my corner of the sandbox

The Tyee – A Coalition: Still the Only Way Out

2010-10-26T10:57:00.002-03:00

When will the Liberals and the NDP get it? Without some kind of accord between these two parties, the country is locked into a kind of political version of the movie Groundhog Day -- doomed to repeat the same depressing, cynical and destructive politics day-in, day-out until our democracy is so damaged that no one will bother voting.

The Tyee – A Coalition: Still the Only Way Out

Someone should really tell Vic Toews

2010-10-12T15:23:00.001-03:00

Thanks to "peace order and good government, eh?"

Robert Pape, a University of Chicago political science professor and former Air Force lecturer, will present findings on Capitol Hill Tuesday that argue that the majority of suicide terrorism around the world since 1980 has had a common cause: military occupation.
\
\Someone should really tell Vic Toews - Peace, order and good government, eh?

"Underground" Group of Cadets Say Air Force Academy Controlled by Evangelicals

2010-10-01T11:57:00.000-03:00

An anonymous cadet at the US Air Force Academy (USAFA ) spoke out against alleged religious discrimination at the school last week, saying that some cadets must pretend to be evangelical Christians in order to maintain standing among their peers and superiors. In an email to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), the whistleblower stated that he is part of an "underground group" of about 100 cadets who cannot rely on proper channels to confront evangelical pressure.

"Underground" Group of Cadets Say Air Force Academy Controlled by Evangelicals

Newly discovered planet 'habitable'

2010-09-30T08:40:00.001-03:00

Astronomers have discovered the first planet outside the solar system with the potential to support life.
The planet orbits a red dwarf star called Gliese 581, 20 light years from Earth, in the middle of the star's habitable zone, meaning that temperatures on its surface are just right for life to develop.
US-based scientists found the planet using precise measurements from the Keck telescope in Hawaii, which has been scrutinising Gliese 581 for more than a decade.
The new planet, called Gliese 581g, is one of several known to be orbiting the star, but is the first to be discovered in the so-called Goldilocks Zone, where the distance from the star means that temperatures are neither too hot or too cold for life to exist.

Newly discovered planet 'habitable' - Americas - Al Jazeera English

Don't Forget the Motor City

2010-09-28T19:16:00.003-03:00

An interesting entry on Talking Heads member David Byrne's blog, with photos of the Motor City. And link to a documentary which is a real eye opener.

Anyway, this gives me a week in Detroit, with some free time to look around. A lot has been and continues to be written about Detroit, a handy living symbol of America’s industrial decline and of the human and urban effects of the recent crash. It’s also a symbol of various attempts to revitalize a town on the ropes, including building urban farms; renovating communities; starting arts programs, and creating incentives to bring some much-needed life back.

David Byrne's Journal: 09.23.10: Don't Forget the Motor City

The former guerrilla set to be the world's most powerful woman

2010-09-28T12:03:00.002-03:00

The world's most powerful woman will start coming into her own next weekend. Stocky and forceful at 63, this former leader of the resistance to a Western-backed military dictatorship (which tortured her) is preparing to take her place as President of Brazil.

The former guerrilla set to be the world's most powerful woman | Brasil |Axisoflogic.com

F.B.I. Searches Antiwar Activists’ Homes - NYTimes.com

2010-09-26T15:20:00.001-03:00

Here's a scary little wake-up.

F.B.I. agents executed search warrants Friday in Minneapolis and Chicago in connection to an investigation of support of terror organizations.
The searches in Minneapolis took place early in the morning at the homes of people who have helped organize demonstrations against the war in Iraq and protests held two years ago during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

F.B.I. Searches Antiwar Activists’ Homes - NYTimes.com

Bring Back a National Energy Plan - David Suzuki

2010-09-23T13:37:00.001-03:00

As one of the only developed nations without a coordinated energy strategy, Canada is making an important economic and moral mistake.

The National Energy Program was implemented by the federal Liberal government in 1980 partly in response to skyrocketing oil prices. When the Conservatives came to power in 1984, they dismantled the divisive plan. Although the program did accomplish some of its goals, reducing foreign ownership of the oil industry as well as our dependence on oil, its most lasting legacy was to entrench a great divide between the oil-rich west and the federal government.

