Rage against the machine - part 1 · Saturday May 5, 2007 by colin newell
Imagine a convention of men. All one color. Let’s say white… for the sake of argument.
They are all jockeying for the position to be the future president of a country.
See if you can guess the country by the following hints.
1.) They do not believe women should have domain over their bodies or be able to make informed decisions about their reproduction.
2.) They wish to limit a doctors right to attend to their female patients by offering severely limited medical options for women.
3.) Virtually all of them are religious extremists.
4.) Some of them do not believe in evolution.
5.) Some of them would have homosexuality criminalized.
6.) Most, if not all of them, want the state in the bedrooms of the nation.
7.) Most, if not all of them, want Chuch and State unified.
Ok. Any guesses?
The Taliban you say!
Nope. Try again.
Uhm. The Mullahs of Iran!
Close, but not quite.
Give up?
It was the GOP leadership debate in Simi Valley this weekend at ten white men debated the future of the Republican party.
“Former Arkansas governor and Baptist pastor, Mike Huckabee repeated his position endorsing intelligent design on Saturday, but joked that he would allow for his own evolution if it gives him a better shot at winning his party’s nomination.”
And he wants to be President!
What would a successful President and member of the dangerous religious right do with the Sciences in America?
Pray tell.
Whoops. Maybe pray is the wrong word.
Politics, Gas and the World... · Wednesday May 2, 2007 by colin newell
So. A panel of 3 people set out to decide what kind of money British Columbian MLA’s should get…
and the best they could come up with was 29%
for the MLA’s no less.
Don’t ask what they have suggested for the Premier…
link
Okay. 53%.
A 53% increase for the leader of the Liberal party and our Province’s Premier.
Sick people are sleeping in hospital corridors and this is on the table.
In other news, gas prices are increasing in Canada almost daily. For some reason the price of gas in Vancouver is just shy of $1.30/litre.
There is a 35 cent variation in the price across Canada.
Meantime the weasels in the refining industry claim the following reasons for high prices at the pumps.
-fires at the refinery
-refinery is down for maintainence
-the dog ate the refinery.
Whale Oil Beef Hooked anyway.
Oil companies are reaping mind boggling profits and we are taking it up the hoo-hoo.
Sing a happy song.
I had a friend head down to Australia for a couple of weeks. They had to transit through LAX on their way from Vancouver to Honolulu and Fiji. While in LAX they were forced to give finger prints and a retinal scan…
One more reason we will not be travelling to America anytime soon. I have another dear friend and colleague who is travelling overseas via the U.S.A. and will go through the same intrusive song and dance over what?
As Naomi Wolf writes in her blog on HuffingtonPost.Com – America is taking one significant step after another down an obvious path to a police state.
We shouldn’t be afraid friends. We should be angry… very angry.
Canada's guardians to be ready · Friday April 20, 2007 by colin newell
“The RCMP is gathering aerial photographs and blueprints of thousands of schools across Canada as part of its plan for responding to school shootings, which it unveiled Thursday.”
“The goal is to ensure that, in the event of a shooting, the first officers on the scene don’t have to waste time learning where things are.”
“Although it’s a massive project, the officials said they are confident the force can have the program up and running by September.”
“After that, the RCMP plans to do the same for universities and colleges across the country.”
“The officials said the basic plan is to get as much information about every school as they possibly can and then put it in every police cruiser — either in printed form in a binder, or as a CD for the car’s laptop computer.”
“The Mounties have already started to visit schools to obtain floor plans, electrical plans and other blueprints that show how fire alarms, water sprinklers and public-address systems work.”
“They are taking photographs of areas such as parking lots, cafeterias, and stairwells. link
This is the most absurd thing I have read in monthes… maybe the last year.
Maybe while the RCMP is at it, they can map out all homes, get master-keys for all offices, learn 50 languages and build a 5-tube radio from a kit.
...and then dance a quick step.
Come to think of it, this is all rather cartoonish. The RCMP couldn’t defend a lemonade stand from an unruly 5 year old…
without the help of the U.S. Airforce and a couple of unmanned drones.
Remember folks: Question everything!
Conscience in a cup - the coffee trade · Thursday March 15, 2007 by colin newell
One of the things I brought up on my CBC interview recently was just how volatile the coffee trade is. I am going to try and spend more time on this issue as it is a message that is not getting out enough.
Fact: Coffee changes hands 100-125 times on its journey from the farmers field to the cup –
That is an indicator of how many middle-men there are – this number is shrinking thanks, in part, to
internet auctions.
Now take all the coffee that is grown annually —
and multiply that quantity by ten and that is
the volume that trades on the commodity indexes
in New York and London. This is a totally staggering reality that impacts on the farmers and their families.
Back to the trade indexes for a moment: The coffee prices rise and fall faster than a theme-park roller-coaster.
And with these wild fluctuations, comes hardship for the
12 million farmers and families that rely on the meager
income that the coffee produces.
Is there hope? Yes: fair-trade, internet auctions, the cafe-culture phenomenon in the West that is paying more attention to the ethical issues and so on.
How can the average consumer help? Look at the label.
Is your coffee fairly traded? Is your coffee organic? Is your coffee labelled and branded by a gigantic trans-national like Folgers, Nescafe and the like. Read your label carefully.
Yes, you might be able to buy your 2-pound bins of ground Folgers at the Wal-Mart for $9 – but ask yourself this:
Who is really paying the ultimate price in human suffering when we screw farmers and their families out of a decent living?
Think about your coffee and how you can make a difference.
