Wow MSN has been busy and I haven't been on much to see all the new changes they made.  It only took what?  Two years to build in a guestbook module?  At least this little upgrade didn't cause a major problem, for me anyway since I haven't been on.  I just may try to rectify that when the mood strikes me.

 

Cheers

Well, about a month ago I quit my old employer because it was literraly making me sick.  Now after a month of being a bum I have a new job!

 

I am the advertising sales rep for a new locally based environmentl / sustainable living magazine.  Plus I will be doing a little bit of writing for it.  My schedule is entirely up to me, so that leaves me open to do some extra work on a casual basis.

 

The money isn't huge, but when compared to my well being that is a small concern.  Not to mention the freedom it gives me.

 

That's today's news.

 

Cheers

 

 

After someone was killed during a riot between two rival sports clubs, the government of Greece suspended all team sports.  This reminds me a little of when Italian soccer fans killed a police officer outside a soccer stadium, while a pre-game ceremony was going on for a referee who was killed.

 

It must be the Mediterrean blood or something because obviously these people are violent and really can't be dealt with.  Italians and Greeks pretty much the same I think, hot blooded, tempermental and violent.  They have no place in western society and we can't trust them at all.  All a bunch of dagos really.  It's how they grew up, it's their sopciety that is wrong, their parents teach them to hate.  How disgusting.

 

See anything wrong with that last paragraph?  Right.  So tell me why there was outrage and condemnation when Muslims protested the desecration of Muhammed using words similar to the above paragraph and no global reaction to the ridiculous violence over soccer - a game. 

 

If that paragraph is wrong and offensive when applied to Italian and Greek soccer fans, why was it right to condemn Muslims as a violent lot when they protested over the Danish cartoons?  Why aren't there images throughout the media of crazed Greeks running through the streets with clubs and knives?

 

 

Is it legal to wish that someone would meet an evil end soon?  No necceesarily say that he should be killed, just wish him gone?

 

I can't believe ol stevie KKK harper had the temerity (for conservative voters I linked to the definition, I know white trash caln't read too good) to say the Liberals supported the Taleban over Canadian troops.

 

Was this not the man who before the election said it was horribly wrong to politick on the backs of soldiers?  The man is a PNAC cock sucking son of a bitch.  Go ahead and click the link for PNAC and sudder with fear as you read.  They are evil.  bush, cheney, bolton and up here harper (I like to call them the dead eye gang) are all PNAC fucks.

Now if you are a conservative and don't like what I write, let me save you the time of commenting because here is my reply to you:

 

FUCK OFF.  I no longer care to enter in to debate with reformatives.

 

Anyone who votes reformative in the next election will be supporting ignorance, bigotry and the attempt at the aericanisation of the globe.  So fuck off and die.  After you die I will take your coprses and make eco friendly fuel from them to save the earth.  At least a refromative can help that way.

 

harper's little 'we tax gas guzzlers now' budget trick?  Did you know that at the same time they add the fuel tax they are ending another tax on large luxury SUVs?  The additional cost will be only about $300.  When buying a $50K vehicle does that even matter?  Hell you will talk the salesman down more than that.

 

Seeing as I mentioned cock suckers...the Bloc.  I still love how harper said that bills passed by the minority liberals had no credibility with Canadians because the bloc supported them, yet this is the SECOND time his government survived a budget with teh help of the Bloc.  Traitors that they are.  Hmm...maybe temerity isn't the word reformatives need to look up, its HYPOCRITE.  Cuz I KNOW reformatives know what a cock sucker is.

 

cheers to all you non conservative voters.

From The Brohters Karamazov by Dostoevsky

 

"People talk of beastial cruelty, but that's a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as man, so artistically cruel.  The tiger only tears and gnaws, that's all he can do."

 

See the whole paragraph here on page 221.

A study released said that 1 out of 3 boys in Alberta had seen porn 'more times than they could count'.

 

Funny, but I thought even in Alberta more than 1/3 of homes had computers.

