Friday 17 September 2010
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Fewer than one in five Americans would support a US military strike on Iran if the Middle Eastern country continued to pursue its nuclear program in the face of international sanctions, a new poll indicates.
But while a majority of Americans continue to oppose the use of torture in warfare, even in the war on terrorism, the survey shows opposition is softening. — Read the full story at RawStory.com, 545 words.
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15 September 2010 — I know we've been "free" of the Iraq War for two weeks now and our minds have turned to the new football season and Fashion Week in New York. And how exciting that the new fall TV season is just days away!
But before we get too far away from something we would all just like to forget, will you please allow me to just say something plain and blunt and necessary:
We invaded Iraq because most Americans -- including good liberals like Al Franken, Nicholas Kristof & Bill Keller of the New York Times, David Remnick of the New Yorker, the editors of the Atlantic and the New Republic, Harvey Weinstein, Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer and John Kerry -- wanted to.
Of course the actual blame for the war goes to Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz because they ordered the "precision" bombing, the invasion, the occupation, and the theft of our national treasury. I have no doubt that history will record that they committed the undisputed Crime of the (young) Century.
A Pandora's Box Harper can't shut
How Canada’s elite Joint Task Force 2 handles prisoners has been politically explosive almost from the moment Canadian boots hit the Afghanistan sand. In January 2002 a news photo exposed the JTF2 transferring detainees to U.S. troops, igniting a Parliament Hill firestorm that badly singed then defence minister Art Eggleton.
Eggleton was just the first to feel the heat. Gordon O’Connor, a former military officer and arms lobbyist Stephen Harper recklessly chose as defence minister, was eventually shuffled out of cabinet after apologizing for misleading Parliament over the Red Cross role in monitoring prisoner treatment. Since then successor Peter MacKay has been struggling to control the damage, first by figuratively shooting the messenger, diplomat Richard Colvin, and then by more reasonably arguing that Conservatives are strengthening the weak safeguards Liberals left behind. — Read the full story at The Toronto Star, 601 words.
Editor's Notes
When I say us I mean the West, the Americans, Australians, the Brits, and us Canadians, to name some.
Imagine how we would feel if Venezuela or any other country would invade us with money, set up non-government organizations to manipulate the electorate. — Read the full story inside, 327 words.
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Our readers write
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Suicide's not painless The subject of suicide is a very difficult topic for most people. Albert Villeneuve-Sinclair ("Whatever happened to big red?", September 10) brought it out and showed it's OK to talk about it and feel the compassion, not some warped thinking process of wrong. I am going to share her article with my son, Darin, who lost a dear friend at age 17. I hope it will help him better understand that his friend did not let him down. Keep up the good work of shedding light on tragic situations. We need to embrace them and move on to the more positive side of sad moments.
— Dawn McBride, Toronto, Ontario Thoughtful article, Alberte! Suicide is so prevalent in many people's minds - I know! When I was diagnosed with MS, I had a plan in place. Fortunately, I dug myself out of that hole, but there are so many who harbour these thoughts. Awareness might make them think they are not alone and encourage them to seek help. Good for you to help with this! P.S. Hope your rosebush shows signs of recovery! — Dorothyanne Brown, Ottawa, Ont.
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Crackpot Florida preacher puts Obama on Defensive
15 September 2010 — It’s a sad commentary on the state of public discourse in North America that President Obama had to appeal to a crackpot Florida pastor not to burn copies of the Koran to protect Americans overseas from attacks.
Of course, the mere suggestion of a Koran bonfire triggered the predictable mob scenes in Arab and Southeast Asian countries.
— Read the full story inside, 471 words.
Natural Resources Canada (NRC) scientists were told this spring they need "pre-approval" from Minister Christian Paradis' office to speak with journalists. Their "media lines" also need ministerial approval, say documents obtained by Postmedia News through access-to-information legislation.
The documents say the "new" rules went into force in March and reveal how they apply to not only to contentious issues including the oilsands, but benign subjects such as floods that occurred 13,000 years ago.
They also give a glimpse of how Canadians are being cut off from scientists whose work is financed by taxpayers, critics say, and is often of significant public interest — be it about fish stocks, genetically modified crops or mercury pollution in the Athabasca River.
— Read more at The Vancouver Sun, 887 words.
15 September 2010 — Here's to Jack Layton for talking sense to his caucus and apparently persuading rural New Democratic Members of Parliament to do the right thing and vote to save the national rifle and shotgun registry.If the outcome of the Parliamentary vote later this month is indeed as Layton predicted yesterday, his New Democrats will have done a great service to law-abiding families throughout Canada.
The power of “I can do it!” and “I did it!!”
