The Sea, an old retirement town that's repurposed itself as a tourist trap.  Note how healthy these flowers look.  The same flowers in T.O. would be gagging on car exhaust and industrial pollutants.

Your Ward News: A Letter The G&M Didn't Print

They got an even shorter version, but so stubbornly persist in their wrongness and hatred of elegant prose that they wouldn't even print that one.  Anyway, I didn't want all my work to go for nothing, so here it is:

Marcus Gee's Free Speech Views Are Painfully Naive

Gee suggests that Toronto citizens respond to Yourward News by  debunking its chief author, James Sears.  But Sears brags about the many women he has "pinned down against their will", and talks up Hitler and Jesus in the same breath.  That rape is bad, and Hitler not like Jesus; these seem self-evident truths and I would personally shun anyone who felt they were at issue.  An attempt to convince them towards sanity would likely prove futile.  It might also result in online death-threats from Neo-Nazis and members of the "seduction community", as some have already discovered.

And I'm not sure  Mr. Gee has read what he is defending.  He supports prohibiting material which incites violence, but  apparently missed  Sears' pro-rape musings and his talk of "eradicating FemiMarxists".  I don't begrudge Mr. Gee his ignorance, but he might show some empathy for the posties who must deliver this vile product, or the locals who receive it on their doorstep.  They can't avoid it so easily.

Marcus Gee's painfully naive piece can be found here.

Cheri Di Novo Is Fucking Nuts

That is all.

Other than maybe this, for now.  THERE IS MORE!

Life In Scarborough: Anti-Union Sentiments Overheard Being Expressed In Scarborough Pub!

I hear a guy at the bar today, talking.  He says:  "Hey, you know what a union is, don't ya?  It's a bunch of drunk guys fallin' off a roof."

The guy's in construction.  He's management.

The Odds Of Me Voting NDP Just Went Down

I admit they they weren't high to begin with.  But IMHO Nathan Cullen was one of their most charismatic, sharpest MPs, and if he ever grew some hair on that bald head I think he could have led the NDP, if not to power, than at least to one or two levels above the level of haplessness which they now occupy.  And I'm a bit surprised at his decision.  Maybe Nate figures its not worth running for Leader o'  the Losers.  I hear the offices they stick the 3rd party in have roach and rat infestations, depending on the season, and the cafeteria serves moldy bread, and all the taps drip.  

But if Nathan Cullen ever wants to floor cross, he should just slip me an email.  I know a couple of LPC heavyweights, and I donated $5 to the party one time.  I might be able to pull a few strings and get him a ministry.  Something small.  "Minister of String, Cans, And Jars"; something like that.  The rest is up to him.  Work hard and he could get ahead.

Mann Vs. Steyn: Who Is The Dead Denier?

Mark Steyn is complaining that the defamation case launched against him by climate scientist Mike Mann has taken forever.  Well, on the face of it, the first response must be that he should suck it up. In Canada, at least, waiting four years for a defamation case to unfold is pretty standard;  I doubt the U.S. court system is significantly less clogged.  And of course much of the delay is a result Mark's various stalling tactics after the initial judgements went against him, tactics which included the promotion of arguments so novel as to be, as they say, "unknown to law".

Also, there's this from his request for an expedited hearing:

Many of Steyn's expert witnesses are emeritus professors and comparatively advanced in years, being of an age and eminence that enables them to stand against the bullying and intimidation that prevails in climate science. Therefore, the passage of time is not an unimportant thing. Indeed, one of Steyn's proposed witnesses has, in fact, died while this interlocutory appeal has been with the appellate court. 

I've been trying to figure out who the old dead scientist might be.  Maybe Bob Carter or Bill Gray. If anyone knows for sure, please say in the comments. In any case, Steyn only confirms what John Mashey showed several years back, which is that deniers with scientific credentials tend to skew towards the elderly end of the demographic scale.

Finally, you don't have to read Mark's brief if you don't want to, but it sounds as though he wrote it himself, or took a draft from his lawyer and spiced it up with Steyn-style rhetorical flourishes.  Its best to look at it as a fund-raising tool more than a legal document.  And its worth noting that judges typically don't approve when you use the legal system to win in the court of public opinion. Sometimes they make this fact known in their judgements against you.

