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Via Dyspepsia Generation, Pierre Lemieux's "The Vacuity of the Political 'We'".

DG: "When politicians say 'We need to do X' or 'We'll have to start doing Y', ask them whether they have a mouse in their pocket."

Global Mean Temperature from 1850 to 2006, derived from US Bureau of Meteorology Data.

We're doomed, I tell ya', doomed!

"EDMONTON - The jury trial for a 31-year-old man accused of fatally beating a man on an Edmonton LRT car in December 2012 has been delayed because the defence is concerned about a lack of diversity in the jury pool.

"Jury selection for the trial of Jeremy Newborn was derailed on Thursday when a family member claimed there was a lack of aboriginals in the randomly-drawn jury pool awaiting their name to be called…"

More lies about renewables.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2783061/LUNACY-The-Lib-Dem-energy-minister-switched-biggest-power-station-coal-wood-brought-diesel-guzzling-ships-U-S-The-result-It-costs-fortune-emits-pollution.html

Andrew Coyne: Whether we choose action or inaction against ISIS, there will be risks

Much as many people would like to pretend otherwise, there is no safe moral ground in this fight, without implications for Canada. Whether we act, however we act, it is in all cases a choice; as such we are implicated in the results no matter what we do or do not do. And the results, in all cases, are likely to be troubling: ambiguous at best, horrific at worst, tenuous and impermanent at all times.

I say this because of the myth, so prevalent in these debates, that all of the risks lie on the side of action — as if there were a risk-free option; as if the alternative to action, with all of its perils, were some imagined status quo of peace and “stability”; as if we were not as much responsible for the consequences of our inaction as of our action. However we try, we cannot deny or evade that responsibility, cannot pretend that because we did nothing, because it is not on the nightly news, we are not implicated.
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/10/06/andrew-coyne-whether-we-choose-action-or-inaction-against-isis-there-will-be-risks/

Electronic cigarettes, popularly known as e-cigarettes, will be banned from Winnipeg's largest school division. Trustees with the Winnipeg School Division voted on Monday to ban the use of e-cigarettes on school property. ... Last week, Vancouver city councillors voted to ban the use of e-cigarettes in public spaces and the sale of the devices to minors. Jurisdictions in Ontario and Alberta have also imposed bans.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/winnipeg-school-division-bans-e-014100833.html

Maybe there's hope for Alberta after all. Unlike the Wildrose party that suddenly believed in Global warming, it looks like Prentis has a aversion to bullshit when it comes to carbon capture. Great start.

http://business.financialpost.com/2014/10/06/terence-corcoran-jim-prentice-scores-on-pulling-carbon-capture-plug-but-big-tests-lie-ahead/

Wooohoooo, be nice to your mother in law because she could be waiting for you.

http://www.theprovince.com/life/There+evidence+life+after+death+scientists/10268189/story.html

Here is John Oliver presenting a curious facts from the land of the free.

http://dailycaller.com/2014/10/06/john-oliver-jeff-goldblum-explain-how-police-can-take-your-stuff-without-charging-you-with-a-crime/

Apparently police in the US can take your money, your car, your house or what ever and you are out of luck.
So if they for example to have a good beer party, all they have to do is stop a random motorist and confiscate his cash.

Just like that.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/jamie-carroll-former-liberal-national-director-faces-charge-under-lobbying-act-1.2789392

A corrupt Liberal?? Naaaaw--can't be! I was quite surprised at how the leftist media kept this story away from the limelight!!

Even more surprised when I saw it on CBC.Ca!!

Globe and Mail, Saturday, Oct. 4. Simon Houpt essentially argues that black is white, up is down, freedom is slavery, etc.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/its-time-to-be-honest-netflix-is-parasitic/article20918687/

"... Netflix, like the retail disruptor Walmart before it, is a parasitic enterprise. Netflix is currently pocketing an estimated $300-million a year from Canadian consumers. Its total investment in original Canadian programming so far? One season of Trailer Park Boys: 10 half-hour episodes of cheaply made TV."

