Headline Says It All

And just as he was going up a wee bit in the polls the National Post ran this screaming full banner headline on their front page today;

STELMACH BLINKS FIRST
Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach has indicated he may be willing to give in to intense oil-industry pressure

Which then resulted in this:

Premier Stelmach quoted as saying he won't trounce royalty deals

Stelmach reconsidering royalty issue: report

Alberta leader wants calm Stelmach: formal royalty, tax talks ‘over,’ but ministers meet privately with investors

And while Eddies PR flack; former Calgary Herald Columnist (and scab), Tom Olson admits he wasn't at the 'private' business affair he attempts to do some damage control;

Alberta premier has not decided on royalties: aide

Alberta's premier has not ruled out any recommendations from his royalty review panel, which has urged the province to boost its take from the oil industry by C$2 billion ($2.1 billion), or 20 percent, a year, his spokesman said on Friday.

"No final decisions have been made," Tom Olsen, a spokesman for Premier Ed Stelmach, told Reuters. "The premier is committed to meeting the objective of the report. The suggestion of (panel chairman Bill) Hunter is that there was room to move on royalties. The status quo is not an option."

No royalty decision yet

Premier Ed Stelmach's office insists he has not made any final decisions on royalties, after a newspaper report today suggested he's backing away from at least one of the royalty review panel's contentious proposals.

Stelmach said a private speech Thursday to about 100 executives organized by the Harvard Business School Club in Calgary that he will "not trounce existing agreements," the National Post reported, citing sources in attendance at the event.

The government-commissioned review on energy royalties urged Stelmach against "grandfathering" - imposing new rules on higher royalties on projects that have already begun under the current royalty system.

"I can't dispute the quote," said Tom Olsen, the premier's press secretary.

Olsen said he wasn't at the speech.

David Heyman, another premier's aide who was there, said he couldn't recall any exact quotes, and no government staff recorded or took notes as Stelmach spoke.

Stelmach's remarks came to an audience member's question. "Here's what I do remember: It was a long answer. It took several minutes," Heyman said.

The aide noted that Stelmach's speaking style doesn't include "short, sharp sentences," so it might be difficult to draw conclusions based on one part of a lengthy comment.

You see he can't really think on his feet, he rambles, he is indecisive, he goes with the wind.

While the government continues to back pedal and lower expectations on the royalty issue despite it giving Ed a boost in the polls. Its the politics of lowered expectations.

No decision expected for another two weeks

With energy companies warning high royalties will trigger cutbacks and job losses, and public opinion overwhelmingly in favour of higher royalties, this is almost universally deemed the pivotal decision of Stelmach's leadership.

Energy Minister Mel Knight refused to comment on the progress of his department's study of the royalty review.

"We're working very hard to reach a balance," Knight said outside cabinet Tuesday.

Stelmach and many ministers have largely abandoned talk of Albertans' "fair share" of resource revenues -- they've instead adopted the buzzword "balance," referring to a decision that considers both the public's ownership of resources and industry's multibillion-dollar investments.

The two weeks is when Ed will do his Ralph Klein imitation and do a fireside chat on TV.

Stelmach may call late fall vote

Pass new royalty law before any hint of election: NDP

And of course the first family of the right in Alberta, the Byfield's once again have one of their scions defend Big Oil and tell us how good we have it here, hinting at the doom and gloom of the recession of the eighties if we dare ask for our 'fair share';

Fairness And Envy: Human Factors That Fuel The Royalty Debate
Nickle's Energy Group, Canada - 9 Oct 2007
By Mike Byfield

As I have said before Ed is preparing to sell us out to the oil interests.

