Red Ensign Rat

The World is Full of Dumbasses

May 9th, 2008

The Government of Myanmar

Myanmar is hit with one of the worst natural disasters in recent history, with tens of thousands presumed dead and millions more starving, homeless and sick to the point of dying. So what does their government do? Turn it into a political issue by seizing aid shipments and denying foreign aid workers access to the victims. Idiots.

The people that rescued Brenda Martin from a Mexican Prison

In itself not a dumbass move, but while the government, charity workers, friends and family pat themselves on the back for bringing her back to Canada, Leonard Peltier still rots in an American prison for the same reason: being falsely convicted of a crime. But being neither white, nor a woman, no one gives a damn.

The Bloc Québécois and Parti Quebécois

While the two parties by themselves are nothing more than a bunch of dumbasses in their own right, they both expressed outrage this week at comments made by Governor General Michaélle Jean while on a trip to France. During a speech about Québéc City’s 400-year anniversary, she asked people to look beyond Québéc to the million or so Francophones living in the rest of the country and see to the 400th birthday this year as a celebration of the francophone presence across Canada and North America. Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe said that it was wrong to portray the celebrations marking the city’s anniversary as a Canadian event and denounced the monarchy as ridiculous. Fine by me. So long as Québéc dallies with sovereignty I don’t consider them a part of Canada; just traitors and, oh yes, dumbasses.

Québéc City

The municipal, provincial and federal levels of government in Québéc have stated over and over that Québéc city, founded in 1608 and, as stated above, this year celebrating its 400 year anniversary, is Canad’s oldest city and the starting point of Canada as a nation. Which comes as a bit of a shock to St. Johns Newfoundland, which was founded in 1583, making it 425 years old. As for people saying that French is Canada’s founding language, I was trying to find a translation to say in Cree, ‘kiss my ass’, but since most money in Canada goes to preserving French rather than Aboriginal languages, jut try to picture an Aboriginal person giving the finger.

The Governments and Tobacco

Trans-fats are banned because they may lead to health risks. Plastics containing bisphenol A are considered being banned, or at the very least minimized, with stores already throwing out plastics bottles by the truck loads (and where are they all going to end up?) because they may lead to reproductive damage and may lead to prostate and breast cancer in adulthood. Medications that cause adverse side effects in a small minority of people are banned for further study. But cigarettes, which will almost certainly kill you, are still readily available. Mind you, under the new laws regarding the sale of cigarettes, they can no longer been seen behind the counter at stores; they have to be covered. Wow…harsh. Isn’t it funny how the governments, both provincial and federal, are concerned about our health up until the point that it cuts into their tax base?

The Panhandlers’ Union

You may be as surprised as me to find out that panhandlers have their own union, supposedly in an attempt to bring some sort of respect to the time honoured tradition of mooching. The union is suing the city of Ottawa for one million dollars for closing an underpass in which there have be violent crimes. The union says that it violates their consitutinal right to freedom of association since the underpass has ‘has an intrinsic value, like a town square.’ How about, instead of hanging around an underpass begging me for my hard earned money, you go out and get a damn job?

7. Canada and Kyoto

Under an United Nations investigation, Canada could be barred from participating in further measures if found that they violated a Kyoto reporting requirement. Wow. Solve environmental issues by barring countries from participating; that’ll work. Actually, that’s not really so dumbass. Kyoto is garbage so Canada not being allowed to participate in it further would only help us. At least then we can get on with real measures that will actually help the environment, instead of just funneling money to poor countries which is exactly what Kyoto is all about (carbon-exchange anyone?).

I could probably go on with plenty more dumbasses, but the net is only so big.

