Sunday Linkblast - Sept 26

• Aboriginals and Poor hit hardest by new Tory sentencing law
  Hands up anyone surprised?
  
  
• Sinéad O'Connor's open letter to the Pope
  If you and the last Pope had no idea about the way abuse complaints were being handled who was running the church since 1979?
  
  
• The most hated man in Israel
  For insisting on showing his countrymen what's happening in the occupied territories.
  
  
• Harvard gives Marty Peretz the welcome he deserves
  Despicable racist finally being treated like a despicable racist.
  
  
• If the Tea Party ran the comics page
  Oh Garfield, you lazy leech on society.
  
  
• Why the discrepancy?
  Premier Stelmach just can't understand why government scientists and independent ones get such different results on water quality downstream from the oil-sands. Maybe this article provides a clue.

Sunday Linkblast - Aug 29

I'm back from vacation and returned to shed the light of my wisdom - or my random blather, whichever. Here's some stuff getting my attention today.

• Be Afraid, be VERY afraid
  The Calgary Sun engages in a little fearful race-baiting this morning with a full page cover of the archetypal HIV positive Scary Looking Black Guy with the screaming headline 'HAVE YOU SLEPT WITH THIS MAN?' The Fox News North transformation continues.
  
  
• The Billionaires backing the Tea Party
  A populist movement with big money backers.
  
  
• Running for Class President reserved for white students only
  Mississippi in 2010 not 1953. Really.
  
  
• Competitive Pillow Fighting
  The joy of serious athleticism....with young ladies smacking each other around with fluffy weaponry.
  
  
• Podcast Roundup
  Warren Ellis does his regular call for new podcast suggestions
  
  
• Religious leader of Israel government coalition member calls for genocide of the Palestinians
  The most vague and open to interpretation threat against Israel by any Iranian figure is an existential threat. Clear and unambiguous calls for the annihilation of the Palestinians and their leaders by powerful religious and political leaders in Israel don't mean anything and you're probably an antisemite if you think they do.

Sunday Linkblast - August 8

• Retired US General/Psychologist defends Omar Khadr
  “I think it’s wrong to take a person who’s a 15-year-old, who’s basically a child soldier, and for us to treat him as something other than an adolescent who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time,” says Xenakis
  
  
• Quantum Reality
  The observer created universe.
  
  
• Coca Cola's legal defense:
  'No reasonable person could really think something called 'Vitaminwater' would actually be good for them.'
  
  
• Canada's investment in the Colombian police state
  Supporting the mass uprooting of peasantry in the way of our resource interests.
  
  
• Space exploration and Libertarianism fundamentally incompatible
  Sorry space cadets, the unfettered individual has no place in the massive controlled marshaling of resources necessary for space travel.
  
  
• New StatsCan boss will have to combine credibility with subservience.
  The Harper government will have trouble replacing Munir Sheikh.
  
  
• Scientists discover 'Life of Brian' sector of brain
  Always look on the bright side of life.

Sunday Linkblast - Aug 1

• The Long Form Census
  and the long term project to transform Canada into a society that would accept the Fraser Institutes's agenda.
  
  
• Wikileaks Insurance Policy
  A huge encrypted file that only requires a volunteer anywhere in the world to release a password to be opened. Just in case anybody was thinking of kidnapping Julian Assange and water-boarding the hell out of him or anything.
  
  
• CNN lectures bloggers on journalistic integrity and the use of anonymous sources
  Hypocrisy so huge and blatant it just becomes laughable.
  
  
• The Anti-Defamation League argue Muslims should give up their legal rights to protect the hurt feelings of racists
  Criminal waste of credibility reducing a once important civil rights group to a pathetic parody of itself.
  
  
• Crowded Race
  Calgary's Mayoral race has attracted a dozen candidates, a TV celebrity, outsiders, long time city councilors claiming to be outsiders, anti-union candidates, at least one pro-union (and therefore pro working Calgarians) candidate and failed former candidates. This is a first taste of a subject that will eventually begin to preoccupy this blog. For the first time I will actually be enthusiastic about having someone to vote for rather than just against.

Sunday Linkblast - July 18

• Utterly inflexible
  It doesn't matter how many oppose it, how many experts say it's a huge mistake, the census decision won't change.
  
  
• Israel abandons the rule of law
  The Israeli government routinely ignores court decisions it doesn't like. Where Harper learned it from?
  