On Being An Asshole in Politics, Part 1.1037

This was indeed somewhat assholish.  Not very, because Bob Rae couldn't have known (though he should have suspected) that the cameras would have been on him.  And I get the sentiment.  If it had been me up there I would have talked about how Evil had fled the land after the ring had been cast into the fires of Mt. Doom, and so forth.  But the PM has to lay on the cheese and pretend to love everyone, even Albertans.

On a related note, apparently Justin Trudeau has redefined masculinity.  He can punch out Big Indians, and yet he cries at gawdawful chick flicks. Whatever.  New definition; old definition.  I rate about 5.3 out of 10 either way.  So this news does not directly effect me.

The Sad Sad State of the Conservative Menace: On Derek Fildebrandt & Being An Asshole In Politics

I met Derek a couple of times on one of Michael Coren's old shows.  You talk before, afterwards, and during the breaks on these things.  He seemed a decent enough chap, chatting away about how the CTF PR-team handled its  responses to various issues as they arose.  And when you listened to him speak  on the show, he seemed coherent:  broadly conservative, but not without a wee tad o' nuance and empathy.  So what the fuck happened?  Politics, man, it was politics.  He thinks he needs to throw out boob-bait to the bubbas back in his riding.  But he is acting in a manner that is untrue to himself.  I mean, look at the guy's hair.  He's a city-boy; metro-sexual all the way down, if not gayer.   Yet trying to act like a prairie wild-man.  It's just sad.

Meanwhile, after Justin Trudeau's poll ratings soared when he accidentally punched an NDP MP in the tit, the CPC figures its time to stop comparing him to a rapist.

You start thinking that stomping Conservatives when they're down is unseemly, like kicking a puppy.  And then they pull shit like this and  you realize its not a puppy, but some loathsome, giant, vaguely puppy shaped bug.  And your resolve to stomp even harder is only increased.

O HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN! JASON KENNEY IN PARTICULAR!

Former cabinet minister Jason Kenney gets into a brief twitter brawl with guy who claims to be a giant chicken on the internet, and loses:

Something I'm learning tonight: a lot of Trudeau supporters are like Trump supporters. They defend the indefensible, including bullying.

— Jason Kenney (@jkenney) May 19, 2016

And of course now he has blocked me...

The Bump Seen Around The World

Meh.  He bumped some people.  Who were stalling a vote on a bill that is literally a matter of life and death for some very sick people.  And if Don Cherry had got hold of this tape he'd've mentioned "Ellen The Diving Duck".  But whatever.  It doesn't look particularly good conceptually for the PM to do something like this, but actually the tape shows a tall good looking fellow in a nice suit hustling along some puffy little CPC dough-ball back to his seat so as to facilitate the passing of important legislation.  When people see it, they will rally to his side, twitter crowd not withstanding.

Ezzrata: "It Looks Like There's An Attempt To Decieve There"

Ezra Levant has appealed the defamation case brought against him by Khurrum Awan.  He lost that case.  Given Richard Warman's account of the appeal, I suspect he will lose it too.  That is all.

PS. Title is my favorite line from one of the judges during the appeal.  Other favorite lines, directed at Ezra's lawyer, include "Why this is important?" and "Why is this relevant?"

Life In Scarborough: Jobs That Won't Exist Tomorrow, In Scarborough

I was sitting in my favorite Scarborough workin' man's pub today, listening to a couple of truck drivers talk. They had just got off shift and were discussing an accident on the 401.  "Scrape 'em off and get it clear" was their general attitude (although I should note it doesn't look like anyone was injured in this particular incident).

They're both nearing 60; they talked of when Kingston Road was called Highway 2, and York Road before that, conveying traffic from Toronto to the Eastern settlements a century ago.  Because they drive, and this kind of history is important to them.  Then they got talking about "self driving vehicles" for a bit, skeptically and cautiously.  But they're fine.  They'll retire before that wave of innovation hits.  But after them comes a vacuum.  Because a self-driving car won't "know" anything; it will just store data.

