Deux nations!
1) John Ibbitson, Globe and Mail:

Harper unbound: An analysis of his first year as majority PM
….
One year after winning his first majority government, a milestone he marks on Wednesday, and more than six years after becoming prime minister, Stephen Harper bestrides Canadian politics, a principled economic and social conservative who is reshaping the nation.
…This Prime Minister’s steady shifts in policy are not overly radical on their own but taken together are reshaping the nation’s sense of itself. He has established what could be called a new “Brand Canada” – a land of low taxes, law and order and a strong military, infused with a robust nationalism, rooted in the West and powered by Ontario’s affluent, aspirational suburbs…

2) Michael Den Tandt, Postmedia News:

One year into majority government, Harper’s Conservatives seem to have misplaced their hidden agenda
…one year after the vote that gave the Conservatives their fabled majority, guess what? Tactical brilliance is missing in action, with the government lurching from one pratfall to the next. And the Faustian hidden agenda? Received wisdom, among Harper haters, is that it’s approaching full flower. But if you drill past the surface, you’ll find your customary entitlements virtually unchanged. How can this be?
Indeed, apart from a few highly symbolic flashpoints — gun control and marijuana come to mind — the hidden agenda is gone, absorbed in a mush of accommodative compromise, to the point where government spinners have resorted to patiently walking journalists through all the ways in which, they claim, the Conservatives are transforming the country. Most Canadians have responded to this putative revolution with a blink and a yawn…

Huh?

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Rigzone, April 17th – President Barack Obama on Tuesday called for increasing penalties on oil speculators and boosting oversight of U.S. energy as part of a plan to crackdown on an “irresponsible few” who rig oil markets.
Rigzone, April 17th – President-elect Vladimir Putin outlines a highly favorable tax regime for offshore drilling in the Arctic in an attempt to attract foreign companies. The proposals from the Russian government includes abolishing export duty on petroleum products extracted from new offshore fields on the Arctic shelf…
h/t Adrian

Now is the Time When we Juxtapose

WSBTV July 26th 2011: Why has the US State Department spent $770 million to fix up mosques in Egypt? Can you imaging the outrage from the media if $770 million was spent to fix up Christian churches in the US, much less a foreign country? Cripes, I imagine there’d be outrage if $77,000. had been spent.
Feel The Change Media August 7th 2009: Maybe its because an entirely different agenda under Obama’s Leadership is playing out. No wonder by August 2010 the number of Americans who think Obama is a Muslim nearly doubled (Its probably more than 1 in 5 by now, but a heavy search came up with no new poll on the subject)

1984-01-22 – Apple releases it’s infamous ‘1984’ TV advertisement
2012-01-16 – Michigan elementary school students receive their Obama indoctrination

One view:

…for the most part, China has behaved responsibly in the World Trade Organization, G20 and climate-change negotiations…

Reality:

…China tells Europe to take its carbon tax and blow it out a jet engine
China, which lectured everyone else about their responsibility to curb greenhouse gas emissions at the latest UN climate conference, says there’s no damn way its planes are paying the carbon tax that will be collected on all international flights in and out of European Union next year…

Before anyone starts screaming I not attacking the Chinese for being soft on global warming. I’m just pointing out how deluded many of our great and good are about the Dragon.

2011-09-27 – North Carolina Democrat Governor Bev Perdue suggests quite soberly & succinctly that Congressional elections should be suspended for two years.
2012-01-26 – Governor Bev Perdue announces that she will not be seeking a 2nd term because she has been “plagued by low approval ratings“.
Related: A Gaston, NC newspaper has published an editorial stating that Perdue “battled for her beliefs”. Not one word was mentioned of the Democrat politician’s very undemocratic remarks.
h/t ‘Fearless Leader’

2004: George Bush blamed over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal
2012: Barack Obama portrayed as the victim over the Taliban urination scandal

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Michael Bryant, attorney-general of Ontario (2003-2007);

Suicides. Suicides dropped dramatically in Canada thanks to the federal gun registry. Not only do statistics prove as much, it stands to reason that with improved gun safety comes decreased gun fatalities; with fewer tools-of-choice for suicides available, fewer suicides occur. It just makes sense.