Oh man...there is a particular line in this that cracks me.  Can you guess which one?

 

From http://www.thestar.com/article/182332

 

Associated Press

RIO RANCHO, New Mexico – New Mexico is hoping to keep drunks off the road by lecturing them at the last place they usually stop before getting behind the wheel: the urinal.

The state recently paid $21 (U.S.) each for about 500 talking urinal-deodorizer cakes and put them in men's rooms in bars and restaurants.

When a man steps up, the motion-sensitive plastic device says, in a woman's voice that is flirty, then stern: "Hey, big guy. Having a few drinks? Think you had one too many? Then it's time to call a cab or call a sobre friend for a ride home."

The recorded message ends: "Remember, your future is in your hand."

The talking urinal is the latest effort to fight drunken driving in New Mexico, which has long had one of the highest rates of alcohol-related traffic deaths in the United States. (Men account for 78 per cent of all drunk-driving-related convictions in the state.)

"It startled me the first time I heard it, but it sure got my attention," said Ben Miller, a patron at the Turtle Mountain Brewing Co. bar and restaurant. "It's a fantastic idea."

Jim Swatek, who was drinking a beer nearby, said: "You think, `Maybe I should call the wife to come get me."'

Turtle Mountain Brewing owner Niko Ortiz commended the New Mexico Transportation Department for "thinking way outside the box."

Department spokesman S.U. Mahesh said the bathroom is a perfect place to get the message across. In the restroom, "guys don't chitchat with other guys," he said. "It's all business. We've got their total attention for 10 to 15 seconds"

Similar urinal cakes have been used for anti-drug campaigns in Colorado, Pennsylvania and Australia, and for anti-drunk-driving efforts on New York's suburban Long Island, said Richard Deutsch of New York-based Healthquest Technologies Inc., which makes the devices.

But Deutsch said he believes New Mexico is the only state to buy the devices.

New Mexico had 143 alcohol-related deaths in 2005, the country's eighth-highest rate.

At the Turtle Mountain, the urinal cakes have proved so intriguing that three have been swiped already.

"I'm mystified why someone would stick their hand into one of our urinals," Ortiz said. "But I'm sure we'll see them on eBay. Hopefully, the seller will advertise it as, `Stolen from Turtle Mountain."'

****

Now..did you guess which line craked me up?

Yep...talking to a guy standing in front of a urinal saying "your future is in your hand"

Priceless.

So stevie boy says that he will pick judges based on ideology.

“We want to make sure our selection of judges is in correspondence with those objectives.”

 

Wow, I thought it was the American neo-con pundits that decried the left liberal judiciary?  Now Harper is basing his appointments on whether or not judges agree with government policy.

 

Isn't that what they do in authoritarian regimes?

 

Not only that, but Harper has suggested that he will ignore the vote in parliament, even if it becomes law, regarding the implimentation of the Kyoto Accord.  Maybe someone should tell Harper that he isn't a president with a veto, that there is no real executive in Canada and the House rules.

 

People throw the word 'facist' around pretty lightly these days but...what size is that shoe?

 

I hope we have an election soon to rid ourselves of this horrible government.  No party is truly any good but the Reformatives are bloody horrendous.

 

Since harper has come on the scene the country has become more polarized, go to the globe and mail online and check the comments posted there - the most venemous coming from harper supporters.  The rhetoric spewed - left, right, neo-con etc has been imported from the south.

 

I have venom of my own.  harper and the cons have utter disregard for Canadians (unless they are white, christian and upper middle class).  harper stood by quietly while Canadian citizens were killed by Israel - including a one year old child born in Canada (not a 'fake' Canadian like her family) and a Canadian soldier.  This is the party whose slogan was "Stand up for Canada"?

