I like to think that if every adult on earth could go for a ride in Richard Branson's new spaceship the argument over climate change would be over forever.
Because they would see how beautiful and fragile our little blue planet is, how important it is to save it for their children, and all future generations.
And how ridiculous it is to see rich nations fighting the poor ones.
When we're all in this together.
But then the Branson spaceship is only for rich people. And do Canadians really care about the future?
Canadians like to think they would give up their Honda Pilots, air conditioning and dishwashers to save the planet. In reality, most people are prepared to make enormous personal sacrifices to live a green lifestyle, as long as they don’t have to make any enormous personal sacrifices.
Do they understand what it could do to Stephen Harper's Dirty Oil government? A third of the 2,412 Canadians surveyed said that the government’s record on the environment made it less likely they would vote Conservative. Even among Tory supporters, one in five said they would be less likely to vote Conservative because of the environment - an issue of particular concern to seniors. And if they are too selfish to care, what does it say about some Canadians?
After inheriting wealth, knowledge and health, after being spared the horrors of world wars and a great depression, history's most privileged cohorts are rolling the dice on someone else's future. Those edging toward the door are leaving behind their garbage for those they say they love.
It's a foolish gamble and a selfish indulgence. Even if the science is imperfect, the evidence is too compelling to prudently ignore. Falling back on doubts, or pointing to carefully pruned emails as proof of a grassy knoll conspiracy, won't lift excuses into explanations or transform blame into forgiveness.
I'm not sure that the Boomers should be singled out. There is probably enough blame for everyone. And I don't understand why doing the right and decent thing has become so weird and complicated.
But I do know that we ALL need to do more to save our little blue planet, from the greedy clutches of Big Oil and their Con stooges. Because the day of reckoning WILL come.
And that I urgently need $250,000 to buy me a ticket on that spaceship.!!!!
So I can....um....take pictures for the poor people. Sébastien says it looks like a good way to cull the rich. But he's practically a boomer eh?
Wow. I have to admit I LOVE the way Greenpeace decorated the halls roof of Parliament. What a great message. And what a great video to share with the planet.
It helps make up for this latest humiliation. Canada had the dubious honour Monday of being one of the countries to win the Fossil of the Day award, which is presented by non-governmental groups at the Copenhagen conference to countries they deem laggards on the environment.
By showing the world that we're not all greedy oil hogs like the Cons. That a lot of us care about the planet. And that some of us are prepared to do more than just sit there and watch it burn. When the stakes are so high. The science is complex but the facts are clear. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years. A bigger rise of 3-4C — the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction — would parch continents, turning farmland into desert. Half of all species could become extinct, untold millions of people would be displaced, whole nations drowned by the sea. And what I also liked about the Greenpeace action, was that it reduced Stephen Harper's latest neverending campaign photo-op to the status of a third rate story.
And at a time when the world is focusing on Copenhagen, it made him look even more ridiculous...and environmentally irresponsible. I mean what do you call a guy who is willing to poison his own province? And does this mean he's going to follow Obama and declare this dangerous pollution a health hazard? The agency's announcement Monday paves the way for government regulation of emissions even without congressional approval.
Heh heh heh. You know I think I'm going to enjoy this climate summit a lot eh? Even before it started the Cons looked like fossils. By time it's over they'll look like CRIMINALS. Woohoo!!! Deck out the roof halls of Parliament. Christmas is coming EARLY....
BONUS: You know about that so-called Climategate affair that has the Con deniers in a foaming frenzy? Well somebody in Copenhagen did mention the hacked e-mails today. The representative from SAUDI ARABIA. So much for Climategate. So much for the Cons. Whose side are they on ANYWAY?
I see that after that a long period of tortured contemplation Rowan Williams has finally made up his mind. He will speak out about the election of a lesbian Bishop in California and threaten to expel the Episcopal Church. "The election of Mary Glasspool by the Diocese of Los Angeles as suffragan bishop elect raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the Communion as a whole," Williams said in the statement.
But he won't speak out about Uganda's plans to murder gay people. Or expel the Ugandan church from the Anglican communion, for supporting the plan. Or denounce this Bishop's genocidal words. In Africa and the world over, there were many wizards, every village had at least one. Being a wizard was as much a vice as homosexuality and lesbianism. It would overwhelmingly possesses the victims and enslaves them just as homosexuality does to its victims since it is a spiritual and moral matter. It was the case of being disoriented. Wizards would kill people, play with dead bodies, molest animals sexually, did many dirty things. They possessed unexplained drive, they were disorientated. But with the coming of the light of the Gospel of Christ. such tendencies have been wiped out or tremendously reduced much as communities and societies fought to eliminate such anti-human behavior. Today's "Rights" activists would love us respect them and legitimize such vices: what blindness! What a fallen race! Or should that be what a fallen and barbarous RELIGION? And how on earth did a man like Rowan Williams end up in such evil company...and such a moral swamp? Consider the case of two Anglicans of the same gender who love one another. If they are in the USA, the Anglican church will marry them and may elect one of them to office. If they are in Uganda, the Anglican church will have try to have them jailed for life, and ensure that any priest who did not report them to the authorities within 24 hours would be jailed for three years; anyone who spoke out in their defence might be jailed for seven.
