Dear Galactus: A Word From Trey Gowdy, GOP Congressman From South Carolina...

I have contacted Galactus and The Eater Of Worlds is apparently solid GOP.  He will be accessing his pay-pal account and forwarding Mr. Gowdy $5.  The Eater of Worlds is not made out of money.

The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta Is Recruiting Its Own Troll Army!

Talk shit on the Internet for Jason Kenney! Fat shame the socialist hordes!  Threaten the cucks and the squishes with death!  Most interesting bit is if you AREN'T a Conservative supporter but are willing to talk shit strictly for money, the #PCAA is OK with it.  I'd find this kind of job demeaning, but maybe desperate millennials who are jonesing  for craft cheese might sign-up..

Hard being young these days. 

Found it here.

MOTHERFUCKIN' NEWS ALERT!!! TABBY'S STAR IS DIPPING!

ALERT:@tsboyajian's star is dipping

This is not a drill.

Astro tweeps on telescopes in the next 48 hours: spectra please!

— Jason Wright (@Astro_Wright) May 19, 2017

This is what you should be paying attention to now.  Fuck that bullshit with that Trump asshole.  There is a small but non-zero chance that the dips are being caused by a MOTHERFUCKIN' ALIEN MEGA-STRUCTURE!!!!   YYYUUUGE, BABY!   The size of JUPITER at least and maybe one of many such structures orbiting  KIC8462852, a star 1,600 light years away, in the direction of Uranus, a really dark and hairy part of the night sky.

But seriously.  There's a real news story about it here.

But that's the only one.  Everything else is about that orange haired fucktard making an idiot of himself in lands far away.  THIS SHIT IS WAY MORE IMPORTANT!!!!  If it really is aliens, we can pray to them and slaughter people in their name, and then maybe get taken away to some planet on the other side of the galaxy that's all like California as our reward.

Or it could be a bunch of stupid comets.  But I'm hopin'.

Life In Scarborough: The Buses Of Scarborough

On the bus in Scarborough this morning two youths were listening to angry gangster rap music on headphones.  They were both rapping along fiercely to completely different tunes. They became quite loud, and it sounded like they might scrap.  But in fact the two never became even aware of one another's presence.

Also, if you are stuck behind a City garbage truck long enough, you notice that they have steering wheels on both sides.  I didn't know this before that but it makes sense.

That is all.

Oh, and there are folks down in The Guild protesting a new condominium project because it will "block their view", but their view is of a couple of public housing towers from the 1970's that look like they'll blow over in a storm, so...

People just like to complain.

That is all.

On Ann Coulter And Free Speech: She Ain't Always Been For It

From 2005:

"They're always accusing us of repressing their speech," she said. "I say let's do it. Let's repress them."

She later added, "Frankly, I'm not a big fan of the First Amendment."

Read through the link.  There's more there.  Worth noting after all the latest kerfuffle.

On Keeping Ms. Wynne As OLP Leader

This is from an email from Ontario Proud, who may be a PCPO front group:

And it's true.  I cannot see a party led by some coup leader doing better than the current leader. As for recent polls, McGuinty was down 15% back in 2011, which is similar to today's numbers after inflation.  And if politics was the UFC I would say that the OLP is good fighting on their backs. They can find Patrick Brown's weakness, and submit him.

Remember that line from Beowulf : Luck, Often Enough, Will Find A Man If His Courage Holds.

Kellie Leitch Among The Haters

Forget the alleged nazi-era gun.  Her meeting with Ron Banerjee's Rise Canada and other assorted nutjobs is probably the more important story.  My readers will know Ron; he is let us say special. His greatest hits can be found through this link.

O Inglorious Justin: Bad Bit In New Budget!!!

The Liberals are killing the public transit tax credit. #Budget2017 pic.twitter.com/83OcClkwFU

— Andrew Scheer (@andrewscheer) March 22, 2017

This one is a personal kick in the nads for both the wife and I, as we prefer to take the buses in and out of Scarborough on work-days rather than upgrade our car insurance.  If the Star is right, then going on with the status quo will cost me an extra $264 a year.  I have always kept the car for weekend shopping and the odd vacation, but that might literally have to change if this measure goes through. So maybe one more car on the road 7 days a week, and Mother Gaia has to go fuck herself.   Not very green, Justin.

