After reading the material about the Conrad Black trial I must say I am ambivalent about the whole affair. One cannot go by the media reports. And I wish not to succumb my brain to the personal agendas of these biased reporters.
If one read only one report from either the Toronto Sun (and Sun Media) or the Toronto Star one gets a rather biased viewpoint. The Black trial fertilized a subtext of political bias or simple bias in every report.
Jennifer Wells (The Star) interpretation of events often varies from the Mary Vallis (Sun Media/Canada.com) interpretation. Yes its the same facts appear the same but did they go to the same trial clearly noticeably when they broach neutrality into the realm of opinion.
One needs to read both to get a sense of how the real trial is moving. At no time does the bias leave the interpretation of events. Understandably Conservative papers such as Sun Media cheer Black's defense. The Liberal papers cheer Black's prosecutors.
In the Star it can be understood that Eddie Greenspan, the primary defense attorney for Conrad Black, simply sucked. While Sun media and the National Post tended make Eddie Greenspan out like the reincarnation of Clarence Darrow. Which is it?
And here is the problem and the irony. It had been Conrad Black's an Radler's efforts to trim costs and extract every dime out of the newspapers operations. They literally led in the layoffs of many good reporters. What was left was a group of reporters very susceptible to political and personal bias. No middle ground appears to exist.
I know for a fact that Conrad Black is not as a hard assed character as he appears in the press. Neither is Barbara Amiel for she suffers from some really biased press. Lets put it this way. Their marriage has stuck together through some very tough times recently. Many a woman would have done the Adios on Black by this time. So to her credit and as corny as it sounds... it is true; she's stuck by her man.
On Victoria Street just north of King Street in Toronto just to the south of the parking lot for 10 Toronto Street, I used to start the day with a breakfast and a coffee. A maintenance person of that building also cleared the snow for 10 Toronto's lot contracted by Lord Black himself. His view of Black private character was quite opposite to that spun out by the media on both sides.
The Conrad Black he knew, the one not doing business, not putting out a public face was a quite friendly down to earth fellow. He is a totally different character out of the lime light of work or politique. This is quite the opposite character portrayal in the media whether friendly or not. It is quite the opposite from the wordy almost arrogant persona he displays in public view.
One must remember that Radler had been his closest friend and confidante outside of the spouse in Black's life. Apart from the morality of the play, in essence Radler appears a traitor not to a nation but to a long friendship. On the trial coverage the Liberal view is that Radler lied, to the Conservative Radler is a liar. This is a subtle but important difference.
The Conservatives brought this on themselves. In the mid 1980s the biggest complaint was that all the media possessed a Liberal bias. Despite that declaration one cannot help but note that conservative governments got elected.
The greatest fear of the Conservative was never the openly Liberal biased reporter. The greatest fear of the Liberal was never the openly Conservative biased reporter. Both sides absolutely detested the neutral reporter who reported only the facts. They are the most dangerous. They can't be co-opted ethically. They report the truth. As a result both sides assailed the 5th estate so that in today's journalism schools bias is okay.
Neutral, politically indifferent reporters have been completely purged from the media. Without that severe neutrality, court reporting emerges as inaccurate. The clash of the courtroom must be reported in a neutral reportage. Bias loses accuracy.
Having reported and written on several trials and commission hearings I can honestly say that what happens in court almost never is successfully reflected in the reportage. Editors almost always want an angle or slant to every article. The only goal of a trial judge is the truth. The goal of the reporter is a good story. A false story is always better a tale than the real factual truth. And any journalists writes in a way to maneuver that story as close as possible to the front page as possible. The story's position headline and prominence is entirely determined by the editor.
In the case of Conrad Black I am trying to understand the course of the trial by reading a variety of sources. I still get no sense of the real Conrad Black, the one that the snow clearing maintenance guy once related. And I tend to trust that guy's evaluations before the evaluations of today's journalist.
Mr. or rather Lord Black did some rather ethically challenging business deals. None of which has been successfully identified as clearly illegal under the law. Under Canadian tax law, the maneuver of non-compete fees is so unique that there is no law yet against that. The prosecutors have lined up the charge sheet with an array of charges clearly the most of which Black is not guilty of. In Canada Black was not even charged with the removal of those storage boxes even though it was either a case of court contempt or adventurous gambit.
Here is the problem with the trial's star witness. Radler fessed up in exchange for a sweetheart sentence. This is acceptable and common practice in today's justice world in the US and in Canada (e.g. Karla Homolka plea bargain). Despite the fact that he plead guilty doesn't mean that the actions the others took was not factually illegal.
The shareholders of the American version of Hollinger accused these executive of seconding the money despite the fact that it was the same shareholders voted for these executive year after year and in every annual meeting before. And this despite the fact that the same shareholders made a lot of money on the sales of the newspapers too. No one lost money or had their pockets picked. The only question is that the shareholders wanted even more money.
Indeed as the information gleaned from the trial indicates that KPMG and the company lawyers in Toronto state that as far as they knew, these non-compete payments were quite okay. According to all the testimonies to date, the payments were legal but all the advisers consistently advised that the payments be kept fairly out of public knowledge.
The audit committee on the Board of Directors passed the reports. If there had been an objection to the payment fees then that should have been the time to bring it forward. While individual members of the Board of Directors may not have individually recalled such disclosures it was incumbent on the directors to also seek out that information if it related to the higher levels of company decisions. In short, they may not have done their jobs.
Over the years I rather think that Black has put himself into a mask that he cannot throw off. One can get the sense that if Black does testify he will suffer the same sort of withering and astute cross examinations by the prosecuting attorneys that Radler endured with the parade of defense attorneys. In every other trial Black was his own worst witness. Unlike the short version of answers demanded of Radler, Black will be encourage to answer in the long form. And it is common knowledge that publicly Black's rhetoric remains rather long and colorful.
Indeed the only question remaining is whether or not Black takes the stand in his own defense. And here is where it is important to actually be in a court room. If you actually sit in the whole proceedings one quickly sees why a trial will course to a conclusion. The question is whether this jury expects to hear from Black. If not. And they want to go home. He then is protected.
If the jury sets its final judgment related to Black's failure to take the stand, then he may lose. If they don't care. Black will likely walk free. If he does testify, to win he must drop his knightly persona and simply be a straight up guy.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Democracy hypocrisy
What doesn't add up here? A poor woman in the Caribou-Chilicotin of British Columbia suffered a fatal blow from the strike of a tiger's paw recently. Authorities felt that it was necessary to euthanize the tiger despite the fact that the tiger was only doing what tigers do.
The entire media went into a frenzy. Politicians at every level promised swift and decisive action to regulate exotic animals. Too the ramparts for everyone in Canada is at threat from a rampage of Tigers.
Now lets stand back a minute. Lets stand way back. And take a look at the sheer quantity of hypocrisy swirling around this little pool.
When younger I hiked and hunted alone in very hazardous wilderness. Rest assured, with little thinking about this extremely likely event; had I seen any moving creature with orange and black stripes prowling in vegetation yonder; and despite the ever longing for anything pussy; and without regard to the pertinent legalities of discharging a weapon, I will shoot the sucker. Tigers are dangerous people.
Not only do I know this. But apparently everyone else on this planet but this poor woman knew it too. Even the legal owner of the Tiger knew that these animals were dangerous. Unlike dogs Tigers are not group animals.
The media must be cited for demonstrating again just how low they have descended too since the ultra conservatives have gained controlling interest in these businesses. Such ownership spreads its attitudes to management because they pick people to manage newspapers who best mimic them. Yes most news editors are arrogant buffoons.
Why is this? First if the victim was a male. Nobody would make a fuss. The idiot victim moved too close to the Tiger with children witnessing the event which was first described as a mauling. Well yes a lot of life lessons are best taught with real life experiences swathed in trauma. You'll bet none of those kids will get too close to any animal from now on.
Then as the articles were revised all this further information emerged. First there was no mauling, it was a single paw strike which even the household cat does when something gets annoying. Initially the media got it wrong.
Now the political weirdness begins. All this fuss. All these new laws to protect Canadian society from Tigers. They claim to hold life precious. This is only one person. Just how many people on average get killed by Tigers in Canada. I didn't know it was such an epidemic.
These are the same governments that license and tax cigarettes and participating in the annual deaths of thousands. These are the same governments that sell or license the sale of alcohol to its citizens which directly causes the early deaths of thousands. Tens of thousands of people die either directly or indirectly due to the avarice greed of government. Now these hypocrites get in a righteous moral snit over a single unfortunate death.
****30*****
The entire media went into a frenzy. Politicians at every level promised swift and decisive action to regulate exotic animals. Too the ramparts for everyone in Canada is at threat from a rampage of Tigers.
Now lets stand back a minute. Lets stand way back. And take a look at the sheer quantity of hypocrisy swirling around this little pool.
When younger I hiked and hunted alone in very hazardous wilderness. Rest assured, with little thinking about this extremely likely event; had I seen any moving creature with orange and black stripes prowling in vegetation yonder; and despite the ever longing for anything pussy; and without regard to the pertinent legalities of discharging a weapon, I will shoot the sucker. Tigers are dangerous people.
Not only do I know this. But apparently everyone else on this planet but this poor woman knew it too. Even the legal owner of the Tiger knew that these animals were dangerous. Unlike dogs Tigers are not group animals.
The media must be cited for demonstrating again just how low they have descended too since the ultra conservatives have gained controlling interest in these businesses. Such ownership spreads its attitudes to management because they pick people to manage newspapers who best mimic them. Yes most news editors are arrogant buffoons.
Why is this? First if the victim was a male. Nobody would make a fuss. The idiot victim moved too close to the Tiger with children witnessing the event which was first described as a mauling. Well yes a lot of life lessons are best taught with real life experiences swathed in trauma. You'll bet none of those kids will get too close to any animal from now on.
Then as the articles were revised all this further information emerged. First there was no mauling, it was a single paw strike which even the household cat does when something gets annoying. Initially the media got it wrong.
Now the political weirdness begins. All this fuss. All these new laws to protect Canadian society from Tigers. They claim to hold life precious. This is only one person. Just how many people on average get killed by Tigers in Canada. I didn't know it was such an epidemic.
These are the same governments that license and tax cigarettes and participating in the annual deaths of thousands. These are the same governments that sell or license the sale of alcohol to its citizens which directly causes the early deaths of thousands. Tens of thousands of people die either directly or indirectly due to the avarice greed of government. Now these hypocrites get in a righteous moral snit over a single unfortunate death.
****30*****
Monday, May 14, 2007
Comments on comments... number two
Oh the ongoing discussion. One suggestion from a commenter has been that there be more graphics. Well nothing more I would like than to provide graphics.
Now you see I got to deal with this so that everyone must understand and put behind this. Its also the same people who also take me on about copyright. Its also the same people who have unlimited access to the internet. Also one must understand that the other blog, the one that got destroyed by the evil empire possessed a lot of graphics.
Here's why.
1. Connection. I do not have a permanent connection to the internet. I must rely on free or low cost internet.
2. Time. Looking for graphics takes time. When I had the 360 Yahoo site it had graphics but creating, browsing, searching, finding, selecting and uploading those graphics takes time. For every word I write it takes three hundred words per hour on average, edited. However every graphic at 360 took on average about another hour. So in my case its definitely a time consideration.
3. Cost. I survive on eighty dollars per month. Thats for everything from tea to bumwad and food. Every blog costs me a dollar guaranteed if I go to the cheapest internet cafe. Thats not charging for time in writing. People forget that I was once paid for my writing. Blogs get no income. When I had 360 there was more money available.... Yes I do get free access to internet but thats for only 16 times a month.
4. Copyrights. The laws governing graphic copyright regulation is far more legally tenuous than the written word. You can plagiarize a plot line as long as you change the words. Every writer from Shakespeare on knows that. In written copy there there is a legal right exemption in Canada and other Commonwealth but not the greedy USA copyright regulation, to educate students especially on news based common knowledge based news items.
However in graphics that exemption really doesn't exist. And it is so hard to morph an image away from copyright law interpretation that one might as well create an original image. Copyright regulation covering photo, art or logo regulation is far more onerous than printed or written copyright regulation.
Creating an image requires money, equipment and time. None of which I have at the moment. Writing a blog is more recreation.
So I am sorry. I don't have the resources to create or upload the fancy stuff. This can be called - Blog Raw.
Now you see I got to deal with this so that everyone must understand and put behind this. Its also the same people who also take me on about copyright. Its also the same people who have unlimited access to the internet. Also one must understand that the other blog, the one that got destroyed by the evil empire possessed a lot of graphics.
Here's why.
1. Connection. I do not have a permanent connection to the internet. I must rely on free or low cost internet.
2. Time. Looking for graphics takes time. When I had the 360 Yahoo site it had graphics but creating, browsing, searching, finding, selecting and uploading those graphics takes time. For every word I write it takes three hundred words per hour on average, edited. However every graphic at 360 took on average about another hour. So in my case its definitely a time consideration.
3. Cost. I survive on eighty dollars per month. Thats for everything from tea to bumwad and food. Every blog costs me a dollar guaranteed if I go to the cheapest internet cafe. Thats not charging for time in writing. People forget that I was once paid for my writing. Blogs get no income. When I had 360 there was more money available.... Yes I do get free access to internet but thats for only 16 times a month.
4. Copyrights. The laws governing graphic copyright regulation is far more legally tenuous than the written word. You can plagiarize a plot line as long as you change the words. Every writer from Shakespeare on knows that. In written copy there there is a legal right exemption in Canada and other Commonwealth but not the greedy USA copyright regulation, to educate students especially on news based common knowledge based news items.
However in graphics that exemption really doesn't exist. And it is so hard to morph an image away from copyright law interpretation that one might as well create an original image. Copyright regulation covering photo, art or logo regulation is far more onerous than printed or written copyright regulation.
Creating an image requires money, equipment and time. None of which I have at the moment. Writing a blog is more recreation.
So I am sorry. I don't have the resources to create or upload the fancy stuff. This can be called - Blog Raw.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Blog update and commentary on commentary.
Part IV will be delayed for at least a couple of days. The reason for this is that I spent a couple of days out in the country - visiting. Far East Scarberia. Very apporroopppooo.