Bring Back a National Energy Plan - David Suzuki — THE MARK

Climate change enlightenment was fun while it lasted. But now it's dead

2010-09-21T18:16:00.001-03:00

George Monbiot

The closer it comes, the worse it looks. The best outcome anyone now expects from December's climate summit in Mexico is that some delegates might stay awake during the meetings. When talks fail once, as they did in Copenhagen, governments lose interest. They don't want to be associated with failure, they don't want to pour time and energy into a broken process. Nine years after the world trade negotiations moved to Mexico after failing in Qatar, they remain in diplomatic limbo. Nothing in the preparations for the climate talks suggests any other outcome.

Climate change enlightenment was fun while it lasted. But now it's dead | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian

Canada, Israel & Palestine

2010-09-21T09:57:00.000-03:00

By Yves Engler

ZNet

Monday, Sep 20, 2010

Current peace negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian officials are unlikely to end, let alone reverse, Palestinian dispossession. The power imbalance between the sides is simply too great. While Canada could be part of the solution, so far it has been part of the problem.

Canada, Israel & Palestine | Palestine |Axisoflogic.com

Federal Court allows Abousfian Abdelrazik to sue foreign affairs minister | rabble.ca

2010-09-20T13:11:00.001-03:00

In a decision that must have added a certain edge to the next Cabinet meeting after it was announced, the Federal Court of Canada on Aug. 30 gave the green light to a $3-million lawsuit brought by Abousfian Abdelrazik against Lawrence Cannon, minister of foreign affairs. Abdelrazik is suing Cannon for misfeasance in public office, intentional infliction of mental suffering and breaches of his charter rights to mobility and to life, liberty and security of the person.

Federal Court allows Abousfian Abdelrazik to sue foreign affairs minister | rabble.ca

Rick Mercer 'the lie sack'

2010-09-19T15:50:00.001-03:00

Accidental Deliberations

2010-09-18T15:11:00.000-03:00

There's been plenty of talk about how a single blogpost has changed the course of Sweden's ongoing election. But it's worth pointing out exactly what the problem is that's earned so much public sympathy, and how it fits into what the right wants to do to healthcare in Canada:

A young Swedish woman named Emilie wrote a blog post about her mother losing her health insurance. In Sweden, there's a national health plan that covers your living expenses if you lose your job due to failing health. While Emilie's mom has been certified unable to work by her doctors, the government functionaries running the national plan didn't believe her, and just cut off her benefits. Emilie wrote that she and her mother are now considering selling their home, as it's the only way they can be eligible for any more government benefits.

Accidental Deliberations

Global NATO Raises Alarms From Arctic To Brazil

2010-09-18T00:47:00.001-03:00

Rick Rozoff
The current century’s only and history’s largest military bloc will hold the latest of what have become annual summits in Lisbon, Portugal this November 19 and 20. Heads of state, defense chiefs and chiefs of general staff from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 28 full members will be in attendance, as will be leaders from an unannounced number of the military alliance’s forty some odd partner states.
Global NATO Raises Alarms From Arctic To Brazil « Stop NATO

2010-09-14T19:19:00.002-03:00

Bombshell from London

By Eric S. Margolis

September 14, 2010 "Toronto Sun" -- THE London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), is the world’s leading think tank for military affairs. It represents the top echelon of defence experts, retired officers and senior military men, spanning the globe from the United States and Britain to China, Russia and India.

I’ve been an IISS member for over 20 years. IISS’s reports are always authoritative but usually cautious and diplomatic, sometimes dull. However, two weeks ago the IISS issued an explosive report on Afghanistan that is shaking Washington and its Nato allies.

The report, presided over by the former deputy director of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, MI-6, says the threat from al-Qaeda and Taliban has been "exaggerated" by the western powers. The US-led mission in Afghanistan has "ballooned" out of all proportion from its original aim of disrupting and defeating al-Qaeda. The US-led war in Afghanistan, says IISS, using uncharacteristically blunt language, is "a long-drawn-out disaster".

Just recently, CIA chief Leon Panetta admitted there were no more than 50 members of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Yet US President Barack Obama has tripled the number of US soldiers there to 120,000 to fight Al Qaeda.

Bombshell from London: Information Clearing House: ICH

2010-09-14T19:19:00.000-03:00

Ottawa’s media rules muzzling federal scientists, say observers

2010-09-14T19:09:00.000-03:00

More Images »

Dr. Andrew Weaver with the Climate Change 2007 report in Victoria, BC on Friday, October 12, 2007.