Also, not very terribly gender-based, as women make up 57% of the TTC's ridership. The nannies that get bused in and out of  rich-folks neighborhoods will be crying tonight.  But I guess they're the wrong type of women, or at least not the type this budget is concerned with.

 I know almost nothing else about what's in it, but that one measure left a bad smell in this TTCentric, greeny-weeny household.

Who's the new guy for the NDP again?

Life In Scarborough: The Washing Machines Of Scarborough

I've timed it on several occasions, and when I set my washing machine to Express Wash, it tells me the wash will take 30 minutes.  But it doesn't, it takes 37 minutes.  Everything is fine until the last minute of the cycle, which takes 7 minutes.  This seems dangerously misleading on the part of the manufacturer.  You could be washing interview gear in there.  You could lose a shot at a good job if you showed up 7 minutes late. And then your marriage could fall apart, and you could wind up addicted and homeless, sleeping in that porta-potty they left unlocked down by where they're renovating the Guildwood Inn.

This isn't about me, by the way.  I'm good. There are larger issues at stake. How could something like this happen in 2017?  Russian hackers hacking the Internet Of Washing Machines? Something must be done.

Your Daily Nazi: Nazi Salutes At Rebel Media Event Attended By CPC Leadership Candidates

.@ezralevant says @HilaryBeaumont is lying about seeing a Nazi salute in the crowd, but, ummmm... (c/o @sdbcraig) pic.twitter.com/RMgHDlbI0J

— Beisan Zubi (@beisan) February 16, 2017

PS.  Anyone with more crowd shots, please post somewhere.

Off To A Good Start: Analysis Of Trump/Trudeau First Meeting

I don't know who suggested Trudeau host a "chicks in biz" lunch with The Donald and daughter Ivanka, who cares about that kind of shit, but it was a brilliant move and it worked.  Look at the pic below.  Ivanka's got that....

...I'd fuck him right now look.  She'll be for Canada going forward.  Count on it.  And she's not the only one.  Our guy was a hit down South.  All the women love him.  For example, Alyssa Milano:

Dear lord, Trudeau is so hot.

— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) February 13, 2017

and:
 

Me watching Trudeau translate himself into French. pic.twitter.com/yazecf1Nvj

— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) February 13, 2017

Not only that, Justin fought Trump to a draw in the obligatory power handshake contest:

And later offered his hand voluntarily like the prettiest girl at the ball who kisses you out of pity.

As a result, The Donald has said he doesn't intend to fuck over Canada in a trade war, just the Mexicans.  Sorry, little swarthy brothers, national interests are national interests!  See you on the other side.

Bottom line, our PM did the nation proud today.  Or at least kept us safe.

O Glorious Justin: This Is A Thing Cleverly Done

So you diss Fox News over their reporting re the mosque shootings in Quebec.  Cdn media reports on that.  Then U.S. outlets have to report on it too.  Then Fox News has to respond.  And THEN you know The Donald has read it.  And maybe he responds, or not.  But its a neat way of delivering your broader message to the one person you really want to reach.  Smooth, like the Brits do.  And its the same way his staff signal disagreement with his policies.  They leak to Fox.

A Question For All CPC Candidates: Where Are They With Respect To Russky Interference?

It's a question  I've asked Nick Kouvalis, Svengali for  Kellie Leitch:

@Bigcitylib2 Kellie has been clear. Putin is not to be trusted. He is the enemy.

— Nick Kouvalis (@NickKouvalis) January 21, 2017

Again, all CPC candidates should have to answer this question.  After its success in the recent U.S. election, Putin's troll army has turned its attention elsewhere.  They're going after Merkel now, for example.  It is way within the realm of possibility that they should be looking to find a fellow traveler from within CPC ranks to up-end Canuck politics.  Every CPC candidate should  publicly renounce such efforts in advance.

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.

---
(*)  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?

The Funniest Thing I Ever Said On The Internet

Apparently, according to the likes and re-tweets I got:

@RandPaul @CarlyFiorina @HillaryClinton @mtmdiamond Good line.  Guess you really schlonged her.

— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) December 23, 2015

It was supposed to be ironic, but even totally non-ironic Trump fans seem to dig it, for presumably the wrong reasons.