The art of raising a child requires a delicate balance between encouraging independence and applauding cooperation
17 September 2010 — I have a new grand-parenting responsibility this fall. Every morning, I take my youngest grandson to his 3 year-old pre-kindergarten since there is no transport for the little ones. It is a half-day affair. 
13 September 2010 — Foreign-trained doctors Mitra Arjang and Parampal Ghoshal donned their stethoscopes and white gowns on Monday — not to treat patients, but to protest.
Arjang, a general surgeon from Iran, and Ghoshal, a family doctor from India, say they have passed all the qualifying medical exams in Canada but failed to get a residency spot, and hence a licence to practise in Ontario.
With the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario headquarters on College St. as backdrop, the two immigrant physicians launched an online petition Monday asking the province and the regulator to issue restricted licences for foreign doctors to practise in Canada.
"Canada’s pharmaceutical policies are a total failure," the study's author, Marc-André Gagnon, told reporters on Monday in Ottawa.
The report also finds that Canada is either the third or fourth most expensive country for brand-name drugs every year — after the United States, Switzerland and Germany — because it deliberately inflates drug prices in order to attract pharmaceutical investment. —
Read the full story at CBC News, 689 words.From the Desk of Dennis Carr, Sustainable Development Editor
17 September 2010 — Once upon a time, a long time ago, I considered becoming an electrician. At that age, my latter teens, most of my friends were wondering about their future occupation. I had wanted to become a newspaper reporter. They wore fedoras and had a “press” ticket in the hat band and usually carried a large speed graphic camera with a huge flash gun attached and got in to where others were restricted.
But I made a mistake.
16 September 2010, TORONTO — A local con artist will spend more time behind bars after turning his jailhouse tax preparation service into a personal money-making machine to defraud the government.
Inmate Michael “Tax Guy” Bannon used his skills to fill out federal income and GST returns for more than 1,400 fellow inmates, claiming about $1.8 million in refunds during the last few years. Unfortunately, all of them were phoney.
The tall dark and handsome swindler, who currently resides in the Toronto (Don) Jail, will be in prison an additional 30 months after Justice Beverly Brown of the Ontario Court of Justice sentenced him earlier this week.
The 27-year-old Bannon had pleaded guilty last month to two counts of fraud for his role in the elaborate jailhouse scheme that allegedly involved another inmate and two women “outsiders.”
Bannon, who already had an extensive criminal record, admitted using identity data from unsuspecting inmates to drive the scheme. — Read the full story at The Toronto Star, 731 words.
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In case you missed it ... and always worth repeating Let's say that news throughout human time has been free. Take that time when Ugh Wayne went over to the cave of Mugh Payne with news that the chief of his group had broken a leg while chasing his laughing wife around the fire. That news was given freely and received as such with much knowing smiles and smirks to say nothing of grunts of approval or disapproval. — 688 words. |
Troy Media
16 September 2010, CALGARY — They don’t wear cowboy hats, spray crops or work on oilrigs. Yet they contribute up to 15 per cent of the province’s gross domestic product. They’re techies, and they’re the unsung heroes of Alberta’s economy.
The statistics are impressive: Alberta’s information communications technology (ICT) sector’s direct economic impact exceeds $8 billion per year, and ICT companies are among the largest spenders on industrial research and development, according to the Alberta ICT Council, a not-for-profit advocacy group. Health care, education and government services are among the countless industries benefiting from Alberta’s burgeoning tech sector.
Driving that growth are a handful of factors, including low provincial taxes, government initiatives and an impressive talent pool. — Read the full story inside, 979 words.
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'None of them will disclose who's paying for these ads. You don't know if it's a Wall Street bank. You don't know if it's a big oil company. You don't know if it's an insurance company. You don't even know if it's a foreign-controlled entity.'
17 September 2010 — We talked earlier this week about far-right interest groups collecting millions for attack ads, all in support of Republican candidates, and financed through shadowy groups awash in undisclosed donations. The NYT raised the specter of "a relatively small cadre of deep-pocketed donors, unknown to the general public ... shaping the battle for Congress."
It's not an issue Democrats spend a lot of time talking about -- they have plenty of other items they're trying to emphasize -- which is why I was glad to see President Obama take some to talk about this at an event last night in Connecticut.
10 September 2010 — In 2002, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) arrived in Venezuela with a mission: Remove Hugo Chavez from power.
A report commissioned by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and published in May 2010 by the Spanish Foundation for International Relations and Foreign Dialogue (FRIDE) revealed that this year alone, international agencies are investing between $40-50 million in anti-Chavez groups in Venezuela. A large part of those funds have been channeled to the opposition coalition, Democratic Unity (MUD), and its campaign for the legislative elections on September 26.
