On Our Backs

Alberta Report, a new blog covering provincial politcs, named after our favorite rightwing magazine, is actually a progressive. He suggests that turfed Labour Liberal MLA Dan Blacks is being courted by Brian Mason of the NDP. Apparently they were meeting in the Legislature cloak room exchanging email addresses.

NDP Talking to Dan Backs? Sources at yesterday's Ed Stelmach availability in the Legislature TV Room were surprised to overhear Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason speaking with Dan Backs about a meeting. Mason delivered his crop of Stelmach criticism, then spotted the ousted Liberal MLA skulking around as things were winding down in the room. Mason was overheard asking Backs if he was busy later. No word on Backs' reply.

I have said that Backs and the NDP were a natural fit.

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Kevin Taft

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News Briefs

Or is that News Boxers? Anyhoo a few short tid bits.

Ish Theilheimer, no really that is his name, at Straight Goods wishes everyone Seasons Greetings with two posts on one page.

First One; predicting that there will be NO Federal Election in 2007. How brash of him. Being contrarian to all popular pontifications and predigitations of the pundits. Anyways his reasoning is interesting, check it out. I actually think that if it is called it won't be in the spring but the fall. The reason, Quebec provincial election.

Second One; A short precise review of the the past crimes of the RCMP that implicate more than just the Commissioner. They are rotten to the core as are their current political masters.

Straight Goods is not impressed by the un-truth-telling and subsequent resignation-when-exposed of RCMP Commissioner Guiliano Zaccardelli. Although it is believable that he was kept in the dark of some of his force's errors and wrongdoings, it is unlikely he was completely ignorant of everything going on. And if he was, that represents gross incompetence. (This could be called the Paul Martin dilemma. Not knowing is as bad as knowing.) The horrific Arar affair is one of many recent stains on the RCMP including:

Zaccardelli wrote a letter during the recent federal election campaign that announced an investigation into former finance minister Ralph Goodale's handling of the income trust affair. There have been no charges since or indications of wrongdoing. Gooddale was eliminated from seeking the leadership after that;

the March 1999 raid by the RCMP in which officers served a search warrant on then BC premier Glen Clark and tipped off TV local reporters. Clark lost his government after that, over what turned out to be a $12,000 backyard deck;

the RCMP received approximately $3 million in cash handed out by Liberal-friendly firms during the Adscam scandal;

politically motivated actions in support of Jean Chrétien including raids on enemies of the Prime Minister's and aggressively pepper-sprayed peaceful demonstrators during the 1997 APEC meeting;

embarrassing former prime minister Brian Mulroney over the Airbus affair and costing taxpayers more than a million dollars to cover lawsuits;

inadequate disclosure about why four members were murdered by a madman in Mayerthorpe, Alta., or the deaths of the two officers in Spiritwood, Sask., this year.

Meanwhile, the Harpocrites continually invoke a Bush-style law 'n' order campaign, including a proposal to let the police stack the judiciary. With police like this, who needs criminals?

We now return to regular programming.

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Rona Goes, Maybe

Well its about time. Rumours abound that Harper will use the xmas break to shuffle his deck of cards on the Tory Titanic.

In this case most speculation is that Rona Ambrose our MIA Environment Minister will be moved from that portfolio, since she did her best imitation of a potted palm in the position.

Yesterday in anticpation of the move she was looking at used cars.

However Jane Tabor of the Globe and Mail speculated, and I think correctly, on Mike Duffy Live/CTV yesterday that Rona could be moved to Minister of Intergovernmental affairs. Her old Alberta Policy Wonk stomping grounds.

Of course that would mean she would have to take French lessons, as her French is as bad as Stephane Dion's English.

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Ambrose


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Bravo MP Bill Casey

I am posting the letter I wrote Conservative MP Bill Casey, (Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley) about his private members bill to create a national registry, national standards and a national program for studying brain tumors.

I watched Casey's presentation on CPAC. With the exception of the BQ the other parties supported it in a truly non-partisan fashion. Even if they raised questions about it, they were all supportive, well almost all.... Surprise, surprise that the PQ didn't support Casey's bill. Of course Canadian Federal/National standards are not Quebecs Nation-alist standards. Those standards are; we go it alone, just gimme the money.

Young brain tumour survivor lobbies for better guidelines
ChronicleHerald.ca, Canada - 13 Dec 2006
Brandon and his mother flew to Ottawa from Amherst to push a private member’s bill that their MP, Bill Casey, introduced for debate on Tuesday. ...