 

I think I have to make a personal rule - if someone votes conservative I will have nothing to do with them.  I am tired of being tolerant to an intolerant bunch.  conservatives can go to hell.  (I know, I am polarized now too)

 

This is the party that cut environmental funding and the EnerGuide program (which was a model around the world) because of their ideology and the fact that they were Liberal policies, only to cynically rebrand them and bring them back when they realized the people of Canada did not share their flat earth the world is here for our taking values.  So much for harper not governing by the polls as he metnioned back when Lebanon was being blasted to hell.

 

This is the party that wants to model itself on the bush model of governing, when the people of America hae sent a strong message that those policies failed, Blair is being rushed out in the UK and Howard in Australia is coming off as a mouth piece that even republicans have told to shut up.  But I guess harper thinks he can make it work here.

 

The truth is the libs and cons pretty much share the same philosophies of government - neo-liberal.  UNICEF released a report that ranked Canada towards the middle of industrialized nations on child well being.  The worst countries? The US and UK, yet this is the model harper wants to follow?  Reality is the libs had more to do with this than the cons.  The countries that scored the highest were just a little more left and socialist.  The main proponents of neo-liberal doctrine, and the main proponents for war, scored the lowest.

 

harper wants to take the country further down this road.

 

So anyone who wants to help him and vote for the cons, just stay the hell away from me, I will carry an intense dislike (I am trying not to hate, really I am) of conservative voters just on principle.

 

I am not sure why, but Anna's death struck me somehow, and the furor surrounding her death is niteresting and at times disgusting.

 

People vilified her for marrying an old rich man saying she was using him, she was just after her money.  Why didn't anyone ever wonder about what his motivation was?  For a Texas oil tycoon in the twighlight of his life, a big boobed blonde beautiful stripper may have been a pretty good trophy.  Maybe the man realized that he couldn't take his money with him, it was essentially worthless and he was going to enjoy the company of a beautiful woman.  Maybe he is the one who used her.  And maybe, just maybe it was real. 

 

It seems to me that this woman was used her entire life- by publishers, the media, producers, those she thought her friends and the public.  Does that justify all her actions? No, but perhaps it should garner a little sympathy.  Some woman come to the conclusion early in life that it is better to be pretty than smart, and easier.  Perhaps Anna thought this was the only way for her and that she had no choice but to let people use her, and to play off her looks.  I would make a safe assumption that later in life she learned that was a mistake - no one puts that many intoxicants into themselves if they are happy with their life.  It's called dulling the pain.  A friend of Anna's mentioned that if she had it all to do over again Anna said she would have stayed in the fried chicken place and had lots of babies.  Too late though, the trap had been sprung.

 

Irony - the Playboy philosophy is that a woman is liberated when she can flaunt her sexuality.  Does anyone really think Anna was free? 

 

Perhaps if more people had cared about Anna as a person and not looked upon her as a meal ticket or mere entertainment her life would not have been a tragic cautionary tale.

Texas is making Gardasil vaccinations mandatory for young girls entering school.  Why?

 

This is from ecanadanow.com: (there are more articles there - please go read them so I don't get in trouble for posting this ;))

 

Here’s the scoop:

1) GARDASIL is a vaccine for 4 strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV), two strains that are strongly associated (and probably cause) genital warts and two strains that are typically associated (and may cause) cervical cancer. About 90% of people with genital warts show exposure to one of the two HPV strains strongly suspected to cause genital warts. About 70% of women with cervical cancer show exposure to one of the other two HPV strains that the vaccine is designed to confer resistance to.

2) HPV is a sexually communicable (not an infectious) virus. When you consider all strains of HPV, over 70% of sexually active males and females have been exposed. A condom helps a lot (70% less likely to get it), but has not been shown to stop transmission in all cases (only one study of 82 college girls who self-reported about condom use has been done). For the vast majority of women, exposure to HPV strains (even the four “bad ones” protected for in GARDASIL) results in no known health complications of any kind.

3) Cervical cancer is not a deadly nor prevalent cancer in the US or any other first world nation. Cervical cancer rates have declined sharply over the last 30 years and are still declining. Cervical cancer accounts for less than 1% of of all female cancer cases and deaths in the US. Cervical cancer is typically very treatable and the prognosis for a healthy outcome is good. The typical exceptions to this case are old women, women who are already unhealthy and women who don’t get pap smears until after the cancer has existed for many years.

