Above The Law

Political Animal 50 Comments

Christie Blatchford;

Whichever plot you favour to explain the now-scuttled appointment of Marc Nadon to the Supreme Court of Canada — there’s a convoluted connection to the former boy terrorist/boy victim Omar Khadr which has been offered to explain both appointment and scuttling, but the really fabulous one is that the high court has stepped in yet again to check that well-known force of darkness, Prime Minister Stephen Harper — it’s crystal clear that the Supreme Court of Canada is unhappy with this government which insists upon doing the business of governing.

h/t Kevin B

This Is Not Your Grandma’s Humane Society

Animal Rights Extremism Dogblogging 18 Comments

I cannot imagine an animal caring whether he or she is in the city or the country. Just look at the happy dogs in New York City play groups, they are not yearning for the primal woods, they are happy to be with their people, to go to the same place every day, find the same tree every day, see other dogs and get fed and given attention. Can one imagine anybody telling the dog owners of New York that they must give their dogs away and sell them only to people in the country who must promise not to let them work? That only this would make them “happy?” The emotional lives of animals are not complex, it does not take a lot to please them, they do not envy other animals the lives they have.

An excellent piece.

Y2Kyoto: I’ll Miss The Polar Bears

Y2Kyoto 11 Comments

Polar Bear Science;

I’ve finally had a chance to go through all of the details provided with the 2013 PBSG status table (pdf here). It’s just about all good news, once you wade through the spin. Numbers aside, out of the 13 populations for which some kind of data exist, five populations are now classified by the PBSG as ‘stable’ (two more than 2009), one is still increasing, and three have been upgraded from ‘declining’ to ‘data deficient’ (I explain below why this is a promotion).
That leaves four that are still considered ‘declining’- two of those judgments are based primarily on concerns of overhunting, and one is based on a statistically insignificant decline that may not be valid and is being re-assessed (and really should have been upgraded to ‘data deficient’). That leaves only one population – Western Hudson Bay – where PBSG biologists tenaciously blame global warming for all changes to polar bear biology, and even then, the data supporting that conclusion is still not available.

We Are All Treaty People

Mischief Is Important Moonbats 29 Comments

“After the Gormley event I was left in a state of confusion. I didn’t know how to feel about what I had experienced. I wasn’t sure if I was feeling like a coward or a warrior? If by being there was I being relentless or abiding? I found myself wondering if I was so desensitized not to lift a finger…Wondering have I allowed my colonized mind to get in the way of my passion for justice. All because of my patterned straying from over-sensitivity in a public setting.”

Note: Those who wish to engage their spirit passions (relentless or abiding) in the discussion should probably consult this page as a style guide.

Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors

Ethical Energy Media 12 Comments

According to the Washington Post…

You might expect the biggest lease owner in Canada’s oil sands, or tar sands, to be one of the international oil giants, like Exxon Mobil or Royal Dutch Shell. But that isn’t the case. The biggest lease holder in the northern Alberta oil sands is a subsidiary of Koch Industries, the privately-owned cornerstone of the fortune of conservative Koch brothers Charles and David.

Oops.

Who is Post reporter Juliet Eilperin? Among other things, she is married to Andrew Light, who writes on climate policy for the Center for American Progress. The Center for American Progress is an Obama administration front group headed by John Podesta, who is a “special advisor” to the Obama administration. CAP’s web site, Think Progress, has carried out a years-long vendetta against the Koch brothers that has focused largely on the environment. Ms. Eilperin’s conflict in writing about environmental issues has already been a subject of controversy at the Post.

Related: ‘People Would Be Surprised At The Level Of Cooperation Reporters Have With Politicians’

Redford’s Departure “Must” Have Been Due to Misogyny

Baiting The Left Insufferable Twits 54 Comments

In the Lefist world of identity politics, you just KNEW this was coming:

Inevitably there will be accusations of misogyny. There will be questions about why Redford and Dunderdale, embraced by voters a short time ago, are now regarded as abrasive and unable to connect with people. There will be new lessons to learn.