Duceppe: Legislation would intrude on Quebec’s jurisdiction
ChronicleHerald.ca, Canada - 3 hours ago
Isabelle Paris, a Montrealer who lost her mother-in-law to a brain tumour last year, said Wednesday that she wrote a letter of support for the bill because ...

My letter:

Dear Mr. Casey,

I am not a Conservative Party supporter, however I want to congratulate you on your efforts on behalf of Canadians suffering from brain tumors. I watched your presentation on CPAC yesterday and was very impressed. I was impressed by the authentic non-partisan support you elicited from all parties except the BQ.

I want you to know that I think you have done an excellent job in representing your constituents, and in going beyond to bring forward a bill that is extremely important for all Canadians and indeed for people around the world.

From what I heard of your bill, and I have not read it, you are calling for national standards, which are crucial in developing further medical research into the causes of brain tumors. It is the reason we have a Federal Government, to set national standards.

To this end I am also pleased to see that the government intends to fund this research out of federal funds. This is why we have a national Canadian Health Act, which is itself a national standard.

I worry about the impact of asymmetrical federalism that your party has embraced in relation to Quebec. When the Prime Minister and Finance Minister announced that they planned to devolve fiscal responsibilities to the provinces, I am afraid that gives more ammunition to the BQ. As the only party to oppose your motion I think you will understand why. The BQ is using the issue of financial imbalance as a way of undermining national standards. They deplored your motion as an interference in Quebec provincial rights. Well that maybe however as the saying goes he who pays the piper calls the tune.

Since federal funds will be used for this research, funds over and above regular transfer payments if I am correct, then the Quebec government should not be opposing your bill, as they seemed to be from the quotes read out in the house by the BQ MP.

It is imperative that in areas of medical research especially using statistical data, that all such data from each province, city, rural riding, etc. be made available. If my understanding of the comments made in the House by the BQ, Quebec has no intention of doing so.

This is a serious challenge to any national standards program, and I believe it is a direct result of the failure of the New Canadian Government to address the real need for federal jurisdiction and powers to set national standards. Quebec wishes only to run its own programs and then demand the federal government pay for them.

It this was done across the country in all the provinces and territories chaos would ensue, and there would be no national standards.

Thus your party's promotion of the idea of a devolution of federal powers, runs counter to your own private members bill. In that I wish to say I was glad your bill did call for national standards.

I am hoping it will pass. And I am hoping that as concerned MP you will see that your party's policies regarding federal provincial relations may run counter to what Canadians really need, which is strong national standards for medicare, day care, etc.

Sincerely,

Eugene W. Plawiuk

Edmonton Strathcona


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The Dead Dead Sea

Now why does this headline strike me as darkly ironic in a Lovecraftian fashion......The Dead Sea is Dying. Perhaps because I thought it was already Dead.

As Lovecraft wrote; "That is not dead, which can eternal lie. Yet with strange eons, even death may die".

And the reaon is as usual the use of water for irrigation in an area that should not be irrigated, sort of like the area around Lethbridge in Southern Alberta. And as usual having created an environmental disaster the solution is itself a disaster in the making!

Irrigation has lowered water level

Rescue plan 'will make things worse'

Only a minute’s walk from the fast-receding coastline of the Dead Sea is the starkest evidence of what environmentalists have feared for years. Decades of a policy to drain water from the Sea of Galilee and Jordan River to turn the deserts green have inflicted a heavy cost — the shrinking of the Dead Sea, and the alarming appearance of fissures and sinkholes on its shores.

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Dion Miracle Man

Man with no pulse considered medical breakthrough

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CIA,Conspiracy,Princess Di

Diana report set to dismiss conspiracy theories

Sure alright there was no conspiracy.

Except for this ....Report: CIA Tapped Princess Diana's Phones

and this.....Di's Driver Said To Have Been Spy, Reports: Henri Paul,

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China Dolphin Free

World's Tallest Man Saves China Dolphins

The ones he saved were captives at an Aguarium. While China's fresh water river dolphins have slipped away up the river of extinction

Scientist: Rare Chinese White Dolphin Declared Extinct; 'We Lost the Race'


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Green Latern and Doughboy

One of my favorite DC comics characters was the Green Latern. Perhaps because he reminded me of Marvel's Doctor Strange, since both characters shared mystical powers and magickal objects.

But I never thought of the connection between Green Lantern and the fat white doughboy that giggles when you poke him in the stomache.

How the mighty have fallen seems apt here.

Martin Nodell, the creator of Green Lantern, the comic book superhero who uses his magical ring to help him fight crime, has died. He was 91.