Comments on comments
One commenter had a problem on me making comments. The person pointed out that sometimes I put a comment while often I will cite or introduce a newspaper clipping without commenting.
Firstly I defer to the intelligence of the reader and the skill of the writer whose narration often exceeds mine thereby carrying far more authority. It doesn't mean I don't have an opinion on it. Rather it likely means that the article is fairly straight forward requiring little or no embellishment whatsoever.
Its like repainting a Mona Lisa. Another coating of paint is unnecessary.
If an article winds up in this blog it is very likely that I agree with the gist and focus of the work. Otherwise I probably would say something. In my blogging you will note that I work like an advocate placing information in front of a bench judge. The reader is the judge.
Also it sometimes is important to establish a context. In the instance of the blog about Mi Hyun Kim it was necessary to establish a context for the positioning of the article in this blog. Otherwise my erstwhile intelligent readership, despite their patently reknown skill at life would likely not put lady golfer, charity, into quite another category. "What's that old idiot geezer writing about now! A golfing chick he's got the hot's for. Horny old fool!"
In that case it was necessary to establish a foundation of why I place it into a blog. Anyhow back to the next bloggith.
Comments on comments
One commenter had a problem on me making comments. The person pointed out that sometimes I put a comment while often I will cite or introduce a newspaper clipping without commenting.
Firstly I defer to the intelligence of the reader and the skill of the writer whose narration often exceeds mine thereby carrying far more authority. It doesn't mean I don't have an opinion on it. Rather it likely means that the article is fairly straight forward requiring little or no embellishment whatsoever.
Its like repainting a Mona Lisa. Another coating of paint is unnecessary.
If an article winds up in this blog it is very likely that I agree with the gist and focus of the work. Otherwise I probably would say something. In my blogging you will note that I work like an advocate placing information in front of a bench judge. The reader is the judge.
Also it sometimes is important to establish a context. In the instance of the blog about Mi Hyun Kim it was necessary to establish a context for the positioning of the article in this blog. Otherwise my erstwhile intelligent readership, despite their patently reknown skill at life would likely not put lady golfer, charity, into quite another category. "What's that old idiot geezer writing about now! A golfing chick he's got the hot's for. Horny old fool!"
In that case it was necessary to establish a foundation of why I place it into a blog. Anyhow back to the next bloggith.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Front page, the
Special gestures should take front stage. They should be noted. The single criticism of news media that carries weight is that the editors take note of the ugly and violent events. It sells news. They wish to blame the reader.
Too often occurrences that should be front page, are not. One story today emerged from being buried deep in the sports section by newspapers or if it was printed at all. This is only a lowly blog. There are other stories or comments that can be made but this story makes it to the front page of today's blog.
Why? You see Mi Hyun Kim is a golfer on the Ladies Professional Golf Association. And she is a very special person. Michele Wie gets a lot of undeserved attention for someone who has never won any tournament. While eight time winner Kim gets little.
The overpaid, self centred athletes of MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA get a lot of press focus. All front page entries. I mean Barry Bonds, or Vince Carter, or Pete Rose, or Floyd Landis get a whack of press if they blow their noses. They get upset if the story is printed, and likely some get upset if it isn't. If Bonds passes Aaron for the most home runs it will be reported on the front page (but never here).
Kim is one of the very few elite athletes that actually deserves attention and respect. Its a very small club. Clara Hughes, and Terry Fox remain the only other athletes worth this level of genuine respect. So the following is this blog's monthly front page story and comment.
**************
L P G A
Kim makes $100,000 donation to aid victims of Greensburg, Kan., tornado
Too often occurrences that should be front page, are not. One story today emerged from being buried deep in the sports section by newspapers or if it was printed at all. This is only a lowly blog. There are other stories or comments that can be made but this story makes it to the front page of today's blog.
Why? You see Mi Hyun Kim is a golfer on the Ladies Professional Golf Association. And she is a very special person. Michele Wie gets a lot of undeserved attention for someone who has never won any tournament. While eight time winner Kim gets little.
The overpaid, self centred athletes of MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA get a lot of press focus. All front page entries. I mean Barry Bonds, or Vince Carter, or Pete Rose, or Floyd Landis get a whack of press if they blow their noses. They get upset if the story is printed, and likely some get upset if it isn't. If Bonds passes Aaron for the most home runs it will be reported on the front page (but never here).
Kim is one of the very few elite athletes that actually deserves attention and respect. Its a very small club. Clara Hughes, and Terry Fox remain the only other athletes worth this level of genuine respect. So the following is this blog's monthly front page story and comment.
**************
L P G A
Kim makes $100,000 donation to aid victims of Greensburg, Kan., tornado
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., May 8, 2007 -- Mi Hyun Kim, an eight-time winner on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour and champion of last week’s SemGroup Championship Presented by John Q. Hammons in Broken Arrow, Okla., announced after her win that she will donate $100,000 of her winner’s paycheck ($210,000) to the United Way Greensburg Disaster Fund to aid the victims of the tornado that destroyed the Kansas town last weekend.
“I was just happy that I won the tournament,” said Kim. “Sunday and during the week, the tornados came out of the middle of nowhere. I felt like I needed to do something for them. Winning a tournament on its own was a good thing, but I just decided to donate some money.”
“We’ve already seen a tremendous outpouring of support for the residents of Greensburg and I know this very generous donation from Mi Hyun Kim is truly appreciated. The citizens of Greensburg have a tremendous spirit and are determined to rebuild their community. It is my honor to acknowledge this donation on their behalf,” said Governor Kathleen Sebelius today.
Kim, 30, is currently seventh on the 2007 LPGA Official Money List with $315,341 in season earnings. She moved into 10th all-time on the LPGA Official Career Earnings List with her victory at the SemGroup Championship last week. She has earned more than $6.5 million since joining the Tour in 1999.
“Honestly, I made a lot of money in the United States on the LPGA Tour,” said Kim. “Most of time, I get the money here and donate to South Korea. But, I want to help people here, too. The win was a surprise for me and I think God gave it to me like a special present or he is using me like, ‘okay, I give you this, but after that you give to help the people.’”
# # #
Comment: Thank you.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Cheeks
It was a tongue in Cheek comment unfortunately the Cheeks belong to a rear end television network. About two days ago a story about a new provincial tax on diamonds wound up on the firing line of this blog. I was encourage to contribute to the dialog in TVO comment site.
TVO is a provincially owned agency that operates a substandard television network chalked full of CBC wannabees, use to bees, and general quasi functional intelligentsia. Actually when I had cable if it weren't for the Saturday Night at the Movies I would be the first to ditch this media dinosaur. But the topic was this horrid tax.
Below is the text that I submitted to the TVO discussion website. To date it hasn't appeared. Open and frank discussions about Northern Ontario are not allowed. Why did Rob Woito trust these guys?
****************
For almost forty years I have been advocating the division of Northern Ontario from Southern Ontario. For that reason I actually hope this tax does go through. Something is needed to spur the movement to separation. And this tax will be it.
I take the contrary view. It will help.
There is no point in reiterating in this forum the spectacularly long list (southern ontario media insist on misusing the religious word litany) of grievances. All actions specifically directed to harm Northern Ontario. It goes from the Spring Bear Hunt, Softwood Lumber, Gun Registy, underfunding of schools, over taxation of Northern industries, provincial sales tax and more.
Now this wholly inappropriate mineral tax comes from the greedy minds of Queens Parks politicians. I mean it keeps getting longer every day but something like this is totally good. First its a sneaky tax. Second its specifically maliciously directed against Northern Ontario.
And like. Its not that any southerner really cares. I mean the mineral money goes to them.
So this tax makes the dream possible. Most Northern Ontario people are gentle loyal hard working and private people. They would prefer quiet isolation of a park than the fiery political environment necessary to achieve political self determination.
The separation of Northern Ontario will take place in major two stages. First, Northern Ontario must leave Ontario. Second Northern Ontario must convince Canada to recognize it as a full independent province within Canada. It requires the formation of an aggressive political party never seen before. And it doesn't matter whether or not the party is "officially" registered in Ontario or Canada.
As far as the mechanism of independence from the province it will be totally peaceful begun by a referendum enacted by the municipalities of Northern Ontario. I am a fan of Ghandi. A series of peaceful protests and substantially important commercial disruptions will occur. Caledonia will look like a tea party hosted by the Daughters of the Empire.
This should encourage a separation concession by Southern Ontario or face decades of economic and political disruption. If that unlikely event occurs I should also state I am also a devoted fan of Clausewitz.
And such a sequence of events cannot be accomplished without the greed and avarice of Southern Ontario. Every successful revolution really needs a trigger any silly little trigger will do. The American Revolution had a lowly tea tax. The French had cake. Vietnam welcomed the French colonial fleet into Haiphong. Any little thing.
So heck. I am really in favor of this tax. I say bring it on. Make my dream.
TVO is a provincially owned agency that operates a substandard television network chalked full of CBC wannabees, use to bees, and general quasi functional intelligentsia. Actually when I had cable if it weren't for the Saturday Night at the Movies I would be the first to ditch this media dinosaur. But the topic was this horrid tax.
Below is the text that I submitted to the TVO discussion website. To date it hasn't appeared. Open and frank discussions about Northern Ontario are not allowed. Why did Rob Woito trust these guys?
****************
For almost forty years I have been advocating the division of Northern Ontario from Southern Ontario. For that reason I actually hope this tax does go through. Something is needed to spur the movement to separation. And this tax will be it.
I take the contrary view. It will help.
There is no point in reiterating in this forum the spectacularly long list (southern ontario media insist on misusing the religious word litany) of grievances. All actions specifically directed to harm Northern Ontario. It goes from the Spring Bear Hunt, Softwood Lumber, Gun Registy, underfunding of schools, over taxation of Northern industries, provincial sales tax and more.
Now this wholly inappropriate mineral tax comes from the greedy minds of Queens Parks politicians. I mean it keeps getting longer every day but something like this is totally good. First its a sneaky tax. Second its specifically maliciously directed against Northern Ontario.
And like. Its not that any southerner really cares. I mean the mineral money goes to them.
So this tax makes the dream possible. Most Northern Ontario people are gentle loyal hard working and private people. They would prefer quiet isolation of a park than the fiery political environment necessary to achieve political self determination.
The separation of Northern Ontario will take place in major two stages. First, Northern Ontario must leave Ontario. Second Northern Ontario must convince Canada to recognize it as a full independent province within Canada. It requires the formation of an aggressive political party never seen before. And it doesn't matter whether or not the party is "officially" registered in Ontario or Canada.
As far as the mechanism of independence from the province it will be totally peaceful begun by a referendum enacted by the municipalities of Northern Ontario. I am a fan of Ghandi. A series of peaceful protests and substantially important commercial disruptions will occur. Caledonia will look like a tea party hosted by the Daughters of the Empire.
This should encourage a separation concession by Southern Ontario or face decades of economic and political disruption. If that unlikely event occurs I should also state I am also a devoted fan of Clausewitz.
And such a sequence of events cannot be accomplished without the greed and avarice of Southern Ontario. Every successful revolution really needs a trigger any silly little trigger will do. The American Revolution had a lowly tea tax. The French had cake. Vietnam welcomed the French colonial fleet into Haiphong. Any little thing.
So heck. I am really in favor of this tax. I say bring it on. Make my dream.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Can't resist. This is hilarious
Blog updates and notes
1. Environmental crisis - part IV is still in drafts. It will be published soon with a fifty percent chance by morning next Sunday. It really depends on the re-read. Its been three drafts to this point.
2. Belinda Stronach. If you mirror Belindas picture and change her hair color to a dark brunette, there is a distinct resemblance to Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.
3. Bill Gates. Some flamer using "the name" tried to sling one by. But unfortunately the information registered in the comments crossed the line to slander. This happens. He also claimed I didn't know copyright laws but didn't cite a single example of where I went wrong. I rather suspect he or she or both rather doesn't know them at all.
American copyright laws do not have the education exemption as of 1990, the last time I worked in journalism. It is one reason why the American education is so stupid. Common knowledge is copyrighted there. Canadian copyright laws work differently.
The major changes to Canadian copyright legislation in recent years involve electronic media and broadcasting... and graphic images aka photos. I cannot recall reading about any major changes to print copyright legislation. If you have anything actually uniquely intelligent to say, take another draft at it.
4. Radler is on the stand for day two. So far testimony has been as predicted. The bizarre thing is the persistent defense claim that Conrad Black didn't know about anything about it. Ya sure. Tens of millions show up in my bank account tax free, and I don't know anything about it? I don't think any jury member will believe that one.
5. Paris Hilton is off to jail. Apparently she claimed that she didn't realize that a suspended license also meant that she couldn't drive. One might suspect that there is a very remote possibility that Conrad may be her true father otherwise there might a definite genetic relationship. They seem to use the same legal excuse.
Hey! Maybe Paris will become a Canadian citizen too! Less jail time.
6. Several Toronto Police are up on corruption charges. They come from 14 division. They are alleged to have persistently run a referral service for the tow trucks. As yet the supervising authorities making these charges haven't come up with how the individual policemen benefited from such a relationship.
Last I looked a key component to making corruption charges stick in court was the amount of pay off and just what was the pay off. So these charges are just show. Any dimwitted defense lawyer can beat this set of charges from the information provided. Hell even a family court paralegal can beat these wraps.
The allegations so far published are really sketchy. And since this involves only one police precinct is this the only precinct? Read the story for yourself students. If you are not a student don't read this story.
2. Belinda Stronach. If you mirror Belindas picture and change her hair color to a dark brunette, there is a distinct resemblance to Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.
3. Bill Gates. Some flamer using "the name" tried to sling one by. But unfortunately the information registered in the comments crossed the line to slander. This happens. He also claimed I didn't know copyright laws but didn't cite a single example of where I went wrong. I rather suspect he or she or both rather doesn't know them at all.
American copyright laws do not have the education exemption as of 1990, the last time I worked in journalism. It is one reason why the American education is so stupid. Common knowledge is copyrighted there. Canadian copyright laws work differently.
The major changes to Canadian copyright legislation in recent years involve electronic media and broadcasting... and graphic images aka photos. I cannot recall reading about any major changes to print copyright legislation. If you have anything actually uniquely intelligent to say, take another draft at it.