  
• The Aggressive Iran myth
  A spirited debate at Andrew Sullivan's place while he's on vacation lays down some perspective on the scary Iranian boogieman.
  
  
• Jonathan Kay on the denialists
  Conservative columnist calls on Canadian conservatives to abandon kook stance. Analogous to Buckley VS the Birchers?
  
  
• The Religious Right VS Birth Control
  "Given the choice between reducing abortion rates and controlling female sexuality, they will always choose the latter. Thus the idea that contraception can be a means of achieving a ceasefire in the culture wars has always been a fantasy. Liberals and conservatives aren’t just divided by abortion but by broader questions of female equality and sexual freedom."
  
  
• The Puzzling Collapse of Earth's upper Atmosphere
  The thermosphere that protects us from solar radiation has collapsed to the lowest level since we started recording it and a new cycle of increased solar activity is starting.

Sunday Linkblast - May 16

• A Nursing Diploma in Alberta offers a great future!
  ...somewhere else.
  
  
• 2010: The year the Republican Party came unglued
  A party captive to the craziest elements of its base.
  
  
• Conservatives catering to the theo-cons
  If they're this blatant in a minority what would a majority be like?
  
  
• Greece considering filing suit against Wall Street
  Like Iceland, at least part of their troubles came from deliberate economic warfare by short-selling hedge funds.
  
  
• Meanwhile activists in Ecuador suing Toronto Stock exchange over violence linked to Canadian mining companies
  Denied by the court but plaintiffs appeal.
  
  
• Beautiful reunion
  This is surprisingly touching - I almost teared up.
  
  
• Infants make moral judgments
  Concepts of right and wrong may be hard-wired into our brains from birth
  
  
• Sarah Palin wants terrorists to be able to buy guns
  Does that seem unfair? Tough.
  
  
• Israelis: Boycotts are illegitimate!
  ...except our brutal and total boycott on the citizens of Gaza.
  UPDATE: Academic boycotts are always illegitimate... unless they are by us on academics like Noam Chomsky who say things we don't like.
  
  

Sunday Linkblast - April 18

• BC NDP hold onto double digit lead in BC
  Serious buyer's remorse from BC voters as Liberals wither under sustained public fury at HST
  
  
• "How dare you take our kickback away!"
  Big drugstore chains do not make sympathetic victims.
  
  
• Nothing but Blue Skies...
  Warren Ellis marvels at a sight not seen in Britain for decades: A sky without contrails, as scientists warn that Iceland's volcanoes may be entering a far more active phase in the years ahead.
  
  
• The need for Change
  Paul Krugman again, on the need for real bank regulation reform in the US.
  
  
• Getting my nerd on
  Rusty Idols is my politics and ranting blog, over at Bourbon and Bongwater my pop culture/sex, drugs and zombie movies blog I'm getting ready for Calgary's big comics and fantasy convention next weekend.
  
  
• Cry me a river
  Police complain that the proliferation of video cameras is keeping them from beating people as much.
  
  

Sunday Linkblast - April 11

• Stephen Harper's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week
  Four years in government and even his cabinet 'stars' aren't ready for prime-time.
  
  
• Hoser Magic
  Daring escape from a keg of beer.
  
  
• Enter the Random Matrix
  The probability theorem that may reveal underlying laws of reality.
  
  
• In answer to the prayers and wishes of millions?
  Lady Gaga explains why she is celibate.
  
  
• The Pentagon's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week
  War-crimes on video.

Sunday Linkblast - March 14

• James Laxer's Great Big Canadian Economy post
  He's always worth reading and today he crystallizes all of his thinking about the way forward for Canada into one giant mega post.
  
  
• Psychopath's brains wired to seek reward and disregard consequences
  New insights into the neurology of violent personality disorders
  
  
• The use and misuse of the word 'terror'
  What is terrorism and who is a terrorist ambiguously undefined - deliberately?
  
  
• Biological imperative for xenophobia?
  Reminders of disease cause increases in fear of others.
  
  
• 'This is not a matter of timing but substance.'
  Haaretz puts the blame for the Biden diplomatic row squarely on Netanyahu's policies.
  
  
• The octopus has no personality?
  Scientists suggest that because they are moody and don't fall for the same trick two days in a row that means they have no personality.

Sunday Linkblast - Feb 28

• The Calgary School VS Public Healthcare
  Another wildly dishonest broadside against public healthcare from ideologues disguised as academics - buttressed with outright lies like Tommy Douglas "only intended to protect the most vulnerable in society from catastrophic health issues" and "We really support the public system, we just want to make it better, honest." Hey if you can't trust dishonest right wing extremists, who can you trust?
  
