In my latest National Post column, I explain why I can't vote for the Green party either.
Our friends at the Canadian Constitution Foundation are asking for help in the case of two Ontario farmers at odds with the Canada Food Inspection Agency. You can read their appeal here and Brigitte's post about it here. And I'm asking you to consider chipping in to the Indiegogo defence fund for Montana Jones and Michael Schmidt. I'm not familiar with the detailed facts of the case. But it certainly sounds as though they're being ground down by the bureaucratic machine in a way that undermines the rule of law. Especially as Karen Selick of the CCF inform us that there's some sort of publication ban on the whole business.
Magna Carta guarantees access for all to the justice system. But when enormous regulatory agencies with the financial resources of the state behind them go after the little guy, or gal, the latter just can't fight back unless we rally round them. This case has already dragged on for nearly three years, an eternity for defendants but just more time on the clock for the system.
If you can spare even a few bucks, please read the CCF appeal and consider helping out.
In my latest National Post column I argue that Asteroid Day is one trendy cause worth embracing... while we still can.
In my latest National Post column, I tell the government waiter I didn't order this patronizing rubbish.
NBC has a remarkable story about a simple idea to help the environment. Not exactly a breath of fresh air... but it will lead to many of those. Sometimes it's not the big grandiose projects that matter.
My latest post for the IRPP takes on critics of my skepticism about man-made global warming.
My take on the latest definitive ending of the debate on man-made global warming, on the IRPP Policy Options blog.
With the temperature a balmy -8 outside here in Ottawa, shortly to ease down to -19, I’m catching up on my NBC news feeds. It’s not pleasant. I’m encountering subject lines (story headlines don’t always match the email teaser) like “15 Dead, Records Obliterated as Brutal Cold Hits U.S.” (with Chicago having its coldest morning in 79 years) and “So Cold You Can Hear Ice Crack, Hammer Nail with a Banana?”. People are doing their best to cope, hence “’Frozen’ Queen Elsa Is a Wanted Woman in Kentucky” (the police in Harlan, Kentucky haven’t lost their sense of humour) and “#ItsSoCold: Your Best Posts About the Deep Freeze”. But it’s a serious business. People have died. “U.S. Economy Could Take $5 Billion Hit From Brutal Winter Weather”. And it’s not over yet. “Record-Shattering Cold Tightens Grip Across U.S.” and “More Brrr! 'Siberian Express' Drags On Into Next Week” with another winter storm coming.
So of course NBC also ran a piece on how cold weather reduces crime, naturally saying that researchers are “driven by a desire to understand what the world will look like as global temperatures rise. They've all found good reason to believe crime, and social disorder, could increase.”
No matter how obvious it is that it’s incredibly cold, the story is that it’s incredibly warm. This, I gather, is called evidence-based decision making.
Meanwhile my Sun Media colleague Lorne Gunter offers the absurd notion that what warms the earth is indeed Mr. Sun and not the local factory or SUV. I mean seriously, what’s the sun, other than a gigantic blazing hot nuclear reaction that showers earth with energy, and whose quiet spells reliably correspond with unpleasantly cold spells?
No no no. If parts of Niagara Falls are frozen, they’re probably just oil-company funded “deniers” who go on about the Maunder Minimum and other things journalists who say the science is a lock don’t know about. It’s hot out there.
I mean, who are you going to believe, alarmists or your own fingers and toes? Come off it.