Why This Site is temporarily Green-texted

I have changed my blogger template to use html colour code 006600 for the text. This is going to stay that way until common sense prevails and this gets reversed, or the date for the debate passes (or I can't stand looking at it anymore... whatever comes first).

Thanks to Gauntlet for the idea!

Nothing funnier than Scott Feschuk at election time

Just be careful about coffee spewing out on your keyboard as you read and guffaw.

Meanwhile, Harper's launched his latest campaign theme:

The New Negative!
Pounding away mercilessly at wounded political animals with psychotic glee - the only thing the Harper Imitation Tories really excel at!

Layton, Harper taking cues from McCain more than Obama

It's really sad how NDP leader Jack Layton has reacted to the Mother May I? question. Here is a guy who has huge posters put up (see the corner of St-Laurent and Jean-Talon in Montreal) with just his own name and mustachioed grin. He daily stands at a podium with only his name emblazoned upon it. He is flying in a campaign plane with only his name on the side in giant letters. Yet he wouldn't take ownership of his decision to deny Elizabeth May's voice at the upcoming televised leadership debates by speaking to the media about it himself. Instead, he sent his spokesperson to explain it, and belied his claim to strong leadership himself by meekly choosing to duck reporters' questions.

Layton was hustled away by handlers when reporters tried to clarify if he had said he would pull out.

"I'm looking forward to debating the prime minister," was his only comment.

Before Lavigne spoke, another NDP official speaking off record said that a negotiator for Layton had told network organizers that he would have to "reconsider" his participation but had not threatened to boycott.

And then the NDP spokesperson couldn't resist promoting the entirely false meme (that may have been true two elections ago) of the Green Party being a one-issue party. Seems to me that if your actions do not jibe with your rhetoric, you are not doing anything to gain the trust of voters who have been skeptical of your party for decades. It reminds me of a line from Obama's incredible DNC acceptance speech: "He just doesn't get it." Of course the 'he' Obama was referring to was his Republican counterpart, John McCain, but it surely applies to Mr. Layton on this day.

For the record, the Vision Green is a 160-page tome in pdf, and covers the economy, taxation, public security, Afghanistan and just about everything in the federal realm and beyond:

Vision Green presents leading-edge thinking and rational, realistic solutions for all the issues facing Canadians. It was developed by a 31-member Green Shadow Cabinet and was informed by experts, activists and citizens who participated in policy workshops held across Canada. All the proposals are based on policies approved by the membership of the Green Party.

Green Party solutions are rational because the Green Party, unlike other parties, understands the scientifically verified limits to growth set by the carrying capacity of our planet. We must work within these limits. Otherwise, we will exhaust resources, degrade our environment and put our economy, health and children’s future at risk.

Our solutions are realistic because they follow “best practices” already in place in parts of Canada or other countries. These practices are cost-effective, deliver results and benefit people, the economy and the environment.

The Green Party’s down-to-earth solutions will work in Canada because they have worked around the world. Many have been successfully applied in Europe, where Greens are elected at all political levels, including the European Union and national parliaments. Countries where Greens have served in government are the countries creating new high-paying jobs while simultaneously meeting targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They are the countries where the gap between rich and poor is small and the standard of living is high. These countries don’t trade off the environment for the economy. Their economies and environmental laws are both strong.

Many people find it hard to position the Green Party on the old political spectrum. We believe in sound fiscal management and strengthening our economy while ensuring that it is sustainable. Does that mean we are “right wing”? We believe that government must provide needed social services while protecting our environment and the rights of women, minorities and disadvantaged people. Does that make us “left wing”? We don’t think so. More and more people are simply thinking of the Green Party as the party of the future.

The Green Party is different from other parties in another important way. We will never place the pursuit of power above principle. We will not allow partisan politics to get in the way of good ideas and needed action. We agree with Canadians who say it’s time for parties in parliament to stop bickering and get on with the job of combating climate change and taking better care of our environment, our health and our economy.

Let's not forget Harper's atrocious behaviour in this matter - he was the first one to spread lies and threaten to boycott the whole affair if the Green Party leader was given a seat, perhaps to protect the shaky seat held by his lil buddy, Junior MacKay, against whom May is running herself.
Why not just letElizabethspeak.ca, guys? Or are you enjoying this media storm that's taking you all off-message?