It is too early for definitive judgments, but in the wake of Redford’s resignation it is possible to start disentangling the factors that brought down two talented, capable women who turned their languishing parties around, provided solid economic leadership and were seen outside their provinces as capable and progressive.

Riding Mass Transit Is Like Inviting 20 Government Pickpockets Into Your Car

Roadkill 16 Comments

Portland Light Rail Revolt;

… Portland’s transit agency faces financial difficulty and has been seriously criticized in a report by Secretary of State. The agency has more than $1 billion in unfunded liabilities and carries a smaller share of commuters than before the first of its six light rail and commuter rail lines was opened. Moreover, the latest American Community Survey data indicates that 3,000 more people work at home than ride transit (including light rail and commuter rail) to work in the Portland metropolitan area. Before light rail (1980), transit commuters numbered 35,000 more than people working at home. Over the period, transit’s market share has dropped one-quarter.

We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans

Alternative Subsidy 14 Comments

E.O. 13514:Agencies Leading by Example.”

A 600-kilowatt wind turbine — some 245 foot tall — stands on the wintry VA grounds, frozen in time and temperature, essentially inoperable for the past 1 1/2 years. No one is working to fix it, though many attempts were made to repair the turbine, once billed as a model green energy project.
“The St. Cloud VA is a hospital, and our focus is on our patients and we like to think that we treat our veterans very well here,” said Barry Venable, a public affairs officer for the VA in St. Cloud. “We’re embarrassed that this turbine does not operate as advertised.”
That’s quite the about-face from the buildup in December 2009 over the announcement of the central Minnesota turbine, the lone Department of Veterans Affairs project included in the White House document touting President Obama’s executive order for federal agencies to lead the way on renewable energy.

High on Spending Other People’s Money

Baiting The Left Great Moments In Socialism Vast Right Wing Conspiracy 38 Comments

Two audits of Vancouver’s Portland Hotel Society have revealed some interesting expense claims:

The leadership team of the Portland Hotel Society — Mark Townsend, his wife Liz Evans, Dan Small and Kirsten Stuerzbecher — chose to resign after the government gave the team an ultimatum earlier this week. Townsend said they were given “a stark choice” to either step down or fight a legal battle that would put the society into receivership.

Managers and directors expensed more than $69,000 over three years on restaurants, and more than $300,000 on travel to Vienna, Paris, Istanbul, New York City, Los Angeles, Banff and Ottawa, among other locations.

If Townsend’s name sounds familiar, that’s because this is not the first time he has appeared on SDA. He was prominently featured in a CNN International documentary about Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Continue reading →

This Is Not Your Grandma’s Humane Society

Animal Rights Extremism 24 Comments

Alberta Farmer;

Egg farmers at the meeting also got a glimpse into how big the animal rights business has become. Humane Society International, based in Washington but also Canada’s biggest animal rights player, brought in $9.3 million in revenue for 2012. Its U.S. parent, the Humane Society of the United States raises more than $120 million every year.
Less than one per cent of that is used for animal care, said Kay Johnson Smith, president of Animal Agriculture Alliance in the U.S.
“It spends $25 million every year on lobbying and legislative campaigns — campaigns to disparage agriculture,” Johnson Smith said. “It spends $20 million just to fundraise to bring in the other $100 million.
“It’s a big industry, and they have a very big budget dedicated to ending our industry and ending your livelihood.”
But activism isn’t really about farmer practices or even animal welfare, said 
Austin.
“It’s not about improving welfare practices,” she said. “Don’t expect that they’ll go away because you did what they asked you to. They keep moving that bar to make it impossible for you to do business.”

Oh, Shiny Pony!

Shiny Pony 15 Comments

CBC;

On Thursday, the Federal Trinity-Spadina Liberal Association announced, via press release, that the local executive has “voted to condemn both the process and the decision made by the Liberal Party to block its only known nominee in an imminent by-election.”
[…]
The release claims the party “made unproven and malicious allegations against the candidate and her family” in an effort to “cover up its desire to control the nomination process” — specifically, they allege, in response to Innes’s refusal to sign a written pledge to run for the nomination in Spadina-Fort York in 2015.

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