Statistics Canada; (LGR became mandatory in ’03).

Related Michael Bryant statistic: Since the pit bull ban was enacted in 2005, pit bulls have killed fewer Ontarians than former attorney general Michael Bryant.

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
New York Times editorial, 2005 – The Supreme Court’s ruling yesterday that the economically troubled city of New London, Conn., can use its power of eminent domain to spur development was a welcome vindication of cities’ ability to act in the public interest. It also is a setback to the “property rights” movement, which is trying to block government from imposing reasonable zoning and environmental regulations.
New York Times, 2011 – “Eminent Domain Fight Has a Canadian Twist: A Canadian company has been threatening to confiscate private land from South Dakota to the Gulf of Mexico, and is already suing many who have refused to allow the Keystone XL pipeline on their property…”
Nice catch by Mark L.

Dreams:
Aug 11, 2009: President Obama calls for civility in the health care debate.
Feb 4, 2010: President Obama calls for civility at National Prayer Breakfast.
Jan 12, 2011: President Obama calls for civility after Tucson shooting.
Reality:
Sept 5, 2011: Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa called on workers to “take these son-of-a-bitches out” as he warmed up a crowd Monday in Detroit ahead of President Obama’s Labor Day speech.
Sept 5, 2011: Vice-President Joe Biden referred to members of the Tea Party as “Barbarians at the Gate“. This is a reference to the less than civilized hordes who eventually took over the Roman Empire. Such a classy way for a VP of the United States of America to describe his own people, eh?!
h/t The Phantom
Update: Immediately after Hoffa threatened his fellow Americans, Obama had the opportunity to encourage him to strive for civility. He did not. Instead, he included him in a list of folks he’s “proud” of.   h/t Marc in Calgary

Almost barfed today listening to CKNW interview a woman from Toronto and a professor from Edmonton who have been successful in banishing food from school cafeterias. Canadian students are lining up by the 10’s for the top seller, bean curd, textured vegetable protein with a side of free range grass. Sales have collapsed but no worries, English and Science have been dropped from the curriculum. They found a slot between global warming 6.0 and the vital importance of of Jack’s beliefs 101 to indoctri…., er teach the little bolsheviks what they have eat to prepare them for their non-profit job.
School Lunches: New Nutrition Guidelines
“Our contractors have said that they’re anticipating huge revenue losses — some are anticipating as much as a 35 per cent [drop],” she says. “Pointing out that rural schools, where kids don’t have the option of nearby fast-food outlets, are generally much more profitable than urban ones.”
Want to Live Forever? Eat Chocolate
Eating more of it gives you one-third less risk of heart disease, and nearly a 30 percent decreased risk of stroke. By comparison, exercising regularly (rather than sitting on your butt all day, every day) only lowers your risk of heart disease by 45 percent.

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
United Press International, Aug.24th – USGS ups Marcellus Shale reserve estimate
New York Times, Aug.25th – Geologists Sharply Cut Estimate of Shale Gas
h/t Don B. who asks “Are the reserves up to 84 trillion or down to 84 trillion? It depends on whether or not you hate fossil fuels.”

In the 60s and 70s the “counter-culture” was of the left; now it is of the right. Discuss.

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
CBS News, August 2011 – Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s says it has downgraded the United States’ credit rating for the first time in the history of the ratings. […] The credit agency said late Friday that it is making the move because the deficit reduction plan passed by Congress on Tuesday did not go far enough to stabilize the country’s debt situation and that the policymaking is not stable or effective as needed to address the current economic challenge.
Globe Investor, May 2011 – The province joined an elite club of provinces on Tuesday when Standard & Poor’s upgraded its debt rating to triple-A […] Rather than quickly spending its newly-earned wealth, the provincial government has put its tax revenue toward paying the bills. S&P gave special credit to Saskatchewan for its “low-and-declining debt burden.”
(Related: Is that what you’d call a Tea Gopher upgrade?)