Posted in Politics, Local (Ottawa), Canada, World Affairs | Comments Off

The Chuck Cadman Affair and other Fairy Tales

March 7th, 2008

As usual the Canadian government is concerned less with the actual running of the country and more concerned with sniping at each other like children on a playground. The scandal this time involves deceased cabinet minister Chuck Cadman, who sat as an independent in the House of Commons. In 2005 it was his vote alone that save Paul Martin’s Liberal government from being brought down. Cadman unfortunately died two months after the crucial vote. Now, in 2008, the Government is looking less like a ruling body and more like a badly written and acted soap opera…

Did the Tories offer Cadman a $1 million dollar life insurance policy to vote with them and bring down the Liberal government in 2005?
Why will Tom Zytaruk only release statements from his taped interview with Harper in 2005 in which Harper seems to say he might have known instead of the tape itself?
Why did Cadman’s widow, Dona, and his daughter, Jodi, say that he told them of the offer, when he said on a televised interview that no offer was ever made? Which one is lying?
Why did Stephan Dion wait almost a year before questioning the PM in the House of Commons after being told of the scandal?
Why has Dona Cadman now switched stories and said that Stephan Harper knew nothing about the offer?
Will Stephen Harper’s lawsuit against Stephan Dion for libel actually have any impact?
And most importantly…who the fuck cares?

As the Liberals showed through 200 plus scandals politicians will never be held accountable for the messes they make. Even when Ad Scam brought down the mighty Liberal party only a hand full of cannon-fodder minor players were ever convicted of any wrongdoing. The Liberals themselves disavowed any knowledge of what was happening in the their own party making them either liars or completely incompetent to the point of being catatonic.

As far as Harper is concerned, I don’t really care what he offered Cadman. And according to recent polls (at least as much as I trust polls, which isn’t a lot) no else in Canada cares either. Considering that there is almost zero chance of finding credible evidence either for or against, the likely hood of criminal charges against any Tory is remote.

So how about dropping the whole thing; the sniping, the name calling, the accusations and most of all the daily tirade in the House of Commons which is preventing the government from doing any work? It’s been a long long time since we had an actually democratic government instead of a polite dictatorship thanks to majority after majority; it’s a pity the MP’s involved can’t put their petty bickering aside to actually make it work.

Posted in Politics, Canada | 1 Comment »

Al Gore and Hurricane Katrina

March 1st, 2008

In a speech given by Al Gore to the Sierra Club at their national convention in San Francisco in 2005 (source) he links current global warming to the increase in hurricanes and world wide climate change, but makes specific remarks concerning Hurricane Katrina…

“Yes, it is true that the science does not definitively tell us that global warming increases the frequency of hurricanes - because yes, it is true there is a multi-decadal cycle, twenty to forty years that profoundly affects the number of hurricanes that come in any single hurricane season. But it is also true that the science is extremely clear now, that warmer oceans make the average hurricane stronger, not only makes the winds stronger, but dramatically increases the moisture from the oceans evaporating into the storm - thus magnifying its destructive power - makes the duration, as well as the intensity of the hurricane, stronger. Last year we had a lot of hurricanes.”

Interesting, but not very responsible on the part of Mr. Gore. Here’s a table showing Atlantic hurricane season statistics for the last ten years, including total storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes…

Year	Storms	Hurricanes	Major Hurricanes
1998	14	10	3
1999	12	8	5
2000	15	9	4
2001	15	9	4
2002	12	4	2
2003	16	7	3
2004	15	9	6
2005	28	15	7
2006	10	5	2
2007	15	6	2

As you can see for the year of 2005 was far above average, but returned to normal numbers the very next year. You can’t really use this graph as proof that climate change does or doesn’t exist. Scientists use statistics from a much broader range and covering a larger time period to determine changes. Which begs the question as to why climate change theorists point to a single year as proof the global warming is causing climate change? There is simply not enough evidence from such a small portion of the overall picture to base any conclusions on. Sorry Al.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has just released a report concerning the links between global warming, climate change and hurricane activity. (source) In the report, NOAA states the following…

Though there is evidence both for and against the existence of a detectable anthropogenic signal in the tropical cyclone climate record to date, no firm conclusion can be made on this point.

No individual tropical cyclone can be directly attributed to climate change.