  
• Not a terrorist
  Sure he launched a suicide attack against the US government, but he's not brown or Muslim, so he can't actually be a terrorist.
  
  
• Never trust a smart ass
  Krugman on the Right wing's insecure anti-intellectualism. On the other hand, maybe they have a reason because...
  
  
• Super Freaks
  The smarter you are the more like you are to be a kinky, liberal atheist.
  
  
• Social Gaming
  The huge popularity of Facebook gaming like Mafia Wars and Farmville comes out of nowhere and knocks game developers for a loop.
  
  
• Multiculturalism is NOT a new idea
  The richest woman in fourth century county York in Britain was a Roman citizen of African origin
  
  
• Canadian Copyright Law: Just fine with the corporate giants
  Its the US government panicking and calling us a pirate haven, big business doesn't seem as concerned.

Sunday Linkblast - Feb 21

• Not a lot of Métis in his riding apparently
  Edmonton East Tory MP Peter Goldring calls Louis Riel a “villain” with blood on his hands who stood in the way of Confederation.' “To unhang Louis Riel and to mount a statue to him on Parliament Hill would elevate anarchy and civil disobedience to that of democratic statesmanship.”
  
  
• Market failure famine
  Free trade, deregulation and privatization catastrophic to food stability in Africa.
  
  
• Obama finally takes on healthcare for real?
  Krugman is cautiously optimistic.
  
  
• The Good Coup?
  The Junta in Niger seized power practically bloodlessly, released almost all prisoners within hours, were opposing an unpopular president trying to dissolve parliament, promise a return to democracy as quickly as possible and have apparent support from the public. The international community condemns the coup but arguably it was America and Europe's threat to cut all non-humanitarian aid two months ago that spurred the coup plotters.
  
  
• Wanting to believe
  The patient communicating from a persistent vegetative state? He really wasn't
  
  
• Roger Ebert Revealed
  As most of the internet has already discovered, this is one of the best interview profiles you'll ever read. I've always enjoyed his scrupulous fairness as a reviewer, by which I mean he would review a movie on its merits - if its a cheesy horror movie, is it an entertainingly cheesy horror movie. If its a sex comedy, is it sexy and funny?
  
  
• Oh that's just fracking cool
  RFID tattoo that creates an augmented reality on webcams.

Sunday Linkblast - Dec 13

• Monsanto controls 90% of seed crop gene codes
  Quietly dominating and controlling basic food stocks world wide
  
  
• HUAC North
  Dawg addresses the concerns over quasi official attempts to criminalize criticism of Israel.
  
  
• Is the compromise any good?
  Cautious optimism over the health plan emerging from the US Senate
  
  
• Survival of the Kindest
  The evolutionary advantages of altruism.
  
  
• Police murder squads in the aftermath of Katrina
  Trigger happy chaos.
  
  
• Berlusconi bloodied
  Souvenir cathedral model to the face at a rally.
  
  
• Billionaire Right wing businessman headed for victory in Chile
  Two decades of leftist rule left the country stable and prosperous.
  
  
• Atlas Obscura
  A dictionary of the world's oddest places.
  
  

Sunday Linkblast - Dec 6

• Why Sarah Palin left Hawaii
  All those icky Asians made her uncomfortable.
  
  
• Live by the Palace Coup...
  ...die by the palace coup. Every Liberal leader since Trudeau has been forced out as fickle Liberals look for their next savior. Now the knives are out and being publicly sharpened for Iggy.
  
  
• Scientists state obvious as if its a major new insight
  Believers base their idea of what God believes based on what they believe.
  
  
• Job growth..
  ...in lots of part time jobs asking 'Do you want fries with that?'
  
  
• Collapse of a slave state
  Johann Hari on the fall of Dubai. Bottom Line: 'It's about time.'
  
  
• Hipster Timeline
  Chart the Douchery
  
  
• Santa, No!
  'You know, for kids!'
  
  
• Mass cannibalism site found in Germany
  Apparently if you lost a war 7000 years ago, your side got eaten.

Sunday Linkblast - Nov 22

• 'Sure, we knew they were being tortured.'
  But let's still pretend it's Colvin's integrity in question rather than ours.
  
  
• Best weapon against climate change?
  Condoms.
  