Evening News 24, UK

Not News, Calgary, AB

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose! From Canada’s bright thinkers at DND:

Critical energy and water shortages combined with climate change could provoke wars within the next 15 years, warns a newly-released analysis by the Department of National Defence.
“Global reserves of crude oil could become problematic by 2025,” wrote Maj. John Sheahan in a draft version of the report, Army 2040: First Look. “This implies that (barring the discovery of significant new reserves, and barring the adequate adoption of substitute fossil fuels or alternative fuel and energy sources) critical energy shortages will develop in the time frame of (and perhaps prior to) 2025.”
The report noted that alternative fuels and energy may not be enough to respond to rising demand for energy that is forcing oil production to reach its capacity — a threat commonly referred to as “peak oil.”
“There can be little doubt that unrestricted access to reliable energy supplies is a global strategic issue, one for which, recently, numerous nations have been willing to fight, and have indeed done so [where, other than Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait?],” said the report, released to Postmedia News through an Access to Information request. “Thus the trend that envisions depletion of fossil fuels such as crude oil in coming decades may also contribute to international tensions if not violent conflict.”..

From Neil Reynolds in the Globe and Mail’s “Report on Business” (where some of the paper’s best stuff of general interest is often relegated):

The London-based World Energy Council says Israel’s Shfela Basin, a half-hour drive south of Jerusalem, holds 250 billion barrels of recoverable shale oil, possibly making the energy-vulnerable country (as expressed by The Wall Street Journal) “the world’s newest energy giant.” With reserves of 260 billion barrels, Saudi Arabia would remain the world’s No. 1 oil country – though not, perhaps, for long. Howard Jonas, CEO of U.S.-based IDT Corp., the company that owns the Shfela Basin concession, says there is much more oil under Israel than under Saudi Arabia: Perhaps, he says, twice as much.
Even with a mere 250 billion barrels, the Shfela Basin (or 238 square kilometres of it) would make Israel the third-largest holder of shale reserves in the world – right behind the U.S. with 1.5 trillion barrels and China with 355 billion barrels. Assuming for the moment that Mr. Jonas is correct in his calculations, the U.S. and Israel would together hold shale reserves in excess of two trillion barrels: Enough oil to fuel these two countries (at combined consumption of eight billion barrels a year) for more than 200 years.
And the discovery of further vast energy reserves in the United States and Israel progresses at an accelerated (and now often frenzied) pace…
According to the [NY] Times, 20 of these shale oil plays could increase U.S. oil production by 25 per cent in the next 10 years. “This is very big and it’s coming fast,” says U.S. energy expert Daniel Yergin, chairman of the energy research company IHS CERA. “This is like adding another Venezuela or another Kuwait – except that these fields are in the U.S.”..

Then of course there’s the possible shale gas “revolution”. Keep scratching one’s head over conventional wisdom.

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Wall St. Journal:

The Facts About Fracking
The real risks of the shale gas revolution, and how to manage them.

NY Times:

Drilling Down
Insiders Sound an Alarm Amid a Natural Gas Rush

Canada might well have used something like this in Afstan:

Air Tractor is planning to showcase the armed version of its crop duster at this week’s Paris air show and possibly announce more orders, says Lee Jackson, a project engineer on the program.
The company has already secured its first order for the 802U…
The “U” designation denotes the military version, including hard points for weapons and sensors. It can carry 8,000 lb. of payload, including rail-launched and ejected weapons as well as sensors…

Earlier, and an image:

Our country–Publius hammers home:

The Priorities of Modern Canada
…Rather than being an attempt to promote a more bilingual Canada – which is an impracticality – official bilingualism was instead a covert form of pro-Francophone affirmative action.
Yet so central has this policy of appeasement become to our government that nothing is thought of paying a small fortune to educate a dyslexic paper shuffler in French…
The myth of national unity through appeasement contrasts with the myth of socialized health care…There is also no such thing as socialized health care. It is a polite euphemism for monopolistic and bureaucratic health care. The Medicare Cult’s defenders argue that the alternative to government care is a heartless free market, interested only in penny pinching and profit making. Do not, however, the actions of the Ministry of Health sound exactly like the caricature of a heartless corporate penny pincher?..

The United Nations appears to be a little schizophrenic:
November 9, 2010: UN Human Rights Council praises Libya
February 27, 2011: UN Security Council votes to sanction Libya
A bit odd, no? Clearly a “professional”, “competent” organization like the United Nations must have properly vetted Libya in the first place?!?