May Divine Providence guide your deliberations.
So ends the Throne Speech. Is this another way of saying God Help Us All......
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Thursday, April 06, 2006
Bush Is A Fascist
Harpers Other Kiss
As I blogged here the other day the Conservatives have dropped the Same Sex Marriage debate for now. Maybe this is the reason why.
Cancun was such a gay time for the Three Amigos
Where is Harpers other hand?
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Cancun was such a gay time for the Three Amigos
Where is Harpers other hand?
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Missing Link Missing Funding
Ok here are two stories on evolution that come from Canada. The irony would be delicious, except for the idoicy.
It's a story of two kinds of dinosaurs. One that is a real fossil and one that is political.
The first is the discovery of a possible missing link between fish and amphibians coming from the Canadian arctic. Proof of evolution. Empirical fact.
The other story is how a Canadian scientist who wants to study the influence of the Intelligent Design debate in the US is having on Canadian students. He is denied funding.
No he is not a creationist, he is a scientist who accepts evolution as a fact. Which is why he is being denied funding. Right-o that makes alot of sense.
Hmm do ya think SSHRC is being influenced politically by the Regime change in Ottawa? Doing their masters bidding and denying funding to 'controversial studies' (sic), that might upset the social conservative fundamentalists in the Conservative government. Like the Rev. Stockwell Day, who is a creationist?
Or are they just jumping the gun anticipating an ideological change now that the vociferous critics of SSHRC/Canda Council are in charge.
The last time the Conservatives were in charge they dismantled large sections of SSHRC/Canada Council.
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creationism, ID, fossil, dinosaur, fish, amphibians, missing-link, Canada, SSHRC, evolution, biology, arctic
It's a story of two kinds of dinosaurs. One that is a real fossil and one that is political.
The first is the discovery of a possible missing link between fish and amphibians coming from the Canadian arctic. Proof of evolution. Empirical fact.
The fish that crawled out of the water
A crucial fossil that shows how animals crawled out from the water, evolving from fish into land-loving animals, has been found in Canada. The creature, described today in Nature1,2, lived some 375 million years ago. Palaeontologists are calling the specimen from the Devonian a true 'missing link', as it helps to fill in a gap in our understanding of how fish developed legs for land mobility, before eventually evolving into modern animals including mankind.Tetrapods did not so much conquer the land, as escape from the water.
John Maisey American Museum of Natural History, New York
Tiktaalik - the fish that found it's feet
The fossil record is full of 'missing links', transitional forms between organisms on either side of a phylogenetic tree, but with Tiktaalik, a fish that shows striking features of a limbed vertebrate (tetrapod), one of these rare missing links has been found. Nature presents a FREE ACCESS story from news@nature.com alongside the discovery and analysis of this incredible animal, and a discussion of its significance in a special News & Views article.
The other story is how a Canadian scientist who wants to study the influence of the Intelligent Design debate in the US is having on Canadian students. He is denied funding.
No he is not a creationist, he is a scientist who accepts evolution as a fact. Which is why he is being denied funding. Right-o that makes alot of sense.
Professor denied federal research funds for assuming evolution to be scientific fact
Hmm do ya think SSHRC is being influenced politically by the Regime change in Ottawa? Doing their masters bidding and denying funding to 'controversial studies' (sic), that might upset the social conservative fundamentalists in the Conservative government. Like the Rev. Stockwell Day, who is a creationist?
Or are they just jumping the gun anticipating an ideological change now that the vociferous critics of SSHRC/Canda Council are in charge.
The last time the Conservatives were in charge they dismantled large sections of SSHRC/Canada Council.
The government's budget was therefore constructed to show that the federal cabinet understood the Reform Party agenda--that it too was determined to cut government fat and slash away at those parts of the bureaucracy most seen to providing useless services and not helping the ``just plain folks back home.'' Indeed, to conceptualize this view it is useful to look at the National Citizen's Coalition document of a few years ago--we might think of the Coalition as being part of the organic intellectuals of the Reform party. The document was entitled ``Tales from the Tax Trough'' and it listed a whole series of useless government services including a hit list of what the NCC saw as particularly stupid research projects. Who was mentioned? SSHRC projects were the first on the list--followed by those of the Canada Council, the Canadian Institute on International Peace and Security, and IDRC. On the hit list were projects on the analysis of yard art, the fool in Western civilization, the wife's role in food shopping for the family, and the participation of women in trade unions in Argentina. Some of us, myself included, may react by thinking what interesting projects these are--and in fact how socially pertinent--but this is clearly not the intent of the pamphlet. The tone of the pamphlet and indeed the way it is likely to be read is of a totally profligate government flinging out dollars to finance absurd projects without any regard for, and even as an insult to, the hard-pressed taxpayers. In rereading this pamphlet one can easily conjure up the image of Don Mazankowski consulting it in preparing his budget. The ``little people'' speak and Big Don listens.
