FreeD's Defense: Heez Igrant, But So Iz Whee!

Mark and Connie are, of course, trying to protect the 8 pseuds caught up in Warman's law-suit against FreeD (these 8 "John Does" apparently fight for Freedom by defaming people anonymously, by the way). M&C are refusing to turn over sign-up and forum posting details that might lead to the 8's identification. Warman is trying to compel them via a court motion. M&C argue:

One of the notable aspects of Richard Warman's motion was its obvious lack of technical expertise. In a nutshell, they don't know what they are talking about. They don't understand the software, they don't understand what information is captured and stored and they don't have a clue about what IP addresses actually are.

[...]

Second, what little data we do have, IP’s from the posts in question, is quite literally useless because the website’s clock has been wrong for years and we have never been able to figure out how to fix it.

Think about that a moment.

Also, though we all know, or should know, the difficulties inherent in tying an IP address to a particular forum participant, this post makes clear that Connie and Mark could collect such information if they chose. For example, when I tricked Padraigh (one of the anonymous 8) into commenting several weeks ago, his IP became available for the harvesting by the forum administrator. Apparently, this was not done. On the other hand, they didn't have any trouble finding (and bandying about) my IP address way back when...

Most if not all common bulletin board systems have the ability to store IP addresses and match them to user-names. Certainly phpBB, the one FreeD is using, does. In fact, I would suspect that all the IPS employed by all the FreeD pseuds are sitting in the data-base.

A Buncha Lawyers In Support Of The Coalition

And they've sent a letter to the GG and cranked out a news release on CNW!

OTTAWA, Jan. 23 /CNW Telbec/ - Academic constitutional experts are publicly advising the Governor General to call on the leader of the opposition to attempt to form a government if the Conservatives are defeated on anon-confidence vote.

The list can be found here, as well as a dummied down explanation of how the Canadian government models works aimed at our bovine public. My favorite bit:

While, in our parliamentary system, as it is the case in the Commonwealth in general, the Governor General (or the person fulfilling a similar role in other jurisdictions) may offer the opposition leader the opportunity to form the government in such circumstances, other parliamentary systems give the opposition the right to form a new government (i.e. Spain's and Belgium's constitutions) and, in the case of Germany, the constitution even makes it an obligation in certain circumstances.

Such rules are meant to avoid creating an incentive for minority government Prime Ministers to make successive calls for elections until one party gathers sufficient support to form a majority government. Successive elections can be quite disruptive, if only because without a functioning Parliament to vote on matters of supply, unelected officials are forced to adopt special measures to pay for the operations of government.

As for the list of "constitutional experts" cited, while they come from all over the nation, their numbers seem fairly heavily weighted towards Que. and Ontario law schools. I don't know if that is a worrying sign or not.

And as for me, even though one recent poll shows the country more receptive to the idea of a coalition government, I am hoping that the mere threat drives the Tories to produce a budget that Ignatieff and crew can support. For non-political reasons, because whatever the details of the stimulus package, the country needs one now and not after either another election or at the end of a no doubt long and painful series of negotiations among the various coalition partners. And for political reasons, because I fear that even with these most recent poll numbers, if the bid for a coalition fails and we are all tossed into another election campaign, the result will be another Tory victory, perhaps a Majority. The populace will opt for "stability" and the Coalition partners will be labelled "troublemakers".

Doug Christie: Free Speech Don't Feed The Bulldog!

While Doug (Lawyer to The Far Right) Christie is big on Free Speech rights, he doesn't work for free. This week he's earning his lawyerly pittance helping Ian Verner Macdonald pursue a defamation suit against Liberal strategist Warren Kinsella.

But you have to wonder if his heart is still really in it. Yesterday, court insiders tell us, Christie could be clearly heard berating Macdonald--whose hearing is poor--over "the cheque, the cheque". Presumably, he meant the "pay" cheque, the money Christie needs if he wants to get out of our nation's capital and fly home to Victoria, British Columbia.

Apparently, he wanted the damn thing certified, and Macdonald was forced to assure him that he had a $500 overdraft.

So if you see a dejected looking fellow hitch-hiking Westward near Ottawa, it might be Doug. That's a shot of him above if you feel like offering a ride.

Oops! My bad! This is the Doug Christie you might run into!

Ontario Takes Another Tiny Step

TORONTO — Ontario Power Generation is looking into replacing coal with biomass at power-generating plants in a move the province's energy minister says could keep such plants from being torn down.

Not a panacea, but when used in power generation, bio mass is apparently (and I know because wiki told me)

... considered carbon neutral, or a net reducer of greenhouse gasses because of the offset of methane that would have otherwise entered the atmosphere.

One of a series of interesting if small-bore initiatives from the McGuinty government. Very quietly, they've been running up some decent green credentials.

Liberal Environmental Policy: The Next Step

Liberal infrastructure critic Martha Hall Findlay lays it out:

New infrastructure investment can and should be 'green' - to enhance conservation and energy-efficiency; to ensure cleaner air and water; to increase training, education and investment with regard to green technologies. We can spend now, for immediate stimulus, in ways that can ensure a better, cleaner environment, and at the same time create the jobs of the future.

Pretty obvious stuff. Not that it will necessarily get listened to. I wonder though if this signifies a different approach on the part of the Libs. Under Dion they proposed a grand scheme; under Iggy, they oppose Tory plans by offering greener alternatives on an issue-by-issue basis.

And, oh yeah, the Green Shift is "now burdened with political baggage". Nice way of saying "dead", I suppose.

Gerry Nicholls To CPoC Base: Let's Self-Immolate!

Or better yet, maybe it’s time for old-time Reformers to start demanding their voices be heard within the party.

To be blunter, the Reformers should take back their party.

So far, Gerry is most ticked-off about the "Quebec Nation" resolution, but underneath I sense a longing for a return to the Imperial System of measurement. Go for it, Gerry! Down with Metric! And burn a couple of witches for good measure. Above all, be sure to get in touch with this guy and get working on "Plan B"!!!

As the Libs come together, the CPoC comes apart.

Surveys? We Got Global Warming Surveys!

On the downside, a couple of hard La Nina powered winters have driven some Americans into the denier camp:

The percentage of Americans who think global warming is just another planetary trend has increased, though Democrats and more likely than Republicans to blame human activity for environmental change a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds.

Forty-four percent of voters polled said global warming is the result of long-term planetary trends, according to the survey. In 2006, 35 percent agreed.

On the other hand, a survey of 3146 Earth Scientists conducted by Peter Doran and Maggie Kendall Zimmerman reveals that 97% of real dyed-in-the-wool climate scientists (as opposed to the broader catagory of Earth scientists) agree that human activity is causing global warming. In real numbers, that means that only two of the scientists surveyed do not agree. Tim Lambert suggests the two holdouts were Fred Singer and Lindzen.