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Easy for You Guys to Say Dept.

Four former Canadian Prime Ministers (comprising what? four or five years' experience in the PM chair among the lot?) all agree they ignored a serious issue while in power and now want to get on the right side of history by wagging their fingers at today's party leaders with a report calling for immediate action to fight global warming.

The report calls for a $30-a-tonne price tag on emissions, and says a "staggering" investment in green technologies is required.

The document has been signed by four former prime ministers, Joe Clark and Kim Campbell, both Progressive Conservatives, and Liberals Paul Martin and John Turner.

The names of Jean Chrétien and Brian Mulroney are conspicuously absent from the document, even though both were contacted by the group, Roy told the Globe and Mail.

I find it a bit rich for Martin in particular to be on board here. He, more than anyone else in this lot, is responsible for Canada being slow to enact meaningful measures that could've made a difference on his watch. I guess it's better late than never, eh?

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BREAKING: Mother May I? Duceppe says he never said no

The BQ says: Don't look at us. Their spin is they told the consortium they preferred if it were limited to four debaters, but never ever EVER said they'd boycott unless Elizabeth May was shut out.

Go read more from Andrew Coyne. Especially this:

I have a feeling this is backfiring badly on all concerned. Have a look at the CBC story on this sordid business: there are more than 600 comments attached. (This Globe story: 430 comments) A firestorm, in other words. I wonder who will be the next member of the Gang of Three to buckle?

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Strong Leader too scared to Face May

"You can fight for democracy at home
And not in some foreign land"
--Billy Bragg, from the song:
"Help Save the Youth of America"

Shorter Peevey Stevie: Oh the horrifying injustice of it all! Oh boo hoo... Oh it's so unfair what those Big Bad Green Meanies want to do to me... Don't they know I'm a very strong, strong leader? Oh why must they be so unfair?!?

And then the media "Consortium" humbly bows down to His Mightiness and grants the sulky power-tripping democracy-hating Strongman his wish. Disgusting.

What a sad day for democracy in Canada. Here's May's reaction (per the Globe and Mail):

Ms. May claimed Mr. Harper is concerned that Greens are stealing votes from Conservatives, pointing to the riding of Guelph where their party polls show the Greens are up at the expense of the Tory candidate.

When asked directly about Mr. Harper's prediction that she will endorse Mr. Dion, Ms. May replied: “We know he's had a stylist who also is billed as a clairvoyant working for him, I wonder if that's what he's basing this on,” she said. “I don't know how to respond to something so absurd.”

Fight, Elizabeth May, fight.

4:40 PM UPDATE: I see from the CBC story that Layton and Duceppe also vetoed the debates if May was going to be there. What is this? An old-boys club mentality? Is there collusion going on here? Doubtful. But this just shows how powerful a good idea can be when the men on top of their little kingdoms feel it's more convenient to silence their critics than to face them. And they will make their platitudes about the great democratic institutions of this country while doing so. Count on it.

You call yourselves leaders? That's just
heartbreaking.

Utterly Pathetic.

Shameful.

5:00 PM UPDATE JimBobby Sez is equally outraged, and sez so rather succinctly:

Nevermind that polls have consistently shown that 77% of Canadians want the Green leader in the debates. Nevermind that 660,000 Canadians voted Green in 2006. Nevermind that the Green Party is one of only parties to receive federal funding. Nevermind that Canadian taxpayers shell out over $1 million a year to the Greens. Nevermind that the Greens run candidates in all provinces.

Nevermind democracy, you wimp chickenshit bastards.

Today is a dark day for Canadian democracy. The blame goes squarely to Harper, Layton and Duceppe. I will not watch the debates between these tweedle-dee and tweedle-dumbasses. Craven cowards who used their collective might to thwart democratic debate. Bastards! Dirty, rotten, chickenshit bastards!

And her party isn't agitating for Quebec separation either I might add...

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Ingrid Hein up against Justin Trudeau, Vivian Barbot in Papineau

I humbly ask you to consider the words of Papineau riding's GPC nominee, Ingrid Hein:

With a six-month old on my hip, I take on this challenge because I believe she deserves a better future, as does my 3-year old son.