The recent increase in societal impact from tropical cyclones has been largely caused by rising concentrations of population and infrastructure in coastal regions.

It is likely that some increase in tropical cyclone peak wind-speed and rainfall will occur if the climate continues to warm. Model studies and theory project a 3-5% increase in wind-speed per degree Celsius increase of tropical sea surface temperatures.

There is an inconsistency between the small changes in wind-speed projected by theory and modeling versus large changes reported by some observational studies.

In summary, no one currently can link increases in hurricane activity to global warming, even if Al Gore states it in the movie, An Inconvenient Truth. Again, sorry Al. I would be negligent to simply state that global warming is a myth and that climate change is not happening since evidence clearly show it is but that the causes are undetermined at this point. It would be nice though if the doom sayers such as Al Gore took the same stance, and based their conclusions on actual evidence instead of simply imitating Chicken Little and crying that the sky is falling.

Posted in Politics, World Affairs | No Comments »

Larry O’Brien and Diane Deans

February 24th, 2008

Since this post concerns Ottawa directly some back story is required. Larry O’Brien won the election for Mayor of Ottawa in 2006, beating out former mayor Bob Chiarelli and popular politician Alex Munter. Also in the race was strong Chiarelli critic, Terry Kilrea. Just before the election he dropped from the race, put his support behind Chiarelli, the man he had strongly criticized, and decided to run for councilor of Bay Ward, against incumbent Alex Cullen. It’s interesting to note the Kilrea actually lived in College Nepean Ward, looked after by Chiarelli’s second cousin Rick Chiarelli. Not hard to see why Kilrea decided against running in his own riding.

Regardless of that, after Kilrea dropped out he accused O’Brien of offering him a bribe to drop out of the race. He also accused him of offering a position on the Parole Board though it’s not clear why he didn’t make both accusations at the same time. I guess he was trying to see which one stuck. So now the RCMP believes it has enough evidence to go forward with charges against O’Brien for bribery. The trial begins in April of 2009 (there’s that fast Canadian justice system again).

Which brings us to the actual problem. Larry O’Brien has decided to step down temporarily as mayor during the trial and so has appointed interim mayors, the first of whom will be Councilor Diane Deans. And that’s where I have a problem.

Deans is not exactly a person I would categorize as compassionate and understanding. Not to long ago she succeeded in having the intersection at Albion Road and Uploads closed off to through traffic from Albion, claiming safety issues. All this did was cause other roads leading from the outskirts to downtown Ottawa to become horribly jammed. At one point the constituents of Deans’ Ward held there own meeting to discuss the road closure. They did not get very far in before Deans herself showed up with a few of her cronies and proceeded to shout and scream like little children throwing a tantrum until the police finally had to be called and the meeting was closed down. Apparently freedom of speech and assembly does not apply to people who do not believe the same way as she does.

Not too long after that Ottawa Council had rescinded the road closure and reopened Albion Road to through traffic. Surprisingly there has not been the mass slaughter of children in the road as Deans would have us believe. And yet, Deans has said that the issue is not dead yet.

Which is why Diane Deans is not the perfect choice for interim Mayor. She cares nothing for the opinion of her own constituents much less anyone else, refuses to respect the democratic process of this city, and does not even believe the people should enjoy the same basic rights as herself.

In light of this and in the vain hope that someone at City Hall may read this, I have created a top ten list of people that would make a better interim Mayor than Diane Deans…

10. Any convenient piece of road kill found along the road.
9. The Albion Road, Uploads intersection.
8. A half dead chicken with it’s brains blown out.
7. Terry Kilrea (seriously I’d take him over her)
6. Castro (I hears he’s available)
5. Pierre Elliott Trudeau (I know he’s dead, dig him up)
4. The chair the Mayor actually sits on
3. You.
2. Me.
1. Anyone else in the whole God Damn world.

Here’s hoping.