A couple of interesting sub-results:

Petroleum geologists and meteorologists were among the biggest doubters, with only 47 and 64 percent respectively believing in human involvement.

Finally, some unkind words on the Doran survey from Planet Gore. Unfortunately, the author steps on his own rebuttal by offering this quote from Chris Horner re an earlier survey by Klaus-Martin Schulte:

The alarmists even go so far as to insert themselves in the process when researchers seek to publish data that would reflect poorly on their own alarmism but otherwise has nothing to do with them. Their fight over the claim of consensus seems as if they are protecting their queen bee, fully aware that once it falls their entire colony goes with it. So when Dr. Klaus-Martin Schulte, a surgeon and researcher at King’s College Hospital in London affirmed as absurd the notion of scientific agreement on global warming, its causes, and impacts, the alarmists had to make sure he couldn’t get published.

Schulte assessed what the current literature was saying on the matter by reviewing 528 papers addressing climate change—not just obscurely referencing the phrase, as did Oreskes—published from 2004 to February 2007. This covered the period since May 2005 when the IPCC closed the Fourth Assessment Report’s window for research eligible, for complete and open consideration by authors and reviewers alike.

Schulte found that “a mere 38, or 7%, explicitly support the consensus. Daily Tech, an online magazine, says the ratio goes to 45% ‘if one considers “implicit” endorsement (accepting the consensus without explicit statement).’ While only 32, or 6%, of the papers reject the consensus outright, Daily Tech blogger Michael Asher reports that the ‘largest category (48%) are neutral papers, refusing to either accept or reject the hypothesis.’” Hardly consensus.

Well, no, "the alarmists" didn't suppress Schulte's paper. In fact, it was rejected by Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen, editor of Energy and Environment. For those unaware of E&E's reputation, if you're a sceptic and E&E refuses your paper--that's like having a pig reject your garbage.

Update: John Mashey notes in the comments that E&E eventually did publish the Schulte paper.

Kinsella Cracks Wise

From WK's defamation hearing:

The court heard the travel for the 1987 conference was provided through the Manara Travel Agency in Ottawa and funded by the government of Libya. The court heard the owner of the agency, Mousa Hawamda, a former business partner of Mr. Macdonald, was subsequently investigated and indicted by the FBI for breaching a U.S. trade and travel embargo in relation to the conference.

In cross-examination, Mr. Christie questioned Mr. Kinsella about the indictment.

"Is there any reference to Ian Macdonald in the indictment?" he asked.

"No," Mr. Kinsella replied.

Mr. Christie noted that an illegal act in the U.S was not necessarily an illegal act in Canada.

"Conrad Black would disagree," Mr. Kinsella said.

"Oh, that's very funny." Mr. Christie shot back.

Actually, very funny. Working white supremacists and Conrad Black into a single wise crack is the equivalent of sinking a trick shot in pool or, at the end of a long concert, playing the final guitar solo with your teeth.

I remember I told a joke once that managed to be insulting to Italians, Lesbians, and midgets. Proudest moment of my life. Can't remember the joke, however.

Iggy Dumps Carbon Tax

This doesn't surprise me. While considered the most efficient means of tackling the AGW by economists, the last election proved it (at least in the flawed version offered by Dion) too damn easy to demagogue. And after that miserable experience, the idea is going to be dead in the Canadian federal context for awhile now.

Expect a version of a C&T system to appear in Iggy's policy manual sometime soon. Iggy:

'We want to do the right thing environmentally but this isn't working for us, think again'," he said.

"And I'm saying to you, we need to think again. You can't lead this country unless you listen, and we're listening."

You know he's been humping this line for several months now. Can we move past the thinking and listening stage to floating an idea or two?

The Incredible Lightness Of Being Jack Layton

He ain't seen the budget, but he's agin' it.

Does anyone really believe Layton wants to topple the gov. over the upcoming budget, or that he really expects to be part of a coalition in three weeks? No, its just about positioning--about diverting blame to the Libs when the budget passes. But the ploy is so transparent even some in his own party are questioning its usefulness.

This is the kind of silly posturing that makes people think: Ah well, its the NDP, they'll say anything because they know they will never come close to power and can never get called on it.

Print Publication Publishes Long, Boring, Irrelevant Article On How Print Media Is Relevant And Will Survive

...Or at least I think they did. The author lost me after his first mention of Horace Walpole and the discussion of postage stamps. If anyone is willing to read this sucker to the end, I'll send you 1$.

Argentinian Lake Monster!

A new image of the head and neck of Nahuelito, an alleged Lake Monster of Argentina.

And here is why I really want to learn Photoshop. Are there versions floating around out there on the P2P networks?

From Cryptomundo:

It’s an interesting picture but I’m about 95% sure it’s a photomanipulation or as the kids would say ’shopped!’. I’m a graphic artist and photo retoucher and as soon as I saw this thing I knew it was altered. If you look at it in Photoshop you can see that the waves don’t line up, there are obvious lines where it’s been altered, obvious places where it’s been smoothed/blurred, obvious darkening and lightening of key areas. My best guess is that this was a close up shot of a small log or a turtle sticking it’s head out of the water that was cut out, altered and placed in the middle of a larger picture of the lake to make the ‘creature’ seem larger.

I uploaded a picture where I point out a couple of the lines where the photo was cut out and moved to another pic of the lake as well as my version of the ‘monster’ and my modification turning it back into a log (these mods took me all of two minutes and aren’t meant to be realistic or pretty but to show how easy it is to manipulate this kind of thing).

Obama Moves To Punish Israel?

The United States administration plans to cut about $1 billion from the balance of its loan guarantees to Israel because of its investments in the settlements. The balance currently stands at $4.6 billion.

[...]

The assessment now is that the Obama administration will weigh the political situation carefully before deciding on a cut to the guarantees and may try to link it with Israeli measures beyond the Green Line.

I don't really understand how these loan guarantee thingies are supposed to work. However, it seems to be that the 1st Bush administration was able to use them as an effective cudgel to move the Israelis on certain issues. A stick to go with the carrot, in other words.

Economic Collapse Frees The East

Environmental activists are relieved by the indefinite shelving of an oil pipeline proposal that they say would make Ontario too dependent on "dirty oil" from Alberta and bring it to Quebec for the first time.

However, activists with Environmental Defence and ForestEthics are concerned the project put on hold by Calgary-based Enbridge could be resurrected in the future.

So they will go ahead Monday with the release of a joint report asserting the project would soon make Ontario totally dependent on Alberta's tarsands for energy security and would undermine the Ontario government's commitments to reduce carbon pollution.

