First of all, I would like to make clear that I had no advance knowledge of events as they were to unfold last evening in what has become known as the “Celine Dion Incident”.
In an effort to restore balance to the universe, this evening’s Readers Tips selection comes to you live from 1978. Gentlemen – adjust your volume.
Your tips in the comments.
It’s Probably Nothing
China; “With new project prices down over 20%, ‘homeowners’ exclaim “return our hard-earned money” and “this is very unfair…”
In The Mail
| Tragedy in the Commons: Former Members of Parliament Speak Out About Canada’s Failing Democracy — by Alison Loat and Michael MacMillan |
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Pauline’s Big Moment
Another Quebec election. More talk of separation. Yawn.
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We Don’t Need No Stinking Corn Oil
Yet another ‘consensus’ bites the dust.
Growing crops to make “green” biofuel harms the environment and drives up food prices, IPCC admits in dramatic U-turn
No one saw that coming, uh uh.
The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire
…the United States has groomed a whole generation of foreign policy wonks-in-training who lack any real understanding of how the world actually works. These impressive-on-paper people – let it be noted they are legion in both parties – the under-45′s who are always graduates of the right schools and first-rate players of The Game in Washington, DC (which really comes down to cultivating the right mentors who will guide you to the proper think-tank until your party returns to power), are no match for the stone-cold killers of the Kremlin, led by the Chekist-in-Chief Putin. They have grown up in a world where unipolar American power has never been challenged, and while they can utter pleasant, Davos-ready platitudes about the whole range of bien pensant issues – global warming, emerging trends in micro-finance, gender matters on the Subcontinent, et al – they have quite literally nothing to say when old-school conventional threats emerge and enemies – yes, enemies: not rivals or merely misunderstood would-be partners – emerge from the darkness with conquest and killing on their minds.
Related: “Brilliant. Positively brilliant. Thousands of American troops dangling at the end of a lifeline ultimately controlled by the sponsors of al Qaeda wasting billions of dollars on Obama’s strategy.”
We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans
I signed up with a wind farm developer in 1997 to host wind turbines on my farm. I thought it was good for the planet and as I was getting on a bit in years, it would be a nice supplement to my retirement income. I was so convinced that it was a good idea that I also convinced my neighbours and my brother (who was vehemently against anyone tampering with his land) to sign up to an option to lease to host wind turbines. The option to lease was a binding document that prevented us in any way from backing out of the deal. I had no concerns with the document because I was informed confidently by the developer that I would not hear the turbines above the ambient noise level. That subsequently proved to be very much a lie.
YNoKyoto: EU leaders delay decision on climate targets
Last month, the European Commission put forward a proposal to set a 2030 target of 40% emissions reduction from 1990 levels. It wanted a quick agreement, by the June European Council at the latest, so that the EU could go to a UN summit in September with a pledge for a globally binding UN deal.
A new global deal is supposed to be agreed in Paris at the end of 2015. An early pledge by Europe could spur other global powers to come forward with pledges in the following months, increasing the chances of a successful outcome in Paris next year.
But today’s discussions were dominated by the issue of energy independence, and leaders who had pushed for early agreement emerged from the Council acknowledging that the plan for agreement in June is now impossible. “At the European level we are facing a tough discussion,” said Werner Faymann, the chancellor of Austria. “For that reason we’ve agreed to discuss in June and to set a line by October for next year’s [Paris] conference.”
Reader Tips
16 Years ago Titanic won 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The movie had a famous theme song, My Heart Will Go On, sung by Canada’s own Celine Dion.
Your inspiring tips are welcome, as always, in the comments.
Will Ontario Taxpayers Be Four Times Unlucky?
Since October 2, 2003, Ontario taxpayers have suffered the wrath of spendaholic Liberal regimes. The first three were headed by Dalton McGuinty. Now Kathleen Wynne has the reins. Will she take her party to victory once again?
One of the Liberals’ propaganda arms, The Red Star, has already gone into full support mode:
It was left to anonymous government officials to let the Star’s Robert Benzie in on the real story: faced with stagnant revenues and a deficit of $11.7 billion, the Liberal government is contemplating a new surtax in its upcoming budget on people earning $150,000 and more.
…
Politicians can’t protect citizens — taxpayers — from fiscal realities forever. If we want the services we get from government, we’ve got to pay for them. And if we truly worry about growing inequality, increasing the burden on the (comparatively) well paid is one important way to address it.
Global Warming Cult Members on Display
Have you ever challenged a person when they’ve used the term “denier” to describe people who question the Theory of Man-made Global Warming? I have. But in every single case, when I’ve pointed out to them that their use of the “D” word is a direct reference/comparison to Holocaust Deniers, they adamantly state that it is not. In some ways, I believe them, for most are LIPs (Low Information Parrots) who are simply regurgitating the latest talking points they’ve absorbed from their MSM “news” sources.
However, no such excuse can be given to educated Leftists – the politicians and writers and academics who clearly DO know better. In a recent column, James Delingpole exposes one such person:
Global warming ‘deniers’ are as bad as ‘Holocaust deniers’ because climate change is as “as certain as Auschwitz”, a Guardian columnist, Nick Cohen, has claimed.