Posted in Politics, Local (Ottawa), Canadian Justice | 1 Comment »

John Manley and Afghanistan

January 24th, 2008

John Manley, former Liberal Cabinet Minister, was appointed Chairman of the Independent Panel on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan. His report, which details recommendations concerning Canada’s involvement in the beleaguered country, was tabled yesterday. And it was certainly an eye opener.

Some of Manley’s recommendations include extending Canada’s role past February 2009, conditional upon additional NATO troops from a new partner country (unlike other NATO countries, Canada currently has no partner country), new equipment such as medium fit helicopters and unmanned aerial drones, that Stephen Harper take a more active role in coordinating the mission and that Canada take a more active role in reconstruction and training of Afghani troops and police.

This comes as no surprise to many independent critics as this is largely what people have been demanding for sometime now. Our troops need proper equipment and back-up in the form of troops from other countries. Hopefully this report will to see to that first.

However, not everyone was pleased. Stephan Dion, Leader of the Liberal Party, was obviously incensed that Manley, a former Liberal himself, did not ‘tow the party line’ and simply re-iterate the beliefs of the Liberal Party. Hardly surprising. An MP that thinks for himself in pretty much any party generally finds himself looking for a new job. Dion stood behind his official policy that troops should be removed by February 2009, but Canada should continue reconstruction and training. Nice. Leave Canadians over there and leave them defenseless to boot. Of course Dion would not make a comment on whether or not to make the report a confidence issue on the current government. That would seem a little too courageous; something no politician wants to be accused of.

The NDP as well simply stated that there previous policy was the best and that all Canadian troops should be removed from Canada now, thereby ignoring a general call for help from the UN. As a UN nation we are obligated to help in official sanctioned situations; NDP Leader Jack Layton seems to have forgotten that. By removing the troops the civilians of Afghanistan would be left at the mercy of various warlords and the returning Taliban. If you thought that the civilian body count over there was high now, just wait to see what would happen if this asinine plan of the NDP was ever put n place.

Manley’s recommendations were not perfect, but by far better than any plan so far. By making certain recommendations contingent upon response by other countries it means that here is much work to do for the government now that not just Canada would be involved in the implementation of the findings. Hopefully the minority government can lay aside its petty bickering for now and concentrate on what’s important; doing what’s best for Canadian soldiers and the people of Afghanistan.

Posted in Politics, World Affairs | No Comments »

Christmas Spirit

December 22nd, 2007

I went out shopping today just a few days before Christmas. In the parking lot of the store I went to a woman in an SUV was parked perpendicular to a series a parking spots, with the motor running. Obviously she was waiting for someone. However, she was blocking the only handicap parking space in the lot and another car was trying to get into it, the handicap sign prominently displayed in the windshield. Not only did the first driver refuse to budge, but she gave the driver of the other car the ‘you’re number one’ sign.

It’s nice to know that even the Christmas season can’t soften the heart of the hardest of assholes.

On a related note (to Christmas, not to assholes) an Australian Santa Claus was fired from his job. John Oakes claims he was fired for saying, ‘Ho ho ho’, which he says the department store banned for being politically incorrect. The store claims that Oakes was fired for his attitude and that the term is not banned. I should certainly hope so.

We already have apologized for the Christmas tree, the Angel at the top, the nativity scene, and the term Christmas itself to avoid offending other religions. I just can’t picture Santa going, ‘Hee hee hee’ to avoid offending prostitutes.

Posted in Politics | No Comments »

Been a While

November 18th, 2007

I haven’t updated with anything in a while due to feeling like crap for the last month or so. That and the fact that spammers, the lowest form of life on this Earth, have been bombarding this site relentlessly. Currently, I’m deleting upwards of 2,000 comments per week in a effort to stop them. I had thought about abandoning this section of my site because of the assault but I’m far too opinionated for that. Neither do I wish to stop people from commenting. It would be unfair for me to voice my opinions, while disallowing others from the doing the same. So I’ve decided on a mid-between solution.

