Endangered Species

I copypasta'd the BIG 3's 2009 SUV models into a lovely collage. When you see them all together its hard to imagine that this industry is surviving in its present form. I doubt enough debt holders will bite on the equity swap proposed by GM to keep it out of bankruptcy. Now, I don't know much about marketing, perhaps excess product differentiation is the key to selling cars, but 30 models of SUVs from 3 companies seems pretty stupid.

Socotra: Greatest island on earth

This little island off the coast of Somalia is only 100km by 40 yet hosts the most diverse terrain and plant life. The debate over whether life exists on other planets seems pretty inconsequential knowing I will likely never set foot on this island.

The Hangman by Maurice Ogden

Suzuki outs his own Fascism

News Item: Class Action lawsuit against casino.

This week, a class action lawsuit was filed for 3.5 billion dollars against Ontario Lottery and Gaming. Let me put aside the issue of whether the state should be operating casinos in the first place. What I found most interesting was the affidavit filed by litigant Peter Dennis:

"I could not stop myself from gambling."

I'm not a lawyer but isn't this a pretty undeniable admission of personal liability? I could not stop myself from gambling. Doesn't the very statement acquit the defendants? But after reading a little further, I see the suit claims that problem gamblers put their names on a "do not let me in" list which was then ignored. That shows negligence doesn't it? So let me get this straight. I tell the casino to not let me in. And then I sue them when I don't get caught for defying my own wishes. Attention unemployed mortgage-backed asset portfolio managers, I have a new business model for you!

News Item: NDP gets chaffed for opposing Carbon Tax

I'm enjoying the election in BC these days as the NDP is having to defend its opposition to BC's carbon tax with environmentalists in and outside of the party. You couldn't concoct better parody of informed dialogue than listening to the NDP debate carbon tax with the Suzuki Foundation. NDP leader Carole James defended her arguably populist and mainstream position by claiming among other things that the new tax hasn't limited demand as it ought to. Someone explain to Carole what price inelasticity is. Suzuki gave the NDP an earful and led the charge against the NDP.

“If [Liberal Leader Gordon Campbell] goes down because of axe the tax, the repercussions are the carbon tax will be toxic for future politicians,” David Suzuki said Friday.

“No politician will raise it. That's why environmentalists are so upset.”

"Toxic for future politicians" is pretty clear. Don't give people the opportunity to express their wishes since it will be harder to contradict those wishes in the future. He's never come so close to just being open about his contempt for public discourse. This very clearly admits that Suzuki et al have abandoned using reason and argument to persuade people and instead must use blunt power before people get a chance to express their will. Suzuki, rather than convincing people resorts to power justified by his own vision of the public good. The ends justify his means.

Finally, the NDP is forced to defend itself from its own brand of poorly reasoned and ill considered criticism.

Freedom to/from Sprawl in Calgary

-Google view of North Calgary where citizens are indentured servants to automobiles.



Much applause from me this week for the Plan It Calgary group that released its findings on city planning and sprawl. They actually quantified the extra cost of servicing low density neighborhoods on the edge of Calgary versus more higher density projects closer to the center.
11 billion dollars.
It's hard to believe this isn't a ubiquitous metric at city hall. Traditionally city growth is at the whim of land developers whose only interest is making a king's ransom from buying land and subdividing it on the periphery.
This week Plan It suggested that high density was the only way the city could afford to grow. The developers cried foul with suggestions that the market should decide. Freedom and fairness, they suggested, was being violated. The interface between city rules and a free, unfettered, organic development is interesting. Like many other markets to date, the housing marketplace has only appeared to act freely.
Up till now, developers and the market have been free to build at improbable distances from the core, while everyone else subsidizes the additional cost of providing what few services are brought to these areas. Public transportation is hardly viable in these areas and the high cost of automotive infrastructure is not borne by the people who chose to live there. If these ridiculous costs were fairly borne, the marketplace would very quickly reveal that not many people would freely chose to live there after all.
Suburban living is incommensurate with my lifestyle but I am sympathetic to it. A new 3 bedroom house in my neighborhood currently sells for $850 000 while a similar house and yard in the newest suburb sells for $550 000. Under those conditions its easy to see where demand concentrates but that cheaper house in the suburbs only exists when everyone in the center defrays the extra costs of infrastructure. The tens of billions of dollars that Calgary will spend over the next ten years could be put to far better use elsewhere. Imagine what a city could do with 11 billion extra dollars! So Hurrah for Plan It and the hard money math that few in city hall can now avoid.