4. Radler is on the stand for day two. So far testimony has been as predicted. The bizarre thing is the persistent defense claim that Conrad Black didn't know about anything about it. Ya sure. Tens of millions show up in my bank account tax free, and I don't know anything about it? I don't think any jury member will believe that one.
5. Paris Hilton is off to jail. Apparently she claimed that she didn't realize that a suspended license also meant that she couldn't drive. One might suspect that there is a very remote possibility that Conrad may be her true father otherwise there might a definite genetic relationship. They seem to use the same legal excuse.
Hey! Maybe Paris will become a Canadian citizen too! Less jail time.
6. Several Toronto Police are up on corruption charges. They come from 14 division. They are alleged to have persistently run a referral service for the tow trucks. As yet the supervising authorities making these charges haven't come up with how the individual policemen benefited from such a relationship.
Last I looked a key component to making corruption charges stick in court was the amount of pay off and just what was the pay off. So these charges are just show. Any dimwitted defense lawyer can beat this set of charges from the information provided. Hell even a family court paralegal can beat these wraps.
The allegations so far published are really sketchy. And since this involves only one police precinct is this the only precinct? Read the story for yourself students. If you are not a student don't read this story.
Officers misled motorists, police allege
Use of towing firms called into question
Four police officers are accused of forcing drivers of crashed and disabled automobiles into using certain tow-truck operators, according to internal discipline documents released yesterday.
The accusations involve 100 crashed cars that were whisked away by tow-truck drivers without owner permission, all of them in west-end 14 Division between January, 2005, and the summer of 2006.
In some cases, damaged vehicles were towed from accident scenes on an officer's order, even when the owner wanted to use a different towing company, according to the notices of hearings concerning the internal Police Act charges that were made available to reporters yesterday.
Dozens of vehicles were wrongly deemed unsafe and unnecessarily towed, the notices of hearings allege. At one accident scene, a woman who disagreed with an officer's assessment that her car had a bent frame and should be immediately towed was threatened with charges, it is alleged.
Toronto Police Constables Shawn Howard, Christopher Lee, Douglas Schouten and Joseph Labelle, all of 14 Division uniform patrol, collectively face 40 Police Act misconduct charges. None of the allegations have been tested in court.
There is no indication that the allegations are in any way linked, and the 40 charges give only a few details about the alleged tow violations. No motive is stated, nor suggested.
No tow-truck company is named in the notices of hearing.
The majority of incidents described in the documents stem from about 90 road accidents involving almost 100 drivers on streets like Dundas Street West, Bloor Street West, Dufferin Street, Lansdowne Avenue and Ossington Avenue.
Police procedure states that in the event of an accident, either the driver or the vehicle owner can choose the tow-truck company.
If the vehicle cannot be driven or cannot be safely removed from the road, or when the owner's tow choice cannot attend within a reasonable time, police officers - provided they have the driver or owner's permission - can call on a list of approved tow-truck companies.
Howard Moscoe, chairman of Toronto licensing and standards committee, declined to comment about the internal charges yesterday. "But I will say that the tow-truck drivers in this city make most of their money making illegal deliveries for garages ... and they will do anything to get the vehicle to their preferred garage," he said. "Some of them are extremely inventive. I would not be surprised to know they use some of their influence on police officers to direct tows."
The allegations came to light last week when the charges were mentioned at the police tribunal in front of reporters who were there to observe an unrelated case.
Mike Abbott, director of uniform services for the Toronto Police Association, was there on behalf of the absent officers and waived a reading of the charges on that day, as the matter was put over until next month.
Reporters requested the Police Act notices of hearing, and after a four-day wait they got the documents yesterday.
Constable Lee faces 14 charges, two of which refer to allegations from 34 different accident scenes on major west-end streets. The notice of hearing alleges Constable Lee "arranged or directed" the towing of vehicles "without the direction, or contrary to the direction of the owner or driver."
Constable Howard is alleged to have directed the towing of 17 crash vehicles and "misinformed" 10 other people that their vehicles were "unsafe to drive and required towing" when it was not necessary.
Constable Schouten allegedly directed nine cars to tow trucks and directed two other vehicles to a non-contract pound.
Constable Labelle allegedly directed five vehicles to be towed and two vehicles to be unnecessarily towed.
The notice of hearing also alleges that in an accident between a civilian and a tow-truck driver, Constable Labelle verbally "chastised" a woman who complained that the tow-truck driver had refused to give her any licence information.
"You shouted at Ms. D.T. and chastised her for calling the police. You asked Ms. D.T. if she was aware that that police had better things to do than attend such a minor call," the charge alleges.
Toronto Police Service spokesman Mark Pugash declined to comment on the charges yesterday, saying it would be "improper" to discuss any case before the tribunal.
- Globe and Mail, today...Monday, May 07, 2007
A Surprise
Oh here's a surprise. Now its I told you so time. Almost forty years ago, before it was fashionable, I was urging Northern Ontario to aggressively separate from the hideous leeches of Queen's Park.
While you read this article from today's Star and if you are a Northern Ontario resident, remember this crap next time. And realize that not a single farthing, or penny collected from any tax like this will go back into Northern Ontario, it all go into things improving the government limousine service in Toronto or a thirty pay increase for southern a$$hole politicians.
Conclusion. This is an I told you so article. Its time for a Northern Ontario Party specifically representing Northern Ontario and working feverishly for a new province or completely separate country if Ottawa proves equally ignorant to the long ignored Northern Ontario. Its time to leave.
* The following article is sourced from that money pig, Liberal loving, Northern Ontario hating newspaper the Star ...today's issue. Its purpose is solely intended for the education of the many students that read this blog and not for commercial purposes.
**************
Canadian Press
While you read this article from today's Star and if you are a Northern Ontario resident, remember this crap next time. And realize that not a single farthing, or penny collected from any tax like this will go back into Northern Ontario, it all go into things improving the government limousine service in Toronto or a thirty pay increase for southern a$$hole politicians.
Conclusion. This is an I told you so article. Its time for a Northern Ontario Party specifically representing Northern Ontario and working feverishly for a new province or completely separate country if Ottawa proves equally ignorant to the long ignored Northern Ontario. Its time to leave.
* The following article is sourced from that money pig, Liberal loving, Northern Ontario hating newspaper the Star ...today's issue. Its purpose is solely intended for the education of the many students that read this blog and not for commercial purposes.
**************
Diamond tax dooms investment, northerners say
May 06, 2007
Chinta PuxleyCanadian Press
A paragraph buried deep in the Ontario budget is crushing burgeoning optimism that northerners will see a renewed mining boom fuelled by exploration for diamonds, nickel and other mineral deposits.
The province's first diamond mine is one year away from starting production, but that didn't stop the governing Liberals from quietly introducing a new tax of up to 13 per cent on any diamonds mined in Ontario in their March budget.
To many in the province's north, that paragraph in the stack of budget papers – which came as a surprise to northerners and the mining industry alike – represents a grave threat to hope that's been building in remote communities.
Many say the tax is a signal to prospective investors and exploration companies that Ontario is prepared to single out any mineral and slap on a royalty before any mine even begins operation.
"Are they trying to kill the north?" asked Wayne Taipale, mayor of Moosonee, Ont., just south of James Bay. "What are they trying to do? Stop the development? Right now, we really need it. With the timber industry dying, there are no jobs."
Hope has been scarce as well, Taipale said. Young people don't see the point in going to university or college since they are just going to drive a cab or work behind the counter in a local store, he said.
The De Beers Victor diamond mine in nearby Attawapiskat changed all that, he said. The diamond giant is spending $1 billion to build the mine, employing many local people in the process and creating 400 local jobs, he said.
"I've been here for 49 years in Moosonee, I've never seen work like that," Taipale said. "We're all feeling the same way. We're very uncertain now what's going to happen here. This just feels like someone has put nails in the coffin for the north."
The tax isn't enough to stop the Victor project, but Timmins Mayor Tom Laughren said it's enough to deter other potential investors. It's a short-sighted tax grab given just one more $1-billion diamond mine would inject more into provincial coffers than this tax, he added.
"There is a lot of exploration going on in the north, specifically for diamonds," Laughren said. "My fear is it may trigger people to look elsewhere just because the tax regime will be uncertain."
That's a distinct possibility, said PriceWaterhouseCoopers mining tax expert John Gravelle. Exploration companies look for stable tax regimes – something Canada and Ontario has always offered, he said.
"This makes Ontario look less stable given that it has increased its tax quite substantially – two-and-a-half to three times higher," Gravelle said, adding companies also look for a fair application of taxes.
"There is no real reason why diamonds should be taxed any differently than other metals such as gold and nickel."
Opposition Leader John Tory vowed to roll back the tax, if he is elected premier in October, on a recent trip up north.
But Finance Minister Greg Sorbara said there are several good reasons behind the tax. Ontario is simply following the lead of the Northwest Territories, which has a similar tax rate, he said.
"We have to remember that the diamonds that are going to be extracted belong to the people of Ontario and we have to make sure that there is a fair return for the people of Ontario," Sorbara said in an interview.
To suggest that having a "single and similar royalty rate for the diamond extraction industry" will scare away other investment in the north is just "fear-mongering," Sorbara said.
Singling out any other Ontario metal or mineral is "simply not in the cards," he added.
Tory said it's not surprising that other companies would lose faith in the government's word given that the Liberals hiked diamond taxes less than a year after Premier Dalton McGuinty welcomed De Beers with open arms at their ground-breaking.
"To have that very same government turn around and just shaft these people and do a tax grab in the middle of the night, I think is inexcusable," Tory said. "It sends all the wrong signals . . . to every industry."
The province should roll back the tax before sitting down with people in the mining industry to set a fair standard going forward, said Tory.
The company that inspired the tax in the first place said it doesn't expect the government to change its mind now.
The best De Beers can hope for now is a "tax holiday," which would give the mine a chance to get up and running, said De Beers spokesperson Linda Dorrington. The mine represents a sliver of Ontario's overall mineral production value, she added.
"We feel that they've not really thought this royalty through," she said. "For a small amount of income coming into the government treasury, they're creating a very big negative effect."
Sunday, May 06, 2007
MSN and the "Street"
Stock market analysts are wetting their pants. The prospect of Micrsoft and Yahoo merging is driving little dreams of all those wonderful commissions they are going to get. That is if the merger goes through.
And reports are totally conflicting. One report says they are talking others say they are not. Is MSN contemplating hiring JP Ricciardi for this job?
"The Street" forgot one thing. The users of Yahoo. I use Yahoo because I detest Microsoft's (MSN) online product with its overwhelming unfriendly memory gobbling internet slowing software. I am not alone.
Stock market analysts love this sort of thing. They go 5+5=10. So wrong. They forgot Yahoo's clients.
"The Street" probably should do more research because obviously their analysts do not get this. Anywhere from half to as much as eighty percent of Yahoo's present customers will move away from Yahoo most likely to Google.
Gates is getting hypoxia from to many high flights in the biz jet. Ever since he semi-retired to bath in the milk of his wealth his company has been wallowing in technical farce.
If MSN wishes to improve its market share then it has to clean up its user pages, remove 50% of the ads per page and get fundamental. Another hint, restore the adult sites that MSN arbitrarily removed last year. Without much notice MSN in a fit of
Indeed a couple of years ago Yahoo decided to get a new aggressive CEO. Well guess what. All those nitty plans didn't work out. Religious people complain about adult group sites only because they are under the idiotic belief that if a person isn't looking at porn they will click over to their website to be saved.
The level of advertising on Yahoo is also increasing especially on its Messenger software. About two years ago it closed in on thousands of adult oriented group sites. Then they have the temerity to complain about loss of business. It too is getting ad heavy.
Google gained that business that Yahoo, and MSN abused. There is a fine line between being concerned with extreme porn sites and complete prudishness. In today's world the top five internet activities are Porn, Music, Photos, Blogging and Chats. MSN and Yahoo abused their users in most of those activities in the last two years.
Google succeeds because their software works cleanly and appears more unobtrusive in every single category. That does more for their success than anything.
The MSN and Yahoo merger looks good on paper. But in rl (real life) its going to be the biggest waste of 50Billion in the internet planet's short history.
And reports are totally conflicting. One report says they are talking others say they are not. Is MSN contemplating hiring JP Ricciardi for this job?
"The Street" forgot one thing. The users of Yahoo. I use Yahoo because I detest Microsoft's (MSN) online product with its overwhelming unfriendly memory gobbling internet slowing software. I am not alone.
Stock market analysts love this sort of thing. They go 5+5=10. So wrong. They forgot Yahoo's clients.
"The Street" probably should do more research because obviously their analysts do not get this. Anywhere from half to as much as eighty percent of Yahoo's present customers will move away from Yahoo most likely to Google.
Gates is getting hypoxia from to many high flights in the biz jet. Ever since he semi-retired to bath in the milk of his wealth his company has been wallowing in technical farce.
If MSN wishes to improve its market share then it has to clean up its user pages, remove 50% of the ads per page and get fundamental. Another hint, restore the adult sites that MSN arbitrarily removed last year. Without much notice MSN in a fit of
Indeed a couple of years ago Yahoo decided to get a new aggressive CEO. Well guess what. All those nitty plans didn't work out. Religious people complain about adult group sites only because they are under the idiotic belief that if a person isn't looking at porn they will click over to their website to be saved.
The level of advertising on Yahoo is also increasing especially on its Messenger software. About two years ago it closed in on thousands of adult oriented group sites. Then they have the temerity to complain about loss of business. It too is getting ad heavy.
Google gained that business that Yahoo, and MSN abused. There is a fine line between being concerned with extreme porn sites and complete prudishness. In today's world the top five internet activities are Porn, Music, Photos, Blogging and Chats. MSN and Yahoo abused their users in most of those activities in the last two years.
Google succeeds because their software works cleanly and appears more unobtrusive in every single category. That does more for their success than anything.
The MSN and Yahoo merger looks good on paper. But in rl (real life) its going to be the biggest waste of 50Billion in the internet planet's short history.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Woe the Modern Philosopher
Woe the modern philosopher
Unemployed by society
Once the choice of babe groupies
Now the ghost of empty rooms
Lost loves in confusion
Romance gravely slow
Stuck in moral piety
The frustration of the real goal
Wanting to learn how the Universe works
Now that I know it
Only to find that no one wants to know...