Photograph by: Ray Smith, Victoria Times Colonist

The Harper government has tightened the muzzle on federal scientists, going so far as to control when and what they can say about floods at the end of the last ice age.

Natural Resources Canada scientists were told this spring they need “pre-approval” from Minister Christian Paradis’ office to speak with national and international journalists. Their “media lines” also need ministerial approval, say documents obtained by Postmedia News through access-to-information legislation.

The documents say the “new” rules went into force in March and reveal how they apply to not only to contentious issues including the oilsands, but benign subjects such as floods that occurred 13,000 years ago.

Ottawa’s media rules muzzling federal scientists, say observers

Le Carre on 'the Russification of Britain

2010-09-08T12:34:00.001-03:00

Ex MI5 / MI6 man John Le Carre talks to Radio4's Today program about his new book. He then goes on to talk about how the Muslim boogeyman is being used to erode democracy much more than the IRA ever was.

Le Carre on 'the Russification of Britain

2010-09-08T12:34:00.000-03:00

Oldest Marijuana Stash Found

2010-09-07T16:09:00.001-03:00

Dec. 3, 2008 -- Nearly two pounds of still-green plant material found in a 2,700-year-old grave in the Gobi Desert has just been identified as the world's oldest marijuana stash, according to a paper in the latest issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany.
A barrage of tests proves the marijuana possessed potent psychoactive properties and casts doubt on the theory that the ancients only grew the plant for hemp in order to make clothing, rope and other objects.
They apparently were getting high too.
Oldest Marijuana Stash Found: Discovery News

Obama Has Signalled His Coming Complete Surrender To Zionism And Its Lobby

2010-09-04T15:33:00.000-03:00

Alanhart.net

He did it with seven words. “Ultimately the U.S. cannot impose a solution.”

He was speaking at the White House the day before the start of the new round of direct talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, after he had met with them and Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah II. (In my last post I anticipated Obama saying at the point of his complete surrender that “America can’t want peace more than the parties.” He also said that – ahead of schedule!)

Today there is a growing number of seriously well informed people of all faiths and none (including me) who believe there will only be peace if it is imposed.

Obama Has Signalled His Coming Complete Surrender To Zionism And Its Lobby

DJ Green Lantern (Feat. Eminem) - Bush Knocked Down The Towe

2010-09-03T22:41:00.000-03:00

How Fox North became Harper's priority | rabble.ca

2010-08-31T11:30:00.000-03:00

Remember the attack ad the Paul Martin Liberals used in the 2006 federal election campaign that backfired so badly it helped galvanize Canadians to turf them out instead?

Aimed at terrifying Canadians about the militaristic and undemocratic impulses of Stephen Harper's Conservatives, the Liberal ad intoned over a war drumbeat: "Soldiers with guns... In our cities... In Canada... We did not make this up."

Today the tables could be abruptly turned on the Conservatives with this far more sinister message: "The prime minister's office. In a first-world democracy. Controlling a major media network. We did not make this up."

How Fox North became Harper's priority | rabble.ca

“Sowing Light” Part 1: Bringing Solar Power to Rural Venezuela

2010-08-31T10:48:00.000-03:00

By James Suggett

Venezuela Analysis

Tuesday, Aug 31, 2010

Good-news story.

“We live in paradise. Look, the people are very tranquil, the kids are growing, and we cultivate food without contamination because we know how to produce natural fertilizer from worms. And now, with solar electricity, it’s like a dream,” said the Venezuelan farmer Ramón Dávila with a smile, his solid stature and rough, wrinkled skin bearing the signs of six decades of rural life in the remote Andean village of El Quinó.

“Sowing Light” Part 1: Bringing Solar Power to Rural Venezuela | Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela |Axisoflogic.com

A good year for Québec solidaire | rabble.ca

2010-08-30T10:33:00.000-03:00

In the past year, Amir Kadir, Québec solidaire's first elected MNA, has become one Québec's most popular personalities. He has won plaudits from all observers and, more importantly, from the public for his performance in and out of the National Assembly. His widely publicized positions denouncing political corruption among the ruling Liberals, supporting the battles against the government's spring austerity budget, or lambasting mining and pharmaceutical corporations, have won him a growing recognition among working people and the wider public

A good year for Québec solidaire | rabble.ca