Friday, June 22, 2007

Anarchy and Ecology


Beginning today, though as per usual with our little anarchist cooperative someone posted early and someone will likely post late, the Carnival of Anarchy will be hosting a weekend of blogging on the topic of Anarchism and Ecology. Green Anarchy, environmental anarchy, social ecology,etc.

Dust off your old Murray Bookchin books.

The period of contribution runs from Friday June 22nd to Sunday June 24th.


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Land Mine?

As I have posted here and here Afghanistan is a country full of land mines. And why does this incident have to be anything other than another land mine accident.


Three Canadians travelling between two checkpoints just a few hundred metres apart died Wednesday in Afghanistan when their all-terrain vehicle hit a roadside bomb that insurgents apparently managed to plant without being detected.



Worse yet the soldiers were unprepared, unprotected since they were riding in an unarmored ATV. An ATV for gods sakes.

The small John Deere-made open-top six-wheeler had no armour to protect its occupants.

Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, commander of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, shrugged off questions about what soldiers were doing riding around dangerous trails in an all-terrain vehicle primarily used to whip supplies around military bases. The risk seemed manageable and, besides, it was about the only type of vehicle that could weave through the tight off-road trails in the area, he argued.

While the accident could force the military to give its procedures a second look, the sketchy details suggest the military has already decided this is a tragic accident and not a case of procedural or protocol carelessness.

"The vehicle was appropriate for the task at hand and the terrain that they were travelling in," he told reporters.


Chart for Landmine casualties

Also See:

Friendly Fire


Afghanistan

War




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Vroom Vroom


Seems that my and other bloggers comments on the Conservatives 'C' Car in the Canadian NASCAR races has raised hackles on the right; here and here.

They of course both fit the NASCAR profile of 'voters' the Conservatives claim to 'want' to represent.

63% of fans at the track and viewers at home are between the ages of 30-49.
69% of motorsports fans make between $30,000 - $75,000 a year.
74% are homeowners.
75% are males.


Running a car in NASCAR Canada is what we call advertising to the converted.

The 12-race series will likely attract about 70,000 people across Canada -- the only B.C. stop is Vernon -- with some additional viewers on TV.

"This is a unique opportunity for the Conservative party to reach out to Canadians," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in a release.

NASCAR has a big middle-class fan base that the Tories want to get their message out to.

Immigration Minister Diane Finley says sponsoring a car is a way for the Conservatives to tap into that following.

A Conservative source said the goal is to reach middle-class voters who don't like current Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion and have bad memories of Brian Mulroney's leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party from 1984 to 1993.

"We're targeting what we have termed the Canadian Tire voter. It's basically a middle-income house owner in suburban areas, regional centres and rural communities with a do-it-yourself mentality. These people in the past have often seen the Conservative Party as out-of-touch and elitist," the source said.


Despite its popularity in America, in Canada motor sports are still elitist, as are Harpers Conservatives.

This spring's budget served up a sprinkling of tax and spending initiatives for everyone from seniors to farmers, and Conservative strategists have identified a number of segments to target, such as the "Tim Hortons" crowd and the "Canadian Tire" crowd.


Greg Weston of the Sun makes a good point about why we should be concerned about this and other Conservative party political advertising. We pay for it as taxpayers, but the party is not accountable to the public for its spending, which even the boys on the right should be outraged about.

But so far, they have all missed the real question that should be of interest to the vast majority of Canadian taxpayers: Whose money is it, anyway?

If the NASCAR deal were being paid entirely by donors to the Conservative party, it would not be an issue to anyone but those who have coughed up the contributions.

But it's not a private party issue.

Thanks to the genius of Jean Chretien's banning of corporate and union donations, Canadian taxpayers now fund the federal parties to the tune of roughly $28 million this year.

More than $10 million of that will go directly into the coffers of the Conservative party to spend on pretty much anything it wants.

Add to that the tax deductions for individual contributions to the Conservative party, and probably close to two-thirds of the money in the Tories' overflowing till is coming from taxpayers' pockets.

And while NASCAR fans express their outrage over comments made about the Conservatives opportunism lets not forget that other little fact, this is a kick back to their pal Pierre Bourque who writes his headlines for them.


It turns out the party logo - a big blue "C" - appears on the hood of the car driven by Pierre Bourque, whose popular Internet news aggregator sells torqued headlines to political operatives.

Bourque's website confirmed the connection Monday, linking to a story by Inside Track Motorsport News that noted his Dodge Charger is the sponsored Tory vehicle.

