A still smoldering France surrenders to the French;

Fired workers at a bankrupt French auto-parts supplier won severance pay averaging 28,500 euros ($40,500) after threatening to blow up their factory …..

Via Osumashi Kinyobe , a Washington Post map details the death camps of North Korea.
Some day politicians will line up to wring their hands to declare “if only they had known”. Again.

“People over 80 are multiplying faster than any other age group…”

h/t Cal2 and Dutch Canuck, who notes – “Only in a tossed-off aside at the bottom of paragraph 5 do they mention dropping birthrates. Talk about burying the lede!”

Minneapolis joins the category of cities best observed from a safe distance.

It was the colour of money…

People briefed on its plans say [General Motors] is looking into changing the background color of its corporate logo from blue to green in an effort to show consumers that it is leaner and greener, more focused on fuel efficiency and better able to make quick decisions.

… of banning one beverage, while permitting hundreds of others that differ only in the fact that they have artificial flavour and colour added.
Consider the consequences of this “smart” social policy the next time someone has to airlift thousands of gallons of bottled water into an earthquake zone overnight – and ask yourself just where the hell they’re supposed to get it.

That’s what federal regulators are saying with Tuesday’s announcement that they will consider curtailing “excessive speculation” in energy markets. The move comes in response to last year’s spike in oil prices, which soared to a record $145 a barrel a year ago next week and pushed gasoline prices above $4 at the pump in many parts of the country. Since the start of this year, crude prices have jumped 42 percent, even though the recession has crimped demand and storage tanks are full.
Speculators must be to blame.
No one seems upset about last fall, though, when those same speculators helped drive down prices by more than $111 a barrel in the last five months of the year.

Another good piece at Rigzone.

And I, for one, welcome his new microchip overlords;

To fairly divide the climate change fight between rich and poor, a new study suggests basing targets for emission cuts on the number of wealthy people, who are also the biggest greenhouse gas emitters, in a country.
Since about half the planet’s climate-warming emissions come from less than a billion of its people, it makes sense to follow these rich folks when setting national targets to cut carbon dioxide emissions, the authors wrote on Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

That said, the ear tag does have a certain appeal.
Via

As California goes…

h/t
Do you suppose anyone in Ottawa has bothered to check? And by “anyone”, I mean those Keynesian worshiping idiots in every party.
Actually, I’d like to take that part about “Keynesian worshiping idiots” back. Canadian “recovery” spending is more apt to be the product of last week’s polling twitch than last century’s economic theory.
Besides, “ignorant servile scum!” has a much better ring to it.

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
June 29, 2009 – “While promoting his new cap-and-trade energy tax bill, which passed the U.S. House last week, President Obama revealed in a White House address on Monday his model for the nation’s economy – California.”
July 1, 2009 – “GM to Stop Making Cars in California”

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Business Week, June 26th – California regulators expanded a state car-scrapping program Friday to provide incentives of as much as $4,000 to motorists who surrender high-polluting vehicles and replace them with cleaner cars..
Associated Press, June 26th – State Controller John Chiang said he will have to start issuing IOUs as soon as Thursday without a budget revision because California will lack enough incoming tax revenue to meet all its payment obligations..
h/t Mike, in the comments.

Where the foxes caper unmolested, the government packs your school lunch, and Canterbury is ruled “sufficiently gay”;

A government watchdog decided that Canterbury in Kent does enough to promote homosexual culture, rejecting a complaint by local activists.
[…]
As part of the investigation, the council had to prove its inclusiveness by giving details of “touring plays and musicals, for example, which would be of interest to the LGBT community”.
And it had to show that it had “put forward suggestions for small events that it might help fund, as well as proposals for other events such as exhibitions”.
Rob Davies, spokesman for the council, said: “Obviously we’re delighted with the outcome of the investigation.

h/t

Unsurprisingly…

Larry Hubich, the president of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, said the decision was “a significant and disturbing development.”

h/t Neil from Regina

Can’t you buy your own? What does a freaking bottle of hand sanitizer cost, anyway?

John Robson writes:

In light of the Ontario government’s a brave new plan to nationalize children, might I submit a modest proposal of my own? Forget kindergarten and after-school programs. The state should pick up your kids from the maternity ward and return them with an MA and a social conscience 22 years later.

Why do things halfway, indeed.