On The Earl's Thing: A Brief Note

From an employee's Facebook page:

The intention of this post is NOT to state my opinion or upset anyone but simply make a plea. That plea being that no matter what your opinion is on our beef program or really any other subject, that you take a minute to think about who you're voicing your concerns or opinions to and the way in which you're going about it. I'm a strong believer that everyone is entitled to their own opinion but over the last couple of days I have seen far too many people that I care about who work for Earls be yelled at or degraded for something that is much bigger than them. Today I was yelled at in a public parking lot and then ridiculed at the gas station just for wearing my chef's jacket with the Earls logo, something by the way which I am very proud to wear. All I ask is that before you yell at a 16 year old hostess or tell a server that they're are stupid you take a moment to consider the big picture. We're all human and most of us are in the industry we're in because we love people! For those who have any questions or concerns about this I'm always more than happy to answer them, feel free to message me!

In short: This is Canada.  Keep the public discourse civilized, people.

Some background here.

Wente Back At It

From the Media Culpa blog, is it plagiarism or something just short, like lazy journalism?

Your Daily Nazi: Important News On Your Ward News

I wrote last year:

So there's an T.O. East End Newspaper called Your Ward News.  From what I gather its mostly a direct mail affair; the publisher, a guy named Leroy St. Germaine, has Canada Post deliver it to folks down in Ward 31 (The Beaches).  It has apparently always been a bit flaky/racist, but the last couple of issues have seen a guy named James Sears gradually taking over, until recently he was appointed "Editor in Chief". And he has taken the publication "Full Nazi": articles promoting holocaust denial by old Heritage Front members; articles praising Adolf Hitler; articles promoting "white pride". The works.

Since then various people have taken various actions to make these guys stop publishing or get Canada Post to stop delivering them.  For example, local businesses advertising in the paper were contacted and asked to pull their classifieds.  This worked, more or less;  Sold space within the publication has declined.  But Your Ward has continued, and Canada Post has continued to distribute it.

Last week Canadian Civil Rights lawyer Richard Warman filed a human rights complaint against Canada Post, supported by numerous other luminaries.   You can find the actual paperwork at WK's place through the last link.  My favorite bit from it is:

It looks better if you click on the image, I think.

Anyway, this may be an interesting lesson in how to file this kind of complaint after the repeal of Section 13 of the CHRA.  Lets do a quick walk-through of the sections invoked.

Section 5:

5 It is a discriminatory practice in the provision of goods, services, facilities or accommodation customarily available to the general public

(a) to deny, or to deny access to, any such good, service, facility or accommodation to any individual, or

(b) to differentiate adversely in relation to any individual,

on a prohibited ground of discrimination.

This is invoked, as I understand it, to cover the discriminatory treatment of members of the public who are forced to receive the hate mail in question.

Section 7:

7 It is a discriminatory practice, directly or indirectly,

(a) to refuse to employ or continue to employ any individual, or

(b) in the course of employment, to differentiate adversely in relation to an employee,

on a prohibited ground of discrimination.


1976-77, c. 33, s. 7; 1980-81-82-83, c. 143, s. 3(F).

This suggests an infringement on the rights of the letter carriers forced to deliver the hate-mail.  It's worth noting that CUPW supports Warman's complaint.

Sections 12 & 14:

12 It is a discriminatory practice to publish or display before the public or to cause to be published or displayed before the public any notice, sign, symbol, emblem or other representation that

(a) expresses or implies discrimination or an intention to discriminate, or

(b) incites or is calculated to incite others to discriminate

if the discrimination expressed or implied, intended to be expressed or implied or incited or calculated to be incited would otherwise, if engaged in, be a discriminatory practice described in any of sections 5 to 11 or in section 14.

1976-77, c. 33, s. 12; 1980-81-82-83, c. 143, s. 6.

&:

14 (1) It is a discriminatory practice,

(a) in the provision of goods, services, facilities or accommodation customarily available to the general public,

(b) in the provision of commercial premises or residential accommodation, or

(c) in matters related to employment,

to harass an individual on a prohibited ground of discrimination.