Under Williams, the church that marries two women who love each other is to be thrown out of the Anglican Communion. The church that would jail them both for life, and would revile and persecute their defenders,stays snugly in his bosom. Great eh? Religious homophobia rears its ugly head again.
Just like it does in this video of gay men getting flogged in Pakistan.
If Rowan Williams doesn't recognize brutal state sponsored homophobia when he sees it.
Or hear the voices of the oppressed crying out for justice. He's leading his church to a very dark place. And he should get his soul examined...
I wish I had been back in Montreal today to lay 14 white roses at the base of this humble monument. And remember all the murdered women. And the snowy afternoon their young lives were snuffed out, by a man with a gun. In a frenzy of misogynist violence.
I've left flowers before. It's always a sad occasion. But this year would have been the saddest anniversary of all, because of the great betrayal. The sickening event that I wrote about in November, here and here. I think they were the hardest posts I've ever written. I took quite a bit of heat for them, even from some friends. And I found out today, that last post elicited this comment from another Progressive Blogger. I’m sorry, but an emotional appeal to that tragedy does not a good argument make.
In fact, trotting their memory out to appeal to your own partisan gains is distasteful and disgusting. Can you believe that ? Too emotional about a massacre. Or the lives of women and police officers, and paramedics. Must be my feminine side eh? Distasteful and disgusting for attacking Harper's Cons, for scrapping the gun registry and assaulting women's rights from the very moment they came to power?
Oh boy. Am I dreaming or is the world upside down? I guess I wasn't clear enough. So I should just say I AM a gentle and emotional person, and I do believe in a kinder, gentler, world ....where feminist values predominate over those of the bloodthirsty patriarchy who are leading us all to destruction.
But I'm also a fighter, in the ring or out, and when it comes to the Cons I'm not gentle at all. Because I believe that if we are going to beat those political thugs who are raping our precious Canadian values, we have to be tougher than they are. That's not going to change. And I'm never going to change my mind on the gun registry either, because my vision of a better world is one with as few guns as possible. And of course because too many women are being killed by them. Federal figures show most domestic murders involve long guns - 62 per cent of the total, according to the most recent numbers available - and most victims are women. "No gun law will prevent all tragedies. This one is imperfect. But there's evidence it's had an impact. The question is, do you want to make it easier or harder for people to get a gun?" In fact, I don't think I'm going to change anything. Because that's what I take away from this tragedy.The only positive thing. And the only way I could face those names on that humble monument without bowing my head in shame. By vowing that their legacy will not be forgotten. And that despite the great betrayal, we will get to that kinder gentler world. The struggle WILL continue. And I will never FORGET...
I haven't bothered to write anything about the so-called Climategate controversy, because this little smokescreen from the Big Oil Mafia doesn't change anything You can't fake spring coming earlier, or trees growing higher up on mountains, or glaciers retreating for kilometres up valleys, or shrinking ice cover in the Arctic, or birds changing their migration times, or permafrost melting in Alaska, or the tropics expanding, or ice shelves on the Antarctic peninsula breaking up, or peak river flow occurring earlier in summer because of earlier snowmelt, or sea level rising faster and faster, or any of the thousands of similar examples. Science is science and the evidence speaks for itself. And all this little e-mail tempest in a teapot proves is that climate change deniers are not only a gang of slobbering oil pimps and mentally deranged fanatics, they're hackers and criminals as well. And one day they will go on trial for crimes against the planet. Because you can't threaten the lives of a billion people. And hope to get away with it.
As for our own planet destroying, dirty oil, Con stooges.... their words too will come back to haunt them. "There's always a lot of hype and drama that gets built into this sort of international event, much of it intended to force the hand of participants," Mr. Prentice said in the prepared speech. "We aren't going to buy into that. We are not going to panic. For nothing can excuse their ridiculous arguments or their criminal lack of action. Not in a place like Canada. Canada has the world's longest coastline, the second-largest land mass and an enviable abundance of fresh water. Thus, by definition, the consequences of atmospheric warming must hit Canada arguably more than for most countries that lack vast territory, immense coastlines and so much fresh water.