Research on the business model for Bourque Newswatch suggests the federal Conservative party has just guaranteed itself favourable coverage for the foreseeable future by sponsoring Bourque's hobby.

Past and current Bourque clients have confirmed to The Canadian Press that advertisers on the site can expect flattering headlines or links, or headlines and links denigrating their opponents.

The Conservative party refuses to confirm or deny that it employs Bourque's headline service directly. But months of negative headlines and links to scathing blogs about Liberal Leader Stephane Dion on Bourque Newswatch indicate someone with an axe to grind is paying the news aggregator, which openly advertises its headline service for sale.

When the Conservatives announced the NASCAR sponsorship Sunday, they also neglected to mention the sponsored vehicle is driven by Bourque.

Instead, the party's news release referred to Whitlock Motor Sports.




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I Thunk It


I must say thank you to Politics n Poetry and Werner Patels who nominated me for a Thinking Blog Award. And so as this is a meme I will now nominate my five favorite blogs that make me think.

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,


2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,


3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote (There is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog).

These will be shameless plugs for folks who I consider kindred spirits.

1. Larry Gambone, my old pal who publishes Porcupine Blog, and is a long time anarchist activist. Larry represents the ideals of Proudhon and the mutualist traditions in Anarchism, voluntary cooperation, self management, and is a fellow pantheist.

2. Pat Murtagh, another old anarchist pal who publishes Molly's Blog under the pseudonym of Molly's Mews. He is decidedly not a fellow heathen, but that can be forgiven since he is critical of scientific fundamentalism as he is of religious fundamentalism. And I like the fact he does a weekly round up on his blog.

3.
BigCityLib Strikes Back who shares with me a fascination with cryptozoology.

4. Mike over at Rational Reasons, because he comments here, and because his blog should be read by more folks, who think you can't be libertarian and support the NDP.

5.
Idealistic Pragmatist a fellow Redmontonian and anonymous female blogger, whose commentary on fellow bloggers and political news is always worth reading.


There you go, I could add more, but the meme says five. So thats what ya get, a high five guys.

On to you.


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How Do You Spell Monopoly

T E L U S. The former publicly owned phone company of the Province of Alberta was created because Bell Canada would not expand into Alberta at the beginning of last century.

The Edmonton Phone Company. EdTel, was formed because neither Alberta Government Telephones, AGT, nor Bell Canada would provide services to Edmonton. Over a decade ago it was sold off at a fire sale price by the city to its old nemesis the predatory AGT now privatized and called TELUS.

It was announced that the privatized Telus, which now includes Ed Tel as well as B.C. Tel, is preparing a take over bid of Bell Canada; BCE. How the wheel turns.

All this privatization of public enterprises was to end their 'state monopoly' and create 'competition'. So instead it creates privatized monopoly and reduces competition.

We are so much better off now. Except we sold the farm and now we buy back our milk and eggs.

See:

Monopoly Capitalism in Cyberspace

Telus

BCE


CRTC


Bernier

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Two Canadians In Afghanistan

This is a tale of two Canadians in Afghanistan, both end up in jail and the Canadian government ignores their plight. The irony is that one is there as a potential terrorist and the other a government employee employed to eradicate the opium and hashish trade who gets busted for drugs in Dubai.

In either case Foreign Affairs has remained woefully silent, as usual. Just as they remain silent on the plight of another Canadian in jail; Omar Kadhar.

When it comes to human rights the Conservative government seems to only care about Canadian prisoners in China.

It seems that our law and order Conservative government have extended their Napoleonic code to Canadians abroad. Guilty until proven innocent.




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Dog Bites Man

Wow like you couldn't see this coming a mile away.

Extend Afghan tour, Canada urged
BBC News - 1 hour ago
Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has urged Canada to keep its military mission in Afghanistan beyond the planned 2009 pullout date.
No wonder the Conservatives were in a hurry to end parliament early.


SEE:

Harpers Constituency

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Bowser A Terrorist

It's true. Air Canada taking advantage of the Conservative Governments No Fly List, has declared pets as a potential threat on airplanes. No really. No more traveling with bowser unless you ride the dog.

Air Canada has declared its aircraft no-fly zones for pets.

As of next month, animals will no longer be allowed aboard any Air Canada flights.

While the airline barred pets from aircraft cabins last September, the restriction now applies to the baggage compartment as well.

In a letter sent to the Canadian Transportation Agency on Wednesday, the national carrier said, "please be advised that Air Canada will cease the carriage of pets as checked luggage on domestic as well as international routes [including transborder routes], as of July 15, 2007."