If Netflix pays for the content it distributes to its customers, then it is not "parasitic". It should not be its job to fund Canadian programming.

What is parasitic is taking tax money or government-mandated extortion payments from private business to produce films that people don't want to watch, or at least don't watch enough for them to be viable. Houpt points out that some Canadian productions do get watched, which is fair enough. But the whole industry (as all others) should be conducted on a strict basis of voluntary trade for mutual benefit.

Toronto Star, Saturday, Oct. 4. Sherri Torjman (vice-president) and Ken Battle (president) of the Caledon Institute of Social Policy on the federal government's ongoing income splitting proposals.

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/10/03/ottawa_should_think_hard_before_squandering_money_on_income_splitting.html

Caledon: "The proposed measure would be a big tax win for the minority 15 per cent of households — most with high incomes — with a sole male breadwinner and stay-at-home mother. Single adults, single parents, childless couples and lower-income families would get nothing."

"Tax breaks should assist all families and not just the well-off."

This particular tax break is not aimed at the well-off or the poor, it's aimed at one-income families. To criticize it for not helping the poor is like criticizing antibiotics for not helping against viruses - it's a different issue.

Caledon: "... certain functions are best carried out through collective investment rather than tax breaks. Tax cuts to individual households do not build a country with public amenities that can be enjoyed by all citizens, regardless of income."

"Take, for example, the children’s fitness tax credit, which reduces income taxes for the cost of participation in certain programs. The annual $115-million federal cost of this tax expenditure alone could be better spent on investing in spaces and facilities that benefit everyone. Families cannot possibly construct and maintain through their individual contributions essential infrastructure such as parks, trails, arenas, rinks and pools."

This is exactly the wrong way to think about these issues. Not everyone benefits from specific parks, trails, arenas, etc. If you're playing hockey, you should probably be paying for the arena rental, to help recoup the costs of the private company who built it. The rest of us are not involved, and should not be paying for it.

The phrase "build[ing] a country with public amenities", i.e., "nation-building", really means socialism-building, and socialism is a trip to the poorhouse for everyone. "Collective investment" that does not provide police, military and courts should be transferred to become "private sector investment" where it belongs.

However, I oppose the children's fitness tax credit and most tax loopholes on general principles. Other than for oneself, one's spouse, one's kids and for charitable donations, tax deductions should be eliminated. In return, tax rates should be kept low.

A German war song that has captured the hearts of millions of soldiers all over the world!

No one can sing it Like Marlene Dietrich.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-szCTIE4q0

Toronto Star / New York Times, Sunday, Oct. 5. Paul Krugman reviews what appears to be a very bad book.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/books/review/seven-bad-ideas-by-jeff-madrick.html?_r=0

Krugman: "In 'Seven Bad Ideas: How Mainstream Economists Have Damaged America and the World,' Jeff Madrick — a contributing editor at Harper’s Magazine and a frequent writer on matters economic — argues that the professional failures since 2008 didn’t come out of the blue but were rooted in decades of intellectual malfeasance."

Unfortunately, Idea no. 1 is the "invisible hand" and no. 2 is Say's Law. These two concepts are at the very foundation of economics. To try to do economics without these is to try to do medicine without the human body.

Krugman: "... economists arguing for free markets and limited government try to have it both ways: They claim that their doctrine is a deep insight derived from first principles, but dismiss as irrelevant the overwhelming evidence that these assumed principles don’t hold in practice."

The economy consists of all acts of voluntary trade by individual human beings for mutual benefit. For maximum effectiveness, the freedom to make value-judgments is essential. To claim that this doesn't work in practice is to claim that coercion, through government interference in voluntary trade decisions, can do better than individual preferences about their own lives, which is ridiculous. Coercion does not produce, create, invent or discover, it only destroys.

Krugman: "Economists presented as reality an idealized vision of free markets, dressed up in fancy math that gave it a false appearance of rigor. As a result, the world was unprepared when markets went bad."

The markets didn't go bad, they were the victims of massive amounts of coercive government interference, not just in 2008 but for decades leading up to it.