Put another way, this piece of geography called Canada is on the front lines of the global warming struggle – although you wouldn't realize it watching the federal government.
And sorry won't be good enough.
We'll make sure of that. You can fool the gullible, and corrupt the greedy. Canadians tell pollsters they want “action,” but not if it unduly causes them to alter their behaviour or costs them anything. They want Canada to enjoy a stellar international reputation, but they don't seem too upset that, in the climate-change business, Canada has a horrible reputation that the Harper government isn't going to change.
But they can't betray the future of a generation, and delude themselves into thinking that we will forgive them.
Copenhagen may be the last chance to save the planet from being torched.
OK. This is the limit. We simply can't let Stephen Harper travel abroad again. It's just too embarrassing. Yesterday he was publicly humiliated and screwed by the Chinese. Today he's screwing the truth and pleasuring himself in public by posing as a human rights champion. "Our government believes and has always believed that a mutually beneficial economic relationship is not incompatible with a good and frank dialogue on fundamental values like freedom, human rights and the rule of law." Stephen Harper a human rights champion? OMG. When will this sinister authoritarian nerd stop torturing reality? I can't STAND it anymore. Muahahaha. Oh sure, I see that some Cons are claiming that by getting China to grant Canada Approved Destination Status old leather face came away with a sore behind, but a moral victory. Oh really? You mean the same Approved Destination Status Zimbabwe received FIVE years ago? Some status, some victory. And then there are other Cons like Andrew Coyne, who admit that Harper was humiliated, and are practically quivering with outrage. It is just sick-making. Is there no indignity this country will not swallow? Is there no bottom to our cravenness, our endless capacity to rationalize, explain away and blame ourselves? If the Chinese had done this to any other world leader — to the President of France, say — do you think their opposition parties would be taking the side of the regime? Do you think their president would stay in China another day?
Golly. Is there no indignity hysterical nonsense this country will not swallow?
Perhaps Coyne and the other miserable members of our hack media should spend a little less time swooning with indignation, and a little more time questioning Stephen Harper's human rights credentials.
Or ask themselves why DID Stephen Harper wait so long to visit China?Was it really a question of human rights or was it a question of religious ideology?
The fact is Stephen Harper belongs to one of the most aggressive Christian missionary churches in the world.
The Canadian church's website features a list of sample prayers "for the lost," so members can pray for sinful non-Christians they hope Jesus Christ will save from "eternal damnation."
They want to a chance to go after those billions of potential converts more than they want ANYTHING...except the end of the world. But the Chinese won't allow those missionaries into China, so that's why Harper hates them.
That's why the two biggest China bashers after Harper are Jason Kenney and Stockwell Day. Christianists who put their religious beliefs before the interests of Canada. And in the land that still worships Norman Bethune...someone these fascist Cons never mention... turned us from friends into enemies. And cost us BILLIONS.
You know the really frightening thing is how so few Canadians understand what really motivates Stephen Harper. The man who is just a few percentage points away from changing this country beyond recognition.
Oh boy. Are we in trouble. This secret religious fanatic and political thug is preparing to kill our country.
I knew the Cons were trying to hide something even bigger than what they knew about torture. But who knew it would be so monstrous? Canada's top two commanders in Afghanistan in spring 2006 told investigators the government pressured them to transfer detainees to Afghan authorities faster than they felt was appropriate, CBC News has learned. As soon as I got a detainee, I would phone him," Fraser said, adding the question he got back was: "How fast could we get them to hand over to the Afghan authorities?" I knew that General Hillier's claim that our prisoners were all battle hardened Taliban was nonsense. Putt's testimony also suggests Canadian troops frequently weren't capturing high-value Taliban targets — an assertion Colvin first raised two weeks ago.
"I mean, we were basically capturing a local yokel, " Putt said. "Detaining the local yokels and handing them off." Now I can't help but wonder how many of those local yokels...a.k.a. poor farmers... joined the Taliban after experiencing the horror of an Afghan prison? How many Canadian soldiers paid the ultimate price for this immoral and insane policy? And why if we were in such a HURRY to hand over prisoners to the Afghans, were we so SLOW to inform the Red Cross? Or is it all part of the same story, and the REAL reason for the cover up?
Was it just a case of bureaucratic hyper-caution, flowing possibly from the micro-managing style of the Harper government? Or was there something more sinister at play?
If you wanted to ensure your detainee was grilled to the hilt over days, weeks, or months, would this not be the kind of play-for-time system that you would devise? Because if it was that would be a war crime. And how can you trust the Cons when they are STILL lying?