A majority of funding comes from US agencies, particularly USAID, which has maintained a presence in Venezuela since 2002 with the sole intention of aiding in President Chavez’s removal from power. For the past eight years, USAID has channeled millions into political parties, organizations and private media entities linked to the opposition, helping them to grow and unify, and providing strategic advice, support and resources for their political campaigns
. — Read the full story at Venezuelanalysis.com, 1,633 words.12 September 2010, KABUL — Russia’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, Andrey Avetisyan, has claimed that Britain and America have made more strategic blunders than Russia in the war-ravaged nation, and this would delay a successful withdrawal of troops.
He also said the West was responsible for the blight of rampant corruption in the administration because it had taken the decision to plough in huge sums into badly coordinated and opaque aid projects.
— Read the full story at IndiaVision.com, 303 words.
16 September 2010 — Should you flirt your way to the top? Would you if you could?
Forbes recently ran an article titled “Flirting Your Way to the Corner Office: Are you ignoring one of your greatest career assets? A guide to professional flirtation.”
Some readers were upset. To make things worse, it was published in the “Forbes Woman” section.
“I am absolutely floored that this garbage was published by Forbes!” said one commenter, whose sentiments were echoed by a few others.
I agree. This Cosmo-y piece has no place in Forbes.
In the article, Nicole Williams, author of Girl on Top: Your Guide to Turning Dating Rules into Career Success, makes the case for flirting thusly: “Using flirtation is just smart…It’s naive to think it has no place at work.” Yes. It’s also naïve to think that lying, backstabbing and sleeping your way to the top aren’t effective strategies. But that doesn’t mean Forbes should start running step-by-step how to guides. (Though, OK, I’d totally read them).
Or does it? AM I naïve?
17 September 2010 — You've got to hand it to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, social critics that they are, for keeping us attuned to the absurdity in our political discourse these days. Both have taken on the topics of the Tea Party, Fox News, and most recently the lazy campaigning of Democrats. Pulling back the curtain on the media obsessing over the normally snooze-worthy process of electing Congress, Stewart has begun asking, with the bravado of Hank Williams Jr., "Are you ready for some mid-terrrrrrrrrms?"
But neither man has gone after anyone quite so ferociously as Glenn Beck, the weepy Fox pundit who's demonstrated he can amass quite a following. Last month, Beck hosted a rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, urging America to "Restore Honor" - an amorphous plea to support the troops, find God, and honor thy neighbor. About 100,000 people showed up and agreed.
15 September 2010 — In 2002, scientists sounded the alarm about the loss of ice on the Arctic Ocean. Global warming was affecting the Arctic climate more rapidly than anyone had previously thought possible. They predicted that if nothing was done to curb the level of greenhouse gas pouring into the atmosphere there might be no summer ice covering the North Pole by 2050.
Early in 2009, they updated their projection. Given the rate of ice loss, the new date by which the Arctic Circle will be ice free could be as soon as 2012. The loss of ice triggers other effects, none of them good. The white ice that once reflected warming sun rays no longer does so. The deep blue ocean water that takes its place absorbs those rays, warming the water and further accelerating the warming of the planet.
Bad things happen in threes. The added heat also releases methane gas that was previously trapped under polar ice. Methane gas, like carbon dioxide, traps heat in the atmosphere, but molecule per molecule it is many times more damaging. The cascading effects of climate change, previously predicted for the distant future, are already here.
It shows kids who had been exposed as babies to high levels of the preservative -- through vaccines they received or their mothers received while pregnant -- were no more likely to develop autism, including two distinct subtypes of the condition.
"This study should reassure parents about following the recommended immunization schedule," said Dr. Frank Destefano, director of the Immunization Safety Office at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, and the study's senior author
. — Read the full article at RawStory.com, 551 words.
A review analyzed the results of 10 published studies involving more than 3,000 patients with knee or hip osteoarthritis. Study participants took glucosamine, chondroitin, or both, and all studies used a placebo.
Prof. Peter Juni, head of the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Bern in Switzerland, and his colleagues concluded the supplements are not dangerous for joint pain — but they do not work. — Read the full article at CBC News, 386 words.
13 September 2010, WASHINGTON — In the largest US arms deal ever, the administration of US President Barack Obama is ready to notify Congress of plans to offer advanced aircraft to Saudi Arabia worth up to 60 billion dollars, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
The newspaper said the administration was also in talks with the kingdom about potential naval and missile-defense upgrades that could be worth tens of billions of dollars more.
The administration sees the sale as part of a broader policy aimed at shoring up Arab allies against Iran, the report said.
