Freelance Filmmaker Christoper Di Armani Wins The Internet

You can no more outlaw “hate” than you can outlaw murder, rape, theft or lying politicians.

Pride of the speechys, this guy.

They Tried To Make Me Go To Rehab I Said No! No! No!

Who Funds Ontario Anti-Wind Groups?

An interesting ad from the Scarborough Mirror:

I've sent them the stuff I did a couple years ago about possible connections between the group  Wind Concerns Ontario and the Power Workers Union (PWU).  In chronological order, this one, this one, and this one.  There's the email if anyone has more.

h/t

Looking For Rob Ford Imposter

An ad that appeared on Canadalisted in January, 2012:

Do you look like Mayor Rob Ford? I need someone who looks like Rob Ford to play the mayor in my film. It's a short shot of the mayor smoking a cigar and chuckling into the camera.

Presumably unrelated.  But why not inflame the minds of Ford-Nation conspiracy theorists?

PS.  I've fired off an email response to the ad asking if there is any connection.  Will post if I get an answer.

Justin Gives West/East Pipeline Yellow Light

After the B.C. election there was some speculation that Adrian Dix's sudden thumbs-down to the Trans Mountain Pipeline after a year or so of fence-sitting cost him votes.  I think that's wrong, but since the B.C. polls all turned out to crap, they can't tell us anything one way or another and we are therefore free to speculate as we please.  My opinion, FWIW, is based on the behavior of the B.C. Liberal campaign, which toughened its own anti-pipeline rhetoric in the last week of the race with Christy Clark's "we don't need B.C., we don't need Canada" speech. In other words, the BC Libs worked to narrow the distance between the Liberal and NDP positions, not increase it.

Nevertheless some people seem to feel that a softer line on Alberta pipelines has become the politically expedient move.  Thankfully, Justin Trudeau is not among them:

The federal Liberal leader told the CBC’s Information Morning Fredericton on Thursday he has specific questions about potential toxins that may be used in the pipeline.

“I think it is a proposal that is extremely interesting. We are waiting to look at how they are going to deal with both the community, local, aboriginal concerns and the environmental concerns,” Trudeau said.

“The [substance] that they put to make that thick crude, thick bitumen run through those pipes can be very toxic. I want to see the plan for being environmentally responsible on it because it won’t go ahead if it will cost us on pollution, in degradation and in inefficiencies in the coming years.”

Now Trudeau is hardly going so far as to suggest that he will kill the proposal when he becomes PM (and its starting to look like he may).  He might simply be commenting on the general lay of the political landscape. Moreover, I think the line nine reversal will ultimately fail due to market disinterest rather than political machinations.  But its good to see that Justin is not simply abandoning the field to the pro-oil-patch forces on environmental issues.  He's showing a little bit of sand on the topic, and that's a good thing.

New Tory Turmoil--The Beginning Of Something?

Two days ago anti-abortion activists began distributing graphic postcards in Harper’s Calgary riding; today they targeted Calgary Centre-North MP Michelle Rempel:

Rempel is the second of five politicians at the heart of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform’s (CCBR) controversial “Face the Children” campaign.  The announcement that CCBR is targeting Rempel follows on the heels of a sweeping postcard distribution last week in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Riding.

CCBR’s postcard show Rempel’s face next to a 6-month aborted fetus.  It highlights the fact that Rempel was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women by the Women’s Executive Network, and that she has been listed as “pro-choice” by Canada’s most radical abortion “rights” group, the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada.

This doesn't seem closely connected with the various Senate scandals engulfing the government. These particular activists have been agitatin' since last year.  But for whatever reason, several elements of the Tory base seem to be coming unglued all at once.  Luckily for Harper and co., 2015 is still a ways away.  But I suspect these zealot eruptions will grow louder between now and then.

Rob Ford: 300 Lbs of Funeral

— Katie Simpson (@KatieSimpson24) May 22, 2013

You gotta be shittin' me, right?

PS.  Worthing, if you don't know, refers to Peter Worthington.