On PCPO Leader Patrick Brown: A Brief Note

If this whole "Premier of Ontario" gig fails to materialize he could do gay porn.  Because he's in bang-up shape, and this seems to matter far more in gay porn.  Whereas a lot of guys on the straight side of the biz show cellulite.

A Few Developments Re Wind Energy In Ontario

Now that's an exciting lede.

But  a couple of interesting things have happened lately. First up is the fact that the Settlers Landing Wind Park project has been curtailed by an appeal to the Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal that went against the developer.  Here is a good summa. The reasoning behind the decision can be found here.  Essentially, several of the planned turbines were to go in a protected wood-lot, which would have entailed clearing some of the trees in the lot.  Given that everyone involved agreed that the site was environmentally "significant", the tribunal gave a thumbs down to these particular turbines:

One interesting argument arose during the hearing.  From the ERT transcripts:

[145] In a similar vein, the Tribunal rejects the approach of Dr. Kerlinger [who testified in favour of the development] to assessingthe legal definition of “serious harm” to animal life. The Tribunal finds that s.145.2.1(2)(b) of the EPA cannot be read such that a species-wide viability analysis is
the appropriate scale for the assessment of serious harm. Dr. Kerlinger’s analysis
would render the Environment Test almost meaningless at the scale of local impacts by
requiring the Appellant to prove that the Project has an impact that results in a material
change to the population of a species overall, before any modification to it could be
ordered. This is clearly not the intention of the EPA, which includes the purpose at s. 3
of “the protection and conservation of the natural environment”, and at s. 47.2 (the
Renewable Energy section of the Act) “to provide for the protection and conservation of
the environment.”

I think this repeats an something I said re the project at Ostrander point:

"On the other hand, the most clearly stated MOE counter-argument (assuming this is an accurate account of it) strikes me as bizarre:

The proponents now say that the serious and irreversible harm test applies province wide and that it was the responsibility of PECFN [Prince Edward County Field Naturalists] to prove that the project would cause serious and irreversible harm to the turtle population province wide.

If the province's stock of endangered turtles is parceled out into discrete sub-populations, of which only one or two would be effected by a particular development, how could you stop any development?"

The ERT seems to have seen it the same way.

Finally, not many people have defended the Ontario government from last week's Auditor General's report, and admittedly the report contains evidence of alotta bad decision-making.  I am not as concerned about the criticisms directed against Ottawa's renewable energy push as some, however, mostly for reasons given here:

Ms.Lysyk gives extensive attention to the impact of new renewable energy sources on electricity costs, but completely ignores the single largest driver of the Global Adjustment to electricity costs - the refurbishment province's aging fleet of nuclear power plants. The enormous economic and technical risks associated with proposed refurbishments of the Bruce and Darlington nuclear facilities are also completely overlooked.

I also don't buy the notion that an energy surplus is a bad thing to have.  Presumably, expansion of the electrical supply is predicated on growth in the Ontario economy: more manufacturing jobs meaning more plants meaning more power needed for those plants.  Since 2008, the "more jobs" bit hasn't really panned out.  Hence the current surplus.  But if you were to work to eliminate the surplus, isn't that essentially betting on continued economic stagnation?

In Praise Of Longos

Or as I call it, Samples.

Today, for example, they were giving out Fuya Fruit*, Turkey Sausage, Kobasa, Blue Cheese, Prosciutto Pizza, and Gouda Cheese on a cracker.  Something from every food group!  I figure I sucked back about 2,400 absolutely free calories.

I do this trick where I walk in wearing my glasses and hit all the sample booths two or three times in the first ten minutes. Then when they start wondering what's with the guy with the glasses? I take them off and carry my coat over my arm.  The staff don't recognize me right away, and I can get in another circuit or two!

Because when you have a mortgage to pay every free cracker counts.

* Looks kind of like a small tomato but is a sugary delight.

The Alberta Climate Plan: Is Ezra Levant Right?

Not when he says the oil companies don't represent the oil companies, but in his generally negative attitude towards the whole thing?  Well, let's play Devil's advocate for a minute.  What does Alberta get from the rest of the planet for imposing on itself an economy-wide carbon tax?  We know what it wants: pipelines West and South so it can sell its oil to Asia.   Nobody really cares about Energy East.