The "Trailbreaker" project would have enslaved Ontario's energy future to Alberta:

Trailbreaker would reverse the flow of a pipeline that now carries crude oil imports from Montreal to refineries in Sarnia, Ont. Instead, Alberta tarsands oil would flow via Sarnia to Montreal and by pipeline to Portland, Maine, where it would be shipped to U.S. refiners by tankers.

"The impact on Ontario would be to force its refineries to rely exclusively on oil from Alberta, since other sources now imported from Montreal would be cut off," the report said. "Given that Alberta is running out of conventional oil, the proposal would mean that Ontario would receive its oil from the tarsands, which produces three times the greenhouse gas emissions as regular oil."

The project's collapse has been put down to current economic conditions. Note that the Gateway Pipeline, which would run West to Kitimat, has also run into trouble, and has been stuck in the "proposal" stage for awhile now. Some in the oilpatch have been hoping that this pipeline would allow the sale of oil to the Chinese, and therefore help Alberta avoid "greening" the tar-sands in response to any environmental initiatives from the Obama administration. With Trailbreaker also in hiatus, it looks like Alberta oil has no way to reach less finicky non-American buyers. Big Oil may have been trapped into acting in a environmentally responsible manner.

From The Website Of The Canadian Coalition For Democracies

...a political action organization of which Peter Kent is a senior member.

The "self hating terror supporter", by the way, is Jeff Halper.

And of course, there appear to be one or two saner voices in the forum where this delightful message appeared:

I don't know about anybody else, but I REALLY don't like seeing the words 'Jewish scum' posted on this site. I wouldn't like to see ANY religion called scum on this site.

...but we all know how a few bad apples can screw up your message, right?

Rural Separatist Has Plan B: An Elected Ontario Senate

Conservative MPP Randy Hillier, who has in earlier times advocated that rural Ontario should separate from the rest of the province, now wants to achieve the same end through a back door:

What we need is a bicameral provincial government with a Senate of 50 elected representatives, one from each county, regional Municipality, and (in the north) district, to lessen this growing urban-rural chasm by tempering urban priorities that cause damage and harm to rural Ontario. Much like the federal Senate, this upper chamber ought to be able to amend or defeat most bills passed by the lower house, but be unable to introduce, alter, or defeat money bills. However, to ensure that they have a greater regard for their communities than for party discipline, provincial Senators ought to be excluded from cabinet posts.

Note that the point of all this is, quite simply, to avoid majority rule, for representation in any elected Ontario Senate is to be "based on communities of interest, not population". This deviation from the "one man, one vote standard" is apparently needed to free Ontario's rural minority from the yoke of the Urban elite, who are apparently responsible for everything that has ever gone wrong in the Province:

The priorities of Ontario's urban politicians and bureaucracy are bans and restrictions, and they are out of sync with the people of rural Ontario. This has resulted in Ontario going from first to worst in economic performance, a painfully dismal record in health care, high taxes, a ballooning bureaucracy, deficits, reduced individual responsibility and freedoms, and have-not status. This dismal performance is a reflection not of coincidence, bad luck, or external factors, but of the wrong priorities. In a democracy, people, politicians, and governments are the authors of their fortunes, good or bad. But institutions matter as well as personalities. An improved bicameral political structure is needed so that the urban drum is not always the loudest.

A bit of an eye-roller of an idea to begin with, as it would require the province to

... give constitutional recognition to the boundaries and legitimate jurisdictions of municipalities, counties and districts, just as the federal government does to the provinces.

And this will not happen.

More importantly, however, outside of a few rabble rousers at the OLA, I don't sense any vast discontent out in Ontario's rural communities, even those that typically vote Conservative.

Another interesting question for Mr. Tory when he's out on the campaign trail. Does he support a bicameral provincial government?

In Which I Achieve Historic Proportions

And of course I said "yes":

Dear M.J. Murphy,

I am contacting you today on behalf of Library and Archives Canada regarding the archiving of your blog, Big City Lib Strikes Back, http://bigcitylib.blogspot.com .

Library and Archives Canada's (LAC's) mandate is to preserve the documentary heritage of Canada for the benefit of present and future generations. The Library and Archives of Canada Act was assented to on April 22, 2004 and, for the purposes of preservation, it now allows LAC to collect a representative sample of Canadian web sites on the Internet.

During the 2008 Federal Election campaign we took snapshots of the websites of all registered political parties, as well as key Canadian political blogs. With your permission, we would like to incorporate the snapshots we took of your blog into LAC's collections and make them available on our website, http://www.lac-bac.gc.ca.

Thank you for considering this request. I hope you will recognize the historical value of a comprehensive collection of Canadian political party websites and Canadian political blogs and that you agree to have your blog included.

I look forward to your reply,

Karen Krzyzewski

----------------
Karen Krzyzewski
Adjointe à l'acquisition / Acquisitions Assistant
Bureau numérique Internet/ Digital Office - Internet Unit
Bibliothèque et Archives Canada / Library and Archives Canada
Télephone / Telephone 819-934-6785
Facsimile / Télécopieur 819-953-8508
Site Web / Website www.collectionscanada.gc.ca

You hear that? Huh? Huh? I am officially "KEY" to the Canadian Blogosphere!!! A significant playah in the decline of of Canadian--nay!!!---Western civilization!!! Boo-yah!!! Boo-yah!!! Boo-yah!!! Boo-yah!!!

Or I'm being pranked; the emails I received came about 8:30 PM last night. Do they work that late in Ottawa? Anyway, if I was pranked so was Janke.

To celebrate, here's a picture of Michaëlle Jean in a bikini.

Has Ignatieff's Shift To The Right Accomplished Fuck All?

The Conservatives are at 39 per cent support nationally, compared with 30 per cent for the Liberals, 17 per cent for the NDP, 9 per cent for the Bloc and 5 per cent for the Greens. In the Oct. 14 election, the Tories garnered 37.6 per cent of the vote. In Ontario, the Conservatives are at 42 per cent support, just two percentage points ahead of the Liberals. The NDP is at 12 per cent and the Greens at 5 per cent.

Everybody is still trading within their traditional range.

Victoria Cleans Up

From Woman At Mile Zero:

Today we had confirmation of a new sewage treatment plant location for Victoria. It’s probably not a moment too soon either because we continue to receive universal, world-wide condemnation for dumping raw sewage into the ocean. The plant will be built in the Haro Woods at Arbutus and Finnerty only about a block from where I used to live at the University of Victoria.


They've been arguing about building this plant since I lived there in the mid-1980s. You used to hear stories of people living by the water who would come down with jaundice and blame it on bits of human waste that would get blown ashore from the head of the sewage pipe.

About time.

Top Rival To Campaign For John Tory

Tim Hudak is down with The Leader.