  
• NDP poised for gains
  Other bloggers, particularly Liberal ones keep confidently informing me that the NDP is on the way out. The cognitive dissonance of this requires ignoring a steadily growing vote share and seat count federally, popular gains provincially (Saskatchewan and BC voters seem to have reconsidered their flirtation with right wing politics and are apparently looking forward to the first opportunity to vote NDP again.) including winning in Nova Scotia forming the first NDP government east of Ontario. Keep telling me how the NDP are on their way out though - it's getting funnier and funnier.
  
  
• Hamas and Israel close to prisoner exchange deal?
  Something that might point to a way forward out of irresolvable conflict?
  
  
• Manned space flight forever out of reach?
  Is it just too radioactive politically and literally to ever get off the ground?
  
  
• Right wing, so-called 'Democrats' against health reform.
  If anyone out there has photos of Joe Leiberman with a dead girl or a live boy - now's the time to cash your chips.
  
  
• The 'no morality without God' canard again.
  I've addressed this one myself. Recent examples of so-called 'Christians' praying that Obama be murdered and his children be orphaned makes me wonder if its actually 'No morality with God'
  
  
• I want one
  I love that one of Jim Steranko's greatest visual ideas from old Nick Fury comics from the 60's has come true.
  
  

Sunday Linkblast - Nov 8

• Alberta Conservatives VS the Public
  Grassroots Tories signal their defiance of public support for wholly public healthcare.
  
  
• The Audacity of Timidity
  Obama's slipping support is directly related to the extent he drifts towards politics as usual.
  
  
• Fighting to keep the Fantasy alive
  Terry Pratchett talks about his new book and his struggle with Alzheimer's.
  
  
• The Inexplicable Appeal of Ayn Rand
  How did an uninspired author who despised democracy and considered the masses 'lice' who didn't deserve to live become one of America's most popular writers?
  
  
• Contracts with executives are sacrosanct
  Contracts with frontline healthworkers are just annoying obstructions
  
  
• Extreme Rendition
  When nothing else but raping people with broken bottles will do - choose Uzbekistan.
  
  
• Unpleasant Irony
  Member of RCMP Violence Suppression Team guilty of assault.
  
  
• Democrats throw reproductive rights under the bus
  Stupak Amendment is a call for grassroots Democrats to support progressive primary challenges.
  
  
• And finally, in honor of His Majesty's visit to Canada:

Sunday Linkblast - Oct 25

• Canada's hidden housing bubble
  The biggest Sub-prime lender in the world right now is the Canadian government.
  
  
• Healthcare in America: Leaving his family to save them
  The only way Bill Caudle could get his wife the chemotherapy she needed was to join the army
  
  
• Demented liars and the right wing pressure groups that enable them
  Lord Monckton's bizarre denialism propped up by the Fraser Institute
  
  
• Here's a great idea:
  'Hey, let's get a bee swarm addicted to cocaine and see what happens.'
  
  
• The biggest obstacle to an effective public healthcare plan in the US today?
  The Obama Whitehouse.
  
  
• Some contracts are more equal than others
  Contracts with bankers are inviolate and must not be amended. Contracts with autoworkers are just annoying roadblocks to be mowed down.
  
  
• Atlantis found?
  A Greek city that fell beneath the waves around 1000 BC may have been the Atlantis of myth.

Sunday Linkblast - Oct 11

• Class War in BC
  Class War is what you get accused of for pointing out that there's a class war already taking place.
  
  
• Apple Computers pulls out of US Chamber of Commerce over their opposition to fighting climate change
  The Chamber says it doesn't oppose all efforts to fight global warming, just any efforts that will actually fight global warming.
  
  
• The 'Making stalkers lives easier' bill of Oklahoma
  How will crazed murderers track down women who've had a legal medical procedure unless all their easily identifiable medical information is made public?
  
  
• Scientists discover a way to reverse biological clock
  Regenerating aging muscle tissue.
  
  
• California Police seek senior citizen bank robber
  Estimated to be in his 70's, occasionally committing his robberies with an oxygen tank strapped to his back. Any bets that it was the only way to pay his medical bills?
  
  
• Let's take advice from the morons who've been absolutely wrong about absolutely everything
  Frank Rich skewers Neocon gall.
  
  
• Peak oil debate irrelevant
  Even under the most optimistic predictions we're nowhere near ready.

Sunday Linkblast - Sept 20

• Habitat for Humanity Building Site in Regina looted
  If you've got some spare income or time, there are few groups more deserving of support.
  
