Peace In Our Time

Radioactive Religion Of Submission 11 Comments

‘Geneva talks a facade, US-Iran worked secretly on deal for past year’

The report, which relied on unnamed senior Israeli officials, said the US team to the secret talks was led by Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. Her primary interlocutor, the report said, was the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi. The talks have been taking place in various Gulf states.
In the course of the talks, the report said, the Americans offered the Iranians a series of “confidence-building measures,” which underlined American readiness to conclude a deal and undercut sanctions pressure.

Related.

Daniel Hannan

What He Said 9 Comments

The World of English Freedoms

Asked, early in his presidency, whether he believed in American exceptionalism, Barack Obama gave a telling reply. “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”
The first part of that answer is fascinating (we’ll come back to the Greeks in a bit). Most Brits do indeed believe in British exceptionalism. But here’s the thing: They define it in almost exactly the same way that Americans do. British exceptionalism, like its American cousin, has traditionally been held to reside in a series of values and institutions: personal liberty, free contract, jury trials, uncensored newspapers, regular elections, habeas corpus, open competition, secure property, religious pluralism.
The conceit of our era is to assume that these ideals are somehow the natural condition of an advanced society–that all nations will get around to them once they become rich enough and educated enough. In fact, these ideals were developed overwhelmingly in the language in which you are reading these words. You don’t have to go back very far to find a time when freedom under the law was more or less confined to the Anglosphere: the community of English-speaking democracies.

h/t Derek

The World Is Being Run By Crazy People

nannystate 32 Comments

Bloomberg;

The City of Brotherly Love and communities across the U.S. face the specter of hundreds of millions of dollars in useless hydrants after a surprise ruling last month by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that requires fireplugs put in after Jan. 4 meet stricter standards for lead content, said Tom Curtis of the American Water Works Association in Denver. That means cities must scrap or retrofit inventory or buy hydrants and parts that some vendors aren’t even making yet.

Related.

We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans

Alternative Subsidy 28 Comments

Ottawa Citizen;

Trillium Power Wind Corp. has won an appeal that will allow it to proceed with a $2.25-billion lawsuit against the government of Ontario for imposing what the company alleges was a politically motivated moratorium on offshore wind farm development during the 2011 election.
[…]
The Liberal government is still dealing with the fallout from another decision made during the 2011 election — its decision to cancel gas-fired power plants in Oakville and Mississauga to save Liberal seats.
Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk put the cost of the cancellations at about $1 billion in a report last month. And OPP detectives visited Premier Kathleen Wynne’s office Wednesday as part of their criminal investigation into the destruction of emails related to the two cancelled plants.

Hugo Chavez, Not Dead Enough

Great Moments In Socialism 21 Comments
Forward!

Venezuela’s socialist government has arrested more than 100 “bourgeois” businessmen in a crackdown on alleged price-gouging at hundreds of shops and companies since the weekend, President Nicolas Maduro said on Thursday.
“They are barbaric, these capitalist parasites!” Maduro thundered in the latest of his lengthy daily speeches. “We have more than 100 of the bourgeoisie behind bars at the moment.”

Renegade Regulator

CSA 13 Comments

Ms Pegeot was Assistant Deputy Minister at Industry Canada during the same period that she was a Board member for CSA, an entity that reported to her Industry Canada office.
The CSA lobbied Industry Canada during 2012 for “additional limited protections from civil proceedings.” Over several years, the CSA has received from Industry Canada a series of immunities from litigation. Ms Pegeot, in her senior roles in Industry Canada, may or may not have influenced the proceedings in favour of her other interests at CSA, though any protection from legal accountability afforded by her Department to CSA would necessarily have benefitted her also.
The CSA routinely lobbies the federal Government for funding for various activities external to its original Charter. The CSA received $5,623,998.30 from the Canadian governments during 2011. This sum is in addition to CSA’s revenues afforded by governments from sales of access to legal statutes, sales of influence at legislative committees, sales of certification marks, etc. Permitting a senior executive of the Federal Government to hold a Board Membership in a regulatory entity receiving many millions of dollars every year in Federal Government funding is, at best, the appearance of “using their official roles to inappropriately obtain advantage” [Code, Part 1, Section A, Article 3].
[…]
In 2009, Industry Canada appointed Mr. Ash Sahi as Chief Executive Officer of CSA. In 2009, Ms Pegeot was Vice President, Policy & Planning at the Canada Economic Development, Regions of Quebec agency, itself an autonomously run subset of Industry Canada. It should further be noted that Mr. Sahi is the former Director, Industry and Trade, at Industry Canada. Additionally, Mr. Sahi was the Special Advisor to the Privy Council of Canada.
Also in 2009, Industry Canada appointed Mr. John Walter as Chief Executive Officer of the SCC, the federal body responsible for policing the CSA. Mr. Walter is the former Vice President, Standards Development at the CSA.

Cozy place.

YNoKyoto

Uncategorized 35 Comments

SDA gets results!

Today, Paul Calandra, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, issued the following statement on behalf of the Government of Canada on Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s introduction of legislation to repeal the carbon tax:
“Canada applauds the decision by Prime Minister Abbott to introduce legislation to repeal Australia’s carbon tax. The Australian Prime Minister’s decision will be noticed around the world and sends an important message.
“Our government knows that carbon taxes raise the price of everything, including gas, groceries, and electricity. Prime Minister Abbott has said that, in Australia, the repeal of the carbon tax will reduce the average household’s cost of living by (in Australian dollars) $550 a year, take $200 off household power bills and $70 off gas bills.
“Our government has reduced greenhouse gas emissions while protecting and creating Canadians jobs – greenhouse gas emissions are down since 2006, and we’ve created 1 million net new jobs since the recession – and we have done this without penalising Canadian families with a carbon tax.”

Here – and in Japan!

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