Evolution of the Reform Alliance Conservative Party
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CIA Front Companies Exposed
Here are the CIA front companies used for 'rendition', that is the illegal capture, transportation and torture of individuals, in violation of national and international law. This is SOP for the CIA since they invaded Guatemala for the United Fruit Company fifty years ago.
Rendering is also a term used in the livestock business for herding animals together in preparation for them to be slaughtered in Rendering Houses, abatoirs, slaughter houses, meat packing plants.
Every time there is some military operation the CIA black ops comes up with an 'Air America' front which inevitably ends up engaged in side operations such as drug (opium/heroin/cocaine) and arms smuggling.
The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations
Which of course is how the CIA pays for its off the books operations which is what Rendition is.
CIA Hawking Heroin in Baghdad?
Meanwhile, Tony Blair agreed that Britain would take the lead in eradicating the opium harvest in Afghanistan, the origin of 90% of British heroin. In his new book, State of War, James Risen quotes a CIA official as saying: "The British were screaming for us to bomb those targets because most of the heroin in Britain comes from Afghanistan. But they [the US military] refused." He writes: "The Pentagon feared that counter-narcotics operations would force the military to turn on the very warlords who were aiding the United States against the Taliban and that would lead to another round of violent attacks on American troops." The rancid relationship
The CIA should be actually called the Corporate Insurance Agency, since it actually works for the Transnational American corporations as their secret army.
BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | Analysis: The CIA and the arms ship
This should give Peter McKay something to look into, and yes he should be afraid we are being used as soft landing space for secret CIA flights.....OTTAWA (CP) — Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay says he "may very well" raise the issue of alleged CIA planes ferrying terrorism suspects around the globe with his U.S. counterpart. It is the first indication the new Conservative government might have concerns about the Central Intelligence Agency’s apparent use of foreign airports. But MacKay’s officials insist the minister has no fears that Canadian air facilities are being abused by the intelligence agency.
Courtesy Infomedia.
THE FRONT-ORGANIZATION (FO) COMPANIES
The eight CIA shell companies thought to be extant are:
AVIATION SPECIALTIES, INC.
BAYARD FOREIGN MARKETING, LLC.
CROWELL AVIATION TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
DEVON HOLDING AND LEASING, INC.
KEELER & TATE MANAGEMENT, LLC
PATH CORPORATION
RAPID AIR TRANS, INC./RAPID AIR TRANSPORT, INC.
STEVENS EXPRESS LEASING, INC.
Some of the numbers in the list formerly were registered to a ninth company, PREMIER EXECUTIVE TRANSPORT SERVICES, INC. Its planes have been moved to other companies in the shell game.
THE OPERATING COMPANIES
AERO CONTRACTORS, LTD. (NORTH CAROLINA)
The operation of the front-company (CIA-owned) planes is the job of a company called Aero Contractors Ltd, founded by a former CIA pilot. Aero Contractors operates all but one of these out of the Johnston County Airport in Smithfield, NC. The Boeing 737, N4476S (formerly N313P), operates out of the Kinston Regional Jetport in Kinston, NC. Both locations have been recent targets of anti-torture protests. The mailing address and phone number given for the 737's front (Keeler & Tate), by the way, belong to the law office of former US Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada, once called the "First Friend" for his relationship with President Reagan.
The US Air Force base (Rhein-Main) at Frankfurt, Germany, is the European base of the 737.
TEPPER AVIATION, INC. (FLORIDA)
Three other large transports on the list -- Lockheeds N2189M, N4557C, and N8183J -- are owned by the shell company Rapid Air Tran (Transport).
Tepper Aviation, Inc., maintains and operates these planes out of the Bob Sikes Airport in Crestview, FL. Tepper was started by a CIA pilot of that name and was and is CIA-financed.
The European base of the Lockheeds also is Rhein-Main. The large CIA planes are involved in Afghanistan operations.
The N8183J, like the N8213G, was investigated by a European government but got a pass because it is a cargo plane. Two Austrian Draken fighter planes intercepted N8183J intruding into Austrian airspace on Jan. 21, 2003. The Drakens normally would have forced the plane to land, but they only intercepted it. The Austrian foreign ministry considered the aircraft as civilian (Is the CIA civilian?) and saw no reason to authorize the ministry of defense to force the plane to land. After all, it was a cargo plane (see photo).