How will we answer (our children) when they ask why, why did we let the planet become so sick? What will we tell them? I used glass baby bottles and sippy-cups, we will tell them. I had a compost. I tried to buy local and organic when I could afford to, we will say. Okay, alright. But this is only the beginning. The whole planet needs to think green, and it has to start at the government level. In North America, it can start with the Canadian government.

Hein and her riding rivals will be participating in a debate on culture and law & order (the real stuff; not the TV show) on CBC Radio One, Montreal (98.5 FM) on Monday, September 15th, at 7:40 am (EDT).

P.S.: Speaking as the newly minted GPC Financial officer for Papineau, we are currently graciously accepting donations; and volunteers sporting any combination of political savvy, campaign sign affixing wherewithal and baby wrangling know-how (some experience in that regard preferred, however one-on-one training will be provided). Contact me, Scott Murray, at the Randboro email address, or through the riding email address.

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Harper channels John Candy

I finally saw this sickening ad and was instantly reminded of:

Mayor Tommy Shanks (John Candy) is Melonville's "easygoing" (corrupt) mayor who is prone to sudden fits of rage and physical violence, yet gives regular fireside chats on SCTV while a stuffed dog sits motionless by his side. Throwing out one non-sequitur after another, Shanks manages to convey absolutely nothing of relevance during his broadcasts. Eventually, Shanks succumbs to mental illness and is institutionalized. While still in the institution, he runs for re-election with the campaign slogan "Get me outta here!" and wins by a landslide.

Too bad much searching on both youtube and google photos has not turned up anything else, but I trust true SCTV fans will know what I'm talking about here.

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Finally: NDP giving furniture its rightful political voice

Oh Jack. I'm sorry but this featured message is just plain lame!

Unlike Stephen Harper, I'll act on the priorities of the kitchen table, not the boardroom table

Right now, my kitchen table is demanding more frequent wet scrubs and a 50% reduction in mail clutter.

And it thanks you, Jack, from the bottom of its, er, legs,... for giving voice to its concerns.

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Afghanistan and the cost to Canada in fighting there

This post copied - and expanded on - from a comment I made on John Waugh's blog post: NDP Pathetic on Afghan war

What this adds up to is pretty simple. During this campaign Layton will leave the war on the back burner. He will not make opposition to the war a central plank in his campaign platform. He will not repeat his party's opposition to the war unless he has to. He will not fight for the withdrawal of Canadian forces from Afghanistan.

Progressive Canadians have no party, they have no leader.

In defending the NDP as the party best representing those like me who feel Canada has no business participating in ISAF (the NATO-led combat mission in Afghanistan), leftdog has a point with his comment that the NDP have been the loudest political voice in opposition to our combat role there. But at the same time, it's telling that he had to go back eight months to find any mention of the NDP stance being put forward by the party machinery on Canada's role within the ISAF mission.

I think what this says (and John Waugh was astute to pick up on it) is that the NDP don't see this issue as even cracking the top ten list for them - on the eve of an election campaign to boot.

This cuts to the heart of the matter for a lot of us who may have previously defended/supported the NDP and share much of their worldview; but have found it just as partisanly unwelcome a home as the Martin Liberals had been.

But there is another party with ideas on the subject. I am talking of course about the Green Party.

On page 104 of the Vision Green policy document (updated just last month) you may note on pages 103-104 the GPC maintains the NATO-led mission is wrong and that Canada should withdraw our troops from the effort by this coming February at the latest.

...Despite this disheartening situation, there is also a very high risk that the immediate removal of all foreign troops would lead to the outbreak of a full-scale civil war and a humanitarian catastrophe. Accordingly, the Green Party believes we need to shift as rapidly as possible away from the current US-led NATO command mission, to a more ethnically balanced and regionally represented United Nations command effort and a greater security role for the Afghan National Army. This mission redesign improves the probability that over time the conditions will emerge for a viable political solution to the conflict...

Will this become a central plank in the campaign? I certainly hope I can influence this from within the party. While global warming and its potential for devastation is perhaps the most important issue for humanity right now, the wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere must not be dumped out of the discussion merely for politically strategic reasons.

As John rightly points out, this is our biggest international commitment currently, and it sucked up all the resources we had previously spent 35 years building up as world leaders in peacekeeping activities - a shameful about-pace for which the Liberals and Conservatives need to be held to account, and which (one would hope) the NDP, Bloq Québecois and GPC would not let up on.

