Stephen Harper and the Theo-Cons: The Rising Clout of Canada’s Religious Right

by Marci McDonald - May 29, 2008

...[T]he religious right are equally convinced that [Canadian Prime Minister Stephen] Harper is one of their own...They see him as an image-savvy evangelical who has been careful to keep his signals to them under the media radar, but they have no doubt his convictions run deep—so deep that only after he wins a majority will he dare translate the true colours of his faith into policies that could remake the fabric of the nation. If they’re right, it remains unclear whether those convictions would turn government into a kinder, gentler guarantor of social justice for all or transform the country into a stern, narrow-minded theocracy.

read more

A Peek at Bernier's Briefing Notes

• -A guess at what Bernier's misplaced briefing notes might have included, by Erica Simson at Embassy Magazine. It seems that the choice of foreign affairs minister in Canada is strictly a political matter. His appointment was that approach writ large. I heard that Bernier thought that Aristide was still leader of Haiti. And this is after Aristide of (french speaking) Haiti, (and there being thousands of Haitians in Montreal) was royally put on a plane out of the country with Canada's help, five years ago. It seems that Mr. Bernier didn't even bother to read a newspaper closely.

A Peek at Bernier's Briefing Notes - Embassy - Newspaper Online.

Amusing Myself

• Li Bai

Facing my wine, I did not see the dusk,
Falling blossoms have filled the folds of my clothes.
Drunk, I rise and approach the moon in the stream,
Birds are far off, people too are few.

Amusing Myself

Colonial Canada Now. Part One

I've always thought that Canada went directly from being a colony of England to being one of the US. Robin Mathews over at vivelecanada.ca would seem to agree and explains why. I'm looking forward to part two.

Colonial Canada Now. Part One - Vive

God and the New Tories

Well, if we can't save ourselves, they'll do it for us. How comforting.

Harper's zeal for retribution seems religious.

God's Wrath, and the Tories' (in Views)
Murray Dobbin

Canada's Imperial Adventure in the Andes

Canada is about to wet it’s pants in anticipatation of hammering out a free trade agreement with Colombia. Canada is the third biggest foreign investor in South America and is quite happy, it seems, to partner with the most brutal and degenerate regime on the continent. While this is being pushed presently by Harper, it is just a continuance of policy put in place by the Liberal Party. While we might look askance at the hegemony of our neighbor to the south, it seems we are nothing but part and parcel of the same agenda.

Building its Ties to Colombia: Canada's Imperial Adventure in the Andes.

Obama and Latin America /an analysis

  Obama and the US-Latin America Time Bomb

Turning on Canada's Tap?

 

April 3, 2008 - The Polaris Institute released today a new report on bulk water exports called Turning on Canada’s Tap? The report, prepared by Tony Clarke, Executive Director of the Polaris Institute, outlines why Canada needs a comprehensive policy and strategy now on bulk water exports to the United States.

Turning on Canada's Tap?

South America nations found union

• The leaders of 12 South American nations found a union to boost economic and political co-operation.

S America nations found union

Is global terror threat falling?

Two recent reports about the threat posed by terrorism present contrasting pictures.

Three weeks ago, the US released its “Country Reports on Terrorism” for 2007, described as a reference tool for the war on terror.

 

Full Story

Bill C-51

All you want to know about this bill, moving through the Canadian parliament as we speak.

The Official Stop C-51 Website - Your Freedom And Health Are At Risk!

Cannabis, Forgetting, and the Botany of Desire

I don't have an agenda here, but if you have the time check out this talk given at Berkeley by Michael Pollan. Very well researched and presented.

Cannabis, Forgetting, and the Botany of Desire. Also, a transcript (pdf).

Democracy Inc.

Chalmers Johnston reviews an important  new book by political philosopher Sheldon S. Wolin on U.S. totalitarianism.

Inverted Totalitarianism: A New Way of Understanding How the U.S. Is Controlled | Democracy and Elections | AlterNet

LSD- Studied Again

• At a handful of sites across the country, after a four-decade hiatus, psychedelic research is undergoing a quiet renaissance, thanks to scientists like Charles Grob who are revisiting the powerful mind-altering drugs of the 1960s in hopes of making them part of our therapeutic arsenal.

Could LSD Cure Panic Attacks?

Gore Vidal- Removal of Magna Carta a Coup d'Etat

democracynow.org

AMY GOODMAN: And so, here we are, moved into the sixth year of the war with Iraq, longer than the US was involved in World War II.