Don't Let Big Oil Set Our Royalty Rates make sure Ed hears from you

SEE:

Ohhh Pulllleeeaasse

Alberta Needs A Chavez

Albertans Are Simpletons Says Government

Royalty Is NOT A Tax

Fearless Prediction Confirmed

Morons

More Shills For Big Oil

Stelmach Sells Out

King Ralph Shills For Big Oil

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It's Not Who Won, But Who Lost

While the Canadian blogosphere right and left are posting on Al Gore and the UN IPCC winning the Nobel Peace Prize they seem to forgot who else was in the running. An Inuit woman from the Canadian Arctic.

An environmental activist may be the first Canadian to win the Nobel Peace Prize since former Prime Minister Lester Pearson in 1957.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier, an Inuit activist, has been nominated jointly with former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore, the author of the book and narrator of the Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."

She lost which is a great shame since hers was an authentic voice for the reality of climate change unlike the winners.

Canadian Sheila Watt-Cloutier, an Iqaluit-based environmental activist, was also nominated for this year's prize and had been considered one of the favourites to win. Her work has focused on the effects of global warming on northern communities.

"She has done so much work representing the interests of her people, the people in the north," Drexhage said.

Many conservation organizations are rooting for Ms. Watt-Cloutier, who they say has done more than anyone to create international awareness of the special plight that global warming has inflicted on people living in the Arctic.

She also has a remarkable personal story, of travelling in a dogsled around Northern Quebec, where she was born, to travelling the world speaking out about climate change. She's frequently said that she's gone from the ice age to the space age in one generation.

Earthjustice, a U.S.-based environmental group that has worked with Ms. Watt-Cloutier, praised her “for bringing the story of the Inuit people to the world stage, demonstrating that global warming is an issue of human rights as well as of the environment.”

Sheila Watt-Cloutier, arriving in Iqaluit on Thursday, said the awareness of climate change being raised by her nomination is the best prize she could have.

How Canadian.

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Western Standard RIP

As I predicted here Ezra Levant's version of Alberta Report has followed in its footsteps.

To my deep regret, the Western Standard has decided to stop publishing our print edition.

Financial pressures force publisher of Calgary-based conservative magazine to discontinue its hard-copy format

This appears when you try and subscribe

We are temporarily unavailable.

And the last 'print' edition posted on the web site is September 17!

Buzzwords - September 17, 2007 by Western Standard

All other copy updates for the past month is posted on their website, which you can access for free.

To read this article, you need to be a registered user.

Registration is free and confidental.

Note: If you experience difficulties after you have registered or logged in, please enable cookies on your browser.

Which sort of defeats the purpose of subscribing.

The only active online page freely available is their Shotgun Blog.

My how the mighty have fallen. The ruthless nature of capitalism once again defeats its most stalwart advocates on the right in Canada. Perhaps if they had a business plan instead of just doctrinal faith that their minority opinion was valuable. Or at least had the business smarts to make it a charity like the Fraser Institute.

And the whining is only starting.

Jonathan Kay on Ezra Levant and the demise of the Western Standard

One of the Last Conservative Print Magazines in Canada Goes out of business

When magazines die

The Battle of the Standard

I wonder if anyone bothered to tell CBC and Don Newman, that his 'voice of Alberta' no longer is publishing.

Ezra Levant is a loser. He lost his job as communications mouthpiece for Canadian Alliance Leader Stockwell Day. He lost his seat to Harper. He now has lost his magazine.


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Horse and Carriage

America has capital, Mexico has labour. They go together like a horse and carriage. Mexican President Calderon sounds just like Herr Doctor Professor Marx.

“It’s impossible to stop that by decree. It’s impossible to try to stop that with a fence. Why? Because the capital in America needs Mexican workers. And Mexican workers need opportunities of jobs. Capital and labor are like right shoe and left shoe, and one needs the other,” he said, in an interview with Diane Sawyer on “Good Morning America.”

Calderon told Sawyer that some of his own relatives live and work in the United States— "some of them in the vegetable fields, others in restaurants and others in construction," he said.