I'm all for a free market in real estate. When one appears, I'll support it.

The Barbarian States of America

With regard to the latest mass murder in America, I notice everyone asking :

Why?

An easier question to answer is: How? He did it with two concealed handguns.

The Barbarian States of America claims a dozen more victims. How do thinking, considerate Americans live with this slaughter? Why aren't people rioting in the streets over the infestation of handguns? A pox on republicans, democrats and gun lobbyists. I can't wait for Lou Dobbs to build a wall between Canada and America.

Encana building takes Shape. Dave achieves sense of Calm

After much construction teasing (the 6 underground floors,) the Encana building is finally taking shape. "The Bow" footprint as well as the first atrium floors have been welded into position. Steady progress is expected to follow in the spring and summer months.




Rendering of the new skyline. The Bow is the big silver one.







Most buildings are concrete core with glass curtain walls on the outside. The Bow is all steel construction which means frenzied cranes hoisting tinker toy frames and a spider web network of steel-work at blistering speed. Fellow construction voyeurs can follow along this spring and summer with a live camera feed.


-with thanks to everyone at "the bow" thread on skyscraper.com for insight, information, pictures and zeal.

David Suzuki: Televangelist Fraud Artist

A less than bright idea brought to you by the Law of Unintended (but occasionally foreseen) Consequences.





We've all been preached to about getting rid of our light bulbs. The David Suzuki Foundation with others managed to convince the Ontario government to legislate against the little devils. I recall my father, who after thinking over the matter for but an instant realized what took everyone else a couple years: the furnace will have to work harder to make up for less heat in the new bulbs so its all the same except now you have a ton of mercury in the water table from discarded compact fluorescence. When I saw this article about the utility companies confirming this I searched my mental archive of Dad Rants ( meatworld://kitchen table/forums/obvious to me+when will they learn)

Curiously, a spokesdroid for the foundation demonstrates the kind of blind dogma they usually accuse everyone else of having. In addition the foundation zealously and successfully pushed these bulbs into legally mandated occupancy in the marketplace in spite of being a menace to groundwater with their mercury content. After getting a list of who works at the Suzuki Foundation, I learned that the Climate Change department consists of communications people except for 1 research analyst who has no academic credentials. Nice.

These are televangelists.
Who need to think.
Even just a little.
Before they tell everyone else what to do.

And screw everything up more than it already is.

Bush Visits Calgary

Today, on traditional QNY, I went to protest George W Bush's visit to Calgary. Bush was speaking at the Telus Convention center for $400 per person. The scene at noon was of a thousand identically well dressed business elites lined up in a large "U" one block long in the Stephen Ave. pedestrian mall outside the convention centre. In the middle was the organized protest shouting various slogans from the profound to the inane. Intent on surveying the scene, I walked past the line of patrons and when I stopped to talk a picture, I noticed a understandable sheepish look on the people I photographed. Who wouldn't be a little off put by a stranger talking their picture? but in that expression was a pang of guilt. Next I noticed 3 young, ambitious looking suits snickering at the protest going on in the middle. They oozed superiority that would infuriate even the mildest person. I walked up to them and took their picture as a statement to them that their support for Bush is not happening in a vacuum. Their expressions changed instantly.
I staked out some geography at the entrance to the center behind 4 calm but serious police officers and waited for people to start filing in. The expression on the faces of the men waiting to get in was fear mixed with a little guilt but masked over with faux confidence and nervous laughter. The more I studied these faces, the more I realized that these were mostly wealthy businessmen who were really just there to be seen and mix with other business elites on their lunch hour. My alderman was there looking for people he recognized.




-this man ignores my querys while his buddy pretends I'm not there. They imagined their support for a tyrant would have no negative consequences to themselves.