12 concerns discriminatory notices.  If you are willing to publish/distribute this level of anti-semitic, anti-black, anti-whatever hate, its basically indicating to the people you deliver it to that you will likely discriminate and that they should too.

And, again, he various subsections of 14 cover discriminating against those members of the public who receive and must deliver this hate literature.

*

So it will be interesting to see how this all plays out, in the absence of the now repealed Section 13 of the CHRA.  Richard does not instigate frivolous complaints.  As for Your Ward, finding the on-line version is easy enough if you want to take a look.

I imagine getting it delivered to your mailbox is like recieving uncovered, unsolicited pornography (indeed some of the images in the publication shade towards porn).  Its basically a sick joke being played by a few white supremicists on the folks down in The Beaches.  Hopefully this will put an end to it.

Some News Re Dr. Dawg/John Baglow

This happened yesterday:

John Baglow — a former vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada — was taken to hospital on a stretcher Thursday afternoon from his Simcoe Street home with stab wounds to his hands and head. He was in stable condition.

Last I've heard, John has spoken to a couple of people in the blogging world and everyone involved in the incident will be OK.  That's very good news.  John is a class act: good to argue with over the finer points of The Dialectic; good to drink beers with.  Here's hoping he and his partner and step-son have a full and complete recovery.

Federal NDPer Defects To OLP

OTTAWA — One of the federal NDP’s former rising stars has decided she wants to run for the provincial Liberals in Ontario.

Good luck to her.  And it shows that Wynne's OLP is still attracting talent, so good news for them too whether she wins that nomination or not.

And, yes, she is still hot.

A Brief Note On Kale: Is It Even Food?

I tried some Kale "chips" today at Longos.  They were awful, as though somebody had cut up a black garbage bag, battered and then deep-fried it.  Like spinach, in other words, but with spinach's one or two nice flavor notes removed and drops of "this-taste-like-such-shit-the-hippies-will-think-its-good-for- them" juice slathered over.  And it made me wonder: is this some kind of conspiracy to fool health conscious progressives into eating garbage, or has years of talking on cell-phones caused people's tongues to mutate until they're actually able to consume and enjoy industrial waste?  I mean this crap can't really be healthy, can it?

PS.  Longos also had free pizza today, which was quite good.

Ezzrata: When Ezra Levant Was Young And Sue-y

Someone has posted a trove of legal documents from Ezra Levant's past, related to a libel case he brought against the University of Calgary student newspaper, back in the day.  Human rights lawyer Richard Warman has posted some commentary re this case on his website.  Here I'm just copping my favorite bits:

– 28 April 1993 – Ezra Levant swears an affidavit in which he says a Gauntlet reporter named Arnold Nowicki called him names in the University of Calgary bookstore, that “the said remarks can cause irreparable damage to the Plaintiffs’ reputations” given the comments were in a public place, and that the Plaintiffs therefore needed an injunction against Arnold Nowicki and everyone at the Gauntlet from “making any comment about the Plaintiffs”. Ezra Levant says Arnold Nowicki called him the following names:

low lifes

assholes

bullshits

that we get kicks out of intimidating people

nasty

motivated by revenge

that we beat up on people

– 3 May 1993 – Ezra Levant obtains a complete injunction on an ex-parte, emergency basis to prevent any Gauntlet staff member from making “any comment or statement about the Plaintiffs or any of them.”

There's more through the link, and other edifying material on various topics.  You may judge how this effects Ezra's status as a free speech warrior.

On Marie Heinen: A Brief Note

If one person came out the whole Ghomeshi mess unsoiled it was Marie Heinen.  Now stupid journalists are asking her if she thinks she's betrayed the sisterhood and other such nonsense.  She shouldn't have to answer.  It isn't her fault that the crown witnesses all went up in flames, or that the crown's attorneys stood around like a bunch of gormless boobs watching their barn burn down.  And I'll tell you something: if I got in trouble and had the $, her law firm (Henein and Associates) would be the first name on my lips.  And if I was a First Nation's rep I would be after her to expand out into land-claims.  And if I was Greenpeace I'd try and get her to do bro bono work on behalf of the whales. She is the only one of the entire crew around that trial who seemed to know what her job was and how to do it.  The rest of the cast--the activists, the crown lawyers, the witnesses themselves. I wouldn't trust them to organize a fist-fight at an Irish wedding.