Oil Spilling, Redux

From Jansen, Sask.:

The oil industry suggests they will move their product by train if their pipelines don't get approved.  They should really be made to use safe rail cars.

Jacques Demers Won't Quit CPC Senate Caucus

Yeah, he was thinking of it:

Ex-Habs coach-turned-Conservative Senator Jacques Demers is hinting he may quit the Senate, telling reporters that he's disgusted with the events of the past week, and believes that Canadians are tarring all senators with the same brush.

But then he thought better of it (Google-translated from the French):

The message from Prime Minister Stephen Harper before the caucus Tuesday morning.... convinced him to stay.

Ah well.  The guy's still my favorite Harper Senate appointment.  In fact I think the guy is a saint. Definitely what he did back in the 80's with the St. Louis Blues was a miracle.

Ethical Oil: Its Purpose Served?

The site has been inactive (other than intermittent messages to twitter) since October of last year.  Now the its gone down entirely.  For good?

Update:  Its back.

Officer Bubbles Now Working For Rob Ford!

David is one of the notorious lawyerin' Shiller brothers (the one that looks like Eugene Levy) .  Officer Bubbles is  Const. Adam Joseph,  one of the  reasons the Toronto 2010 G-20 summit went so badly South.  Dave's been defending the people that Bubble's has sued in the aftermath of that event, so he knows what he's talking about.  His Facebook page is here.

CPC Back-Benchers Say The Darnedest Things

Our govt has the highest ethical standards demonstrated by 3 resignations: 2 from Senate caucus & the PM chief of staff.@patbolland #cpc
— Joan Crockatt MP (@Crockatteer) May 20, 2013

On The Modern Day Electric Dishwasher

When I was growing up back in the late 70s and early 1980s,  my family owned an electric dishwasher.  A good thing, obviously, though gross in that if a piece of food was  missed it would dry into a tiny bit of black on the plate, fork, or etc.  And as soon as you re-hydrated it, would balloon into a chunk big enough to make you gag. And dishwasher soap would dry on your glass, and whatever you poured into the glass would  then taste like soap.

So for the past 20 years I've been hand-washing  dishes in my rental apartment.  Because the wife refuses.  Not her end of the marital bargain, she insists. Naturally, when we finally bought our new place I was thrilled to know that an electric dishwasher came with it.  My travails were over, I thought!

But NOT SO!  Its like our 21st Century, ultra-efficient capitalist society has made NO PROGRESS FUCKING WHATSOEVER  in building a better electric dishwasher!  THERE'S STILL LITTLE DRIED BITS OF CRUD STUCK TO EVERYTHING I WASH!  AND IT ALL BLOATS UP INTO HIDEOUS PUSTULES OF FILTH WHENEVER I ADD WATER AGAIN!!

WHAT Is Wrong with Our fucking stupid world?  We're still selling people the same  SHITTY DISHWASHING TECH OUR parents HAD?  WHY HASN'T SOMETHING BEEN DONE ABOUT THIS?  WHERE ARE OUR LEADERS, OUR SCIENTISTS?  AND WHERE IS THE PUBLIC OUTCRY?  HAVE THE PEOPLE LOST THEIR REVOLUTIONARY FERVOR???  

Evidence That Stephen Harper Is Stepping Down..

...and Port Moody-Westwood MP James Moore is stepping up, is here.

PS.  That suit makes him look thinnish.  He is not.  Might be an issue.  You see him at televised sports events sometimes and its like he never stops eating.  Popcorn buckets, hot-dogs, whatever.

Canada Leading The Way On Climate Change!

When it comes to making the seas rise, our glaciers are kicking ass!

The new research found that all glacial regions lost mass from 2003 to 2009, with the biggest ice losses occurring in Arctic Canada, Alaska, coastal Greenland, the southern Andes and the Himalayas. The glaciers outside of the Greenland and Antarctic sheets lost an average of roughly 260 billion metric tons of ice annually during the study period, causing the oceans to rise 0.03 inches, or about 0.7 millimeters per year.

Nice to know this country is doing something.