See:

State Security Is A Secure State



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Thursday, June 21, 2007

Summer Solstice Give Or Take A Day

Summer's official, astronomical start is at 2:06 p.m. today.


It's tough for pagans when Solstice falls on a work day like today.

Although the solstice is technically today, the druid ritual will be Saturday afternoon because druids have jobs, too.

Unless of course they are unionized pagans and have a clause in the collective agreement saying that employees are entitled to holy days off of their choice.

In Canada Wiccan and pagan holy days such as solstice are considered official religious holidays by the Ontario Supreme Court.

Which is why solstice, winter or summer, falls between the 21 and 23, to give time for the weekend to catch up.

Thousands of modern-day druids, pagans and partygoers converged on Stonehenge late Wednesday as people across the Northern Hemisphere prepared to welcome the summer solstice -- the longest day of the year.

Solstice celebrations were a highlight of the pre-Christian calendar. People in many countries still celebrate with bonfires, maypole dances, and courtship rituals.

Solstice celebrations also take place in other countries, although most are deferred until the last weekend in June. Swedes will gather to sip spiced schnapps, Danes will light bonfires, and Balts and Finns will flock to the countryside to dance, sing and make merry under the midnight sun.

The largest crowd in recent years gathered at Stone Henge overnight to celebrate the Summer Solstice this morning as a further 1,000 congregated at Avebury.

Visitor numbers at the 5,000-year-old English Heritage Site on the Salisbury Plain totalled 24,094, up from 18,700 last year, to watch the longest day of the year dawn.

A spokesman said numbers swelled above a predicted 20,000 because extra people, on their way to Glastonbury music festival, stopped off to join the party.

Police were pleased to see that those attending had also heeded their warning to use public transport to get to the area as vehicle numbers at the gathering were also down on last year's total, dropping from 4,536 to 3,577.

As the sun rose at 4.58am a cheer went up from those gathered overnight at the stone circle on Salisbury Plain.

Revellers clad in antlers, black cloaks and oak leaves gathered at the Heel stone - a twisted, pockmarked pillar at the edge of the prehistoric monument - to welcome the rising sun.

BBC online pictures of summer solstice sunrise.

Summer solstice
Are you in touch with your inner Druid?

SEE

Damn Accurate

Pagans Party

Here Comes The Sun



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Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Seal Woes

Never too late to discuss the seal hunt now that the season is safely past and months after the controversy over Belgium and the EU plan to expand the seal hunt ban.

Both the Liberals and Conservatives defend the seal hunt in this discussion last week in the House. My how nice of them, after the protesters have all gone home.

39th PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION

EDITED HANSARD • NUMBER 173

CONTENTS

Monday, June 18, 2007

Fisheries and Oceans

Hon. Gerry Byrne (Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, Lib.):

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.

Members of the European Union are putting a squeeze on Canadian fishermen through an illegal ban on seal products. In a flagrant violation of international trade law, Belgium has now banned Canadian seal products on the basis of domestic public concern.

Action must be taken by the government before other EU members consider enacting similar bans due to a perceived lack of consequences.

Will the minister and his colleagues formerly commit to launching WTO actions against EU members that are illegally banning Canadian seal products?

Hon. Loyola Hearn (Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's question is actually a pretty good one.

First, let me ensure that everyone knows the EU itself has not banned or will not ban seal products. It has admitted that the seal hunt is conservationist. Second, it is looking now at the humaneness of the hunt, and we hope to be able to prove that also.

Individual member states, some of them including Belgium, have banned seal and seal products. This is a serious precedent. We cannot put up with it and we will take action.


Meanwhile here is an interesting fact: Norway is the largest importer of Canadian seal pelts, but it is not an EU member.

The anti-seal campaign focuses on Canada and our seal hunt quotas, but overlooks the fact that the Greenland hunt also hauls in as many seals as Canada does. Though in the case of Greenland the hunt is conducted by indigenous natives, while in Canada it is conducted by the descendants of Ireland and Scotland.

What gets overlooked in this whole debate is that the seal hunt is sustainable, and that quotas can be reduced. That would be the environmentally sound thing to do. However those who oppose the hunt offer nothing but a complete ban on the hunt, which would have just as negative an impact as an uncontrolled hunt.




An Enviro's Case for Seal Hunt

Cuter than cod

Opponents prefer sentiment to sustainability.

