Trashy's World

This article flew a little under the radar, but in it, ReformCon Minister Maxime Bernier states that the cautious approach to climate change has been exactly what Canadians have needed since:

the debate on the scientific basis of climate, stifled for years by political correctness, finally broke out openly in the media

and that:

De très sérieux scientifiques croient toutefois qu’on sous-estime l’influence du soleil et d’autres facteurs qui n’ont rien à voir avec le CO2 dans l’étude des changements climatiques.

which, translated, says – more or less that there are some very serious scientists who think that the influence of the sun and other factors that have nothing to do with CO2 are underestimated  in climate change studies.

Good thing they are serious scientists…

Over at bloggingtories.ca, M. Bernier is being hailed as a hero! As the second coming of Jim Prentice! As a brave soul who is breaking away from the Mamby-pambyness of the Harperites and saying it like it is!

Here are some of the reactions:

My Friend Maxime Bernier is a… – “The reaction from the chicken littles has been of course hysteria. Keep up the good work Maxime. One day you will be HM PM.”

Thank you Maxime Bernier for being the first politician to have the courage to publicly acknowledge what we all have been aware of for the last several months – that the so-called ’settled science’  is unraveling and the alarmists’ hysteria is a crock as Lorrie Goldstein points out today – Mad Max makes sense.

Yikes! They are all a-twitter! NeoCons are excited! Look out!!!! Madness will ensue!

But seriously, this is a problems for this guy:

Harper relies on strict and unwavering adherence to the message. And Max has broken this sacrament. He may have a real internal problem on his hands and the opposition parties will undoubtedly point to this in the coming months.

Of course, the distancing has begun:

Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice’s office was quick to distance itself from Bernier’s letter.

Prentice’s spokesman, Frédéric Baril, told CBC News that Bernier’s opinions are his own and are not at all in line with those of the environment ministers or the Conservative government

It will be amusing to see how this plays out… hee-hee…

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Ya gotta be kidding me.

The ReformCons are following what many other authoritarian regimes have done in the past -- use sport to whip up patriotism and take credit for the athlete’s successes.

But then, what else are we to expect?

But “Our strong leader”? Has Ms. Greene signed on not only as the Olympic ambassador but as a Harperite minion as well?

Ms. Greene Raine compares the athletes to “our strong leader,” Mr. Harper, who is in a competition of his own: “With our strong leader Canada will continue to compete with the world’s best,” she says. And Mr. Duffy, who also refers to his colleague as “my Olympic champion,” goes on to say, “We Conservatives are champions in our own right.”

Shameful.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Why would anyone really think that the Reformatories would consult with the City of Toronto about where best to hold the G 20 Summit?

As reported in many places, like the G&M, the feds and the city don’t quite agree on the locale. Harper’s minions want to hold it right in the downtown core – causing a few days of massive disruption to the residents of the area as well as the businesses. While the City thinks it wiser to hold it outside the core at Exhibiton Place.

Oh wait, they DID consult with the bank towers folks, cuz, well, they are much more important than those morons who had the audacity to elect a Dipper as their MP.

What, you say? Politics couldn’t come into play with how the ReformCons operate here, could it? Naw. The Harperites would never put partisanship ahead of sound logistics!

But, if my sense of direction is correct, the Convention Centre is in Toronto Centre – which is Olivia Chow’s riding … but could be in Toronto Centre – Bob Rae’s riding. Maybe someone could help me out.

NOT that this political stuff would matter to the Harperroids….

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Interesting little piece over at the MotherCorp about a mad dash to the department’s mailroom, a released and then “un”released report and similarities to Adscam.

In short, a ATIP request initiated by Canadian Press asked for the annual report on Public Works’ real estate portfolio, which contained data on such things as vacancy rates and returns on investment. These reports are never made public.

Initially, the Department OKed the release after the legal eagles said that there was no real reason to not release it.

The department’s real-estate branch had consented to the full release, and the Access to Information office at Public Works had determined after extensive consultation that there was no legal basis to withhold any of the report.

The file, though, was deemed “sensitive” — partly because it was a media request — and was sent to the Conservative minister’s office for review. The office initially gave the green light, but had a change of heart on the very day it was being mailed out.

Togneri insisted that only one small section of the report be released, despite the uniform view among Access to Information officials that the entire 137-page document could not be withheld under the legislation.

The copy was in the mail room when work from the Minister’s office was received that some minion had better get their sorry ass down there and get it back. I woulda hated to be that minion!

In the end, though, the department released only a heavily censored version just as Togneri had insisted — 82 days later than allowed under the law. The final release included just 30 pages.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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After today’s fairly successful protests across Canada, one could answer with a qualified “maybe”.

No, tens of thousands didn’t mobilize on the Hill. But most accounts put the crowd at 3,000 in Ottawa, 10,000 in T.O. and 25 K in total across the country. Not bad for the chattering classes, eh Tony?

Time will tell if these protests are indicative of an awaking of Canucks from our collective slumber and the beginnings of a movement to dethrone the Robot King.

Here’s hoping!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Regular readers know very well that this blog’s themes are more or less as follows:

• Criticise the government and other federal pols… but (in truth) mostly those who answer to the Dear Leader
• Slam City Hall and its handling of almost any issue
• Slam, well, anything that smacks of right-wing politics
• Come down hard on religion - of any stripe – but mostly christianity

The list is in no particular order and largely reflects personal political leanings that have been defined over my adult life. I naturally gravitate to the left of the spectrum. I am also an atheist and cannot now and never will understand why otherwise sane and smart people are drawn so deeply into religious mythologies.

