Fox’ documentary Gasland, claims that fracking, a way of drilling for natural gas, has polluted water and endangered lives. One of the most alarming scenes is when he lights water that residents claim has been polluted by fracking. It is dramatic and at first glance seems like a slam dunk. I mean they can light their water – it is polluted and there is gas drilling nearby. It must be responsible.
But then a little digging reveals a few inconvenient facts.
Peggy Joseph’s America
Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
October 2008…
May 2011…
What Would We Do Without Yale Professors?
It’s a little odd to be having this conversation as the news media keep insisting that private employment is picking up. But as economists have pointed out to all who will listen, the only real change is that the rate of layoffs has slowed. Fewer than one of six small businesses added jobs last year, and not many more expect to do so this year. The private sector is creating no more new jobs than it was a year ago; the man in the aisle seat is trying to tell me why.
Be sure to read to the end. Not because you’re going to learn anything new, but to witness Professor Carter learning something new.
h/t Marine
Anthony Weiner
Born again Republican!
Update – Weiner’s Penis Photo Dispute To Be Settled In Small Claims Court
O Canada – From Vancouver, Wednesday Night
A few hours later, the Canucks beat the Bruins 1 – 0, with a goal in the dying seconds of the game.
Update: Here’s how the NY Times covered the first game of the series in Vancouver. h/t Derek
Reader Tips
Just to let you all know, EBD is alive & well but just busy with a whole lot of other things for the next 40 days or so. During that time Kate & I will do our best to select interesting/quirky videos and/or musical selections that will strive to entertain & delight.
Prior to this evening, I think I may be one of a handful of Canadians who was fully aware that June 1st every year is Mexican Navy Day. Why did I know this? Well, the father of a very special lady in my life was both an admiral and a doctor in the Mexican Navy. Which meant, of course, that he owned both a gun and a scalpel. To say that I am intimidated by this gentleman would be the understatement of the century!
In honour of the Mexican Navy, please enjoy this musical tribute entitled El Siete Mares (The 7 Seas). As an added bonus, here are some members of the Mexican Navy rescuing a beached whale.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
Official Flower Of Statism
That dandelions are now spreading like weeds across Canada has its origins in a phony cancer scare. That it was (and is) a phony scare was confirmed again just last week when Ottawa, the Quebec government and Dow AgroSciences settled a lawsuit under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Dow AgroSciences had sued over Quebec government claims the pesticide 2,4-D, the key dandelion exterminator, was a health risk.
The settlement agreement, a victory for the company, includes a statement from the government of Quebec saying the pesticide 2,4-D does “not pose an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment” when used according to instructions. It is too late, however, to undo the damage at the municipal level.
I Can See Their Irrelevancy From My House
Speaking of CBS, Katie Couric’s unemployed now. And forget that front porch in Alaska. Sarah Palin can see revenge from her rear window.
Ralph Goodale
Entitled to his entitlements!
Is There Nothing That Obama Can’t Do?
Never attribute to stupidity…
Here In One Sentence is What Obama Doesn’t Understand About the Middle East
… what can be adequately explained by malice.
Related – Since his policy speech, president has taken a series of steps that only reinforce sense that he is most hostile US leader Jewish state has ever faced.
h/t FM, Instapundit
Scratch a Norwegian Leftist
Norwegian universities generally jump at any opportunity to invite lecturers from elsewhere. When my Harvard colleague Stephen Walt, co-author of “The Israel Lobby,” came to Norway, he was immediately invited to present a lecture at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Likewise with Ilan Pappe, a demonizer of Israel who teaches at Oxford.
My hosts expected, therefore, that their offer to have me present a different academic perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be eagerly accepted. I have written half a dozen books on the subject presenting a centrist view in support of the two-state solution. But the universities refused.
h/t Hasse@Norway
Bruce Bawer & Hege Storhaug In Ottawa
Bruce Bawer & Hege Storhaug: The Problems of Immigration in Europe.
Wednesday June 8, 2011, 7 PM. More details at the link.