GORE VIDAL: Yes, incredible. That was such a huge operation on two great continents against two modern enemies. And we're fighting little jungle wars for no reason, because we have a president who knows nothing about anything. He's just blank. But he wants to show off: ‘I'm a wartime president! I'm a wartime president!' He goes yap, yap, yap. He's like a crazed terrier. And look where he got us.
I didn't realize-I think I've always had a good idea about my native land, but I didn't think that institutionally we were so easy to overthrow, because it was a coup d'etat, 9/11.

Full Story

A photo-voltaic Inovation

A technology developed by IBM to cool computer chips could be a boon for solar energy.

A Cool Trick for Solar Cells

Picasso's Guernica

Really spooky but beautiful.

A 3D Exploration of Picasso's Guernica (flash movie via)

Here Comes the Second World

Parag Khanna is Director of the Global Governance Initiative and Senior Research Fellow in the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. He is author of The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (Random House, 2008).

First world/ third world. The second world doesn't come up in the discussion much. Here's an essay describing the new interconnections that are making for an interesting if more complicated world. Apparently Khanna has been an adviser to Obama over the last year or so. I saw him being interviewed by the insufferable Charlie Rose. He's very sharp. Refreshingly, he mentions that today it is not a matter of whether some of these countries are pro or anti U.S., but whether they think of the U.S. at all.

Here Comes the Second World (PARAG KHANNA)

Feed the Pigeons but not the People

Stop feeding homeless in city park, Abbotsford councillors tell pastor

For Sale: Arctic Sovereignty? by Michael Byers

How losing a Canadian satellite to the US would be like losing our eyes on the North

Continue reading this article at http://www.walrusmagazine.com

"Take away the right to say "fuck" and you take away the right to say "fuck the government." —Lenny Bruce, 1923 - 1966)

Food bill comes in for liberalization

 

Two decades of liberalization in international agriculture have seen poor countries open up to cheap food imports and their farming infrastructure underdeveloped or turned over to growing products for export. That has left them ill-prepared for the present surge in prices. The "experts" now urge more of what got them into this mess.

Food bill comes in for liberalization

I just checked Google Blog Search for entries on carbon tax for the last 24 hrs and found that all but a few were Conservative bloggers trouncing the Liberal plan. It’s like the Christian Right in The States 10 yrs. ago. Seems like they’re well organized and vocal. My lonely little blog was there on page 2. Wow, page ranking! A more positive comment was seen at maribo by Simon Donner:

• Is there a better time to redirect federal tax code to stress fuels, rather than income? The signals are all pointing in that direction. Cars are outselling trucks and SUVs for the first time in years. Goldman Sachs reported this week that oil could reach $150 to $200 a barrel. Public transit usage is on the rise. A carbon tax on transportation and heating fuels would only further nudge our economy towards higher energy efficiency and lower per capita greenhouse gas emissions. Most importantly, even if 100% revenue neutral the tax will allow the government the political room to direct revenues to programs to further invest in energy efficiency, renewable energy and new technologies.

More on this later.

Canada and the Origins of the Israel/Palestine Conflict

Canada's present day policy on Israel/Palestine and it's history by Dan Freeman-Maloy

could also read this
and this

by Ben Heine

Expert Testifies Cannabis Helps Slow Aging

 

B.C. Provincial Court heard Thursday that cannabis is safer than aspirin and can restore the balance in people's bodies to help fight illness...That was the testimony of Dr. Robert Melamede, an associate professor at the University of Colorado, who was brought in by the defense team for the four men accused in the Holy Smoke Culture Shop drug trafficking case taking place in Nelson this week.

read more

The History of Banking

A beautiful animated film even your child could understand. Canadian.

Amarillo, Texas, May 6, 2008—A supercell—the strongest and most severe type of thunderstorm—lights up the sky over Amarillo.

The supercell would eventually form a tornadic vortex signature, signaling a high probability of forming dangerous twisters.

The supercell was part of a line of storms that dumped torrential rain and large hail in parts of west Texas, but no major damage or injuries were reported.

1,000 songs, 1,000 dancers, no sound

 

Silent discos, popular in Europe for the past few years, are catching on across Canada

1,000 songs, 1,000 dancers, no sound

Tibet, Palestine and the Politics of Failure

Two current and high-profile events - the crisis in and around Tibet following the Lhasa riots of 14 March 2008, and the sixtieth anniversary of the establishment on 14 May 1948 of the state of Israel - have more in common than it may first appear.

read more

Opposition Calls for Referendum on Bolivia’s Morales

Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia, will face a confidence vote in the next 90 days as opposition groups continue their push to remove him from power. The vote comes on the tail of last week’s unofficial and meaningless referendum for autonomy in which the wealthy state of Santa Cruz voted for greater independence from the federal government.