There are, of course, exceptions to these themes. I will often talk about my kids, my travels (another set of China entries coming up in a couple of months!) or just random stuff. But by and large, my scribblings have been pretty negative most of the time and over the last couple of days I have reflected on this.

I am not normally a negative guy. It’s just that discussions about politics and religion bring out that side of me. I guess it’s because I am really passionate and have deep-seated beliefs about both of these subjects and like to get up on the soapbox to scream out loud about how I know better.

And the bitch of it is that these types of posts garner a lot of traffic on my site. The more vindictive the post, the more visits I get. I normally average about 40-50 hits a day. But when I pen a vicious diatribe that equates Stevie to something less than a corner-dwelling sewer rat, the traffic doubles or triples.

But after reading a few of the notes I have penned over the past few months, I have decided to stray away from the negative, attack-ad style posts in favour of something different. I don’t yet know what that “something different” will look like – it will evolve over time.

I started this blog as a creative outlet that I could use to write about things that were different in style and substance from what I do for a living. So I am going to return to this for a while and write a little more about the things that drew me to blogging in the first place.

No, Trashy ain’t gonna let Stevo completely off the hook! I will still lambaste him, his ReformCon cronies, right-wing politics and stuff of a non-secular nature. But just not quite so much.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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…but thanks to L-girl over at We Move to Canada for pointing this out.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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So the Harperites and their taser-carry toadies, the RCMP, have decided that the appropriate response to the recent Greenpeace action on the Hill is to ban all those wearing Greenpeace t-shirts.

Heather Bradley, a spokeswoman for the Speaker’s office, said it is routine for guests to be obliged to remove attire that may “disrupt” proceedings.

“When someone is invited in as a member of the public in either the chamber or a committee, they’re invited in as an observer. That’s it,” she said.

OK. Fair enough. These are the ground rules. It is a little odd to respond to a massive security breach by banning a certain piece of clothing bearing a certain emblem, but whatever.  Even though I do not support Greenpeace, I do kinda like the t-shirt.

But then I got to thinking about what other kinds of t shirts may be interpreted as “disruptive” in the minds of folks like Ms. Bradley. I mean, why stop at Greenpeace? There shurely must be scores of cotton-blend upper body wear with logos and pictures that may disrupt the minds and actions of scores of cotton-blend wearing Upper and Lower House members!

For example, this one would be sure to disrupt the thoughts of any Honourable Member who had a yen to deke out behind the Parliamentary Library for a quick spliff!

Or what about this fine design that, while I personally think that peace is something worth celebrating, some members of the ReformCon caucus may find disruptive due to it’s somewhat anti-arms-industry message! Can’t piss off Boeing!

Along the same lines, all of those in the Reformatory caucus and some of the spineless wimps in the other parties may find this gem disruptive. After all, it would be wrong to demean the American organization that helped to begin the dismantling of the gun registry!

Needless to say, this one would disrupt the sensibilities of any and all who are not members of Leaf Nation!

Lastly, can you image the extent to which proceedings would be disrupted by this baby! Mammals of all party stripes would barely be able to contain their anger! As well, rumour has it that the noble dinosaurs is being considered as the symbol of the ReformCon Party of Canada. Like the easily recognizable elephant and donkey to the Republican and the Democrats in the south, the dinosaur represents all that encompasses those of the Harperite Cult: outdated, lumbering and soon to be extinct!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Was I sleeping through this or did someone make note of it while I was in a haze these past few days? I have been sick (no, not the Piggy flu) for the past week, so it is highly likely that I missed the debates on CBC, the rains of condemnation from the blogosphere and a general discontented harumph heard from coast to coast (certain parts of Alberta excepted, of course).

Canada quietly asks EPA to weaken anti-pollution measures

That’s the headline form Saturday’s G&M article in which it is reported that the Canadian embassy in D.C. has asked the EPA to water down their new measures aimed to reduce the health toll from air pollution around the Great Lakes by forcing lake freighters to stop burning dirty bunker fuel.

We, uh, don’t WANT this? Really?

Apparently not. The Harper government, backed by the shipping industry,

wants ships to be allowed to continue using the high-polluting fuel and to instead install smokestack scrubbers that would clean up their emissions. The Canadian recommendation, if accepted, could delay the clean-air measure for years, because the technology for the scrubbers does not yet exist.

“Not yet exist” being the key phrase here. I can understand proposing a new an innovative way to deal with these emissions. And heck, ya, that is exactly what is happening! In fact, the equipment is so damned innovative that one needs a freakin’ TIME MACHINE set to The Future in order to get these tools!

So what’s the big deal, eh? So a few birds fall from the sky. A bit more dirty air way out in Lake Superior somewhere. Big Whoop.

The EPA said in a background paper that ship-diesel exhaust, which can travel hundreds of kilometres from shorelines, is a likely human carcinogen, and contributes to heart and lung disease, particularly for children and the elderly. It says the new controls, including those on ocean vessels, will prevent 8,300 premature deaths annually, although it didn’t give specific figures for the Great Lakes region.

Oh. Well, I’m sure the Reformatories had science of their own to refute these findings. Right?

The embassy didn’t dispute the EPA’s health findings, but expressed concerns about the economic impact of the measures.

Ah. Gotcha.

Seriously, this is a bit disgusting, isn’t it? Add in the tar sands and the Harper government’s abandonment of the Kyoto targets and we’re turning into one big, smoke-belching, climate change denying, ecosystem destroying environmental SOB.

How embarrassing.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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