3:00 p.m. Update: It seems I was even timelier in posting this than anticipated.

OTTAWA — A majority of Canadians still view their soldiers as peacekeepers and would rather see them helping disaster victims than fighting, an internal poll prepared for National Defence suggests.

The results of the exhaustive survey, obtained by The Canadian Press, come despite the best efforts of both the Conservative government and the military to rebrand the Canadian Forces as a combat outfit.

“The image of the Canadian peacekeeper is one that has taken hold in the Canadian national psyche in the decades since the Korean War,” said the Ipsos Reid study, which is expected to be released Monday.

“Recent attempts at repositioning this traditional role toward one that emphasizes a more activist approach which includes the use of force have met with relatively little interest and still less acceptance.”

Why am I not surprised?

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Look! Baby's Tagless Jammies are Burning her Skin

I have to pass this on from Nature Moms blog. Any parents out there with tagless kids' clothes take notice:

these labels may be made with “PVC blended into a Phthalate” or ink with “small levels of formaldehyde”. It was even stated that “residual phthalate from not fully fused ink is what is most likely causing the reaction.” And the reactions are horrible. Read this description of a reaction to Carter’s tagless clothes and look at these pictures.

This reminds me of my visit to my local Pharmaprix (that's the brand Shopper's Drug Mart goes by in La Belle Province) a few months ago in search of a good teething ring for my baby boy. It was in the middle of one of those toy recalls and I was specifically hoping to find something not made in China, since it would be in and out of his little mouth constantly, and I had lost confidence in any product from China living up to its printed-in-Canada assurances of safety. Anyway, of eight products to choose from, not one was manufactured anywhere but China.

Parenting in the modern age, eh? In the end it was decided to go with non-plastic alternatives.

NOTE: my own two sons have shown zero reaction to tagless clothes themselves, despite wearing them continually. What I linked to here is admittedly an unconfirmed report, but a quick check on snopes.com found no urban legends reported on tagless clothes burns. That and the severity of the reaction shown in those pictures led me to want to pass it on just in case.

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Sarah Palin's no Truman either

Dave over at the Galloping Beaver really does a bravura job of picking apart the conceit written into Republican VP Candidate Sarah Palin's speech to the RNC last night that tried to equate her candidacy with that of one Harry S. Truman:

By the time a person is selected as the possible successor for the prospective holder of the nuclear launch codes, offering one's membership on an elementary school PTA simply does not cut it as a valid credential and certainly doesn't compare to the route taken by a much more substantial and skilled politician.

Dave, hats off to you. Read the whole thing.

The Fighting Greens vs. the Panicky Tories

It's really quite astounding - the lengths we in the Green Party of Canada have to go to to get the mass media to include our leader in the nationally televised debates for the upcoming election.

Not only did we register a domain name ages ago as a rallying point for democracy loving Canadians to help us petition the TV bigwigs for a seat at the table...

Not only did we field a full slate of 308 candidates in the 2006 federal election...

Not only did we embrace a previously independent sitting MP into the party fold to prove GPC representation in the House of Commons...

Now we are taking the unprecedented step of hiring a lawyer to press the case to the CRTC.

Former party leader Jim Harris said the Greens won't hesitate to resort to court action if current leader Elizabeth May isn't allowed to participate.

"We're going to allow the broadcasters the chance to do the right thing," Harris said at a news conference.

"This is pre-emptive, to say, 'If you do not do as you should, then there will be legal consequences."'

If the group of major broadcasters that organize the debates refuse to give May a spot, Harris said the party will file a complaint to the CRTC.

Should the federal broadcast regulator rule against the Green party, a judicial review of the decision will be sought, he said.

The party said the broadcast consortium - which includes CBC Radio Canada, CTV, Global Television and TVA - exercises "carte blanche control" over who participates in the debates, but lacks clear criteria for inclusion.

Harris said it would be a "very good thing" to have laws spelling out the rules for inclusion in the debates.

"We should have criteria such as major support in polls across the country, such as running in all ridings, these are pretty simple criteria, objective criteria, and yes, we should have them," said Harris.