On Sunday Mornings: A Brief Note

Whoever stuck those "play me pianos" in local community centers, where they can be plinked away at by small children with 0 in the way of musical talent at 7 AM on a Sunday, should be clubbed to death with a goalie stick.  And the children should be punished, too.  Instead of being allowed to run and jump and play, they should be forced to take piano lessons.  Stupid children.  Stupid Sunday.

Ezra Levant's Hearing Before Alberta Law Society Has Been...

...postponed while they consider his application to resign.  Sounds like he wants to swing a trade; he'll quit if he exits with a clean slate.  In the end, though, he won't be able to say he's a lawyer anymore, and he won't be able to make $ from it.  Good either way?

On That Motion Condemning The BDS Movement

...supported by the CPC and most of the LPC (some dissented, and some more didn't show for the vote); opposed by the NDP; and therefore ultimately adopted...It's a stupid thing. Anti-free speech, maybe.  Anti-Democracy, Anti-Capitalist, I'd even argue.  Telling you that you are bad if you have made certain decisions about how you spend your money; and that its bad to try and change things by directing your consumer choices one way or another.  I don't think the BDS movement is inherently anti-semitic, although I am sure some anti-semites find it a convenient method of legitimizing their hate.  But even if it were, I'd probably argue that its OK to be racist with your money; or at least that you have an absolute right to be racist with your money.  You want to protest the homosexual agenda and be clean in my books, then go boycott Disneyland (*).  Its a free country, and you express that freedom through your money.

But the thing is, the HOC just passed a motion.  Just a statement of condemnation.  Everyone in support might as well have dropped their pants and farted in the direction of McGill.  It would have had a similar practical effect, meaning none.  So it isn't really something to get too worked up over. Nobody is going to, because nobody can, force you to buy Israeli wine, or to stop you from trying to convince others that they too should avoid buying Israeli wine.

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(*)  Its been tried, incidentally.  It didn't really work.

Josh Gelernter, Science-y Type Guy

He writes, bitching about The Left, Science, The Earth Centered Universe, Climate Change, and all that:

People tend to think that proponents of an Earth-centered solar system were nothing but intransigent religious fanatics. In fact, they included scientists of Galileo-level genius, like Ptolemy and Aristotle. When their theories were weakened and their opponents’ strengthened, they switched sides — and the “scientific consensus” changed.

From wiki:

Aristotle, 384–322 BC
Claudius Ptolemy, c. AD 100 – c. 170
Galileo Galilei,  15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642

Aristotle and Ptolemy couldn't "change sides", Josh.  They'd been dead over a thousand years.

Exclusive: Slowly Dying Media Continues To Slowly DIe!

From Toronto Sun Family blog:

Layoffs over at 333 King today. 3 advertising coordinators, and I'm sure there will be more to come before the big move to the National Post building.

PS.  The new NP "building" isn't really so much a building as a tent city on the banks of The Don River. The reporters who are left file from a nearby Tim Hortons, using the complimentary wifi there, and pee into the river itself, which is why nothing can live in The Don.

Ezra Levant, The Alberta NDP, And Journosplaining

I guess I should say something about this.  Alberta's NDP government decided they weren't willing to put up with any more disruptions out of kooks from The Rebel (the online HQ of Ezra Levant's personal death cult), and kicked them out of one of their press conferences.  They're rationale was that Ezra was, in his own words, "not a journalist".  Of course, when the real journos heard about this, they collectively shat, and rushed to our lads defense. Not like rational men.  Like Pavlov the dog drooling at his master's bell.  Like chimps chasing a stray banana.

And their arguments were quite silly. There's apparently no way to tell who is a journalist and who isn't; also, its important to allow even bad journalism.  Imagine if someone had applied this line of thinking to cars.  How can we really know which cars are safe?  But we must allow even shitty cars!

But of course nobody making these arguments believes them for one second.  What real media outlet would be willing to hire Ezra Levant after all those lost libel cases?  Let alone the nine-tooth yobos that make up the "contributors" to his cult newsletter.

