Friday 19 November 2010
Deja-vu, all over again?
Evidence of Iran's nuclear weapons program may be fraudulent
18 November 2010 — Since 2007, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - with the support of the United States, Israel and European allies UK, France and Germany - has been demanding that Iran explain a set of purported internal documents portraying a covert Iranian military program of research and development of nuclear weapons. The "laptop documents," supposedly obtained from a stolen Iranian computer by an unknown source and given to US intelligence in 2004, include a series of drawings of a missile re-entry vehicle that appears to be an effort to accommodate a nuclear weapon, as well as reports on high explosives testing for what appeared to be a detonator for a nuclear weapon.
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Republican Arizona Senator Jon Kyl declares war on Obama
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From the Desk of Dennis Carr, Sustainable Development Editor
$1.7 Billion and Rising: Taxpayers' Gas Bill for Oil Sands
Extractors gobble natural gas, deducting the cost from their taxes in a huge public subsidy that is only going to balloon ever larger
9 November 2010 — Alberta's oil sands extractors' use of natural gas, already voracious and set to rise steeply, is more than half paid for by Canadian taxpayers -- a vast yet little-known subsidy that insiders say encourages profligate consumption of a finite energy source.
The numbers are huge. Oil sands operations currently consume about one billion cubic feet of gas per day, heating thick bitumen so it can be extracted from surrounding rock and gravel. This reverse-alchemy eats up about 20 per cent of Canada's natural gas demand and may balloon to 40 per cent by 2035.
The price is huge, too -- much of it written off against corporate taxes. Bitumen recovery and upgrading will eat up more than 15 billion cubic metres of natural gas this year according to data from the Alberta government. At current prices this will cost $3.4 billion, of which $1.7 billion will be paid for by the public. — Read the full article at TheTyee.ca, 2,305 words.
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Villeneuve-Sinclair a beautiful ray of sunshine
2010 and the stigma of bipolar disease and mental illness still lingers. Sufferers are treated with much improved treatments but the general public's attitude hasn't changed much! One case in point is the ombudsman for Veterans' Affairs, Patrick Stogan, who had his personal files examined many times by staff and they refused to renew his term of office.
I had my first depressive bout in 1967. I knew what I was up against and sought treatment. My wife supported me 100% but the company I worked for had me followed; they went through my records and nearly dismissed me save for the caring and understanding high management friend. Today, people are still ostracized if they admit to being medicated to control bipolar or mental illness. My cousin committed suicide a year ago. She was asked to take an early retirement because she was taking too much sick leave. She was lonely, depressed and not getting any help. We took her in for two years and had her followed by a doctor. As long as she was medicated, she was fine. She got another job at the Federal level and moved to Montreal where she did well for a while but slowly slipped into a depressive state again. Alone and lonely after retiring, she had to be hospitalized. When she was placed in an unsupervised shelter one weekend, she hung herself. She was 59! What a shame! I respect Margaret Trudeau for speaking out! More needs to be done! — Bob Beauchemin, Ont. |
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'We can start to talk about how we do things and actually learn how they do things.'
In a regal demonstration of the world's condemnation of the failed U.S. policy to isolate Cuba the British destroyer HMS Manchester sailed into Havana Bay on Monday while a Cuban Navy band played "God Save the Queen". (Please see below: British warship to visit Cuba first since 1957.)
The ship's officers were to meet with their Cuban peers to discuss collaboration on counter-drug and disaster relief operations in the Caribbean region.
Please note: collaboration not confrontation.
The continued hostility toward Cuba is difficult to accept as being serious from the land of the good guys. The hypocrisy is almost breath taking. It's okay to cuddle up, even to mortgage yourself, to Communist China but not to Communist Cuba, an island nation of less than 12 million. — Read the full article inside, 312 words.
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-- PBS journalist Bill Moyers.
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Shamelessly hoping to reap a share of the Chinese-Canadian vote, Harperites show their game plan
Politics permeates Afghan mission reversal, feeds power to NDP
Harper calculates Afghan mission reversal
will pull voters away from Liberals to NDP
By James Travers
13 November 2010 — Every once in a while a public policy is shaped here by something other than the rough hands of partisan politics. Leaving Canadian troops in harm’s way is not one of them.
By again extending Canada’s commitment to Afghanistan, Stephen Harper is altering the federal landscape. From the Remembrance Day timing of the Prime Minister’s confirmation of that decision to its safely-delayed repercussions, the abrupt change of course reeks of election positioning.
The bills contain a three-pronged approach focused on information disclosure, mandated surveillance technologies, and new police powers.