By Terry Glavin
Published: March 7, 2007

The Newfoundland seal hunt is transparently and demonstrably sustainable and humane. There are roughly half a million people in Newfoundland and Labrador, and nearly six million harp seals, which is almost three times as many seals as when I was a kid.

Canada's Annual Seal Slaughter


Meanwhile, a mini trade war is brewing. It looks to be more than just a minor spat. Over a week ago, outraged by the seal hunt, the German minister of agriculture proposed to bring a bill in front of the Bundestag banning the importation of sealskins or any related products from Canada. Sure enough, as the ice beings to melt, Ottawa took immediate counter-measures.

A Canadian member of parliament from Newfoundland, the province that benefits the most from the seal trade, now seeks to forbid the importation of German boar and dear meat. This diplomatic tit for tat is unlikely to stop the seal hunt. However, the issue is nevertheless a very hot one in Europe. Germany, as mentioned above, is considering a ban on seal products; Belgium has already banned them. And Britain is pushing for a European Union wide ban.

Britain blasted for backing seal ban


Canada reacts angrily to UK's support for full boycott of animal products on eve of cull

Juliette Jowit in Newfoundland
Sunday February 11, 2007
The Observer


Canada has attacked Britain's 'moral' decision to support a Europe-wide boycott of all seal products, as hunters prepare for the annual cull of around 300,000 baby seals.

At present Europe bans only products made from seals under 12 days old, known as 'whitecoats', but the UK is putting pressure on the rest of the EU to join Belgium and Italy, as well as the United States and Mexico, in introducing a blanket rejection of the industry, which is worth £22m to Canada. The Canadian government is frustrated that the British position is based on 'public morality concerns' rather than scientific evidence.



Greenland to Challenge Belgium If Sealskin Is Banned (Update1). Bloomberg (2007)

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Greenland will sue Belgium if ``fanatics'' there succeed in banning sealskin imports, a move that would violate European Union law and cripple the livelihood of Inuit hunters, the foreign minister said.

The island has set up a taskforce with Denmark to stop sealskin bans in the EU, the Danish foreign ministry said today. If Belgium passes such a law, Greenland's foreign minister said he'll ask the European Commission to take legal action against the country for violating the law of the internal market.

Greenland's indigenous population, the Inuits, kill about 180,000 seals each year for meat and skin. The island's hunters mainly kill adult seals and use rifles rather than clubs. Sealskin is one of a few exports other than fish and shrimp for the semi- autonomous Danish territory.

``Belgian politicians are afraid of strong animal welfare activists and fanatics, and that will harm an innocent country,'' Josef Motzfeldt, Greenland's minister for finance and foreign affairs, said in a telephone interview late yesterday from the capital city of Nuuk. ``If Belgium passes this law, many other EU countries might follow.''


BRUSSELS, BELGIUM--( 25 Jan 2007) - In a landmark unanimous vote, the Belgian Parliament has banned the import of all seal products.

"We applaud the Belgian Government for taking this historic step and reducing the demand for seal products derived from a cruel and unnecessary commercial seal hunt," said Lesley O'Donnell, IFAW EU Director.

"We hope the Belgian example will encourage other European nations to adopt their own national bans, closing the door on the trade in seal products."

Across Europe there is a groundswell of opposition to Canada's commercial seal hunt.

The German Parliament voted unanimously on a motion urging the government to ban seal products, just one month after the EU Parliament passed a Written Declaration in support of an EU-wide trade ban.

"There is a clear message being sent to the Government of Canada," said Olivier Bonnet, IFAW Director, Canada.

"It is time the Canadian Government stopped propping up an industry which has no future.

"In light of this ban, and the Government's own scientific data showing the current hunt is unsustainable, the commercial seal hunt must end."


A Victory for Seals in Europe | Humane Society International - Canada

September 8, 2006

By Rebecca Aldworth

Strasbourg, France—Today is a truly historic day for the seals. On Sept. 6, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling upon the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, to ban all trade in harp and hooded seal products. This is a crucial step towards the passage of legislation that will save millions of seals from a horrible fate.

The pups are killed for their fur, most of which is traded in European fashion markets. When the European Union bans the trade in all products from harp and hooded seals—regardless of their age—it will eliminate a market essential to Canada's commercial sealing industry. Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands are already in the process of implementing their own bans.

Clearly, Canada's Fisheries minister, Loyola Hearn, understands the enormity of such a ban. Last week he traveled to Belgium, attempting to convince that country to reconsider a prohibition on the import of seal products. In a statement that drew some criticism from his countrymen, Hearn said that Belgium's ban would take "the livelihood away from a number of Canadians whose family members left their blood on the fields here in Belgium, Flanders fields and other places" during World War II.