Theoretically, though, a news outlet is supposed to accept as a journalist anyone who shows up on the front step with a pencil and a notepad.

The fact is, we regulate pork, we regulate cheese, we regulate guns, we can certainly regulate words; we can eliminate whatever kind of talk we think demeans the public discourse in the same way we've eliminated spitting on the floor.  When journos tell you you shouldn't regulate them discount what they say and get to the root, in the same way you would if you were listening to a herring fisherman bitching about new regs on the herring fishery.  "As the herring fishery goes, so goes the nation!  If you destroy the herring fishery, then you will be the ones who suffer!!!"  And etc.

And the thing with the MSM and Ezra, they're not defending him because its a free speech thing. They defend him because accept him as being one of the family, the slow cousin in the basement that they can feel superior too and occasionally decide he's really got a dabble of wisdom in him in his own thuggish way, even if they've seen him eating live baby squirrels or running naked through the woods at night.

Or maybe its like they've been stuck with him so long they've all got a version of Stockholm's Syndrome.

And about this journosplaining nonsense.  Please, journalists, when arguing this issue don't whip out the few lines your remember from On Liberty, or Mencken, or that book by John Milton with the name that sounds like a piece of gym equipment, as though folks on the other side of the issue didn't read them in college 30 years ago and weren't impressed.  D'you know that Mill's arguments for absolute Freedom of Speech rely on the purest form of truth relativism?  We can't deny Ezra's droolers whatever because, who knows, we can't know they're wrong about the ROMA being sub-human.

Or do you (journalists) spout these lines like you're dropping little semantics turds that sound nice but which  you don't know the meaning of.  In either case, it is insulting.  Stop it.

Breakfast At Longos

This morning their store on 7 near Woodbine had a wonderful sample spread.  The highlight was surely their pulled pork floating on delicious smoked Oka cheese set atop Nachos.  Runner up was a yummy smooth avocado spread, also on Nachos.  And they were serving "popcorn chips", which I shied away from, having already given myself salt poisoning once this week.  (It's a long story, but you really can eat too much Italian sausage).  And for dessert they had Jelly donuts.  My only complaints are that their awesome prosciutto pizza had been pulled from the menu, they weren't giving out chunks of artisanal bread, and the cake was a little dry.

So a very solid 7 of 10.

Energy East, Once Again

DeSmog Blog has a guest post on the Energy East pipeline.  I am a huge fan of DeSmog, but I think this post is wrong-headed and ultimately counterproductive.  Because it is, at bottom, an a priori rejection of the project before it even goes through a newly revamped ie toughened NEB process that now explicitly considers "upstream emissions".  My view is if it goes through the process successfully then, in the absence of legal action by the First Nations along its route, it should be given federal approval.

You have to think of this as the first step in a process.  Carbon is priced in Phase 1, and then in phases 2, 3, 4, and so on, that price is gradually ratcheted up.  Alberta has been told that, if it cleans up its act and gets with Phase 1, it will be given a chance to send its oil to the larger world market, where it might fetch a better price.  And so, at some political cost to the ruling government and economic cost to the province itself, it has attempted to do right.

So how do you then get a buy-in on phase 2, 3 and etc. if this good behaviour is not rewarded somehow?  If  no action the province takes will be rewarded why bother doing anything in future? So do we achieve our ultimate goal (hitting our announced carbon reduction targets) more quickly through cooperating or trying to steam-roll a whole industry out of business?

Life In Scarborough: Goodbye, Old Car!

So I finally pulled the plug on my '97 Cavalier yesterday afternoon.   I feel OK about it.  I'd put a new engine in last February and hoped this would squeeze a few more years out of the thing.  But it was like sewing a shiny fresh metal heart to a bunch of rusty old organs.  It shook them to bits with its vigor.  Everything ancillary has failed over the past six months.  I finally told Crappy Tire to pull the plug at noon on Sunday. and an hour later when I was driving by in my emergency rental I saw a tow-truck hauling it off to automobile heaven.  Bye bye old car!  I won't miss a CD -player where you had to open the trunk to change CDs.  I won't miss the pain in my guts from thinking that this drive might be the one where the car failed somewhere in the 905 area code, where rural primitives allegedly still raise "pigs" and "cows", and occasionally eat city folks whose cars have stalled.  My one regret is that I never managed to have sex in the car while it was being pulled through one of those automated car-washes.  I could have managed the timing (about two minutes), but the interior was too cramped to really get set up.  And it would have been better to have someone in the car with me.  But otherwise onward and upward!  A new previously owned vehicle is in my future!  This one may even have an MP3 player, or at least a working air-conditioner.