And how do the Harper Conservatives respond? By their own novel (read:"twisted") logic, the GPC's Elizabeth May cannot be present alongside the Liberals' Stephane Dion since they don't hate each other as badly as the Conservatives would like. From the CBC report:

The federal Conservatives are seeking to block May from the debates, citing a deal struck by May and Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion where they agreed not to run candidates against each other in their respective ridings.

"You can't have one leader onstage that has already endorsed the candidacy of another and signed an electoral co-operation agreement," Harper spokesman Dimitri Soudas said.

"When it comes to the debate, they can have May or they can have Dion," he said. "But they can't have both."

It has been a normal practice in the past for political parties to occasionally not run candidates against rival parties' leaders.

To present such a laughably ridiculous argument must mean the Cons are really scared of what might become of a truly formidable opponent like May taking Harper on in front of a live TV audience.

Here's another good reason to include the Green Party of Canada: how many other parties grew their support by 100% since receiving 4.5% of the votes tallied in 2006?

And how's this for a good reason to include Elizabeth May: as the only female leader of a national party, maybe it would be nice to see some diversity up there, eh?

Or can't four white guys handle it?

If you think they can, why don't you make your opinion known to all the major Canadian TV media by signing our petition and helping us fight for democracy in this country. After all, we know that's what most Canadians want to see!

And if you're interested in making your voice heard over at the CRTC, here's where you can do that.

My fellow Canadians, I thank you.

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Arctic Ice gone by 2013?

Do I hear 2080?
2080

Do I hear 2050?
2050

Do I hear 2030?
2030

Do I hear 2013?

This is almost like listening to an auctioneer. Even though the average global air temperature has declined from last year, we still appear to be on our way to an historic low of arctic sea ice:

Most of the cover consists of relatively thin ice that formed within a single winter and melts more easily than ice that accumulated over many years.

Irrespective of whether the 2007 record falls in the next few weeks, the long-term trend is obvious, scientists said; the ice is declining more sharply than even a decade ago, and the Arctic region will progressively turn to open water in summers.

A few years ago, scientists were predicting ice-free Arctic summers by about 2080.

Then computer models started projecting earlier dates, around 2030 to 2050; and some researchers now believe it could happen within five years.

(emphasis mine)

No wonder we're seeing signs of Tories and extraction industries licking their lips, eh? Elizabeth May knows the score and she's calling them out: The Tories don't want to fight global warming. They're ready to welcome it in fact. It might be good in the short term for the Canadian bottom line, but just ask Westmount-Ville-Marie Green Party candidate Claude William Genest why the consequences of unchecked global warming are being deemed a crisis.

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Good day: Foetus-rights bill (ie: Anti-Abortion Phase I) SHELVED

Sometimes, it doesn't matter why. Just enjoy the fact Bill C-484 is another one relegated to the dustbin of history.

- 30 -

TORIES = DEFICITS: on track for $3 Billion

Just three months ago, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was brushing aside Bay Street worries that we might be in a deficit situation within two years. Well, Bay St. was wrong - it was already happening! Yes indeedy. It turns out the government of the Secret Harper Imitation Tories (SHITs) have engineered the first budgetary deficit in over 10 years.

On Friday, the government said it posted a deficit of $517-million for April and May, the first two months of the fiscal year, as income from corporate and sales taxes fell sharply.

Yes, it's a good thing they reduced the GST to 5% at the beginning of last January. We sure would hate to see headlines like this coming back to remind us of what you get with a prudent government, eh?

At this rate, we will have a $3 billion deficit for this fiscal year.

Oh yes, I think we're going to have a Fall election kiddies.

Mr. Dion, you have been given a gift better than any scandal. Just repeat after me:

$3 billion deficit

$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit
$3 billion deficit

You get my drift right?

- 30 -

Original Song #26: Sitting Like Hippies

Sitting Like Hippies

Meet me down at Dusty's for seven o'clock
Open call auditions snaring hopeful hearts
Get in line, get a number, outside we wait
Finding four-leaf clovers like it was fate

Performance junkies congregate
When I open my guitar case

CHORUS:
Sitting like hippies in the park
Playing Brown Eyed Girl on my guitar
Sitting with your eyes closed, side to side you sway
I could live like this every day

Steve made the trip in from Halifax
Sang for five seconds and no call back
Rebecca's going to do Amazing Grace
Me? I'm going to fall flat on my face

Wave hello to the Pulstar van, get my
Fifteen minutes any way I can

Sitting like hippies in the park
Playing Brown Eyed Girl on my guitar
Sitting with your eyes closed, side to side you sway
I could live like this every day

Yeah, we're gonna eat what hippies eat
Yeah, we're gonna blink like hippies blink
Yeah, we're gonna stink like hippies stink

Doesn't matter; we've got April sun
Four-leaf clovers for everyone!