See:

A Word From Our Sealers

Not So Cute Seals

Seals Threaten Fish

Royal Newfoundlanders Died For the Seal Hunt

Your Anti-Sealing Donation At Work




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Worthington In His Own Words

Do as I say not as I do. Why is Peter Worthington defending Lord Black, perhaps loyalty amongst the right wing ruling class that dominate Canada's media.

Defending the dark Lord would at first appear a contradiction since Peter Worthington likes to advocate for the common people and common sense. (read right wing populism)

As for the media, the one thing the media should have is common sense. They are the great conduit of knowledge to the people. They have to reduce the complex to the simple, and dispense it.


Despite his 'common volk' screed his credentials make him a member of the ruling class.


I suspect Mr. Worthington comes by his forthrightness quite naturally. It may not be generally known that his father was Major General F. F. Worthington, popularly known as "Fighting Frank" and the acknowledged father of the Canadian Armoured Corps.

Peter Worthington himself served in World War II as an air gunner with the Fleet Air Arm, and as an officer of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in Korea where he was, incidentally, his battalion's intelligence officer and as such an expert on secret information. But he is first and foremost a journalist and indeed his writing talents were most evident in his military career. General Lewis Mackenzie.


Full of contradictions Worthington complained about office politics at the Sun while conveniently overlooking his own family connections.
We have a fairly active and energetic board of directors at The Sun, who think they know more about journalism than they do, and they all seem to have relatives, nieces and nephews who are unemployed, and this suits them ideally, in their minds, to work on newspapers as reporters. It's insulting, in a way, when one is in the business. They don't last that long, but just the fact that they arrive is rather upsetting. Peter Worthington

Worthington is the step-father of conservative writer Danielle Crittenden, and is thereby David Frum's father-in-law.


Worthington of course has no use for academics which is why he was an FBI spy in the sixties and seventies.

In our country in the sixties the universities were the arenas of revolutionary idealism. The people who should have been defending academic freedom, the academics, were often cowed or convinced not only to tolerate the nonsense on the campuses, but to actually participate in it and in cases to lead it. The university should not be an arena for revolution, although all the revolutionaries have come from the academic world--Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Mao, Castro, Allende. I think you could state a law that common sense tends to deteriorate in direct proportion to the amount of exposure a person has to the academic environment.

Worthington was criticized when it was revealed that he had informed to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation about the suspected political sympathies of a number of his friends including June Callwood.


The value of Peters advocacy journalism well lets leave him with the last word.

But the members of the media in this country have no training whatsoever. Journalism has become trendy, it has become fashionable. All it takes to become a journalist is the nerve and the opportunity. That's how I got into it! But we have no particular skills. Most of us type with two fingers; we can't take shorthand. The greenest stenographer entering the job market has more mechanical skills than the most exalted journalist at the end of his career.


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A Captain of Industry

I see my post here has caused some comments from the rightwhingnuts. It is amazing to see the folks who line up behind Lord Black of Cumuppance Harbour, a would be aristocrat and ruthless tyrant over his press empire. Folks like Sun writer and right wing bon vivant Peter Worthington who have been bemoaning his trial as class war.

They all praise Lord Black for being a hard working Captain of Industry. Except they seem to over look that he sunk his ship, leaving the women and children (shareholders, the little people, etc.) to fend for themselves as he and his wife made off like bandits.

Those on the right love their aristocrats. So much so that they create their own little family compacts. Damn shame about the end of feudalism.



Also See:


Conrad Black

Criminal Capitalism

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Tories Blame Premiers for Equalization Crisis

So really it wasn't the Gnu Conservative government that failed the Atlantic Provinces it was the other premiers. They insisted that Jim Flaherty come up with an equalization formula that broke their promise not to claw back resource revenues.

From Hansard Thursday June 14

Hon. Jim Flaherty (Minister of Finance, CPC)
:
Mr. Speaker, as all members know, the premiers had many meetings with the Council of the Federation and they were unable to come to an agreement with respect to the equalization.

The premiers, including all the premiers of the receiving provinces, have been asking for more than two decades for fiscal equity in terms of equalization in Canada and for a 10 province, principle based formula. That is what we have been able to arrive at.

Indeed, the premiers have been asking for a principle based, predictable, long term formula for equalization in Canada. We had an experts panel look at that. Yes, it is necessary that the national government act on this because the premiers could not agree.


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