They got Black Berry's.
© All rights reserved, Toronto 2007
Unemployed by society
Once the choice of babe groupies
Now the ghost of empty rooms
Lost loves in confusion
Romance gravely slow
Stuck in moral piety
The frustration of the real goal
Wanting to learn how the Universe works
Now that I know it
Only to find that no one wants to know...
They got Black Berry's.
© All rights reserved, Toronto 2007
Microshopht decides to buy Eiawhooo
A break from saving the planet.
Tis really big. Well the reason I state that the proposed stupid idea of Mykroschopht buying Yaywhore is actually close to reality is because where I first heard it. I heard it, a full minute report, on a media station which didn't report the Virginia Tech Massacre until it was six hours old and then only one line of script. Yes I heard it over the all sports station theFAN 590.
This is BIG. OH very BIG.
****************
And here is the stupid thing about the deal. People who use Yaywhore positively, absolutely and to the grave, detest Mykroschopht and the Bush loving swinging gates. It only means that most of these alienated customers migrate to join Goooogull. So the winner of the merger will only help the last named company. When the purchase is made it is Gooooooogull that will win the bulk of those clients.
I don't think any government will interfere since such a transaction will mean the disruption of so many liberal types. Its a done deal. Except if the people at Mykroschopht realize that this is a monumental brain fart and a complete waste of an enormous amount of cash.
In one way I hope this deal does enter the next phase. I wanted an answer to whether any executive is really all that stupid. We are about to witness such an event.
Tis really big. Well the reason I state that the proposed stupid idea of Mykroschopht buying Yaywhore is actually close to reality is because where I first heard it. I heard it, a full minute report, on a media station which didn't report the Virginia Tech Massacre until it was six hours old and then only one line of script. Yes I heard it over the all sports station theFAN 590.
This is BIG. OH very BIG.
****************
And here is the stupid thing about the deal. People who use Yaywhore positively, absolutely and to the grave, detest Mykroschopht and the Bush loving swinging gates. It only means that most of these alienated customers migrate to join Goooogull. So the winner of the merger will only help the last named company. When the purchase is made it is Gooooooogull that will win the bulk of those clients.
I don't think any government will interfere since such a transaction will mean the disruption of so many liberal types. Its a done deal. Except if the people at Mykroschopht realize that this is a monumental brain fart and a complete waste of an enormous amount of cash.
In one way I hope this deal does enter the next phase. I wanted an answer to whether any executive is really all that stupid. We are about to witness such an event.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Environmental crisis - part 3 - The Real Impact
Impact... Interesting word striking an effort. In the last two blog entries of this series we began exploring the crisis. This week Al Gore stated that the present environmental planning of the Conservative minority government regarding global warming was a fraud.
Certainly John Baird walks the fine line of appearing like a tiger regarding the environment while protecting his investment portfolio and his network of staggering rich buddies. The Conservative led minority government certainly appears new to the environment game. And a game it is.
Flying
Impact of flying. You see. Al Gore is flying around Canada. So is John Baird. A single traveler would cause less environmental damage by driving from city to city than to fly the distance. Also note that the great David Suzuki also flies around Canada trying to stop Global Warming.
Modern communication technology and modern architecture has eliminated the need for airplane travel. Business men do not have to travel from city to city. They can Conference Call by phone. With cameras over the internet a large group meeting can take place. And so on.
Choices. What if you said to a Chief Executive of any company who wants to fly to a branch plant a thousand miles away that he was only allowed to go by ground in a car or train, one can bet that there would be a phone call or internet chat as the alternative. Anyone should realize the majority of all airplane trips are unnecessary.
Driving
Much the same ratio applies to cars. If the gas prices are high people finally start asking whether or not this particular trip to the local corner store is really unnecessary if one finds that the car broke down and the short journey must be on foot.
One of the greatest ironies of modern North American or European existence is the use of a car to drive only a couple of miles to allow a person to go exercise at a gym or park. Long known is that a good long walk of any speed is the best possible exercise.
Indeed, every country could easily meet most of if not all Kyoto targets by restricting all unnecessary trips. I heard once an accurate assessment. It isn't the car that pollutes. It is the driver.
The Real Impact
One doesn't have to go too far to understand the real impact of global warming. The modern evaluations of the impact of Global Warming to paint the environment with a latex like coating of palatability. What is being expounded in most media is actually the best case scenario.
What is patently obvious and totally understandable is that the environmental wizbangers are just as guilty of understating the environmental impact of carbon fueled motive systems. People complain about polluting cars but not about the polluting jet aircraft that will wing them to a tropical winter vacation. So a large measure of self interest pervades the detail of the real problem.
The direction of Global Warming is far quicker than even the Kyoto Treaty solution. Kyoto was a comprimise solution. Anyone who actually studies this problem and is cursed with an embedded amalgam of honesty realizes that none of this will work. The Kyoto solution only slows the problem not reverses the direction of the gasification of the Terran biosphere.
Pretty snazzy words huh. But they are meant to convey a muted image of the real scenario by the use of techie bureau words.
The truth. The impact of Global Warming. In plain language.
100% certainty
Dislocation of large numbers of humans. And why?
About one hundred metres rise of sea levels in one hundred years globally. That is one metre or three feet per year on average.
All of Holland. Most of Denmark. Guyana. Vietnam (Mekong), Bangla Desh. Friesland in Deutshland. The Amazon basin. Prince Edward Island. A lot of Maritime Canada. New York. All of Manhattan. Any city in less than 80 metres ASL all gone.
One fifth of all humans rich or poor, regardless of race, on this planet will be displaced if our present lifestyle doesn't change. And they will all move to high ground.
Most of the coral islands in the Caribbean and Pacific. And every single major estuary under water. And this includes Canada.
Small minds surrounding John Baird give poor advice. They paint a rather sketchy sketch. What they are not telling anyone is that the rise in water will move the Atlantic up the St. Lawrence all the way up to Toronto. The new beach of a saline Lake Ontario will lap at King and Bay streets.
Grenadier Pond will have to be renamed Grenadier Bay. The recently renamed Skydome to Rogers Centre will get another name change to Rogers Marina. The ACC will have a new sport... water polo. Ontario Place will become Ontario Reef. And the suggestion about replacing the Gardiner, no problem it will be a causeway. And Captain John's floating restaurant will be wharved at the Royal York.
All those fancy homes on Toronto Island gone. Toronto Island Airport gone. Under 80 feet of salty water. Half of Hamilton all of downtown gone, okay so not all is that bad. All of Kingston, Belleville, Coburg. Fifty percent of Montreal... gone. Blub blub.
Its easy to figure out. Lake Ontario is listed about 230'ASL on the flight charts. Thats one hundred feet too low. Get one of those topological maps and draw a line around the 350' level. That's the new beach.
On the west coast. All of Victoria, Nanaimo. Port Alberni most of Vancouver, Richmond, Surrey, Port Moody, Port Coquitlam, gone. Oh all the west coast cities including Hope, Prince Rupert. Blub blub.
And here is the real irony 70' feet of water weighs a lot. So that not only will there be flooding but the extra weight of water on that part of the earth's crust will cause that area to sink further. So in two hundred years that high water mark could be as much as 380' and sinking annually.
Niagara Falls will fall directly into this new saline estuary. Its simple take a look at the altitudes. Remember anything under about 100 meters or 330' ASL will be under water if all the planets ice melts. And there is no diking system build that will cope with all the damage.
Now the John Baird, the MacKenzie Institute, and the Harper Conservatives whine about the cost of Canada's participation without giving the gigantic relocation costs if we do nothing. These alleged business people fail to extend the total cost profile regarding global warming.
Worst of all most of the globally dislocated peoples will look around for High Ground. And these are genuine refugees will move to that high ground. Canada will be forced to accept these refugees or face war.
80% Certainty
And don't Global Warming doesn't work. Not all the planet will get warmer. The Ocean currents are certain to either change or disappear. But this change is still unpredictable so we put it into the lower certainty.
It is likely that Norway, Sweden, Finland, Britain... Oh hell. All of Europe. All will get colder, much colder approaching. Iceland will truly be a land of Ice.
A Bowl of Cornflakes
If the Arctic and Antarctic Ice Caps disappear it means that the cold southerly flow of cold water will change and the Gulf Stream will certainly change course if not disappear altogether. It will make for a change of climate in Greece from the present balmy climate to the equivalent to that found in present day Hay River or Thunder Bay. So much for that years olive crop. France will have to learn to make Ice wine or Bourjelais de Ka Ka. The entire agricultural capacity of Europe will disappear including that of the Russian and Ukraine Steppes.
For the sake of brevity, I will not go into the huge damage to the natural environment. Hundreds of species will become extinct or to perilously low population levels. Vegetation will need time to adjust to the new climates. Huge tracts of agricultural land will become non-arable. Human starvation on a massive uncontrollable scale will occur.
These forecasts are accurate. They come from forty years of study, observation and impersonal discussion. I just want to impress on the reader the real face of Global Warming. It is poorly named. It should be called Global Heating. This is the face, the real face of the crisis. It isn't like a Love Canal or the Chernobyl disaster. Those were local issues, serious issues yes but still a localized problems. Humans and governments can cope with those issues.
This effects the planet's atmosphere. The improper and careless use of carbon fuels effects all the planet because the atmosphere blankets the entire planet not just part of it. It effects everyone. It effects future generations of humans and all life on this planet. We are pissing on a bowl of our own cornflakes.
Certainly John Baird walks the fine line of appearing like a tiger regarding the environment while protecting his investment portfolio and his network of staggering rich buddies. The Conservative led minority government certainly appears new to the environment game. And a game it is.
Flying
Impact of flying. You see. Al Gore is flying around Canada. So is John Baird. A single traveler would cause less environmental damage by driving from city to city than to fly the distance. Also note that the great David Suzuki also flies around Canada trying to stop Global Warming.
Modern communication technology and modern architecture has eliminated the need for airplane travel. Business men do not have to travel from city to city. They can Conference Call by phone. With cameras over the internet a large group meeting can take place. And so on.
Choices. What if you said to a Chief Executive of any company who wants to fly to a branch plant a thousand miles away that he was only allowed to go by ground in a car or train, one can bet that there would be a phone call or internet chat as the alternative. Anyone should realize the majority of all airplane trips are unnecessary.
Driving
Much the same ratio applies to cars. If the gas prices are high people finally start asking whether or not this particular trip to the local corner store is really unnecessary if one finds that the car broke down and the short journey must be on foot.
One of the greatest ironies of modern North American or European existence is the use of a car to drive only a couple of miles to allow a person to go exercise at a gym or park. Long known is that a good long walk of any speed is the best possible exercise.
Indeed, every country could easily meet most of if not all Kyoto targets by restricting all unnecessary trips. I heard once an accurate assessment. It isn't the car that pollutes. It is the driver.
The Real Impact
One doesn't have to go too far to understand the real impact of global warming. The modern evaluations of the impact of Global Warming to paint the environment with a latex like coating of palatability. What is being expounded in most media is actually the best case scenario.
What is patently obvious and totally understandable is that the environmental wizbangers are just as guilty of understating the environmental impact of carbon fueled motive systems. People complain about polluting cars but not about the polluting jet aircraft that will wing them to a tropical winter vacation. So a large measure of self interest pervades the detail of the real problem.
The direction of Global Warming is far quicker than even the Kyoto Treaty solution. Kyoto was a comprimise solution. Anyone who actually studies this problem and is cursed with an embedded amalgam of honesty realizes that none of this will work. The Kyoto solution only slows the problem not reverses the direction of the gasification of the Terran biosphere.
Pretty snazzy words huh. But they are meant to convey a muted image of the real scenario by the use of techie bureau words.
The truth. The impact of Global Warming. In plain language.
100% certainty
Dislocation of large numbers of humans. And why?
About one hundred metres rise of sea levels in one hundred years globally. That is one metre or three feet per year on average.
All of Holland. Most of Denmark. Guyana. Vietnam (Mekong), Bangla Desh. Friesland in Deutshland. The Amazon basin. Prince Edward Island. A lot of Maritime Canada. New York. All of Manhattan. Any city in less than 80 metres ASL all gone.
One fifth of all humans rich or poor, regardless of race, on this planet will be displaced if our present lifestyle doesn't change. And they will all move to high ground.
Most of the coral islands in the Caribbean and Pacific. And every single major estuary under water. And this includes Canada.
Small minds surrounding John Baird give poor advice. They paint a rather sketchy sketch. What they are not telling anyone is that the rise in water will move the Atlantic up the St. Lawrence all the way up to Toronto. The new beach of a saline Lake Ontario will lap at King and Bay streets.
Grenadier Pond will have to be renamed Grenadier Bay. The recently renamed Skydome to Rogers Centre will get another name change to Rogers Marina. The ACC will have a new sport... water polo. Ontario Place will become Ontario Reef. And the suggestion about replacing the Gardiner, no problem it will be a causeway. And Captain John's floating restaurant will be wharved at the Royal York.
All those fancy homes on Toronto Island gone. Toronto Island Airport gone. Under 80 feet of salty water. Half of Hamilton all of downtown gone, okay so not all is that bad. All of Kingston, Belleville, Coburg. Fifty percent of Montreal... gone. Blub blub.
Its easy to figure out. Lake Ontario is listed about 230'ASL on the flight charts. Thats one hundred feet too low. Get one of those topological maps and draw a line around the 350' level. That's the new beach.
On the west coast. All of Victoria, Nanaimo. Port Alberni most of Vancouver, Richmond, Surrey, Port Moody, Port Coquitlam, gone. Oh all the west coast cities including Hope, Prince Rupert. Blub blub.
And here is the real irony 70' feet of water weighs a lot. So that not only will there be flooding but the extra weight of water on that part of the earth's crust will cause that area to sink further. So in two hundred years that high water mark could be as much as 380' and sinking annually.
Niagara Falls will fall directly into this new saline estuary. Its simple take a look at the altitudes. Remember anything under about 100 meters or 330' ASL will be under water if all the planets ice melts. And there is no diking system build that will cope with all the damage.
Now the John Baird, the MacKenzie Institute, and the Harper Conservatives whine about the cost of Canada's participation without giving the gigantic relocation costs if we do nothing. These alleged business people fail to extend the total cost profile regarding global warming.