I suppose there were plenty of businessmen who actually were there to politically support Bush but the networking fascists were really getting under my skin. It really started to bother me that these men would reward Bush with thousands of dollars in exchange for the privilege of being seen at a must attend social event. To reward someone who undeniably violates international law that Canada is a signatory to. To support such a villain and purveyor of injustice for their own personal networking and career advancement was a cowardly and banal kind of evil.
And so I looked each person in the eye as they passed and challenged them to explain why they were giving money to a torturer. Why were they giving money to a war criminal. "Why aren't you outraged?" I casually asked a suit who looked me in the eye. He smirked dismissively. I told him he was a coward as I shook my head with very real disappointment. "How can you pay money to someone who ignored every freedom he claimed to defend?" I ask another smug businessman. He laughs a nervous laugh and I tell him that you would have to have no soul to laugh at such blatant injustices. I found that the most effective scolding came in the form of making eye contact (I'm standing about 3 feet from these people) and just shaking my head and saying "shame" as I look them dead in the eye.

Shame on these cowards. Shame on these wealthy businessmen for divorcing themselves from their actions. Shame for putting their own networking above the cause of justice. Shame for their cowardice.


Traditionally on QNY, "getting told" often represents the exercise of one's freedom. Well, after "telling" a thousand people today, I feel as though I've accomplished in a very small way, the same thing.

Another Businessman robs the people blind with Government help

News Item: Peter Pocklington arrested for Bankruptcy Fraud

With all the attention down south on American Captains of Industry stealing money whilst authorities followed the lead of the Absent President and did nothing, I thought it would be quaint to remember just one of Alberta's own high profile robbers. Back in the 80s as a car dealer(perfect) he would divert money from the Ford Financing wing into his own pet projects. Kind of Fargo-esque. But when things started going south, he secured a 10 million dollar loan to his worthless Fidelity Trust shell company. His buddy buddy relationship with Alberta's public held bank, ATB, in concert with showering its highest employees with skiing and golf holidays managed to run up a never ending line of credit totaling over 100 million of Alberta's dollars by the 1990s. Not to mention the 12 million dollar loan guarantee he secured for his failed meat packing plant that he never re-payed. When Fidelity Trust finally failed, it secured another 300 million from the public purse.
A useful quote from his personal website:

• If you can't win, change the rules!
• If you can't change the rules, ignore them

These quotes were intended to brand him as a leader with a creative business acumen who wasn't afraid to think outside the box. His main page notes his 3 divisions are food, sports, and "other." We now know that "other" means stealing public money abetted by public officials.
Anyway, added to his list of business laws is the following, when authorities are hot on your heels, flee the country. Which he did. To California. But after telling bankruptcy officials that he only had 2900 dollars in assets, (really? did that include the 800 dollar suit he was wearing at the time?) he was later seen repaying a local debt with $80,000 worth of art he retrieved from a storage locker. Oh yeah, and he drew cheques from 2 different bank accounts he forgot to mention to bankruptcy court! Meanwhile the Alberta government, or more accurately, those who weren't paid off by Pocklington in the 80s and 90s, are down in California trying to get some of the peoples' money back.

Here's a picture of Pocklington's tax lawyer Mike Lusby, who looks every inch the scumbag parasite. Photo courtesy his own website.



Pocklington's tax lawyer Mike Lusby (who makes $1000/hour except from clients who obviously only have $2900 to their name and therefore couldn't possibly afford such rates???!!!) defended Pocklington by claiming that it was a witch hunt.
He's right, it is a witch hunt. And this witch owes us millions of dollars.

In the media's newest story arc, the business tycoon gone bad, I hope it can find the time to expose the regulators and the bankers and the public officeholders who handed these robber barons their fortunes.

Dusting off the Key for QNY 19

Thanks for eroding freedom, Lou Dobbs.

The letter I got today from the Lou Dobbs show really was a nice touch. Of course if they had actually read my letter I'm sure they would have sent me their Haters form letter instead. The other day Lou was heroically defending the right to bear arms from the Liberal Menace. "Freedom Under Fire" the segment read. Normally I wouldn't give Lou's show the time of day but instead I watched and wrote a short letter inviting the show to contemplate the 100 billion dollars a year that gun deaths and injuries cause every year in America.
I thought if senseless death doesn't cause one to rethink "freedom under fire," then money might. But just to be sure, I sent some gun stats:

Since 1962, more than one million Americans have died in firearm homicides, suicides, and unintentional shootings. Handguns were used in more than 650,000 of these fatal shootings.