With Tory's most likely successor on board, will the intra-party squabbling end?

Can Someone Please Tell Them Not To Burn Any Israeli Flags

Another Demo this Sunday in Montreal. Another opportunity for the Pro-Palestinian forces to appear in the MSM as a whole whack of lunatics because of angry and perhaps criminal behavior on the part of a few.

And yes when an outfit like the CJC points out instances of hate-speech at a "Peace Rally" you can argue that they're just trying to distract from the real issue--the civilian casualty count in Gaza, shelling the U.N.'s Gaza HQ, and etc.

But they've certainly been given a lot of help in creating that distraction, haven't they? And in this as in any propaganda war "fair" doesn't enter the equation.

Juliet O'Neill Now Covering Several Things That Stink

Canwest demotes their environment beat reporter:

...word on the street is that Canwest reporter Juliet O’Neill will now be covering off environment reporting for the CanWest chain, while at the same time covering the goings-on of the two main national political parties, the Liberals and the NDP, as well Heritage Canada and issues affecting Alberta.

And Jonathon Kay is now official coffee-maker. Ezra comes in three times a week to do the toilets.

Blame Canada!!

A US Airways jet crashed landed into the Hudson River near Manhattan this afternoon, plunging its 156 crew and passengers, including one infant, into freezing waters after apparently hitting a flock of [apparently Canadian] geese.

Wonderful to see everyone safe, but if there is any residual anger among my American readers, please feel free to rename them "Freedom Geese". Up here, frankly, we regard them as a bit of an embarrassment.

Ontario Moves To Create Electric Car Infrastructure

California-based Better Place will establish a Canadian head-office in Ontario. They will build an electric car demonstration and education centre in Toronto to lay the groundwork to help get electric vehicles running on Ontario roads. By May 2009, the Ontario government will release a study which will look at ways to speed up theintroduction of electric vehicles including:

- Financial incentives designed to encourage the purchase of electric vehicles
- Preferred access to transportation grid to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles
- Forward looking procurement policies to speed government adoption of electric vehicles into fleet services where appropriate
- Coordinated public education and promotion of electric vehicles as a mode of personal transportation.

Better Place will build

...an open network of battery exchange stations and charge spots in homes, businesses and parking lots.

...which electric car owners will then subscribe to. Places to charge your Zenn, in other words.

You know, without a lot of fan-fare, the McGuinty Libs seem to be taking a lot of interesting if small steps in the right direction.

Curse Them In Their Hunger And Infirmity!

"Wow. Stephen Taylor polled 3000 that showed for the RallyForCanada. Makes me sick that these 'conservatives' put the economy, security, jobs, healthcare ABOVE free speech."

One of those comments that appear on FreeD that you kind of hope is ironic but know is probably not.

The WTBA's New Policy Guy

The Western Business and Taxpayers Association(WTBA), Canada's latest and greatest Western Separatist group, has had some trouble establishing its Executive Committee. Ernie Slump stepped down in December, and Sheldon Johnson's resignation from their Policy Chair Position was confirmed earlier this month.

The WTBA's new Policy Chair, Rob Allen, is an interesting fellow with an interesting CV. For example, he says that he has graduated from "Canterbury University". Where is that exactly? There are 3 possibilities.

There is the University of Canterbury, in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. There is the Canterbury Christ Church University, in Canterbury, Kent, England. And there is Canterbury University, incorporated in the Republic of Seychelles.

In an effort to determine which of these institutions Mr. Allen attended, I contacted the WTBA's always helpful executive director David Crutcher, who informed me that Rob Allen had gone to school in "Cheshire UK", which is where Canterbury University claims to have been established in 1974.

Here's what wiki says about Canterbury University:

Canterbury University has been discussed in the article "Fighting Credential Fraud" in World Education News & Reviews, published by the non-profit World Education Services, as being towards what the article writer calls the "no acceptability" end of a continuum of acceptability and the "illegal" end of the continuum of legitimacy, though it should be emphasized that the institution's operations themselves are not illegal per se within the jurisdiction in which Canterbury University is chartered.[3]

And here's a story in the U.K Guardian that mentions Canterbury University:

It might be thought that "Canterbury University" could be confused with that city's two recognised higher education institutions, the University of Kent at Canterbury and Canterbury Christ Church University College. That doesn't prevent it operating from a mail address in Cheshire.

A call by Guardian Education to the address was answered by a man who said he was "just a retired chap walking down the passage" and was unable to give any information. The establishment issues official-looking transcripts of marks to students who have then been turned down by an accredited university and told their credits would not be recognised.

And here's another one from The Guardian:

Talking of forwarding addresses, did you know that there is a "Canterbury University" with an office at 193 Market Street, Hyde, Cheshire, which also happens to be the address of Mail Accommodation Office Services? "Canterbury University" claims accreditation from "the United Congress of Colleges", whose headquarters are said to be in the Irish Republic.

[...]

But of course these outfits [like Canterbury University] are really nothing to laugh about. The fact that they are able to operate in the UK within the law is deeply worrying. The law needs tightening as a matter of urgency.

The term that comes up a lot in association with Canterbury University is "diploma mill", and even mentioning such unaccredited entities on your CV would be illegal in at least 10 U.S. states.

H/t PJL

Activist On Activist Action! This Time Its Hebraic!

The CJC condemns "excessive rhetoric" at anti-Israel Rallies!

The IJV srikes back, condemns CJC over JDL!!

Battling allegations of hate speech at peace demos! Oh My! Did everyone bring their complaint kits?

Canada: Home Of Cheap Media Labor

Sources tell CBS 2 the paper is taking steps to cut its unionized copy and layout editors.

They include people who handle things like headlines, who check articles for accuracy, and who make the pages the way you see them.

So who would pick up the slack?

The same sources say the Sun-Times might send the work to a firm in Canada or India.

If it wasn't for the thing about checking for accuracy, I'd say use the gang from Can-West. They're definitely going to need an alternative source of income. I saw one of their staffers yesterday licking the NP front page for the calories in its ink.

Meanwhile, Canoe might dump CP:

What it basically comes down to is a phasing out of the wire. We're told now to avoid using Canadian Press as much as possible and I predict in a year or so Sun Media will no longer be associated with CP, or at least at the smaller daily papers. A couple have already cancelled the service in the past year.

The start of a broader trend?

Or Maybe Nobody Will Care

Chantal Hebert outlines the political upside for Harper in picking a brawl with the provinces over setting up a national securities regulator. I, on the other hand, see only a slappy fight amongst the four pundits who worry about such things. I see Andrew Coyne whipping out his spread-sheet, and demonstrating why people call him "the journalist guy that knows math". As for the rest of us, the indifference is palpable.

C'mon, Chantal, its cold out. Bring back Julie Couillard.