Immigration to America is a "natural phenomenon," Calderon said, because Mexico has a large, young labor force that is needed by U.S. businesses, a sentiment that some politicians and business leaders across the country agree with.

SEE:

Farmer John's Robot

Thanks Lou and Tom

Farmer John Exploits Mexican Workers

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Happy Birthday Uncle Al

Amongst Thelemites, Aleister Crowley is affectionately called Uncle Al. Being a play on his name and the holy book he wrote; Liber AL (vel Legis).

Today,October 12 , is his birthday.

He tempered his spirituality/philosophy with a sense of humour, a quality absent amongst true believers. As well as adopting the moniker 'the Great Beast', something his fundamentalist mother called him, he also said;

"I am a Hell of a Holy Guru"



Edward Alexander Crowley 1875-1947


SEE:

Today in History

Sunday In Hell

New Age Libertarian Manifesto

Libertarianism

Conspiracy Theory of the Week

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The War On Atheism

Here is a biased survey on Atheism and Morality conducted by Reginald Bibby of the University of Lethbridge.

A new Canadian survey has found that believers are more likely than atheists to place a higher value on love, patience and friendship, in findings the researcher says could be a warning that Canadians need a religious basis to retain civility in society.

About the only claim that holds any 'value' is this one;

In the survey findings, there was only a five percentage-point difference between how theists and atheists valued honesty. But of all the categories, honesty is the value that is least connected to broad emotions such as love and compassion. In other words, someone can be honest and brutal.

I stand by that, being a Saggitarian and an ENTJ, I am often brutally honest.

The assertion made by the article that 'atheists' are less compassionate and moral than Christians misses the point. Those Canadians he interviewed are not necessarily atheists, per se, rather they are Canadians who do not profess a belief in God or organized religion. That is an unbelief, while atheism, and its derivatives; Marxism and Anarchism are counter beliefs, and in all cases rely upon classical liberalism as the basis of morality.

But in the realm of forgiveness, which is a core value of many major religions, particularly Christianity, the difference - 32 percentage points - is stark.

"That's a pretty explicit value within a large number of religious communities," said Prof. Bibby.

"Look at the culture as a whole and ask yourself: to what extent do we value forgiveness against themes like zero-tolerance? We don't talk very much about what we're going to do for people who fall through the cracks. So I think forgiveness is pretty foreign to a lot of people if they're not involved in religious groups."

Heck even Satanism has a moral code. Though it is not one of forgiveness. It is modeled on Ayn Rands morality.

In a consumer capitalist culture based on the values of ; I'm Ok Your Ok, the Me Generation and I Got Mine Jack 'unbelief' in God reflects a consumer choice. And the morality of the individual is then shaped by the society they exist in. In the era of Enron, Chainsaw Jack Welch, and other criminal capitalist enterprises, where Business Schools are having to 'teach' morality to budding business types, it is no surprise to find that Bibby's findings are what they are. Which is actually what Bibby is saying , despite the National Posts spin on the survey, that 'godless' capitalism has no values.

After all seeing that the culture is one of consumer capitalism, then this is more a condemnation of that then atheism or its political and philosophical offshoots.

But there is a war on Atheism currently in vogue amongst the Christian Right, and this just gives ammunition to the side which has conducted wars, pogroms and mass genocide, and continues with oppression, exploitation and mindless discrimination to excuse themselves as being 'good' people, with 'values'.

He said people who are believers are encouraged ­- whether by a desire to please God, or because of a fear of God - to adopt these values

To please or to fear the ultimate cosmic boss, to accept 'his' values, is not as humanistic as it appears. It is the morality of the slave. And thus is reflected in the social schizophrenia that creates the need for God, Priests, Bosses, Cops, Social Workers, etc, the whole kit and caboodle of authority ( a hold over of aristocracy within capitalism).

While Christians on the right claim that we need less human rights and more folks taking responsibility for their actions, they always seem to lovingly accept them folks who break the social or moral code, if they accept Jesus into their hearts.