But Keystone is dead.  So we're down to Northern Gateway and Transmountain.   Does the plan buy them either?  Well, the Trudeau government is going to formally ban oil tankers along B.C.'s North coast, so Northern Gateway is still dead.  What about Transmountain?  Well, a lot of the opposition to this line has nothing to with climate change, and of course there is a faction in the enviro community who would like the oil-sands shut down regardless of any commitments to better behavior the province and the oil companies might make.  They won't be swayed.  So maybe Transmountain goes through, or maybe not, but even if so it will be years down the line and billions spent along the proposed route to grease the skids before its open.  And who knows whether the market will need it by then.

And that's the only prize Alberta gets...potentially...from the whole endeavor.  So: good for the planet, good for Canada, but arguably not so great for Alberta.

On Adele: A Brief Note

Finally connected that singer called "Adele" with an actual tune, on a radio station I wouldn't normally listen to.  Gawd she sucks.  The Youth Of Today...The YOTS...The Millennials...listen to royally shitty music.  Its like they took every electric guitar that ever existed and buried them in a field somewhere and replaced them  with a lot of overproduced bloopy sounding synthesizer noises.

As a result I, as a near-senior, an old x-hippy from the 70s, am starting to feel less guilty about exploiting them, if they're going to listen to crap like this.  When I'm 90 and they're 50 I'll fly into McDs on my jewel encrusted walker with a jet-pack attached and demand my free coffee and throw dimes on the floor when they look at me sad-eyed for a tip.

I blame cell-phones for the YOT's dissolute nature.  They give off magnetic fields (the cell phones, not the YOTs, although maybe they do too), and kids carry them around in their pants all the time and irradiate their nads.

This kind of thing could cure them:

...but I doubt they'll listen.

No, Donald Trump Didn't Say Muslims Should Be Issued Special Badges.

What he said is he wouldn't rule out giving them some form of special identification that noted their religion.  This could be a badge, but it might also be a chip-card, or an arm-band, or maybe a tattoo.  Get it right, Liberal Media Party.

Kirsty Duncan: The Science Minister And Science

So Kirsty Duncan once supported a "largely disproven MS treatment" known as chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI.  And indeed it seems like the treatment is not particularly effective, and the theory behind it hasn't been borne out.  But it might have been.  It takes time to determine such things; they can't usually be shown a priori. And most of her statements in regards to CCSVI are several years old; the Motherboard (who?) thing refers to the presentation of a parliamentary petition, which usually does not signify commitment from the MP doing the presenting (although I admit I once mercilessly hounded CPC MP Mike Lake over this).  And in Science its OK to get things wrong; the problem is persisting in folly when your wrongness has been demonstrated.  We shall see how Ms. Duncan conducts herself in future re this issue.  That's the proof in the pudding.

PS.  The remainder of the NP article reads like a gossip column, so I didn't bother addressing the claims in it.

PPS.  This is genuinely douchy.  Sure its just another junk email in your inbox, and I'm sure Kent Hehr's original sentiments were genuine.  But its still using Remembrance Day to harvest email addresses so as to hit people up for donations a few months down the line.  Tut Tut! Justin Trudeau. Tut Tut! 

The Death Of Keystone: A Brief Analysis

There will be celebrations, but it strikes me as anti-climactic.  Lucky timing for the new government, though; its way too soon for it to have to wear any of the failure.   Whereas this decision will be the big fat fucking failing cap-stone to the too-long-but-now-ending political career of Stephen Harper. And I think Justin's nominal pro-Keystone stance was quite clever.  It was a bit like supporting the continued existence of the sun and the moon.  It ain't up to you, so why not?  But why not go the other way a la Mulcair?  Well, there were potential votes out West to be harvested for being a least a little "pro-pipeline", and support for Keystone could be used as a vote-harvesting carrot, even if it was a carrot made of smoke and mirrors.  Mulcair refused to wave the fake carrot, and lost.  Not that this was the sole reason he lost.  There was also that increasingly tattered looking beard. 

Anyway, going forward, I'm betting against Northern Gateway; I am inclined against Trans Mountain; and I suspect Energy East will pipe oil (or whatever) one day.