Because They Didn't Have Any?

If the Iroquois were Israel, it's doubtful they'd use rubber bullets...

But would they use polythene tomahawks?

Dubble Dumbbbest column to date on the Gaza fighting, courtesy Peter Worthington.

Your Daily Nazi: Nazis For Mid-East Peace?

The folks at Anti-Racist Canada, who spend their days tracking the street-level activity of Canada's various Neo-Nazi groups, weigh in on the Aryan Guard's participation at last weekend's Gaza rally in Calgary:

Neo-conservative blogs that have posted commentaries on the rally have omitted Mr. Devine's comments and have some have claimed that the Aryan Guard's participation is proof that the march was instead anti-Semitic in nature. To be sure the Aryan Guard, and two extremist Muslim men we're aware of who were calling for the killing of Jews, found common cause, but most of the people who attended the rally were there to support the end of the fighting and calling for a long term cease fire, the opening of borders and the distribution of humanitarian aid. Unfortunately, the Aryan Guard took advantage of the good will of, and perhaps inexperience of, the organizers. However, that is absolutely no excuse and the organizers have to know that the participation of the Aryan Guard or any other hate group, be that group Christian, Muslim, atheistic, or other, is absolutely unacceptable.

We at Anti-Racist Canada have one request of organizers of this rally should they organize others.

Please get your shit together next time.

And as for the two men who were calling for the killing of Jews, we hold you and others like you with the same contempt that we have for members of the Aryan Guard and their affiliates. Just as we call out the likes of Ezra Levant and Edward Kennedy when it comes to anti-Muslim rhetoric, we will happily call you... Muslim extremists out on their anti-Semitism. Now, with that said, if you two or any other Muslim man or woman is so naive as to believe that you and the Aryan Guard have found a common cause, here is how the Aryan Guard views your religion and culture:

Since Kevin Libin's NP blog post has been quite heavily referenced in connection with this event, it is passing ironic that National Post staff photographer Brett Gundlock is even now composing a photo-essay on the very same Aryan Guard, and with their cooperation. Now, it is a private initiative and, given the difficulty of penetrating such groups, I'm kind of curious as to what might come out of it. But, given the enthusiasm of Guard members, and in light of the rather flattering picture he is showing on his blog, I have doubts.

One of them being: I doubt the Post is going to want to touch these pictures now. Wait until their writers goes back to referring to them as free-speech heroes, Brett.

Is Iggy's Shift To The Right Paying Off?

Ignore the content of the argument, as it is only Jonathon Kay writing for the national newspaper nobody reads, but the sentiments expressed here are becoming more common on the Right side of the political spectrum: Conservatives are looking for an alternative to the Harper Tories, or at least a reason not to vote, and they are finding hints of it in Ignatieff.

And this is something I am not entirely comfortable with, as I would put myself firmly on the center left of the political spectrum. But you can't argue with success. And as Kinsella is fond of saying, you can't implement any kind of agenda if you don't win.

Is This The Sun's Future?

A TSF reader snapped this gathering of freebee boxes at Yonge and Finch, steps from a TTC entrance. Is this the Sun's future? Free for the taking to pump up circulation figures for the advertising dollar?


There is nothing wrong with free, but don't expect a commitment to competitive local news coverage.

This was posted on January 8th. Tellingly enough, though, on the 9th a commenter wrote that "it was still full today".

Meanwhile, 24, the Sun's free counterpart, which everyone has assumed is making money, appears to be having problems of its own (click on picture left for clarification).

Pravda: Earth On Brink Of Ice Age

...and bad girls prefer low-cut necklines and mini skirts, but drive like lunatics.

Pravda Says Don't Give 'Em Your Car Keys!!!

And of course the folks at the Denialist site Icecap believe.

PS: Pravda also says that Canadian women treat their gigolos very well.

Did "Terror Expert" Plant Radical Comments On Muslim Forum, Sucker U.K. Sun?

A bit of a quick one here, so check out "Leave Amy Alone" for context.

It is starting to look as though freelance U.K. "terror expert" Glen Jarvey placed a story re radical Muslims threatening prominent U.K. Jews in the U.K. Sun by writing up the inflammatory content that he's warning everyone about himself. A nifty bit of on-line research here seems to tell the tale.

This reminds me of something, but I can't think of what...

Note: the fact Mr. Jarvey apparently has links to this guy does not help his credibility.

More here.

Leave Amy Alone

FEARS grew last night that hate-filled Islamic extremists are drawing up a “hit list” of Britain’s leading Jews — bringing the Middle East conflict terrifyingly close to home.

TV’s The Apprentice boss Sir Alan Sugar and Amy Winehouse record producer Mark Ronson are among prominent names discussed on [ummah.com] a fanatics’ website.

That's from the U.K. Sun. On the other hand, Ummah strikes back in a news release:

The quotes that the article carries are from a thread on Ummah Forums entitled, "Compile a list of those who support Israel". In the very first post, which sets out the theme and purpose of the thread, the user "Saladin1970" encourages other members to aid in compiling a list of British people who support Israel. He writes, "It would bebeneficial to start compiling a list so that we can write polite letters reminding them of the injustices of Israel and to stop supporting Israel." Later in the thread, the user "Abuislam" asks if any names and addresses have been posted up yet in . Further along the discussion still, the original user suggests that rather than contacting those listed directly, it may be a better idea to contact Muslim organizations and individuals involved with them and encourage them to boycott said individuals.

Clearly, most people will realize that this thread is about a peaceful form of campaigning against the state of Israel by writing "polite"letters to well-known and wealthy supporters of the state asking them to withdraw that support and encouraging Muslims not to do business work with them until they do.

And they link to the original thread which, in its current state at least, seems pretty mild stuff, calling at its most furious for demonstrations outside of businesses sympathetic to the Israeli cause, which may be ill considered or not but was legal the last time I looked.

Also, an interesting turn at the end:

This is the Thread which triggered the Headline in The Sun News Paper Today

I can confirm that the User "AbuIslam" who is posing as a Muslim on this forum is in fact a freelance Journalist by the name of "Richard Tims" who registered on this forum to twist what the original Intent of this thread was for and to make Muslims look bad.

Abuislam Deliberated added comments on this thread which made is as if this thread was intended to cause harm to names that were mentioned

This has been confirmed from his IP address and Email addresses has he used on this forum and previous usernames

Whatever, leave Amy out of this stuff. She's got enough problems with her fella'.


PS. Interesting how "Amy Winehouse record producer Mark Ronson" becomes Amy herself in all subsequent news stories. The media must die. It stands in the way of truth.

What Is This Hideous Beast?

Click here to find out!!!

Exxon Supports A Carbon Tax Because...