Sitting like hippies in the park
Strumming Brown Eyed Girl on my guitar
Sitting with your eyes closed, side to side you sway
I could live like this every day

- 30 -

Canada: Part of the Global Warming Problem

Greenpeace has done a lovely job creating a fake Alberta tourism site to educate us (through cutting humour) on the massive environmental toll being paid for the benefit of getting at all that juicy tar-sands oil. From the government-sanctioned and wanton destruction of pristine boreale forest, to the ghastly and toxic "Tailing ponds" left in their wake, this surely will count as one of the most shameful pillagings of mother nature in human history.

And that's not even taking into account the cumulative effect on greenhouse gas content in the atmosphere. Burning fossil fuels to get at other fossil fuels that will eventually be burned (and require more fossil fuels to transport them to and from refineries using fossil fuels via fossil fuel burning trucks on tarmac roads made in part from fossil-oil products...) And whoops, our heads are spinning wildly before we even consider the effect of losing all that good carbon-trapping forest!

We really have to find a better way to deal with our collective hunger for energy. There is probably no greater effect we can have than to change our mindset of what is normal behaviour.

For example, I recently discovered that I can walk all the way to and from work (if I set aside 40-45 minutes to do so). And it is an enjoyable walk at that, coming with the health benefit of getting a degree of exercise. Previously, I would take a 15-20 minute bus trip at rush hour, having waited anywhere between 2 and 20 minutes for the bus to arrive, then be sandwiched-in uncomfortably while the bus jerked and heaved to deal with Montreal traffic.

Weather permitting, my wife bikes the kids to daycare, which is conveniently only a half-kilometre away from home, and around the corner from the studio where she works. We also chose to live in a neighbourhood where it is often possible to shop on foot - except for the big haul grocery buys. Our home is insulated and heated with electricity, but certainly could be more energy-efficient, and that's something to be investigated soon.

That's partly because I am in a neighbourhood that was designed to be more energy-efficient - back in the 1920's. But some of our friends live in the suburbs, designed post-WWII - with three times the living space to heat or cool (completely detached), huge lawns to tend, long commutes to work and no option to walk to the pharmacy or dentist, etc. While I am proud to be living more energy-efficiently, I can't say I'm not jealous of the space they have, but at least I live near a huge park for the kids to play in.

If we stop building communities on the premise of having cheap and abundant energy, and go back to tighter quarters and smaller-scale neighbourhoods the way we used to between the wars, this would go a very long way towards decreasing our energy thirst, at least in high-density population areas.

Now that energy prices are moving towards being value-costed, the North American lifestyle might just revert, especially if more people start thinking and living the way we do. And I sense this is already beginning to be reflected in the growing market value of the properties in densely-built older urban communities such as my own.

Now if only we can go back to rail transport as the primary means of moving goods around! (More on that in a future post.)

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Nothing but dumb hope left for us Habs fans

Might as well hope for an Asexuals reunion while we're at it. (Hats off to DomPompeo). Exile From Floontown was an LP - that's right; an LP - that was spinning just about constantly on my turntable - yeah, that's right; TURNTABLE, okay? Some of us are in our late 30s here, see? - during that magical '93 Cup win.

And we all know the Flyers are a no-class organization. Who wants to see an "all Pennsylvania" match-up for the Eastern final anyway? Ugh.

GOHABSGO

Runnin' Countries for Dummies

I see the Super Secret Harper Imitation Tories had their headquarters combed by the RCMP yesterday.

Seems they were gathering evidence for Elections Canada (this is in regards to their rather loose interpretation of campaign finance spending laws in place during the 2006 election that brought them to power.)

Seriously, Peevey Stevie, having party headquarters become the subject of a criminal investigation is SOOOOOO George W. Bush! Do you really need to follow every page of the Bushco playbook? This idolatry may be a symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder you know.

What's next? Will Peter Mackay blast a hunting buddy in the face with buckshot?

- 30 -