---

Read more

Electronic Music/ Earliest Film Score

Bebe Barron, RIP

Bebe Barron, 82, Pioneer of Electronic Scores, Is Dead. Best known for the soundtrack to the 1956 sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet -- the first full-length feature to use only electronic music -- she and her husband Louis Barron recorded the film's pre-synthesizer "electronic tonalities" with electronic circuits of their own invention. She never scored another feature film, but remained active in the avant-garde music scene.

Cultural Mores

SEX IN DEPTH : The young ones

In Japan, where the age of sexual consent can be as low as 13, the practice of an older man hiring a teenage schoolgirl for a "date" is about as firmly established as Mt Fuji. The time-honored custom of enjo kosai has for years caused screams of outrage about innocence gone bad, but efforts to regulate the practice are proving difficult. - William Sparrow (May 9, '08)

The Sad (but funny) State of Canadian Politics

Dion weak, uninspiring but still more likeable than PM: poll

New poll looks to find out why Liberals haven't been able to capitalize on lingering reservations about Conservatives

More from Asia Today

SPEAKING FREELY : The Gulf's currency solution
Some great stuff in Asia Today today. Read on.
The declining value of the US dollar, and with it the wealth of all countries linked to it, has prompted oil states such as Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to consider ending their US dollar currency pegs. The history of the region holds the answer to their quest for an alternative. - Nathan Lewis

Outreach 5?

G7 loses grip on global policy

The world's seven leading economies until recently had the power to effect coherence to the policies of the great triumvirate of the international economic system - the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. No longer. Developing nations grouped as Outreach 5 have taken control and are not going to return it.

More On P2P File Sharing

Canada, the final frontier of file-sharing?

FileSharingFilter: With the possible exception of Sweden, Canada is today's frontier upon which the war of file-sharing legality is waged, with the greatest number of file-sharers per capita, and a steady increase in the number of persons who partake (according to the OECD). Historically, the CRIA's own piracy campaign (2004) was given birth only one year after the RIAA began suing individuals (2003) for participating in peer-to-peer file distribution. Unlike the RIAA, the CRIA was shot down by the courts, establishing a sort of precedent in favour of the end-user which has been upheld ever since, and indeed even reinforced. However, we may be seeing the beginning of the end as QuebecTorrent now fights the good fight to prevent a legal precedent outlawing Canadian BitTorrent trackers.

It's All Gone Pete Wong.

Check it out. There's 6 links here.

Chinese manufacturers are setting up shop in the U.S. due to a weak dollar, energy shortages, tax credits, and a desire to compete globally.

Thu, 08 May 2008 01:23:52 GMT

Waits for Nonsequitors

Tom Waits Press Conference (that is all)
Thu, 08 May 2008 04:24:04 GMT

Still Life- On an Afghan Road

IMF chief economist resigns

This is the organization that tells whole countries how to get their finances together, and laid off a quarter of it's employees, to try to help defray it's $400 million debt? And I wonder what it's operating expenses are.

Less than a week after 591 employees at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) opted to take a buyout package, the IMF’s chief economist announced his resignation.

IMF chief economist resigns
Wed, 07 May 2008 16:25:57 GMT

Canadian P2P Site Owner Sued by U.S.

One of the latest episodes in the ongoing battle conducted by the movie and recording industries surrounding the issue of copy write infringement as it relates to P2P downloading sites. This is interesting in the context of the greater battle being conducted by the drug industry, for example, to garner longer time-frames for their patents , which are being incorporated into 'free trade agreements', etc. Neil Young calls the trading of music over the net the new radio. The artists come down on both sides of the issue but the companies are pulling out all the stops in trying to shut down the whole show. An ongoing saga.

The legal future of torrent-tracking services is in the hands of a Los Angeles federal judge weighing a motion to dismiss a case brought by the Motion Picture Association of America. The MPAA claims Gary Fung's torrent service, Isohunt, facilitates copyright infringement and should be banned.

Isohunt Founder at Center of U.S. Torrent-Tracking Legal Battle

The ultimate guide to advanced searching within Yahoo, Google and MSN

I came across this today. A good guide to expand your search options including links to go further. Track it down– it’s probably there!