AVIATION WORLDWIDE SERVICES, INC. (FLORIDA)
PRESIDENTIAL AIRWAYS (FLORIDA)
SUBSIDIARIES OF BLACKWATER USA (NORTH CAROLINA)
Presidential and AWS are owned by the mercenary firm Blackwater USA. They operate out of the Melbourne International Airport in central Florida. They are run by the former owners, Richard Pere and Tim Childrey.
The companies fly Spanish CASA C-212 wide-body passenger/cargo aircraft. These carry paratroops and oversized cargo and can operate from short and unimproved runways.
In Europe, Malta is the base for these planes and the ATRs in the list, both of which operate in Afghanistan.
PEGASUS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Pegasus Technologies works on the avionics (aviation electronics), sensor, and electrical systems of the CIA planes. This presumably includes top-secret encrypted-communications systems and night-vision systems.
At the company's airstrip near Green Cove Springs, FL, in the Reynolds Industrial Park, at a former naval base, you are apt to see many of the planes in the list. Few if any other companies would have the security clearances to work on the CIA's electronics.
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CIA, drugs, arms, torture, airlines, front, companies, US, Iran, Afhganistan, terrorists, Canada, military, politics, spying, secret
Rendering is also a term used in the livestock business for herding animals together in preparation for them to be slaughtered in Rendering Houses, abatoirs, slaughter houses, meat packing plants.
Every time there is some military operation the CIA black ops comes up with an 'Air America' front which inevitably ends up engaged in side operations such as drug (opium/heroin/cocaine) and arms smuggling.
The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations
Which of course is how the CIA pays for its off the books operations which is what Rendition is.
CIA Hawking Heroin in Baghdad?
Meanwhile, Tony Blair agreed that Britain would take the lead in eradicating the opium harvest in Afghanistan, the origin of 90% of British heroin. In his new book, State of War, James Risen quotes a CIA official as saying: "The British were screaming for us to bomb those targets because most of the heroin in Britain comes from Afghanistan. But they [the US military] refused." He writes: "The Pentagon feared that counter-narcotics operations would force the military to turn on the very warlords who were aiding the United States against the Taliban and that would lead to another round of violent attacks on American troops." The rancid relationship
The CIA should be actually called the Corporate Insurance Agency, since it actually works for the Transnational American corporations as their secret army.
BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | Analysis: The CIA and the arms ship
This should give Peter McKay something to look into, and yes he should be afraid we are being used as soft landing space for secret CIA flights.....OTTAWA (CP) — Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay says he "may very well" raise the issue of alleged CIA planes ferrying terrorism suspects around the globe with his U.S. counterpart. It is the first indication the new Conservative government might have concerns about the Central Intelligence Agency’s apparent use of foreign airports. But MacKay’s officials insist the minister has no fears that Canadian air facilities are being abused by the intelligence agency.
Courtesy Infomedia.
THE FRONT-ORGANIZATION (FO) COMPANIES
The eight CIA shell companies thought to be extant are:
AVIATION SPECIALTIES, INC.
BAYARD FOREIGN MARKETING, LLC.
CROWELL AVIATION TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
DEVON HOLDING AND LEASING, INC.
KEELER & TATE MANAGEMENT, LLC
PATH CORPORATION
RAPID AIR TRANS, INC./RAPID AIR TRANSPORT, INC.
STEVENS EXPRESS LEASING, INC.
Some of the numbers in the list formerly were registered to a ninth company, PREMIER EXECUTIVE TRANSPORT SERVICES, INC. Its planes have been moved to other companies in the shell game.
THE OPERATING COMPANIES
AERO CONTRACTORS, LTD. (NORTH CAROLINA)
The operation of the front-company (CIA-owned) planes is the job of a company called Aero Contractors Ltd, founded by a former CIA pilot. Aero Contractors operates all but one of these out of the Johnston County Airport in Smithfield, NC. The Boeing 737, N4476S (formerly N313P), operates out of the Kinston Regional Jetport in Kinston, NC. Both locations have been recent targets of anti-torture protests. The mailing address and phone number given for the 737's front (Keeler & Tate), by the way, belong to the law office of former US Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada, once called the "First Friend" for his relationship with President Reagan.
The US Air Force base (Rhein-Main) at Frankfurt, Germany, is the European base of the 737.
TEPPER AVIATION, INC. (FLORIDA)
Three other large transports on the list -- Lockheeds N2189M, N4557C, and N8183J -- are owned by the shell company Rapid Air Tran (Transport).