Worst of all most of the globally dislocated peoples will look around for High Ground. And these are genuine refugees will move to that high ground. Canada will be forced to accept these refugees or face war.
80% Certainty
And don't Global Warming doesn't work. Not all the planet will get warmer. The Ocean currents are certain to either change or disappear. But this change is still unpredictable so we put it into the lower certainty.
It is likely that Norway, Sweden, Finland, Britain... Oh hell. All of Europe. All will get colder, much colder approaching. Iceland will truly be a land of Ice.
A Bowl of Cornflakes
If the Arctic and Antarctic Ice Caps disappear it means that the cold southerly flow of cold water will change and the Gulf Stream will certainly change course if not disappear altogether. It will make for a change of climate in Greece from the present balmy climate to the equivalent to that found in present day Hay River or Thunder Bay. So much for that years olive crop. France will have to learn to make Ice wine or Bourjelais de Ka Ka. The entire agricultural capacity of Europe will disappear including that of the Russian and Ukraine Steppes.
For the sake of brevity, I will not go into the huge damage to the natural environment. Hundreds of species will become extinct or to perilously low population levels. Vegetation will need time to adjust to the new climates. Huge tracts of agricultural land will become non-arable. Human starvation on a massive uncontrollable scale will occur.
These forecasts are accurate. They come from forty years of study, observation and impersonal discussion. I just want to impress on the reader the real face of Global Warming. It is poorly named. It should be called Global Heating. This is the face, the real face of the crisis. It isn't like a Love Canal or the Chernobyl disaster. Those were local issues, serious issues yes but still a localized problems. Humans and governments can cope with those issues.
This effects the planet's atmosphere. The improper and careless use of carbon fuels effects all the planet because the atmosphere blankets the entire planet not just part of it. It effects everyone. It effects future generations of humans and all life on this planet. We are pissing on a bowl of our own cornflakes.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Rejecting Anonymous Comments from goofball Green Party lurkers
For the first time in my life I exercised extremely reluctantly the tool of censorship. I received a slanderous and salacious comments from some total goof about other people who were prominent in the Green Party and in due course calling them fascists. Better to have a fascist than a cowardly gossipy sneak. To make matters worse this person, obviously a Green Party insider lurks looking for blogs stupid enough to publish their libelous statements.
This "coward" begged for anonymous status. I don't mind publishing anonymous comments so long as they are not slanderous or libelous and carry factual foundation to support or constructively criticize. The only statement which wasn't a libel insisted Elizabeth May was democratic.
Maybe this spamming coward doesn't really understand. I never meant to imply that she wasn't. That would have been an interpretation that could only made by a complete dyslexic too stupid to correctly read clear text. I meant to define her as a complete political idiot not fit to lead a national political party whose clear mission is to save the planet. And there are facts backing this up.
1. She is running against Peter MacKay. Of all the ridings in Canada that is the worst riding to pick. In the last sixty years only once has the Conservatives failed to hold that riding. Not only that MacKay is extremely popular in that riding. She is doomed to failure.
The Liberal support in that riding will not move to her instead it is more likely to move to their favorite son. Since Belinda betrayed him to shine in the Liberal light, any shake up in the demographic will favour his ass.
This is politics 101. Free fucking advice from a political expert here. No charge. A kindergarten kid could get the concept that in order to build a door ...you don't bang your head against a concrete wall.
2. "May" committed the ultimate failure of any political movement. She set back the Green Party grievously. By agreeing to anything with the Liberals publicly, by making this agreement with she handed the Liberals the principle foundational plank of the Green Party.
She allegedly commented that Dion is Green. Last I looked in his short tenure as Environment Minister, Dion did absolutely nothing. That is N. O. T. H. I. N. G.
Okay, lets suppose then, and she does defeat MacKay. She pulled the electoral platform feet out from every other Green in every other riding in the country for completely selfish egocentric reasons. Voters are not complicated people. Their major concern is self interest. They'll go for anyone who will lower taxes regardless of whether it causes bad government.
Here is the choice she left her constituency. Do I vote for a Green Party candidate, whose leader is so stupid to actually believe, that she can beat Peter MacKay. Do I vote for a Liberal who is running on the same environmental issues supported by the Green Party Leader, will be more likely to get to form the next government, who can then get me government grants for my gay child's dance performance. Or, do I vote for a Green Party candidate who won't form the government, who won't be able to enable green legislation based on the party platform, who won't be able to get me a grant for my gay child's dance performance.
Now who will these voter's choose. A enchilida or a single chili pepper. Isn't anyone in that Green Party capable of simple political concepts?
The riding May should've run in, Toronto Centre, was open with a dynamic voting pattern. That is why Bob Rae picked the riding its open to anyone phony lefties. Graham the puff adder, held the riding and did absolutely nothing for the constituents... and worse they didn't even mind.
The present perspective candidate in that riding for the Green Party, acts more like a goofy teenager than an a smart political animal. At one time ,I was actually interested in joining the Green Party, if only to stop Bob Rae's coronation.
Here's why stupidity gets contagious. So looking at this idiot's website, I saw an event where I could go and meet the person, press the flesh. I've done political work as a campaign management consultant for almost forty years. My political apprenticeship in practical politics was with the same campaign manager, Clem Downey of Nipigon, the guy who engineered the defeat of the most powerful Liberal in the country at that time, CD Howe.
People forget but CD Howe was big, big and he got dumped by an NDP guy. Such an upset would have been the same as hypothetically as Elizabeth May actually dumping Peter MacKay without Liberal help. Over the years I worked as a worker, advisor, driver, scrutineer, floor captain, rabble rouser, and manager on several campaigns until the normal middle age disillusionment with politics came into the fray. In short, I do know of what I speak.
I am an ad hoc member of Hoof & Cycle which is an ad hoc group which advocates on issues regarding active (human powered) transportation. We ad hoc a lot. Big. Really big on environment and practical not theoretical solutions. And the fearless ad hoc leader of our small but effluential ad hoc group, Wayne Scott was on the panel. Be there. Be square. Do a little ad hoc. Hoc. Hoc. Hoc.
So this Green Candidate, who shall remain nameless, because at this point I expect an apology for this person's simple minded behaviour from said person, listed in the "Calendar of Events." a panel discussion hosted by "Now" magazine which took place a couple of weeks ago. The topic was Bicycling and its perceived decline. To emphasize, I repeat, it was listed in the Green Party website. Not only that. The event occurred in his riding. Now Magazine's HQ and café is on Church south of Dundas East, and right inside the boundaries of Toronto Centre.
Hey I went. To be honest, most of these people are not in my demographic partying group. And they are stuck in bike lanes and most of them are jocks. Which isn't bad. Not at all. They are very good conscientious citizens. At least they cared enough to show up, unlike you know who. On the panel was the usual suspects in the Bicycle advocacy and the newly vetted TTC Chairman Adam Giambrone.
The hostess for this environment event, the co-founding CEO of Now Magazine, the beautiful Alice Klein, who is the most energetic environmentalists in the city. This was a not only the usual Toronto bitching-o-rama this was like a social environmental love-in. An ashram of purity and future light. This was the sunshine at midnight.
Not a demographic exactly in my personal comfort zone, but certainly it should be a must do for the Green Party. I mingled. Oh yes I did. Shook hands. Giggled at bad jokes. Grinned at boorish observations. Nodded at the inane environmental comments by urbanites who know squat about nature. Searching, searching. Screwing up the courage. Grinning like a lost child. I mingled.
The Green Party guy. The guy who has the most to lose in the next election Didn't bother to show up. Categorically no political reason for the Green Party to not be there even with a substitute. This was the guys Green demographic. This was the place to rally support. To press the flesh. To cash in on the moment. Get the momentum going. Garner support from those most likely to show up at the campaign rallies and campaign headquarter. I really looked hard.
Hey I am not going to give out free advice here. No way. I need the money. I know what I would be doing if I were the Green candidate. I be like behaving like there was no tomorrow. The race in this riding is open. Ripe for picking. Best chance to get into the House and shout insults at the Prime Minister. Best place to really go for the big bone. Got the right issue. Got the best alternative. I know what I would have done were I the candidate.
Also I know what I would have said if I were the campaign manager in the riding. Oh trust me. Tis would be a lesson. It would be a three... no a four hour fucking lecture with all the salient points and political examples extending back to Brutus's famous excuse... "Gee I didn't know that the knife was loaded!"
The guy didn't show. No one from the party stepped forward. It was on his website. Am I bitter about having to spend a half hour of time trying to ferret out the presence of this political movement? Did I feel bitter about having to pass up the free food service at the post game social reception to smile and ask people about people who should have been there? Am I bitter? Am I pissed?
I even went up to a scrawny look alike. I had too. There was a remote resemblance to the Green Party Candidate. Yes. At a function where I could have connected for employment. At a function where I could have scored a babe in my age category. You know what I was doing...? Oh yeah. Asking really stupid questions.
Oh ya a lot of fun going up to people. Are you ______? or Do you belong to the _____ Party? No? Hey what a fun time!!!.
Conclusion. I could not select the right name to accurately describe this ____ Party candidate. Please help. Go ahead. Pick a name out of this list: 1. idiot, 2. moron, 3. dog poop scoop, 4. pickle brain, 5. cubic minded ... aka blockhead.
I am at a loss to pick one, or just pick one. It is best to be democratic in the assignment of proper titles. We are all happy democrats here aren't we?
Now I don't blame this guy for being a (pick a name from above list). I've never met him. How could that happen. He's gotta show at the events he promotes, ya think? Maybe the guy had something to do? I dragged my sorry ass out of bed to attend this event. I had been in the hospital bed recovering from knee surgery less than a week before. But this isn't about me. I am just the victim of this really bad politic.
Maybe the (pick a name from above list) will read this post and go "Ooops"? But what it does show is just how politically unfit this particular political party is at the moment. Shit happens. Maybe he was in a hospital..? Maybe recovering from a double lobotomy? Who knows? Who knows?
And worst of all. Their alleged supporters and members of the Green Party's in Canada waste time with petty differences. Waste time with personality issues. Waste time in fractious and nugatory issues. They are basically leaderless, do need a political leader, and in the same breath, don't want a good leader. The whole globe is about to burn and these clowns are screwing up with kindergarten attitudes and infantile parochial infighting. How could these clowns unite a whole country when they can't unite a simple political movement? They are behaving absolutely small, they are thinking small when the issue, Global Warming is not just large but in quantity humongous.
Don't blame polluters. The people they should blame ...is themselves. The members of the Green Party are the most to blame for the future failure of environmental change if the course of this event.
What is more? I just really don't appreciate in having to be put in the position of being a censor. I apologize to my blog readers for that much.
Censorship is absolutely against my inner wishes. But allowing such specious comments would have definitely violated the slander and libel laws in Canada and since the person was too cowardly, too weaselly to attach a verifiable name to these false arguments they were in the final issue my responsibility and I put them into the garbage, without recycling them.
How's that for response no three R's not even one. Straight to garbage. I apologize to the garbage can whence they went. There was no balance in the text and article to the comment. And it was unfair to the people mentioned by name in that comment to publish it.
I know one thing, recalling that meeting. It is the most patent reason why the Green Party staggers. Almost all the people there at that meeting regarding the future of bicycling in this city were united in one thing. People who should be on side with all parties Green... Couldn't care less.
***30***
This "coward" begged for anonymous status. I don't mind publishing anonymous comments so long as they are not slanderous or libelous and carry factual foundation to support or constructively criticize. The only statement which wasn't a libel insisted Elizabeth May was democratic.
Maybe this spamming coward doesn't really understand. I never meant to imply that she wasn't. That would have been an interpretation that could only made by a complete dyslexic too stupid to correctly read clear text. I meant to define her as a complete political idiot not fit to lead a national political party whose clear mission is to save the planet. And there are facts backing this up.
1. She is running against Peter MacKay. Of all the ridings in Canada that is the worst riding to pick. In the last sixty years only once has the Conservatives failed to hold that riding. Not only that MacKay is extremely popular in that riding. She is doomed to failure.
The Liberal support in that riding will not move to her instead it is more likely to move to their favorite son. Since Belinda betrayed him to shine in the Liberal light, any shake up in the demographic will favour his ass.
This is politics 101. Free fucking advice from a political expert here. No charge. A kindergarten kid could get the concept that in order to build a door ...you don't bang your head against a concrete wall.
2. "May" committed the ultimate failure of any political movement. She set back the Green Party grievously. By agreeing to anything with the Liberals publicly, by making this agreement with she handed the Liberals the principle foundational plank of the Green Party.
She allegedly commented that Dion is Green. Last I looked in his short tenure as Environment Minister, Dion did absolutely nothing. That is N. O. T. H. I. N. G.
Okay, lets suppose then, and she does defeat MacKay. She pulled the electoral platform feet out from every other Green in every other riding in the country for completely selfish egocentric reasons. Voters are not complicated people. Their major concern is self interest. They'll go for anyone who will lower taxes regardless of whether it causes bad government.
Here is the choice she left her constituency. Do I vote for a Green Party candidate, whose leader is so stupid to actually believe, that she can beat Peter MacKay. Do I vote for a Liberal who is running on the same environmental issues supported by the Green Party Leader, will be more likely to get to form the next government, who can then get me government grants for my gay child's dance performance. Or, do I vote for a Green Party candidate who won't form the government, who won't be able to enable green legislation based on the party platform, who won't be able to get me a grant for my gay child's dance performance.
Now who will these voter's choose. A enchilida or a single chili pepper. Isn't anyone in that Green Party capable of simple political concepts?
The riding May should've run in, Toronto Centre, was open with a dynamic voting pattern. That is why Bob Rae picked the riding its open to anyone phony lefties. Graham the puff adder, held the riding and did absolutely nothing for the constituents... and worse they didn't even mind.
The present perspective candidate in that riding for the Green Party, acts more like a goofy teenager than an a smart political animal. At one time ,I was actually interested in joining the Green Party, if only to stop Bob Rae's coronation.
Here's why stupidity gets contagious. So looking at this idiot's website, I saw an event where I could go and meet the person, press the flesh. I've done political work as a campaign management consultant for almost forty years. My political apprenticeship in practical politics was with the same campaign manager, Clem Downey of Nipigon, the guy who engineered the defeat of the most powerful Liberal in the country at that time, CD Howe.