From now on, if anyone wishes to comment on the articles here, they will need to register. The link is down on the bottom right hand of the controls. It’s quick, it’s easy and it costs nothing and it will cut down on the spam (I hope). I doubt many people will actually register, which is fine. I’ll still be writing and people will still be reading (This blog receives more traffic than any other part of my site at over 8000 hits this month alone so far).

So hopefully that means the last I’ll hear of spammers.

Posted in Misc | No Comments »

Say ‘No’ to Mixed Member Proportional

September 23rd, 2007

On October 11^th, Ontario will not only be voting for a new Provincial Legislature, we will also be voting on a referendum concerning how that Legislature is to set up in the future. A Citizen’s Coalition was tasked to create an alternative to First Past the Post, in which the party with the most ridings becomes the lead party. It’s believed (and rightly so) that F.P.T.P. does not reflect the actual number of votes given to each party.

The new system being touted, Mixed Member Proportional, will reflect the actual number of votes given by creating an additional thirty-nine seats to be divided up according to the actual number of votes received per party. It seems a sensible and reasonable way of doing it, but looks can be deceiving.

The people who will occupy those thirty-nine seats will not be voted on by us, the voters. They will be appointed by the parties themselves, from lists generated before the election. In other words, this new system is supposedly better for us because 32% of it will not be voted on by us. That’s Democracy? No, that’s representation without accountability. And that’s dead wrong.

The PDF files concerning why this is happening are available on the Citizen’s Coalition website, http://www.citizensassembly.gov.on.ca/en-CA/home page.aspx. They certainly do provide some interesting reading. The first details the actual events surrounding the Coalition and its inner workings. In others, of the two hundred and sixty-four pages, about three have any actual relevance. We do not need to know about the creation of ‘Billy Ballot’, Buddy Breakfasts, or the ‘diversity’ of the Coalition itself. Apparently, people still believe that true diversity is based on how you look, rather than who you are. (Wow, it’s a black woman! She must be completely different from me in every way!) The second pamphlet actually lists the where’s and why’s of the new system.

One thing I noticed as I was reading through the second pamphlet is the real reason why this new system is being proposed. It has nothing to do with an archaic electoral system. It has everything to do with what’s swinging (or lack thereof) between the legs. On television, members of the Coalition complained that not enough women were being elected to office. Silly us, we were electing people based on their qualifications and experience, rather than on their genitalia; our bad. For some reason, Rwanda was held up as an example to follow, as their government has 44% women in it. Rwanda certainly is a great model, so long as you ignore the government sponsored slaughter of eight hundred thousand Tutsis in 1994. If you’re going to do it that way, we might as well format out government after the Nazis. They were one of the most efficient government models after all; we can just forget all that nasty Holocaust business.

First Past the Post may not be perfect, but removing our right to decide who represents us is not the answer. And you are naïve if you actually believe those thirty-nine seats will be distributed to show diversity. They will be given to Party friends as favours, or given to people that the Party Leaders know they can control, making a mockery of the whole process. Until a better solution is created, I hope people do the right thing and vote against Mixed Member Proportional.

One last thought; that pamphlet concerning the Coalition went into great detail to show the actual ‘diversity’ on the Coalition itself, including listing all twenty-eight languages that it’s members speak. So why is it that the report and the website only allow us access to two languages; English and French? Because that’s true Canadian diversity.

Posted in Politics, Ontario | No Comments »

Harper and Aid to Africa

September 8th, 2007

I watched the evening news tonight and slowly ground my teeth. It’s something I usually do as I watch current events, or as I call it, ‘The Parade of Idiots’, but tonight it got to me a little harder.

Today, on Parliament Hill, a protest was held concerning Aids in Africa. Several African grandmothers who have lost children and grandchildren to Aids held a vigil with several more grandmothers from here in Canada to try to bring attention to the Aids epidemic in Africa. I haven’t a problem with that; no problem at all.

My concern was with one particular moment; when it was announced that Stephen Harper was not in attendance during the ceremony. Immediately, people began shouting ‘Shame!’ over and over again, as if Harper was completely ignoring them. What a load of bullshit.