  
• The essential, underlying bailout mistake:
  Bailing out the banks rather than the people crippled by their debt to the banks.
  
  
• Peggy Noonan goes on Sunday talk show to criticize Obama for going on Sunday talk shows.
  Next she'll be complaining about other people's obnoxious hypocrisy.
  
  
• Feminist Revival in Italy
  Berlusconi is enough of an oinker to spawn a rebirth of Italian feminism.
  
  
• Paralysis cured in rats
  A mix of drugs, electrical stimulation and exercise and they were on their feet again
  
  
• Swine Flu could kill millions this year
  Without massive support from the developed world the developing world could face massive death and unrest.
  
  
• Canadian poverty level so bad even Conference Board of Canada concerned
  Nobody should draw any unreasonably logical conclusions about the correspondence between Conservative governance and the increase in poverty
  
  
• On the other hand an increase in prosperity leads to a corresponding decrease in religion
  The real reason for the alliance between extremist religion and regressive political ideology in opposition to poverty alleviation?
  
  
• Beyond Right and Left
  Bill Vander Zalm, one of the most reactionary right-wing politicians in Canadian history joins BC leftists in opposing the HST
  
  
• A belated apology to Alan Turing
  The father of modern computer science finally gets an apology for the official persecution for his homosexuality
  
  
• American FCC about to support Net Neutrality?
  An announcement coming Monday.
  
  
• Alan Moore's Grimoire
  An interview about many subjects including his coming book The Moon and Serpent Book of Magic, synthesizing all his views on ceremonial magic.

Sunday Linkblast - September 13

• The Penny Drops
  Liberal blogger learns to recognize political rhetoric.
  
  
• Schrodinger's Virus
  Scientists close to being able to put life-forms into a quantum superposition.
  
  
• Tiny minnow, big change
  Just declaring a species endangered won't cut it anymore, now its actual habitat has to be identified and protected. This will have huge consequences.
  
  
• Convicted Oilpatch bomber calls for EnCana pipeline bomber to end his campaign
  "I want to encourage you not to let anger about such stupidity get the best of you and to realize that these conflicts cannot ultimately be settled by use of force, but by way of informed and patient persuasion,"
  
  
• Nature is icky and wrong!
  Prepare for one of the most heebie-jeebies inducing photos you will ever see.
  
  
• Practical Magic
  One of our favorite stage magicians/hypnotists/social engineers is Derren Brown, a guy who can walk up to people on the street and with a friendly smile convince them to hand him their wallets and watches and be 20 yards away before they go 'Heyyyy, wait a second...!' He recently got a lot of attention in the UK by seeming to predict winning lottery numbers!
  
  
• Every picture tells a story, don't it?
  Oh honey, I'm home...
  

Sunday Linkblast - August 16

• The 'New' is for the ideas and the kind of politics
  The name won't be changed, credit Broadbent's speech and the unfortunate connotation the new acronym would have had in Quebec for nobody being too upset that time ran out before the idea could be debated.
  
  
• Momentum may be shifting in US Healthcare debate
  But given a chance the Democrats will negotiate away any real reform.
  
  
• Pop Culture blender at Bourbon and Bongwater
  Reviews, music and comics with an emphasis on sex, drugs and zombie movies.
  
  
• To Kill a Mockingbird banned by Catholic High School in Ontario
  Principal: It's not really censorship because I'm just yanking it from the approved curriculum and barring classroom discussions because of the complaint of one parent.
  
  
• A Modest Proposal
  NASA scientists suggest that if Earth gets too hot we could move it to cooler parts of the Solar System
  
  
• Kiss-ins at Mormon Churches
  The Latter Day Saints AKA the Mormons only let non-whites hold leadership roles in the church in the 1970's. They promoted and financed the Proposition 8 referendum on stripping a California minority of some of their civil rights last year. They have a right to freely practice their faith and the minority they are attacking have a right to freely protest those attacks.
  
  
• Going Viral
  A new mathematical model for determining how some information achieves a critical mass of explosive dissemination
  
  
• The Anti-Healthcare forces in the US argue that under a government run healthcare system like Britain's, Stephen Hawkins would have been judged unfit and could never have survived as long as he has. Just a few problems with this remarkable suggestion...
  Investors Business Daily is apparently the paper for those who think the Wall Street Journal is run by a bunch of squishy leftists.
  
  
• The Quest for the acid spitting Mongolian Death Worm
  A story from the real world that sounds straight to video.