A trading program, known as 'cap and trade,' 'inevitably introduces unnecessary cost and complexity' that reduces effectiveness, said [Rex Tillerson, CEO of the Irving, Texas based company]. They require a vast expansion of regulation, he said. A carbon tax 'can be more easily implemented' and is the 'most efficient means of reflecting the cost of carbon...'

'Such a tax should be made revenue neutral,' he said, which requires other taxes to be lowered so that the overall tax burden isn't increased"

But, given our last federal election result, is one still a viable policy option in Canada, or are we stuck with some version of C&T merely because it has the advantage being, in effect, a hidden tax, and thereby palatable to our bovine electorate?

B.C. will be the test case, I imagine. There Campbell introduced the tax between elections rather than trying to run on it, and it seems to me (though I am happy to be corrected) that some of the anger it generated has abated.

And of course there's the Quebec carbon tax, which certainly was not a drag on the Charest government last time around. But of course they're weird and Gallic and, at 0.8 cents per litre, the tax was barely noticeable in the first place.

Israel Concedes A Point

No mortar shells were fired from the play-ground of the al-Fahora school, as per earlier claims by the IDF.

On Why Gays Are Freakin' Everywhere!

The war is over, and to celebrate here's a paper from the CHRC website--"Human Rights Commissions and Public Policy: The Role of the Canadian Human Rights Commission in Advancing Sexual Orientation Equality Rights in Canada". More than a little self-congratulatory, but filled with interesting historical information. For example, I had no idea the RCMP objected to including sexual orientation as a prohibited ground of discrimination in the original CHRA because they were concerned "that homosexual public servants were susceptible to blackmail and therefore posed a threat to national security". Now, we're talking 1977, and perhaps back then this might have seemed a rational objection. Else why would an organization of homosexual alcoholics seek to deny rights to homosexuals in general? (Remember, one of the Village People is a cop).

BETRAYED! Final Notes On The Speechy Conflict

Lets wander the blogosphere, shall we? and sample the various flavours of disappointment from the Speechy Tribe re Harper's decision to do nothing about the CHRC and Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

First, to Rob Breakenridge:

I suppose there's some political calculation here on Harper's part, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it is.

Simple, Rob. The Speechy uprising was led by a combination of Neo-Nazis, Mark Steyn, journalists, Ezra Levant, and professional scribblers like Margaret Atwood. Harper took note and decided that, politically speaking, this was a coalition of luzers. If you took a poll that ranked the "respectability" of public figures and certain professions in Canadian society, none of the people on this list would have finished above grave-robbers and fungus.

Meanwhile, Jay Currie is working on plan B:

...20-30 hard right/libertarian candidates running in marginal CPC seats with the sole objective of denying those seats to the CPC.

Whoo hoo! Another political party to fight over votes with the Western Concepters, The Christian Heritage people, The Freedom Party, the Super Duper Freedom Party, the Libertarians, the Libertaranians, and Hellyer's Exo-Politics movement (who feel the government needs to come clean on aliens among us).

Jay's got an idea where this would all lead:

I can live with Iggy as PM.

Yeah, nice thought kid, but wake up, you're battling over a total of 23 votes Canada-wide. You won't be denying nobody nothing.

Chris Selley bemoans the incivility of it all:

Sooner than delight in having reached near-consensus on point one, propose changes, and pursue a rational dialogue on the next two points, certain high-profile members of the Canadian commentariat almost instantly started calling each other Nazis and fascists. It was, in far too many cases, the intellectual equivalent of a foodfight at a middle school cafeteria. Now the combatants are all covered in mustard and whipped cream, and nobody's any further ahead. I hope they had fun, at least.

Yeah but I for one never called anyone a Nazi who wasn't a literal, dyed-in-the-wool Nazi. The fact is, Speechy warriors found it impossible to make any kind of argument against Section 13 without regurgitating filth straight off Canada's premier white supremacist websites. In the case of the "hacked wifi" controversy, Selley's own newspaper was willing to report as truth "information" from an American Neo-Nazi who did time for attempting, with the help of a number of Canadian-based white supremacists, to launch an invasion of Dominica. Ask Jonathon Kay and the NP legal team where that kind of shit landed you guys, Chris.

On yeah, and your side lost the food fight. So Nyahh, nyahh, freaking nyahh!

Kathy Shaidle says she will hate as she pleases, no matter what the law says. Ah well, we all need a hobby.

Mark Steyn appears to still be formulating his response. But here's a tip, Mark. If I see you in a Canadian publication ever again, I've already got my HRC complaint form handy, and a couple QCC forms from Heritage Canada. Tell Kenneth Whyte, if you surface in Macleans one more time, I'm coming for his government stamps.

I'm also taking my campaign against you South, as I try to convince your American publishers that your English accent is totally fake.

Ezra Levant is spinning madly, quite madly, so madly that he has forgotten to ask for donations. That's how you can tell he's upset.

And here's a you-tube clip of me doing a victory dance. Warning! It contains semi-nudity and fatness! But that's what you come here for, isn't it?

Speechy War Officially Over. Speechys Lose

Stephen Harper "has no plans" to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to prevent unwarranted interferences in free expression by human rights commissions.

...which explains maybe why Ezra has gone off his exclusive HRC diet the last couple of weeks. He sees a revenue stream drying up.

Tar Sands Dead? The Upside Of Economic Collapse

So Says Gwyn Dyer:

"I was up in Fort MacMurray recently to give a speech about climate change. About half the audience was from oil companies. None of them were the least surprised by anything I said. They are watching this like a hawk. They know the Americans are moving towards banning the imported tar sands oil.

"The tar sands are probably dead anyway, but if Harper's gone, they're dead for sure. The day Obama got elected he came out with the offer of a joint Camadian-American emissions control treaty, with a small clause about not touching the tar sands.

"This is now going to move very fast over the next few years. The log jam has broken because the Americans are now on board. When they weren't, countries were bending over backwards to try to soften Kyoto to get them to sign on. Now we're stuck for the next 15 years with this watered down, badly mutilated treaty. A lot of wasted time. Now Obama's up to his ass in alligators, and he knows he has to drain the swamp. He'll be looking for low-cost initiatives that show America has its heart in the right place, and the tar sands are low-hanging fruit."

A bit of wishful thinking Dyer's part, I think. What will kill the tar-sands is under-40$-a-barrel oil.

In fact the current economic collapse is having all sorts of salutary effects on carbon emissions. Get a load of this graph of Chinese power generation.

Remember, for every three starving peons you can save a polar bear.

My Big Fat Rogue Senator

Invited to give the keynote speech at the first luncheon at the Ontario Trucking Association's annual convention, veteran CTV journalist Mike Duffy revealed that his sources in Ottawa don't think slashing the tax is a priority for the minority government -- and he said all this before the ill-advised coup attempt by the NDP-Liberal-Bloc coalition and the Parliamentary turmoil that followed.