Tepper Aviation, Inc., maintains and operates these planes out of the Bob Sikes Airport in Crestview, FL. Tepper was started by a CIA pilot of that name and was and is CIA-financed.
The European base of the Lockheeds also is Rhein-Main. The large CIA planes are involved in Afghanistan operations.
The N8183J, like the N8213G, was investigated by a European government but got a pass because it is a cargo plane. Two Austrian Draken fighter planes intercepted N8183J intruding into Austrian airspace on Jan. 21, 2003. The Drakens normally would have forced the plane to land, but they only intercepted it. The Austrian foreign ministry considered the aircraft as civilian (Is the CIA civilian?) and saw no reason to authorize the ministry of defense to force the plane to land. After all, it was a cargo plane (see photo).
AVIATION WORLDWIDE SERVICES, INC. (FLORIDA)
PRESIDENTIAL AIRWAYS (FLORIDA)
SUBSIDIARIES OF BLACKWATER USA (NORTH CAROLINA)
Presidential and AWS are owned by the mercenary firm Blackwater USA. They operate out of the Melbourne International Airport in central Florida. They are run by the former owners, Richard Pere and Tim Childrey.
The companies fly Spanish CASA C-212 wide-body passenger/cargo aircraft. These carry paratroops and oversized cargo and can operate from short and unimproved runways.
In Europe, Malta is the base for these planes and the ATRs in the list, both of which operate in Afghanistan.
PEGASUS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Pegasus Technologies works on the avionics (aviation electronics), sensor, and electrical systems of the CIA planes. This presumably includes top-secret encrypted-communications systems and night-vision systems.
At the company's airstrip near Green Cove Springs, FL, in the Reynolds Industrial Park, at a former naval base, you are apt to see many of the planes in the list. Few if any other companies would have the security clearances to work on the CIA's electronics.
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You Are Here
New map of Milky Way charts where stars are bornThis is the cosmological equivalent of the shopping mall map......You Are Here......
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Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Welfare for Millionaires
Gee wonder why the Conservatives just don't tell these folks about how their tax breaks are going to help them down on the farm. You know 5% is a Canadian Value. Ingrates.
So when in doubt sign over more welfare checks to farmers while you try and shut down the Wheat Board. Makes sense eh.
Note that the Ontario farmers protesting are demanding a protectionist market and subsidies like the US grants its agribusiness. Not exactly Tory farm policy.....Strahl doesn't mention market-solutions for protesting Farmers
Now imagine the crisis on the farm if we had a free and open market with no Wheat Board or other producer run cooperatives or marketing boards. It would be the end of the so called 'family farm'. Which is long in the tooth and almost non-existant in Canada now.
Strahl promises better relief for struggling farmers
CTV.ca -9 hours ago
As thousands of farmers converge on Parliament Hill for a massive rally, Federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl is promising better relief for cash-strapped producers.
Provinces have to help, Strahl tells farmersGlobe and Mail
Harper promises money for farmersToronto Star Brandon Sun -Reuters Canada -CBC Manitoba -580 CFRA Radio -
Yep these guys would all be gone and all that would be left would be big Agribusiness corporations. Who would then demand subsidies like they do in the US.
Its the battle between the farmer Millionaires versus the Corporate Agri-Billionaires.
And the irony is that these guys are the right wing backbone of the Tories, who demand they kick folks off welfare.
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Duh' Oh
Motive unclear in brazen kidnapping
Police said on Wednesday they do not know the motive of kidnappers who abducted the son of a wealthy Vancouver family from his car in one of the western Canadian city's most exclusive neighborhoods.
He is the son of a multi-millionare, might that have something to do with it?
Do ya think? Duh' Oh. Back to Timmies for more donuts.
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Police said on Wednesday they do not know the motive of kidnappers who abducted the son of a wealthy Vancouver family from his car in one of the western Canadian city's most exclusive neighborhoods.
He is the son of a multi-millionare, might that have something to do with it?
Do ya think? Duh' Oh. Back to Timmies for more donuts.
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Nuclear Paradox
Today the US Senate held hearings on why it should be allowed to sell nuclear resources to India, a country which has tested several atomic bombs and is not a member of the Non Proliferation Treaty.
Senate grills Rice on nuclear deal with India
'The Agreement And Its Implications'
Unlike Iran which has no bombs, has not tested a bomb and is a member of the NPT.