Give Alberta Energy East

Sure they're loud-mouthed cowboys.  Sure their cities are crap-holes where the streets all go one-way... to nowhere.  Sure their hockey teams have done fuck all for the nation over the last couple of decades.  Sure they boast about all the money they send East while at the same time grovelling for Ottawa infrastructure $s  because their tar-mines are all going TU.  Which indicates a distinct lack of couth.  Sure they  inflicted Ezra Levant on the county.  Sure they each own a spare gold-plated cowboy that they can melt down to pay the bills when times are tough.  

But under Notley's NDP they have instituted a carbon tax. They're at least TRYING to act normal.  I say give 'em the one pipeline (which, after all, is there already and only in need of fiddling with to make the project work) and then tell 'em to go pound salt re the others and feel righteous about it. 

Charlie Hebdo: Martyrs For Crap, Part Duh

Disgusting cartoon in Charlie Hebdo ("what would've become of Aylan had he grown up? A groper") via @faizaz pic.twitter.com/iB4myFb1ke

— Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) January 13, 2016

Part 1 here. 

O'Leary For CPoC Leader?

@Bigcitylib2 ding ding.

— Rosemary Barton (@RosieBarton) January 13, 2016

It actually makes sense if you think about it.  The rest of the field sure ain't making anyone's heart beat any faster.  This  may be the year of the crass rich guy, with strange/no hair.  And the funny thing is: it would make Rob Ford the most influential politician of the young millennium. Guys like Trump and (maybe eventual Prime Minister) O'Leary have surely studied him to see how far the limits could be stretched.  Rob Ford took the Overton Window and fucking ate it raw.  It's his world now; we just rent from him.

FPTP Or Not FPTP?

I don't mind the Cullen/Coyne option, where we adopt a new system, have one election under it to see how we like it, and then have a referendum, where going back to pure FPTP is one of the options.

Personally, I like better the idea of ratifying a newly chosen system via referendum before the next election, but where pure FPTP is not one of the options.  After all, the specific campaign promise was that the system would change from the status quo.  Into what was left open.

But thinking ahead a bit, I rather like the Scottish way,   Here some candidates are  elected via FPTP, with additional members chosen from lists compiled in advance by the parties.  Some, like Colby Cosh, find this undemocratic.  But regard the American example a moment; the POTUS can choose anyone for his cabinet; that's how he winds up with the best and brightest working for him.  Whereas in Canada whenever Conservatives in power you wind up with chiropractors running the Ministry of Science because they won a nomination in a safe riding.

So your "list" would be where you could keep your "star" candidates, the talented but not necessarily sociable.  There would be no reason anymore to parachute them into a hostile riding; no reason for them to pretend to like cod tongues or wear a cowboy hat at some stupid farm show.

Whether or not it has worked out like this in Scotland, I have no idea.  Finding out would require research.

Although I would note from this that some folk over there are still bitching.

Longos, At Night

I have written about Longos most permissive and excellent samples policy here.

The problem is they stop giving out samples sometime after 4 PM.  Yet people come in after 4 and there are NO SAMPLES and they are HUNGRY!!!  They might be walking around thinking HEY THAT LOOKS GOOD IF I JUST HAD A SAMPLE FOR VERIFICATION PURPOSES I JUST MIGHT buy IT!!!  Or they might be looking to stuff their faces.  But whatever.  THESE PEoPlle Are Hungary!!!!  So I think I've spotted a gap in Longo's business model.  So I'm going to tell them about it.  And in doing so I am NOT JUST MOOCHING!!  I am helping to perfect GLOBAL MOTHERFUCKING CAPITALISM!Of which whom among us does not love?