I guess, once seated, there's nothing you can do to get rid of these people, right? Plus, with this guy and Puffy in place, is the Senate ready to become Party Central?

Imagine Mike Duffy dancing naked to Mancini's Tequila. Now try to make the images go away.

Gawd You're One Sexxxy Lizard

Not what my wife tells me every night, but a newly described species of pink igauna from the Galapagos that Darwin apparently missed. Often seen after a night of hard drinking, trailing just behind the pink elephants.

Catholic Insight Still Entitled To Free Stamps!

"On July 24, 2007, I wrote to you to inform you that we had received a complaint regarding the eligibility of Catholic Insight for funding through the Publications Assistance Program. At that time, I informed you that we believed that the complaint might have some merit, and that we would be monitoring your magazine on an ongoing basis to ensure that the eligibility criteria of the program were being respected.

'Based on the information provided, we have now finished our review, and have concluded that Catholic Insight remains eligible for funding.

'Thank you for your co-operation in this matter and accept my best wishes for continued success with Catholic Insight.'"

As you may remember, Catholic Insight receives funds from Heritage Canada under the Canadian Heritage Publications Assistance Program (PAP), funds which are designed to offset[s] the mailing costs of Canadian content magazines and non-daily newspapers mailed within Canada.

However,

...[magazines are not eligible for postal subsidy] if they in the view of Canadian Heritage, contain material considered to be hate propaganda, sexual exploitation, excessive or gratuitous violence, denigration of an identifiable group or an any other way offensive.

Several years ago, a "questionable content complaint" was filed against Catholic Insight for publishing allegedly anti-gay articles, and had this ruling gone the other way they might have lost their stamp allowance.

As for my own QCC complaint against Macleans, well, that's become kind of a back pocket thing in case they bring Steyn back. But just so you know, Macleans get millions out of PAP, in fact are the nation's single largest recipient of the subsidy in question.

And No Fat Chicks Either

Which one would you rather kiss?

A surprisingly difficult call to make, I know.

Ottawa Citizen Withdrawing Service In Ottawa?

4 out of 7 Ottawa Citizen newspaper boxes I passed on a walk at lunch today were being taken out of service. They had those same notices that were put up in the Nat Post boxes recently.

A rumour so far, I suppose, but from an Ottawa citizen that's always been a good source.

You Mean Blood, Zipperhead

So, DNA pumping away, in I marched....

I guess there's a few on both sides of teh conflikd.

Watch Them Die Slowly

Ontario Progressive Conservatives will consider amending their constitution to force their party leader to have a seat in the Legislature.

In a move apparently designed to embarrass leader John Tory....

Who would have thought the Ontario Conservatives would be split by a moderate?

Is Twitter Doomed?

Gawd I hope so. Several new scams have afflicted the latest time-waster to ensnare the increasing pointless YOT (Youth of Today). Basically you sign on to a bogus site, your twitter ID and password are stolen, and spam twitter messages are sent out to your friends in your name. I suppose the question is, are the spam messages any more lame than something you would send legitimately?

Sheldon Johnson's Resignation Confirmed

Recently there has been some confusion in regards to Sheldon Johnson’s resignation; I would like to take this opportunity to clear it up. Sheldon Johnson has sent the WBTA correspondence resigning his position as policy chair.

Given the circumstances, we regrettably accept his resignation. We expect Sheldon to return in the near future and we will keep you posted when this takes place.

We wish Sheldon and his family the absolute best; our door will always be open for him.

Warmest Regards
Daniel W. Doherty
Vice-President
Western Business and Taxpayers Association
vp@itstimetogo.ca
www.WBTA.ca"

Anti-Racist Canada Ties Ribbon To Free-D Pseud

And Droid1963's real name is...

And here is why we care.

A Few Words From The New Prez

We live in interesting times. Economic turmoil, environmental concern and new domestic and global political dynamics pose immense opportunities for Canada.

These opportunities arise because Canada is a country not driven by fear but by both the optimism I discussed at the outset of this address and a rational process for finding our way as a nation.


Wahida Chishti Valiante is a social worker specializing in family therapy. She replaces outgoing CIC President Mohamed Elmasry, who stepped down in November and whose controversial time in the position probably did not do the organization's rep much good. Here is too a better future and, yeah Ms. Valiante, Mark Steyn is still a prick.

Linda Leatherdale & Scott Morrison Out At TO Sun

Plus 47 others, according to the Sun Family Blog.

Pity, I've met Linda a couple of times and spoke to her on many occasions throughout the years. She is a genuinely nice person and I hope things go well for her wherever she lands up.

That said, Scott Morrison is the more difficult decision to justify. Its been clear for awhile that The Sun has been cutting back on its business section. But tabloids=sports coverage, don't they?

More on his departure here.

Sheldon Johnston Out At Western Business And Taxpayers Association?

From Project Alberta:

Nice, but a bit outdated, isn't it? Is Sheldon Johnston the Policy chair or not? A message to me was that he had resigned (but apparently no one at the WBTA knew it). What's the story?

And Sheldon Johnston is...

h/t one of my favorite separatists.

Congratulations To The Bruinooges On Their New Son

Because there are some things that we can all agree are good.

So Tired, So Very Tired

In which Ezra Levant, watching his "Free Speech" meal ticket descend into media obscurity, hacks out some generic crud on the state of the Canadian economy, regurgitating every lame Conservative talking point that you've ever heard...usually by someone writing in livlier prose and employing cleverer anecdotes.

Green Conservative Gets The NIMBYs

They're coming to build wind-mills in David Frum's back-yard, and suddenly he's agin' it. This is the Conservative who's been trumpeting his green credentials, and in particular his support for alternative energy and a carbon tax, for years now. Of course during the last federal election he went 100% silent on the issue, only to pop up afterwards--with Harper safely in office again and the issue back on the furthest back of the back-burners--to start promoting it again! I guess he expects other people to "substitute away from oil". Out there in Prince Edward County they're sticking with the old ways.

Killer Comet Theory Crosses Important Threshold!

I've written a number of times re the theory, proposed by scientists like Allen West and others, that

...an extraterrestrial impact, possibly a comet, set off a 1,000-year-long cold spell and wiped out or fragmented the prehistoric Clovis culture and a variety of animals across North America almost 13,000 years ago.