Delingpole provides a link to an interesting article published a month ago which provides a lengthy gallery of prominent Leftists and their use of the term “denier”.
Embrace Hollywood!
Jewish control of the media is preventing an open discussion of the Holocaust, prominent Hollywood director Oliver Stone told the Sunday Times, adding that the U.S. Jewish lobby was controlling Washington’s foreign policy for years.
In the Sunday interview, Stone reportedly said U.S. public opinion was focused on the Holocaust as a result of the “Jewish domination of the media,” adding that an upcoming film of him aims to put Adolf Hitler and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin “in context.”
Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors
Corruption at The Washington Post
So the Post could have written a very different story about the Keystone Pipeline. The Post could have written that opposition to the pipeline is being funded in large part by [billionaire Tom Steyer] who has a personal financial interest in the pipeline not being built. And that’s not all! The billionaire is a political crony who has used his connections in Washington to get rich and to fleece consumers and taxpayers. Now, with Keystone, he is doing it again! How is that for a story that would “stir and inflame public debate in this election year?”
[…]
So we have a contrast that couldn’t be clearer: the Washington Post published a false story about support for Keystone because it fit the Democratic Party’s agenda. It covered up a similar, but true story about opposition to the pipeline (and about “green” politics in general) because that, too, fit the Democratic Party’s agenda. I don’t think we need to look any further to connect the dots.
And yet, a still deeper level of corruption is on display here. Juliet Eilperin is a reporter for the Washington Post who covers, among other things, environmental politics. As I wrote in my prior post, she is married to Andrew Light. Light writes on climate policy for the Center for American Progress, a far-left organization that has carried on a years-long vendetta against Charles and David Koch on its web site, Think Progress. Light is also a member of the Obama administration, as Senior Adviser to the Special Envoy on Climate Change in the Department of State. The Center for American Progress is headed by John Podesta, who chaired Barack Obama’s transition team and is now listed as a “special advisor” to the Obama administration. Note that Ms. Eilperin quoted Podesta, her husband’s boss, in her puff piece on Tom Steyer.
Oh, yes-one more thing. Guess who sits on the board of the Center for American Progress? Yup. Tom Steyer.
Civil Forfeiture & Bruce Montague
Grab a coffee and spend forty minutes with Karen Selick, of the Canadian Constitution Foundation. (h/t Me No Dhimmi)
More Pavilions At Folkfest
Islamic law is to be effectively enshrined in the British legal system for the first time under guidelines for solicitors on drawing up “Sharia compliant” wills.
Under ground-breaking guidance, produced by The Law Society, High Street solicitors will be able to write Islamic wills that deny women an equal share of inheritances and exclude unbelievers altogether.
The documents, which would be recognised by Britain’s courts, will also prevent children born out of wedlock – and even those who have been adopted – from being counted as legitimate heirs.
h/t Philanthropist
The Sound Of Settled Science
“Most people probably assume that satellite estimates of sea level change are based on accurate, actual measurements. They would likely be shocked to find that, instead, they are based on dodgy data, that is then subjected to massive adjustments, bigger than the observed changes.“
Reader Tips
Last year a chocolate company created an ad that was an homage to Audrey Hepburn. If you’re curious how it was done, here’s an explanation.
For those not so familiar with Ms. Hepburn, here’s a reminder.
Your tips are appreciated, as always, in the comments.
The Tolerant Left
Thomas Sowell on the “mascots of the self-congratulatory elites.“
Vancouver’s Unfolding “Povertygate”
The recent revelations of the luxurious spending of the Portland Hotel Society appear to be just the opening chapter in a long tale of corruption and greed. The National Post’s Brian Hutchinson had much to say this morning:
Among the astonishments in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, its heavily subsidized misery and decay, are the politicians. They rule in perpetuity while producing, well, what?
Mr. Small was a handsomely compensated and increasingly well-travelled executive with the PHS Community Services Society (PHS), the biggest, most aggressive social services provider in the neighbourhood, a $28-million-a-year giant funded almost entirely by tax dollars, most from provincial coffers, with millions more in federal funding topping things off.
A smile, she has said, “is worth a thousand bucks.” But a toot across Europe costs a lot more, as she has just discovered. In her case, $34,992.27, at least.
Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors
But it soon became obvious this was no CBC Sunday school primer in corporate tax, nor was it an instructional seminar in which the straight facts would be exposed by an expert. From top to bottom, this was a set up, with Mr. Enright as chief wolf and protagonist. Nothing was fully presented, backgrounds were unstated, journalistic methods were highly questionable, the facts were mangled and the objectives hidden.
The interviewee, Dennis Howlett, is not a tax specialist, let alone a corporate tax expert. He’s a long time social activist who has held a variety of posts, including executive director of the National Anti-Poverty Organization. He’s been a relentless campaigner over decades for social justice, wealth redistribution and soak-the-rich government intervention. He’s a star in NDP circles.