The organizers of this protest knew perfectly well that Harper was half a world away, in Australia, and that he would not drop everything to come home to attend a protest. The idea is ludicrous. But they already knew that; it’s what they were counting on. After all, what better way to bring attention to a problem then make it seem as if politicians don’t care about it?

The protest was planned because Harper would be away as a gimmick, nothing else. It’s the same reason as to what happened to this year’s Aids conference in Toronto when, again, Harper was not in attendance and people were shouting, ‘Where’s Harper?’ and not really caring that he had a previously booked engagement in Nunavut but back to the most current protest.

Harper has already agreed to double Canada’s aid to Africa and has signed a multi-million dollar deal with Bill Gates to research Aids vaccines. Hardly the work of someone’s who intent on ignoring the problem. The question is though, who’s really to blame for ignoring the Aids epidemic? According to George B.N. Ayittey, President of The Free Africa Foundation, some 400 billion dollars has been invested in Africa since the 1960’s by all developed countries combined (source) Here’s a quote from his report…

‘Canadian aid programs designed to reduce poverty in Africa cannot be expected to work or achieve results in an environment that is wracked by civil conflict or war, rampant corruption, lack of freedom and total institutional break-down. Western aid programs are hobbled by two fundamental problems. The first is the failure to distinguish between African governments or leaders and the people. In Africa, governments or leaders have been the problem, not the people.

Burdened with excessive racial sensitivity and guilt over the iniquities of the slave trade and colonialism, the West has been reluctant to speak candidly about Africa. Unable to distinguish between African leaders and the African people, Westerners shy away from criticizing African leaders for fear of being labeled “racist” or accused of “blaming the victim.” This overt racial sensitivity shields African leaders from criticism and inadvertently helps perpetuate misguided policies and wrong choices.’

Which highlights one of the main problems with supplying aid to Africa. It matters little how much money you throw at a problem while the governments in control are corrupt; nothing will happen. And no one is willing to do anything about it. Civil wars in Africa cost the control 15 billion dollars annually, the Washington times reported that some 11 billion dollars is spent in arms annually and the African Union estimated that 148 billion dollars annually is lost to corruption. It’s not hard to see where all the money goes.

The protesters today had a right to have their voice heard and I fully support that. I believe though that they are shouting at the wrong people. Africa could easily spend money to combat the Aids epidemic themselves, if the corruption were to be removed from their levels of government, and that’s where Western Leaders should be concentrating on doing. Until that happens, we might as well be throwing our money down a well.

Posted in Politics, Foreign Affairs, World Affairs | No Comments »

Jack Layton Doesn’t Exist

August 14th, 2007

Just got back from a few, much needed weeks of vacation out on Vancouver Island. One of the first things I noticed while there is the news coverage. In Ottawa the daily going-ons of the Federal government is repeated ad nauseum throughout the day on most news shows. Harper, Dion, Layton and Elizabeth May (had to put in her full name, otherwise people wouldn’t know to whom I was referring) are constantly quoted, sometimes several times in a single sitting of CJOH news.

In the West though, they receive little more than a passing glance in the headlines and then are quickly forgotten for more relevant news. Harper and Dion made the most claims to air time (as few as they were) and even Elizabeth May was quoted once while I was out there.

But easily the best part of my vacation was the utter lack of any attention wasted on one Jack Layton, Federal ~~Failure~~ Leader of the NDP. Yes, back in Ottawa the news teams clamour over one another in an attempt to garner even the smallest of quotes from Layton on the daily happenings of Harper or the Conservatives in general. Not a day went by that his weasily, weird uncle type of façade didn’t appear several times during a single news cast.

In contrast he never once appeared during any newscast that I watched while on holidays in British Columbia, despite the large presence of the NDP provincially. It was as if Layton didn’t even exist.

It made for quite an enjoyable vacation.

Posted in Politics, Canada | 3 Comments »