People forget but CD Howe was big, big and he got dumped by an NDP guy. Such an upset would have been the same as hypothetically as Elizabeth May actually dumping Peter MacKay without Liberal help. Over the years I worked as a worker, advisor, driver, scrutineer, floor captain, rabble rouser, and manager on several campaigns until the normal middle age disillusionment with politics came into the fray. In short, I do know of what I speak.
I am an ad hoc member of Hoof & Cycle which is an ad hoc group which advocates on issues regarding active (human powered) transportation. We ad hoc a lot. Big. Really big on environment and practical not theoretical solutions. And the fearless ad hoc leader of our small but effluential ad hoc group, Wayne Scott was on the panel. Be there. Be square. Do a little ad hoc. Hoc. Hoc. Hoc.
So this Green Candidate, who shall remain nameless, because at this point I expect an apology for this person's simple minded behaviour from said person, listed in the "Calendar of Events." a panel discussion hosted by "Now" magazine which took place a couple of weeks ago. The topic was Bicycling and its perceived decline. To emphasize, I repeat, it was listed in the Green Party website. Not only that. The event occurred in his riding. Now Magazine's HQ and café is on Church south of Dundas East, and right inside the boundaries of Toronto Centre.
Hey I went. To be honest, most of these people are not in my demographic partying group. And they are stuck in bike lanes and most of them are jocks. Which isn't bad. Not at all. They are very good conscientious citizens. At least they cared enough to show up, unlike you know who. On the panel was the usual suspects in the Bicycle advocacy and the newly vetted TTC Chairman Adam Giambrone.
The hostess for this environment event, the co-founding CEO of Now Magazine, the beautiful Alice Klein, who is the most energetic environmentalists in the city. This was a not only the usual Toronto bitching-o-rama this was like a social environmental love-in. An ashram of purity and future light. This was the sunshine at midnight.
Not a demographic exactly in my personal comfort zone, but certainly it should be a must do for the Green Party. I mingled. Oh yes I did. Shook hands. Giggled at bad jokes. Grinned at boorish observations. Nodded at the inane environmental comments by urbanites who know squat about nature. Searching, searching. Screwing up the courage. Grinning like a lost child. I mingled.
The Green Party guy. The guy who has the most to lose in the next election Didn't bother to show up. Categorically no political reason for the Green Party to not be there even with a substitute. This was the guys Green demographic. This was the place to rally support. To press the flesh. To cash in on the moment. Get the momentum going. Garner support from those most likely to show up at the campaign rallies and campaign headquarter. I really looked hard.
Hey I am not going to give out free advice here. No way. I need the money. I know what I would be doing if I were the Green candidate. I be like behaving like there was no tomorrow. The race in this riding is open. Ripe for picking. Best chance to get into the House and shout insults at the Prime Minister. Best place to really go for the big bone. Got the right issue. Got the best alternative. I know what I would have done were I the candidate.
Also I know what I would have said if I were the campaign manager in the riding. Oh trust me. Tis would be a lesson. It would be a three... no a four hour fucking lecture with all the salient points and political examples extending back to Brutus's famous excuse... "Gee I didn't know that the knife was loaded!"
The guy didn't show. No one from the party stepped forward. It was on his website. Am I bitter about having to spend a half hour of time trying to ferret out the presence of this political movement? Did I feel bitter about having to pass up the free food service at the post game social reception to smile and ask people about people who should have been there? Am I bitter? Am I pissed?
I even went up to a scrawny look alike. I had too. There was a remote resemblance to the Green Party Candidate. Yes. At a function where I could have connected for employment. At a function where I could have scored a babe in my age category. You know what I was doing...? Oh yeah. Asking really stupid questions.
Oh ya a lot of fun going up to people. Are you ______? or Do you belong to the _____ Party? No? Hey what a fun time!!!.
Conclusion. I could not select the right name to accurately describe this ____ Party candidate. Please help. Go ahead. Pick a name out of this list: 1. idiot, 2. moron, 3. dog poop scoop, 4. pickle brain, 5. cubic minded ... aka blockhead.
I am at a loss to pick one, or just pick one. It is best to be democratic in the assignment of proper titles. We are all happy democrats here aren't we?
Now I don't blame this guy for being a (pick a name from above list). I've never met him. How could that happen. He's gotta show at the events he promotes, ya think? Maybe the guy had something to do? I dragged my sorry ass out of bed to attend this event. I had been in the hospital bed recovering from knee surgery less than a week before. But this isn't about me. I am just the victim of this really bad politic.
Maybe the (pick a name from above list) will read this post and go "Ooops"? But what it does show is just how politically unfit this particular political party is at the moment. Shit happens. Maybe he was in a hospital..? Maybe recovering from a double lobotomy? Who knows? Who knows?
And worst of all. Their alleged supporters and members of the Green Party's in Canada waste time with petty differences. Waste time with personality issues. Waste time in fractious and nugatory issues. They are basically leaderless, do need a political leader, and in the same breath, don't want a good leader. The whole globe is about to burn and these clowns are screwing up with kindergarten attitudes and infantile parochial infighting. How could these clowns unite a whole country when they can't unite a simple political movement? They are behaving absolutely small, they are thinking small when the issue, Global Warming is not just large but in quantity humongous.
Don't blame polluters. The people they should blame ...is themselves. The members of the Green Party are the most to blame for the future failure of environmental change if the course of this event.
What is more? I just really don't appreciate in having to be put in the position of being a censor. I apologize to my blog readers for that much.
Censorship is absolutely against my inner wishes. But allowing such specious comments would have definitely violated the slander and libel laws in Canada and since the person was too cowardly, too weaselly to attach a verifiable name to these false arguments they were in the final issue my responsibility and I put them into the garbage, without recycling them.
How's that for response no three R's not even one. Straight to garbage. I apologize to the garbage can whence they went. There was no balance in the text and article to the comment. And it was unfair to the people mentioned by name in that comment to publish it.
I know one thing, recalling that meeting. It is the most patent reason why the Green Party staggers. Almost all the people there at that meeting regarding the future of bicycling in this city were united in one thing. People who should be on side with all parties Green... Couldn't care less.
***30***
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Environmental crisis - Part two - The Greens
At this point of time, the Canadian environmental effort staggers from disaster to disaster. The major crisis for the Canada isn’t Global Warming. Not at all.
Only one great disaster remains and it is Humans. The worst thing to happen to the Canadian environment may surprise some. The enemy isn’t the greedy selfish energy guzzling Canadian businessman. At the heart of the crisis is the failure of the environmentalists themselves. The Canadian Green Party(s) continue playing the parable to a political Katrina, …nay a whole series of Katrina class storms.
Politically they cannot get it together. In theory, the Canadian Green Party represents the environment. In action, they mimic Keystone Cops lurching from idea to idea. Bickering amongst themselves incessantly. Making plainly stupid political decisions. They lack leadership, focus and vision.
Result a disaster for the environment. The accumulated follies would assemble into a long list, a compendium of literal disaster. Certainly Green Party members are well meaning people, good people, but presently they haven’t identified the problem. It isn’t waste. It isn’t emissions. Its them.
Top of the list remains the leadership of the party. While the environment remains the top most priority, Canadian environmental politicians care more about strokes to their ego rather than saving a pound of air. Get with it. Hell will suffer from Infernal Freezing before Elizabeth May wins an election, and any election against Peter MacKay in Nova Scotia, in MacKay’s home riding.
For a while there, the Green Party appeared to be on the right track with the leadership of Jim Harris. They were in growth mode albeit one too slow. Harris steered the party into the business and commercial mainstream. The theme was becoming mainstream Canadian.
Canadian voters are for the most part central on the political spectrum. Middle of the road positioning is politically important. Key to the voters is the policies regarding the environment. Apparently the common sense approach to politics remained subordinate to personal viewpoints. The radical factions of the Green Party maneuvered Harris into resigning and took over the party.
May’s surrender to Dion in consenting to allow the Liberals to help her try to win against MacKay remains a questionable tactic.
Not all Liberals will join her and more likely simply refuse to vote. One hunch is that she is not listening to any sound political advice. Even on paper her challenge in this riding is politically stupid. The riding in any form has remained in Conservative hands for at least fifty years with the exception of four years during the first Chretien landslide that swept any Mulroney Tory aside east of the Manitoba Border save for three. In the next election, the riding returned to the Tory side and the politician that did this was Peter MacKay.
By this no-compete effort between her party and the Liberals she may think this is a good thing but she literally killed her very own party by denying the Green party in Stephan Dion’s own riding to make a statement at the polling station. It is an anti-democratic move.
Worse it instantly paints the red Liberals green and environmental. The only recorded achievement Dion did for the environment during his ministerial tenure was to name his dog Kyoto. As for the real Kyoto it was largely ignored suffering from the usual posture of the modern Liberal politician which is to sit quietly on all hands. May foolishly handed the Liberal party environmental legitimacy.
Contrast this with the Harris stand against the urbanite dandy leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) Jack Layton. Jim Harris’s move to the centre suborned the alleged tree hugging posturing of the NDP. The NDP jumps on any fashionable cause de jour, promising but never delivering in any government they controlled in the last twenty years. (Can anyone recall the NDP mantra about Ontario Public Auto?)
Magnifying this was the continuing grievous mishandling by the Green Party of the Wayne Crookes’ Affair. Apparently Green Party members and internet sites are being sued allegedly for libel and slander on the internet blogs. The merits of this litigation is best left to the law courts. Regardless this sequence of events should have never occurred in the first place.
Of all the Canadian environmentalists to constantly harp but do absolutely nothing about it, is David Suzuki. When I was a member of the now defunct National Party under the political amateur Mel Hurtig. The major plank of the National Party involved the environment. Suzuki was rumored to have assured that if Mel took the jump to lead the party, he would be a candidate.
Indeed doubtless Suzuki has not only been asked by the National Party but he had received offers from the NDP, the Liberals (but they’ll ask anybody), and the present Green Party to run in a riding as a candidate. I can only speak to the National Party experience with Suzuki and a little bit with the NDP.
The National Party did start out rather well and united. One of those reasons was the possibility that Suzuki would run. Indeed some of the senior officials within that party felt that it was a done deal. Another promise of participation allegedly came from Maude Barlow another mouth and no action person. Recall that at that time there were only four self proclaimed and widely acknowledged ethical champions of Canada. Mel Hurtig, Maude Barlow, David Suzuki, and Margaret Atwood.
Of the four only one stuck their neck out, and put their reputation on the line politically and that was Hurtig. It is easy to understand why Atwood wouldn’t run, she’s a writer, an unelectable political dilettante. Maude Barlow would have been an iffy candidate. But the star was Suzuki.
Political experts within the nascent political party had correctly ascertained that Suzuki was likely the single most electable environmentalist in Canada. Certainly he would have won in any riding in British Columbia. It was also felt that Suzuki would have been the number two political leader in that party and certainly any party for that matter. Indeed had he asked he could have assumed the mantle of party leader. So strong is the Canadian identity and contact to ordinary Canadians by Suzuki that any campaign manager could have assisted Suzuki to become a political party leader of any political party of his choosing.
That was then. This is now, a decade and half later. Incredibly if Suzuki so chose to do so, he would easily win in many of the seats in Canada. Why doesn’t he?
Well, it would mean public scrutiny. This is the usual excuse. But then he has always been a public person used to being in the public. On the one hand the rumored participation by him in the National Party could have been used as membership bait. The mere mention of his name inspires participation. I can only relate what was told to me. He couldn’t run and keep his contract with CBC.
Recently, Suzuki went on a cross Canada environmental crusade to save Kyoto and stop global warming. According to the reports I’ve read, he did this in a large diesel guzzling luxury RV. He and his spokes people retorted that this was the only option. How wrong. Another option exists. He could have taken a Greyhound like the rest of us mortals.
But Suzuki is a case standard. Its fine and dandy for those celebrity environmentalists to spout. Remember, when people like Suzuki speak the critical issue of the environment to them it still is not their number one concern. Their bank account is.
To win this fight the time for talk is over. It takes guts to change the course of human history. Anyone can talk about it, til cows can roost in the treetops. People can make minuscule efforts to help the environment but at the moment it is not a small change, it is a big change that is needed. It is a political change that is needed. To save the environment depends wholly on a smart plan, a smart vision, a smart action on politics, a smart political leadership and a smart political unity.
Only one great disaster remains and it is Humans. The worst thing to happen to the Canadian environment may surprise some. The enemy isn’t the greedy selfish energy guzzling Canadian businessman. At the heart of the crisis is the failure of the environmentalists themselves. The Canadian Green Party(s) continue playing the parable to a political Katrina, …nay a whole series of Katrina class storms.
Politically they cannot get it together. In theory, the Canadian Green Party represents the environment. In action, they mimic Keystone Cops lurching from idea to idea. Bickering amongst themselves incessantly. Making plainly stupid political decisions. They lack leadership, focus and vision.
Result a disaster for the environment. The accumulated follies would assemble into a long list, a compendium of literal disaster. Certainly Green Party members are well meaning people, good people, but presently they haven’t identified the problem. It isn’t waste. It isn’t emissions. Its them.
Top of the list remains the leadership of the party. While the environment remains the top most priority, Canadian environmental politicians care more about strokes to their ego rather than saving a pound of air. Get with it. Hell will suffer from Infernal Freezing before Elizabeth May wins an election, and any election against Peter MacKay in Nova Scotia, in MacKay’s home riding.
For a while there, the Green Party appeared to be on the right track with the leadership of Jim Harris. They were in growth mode albeit one too slow. Harris steered the party into the business and commercial mainstream. The theme was becoming mainstream Canadian.
Canadian voters are for the most part central on the political spectrum. Middle of the road positioning is politically important. Key to the voters is the policies regarding the environment. Apparently the common sense approach to politics remained subordinate to personal viewpoints. The radical factions of the Green Party maneuvered Harris into resigning and took over the party.
May’s surrender to Dion in consenting to allow the Liberals to help her try to win against MacKay remains a questionable tactic.
Not all Liberals will join her and more likely simply refuse to vote. One hunch is that she is not listening to any sound political advice. Even on paper her challenge in this riding is politically stupid. The riding in any form has remained in Conservative hands for at least fifty years with the exception of four years during the first Chretien landslide that swept any Mulroney Tory aside east of the Manitoba Border save for three. In the next election, the riding returned to the Tory side and the politician that did this was Peter MacKay.