4) Merck’s clinical studies for GARDASIL were problematic in several ways. Only 20,541 women were used (half got the “placebo”) and their health was followed up for only four years at maximum and typically 1-3 years only. More critically, only 1,121 of these subjects were less than 16. The younger subjects were only followed up for a maximum of 18 months. Furthermore, less than 10% of these subjects received true placebo injections. The others were given injections containing an aluminum salt adjuvant (vaccine enhancer) that is also a component of GARDASIL. This is scientifically preposterous, especially when you consider that similar alum adjuvants are suspected to be responsible for Gulf War disease and other possible vaccination related complications.

5) Both the “placebo” groups and the vaccination groups reported a myriad of short term and medium term health problems over the course of their evaluations. The majority of both groups reported minor health complications near the injection site or near the time of the injection. Among the vaccination group, reports of such complications were slightly higher. The small sample that was given a real placebo reported far fewer complications — as in less than half. Furthermore, most if not all longer term complications were written off as not being potentially vaccine caused for all subjects.

6) Because the pool of subjects were so small and the rates of cervical cancer are so low, NOT A SINGLE CONTROL SUBJECT ACTUALLY CONTRACTED CERVICAL CANCER IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM — MUCH LESS DIED OF IT. Instead, this vaccine’s supposed efficacy is based on the fact that the vaccinated group ended up with far fewer cases (5 vs. about 200) of genital warts and “precancerous lesions” (dysplasias) than the alum injected “control” subjects.

7) Because the tests included just four years of follow up at most, the long term effects and efficacy of this vaccine are completely unknown for anyone. All but the shortest term effects are completely unknown for little girls. Considering the tiny size of youngster study, the data about the shortest terms side effects for girls are also dubious.

8) GARDASIL is the most expensive vaccine ever marketed. It requires three vaccinations at $120 a pop for a total price tag of $360. It is expected to be Merck’s biggest cash cow of this and the next decade.

These are simply the facts of the situation as presented by Merck and the FDA. This vaccine was just approved in June, 2006. It was never tested on pre-teens except in a tiny trial run with at most 18 months of follow up. Even if we subscribe to the theory that HPV causes cervical cancer, there is ZERO hard data showing that this vaccine reduces cervical cancer rates or cervical cancer mortality rates, which are both already very low in the US and getting lower every year. Now Texas has already made this vaccine mandatory for middle school with all sorts of useful idiots and Big Pharma operatives clamoring for more states to make this vaccine COMPULSORY immediately.

Has everyone gotten the picture or should I continue?

---

Now do you know why you have been seeing public service announcements?

 

hmmmm....greed knows no bounds

I am fine

 

just in no mood to be on spaces

A QMJL hockey player was kicked off the team for apparently not siging a Canadian flag that was being sent to the troops.  Guess what...

 

Anyone who signed on the flag was wrong.

 

The National Flag of Canada should not be signed or marked in any way (A border could be attached to the outside edge of the Flag on which it would be acceptable to have signatures leaving the Flag itself untouched).

Head on over to Own the Story to see a new post there. 

 

So...techincally I blogged twice in two days.

Call off the search party, no need I am here.  Just haven't felt much like writing, or having anything to say. 

 

So what's new?  Looking for a new job so I don't have to deal with the monkeys anymore.  I mean the guys working there aren't just stupid or ignorant, its not that they are uneducated, it's that they are fuckin ignant - I mean shallow gene pool, uncle daddy, nice night fer a hangin' mommy drank a two-four a day during her pregnancy fuckin ignant.  There is a reason when I say something it goes in one ear and out the other - THERE'S NOTHING IN BETWEEN TO CATCH IT!!!!  Fuck.  I am starting to believe that forced sterilization is a good idea.  Note to self - read more BF Skinner.