The controversy over Iran's peaceful nuclear program has obscured one point in particular: There need not be a crisis. A solution to the situation is possible and eminently within reach. Lost amid the rhetoric is this: Iran has a strong interest in enhancing the integrity and authority of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It has been in the forefront of efforts to ensure the treaty's universality. Iran's reliance on the nonproliferation regime is based on legal commitments, sober strategic calculations and spiritual and ideological doctrine.
We in Iran don't need this quarrel
Pakistan and India are still vying over the issue of Kashmir which set off their last round of nuclear show down. Both countries have deals with Iran and its military.
US concerned over India-Iran ties: Rice
India-Iran gas pipeline might go ahead: Rice
So who is the real nuclear threat in the region? Iran poses no threat: Doha Debates
Why the US of course and its attempt to play nuclear geopolitics.
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Development Versus Population Growth
Juhn Murney picked up on this story as well; Malthus Redux
He says;" Pianka's point has been lost. There are too many people on the planet;". True and the majority of them are poor.
Thus the record number of famines we are having thanks to Global Warming and due to capitalist production for export.
Lack of development opportunities based on sustainable farming and small scale industrial growth is the problem. Whether the issue is population growth, which is always based on labour needs for the family farm, or mass migration (aka illegal immigration) the real solution is to have regional development that creates real industries and self sufficiency.
Europes concern with growing illegal migration from Africa, due to impovershment or America's concern with illegal migrants from not only Mexico but now also Central America, is based on this simple fact. These countries have no sustainable development. If they did then their would be no migration. Development is the only solution to illegal immigration.
Ironically such development needs to be based on womens liberation. Where it has been successful it has focused on women in the community. When this is done, education plus regional based development funded by micro-loans, women begin to reduce the number of children they have and begin to modify the social conditions under which they live, challenging the remnants of fuedal patriarchical cultures that have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century.
Where local sustainable development has been aimed at women we see positive results. Lower birth rates, higher education rates, less migration. Technological solutions for resource developments such as localized rational irrigation based on a harmonious merger of technology and local engineering/environmental development are preferable to the capitalist industrial model.
Not all development has to be based on large scale corporate manufacturing. In fact in Africa in several areas now suffering famines, the most successful village market businesses have remained the collective farms and tertiary production of maize. Large scale corporate models have collapsed due to being inefficient in the global marketplace. While the village collective model, run by women, has succeeded.
Ideals of Fair Trade, the idea of promoting organic farming and collective production of products for export, rather than the hacienda production favoured by large scale Multinational Corporations like United Fruit and Dole, help communities achieve sustainable development, which then allows them to leave the culture of poverty which is what creates unsustainable population growth.
Also See:
IWD Economic Freedom for Women
Water War
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Pianka, Malthus, Population, sustainable, development, economy, Africa, povery, migration
He says;" Pianka's point has been lost. There are too many people on the planet;". True and the majority of them are poor.
Thus the record number of famines we are having thanks to Global Warming and due to capitalist production for export.
Lack of development opportunities based on sustainable farming and small scale industrial growth is the problem. Whether the issue is population growth, which is always based on labour needs for the family farm, or mass migration (aka illegal immigration) the real solution is to have regional development that creates real industries and self sufficiency.
Europes concern with growing illegal migration from Africa, due to impovershment or America's concern with illegal migrants from not only Mexico but now also Central America, is based on this simple fact. These countries have no sustainable development. If they did then their would be no migration. Development is the only solution to illegal immigration.
Ironically such development needs to be based on womens liberation. Where it has been successful it has focused on women in the community. When this is done, education plus regional based development funded by micro-loans, women begin to reduce the number of children they have and begin to modify the social conditions under which they live, challenging the remnants of fuedal patriarchical cultures that have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century.
Where local sustainable development has been aimed at women we see positive results. Lower birth rates, higher education rates, less migration. Technological solutions for resource developments such as localized rational irrigation based on a harmonious merger of technology and local engineering/environmental development are preferable to the capitalist industrial model.
Not all development has to be based on large scale corporate manufacturing. In fact in Africa in several areas now suffering famines, the most successful village market businesses have remained the collective farms and tertiary production of maize. Large scale corporate models have collapsed due to being inefficient in the global marketplace. While the village collective model, run by women, has succeeded.
Ideals of Fair Trade, the idea of promoting organic farming and collective production of products for export, rather than the hacienda production favoured by large scale Multinational Corporations like United Fruit and Dole, help communities achieve sustainable development, which then allows them to leave the culture of poverty which is what creates unsustainable population growth.
Also See:
IWD Economic Freedom for Women
Water War
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Pianka, Malthus, Population, sustainable, development, economy, Africa, povery, migration
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