Ebola:
Until symptoms show, a visual inspection is no god, it takes a [time-consuming] test.
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Query - if as we are told it cannot be transmitted by a cough or sneeze, why are we then told we can get it from an object (doorknob, clothing, etc.) which has been coughed or sneezed upon?
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There is no vaccine, but there are two "cures" (albeit one is not very effective and can create worse problems). Alas, they are both "experimental" and the FDA and manufacturers have not come up to speed after several weeks - so there is no supply.
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http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/experimental-ebola-drug-used-emory-hospital-no-lon/nhcS6/
"Channel 2’s Rachel Stockman learned that the experimental drug used to help Ebola patients taken to Emory University Hospital is no longer available."

PET Cemetery Report.

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"Former Liberal national director faces charge under federal Lobbying Act"

"The Mounties have charged the former national director of the federal Liberal party with running afoul of the Lobbying Act.

Jamie Carroll did not file a return with the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying, contrary to a section of the act, the RCMP alleged Monday."

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/former-liberal-national-director-faces-charge-under-federal-lobbying-act-1.1415823

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"EU abandons 'dirty' label for tar sands oil"

"EU sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the desire for a trade deal with Canada had been a factor given the situation with Moscow."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/07/energy-eu-canada-tarsands-idUSL6N0S21AM20141007

Even in Saskatchewan, the Green Stupid marches on.

Triple the building cost, reduce output by a third.

http://eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=85237

No thanks. I think we'll stick to our "broad strata" line.

http://canadianlandowneralliance.blogspot.ca/2014/10/arsy-empee-old-blackfoot-word-meaning.html

Signs that the recovery is on solid ground.

http://canadianlandowneralliance.blogspot.ca/2014/10/better-lube-up-ol-printing-press.html

Two interesting developments on the climate front -- first, Naomi Klein has just become a strong advocate for private property rights:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/07/naomi-klein-uk-fracking-trespass-law-flouts-democratic-rights

And all that "missing heat" that supposedly went into the "deep oceans" -- well, it seems NASA and the JPL can't find it:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4321

So now, I guess, I'll have to come clean -- it's hidden in my mattress.

"IMF cuts economic growth outlook, citing ‘uneven global recovery’"
(Globe-Mail)

...-

"IMF sees ‘solid’ Canadian growth, despite ‘uneven’ global recovery"

http://business.financialpost.com/2014/10/07/imf-sees-solid-canadian-growth-despite-uneven-global-recovery/

Liberal David ignores AGW Kills.

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"For 15 years, voters and those they elect have ignored the Environment Commissioner
By David Akin" (sun)

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"It’s official: no global warming for 18 years 1 month"

"The RSS monthly satellite global temperature anomaly for September 2014 is in, and the Great Pause is now two months longer than it was last month. Would this year’s el Niño bite soon enough to stop the psychologically-significant 18-year threshold from being crossed? The official answer is No.

Globally, September was scarcely warmer than August, which was itself some distance below the 18-year trend-line. Therefore, taking the least-squares linear-regression trend on the RSS satellite monthly global mean surface temperature anomalies, there has now been no global warming for 18 years 1 month."

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/10/02/its-official-no-global-warming-for-18-years-1-month/

O's dog ate ebola. Carumba! Si.

"Spanish authorities plan to kill the dog of the nurse who tested positive to Ebola in Madrid."

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"Paradigm Shift"

"Even more tragi-comic is Spain’s response to accusations that a nurse was somehow infected through her protective garments. They’ve decided to shoot the patient’s dog.

Spanish authorities plan to kill the dog of the nurse who tested positive to Ebola in Madrid.
The woman’s husband, who has been put in quarantine, said in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Mundo that he was asked to give authorisation to kill the pet, after fears spread that he might have contracted the virus too. …

I received a phone call by Julio Zarco [director general of the Patient Care of the Community Madrid] who told me that the dog should be killed. He asked me if I can give the authorisation, but I didn’t give it."

http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2014/10/07/paradigm-shift/#more-39753