 

I might just be in a mood.  Just maybe.

 

Good news - Dion won the Liberal nod and Ignatief lost - good cuz iggy was a fuckin neo-con bush apologist, and arrogant enough to make even me blush.  Time to destroy Harper the fuckin nazi.  Dumb ass stevie boy had the gall to say that he wouldn't demand RCMP commisioner Zaccardelli's resignation because as he said - in government you don't just fire someone without cause.  Certainly not BUT putting some guy on a plane to be tortured in Syria is A OK.  Either Zac was lying or incompentent, either way it is a good thing he resigned today.  I wonder if he will return his boots that cost $1100 a pair.

 

Hmm yep I am in a mood.

 

Oh yah - bushie's power is in decline - John Bolton, a self described 'nationalist' (as in National Socialist Party) and extreme hater of the UN resigned his post as UN ambassador.  See - this is why set term limits are A BAD THING!!!!  He was one of those fuck ups that got promoted.

 

After a long study the Iraq Study Group said the US policy in Iraq wasn't working.  HOLY FUCK and all this time I thought it was going tickety boo.  Shows you what I know.  All those great minds to figure that out.  Wonderful.  The startling conclusion they came to.  Dumb fucks.

 

Now - someone explain to me how banks in Canada scored BILLIONS in profit, and a report said that the rich rew in Canada, yet on a CBC show last night I saw a child, in Canada, who couldn't think in class because he hadn't eaten dinner the night before or breakfast that morning?  How many of those in the report got their 500K to 1 Mil net worth through interest investments?  We know the banks did.  Banks charge the little guy fees and interest, and make billions in profits.  Fuck the poor and make the richer rich.  I have no problem with someone who worked hard and made their money, I do have a problem with the concept of taking money from low income earners and distributing the wealth upwards.  How many people can't get ahead because of the interest costs they pay?  How many small businesses go under or never get started because of the banks "formulas"? 

 

"oh sir, I am sorry, we can't loan you any money because we won't be able to fuck you over hard enough."

 

"Sorry ma'am but we have to foreclose on your home.  You see one of our big corporate clients with 'leverage' fucked up, and we had to charge off their loan of 150 mil, so in order to maintain our 4 billion profit we have to fuck you.  Up the ass.  No lube.  Thank you for banking with us."

 

Robin Hood where are you?

 

Want to hear a micro finance success story?  I sat with Gord Martineau of CIty TV a few weeks back and he told the story of how in Rwanda he met an HIV infected woman with three, yes THREE, HIV infected daughters, the 11 yr old near death with full blown AIDS.  He was affected so much that they gave her $100.  With that $100 she bought produce and sold it in the market.   She now has 4 employees and can feed her children (except the 11 yr old that died a few weeks later).  No real profit in it though and the fucking Ferengi's that run the banks (or the governments) don't give a shit.  They can't earn enough interest, so it's a non starter.  Cunts.

 

Told you I was in a mood.

 

John Kenneth Galbraith - "Any attack on taxes should be seen for what it really is, an attack on the poor"  Unless of course you are a conservative, when you believe that taxes are an attack on the rich.  Fuck conservatives.  Better yet - Save Canada, eat a conservative.  Beware though, there is a high fat content and you are liable to get sick from the tainted meat.  Stupid right wing dumb fuck cock sucking assholes - weeesssss haaaatesssssss them

 

Believe it or not I only had 1 coffee after supper.  Blllaaacccchhhhh coffee ;)

 

NB - if you are a new visitor I can usually put forth my arguments in a rational and logical way however, tonight my Id needs some release so....fuck it.

 

I like my Id, he sneaks up on me at the most surprising moments though.

 

Bouncy bouncy bouncy bouncy bounce bounce bounce bounce bounce.

 

And Tigger makes his triumphant return.  Tigger folks, Tigger - I am not Michael Richards or Andy Dick.