The first Green Lantern appearance came in July 1940, an eight-page story in a comic book also featuring other characters. The character then got his own series, and Nodell drew it until 1947 under the name Mart Dellon.

After its cancellation in 1949, the series was reborn in 1959 with a revised story line, and it has been revived several times.

Meanwhile, Nodell left the comics field for an advertising career. In the 1960s, he was on a design team that helped develop the Pillsbury Doughboy.

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Primate Torture Ok

Once again academics expose themselves as apologists for torturing our relatives; primates. Report backs use of monkeys in research

"There is a scientific case for careful, meticulously regulated non-human primate research, at least for the foreseeable future, provided it is the only way of solving important scientific or medical questions," says inquiry chairman David Weatherall of the University of Oxford.

Hmm wonder what would happen if we replaced non-human primate with human in this statement.

"There is a scientific case for careful, meticulously regulated human research, at least for the foreseeable future, provided it is the only way of solving important scientific or medical questions,"

Yep seems justifiable to me to continue to experiment on humans, after all there are more of us than there are dwindling species of endangered primates. However despite the reports glossing over the issue of torture, its not like they are only experimenting on just a few of our cousins.

Who are imprisoned in cages for the rest of their short lives.

Captive rhesus macaques are not naturally aggressive, but poor husbandry and handling practices can trigger their aggression toward conspecifics and toward the human handler. The myth of the aggressive monkey probably is based on often not taking into account basic ethological principles when managing rhesus macaques in the research laboratory setting.

Macaca mulatta is the most common nonhuman primate species found in biomedical research facilities in the United States. Of the 57,000 or so primates (United States Department of Agriculture, 2000), approximately 33,000 (58%) animals are rhesus macaques (National Center for Research Resources, 2002) of whom an estimated 16,500 (50%) are living in cages.

After all how many humans would not voluteer for this experiment. What You can learn from drunk monkeys

And it is going to be 'meticulously regulated' research so it should be non leathal and perfectly safe. Not.

Of course most of us would not volunteer to really be put in this monkeys place no matter how meticulous the regulations......

Monkeys Tortured with Shocks Humans Found Unbearable

In the 50's and 60's, much work on "pain centers" and "pleasure centers" in the brain was carried out at Yale by José Delgado, a picaresque neuropsychologist who would like to see "human society 'psychocivilized' through brain stimulation and other influencing techniques." (Lausch, E.,1972, p. 121). Some of his experiments involved electroshocking monkeys in brain areas known to produce intense pain. (Delgado, J.,1966).

An idea of the pain suffered by these monkeys may be obtained by comparison with experiments in which the same brain areas were stimulated in man by B. Nashold and other neurosurgeons. The surgeons implanted electrodes in patients in the course of operations and recorded the sensations reported by the latter during electrical stimulation. In the area of the central gray matter at the level of the superior colliculus in the midbrain, stimulation produced bodily sensations of pain, burning, vibration and cold. In addition, a patient would experience feelings which were "described as 'fearful,' 'frightful,' or 'terrible,' and he would become apprehensive and not allow further stimulations." (Nashold, B., 1969).

Delgado implanted an electrode in the same place (the central gray area near the superior colliculus) in the brain of a rhesus monkey named "Harry." First, with the monkey in restraint, 1.2 milliampere shocks were given. Harry tried to grab anything in reach, bit the chair after every shock, then, released into a small cage, bit the swing as the shocks continued, attacked other monkeys, and finally climbed the wall and clung there.

Although humans, once they had experienced it, could not stand a second stimulation in this brain area, Harry was subjected to 40 minutes of intermittent shocks and 2 minutes of continuous shocks. Other monkeys shocked in the same area responded with screams, grimaces and "signs of aggressiveness directed against the investigator." Through multiple electrodes implanted in their brains, Delgado tested various areas known to cause offensive-defensive reaction when stimulated, and over a period of two days he subjected the monkeys to more than 120 stimulations at each cerebral point, after which they were killed and autopsied.

Although he proposes a hypothesis that brain mechanisms for perception of pain and aggressive behavior have different anatomical and physiological systems, he admits that the evoked aggression was often secondary to electrical excitation of the pain pathways, and that the monkeys demonstrated this by their screams ("high-pitched vocalizations"), dilated pupils, snarling expressions and efforts to escape.

Delgado's experiments were then used on humans to change behaviour, including their use on depressed women and homosexuals. It was used to torture political prisoners under the care of the CIA and their client states in Latin America. Of course under 'meticulous regulations'.



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