The ultimate guide to advanced searching within Yahoo, Google and MSN operators » Hybrid Search Engine Marketing | SEO Consulting to Help Rank Better.

Santa Cruz Divided: Report from the Streets on Referendum Day in Bolivia

On Sunday, May 4, 2008 Bolivia’s Department (state) of Santa Cruz held a referendum over a set of Autonomy Statutes that, if enforced, would increase power for the department’s Prefect (governor) at the expense of the central government. The months leading up to the vote were replete with controversy. Read more here

Five Million Iraqi Orphans?

Alive In Baghdad

Conservatives Copying Failed U.S. Crime Laws

 

by Don Butler - Monday, May 05, 2008

The [Stephen] Harper government is embracing tough-on-crime policies even as the United States backs away from similar approaches that have produced record levels of incarceration, huge costs and racialized prisons, says an American expert on sentencing policy...The Harper government pushed the bill through even though crime rates in Canada are falling and are now at their lowest level in 25 years.

read more

Conservatives Copying Failed U.S. Crime Laws
blackandred
Tue, 06 May 2008 04:05:52 GMT

State of U.S. Economy

"Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism"

Renowned political analyst Kevin Phillips argues successive administrations have imperiled the U.S. economy by a combination of short-sighted policies and a trend against regulation. These include unparalleled credit-card debts, the expansion of financial industries such as hedge funds, ballooning national debts, and deliberately altering statistics like inflation and unemployment to mask the accurate picture.

Scenes From the Tar Wars

As Canada scrambles to dig up some of the world's dirtiest oil, a bush doctor tracks mysterious diseases, poisoned rivers, and shattered lives.

Scenes From the Tar Wars

Corruption Eats Away at Afghan Government

DOUG SAUNDERS - Globe & Mail

Among the soldiers, diplomats and aid workers who live in Afghanistan, it is the problem that nobody dares mention...Among ordinary Afghans, it's a daily presence, the corruption that is rooted deeply in the Western-backed Afghan government and its appointed officials.

read more

Bolivia vote- the day after

Pro-autonomy supporters in Bolivia's eastern department of Santa Cruz have turned the capital city's main square into a sea of green and white flags - the colours of the region.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Bolivia vote shows depth of divisions

Constant War- Ever

U.S. Secretary of State, Robert Gates, in a recent speech to rally the troops, describes the US's war-fighting future in this way: "What has been called the 'Long War' [ie Bush's 'war on terror', including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq] is likely to be many years of persistent, engaged combat all around the world in differing degrees of size and intensity. This generational campaign cannot be wished away or put on a timetable. There are no exit strategies."

An Article by Tom Engelhardt

Asia Times Online :: Middle East News, Iraq, Iran current affairs.

Bolivia- Separatist Referendum May 4th

With the possibility of civil war in the offing, the oligarchs will go ahead with their referendum, no doubt, backed by all the usual suspects. The Bolivian experiment hangs in the balance.

Follow this situation in Bolivia Rising.

Bolivia Rising: The oligarchy rejects any type of negotiation

The U.S. Energy Crisis

 

James Laxer: America’s Energy Crisis: The Realities the Politicians Won’t Talk About

The New Digital Sweat Shop

In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop - New York Times

The (Nano)Silver Bullet

Are the benefits of nanotechnology worth the damage to our environment and possibly our bodies?

The (Nano)Silver Bullet

What is RSS?

O.K. I'm a little late on this but for those of you who aren't aware of this, make it easier to keep up on your favourite sites (like mine, for example) by setting up an RSS reader. You'll love it. I started with 'My Yahoo'. Google reader is good. It depends in which tool-bar you're using. There are also stand-alone readers like Feed Demon, which you can also read in your browser. I seem to be gravitating over to it. It's all free. They're all good. Get your feet wet. Read all your new stuff with your morning coffee or jasmine tea or whatever. Happy blogging! Good description on getting started here. And please folks use Firefox as your browser.

What is RSS? | RSSDay.org

What's in a Name?

BBC NEWS | Europe | Lesbos islanders dispute gay name

Our lords and Masters

A view of global banking history as it pertains to you and I today by Richard C. Cook. Not dull.

Extraordinary Times, Intentional Collapse, and Takedown of the U.S.A.

Harnessing the Saharan Sun

Harnessing the Saharan Sun: Is Desert Solar Power the Solution to Europe's Energy Crisis? - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

Hands off Iraqi oil: Iraqi Trade Unions: End the Occupation; Tear up the Oil Law