The first prong mandates the disclosure of Internet provider customer information without court oversight.
— Read the full article at MichaelGeist.ca, 629 words.
16 November 2010 — Public Safety Minister Vic Toews defended federal legislation Tuesday that would pave the way to providing the U.S. with personal information about Canadians flying over that country.
The U.S. has a legal right to request that information, Toews told a Commons committee.
Earlier this year, Canada's major airlines said they would be forced either to break privacy laws or to ignore new American air security rules unless the federal government comes up with a response to U.S. demands for passenger information.
— Read the full article at CBC.ca, 228 words.An MP’s initiative that could help a lot of Canadians
Every session of Parliament produces hundreds of private members bills. Most come to naught, often deservedly so, but occasionally one comes along that makes it into law.
A recent initiative that merits support from all parties comes from Liberal MP Kristy Duncan. It would designate the month of March as National Brain Awareness Month.
Carlos Mamani, Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), described it as reaffirmation of the country's commitment to the principles of respect, non-discrimination and good faith enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Mamani said the endorsement by Canada of the UN Declaration is an "important step in the right direction towards building and strengthening the relationship between Canada and indigenous peoples within Canada and indeed with indigenous peoples throughout the world."
— Read the full article at InDepthNews.net, 1,007 words.Stargazer is a down-to-earth, genuinely all-ages adventure
19 November 2010 — Ottawa cartoonist Von Allan's first book, the Lulu Award-nominated graphic novel, The Road to God Knows was a deeply personal story, and a very realistic account of a young girl's struggle with questions of loyalty and self-preservation while living with her severely mentally-ill mother, questions no child can be expected to even fully understand, let alone articulate.
The Road to God Knows was clearly the product of an artist still learning his craft, but was a heartfelt and even a moving book despite its flaws. It was just as clearly meant for readers as young as his protagonist and for older readers at the same time; in the world of North American comics, such a stab at a genuinely all-ages book is still far too much of a rarity.
With his second book, Stargazer, (the first volume in a longer series), Allan stays in the all-ages realm, but leaves realism far behind.— Read the full article inside, 866 words.
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This Is It!
This Is the Big One!
This is the One
We've Been
Waiting For!
The Final
Major Event
Of the Season!
The Ottawa Authors
& Artisans Fair
Saturday-Sunday
November 20-21
10 am to 5 pm
96 Empress Avenue
North off Somerset
Three blocks west
of Bronson
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By Von Allan
True North Perspective will feature a book by a Canadian writer each Friday or, as often as we can. The presentation will not be a review. It will include a profile of the author and information about the product of the author's literary labours. Today we present Stargazer, by Von Allan, also reviewed elsewhere in this edition. — Geoffrey Dow, Managing Editor.
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Stargazer is the story of Marni, a young girl dealing with the recent death of her grandmother. That death has left Marni emotionally devastated and struggling to cope.
Granny Hitchins was a wonderfully curious woman, responsible for giving her granddaughter a rich sense of imagination and adventure, as well as an old and mysterious "Artifact."
Will the real Patch Adams come to Santa’s rescue? He is so SAD!!
19 November 2010 — Indian summer is over! It sure made everyone feel happier while it lasted. Humans need their daily dose of sunlight, otherwise they start to feel gloomy and lethargic. Unfortunately at this time of the year, days get shorter and the sun’s rays grow weaker. We must also contend with colder weather. My body always takes a while to adjust to the latter.
Spirit Quest
Embodying the spirit of public service
Remembering Al Johnson during National Medicare Week
Did you know that this past week was National Medicare Week?
CBC News
19 November 2010 — Secret recordings obtained by CBC News offer proof that Toronto police conducted illegal eavesdropping on a former police board chair.
There have been allegations for years that police began spying on their civilian boss, Susan Eng, beginning in May 1991, days after she was sworn in.
Then police chief Bill McCormack and Julian Fantino — superintendent of detectives at the time and later police chief and OPP commissioner — have repeatedly refused to say whether they requested or were aware of the surveillance.
But now CBC News has obtained the tape recordings of Eng talking to her confidant and friend, Peter Maloney, about everything from police business to the very personal. — Read the full article at CBC News, 351 words.
Always worth repeating
'Give us the tools and we'll finish the job'
— Winston Churchill
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.
From the Desk of Mike (the Hammer) Garvin
17 November 2010 — As they say, everything old is new again.
Fourteen years after it launched its very first RAV4 crossover at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Toyota returned to LA to launch an all-electric version of its latest RAV4.
And this one is, as the logos in a teaser photo released earlier said, "powered by Tesla."