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By Gareth Porter
InterPress Service
15 September 2010 — During a round of media interviews last month, Gen. David Petraeus released totals for the alleged results of nearly 3,000 "night raids" by Special Operations Forces (SOF) units over the 90 days from May through July: 365 "insurgent leaders" killed or captured, 1,355 Taliban "rank and file" fighters captured, and 1,031 killed.
Those figures were widely reported as highlighting the "successes" of SOF raids in at least hurting the Taliban. But a direct correlation between the stepped up night raids in Kandahar province and a sharp fall-off in the proportion of IEDs being turned in by the local population indicates that the raids backfired badly, bolstering the Taliban's hold on the population in Kandahar province. — Read the full story, 1,231 words. |
— 15 September 2010 — Call it the drone surge: in a continuing, punishing wave of at least a dozen attacks since the beginning of September, unmanned US Predator drones have reportedly killed some 75 alleged militants in areas of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, according to Al Jazeera.
The latest attack, on Wednesday, killed at least 14 suspected militants in Pakistan’s North Waziristan agency, part of the semiautonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). It was the third such attack within 24 hours, according to unnamed officials cited by the Arab-language news agency.
Taken together, these September strikes would constitute the single largest bombardment unleashed by unmanned drones since the US military initiated the controversial program some six years ago, according to The Guardian. They would bring to 70 the total number of strikes launched this year, a new record. (The Long War Journal charts US drone strikes since 2004.)
Federal scientists say this massive move to shore by walruses is unusual in the United States. But it has happened at least twice before, in 2007 and 2009. In those years Arctic sea ice also was at or near record low levels.
The population of walruses stretches "for one mile or more. This is just packed shoulder-to-shoulder," U.S. Geological Survey biologist Anthony Fischbach said in a telephone interview from Alaska. He estimated their number at tens of thousands.
— Read the full story at RawStory.com, 374 words.
16 September 2010 — “Nice middle class you got here,” said Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader. “It would be a shame if something happened to it.”
O.K., he didn’t actually say that. But he might as well have, because that’s what the current confrontation over taxes amounts to. Mr. McConnell, who was self-righteously denouncing the budget deficit just the other day, now wants to blow that deficit up with big tax cuts for the rich. But he doesn’t have the votes. So he’s trying to get what he wants by pointing a gun at the heads of middle-class families, threatening to force a jump in their taxes unless he gets paid off with hugely expensive tax breaks for the wealthy.
Most discussion of the tax fight focuses either on the economics or on the politics — both of which suggest that Democrats should hang tough, for their own sakes as well as that of the country. But there’s an even bigger issue here — namely, the question of what constitutes acceptable behavior in American political life. Politics ain’t beanbag, but there’s a difference between playing hardball and engaging in outright extortion, which is what Mr. McConnell is now doing. And if he succeeds, it will set a disastrous precedent..
— Read the full article at The New York Times, 891 words.
Bob Dylan In America/America in Bob Dylan
The Dylan In All of Us explains how and why Dylan became an avatar of America
10 September 2010 — Sean Wilentz on Bob Dylan? What’s next—David McCulloch on Bruce Springsteen? Doris Kearns Goodwin on the Rolling Stones? Garry Wills on Madonna? You have every right to pick up “Bob Dylan in America” with skepticism—or at least you would if you didn’t know how deep Wilentz’s background in traditional American music goes.
Given the seriousness and pretension with which so many rock critics write about their favorite artists, you might expect an academician to bury Dylan beneath mounds of stentorian prose. But Wilentz is no ordinary academic. For one thing, along with Greil Marcus, he edited “The Rose and the Briar: Death, Love, and Liberty in the American Ballad.” For another, he was practically born into the subject. His father, Elias, ran the legendary Eighth Bookshop in Greenwich Village, a store, he says, “that helped nurture the Beat poets of the 1950s and the folk revivalists of the early 1960s.” (Elias also edited “The Beat Scene,” one of the earliest anthologies of Beat poetry.)
In case you missed it ...
The Old Man's Last Sauna
A collection of short stories by Carl Dow
An eclectic collection of short stories that will stir your sense of humour, warm your heart, outrage your sense of justice, and chill your extra sensory faculties in the spirit of Stephen King. The final short story, the collection's namesake, The Old Man's Last Sauna is a ground-breaking love story.
The series begins with Deo Volente (God Willing). Followed by The Quintessence of Mr. Flynn, Sharing Lies, Flying High, The Richest Bitch in the Country or Ginny I Hardly Knows Ya, One Lift Too Many, The Model A Ford, the out-of-body chiller, Room For One Only and O Ernie! ... What Have They Done To You! The series closes with the collection's namesake, The Old Man's Last Sauna, a groundbreaking love story. All stories may also be found in the True North Perspective Archives.