In homes with guns, a member of the household is almost three times as likely to be the victim of a homicide compared to gun-free homes.
-from VPC

Why write a letter to the show? Well to celebrate QNY19 this week I thought I would either dig a hole to China or bring reason to the internet.

Stupidity exacts toll from Montreal Skiers

News Item: Quebec skiers die in BC resort

The news has been chock full this week over how bad the RCMP are for not rescuing a Montreal couple fast enough. While I can't speak to their decisions regarding an SOS reported scratched into some snow, I can speak to the incredible stupidity demonstrated by this couple. The couple were incorrectly called experienced skiers. Nothing could be further from the truth. This pair defied posted warnings, crossed a fenced off area and headed into the back country with no food, no GPS, no compass, no map, no fire making equipment, no avalanche beacons or probes, no extra clothing, no route finding skills and most importantly, without anyone knowing where they were going or when they were to be expected back. Out of this list of 9 must-have essentials, even one of them could have saved their lives. You might as well jump out of an airplane without a parachute. I routinely travel in far more isolated mountain locations than this couple was "lost" in, but I equip myself with such supplies to ensure my safety and have a check-in procedure complete with intended route description. Traveling in the back country isn't a sneer at death, unless you make it so by taking no precautions or placing yourself in situations beyond your skill, experience and equipment.

The climbing bible for my neck of the Rockies, written by local legend Alan Kane says it best:

"Select a route within your level of ability and skills. If you don't know what your abilities are, maybe you don't have any."

Blaming anyone but themselves only excuses their stupidity.

Bush to visit Calgary:legal authority to arrest him.

GW Bush is making one of his first newspeeking engagements in Calgary. Under Canadian law pursuant to international treaties, it seems we have plenty of legal justification to arrest him. With thanks to Observer151, Huffington Post:

Here's the relevant Canadian law on the matter - Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. This Act incorporates the 1998 Treaty of Rome regarding war crimes, as well as the Agreement for the prosecution and punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis, signed at London on August 8, 1945; and the Proclamation by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, dated January 19, 1946.

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/ShowTdm/cs/C-45.9//20090214/en?command=search&caller=SI&fragment=war%20crimes&search_type=all&day=14&month=2&year=2009&search_domain=cs&showall=L&statuteyear=all&lengthannual=50&length=50

Read the section entitled 'Offenses Outside Canada'. Nothing in that section exempts Bush from avoiding arrest under Section 6 of this Act.

In fact, it appear that nothing in the Criminal Code of Canada precludes an ordinary citizen of Canada from making a citizen's arrest of Bush for crimes under this Act. Section 494 of the Criminal Code provides citizens with all the power they require.

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/showdoc/cs/C-46//20090214/en?command=search&caller=SI&fragment=494&search_type=all&day=14&month=2&year=2009&search_domain=cs&showall=L&statuteyear=all&lengthannual=50&length=50

Mandatory life imprisonment is called for where intentional death occurs as a result of the accused's actions:

2) Every person who commits an offence under subsection (1) or (1.1)

(a) shall be sentenced to imprisonment for life, if an intentional killing forms the basis of the offence; and

(b) is liable to imprisonment for life, in any other case.

From the Albigensian Crusade to the Route4 Express

News Item: Atheist Ad Campaign on Calgary Buses

A PSA has arrived in Calgary after obviously stirring up controversy in the UK. To balance this campaign, the United Church with nothing better to do with their congregation's charitable donations, has launched a counter-ad saying "There probably is a god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."
"Probably is a God"?? Christians spent 14 centuries torturing and killing people for heresy and blasphemy and now they've been whittled down to "probably. " Well, that's the United Church for you. No wonder Catholics think everyone is going to Hell. A brief survey of the Catholic Encyclopedia about the inquisitions yields such apologetic gems and outright lies as:

"St. Augustine, on the contrary, was still opposed to the use of force" (not true)

"opposite of historical truth to assert that the imperial edicts punishing heresy with death were due to ecclesiastic influence" (hilariously wrong)

"In short, no blame attaches to the church for her behavior towards heresy in those rude days." (OMG!!!!!)

Thankfully, the church is no longer slaughtering heretics by the tens of thousands as Pope Innocent III did (this period is the origin of the phrase, kill them all let God sort them out). As the world marks Darwin's 200th birthday this week, I will try to remember that now the church only psychologically tortures people by telling them how they descended from, and inherited Adam's original sin. The American numbers are too scary for me to quote but even in Canada a full forty percent either don't believe evolution or aren't sure.
Sorry Mr. Darwin, you'll have to sit at the back of the bus.