Afghanistan's intelligence service refused to accept Canadian-captured prisoners over the summer because the military was providing "insufficient evidence" of wrongdoing, The Canadian Press has learned.
The Afghan-imposed halt in transfers is at odds with claims by the federal government that the Canadian military refused to turn over detainees because local authorities were not living up to obligations to allow unfettered access to prisoners.
Oh boy. As you know these days it isn't easy to be a Canadian.
Once we used to wear our maple leaves proudly all over the world to let people know where we came from eh? But now that Stephen Harper has had his way with us, and people all over the world are calling us torture enablers and planet burners, we don't brag about that anymore.
Lest we attract the wrong kind of attention. Or a rock ..... or a doughnut. So you can imagine how happy I am to report that thanks to this awesome Canadian poet, rapper, and musician.
Wooh. What a great song. I've been humming it all day. And soon BILLIONS will. Maybe my hero Nelson Mandela will like it too, and ask the world to give us a second chance. As long as we get rid of the Cons. Hey. Who knew a kid from Mogadishu would save us? Way to go K'naan !!!!
I'm late as usual, but it doesn't really matter. Because every day of the year is World AIDS Day. The 2009 AIDS epidemic update released last week estimated that 33.4 million people are living with HIV worldwide, 2.7 million were newly infected in 2008 and 2 million died of AIDS related illness in 2008. So many people dying. So many people suffering. So many orphans. So much pain. Not enough medicine. But while 4 million people are now getting AIDS drugs worldwide - a 10-fold jump in five years - 5 million others are still in dire need of the medicine, U.N. health officials estimated in a report in September.
Too much prejudice. In many parts of the world, legislation effectively criminalizes populations living with HIV or vulnerable to HIV infection, such as sex workers, drug users, and men who have sex with men. These laws fuel stigma and discrimination, increase barriers to HIV information and treatment, and contribute to the spread of disease. The Ugandan Parliament is also considering a bill that allows for a seven year prison term for any person or organization who supports or promotes lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender people's rights. It would jail for up to three years anyone who fails to report a person they suspect of being lesbian or gay. A person living with HIV who has consensual homosexual sex would face the death penalty, regardless of risk of HIV transmission and even if their partner is also HIV-positive.. We could do so much more to end this horrible epidemic. Yet...
For all those who have died. For all those who are living with HIV, like my friend Billy. And our friend Kenn. Keep the message alive. World AIDS Day is EVERY DAY. Everyone has a right to life and health. And we must do MORE...
I knew these Con porkers would destroy our country. That's why I started calling them monsters three years ago. And look at them now.
Lying like thieves. Covering up torture. Hiding behind our soldiers. Smearing the opposition by accusing them of being traitors and anti-semites. Raping our values. Corrupting our democracy. Spreading their poison like syphilis.
But even destroying our beautiful young country isn't enough for these Con hogs. Now they want to destroy the world.
So here I am, watching the astonishing spectacle of a beautiful, cultured nation turning itself into a corrupt petro-state.The price of this transition is the brutalisation of the country, and a government campaign against multilateralism as savage as any waged by George Bush...Canada now threatens the wellbeing of the world.
The purpose of Canada's assault on the international talks is to protect this industry. This is not a poor nation. It does not depend for its economic survival on exploiting this resource. But the tar barons of Alberta have been able to hold the whole country to ransom. They have captured Canada's politics and are turning this lovely country into a cruel and thuggish place. Just as I said they would. Once we were admired all over the world as a beacon of sanity. Now they're calling us criminals. Soon they'll be spitting in our faces.
And what are we doing to stop these monstrous Cons? Answer: FUCK ALL. We're still playing cheap partisan politics, instead of uniting to crush those who are corrupting and brutalizing our country, and threatening to destroy the planet in the name of Big Oil. But if these scuzzy Alberta oil pimps think they are going to get away with this crime against humanity they are very very mistaken. For young people in this country will not stand by helplessly as their future is TORCHED. And billions die. Most of the world's population will be wiped out if political leaders fail to agree a method of stopping current rates of global warming, one of the UK's most senior climate scientists has warned.
Professor Kevin Anderson, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, believes only around 10 per cent of the planet's population – around half a billion people – will survive if global temperatures rise by 4C.
So if older Canadians are too tired or greedy or partisan to stop them. Then we will fight them ALONE.
And as for the Cons and all the other planet destroyers they will feel the rage of a generation BETRAYED.
The time for sterile debates is over.
The time for action is NOW.
Now more than ever.
Unite to defeat these evil Con monsters. Before they destroy the WORLD...