By this no-compete effort between her party and the Liberals she may think this is a good thing but she literally killed her very own party by denying the Green party in Stephan Dion’s own riding to make a statement at the polling station. It is an anti-democratic move.
Worse it instantly paints the red Liberals green and environmental. The only recorded achievement Dion did for the environment during his ministerial tenure was to name his dog Kyoto. As for the real Kyoto it was largely ignored suffering from the usual posture of the modern Liberal politician which is to sit quietly on all hands. May foolishly handed the Liberal party environmental legitimacy.
Contrast this with the Harris stand against the urbanite dandy leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) Jack Layton. Jim Harris’s move to the centre suborned the alleged tree hugging posturing of the NDP. The NDP jumps on any fashionable cause de jour, promising but never delivering in any government they controlled in the last twenty years. (Can anyone recall the NDP mantra about Ontario Public Auto?)
Magnifying this was the continuing grievous mishandling by the Green Party of the Wayne Crookes’ Affair. Apparently Green Party members and internet sites are being sued allegedly for libel and slander on the internet blogs. The merits of this litigation is best left to the law courts. Regardless this sequence of events should have never occurred in the first place.
Of all the Canadian environmentalists to constantly harp but do absolutely nothing about it, is David Suzuki. When I was a member of the now defunct National Party under the political amateur Mel Hurtig. The major plank of the National Party involved the environment. Suzuki was rumored to have assured that if Mel took the jump to lead the party, he would be a candidate.
Indeed doubtless Suzuki has not only been asked by the National Party but he had received offers from the NDP, the Liberals (but they’ll ask anybody), and the present Green Party to run in a riding as a candidate. I can only speak to the National Party experience with Suzuki and a little bit with the NDP.
The National Party did start out rather well and united. One of those reasons was the possibility that Suzuki would run. Indeed some of the senior officials within that party felt that it was a done deal. Another promise of participation allegedly came from Maude Barlow another mouth and no action person. Recall that at that time there were only four self proclaimed and widely acknowledged ethical champions of Canada. Mel Hurtig, Maude Barlow, David Suzuki, and Margaret Atwood.
Of the four only one stuck their neck out, and put their reputation on the line politically and that was Hurtig. It is easy to understand why Atwood wouldn’t run, she’s a writer, an unelectable political dilettante. Maude Barlow would have been an iffy candidate. But the star was Suzuki.
Political experts within the nascent political party had correctly ascertained that Suzuki was likely the single most electable environmentalist in Canada. Certainly he would have won in any riding in British Columbia. It was also felt that Suzuki would have been the number two political leader in that party and certainly any party for that matter. Indeed had he asked he could have assumed the mantle of party leader. So strong is the Canadian identity and contact to ordinary Canadians by Suzuki that any campaign manager could have assisted Suzuki to become a political party leader of any political party of his choosing.
That was then. This is now, a decade and half later. Incredibly if Suzuki so chose to do so, he would easily win in many of the seats in Canada. Why doesn’t he?
Well, it would mean public scrutiny. This is the usual excuse. But then he has always been a public person used to being in the public. On the one hand the rumored participation by him in the National Party could have been used as membership bait. The mere mention of his name inspires participation. I can only relate what was told to me. He couldn’t run and keep his contract with CBC.
Recently, Suzuki went on a cross Canada environmental crusade to save Kyoto and stop global warming. According to the reports I’ve read, he did this in a large diesel guzzling luxury RV. He and his spokes people retorted that this was the only option. How wrong. Another option exists. He could have taken a Greyhound like the rest of us mortals.
But Suzuki is a case standard. Its fine and dandy for those celebrity environmentalists to spout. Remember, when people like Suzuki speak the critical issue of the environment to them it still is not their number one concern. Their bank account is.
To win this fight the time for talk is over. It takes guts to change the course of human history. Anyone can talk about it, til cows can roost in the treetops. People can make minuscule efforts to help the environment but at the moment it is not a small change, it is a big change that is needed. It is a political change that is needed. To save the environment depends wholly on a smart plan, a smart vision, a smart action on politics, a smart political leadership and a smart political unity.
Environmental crisis - part one - Shit all over the place
With the entire planet's environment entering a period of warming humans stumble with reality. The humorous episode generated by rocker Sheryl Crow's comments on one sheet for one shit begs a comedy of errors. Her comments were greeted with derision and comedic reaction.
What is staggering though is that these comments outstripped all the press about the impending global warming for the last month. Crows comment wasn't well thought out sort of impractical but definitely her heart was pointed in the right direction. Secondly she can say anything she wants. I'd walk on nails for her and if she went out with me I would never see another beef steak nor care.
Remember one important thing for over two hundred years ago the principle cleaning device for la derriere was the left hand. And there was no place to wash hands back then. So the issue of tissue wipes out the position of those who chided and criticized such ambitious remarks. It presents an idea going forward. Not one of the critics came up with a positive alternative. It would need a larger mind.
If a lot of people did a little bit there would be an impact on the environment. The alliance of the media to the people who tried to humiliate Crow demonstrates the rather small contribution of the mainstream media to the attention. If this is the reaction by those of the fifth estate then the cause is lost.
Yet there lies the heart of the problem with the Environmental movement. The emotion is correct. Yet there lacks a clear focus on how to deal with the great challenge of this century. The concepts and efforts are too fractuous. Each faction more loyal to its pet peeves in sacrifice to the extremely important issue of reducing green house gas emissions from an ever bulging human population. Not all ideas work well.
The great challenge isn't deep space exploration at the moment. The great challenge of this coming century is to adjust the human lifestyle and civilization to the limited resources of this small planet. We already have most of the technology capable of rectifying this environmental situation.
There is a crisis point in Global Warming. Its humanities largest crisis. It is moving much faster than the natural world can cope with. Plants and animals need time to adjust to the change in atmosphere. Humans constantly infringe on the natural habitats and devices that protected our nascent emergence from the Serengeti. The crisis period is about a decade. It needs a larger plan a more consistent vision.
Recently I asked a notable person very emphatic to the environmental issues. He would have made an excellent Member of Parliament. But even this great issue didn't overcome the individual angst. The environmentalist movement to this point insists on calling its members warriors. Nay we need no warriors. Humanity requires soldiers.
Soldiers not to kill. Soldiers to put their reputation on the line. Soldiers well versed to sell the new dream. Soldiers armed with the vision. Soldiers trained to be fearless. Soldiers foresaking comforts. Soldiers willing to move the wall of doom facing humanity on this small planet.
Turning the current path of Global Warming better called the Global catastrophy will require a loyal, selfless army division of these leaders of these soldiers. It must be tried albeit it might be too late for the short term impact on the globe. Whether now or even if it is too late, the sacrifices of many will be necessary for the survival of the human species. The enemy of this army of human environmental soldiers. Only one enemy. Themselves.
What is staggering though is that these comments outstripped all the press about the impending global warming for the last month. Crows comment wasn't well thought out sort of impractical but definitely her heart was pointed in the right direction. Secondly she can say anything she wants. I'd walk on nails for her and if she went out with me I would never see another beef steak nor care.
Remember one important thing for over two hundred years ago the principle cleaning device for la derriere was the left hand. And there was no place to wash hands back then. So the issue of tissue wipes out the position of those who chided and criticized such ambitious remarks. It presents an idea going forward. Not one of the critics came up with a positive alternative. It would need a larger mind.
If a lot of people did a little bit there would be an impact on the environment. The alliance of the media to the people who tried to humiliate Crow demonstrates the rather small contribution of the mainstream media to the attention. If this is the reaction by those of the fifth estate then the cause is lost.
Yet there lies the heart of the problem with the Environmental movement. The emotion is correct. Yet there lacks a clear focus on how to deal with the great challenge of this century. The concepts and efforts are too fractuous. Each faction more loyal to its pet peeves in sacrifice to the extremely important issue of reducing green house gas emissions from an ever bulging human population. Not all ideas work well.
The great challenge isn't deep space exploration at the moment. The great challenge of this coming century is to adjust the human lifestyle and civilization to the limited resources of this small planet. We already have most of the technology capable of rectifying this environmental situation.
There is a crisis point in Global Warming. Its humanities largest crisis. It is moving much faster than the natural world can cope with. Plants and animals need time to adjust to the change in atmosphere. Humans constantly infringe on the natural habitats and devices that protected our nascent emergence from the Serengeti. The crisis period is about a decade. It needs a larger plan a more consistent vision.
Recently I asked a notable person very emphatic to the environmental issues. He would have made an excellent Member of Parliament. But even this great issue didn't overcome the individual angst. The environmentalist movement to this point insists on calling its members warriors. Nay we need no warriors. Humanity requires soldiers.
Soldiers not to kill. Soldiers to put their reputation on the line. Soldiers well versed to sell the new dream. Soldiers armed with the vision. Soldiers trained to be fearless. Soldiers foresaking comforts. Soldiers willing to move the wall of doom facing humanity on this small planet.
Turning the current path of Global Warming better called the Global catastrophy will require a loyal, selfless army division of these leaders of these soldiers. It must be tried albeit it might be too late for the short term impact on the globe. Whether now or even if it is too late, the sacrifices of many will be necessary for the survival of the human species. The enemy of this army of human environmental soldiers. Only one enemy. Themselves.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Kneed to know Part 8
A rambunctuious period of inaction to be sure. After the surgery the knee began to feel good almost immediately. Just the swelling was painful. Now it is three weeks and yesterday I began going out without a cane for the first time in a full calender knee.
However, I will use the cane in the future. It allows a seat at the front of the street car.
Modern medicine is wonderful. Yet I cannot thinking about the loss of the good old days. You see I got three little holes where the surgical probes went into repair some of the tears in the knee. That's a problem.
Remember the guys, stinking drunk on a case of beer and the cheapest rye, would sit around. "Hey wanna see my scar!" one always says.
"Shit that's bugger all" says another even drunker whistler. Drops the pants, "Look at this...."
Ah for the good old days. Show, tell and brag. Then the whole crowd lifts shirts, pull downs pants, pulls off socks in a chorus "Well I got this... !"
Now think. A whole year of dragging this pained appendage around and what have I got to show? Nothing.
.
However, I will use the cane in the future. It allows a seat at the front of the street car.
Modern medicine is wonderful. Yet I cannot thinking about the loss of the good old days. You see I got three little holes where the surgical probes went into repair some of the tears in the knee. That's a problem.
Remember the guys, stinking drunk on a case of beer and the cheapest rye, would sit around. "Hey wanna see my scar!" one always says.
"Shit that's bugger all" says another even drunker whistler. Drops the pants, "Look at this...."
Ah for the good old days. Show, tell and brag. Then the whole crowd lifts shirts, pull downs pants, pulls off socks in a chorus "Well I got this... !"
Now think. A whole year of dragging this pained appendage around and what have I got to show? Nothing.
.
Black - update
Conrad Black is appearing more upbeat this week as the prosecution founders. Indeed the prosecutors are having a hard time proving Black's criminality to this point. Even Black's journalistic buddies like Peter Worthington are trumpeting sure triumph for the defense.
No one including Worthington appears to be questioning the ethics of his business actions. Indeed the greedy maneuver of noncompete fees had to be kept quiet according to the lawyers involved. Black's actions were molded by others according to his defense team.
Regardless the ethics of such actions retain the allegorical shade of very gray. Black was legally in the right. Applied law is a question of legalities not ethics nor morality. A judge and jury can only deal with a legality based on written law in the case of the American format of justice.
Black may not need Canadian citizenship. Knowing the present Harperite Conservative government's penchant for sliding bad decisions under the door sill, Black already may have been reinstated citizen with true Conservative honors. Despite the decade old very public bashing of Canada on his exit to Lordshipdom the regaining of citizenship can be shielded as a private issue and not held in the public optic. Is he now a citizen? Without a conviction, we we'll never know for sure.
This is a belief but he, or the she, has been on the record as alleging Canadian penal institutions as being the least penalizing in the developed world. According to the expressed viewpoint of the time American prisons and justice had it right. Of this conjecture he will never know. He won't be going to jail. No need for a Canadian jail aka Club Kingston "the Resort". If he is found not guilty, he'll have no need of the burden of Canadian citizenship.
No one including Worthington appears to be questioning the ethics of his business actions. Indeed the greedy maneuver of noncompete fees had to be kept quiet according to the lawyers involved. Black's actions were molded by others according to his defense team.
Regardless the ethics of such actions retain the allegorical shade of very gray. Black was legally in the right. Applied law is a question of legalities not ethics nor morality. A judge and jury can only deal with a legality based on written law in the case of the American format of justice.
Black may not need Canadian citizenship. Knowing the present Harperite Conservative government's penchant for sliding bad decisions under the door sill, Black already may have been reinstated citizen with true Conservative honors. Despite the decade old very public bashing of Canada on his exit to Lordshipdom the regaining of citizenship can be shielded as a private issue and not held in the public optic. Is he now a citizen? Without a conviction, we we'll never know for sure.
This is a belief but he, or the she, has been on the record as alleging Canadian penal institutions as being the least penalizing in the developed world. According to the expressed viewpoint of the time American prisons and justice had it right. Of this conjecture he will never know. He won't be going to jail. No need for a Canadian jail aka Club Kingston "the Resort". If he is found not guilty, he'll have no need of the burden of Canadian citizenship.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Blogging, Wikipedia and accuracy
Anyone who believes everything in a blog to be the gospel truth, is an idiot. Any blog, including this one is totally opinion.
Anyone who reads anything in Wikipedia and then believes it is totally true, is an idiot. In the preamble to all Wikipedia contributors it is clearly written out that it is meant to be a compendium of knowledge written by faceless contributors wishing to contribute. Initially all contributions are subject to further scrutiny and subject to later examination. All contributors are responsible for that data not the Wikipedia.
I am a contributor to Wikipedia.
On the topic of : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Dumont
Further discussion was encouraged. Fortunately some of that discussion was from a personal viewpoint but such a contribution bolsters the world knowledge. I may have been wrong but this was definitely opinion and written as such.
This was my contribution to world knowledge, it was to convey my deceased father's viewpoint who had been born only a couple of decades after that conflict and knew many of the people who had physically witnessed the relevant events.