The enlightened individual sees morality as a social construction; one of mutual agreement and sees no difference between human rights and responsibilities. Thus with the rise of Freemasonry and its child The Rights Of Man a new 'godless' revolutionary morality evolved and created secular society; Liberty, Equality,Fraternity.

Immoral Capitalism has truncated Liberty from Equality and Fraternity. That is the ultimate truth in Bibby's survey.

Only one word more concerning the desire to teach the world what it ought to be. For such a purpose philosophy at least always comes too late. Philosophy, as the thought of the world, does not appear until reality has completed its formative process, and made itself ready.

History thus corroborates the teaching of the conception that only in the maturity of reality does the ideal appear as counterpart to the real, apprehends the real world in its substance, and shapes it into an intellectual kingdom.

When philosophy paints its grey in grey, one form of life has become old, and by means of grey it cannot be rejuvenated, but only known. The owl of Minerva, takes its flight only when the shades of night are gathering.

Hegel, Philosophy of Right (1820), "Preface"

SEE:

Islamicists and Evangelical Christians

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Alberta Reds

And it ain't just our necks. Take that conservative revisionists, you know who you are. Southern Alberta was the origin of union organizing in Alberta and Western Canada at the beginning of last century laying the foundation for Western Canadian Industrial Unionism.

Alberta Labour History Institute Visits Southern Alberta Foundation of the Union Movement in Western Canada

Edmonton: A provincial labour history group, the Alberta Labour History Institute (ALHI) will be in Medicine Hat for three days this week to promote labour history as key aspect of the industrial development of the Medicine Hat area.

ALHI will be in the Medicine Hat area from Wednesday to Friday, October 10-12 to conduct Oral History interviews with labour leaders and community activists. In addition, they will participate in activities organized by the Medicine Hat Clay Industries Historical Society, including a noon luncheon for former clay industry employees at the Museum on Thursday, and a presentation to students at the Eagle Butte School in Dunmore on Friday.

The visit to South-Eastern Alberta is the first stage in a series of community visits across the province as part of a five-year project leading up to the centennial of the Alberta Federation of Labour in 2012.

Entitled ‘Project 2012’, the mission will gather stories about work and working people to ensure that labour and its long history in each area of the Province is preserved for students, academic researchers, historians and others. Videotaped interviews will be conducted with local workers, and pictures, materials, and other artifacts will be collected to add to the story.

This material will be posted on the ALHI website at www.labourhistory.ca which was constructed two years ago as part of Alberta’s Centenary. An education project with Aspen Foundation is being developed for integration into the Alberta Social Studies curriculum for Grades 1 to 12.

ALHI President Dave Werlin says these trips are dedicated to highlighting the profile of workers and their organizations throughout Alberta.

“This is why this volunteer labour history institute was started about 10 years ago by trade unionists, community activists, librarians, archivists and historians,” said Werlin, “We realized that someone had to take the initiative to preserve and publicize the story of Alberta’s working people, otherwise it would be lost forever - a critical but untold part of Alberta’s history.”

“People in Alberta may remember some of the strikes that took place in the Medicine Hat area years ago. What many don’t know, however, is that 100 years ago, this whole area was the hotbed of union organization in Western Canada. Really, this is where it all started.”

“Medicine Hat must be of particular interest to anyone engaged in labour history because it was one of the first fully industrialized centres in this Province. Manufacturers and government policy makers seized upon the natural resources and other advantages this area had to offer for industrial development, and it was no surprise that workers’ organizations quickly followed.”

It was in Lethbridge, another Southern Alberta city, that the Alberta Federation of Labour was formed, when about 25 railway workers, meatpackers, construction tradesmen, public workers, coal miners and farmers met in 1912 to form an organization through which they could work for political and social reform. This is why ALHI decided to start its community visits in this part of the province.

-30-

SEE:

Alberta Labour History Institute Web Launch

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