Well, the theory achieved an important milestone in the last couple of days: a peer-reviewed paper on the topic has come out in the highly regarded journal Science, and the authors have been kind enough to make the .pdf available here. Specifically, the multi-institutional team behind the paper have discovered

A carbon-rich black layer, dating to
12.9 ka, has been previously identified at
50 Clovis-age sites across North America and appears contemporaneous with the abrupt onset of Younger Dryas (YD) cooling. The in situ bones of extinct Pleistocene megafauna, along with Clovis tool assemblages, occur below this black layer but not within or above it. Causes for the extinctions, YD cooling, and termination of Clovis culture have long been controversial. In this paper, we provide evidence for an extraterrestrial (ET) impact event at
12.9 ka, which we hypothesize caused abrupt environmental changes that contributed to YD cooling, major ecological reorganization, broad-scale extinctions, and rapid human behavioral shifts at the end of the Clovis Period. Clovis-age sites in North American are overlain by a thin, discrete layer with varying peak abundances of (i) magnetic grains with iridium, (ii) magnetic microspherules, (iii) charcoal, (iv) soot, (v) carbon spherules, (vi) glass-like carbon containing nanodiamonds, and (vii) fullerenes with ET helium, all of which are evidence for an ET impact and associated biomass burning at
12.9 ka.

Tiny diamonds, in other words, of the kind that tend to be associated with ET impacts.

Now, the theory is still a long way from proven. As one of the paper's referee's has noted:

...though the scientists [have] not proved their case, they [have] offered enough evidence that the idea warranted a closer look by others.

Several objections have been lodged against the hypothesis. For one thing, it is not entirely clear that the Clovis Culture collapsed at the appropriate moment. One recent paper found no evidence of a population decline among the Paleoindians at 12,900 ± 100 calBP .

Another issue is the lack of a crater:

“A body of this size does not just blow up without a trace in the atmosphere,” Dr. Koeberl said. “Physics won’t have it.”

Proponents have suggested that the meteor hit an ice sheet a couple of miles thick or that there was a series of smaller objects that exploded in the air. But Dr. Koeberl said something hitting an ice sheet would still generate a hole in the ground underneath, and he questioned whether smaller impacts or air explosions would produce the shock waves needed to make diamonds.

An impact should also have left remnants of melted rocks and shocked minerals, Dr. Koeberl said.

I actually raised this point in an earlier post on the topic. Dr. West's response, which obviously Mr. Koeberl has heard and thus far found unconvincing, can be found here.

Incidentally, Dr. West's description of the event

"Imagine these fireballs exploding in the air. A Clovis hunter standing and looking at these things would have seen a canopy of fire as these things came in and exploded," said Allen West, a geophysicist and one of the paper's co-authors. "There would have been no sound. There would have been massive explosions. Brilliant light, brighter than the sun. There would have been radiant heat -- it would have been capable, at the very least, of giving him serious burns and, at the maximum, of incinerating him."

...seems to call into question of the more intriguing recent findings that, as of last year at least, was cited in favor of the hypothesis: the mammoth corpses that appear to have been pelted with microscopic with iron fragments. It was argued that these fragments were bits shed from the impacting object. If so, however, should these mammoth corpses not have been "seriously burned" or perhaps even disintegrated?

Meanwhile, special exploding bonus: did a meteorite trigger a tsunami off New York City?

Arctic Sea Ice...Stalled Again

It's rate of recovery has dipped below the 2007-2008 average for the 1st time this year.

Print Vs. The Net

Exhibit A in the argument that Sun Media print newspapers tower over the Internet is a chart showing Quebecor Inc.'s 2003-2008 performance.

It was created by a reliable TSF source using Quebecor's own financials fed through Excel to see just how 'badly'' the newspaper segment was performing.

[...]

"Although it may not be apparent from looking at the chart, the Internet/Portals segment and Interactive Technologies and Communications reported profits in all the years from 2003 to 2008," says the source. "However, they are so small in comparison to the newspaper profits that they barely register on the chart.

Very small profits for the online unit, it's true, but the cost of producing a web-page vs. producing a paper product must be far less as well. A couple more years of data will tell the story better.

Munich Re Wants Climate Agreement

From their latest news release:

Catastrophe figures for 2008 confirm that climate agreement is urgently needed

A large number of tropical cyclones and the earthquake in Sichuan made 2008 one of the most devastating years on record. Although there was a drop in the number of loss-producing events compared with the previous year (from 960 to 750), individual catastrophes pushed up the numbers of victims and the losses appreciably. Throughout the world, more than 220,000 people died as a result of natural catastrophes this year. Overall losses totalled some US$ 200bn (2007: US$ 82bn) but were still below the record set in 2005 (US$ 232bn in current values). Insured losses in 2008 rose to US$ 45bn, about 50% higher than in the previous year.

Driven by high losses from weather-related natural catastrophes, 2008 was – on the basis of figures adjusted for inflation – the third most expensive year on record, exceeded only by the hurricane year of 2005 and by 1995, the year of the Kobe earthquake. Torsten Jeworrek, member of Munich Re's Board of Management: "This continues the long-term trend we have been observing. Climate change has already started and is very probably contributing to increasingly frequent weather extremes and ensuing natural catastrophes. These, in turn, generate greater and greater losses because the concentration of values in exposed areas, like regions on the coast, is also increasing further throughout the world." Munich Re is a world leader in terms of investigating risks from natural hazards of all kinds. "2008 has again shown how important it is for us to analyse risks like climate change in all their facets and to manage the business accordingly," said Jeworrek.

Munich Re is the largest re-insurer on the planet.

Tracking Free-D John Does

As you might know if you've been following the Free D vs. Richard Warman saga, Warman has been seeking out the true identity of eight "John Does" accused of making allegedly defamatory comments about him re the infamous Lucy Posts and/or various aspects of his CHRC cases.

These people write under the names:

...klinxx, SaskBigPicture, Droid1963, conscience, Faramir, Peter O'Donnell, Padraigh, and HR-101.

Playing around on Free-D, I discovered that, back in late 2006, Connie asked members to post links to their blogs, and among those who did was Droid1963. Unfortunately, Droid blogged as "Andrew E." so I haven't got hold of his real last name yet, but there are a number bits of information on "Victoryous Canada" that can get us closer to his real identity. One of the most interesting is from his profile. Apparently, Andrew E loves

Hunting and fishing whenever possible, playing guitar in "The Cracked Pots".

"The Cracked Pots" are a gospel/blues band best known for their rousing Sunday evening shows at Calgary's Central United Church. They have been active as late as October of this year, although it is I suppose possible that "Andrew E." is no longer playing for them.

(Incidentally, you can match the picture on the front page of Victoryous Canada to these from one of Droid1963's photo-bucket albums. There's also a shot of him playing a band on a stage labelled "Central United Church". Droid1963 is definitely Andrew E.)

I've been researching a number of people on the Free-D list, and hopefully more revelations will come in the days and weeks ahead.

So watch it little Free-D pseuds hiding from your lawsuit, BCL is after you!