The op-ed piece was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Gabriel_Dumont
Another was on page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:North-West_Rebellion
Guess which one is my contribution.
Now for a jokes media types such as Don Landry of the Fan590 of Toronto decided to furnish false information into the Wikipedia on a topic relating to his more famous morning radio partner Gord Stellick. I forgot what Landry wrote. He thought it was funny. I believe he usually thinks anything he does is hilarious. But he lacks the brainpower to take on people like Sam Mitchell effectively mano en mano, as his usual Wednesday morning interviews with Sam Mitchell have proven.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gord_Stellick
You will note that as a repercussion of Landry's actions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_McCown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Howarth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Swirsky
The Stellick entry has been corrected. As a result Landry, remains the only senior radio personality on the radio station who appears to be delisted on the Wikipedia. For any media savvy person with the hope of having any sort of future career an entry in Wikipedia maintains to a new modern de rigueur.
Such an open process can be subject to significant abuse. Of that is no doubt.
The scary thing remains that this misunderstanding will be maintained by those now wishing to shut down the process of the accumulation of knowledge. People are now suing such media as responsible for that which is published regardless of the long term convention that contributors are responsible for the data input.
To date the Canadian Supreme Court has supported this open process in such actions regarding the American interpretation of copyright legislation being applied in Canada. And so goes the course of justice. The problem with Common Law is that there is a belief amongst civil lawyers that it can be stretched. It can be.
Sites such as those being sued, have been used as a weapon of malice. According to reports to date, I believe a rather inept Green Party of Canada membership tried to splay some misinformation about a former officer of the party. It is a case before the courts. The plaintiff is trying to sue the site owners of such information. It will be interesting to see the effect of these legal shenanigans. The plaintiff has been able through litigious ambition to thwart the web sites in Canada and the United States. To date this has worked only because the defendants believed that surrender was the cheapest not the ethical response.
However the litigators largest problem will be to prove financial harm by these actions. From what I've seen is that the plaintiffs have not suffered any financial harm directly due to any information, or misinformation placed on the web.
Between Canada and the United States libel and slander legislation is a wholly different process. Lawyers are not always up front at the best of times. And this litigator appears to be dallying on down the rosy path laid out by his lawyers or lawyers who only tells him what he wants to hear.
Few actions of libel and slander in Canada have been successful. It is not a high percentage winner. And any litigation involves a double edge sword. If the defense capably defends itself all that information will be published and at a higher profile. Further the Canadian system of libel legislation follows the British model and not the American.
Significant harm must be proved in the British model. As a result winning may not be something to cheer. I recall that one libel award in the past as $1.00.
The problem is that most of the defendants have chosen to settle out of court. In the case of smaller site operators settling out of court takes on a significant onerous load. However taking on a site operator such as Google, the plaintiff should back off. Winning will not be all that easy.
All they have to prove is that that there is a foundation of truth within the alleged statements of slander or libel then the plaintiff's case is lost. If the court correctly believes that the blogging forum is opinion demonstrating facts that a blog constitutes a belief and not journalistic fact then the plaintiff's case becomes lost.
It seems a trivial but any op-ed writer knows that if a conjecture is prefaced by the phrase "I believe that..." the subsequent facts can be interpreted as a truth albeit false. The plaintiff is then required to shake that belief and place before the court a high level of proof that the defendant intentionally committed that statement knowing that it was false. It is a case of spreading a false truth.
For a person of journalistic background a court would find that there is a higher level of responsibility of getting the story right. However, and this is the problem with blogging, if the writer is enterring a belief in a blog then that blog is legally a truth despite being false. The vast majority of bloggers are amateur to the written process. Courts, especially civil courts apply a vastly different amount of mitigation to each type of writer.
A professionally paid writer has a vested interest in maintaining written accuracy. An amateur writer possesses no commercial advantage to whatever they wrote and the degree of truthfulness is much broader. As long as the writer truly believes that what they are writing is true beyond malice, that belief is total truth no matter how false it is.
British Law applied to Libel is a larger whole to fill and as long as the writer truly believes about the truthfulness of the statement then it cannot be libel. Remember libel and slander is only libel and slander if the teller knowingly made those statements knowing them to be false or without truthful foundation. The writer must be given adequate time to be contrite to revise, publish a retraction in the same media and/or apologize in a reasonable time.
If your eyes are crossing in that confusion, don't worry you are not alone. Google is only a search engine for data. The data doesn't have to be true.
Wikipedia publically states, from the outset, that the information may not be necessarily accurate. They do try however to make it as accurate as possible given the fact that it is constantly being bombarded by information.
And blogging is statement of opinions, not to be consider gospel truth. And opinions are beliefs not necessarily true facts. To the author - a truth. The site operator is not responsible for those beliefs.
You will note that I do not directly give you the litigants name until the court case is settled. Why am I writing this is that Canadian businessmen are employing malicious litigation to deter the truth about their business practice. They know that the lawsuit is frivolous.
Court action will prove that there is no adequate legislation regarding libel or slander in the internet world. Court action will prove that.
In final summation it should be put forward that Blogs, Wikipedia must be always construed as being an uncertified source of information. I use Wikipedia citations as the starting point to research not the final result in such material that needs a certification. Ninety nine percent of the material that flows into Wikipedia daily is accurate or accurate enough that a certain reliability of the truth can be ascertained. For almost everything it is a starting point, not an ending point of research and not the final word.
Anyone who reads anything in Wikipedia and then believes it is totally true, is an idiot. In the preamble to all Wikipedia contributors it is clearly written out that it is meant to be a compendium of knowledge written by faceless contributors wishing to contribute. Initially all contributions are subject to further scrutiny and subject to later examination. All contributors are responsible for that data not the Wikipedia.
I am a contributor to Wikipedia.
On the topic of : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Dumont
Further discussion was encouraged. Fortunately some of that discussion was from a personal viewpoint but such a contribution bolsters the world knowledge. I may have been wrong but this was definitely opinion and written as such.
This was my contribution to world knowledge, it was to convey my deceased father's viewpoint who had been born only a couple of decades after that conflict and knew many of the people who had physically witnessed the relevant events.
The op-ed piece was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Gabriel_Dumont
Another was on page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:North-West_Rebellion
Guess which one is my contribution.
Now for a jokes media types such as Don Landry of the Fan590 of Toronto decided to furnish false information into the Wikipedia on a topic relating to his more famous morning radio partner Gord Stellick. I forgot what Landry wrote. He thought it was funny. I believe he usually thinks anything he does is hilarious. But he lacks the brainpower to take on people like Sam Mitchell effectively mano en mano, as his usual Wednesday morning interviews with Sam Mitchell have proven.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gord_Stellick
You will note that as a repercussion of Landry's actions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_McCown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Howarth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Swirsky
The Stellick entry has been corrected. As a result Landry, remains the only senior radio personality on the radio station who appears to be delisted on the Wikipedia. For any media savvy person with the hope of having any sort of future career an entry in Wikipedia maintains to a new modern de rigueur.
Such an open process can be subject to significant abuse. Of that is no doubt.
The scary thing remains that this misunderstanding will be maintained by those now wishing to shut down the process of the accumulation of knowledge. People are now suing such media as responsible for that which is published regardless of the long term convention that contributors are responsible for the data input.
To date the Canadian Supreme Court has supported this open process in such actions regarding the American interpretation of copyright legislation being applied in Canada. And so goes the course of justice. The problem with Common Law is that there is a belief amongst civil lawyers that it can be stretched. It can be.
Sites such as those being sued, have been used as a weapon of malice. According to reports to date, I believe a rather inept Green Party of Canada membership tried to splay some misinformation about a former officer of the party. It is a case before the courts. The plaintiff is trying to sue the site owners of such information. It will be interesting to see the effect of these legal shenanigans. The plaintiff has been able through litigious ambition to thwart the web sites in Canada and the United States. To date this has worked only because the defendants believed that surrender was the cheapest not the ethical response.
However the litigators largest problem will be to prove financial harm by these actions. From what I've seen is that the plaintiffs have not suffered any financial harm directly due to any information, or misinformation placed on the web.
Between Canada and the United States libel and slander legislation is a wholly different process. Lawyers are not always up front at the best of times. And this litigator appears to be dallying on down the rosy path laid out by his lawyers or lawyers who only tells him what he wants to hear.
Few actions of libel and slander in Canada have been successful. It is not a high percentage winner. And any litigation involves a double edge sword. If the defense capably defends itself all that information will be published and at a higher profile. Further the Canadian system of libel legislation follows the British model and not the American.
Significant harm must be proved in the British model. As a result winning may not be something to cheer. I recall that one libel award in the past as $1.00.
The problem is that most of the defendants have chosen to settle out of court. In the case of smaller site operators settling out of court takes on a significant onerous load. However taking on a site operator such as Google, the plaintiff should back off. Winning will not be all that easy.
All they have to prove is that that there is a foundation of truth within the alleged statements of slander or libel then the plaintiff's case is lost. If the court correctly believes that the blogging forum is opinion demonstrating facts that a blog constitutes a belief and not journalistic fact then the plaintiff's case becomes lost.
It seems a trivial but any op-ed writer knows that if a conjecture is prefaced by the phrase "I believe that..." the subsequent facts can be interpreted as a truth albeit false. The plaintiff is then required to shake that belief and place before the court a high level of proof that the defendant intentionally committed that statement knowing that it was false. It is a case of spreading a false truth.
For a person of journalistic background a court would find that there is a higher level of responsibility of getting the story right. However, and this is the problem with blogging, if the writer is enterring a belief in a blog then that blog is legally a truth despite being false. The vast majority of bloggers are amateur to the written process. Courts, especially civil courts apply a vastly different amount of mitigation to each type of writer.
A professionally paid writer has a vested interest in maintaining written accuracy. An amateur writer possesses no commercial advantage to whatever they wrote and the degree of truthfulness is much broader. As long as the writer truly believes that what they are writing is true beyond malice, that belief is total truth no matter how false it is.
British Law applied to Libel is a larger whole to fill and as long as the writer truly believes about the truthfulness of the statement then it cannot be libel. Remember libel and slander is only libel and slander if the teller knowingly made those statements knowing them to be false or without truthful foundation. The writer must be given adequate time to be contrite to revise, publish a retraction in the same media and/or apologize in a reasonable time.
If your eyes are crossing in that confusion, don't worry you are not alone. Google is only a search engine for data. The data doesn't have to be true.
Wikipedia publically states, from the outset, that the information may not be necessarily accurate. They do try however to make it as accurate as possible given the fact that it is constantly being bombarded by information.
And blogging is statement of opinions, not to be consider gospel truth. And opinions are beliefs not necessarily true facts. To the author - a truth. The site operator is not responsible for those beliefs.
You will note that I do not directly give you the litigants name until the court case is settled. Why am I writing this is that Canadian businessmen are employing malicious litigation to deter the truth about their business practice. They know that the lawsuit is frivolous.
Court action will prove that there is no adequate legislation regarding libel or slander in the internet world. Court action will prove that.
In final summation it should be put forward that Blogs, Wikipedia must be always construed as being an uncertified source of information. I use Wikipedia citations as the starting point to research not the final result in such material that needs a certification. Ninety nine percent of the material that flows into Wikipedia daily is accurate or accurate enough that a certain reliability of the truth can be ascertained. For almost everything it is a starting point, not an ending point of research and not the final word.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Quandary of internet ethics
Wouldn't you know. Just when this gets comfortable. The history of Microsoft proved one thing. The larger a company gets really big, blind greed explodes.
Google operates this blog site. It will be a challenge to them It also recently bought Double Click*. It is one of the most pervasive group of spyware on the internet.
This is alarming. While it is quite understandable for a company to provide advertising on its web pages, it is quite another for a search engine to engage in providing spyware onto users computers.
Not only that. Last January, Google developed a working relationship with Ad-aware**, once an effective anti-spyware company. It climbs into the ever annoying Google Tool Bar which itself is a form of spyware.
The question remains will Ad-aware, a Google Company, have the gonads to remove or block the spyware from Double Click? As a pararepairer for computers, what I see is the development of a very invasive data collection company like Gator***; but one with a giant reach.
For the moment I am serious contemplating of switching away from Google to Altavista.com which is a cleaner less ad invasive form of Yahoo. If you read this please join the move to reduce the use of Google replacing it with other search engines until a written declaration is made by Google to the effect that there will be Chinese Walls between these companies. Of course it is always a good policy to never trust any online computer company.
Why this ethically challenging move? In short it is a response to Microsoft's effort to buy the very invasive Claria or Gator company who I believe seriously attempts to literally take over the home personal computer. Regardless, this is a very serious move the first anti user, pro commercial move by Google. The true colours may be emerging.
Keep checking back to this particular blog entry. It may soon disappear because Google also owns the blogspot.com
Reference links
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Click
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad-aware
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gator_%28spyware%29
Google operates this blog site. It will be a challenge to them It also recently bought Double Click*. It is one of the most pervasive group of spyware on the internet.
This is alarming. While it is quite understandable for a company to provide advertising on its web pages, it is quite another for a search engine to engage in providing spyware onto users computers.
Not only that. Last January, Google developed a working relationship with Ad-aware**, once an effective anti-spyware company. It climbs into the ever annoying Google Tool Bar which itself is a form of spyware.
The question remains will Ad-aware, a Google Company, have the gonads to remove or block the spyware from Double Click? As a pararepairer for computers, what I see is the development of a very invasive data collection company like Gator***; but one with a giant reach.
For the moment I am serious contemplating of switching away from Google to Altavista.com which is a cleaner less ad invasive form of Yahoo. If you read this please join the move to reduce the use of Google replacing it with other search engines until a written declaration is made by Google to the effect that there will be Chinese Walls between these companies. Of course it is always a good policy to never trust any online computer company.
Why this ethically challenging move? In short it is a response to Microsoft's effort to buy the very invasive Claria or Gator company who I believe seriously attempts to literally take over the home personal computer. Regardless, this is a very serious move the first anti user, pro commercial move by Google. The true colours may be emerging.
Keep checking back to this particular blog entry. It may soon disappear because Google also owns the blogspot.com
Reference links
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Click
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad-aware
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gator_%28spyware%29
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