Reader Tips
Shot on steep rocky cliffs near the shores of the Dead Sea, here’s a video showing the amazing climbing ability of the Ibex.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
Hashtag Of The Entitlement Generation
Sometimes I feel guilty about the crushing debt our generation is passing on to the next. Then I read news items like this;
Police said the gang members are part of a group of more than 1,000 youths who have used social media sites like Facebook to plan unruly gatherings on the beach on three of the past four nights.
Whatever!
I Can See Their Irrelevancy From My House
For …reporters looking for more details, Palin isn’t providing them. Palin’s staff has been unresponsive to reporters’ requests or told them to check the SarahPAC website, which updates with information only after she’s stopped somewhere.
The confusing nature of the trip – which was planned by two advance aides recently hired by Palin – played out at a coffee shop this morning, where Palin stopped to shake hands with locals in what looked to reporters like the very definition of a campaign-style photo-opportunity. Multiple people showed up at the event saying they were there because they wanted to see history –but they wouldn’t say where they had come from or how they had heard about the event.
“I just want to say that I’m witnessing history happening,” one woman said – three times. She wouldn’t give her name.
More at Drudge.
Rep by pop, Québec or not
Publius demands some spine from Mr Harper–another good read:
Quebec Rules
The Quebecois are different from you and me. They’re Quebecois.Quebec is demanding that the federal government not trim the province’s political clout in the House of Commons, warning that it will not be satisfied with the consolation prize of an extra seat or two.
Both the governing Liberals and the Parti Quebecois shrugged off reports that the Harper government might be prepared to add an extra seat for Quebec to soothe critics of the new Commons configuration.
What they want instead is a guarantee that the province will continue to hold 24 per cent of the chamber’s seats. Quebec currently has 75 of the 308 seats.This is the Quebec rule of Canadian politics. If something prejudices Quebec, no matter what it may do to the rest of Canada, it cannot come to pass…
…Our [RoC, once quaintly English Canada] sense of nationality can best be described as a neurotic hatred of the United States, interspersed with a militant insistence that we have no nationality. Canada as anti-American multicultural hotel. No doubt what the men of Juno Beach were hoping to find when they returned home.
The last half century of Canadian history is a case study in cultural appeasement. The steady surrender by the Anglophone majority of their culture in hopes of placating the Francophone minority…
The shift in relative economic and demographic strength to the West has been the great unsung story of the last few decades. From hinterland to heartland, the Prairie provinces and B.C. can now provide a counter-weight to the influence of self-interested Quebec and pragmatic Ontario. Back in April the Tories proposed giving Albert five and B.C. seven additional seats in the Commons, while Ontario would get another eighteen seats (mostly in the bluish suburbs surrounding Toronto). These new seats would not only recognize demographic reality, they would create the electoral basis of a Conservative Party pre-emience for decades to come.
Whatever pressure may come down upon the Prime Minister he must not, whatever the cost, fail to grant those new seats to the West and maintain Quebec at about its current 75 seats. For reasons of political cosmetics it might be necessary to toss another seat or two to Quebec. That province, however, cannot continue to be over represented…
Let Them Eat Euros
“A year after rescuing Greece from default, Europe is staring into the abyss. The bailout has proved insufficient. Greece needs more money, and it can’t borrow from private markets where it faces interest rates as high as 25%.”
But not an abyss abyss.
“Already, unemployment is 14.1% in Greece, 14.7% in Ireland, 11.1% in Portugal and 20.7% in Spain. What are the limits of austerity? Steep spending cuts and tax increases do curb budget deficits; but they also create deep recessions, lowering tax revenues and offsetting some of the deficit improvement.”
Mere sentences later, he actually uses the word “mirage” in a different context. Missed it by that much!
Related.
Re: Quebec and the NDP 50th Anniversary Convention
Memo to: Brad Lavigne (h/t Marina)
Doctor Says Greyhound Beheading Guy Deserves Expanded Privileges
He described Li as a “model patient” who has shown tremendous insight into his mental illness and the need to continue taking medication. Kremer said Li’s last reported hallucination occurred five months ago but was quickly managed by him.
WFP Update: “We will no longer accept comments on this story as submissions have been consistently unacceptable.”
I’ll bet.
Airborne Brotherhood
16 years after the Somalia inquiry which resulted in its “disbandment in disgrace,” the final commanding officer of the regiment is demanding an apology from the federal government.
h/t Alex in Winnipeg