The launch of the second version of the RAV4 EV is on a fast timeline, led by a working group made up of Toyota's Technical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and a team from Tesla Motors.
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They said they would push me "off a cliff"
17 November 2010 — Yesterday, on the TV and radio show "Democracy Now" hosted by Amy Goodman, the former Vice President of CIGNA, one of the nation's largest health insurance companies, revealed that CIGNA met with the other big health insurers to hatch a plan to "push" yours truly "off a cliff."
The interview contains new revelations about just how frightened the health industry was that "Sicko" might ignite a public wave of support for "socialized medicine." So the large health insurance companies came together over a common cause: Stop the American people from going to see "Sicko" -- and the way to do that was to cause some form of harm to me (either personally, professionally or...physically?).
More than 200 students at the University of Central Florida have come forward to admit to cheating after their professor gave a lecture on ethics that has become a YouTube hit
In the lecture, Prof Quinn told the class he had enough evidence from statistical analysis and other investigatory techniques to identify most cheats, but instead of handing the list over to the university authorities for discipling, he proposed a deal.
17 November 2010, MÉRIDA — The Venezuelan government this week distributed the first of an additional 350,000 portable laptop computers to be provided to public elementary school children by the end of the year.British warship visit to Cuba first since 1957
'We can start to talk about how we do things and actually learn how they do things.'
15 November 2010 — The first British warship to visit Cuba since before the 1959 revolution sailed into Havana Bay on Monday, where it was greeted by a Cuban Navy band playing "God Save the Queen."
With its colours flying and bright red Sea Dart missiles poised on deck, the destroyer HMS Manchester pulled into port opposite Old Havana, the historic centre of the Cuban capital, at the start of a five-day visit to the Communist-led island.
The ship's officers were to meet with their Cuban peers to discuss collaboration on counter-drug and disaster relief operations in the Caribbean region.
The last time a British warship stopped at the island was in 1957 when the frigate HMS Bigbury Bay visited Havana.
— Read the full article at Reuters, 366 words.
16 November 2010, MÉRIDA — Today, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos confirmed his intention to extradite accused Venezuelan drug trafficker Walid Makled-Garcia to Venezuela, a promise he made to his Venezuelan counterpart during bi-lateral talks held earlier this month in Caracas.Walid Makled-Garcia was detained on August 19th in the Colombian border town of Cúcuta and is currently being held at the Cómbita Maximum Security Prison in the Colombian state of Boyacá. Makled is accused of drug trafficking and other crimes by both Venezuela and the United States, and his fate has become a point of contention between the two countries.
Phobias and psychoses of modern women
Naked sleepwalker wins €10m in record-breaking Irish libel case
Man wins Ireland's largest ever libel payout over implication he made advances to company secretary while on business trip
18 November 2010 — A businessman was celebrating today after winning a €10m libel case following a bizarre naked sleepwalking incident.
Donal Kinsella, 67, from Dunleer in County Louth, Ireland, took the case against his employer, Kenmare Resources, after the firm issued a press release that, he claimed, suggested he had made inappropriate advances to a female colleague while on a business trip to Africa in 2007.
13 November 2010 — The United States found itself embroiled in a major spy scandal. As many as five friendly countries caught the Americans illegally spying on their citizens.
Nobody would think it was strange if we were talking about the citizens of Russia, China, Iran, Syria and Venezuela. With these five countries, everything is clear: U.S. officials constantly refer to them as those presenting threats to the national security. But this time the U.S. was caught by quite friendly countries of Northern Europe - Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden.
Why desperate Haitians want to kick out UN troops
The crisis in Haiti follows decades of economic exploitation and gifts with chains attached – no wonder its citizens are angry
18 November 2010 — You may have heard about the civil unrest in Haiti over recent days, on the heels of a hurricane that thwarted efforts to contain a cholera epidemic that is now a national emergency. All this may fit the image often painted of this much-maligned country: crushing poverty, endemic corruption, the threat of violence so constant that international peacekeepers are required to stop Haitians tearing each other apart.
Well, the poverty and the corruption may be true. But on Thursday, demonstrations calling for the departure of the UN troops, known as Minustah, will be held throughout Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, by students, grassroots organisations, opposition groups excluded from the elections, and – most importantly – citizens united by a common cause: that Haiti's escalating nightmares must end now.
As deaths from the cholera outbreak soar past 1,000, fear is taking hold in neighbourhoods that have been so deprived of any civic investment that sanitation infrastructure often amounts to little more than open sewers filled with rubbish and human excrement. — Read the full article at The Guardian, words.
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.