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"In the red" carpet

It's forecasting season once again! Yesterday, the Screen Actors Guild released its forward statements for the fiscal year. It estimates that the 850 billion dollar recovery package will lower unemployment by 1.8 percentage points and create 3.7 million jobs. They also suggested that the ensemble cast of "Slumdog Millionaire" was the best of several submitted tenders.

Opposing this outlook was the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which declined to see the same merits in any of the "Slumdog" cast. Further frustrating the Screen Actors Guild, the Academy projects lower unemployment by 2 percentage points in 2010 but with a much lower unemployment baseline than SAG predicts. Academy voting member Mark Zandi implied that the actual path of unemployment could resemble what the Obama team is projecting if nothing is done.

Private Members

News item: Catholic church has own Youtube Channel

The Catholic church has decided to get its own youtube channel. I'm not sure if what the church can offer that can possibly trump mentos in diet coke. Perhaps the pope having a dance-off with Napoleon Dynamite. A spokespope said that they wanted to show that the church is no longer "in the middle ages."
Catholics believe in evil spirits possessing people, invisible all powerful man/god/ghost beings and miracles. If youtube is going to save them from being thought of as intellectually backwards, maybe miracles are possible after all.

For a proper image upgrade, see this Brilliant brand redo from Monkey Dust.
(Skit starts @ 0.56)


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News item: NDP private members bill: Airline Passenger Bill of Rights

Thats right, an airline passengers bill of rights. Its hard to believe these guys come in last in every election. Where can I get in line to put forward my Diner Patron's bill of rights to ensure that careless line cooks aren't hard-boiling my sunny-side ups. While we're at it, can the NDP make sure the next movie I go to doesn't waste as much of my time as waiting for a delayed flight? Sheesh.

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Suz and I got a slow cooker as a Christmas gift so we've been enjoying our middle class birthright: stew. As pedestrian as it seems, I really am enjoying throwing stuffing it in the morning and being welcomed in the evening to hearty goodness. It's the perfect ally for our weekends when we usually return from adventuring tired and hungry.

best laid plans

In the darkest months of winter, I find myself with a hot mug of chicken broth, my new favorite evening beverage, a map and google earth. Between the topo maps and flying around the mountains on Suz's iMac, I've been planning most of my summer hiking. If I spend long enough on google earth, I'll hardly need to go to these places and save myself much excess carb loading.

Prorogies and sausage

Convergence of Jupiter, Venus and the Moon from the other night made me giggle. What influence might this have on our parliamentary problems?
To find out, I searched "convergence" and came up with the following taken from the
Energy Activations website:

Fragmented off from the GATHERING OF THE ONE, Our highest level of vibration, these two "chips off the old block" have been assigned the task of exploring every possible/probable manifestation of "somethingness" and "nothingness" which is, was, or ever could be. Although their explorations are infinite, the Oneself has stipulated it (as in a court of law)......unto completion, and has initiated the Reconnection to Oneness on our planet.

These two archetypal "Gods" (if you will) are programmed to stay separate, but intertwined from infinity past to infinity future. But in 1987, the "brothers" (who we shall call "Theos and Chaos") entered into each others' Being for the first time since the start of The Grand Game. They began to CONVERGE...each began infusing the other with all the power and wisdom they had gained in their explorations.

This Convergence began a chain-reaction in the entire universal structure--initiating a collapse of the polarity format and the creation of an entirely New Paradigm for living. Global Transmutation began, with all its shifts, changes, and inner challenges. Though great change has already occurred as a result of this collapse, we not completely lose our involvement with polarity. We are simply moving to a new and more exciting level of the Game!

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I guess even a broken watch tells the correct time twice a day!

Anger Management

I've been more angry this week than usual. My usually benign liberal party has betrayed me and turned into a party of retards handing the keys of power over to separatists and ideologues. That's probably going to create some economic stability which was their reason for ousting the minority government?!

And so to combat my stress over the continued demise of reason in this country, I'm turning off the news and looking at fine art. One of my favorites, Dutch master, Vermeer: Ahhhhhhhhhhh.......