 

Id=Tigger

 

Rabbit=Super ego

 

Tigger jumps up and scares the shit out of rabbit.  Very Freudian it is. (Jung is more of a mind fuck though)

 

And no I didn't read that book R, but you will probably nail me for messin' with Pooh :P

 

I think I set a personal record for the use of the word fuck in an entry.  Again - Id. 

 

Where's the kaboom?  There is supposed to be an earth shattering kaboom!

 

Fuck.

 

That feels good, c'mon say it with me, you will feel better I promise.

 

Fuck.  See?  Told ya.

 

Myyyuhhh peopuhhlllluh - I want you to uh standuh, stand togetheruh and lift your voicesuh, lift them high anduh sayuh, with all your voice uh and heart anduh soulllluh - say ituh...can I get a fuck

 

FUCK.

 

hehe

 

Ahh the guttural primal force of that word.

 

How allegorical - as you scroll down to read we descend into madness.  We shall come to Marlowe's abyss soon and then you will have to decide if you want to join Kurtz or step away.

 

Tigger's tail is a little tired now, so he is off to climb a tree and rest now.

Yah yah I know, been a while.

 

First, I think we are in for another 'upgrade' on Spaces - I can't always get my space to load from messenger, some feeds don't seem to be working and I've had a few issues leaving comments tonight.

 

Anyway...

 

A recap -

 

Two Saturdays ago I went down to Toronto to help Global Medic / DMGF.org load up 4 pallets of relief supplies for the flood victims in Somalia.  We shipped out enough Aquatabs to clean 5 million litres of water and 60,000 tablets of Cypro and Doxycyclene (antibiotics).  Torqued the shyte out of my back doing so.

 

 

Tuesday I was in TO again for a fundraising dinner for the Destiny foundation for Health and Wellness where the guest speaker was Stephen Lewis.  Amazing night.  The founder, David Singh, donated $50 million of his own money to fight the spread of AIDS around the world.  FIFTY MILLION.  How rich do you have to be?  Lewis is a very good speaker and if you ever get the chance to see him speak try to make it. 

 

The Destiny Foundation has an interesting approach to fighting AIDS - 4 pillars - Advocacy (the dinners and such), Empowerment (raising people out of the poverty cycle), Education (to prevent the spread) and Healthcare (donating the expensive ARVs for treatment).  David also unveiled a new piece of techonology called a CD4 counter.  Whereas previously it would take weeks to get the results for CD4 tests, and people would die of AIDS while waiting for treatment, this machine can do it in 5 minutes on the spot.  Stephen Lewis was simply amazed at the potential of this machine.

 

The anger among the guests was at times palpable, many of whom are from Africa.  When Lewis asked why governments don't care the one of the gentlemen at my table said "because we are black".  I tend to think it is because those who live in sub-Saharan Africa don't buy things, they aren't consumer enough therefor western governments don't have any real incentive to help.  If people in Botswana bought flat panel TVs and SUVs and burned gasoline like Europeans or North Americans, I am sure you would see a different reaction to the various crises in Africa.

 

AIDS rates are actually rising in all regions of the world, even in areas where it had been decreasing.

 

Try this one on for size - Lewis mentioned a few things that were in the news, including the rising rates, and mentioned the cost of the US in Iraq as reported to the US Congress - $8 billion.....

 

A fucking month.  8 billion fucking dollars for a major clusterfuck predicated on a lie, while people around the world die from entirely preventable causes, the most tragic irony being children dying from dehydration due to diorhaea caused by contaminated water.  Water casuing death by dehydration.  But hey...what's $8,000,000,000,000 a fuckin' month.  Peanuts.

 

Speaking of Iraq.  The New York has released a report that says the insurgency is now financially self sustaining.  That means that the insurgents in Iraq are making a killing, pardon the pun.  Their activities in Iraq now fund terror cells around the world.  Big business but ummm, an ironic twist on the neo-liberal war / economics theory.

 

Fucks ups.  Period.

 

And again with Iraq - Gwynn Dyer wrote on Embassy Magazine online that the US was fed false information by an Al Queda prisoner in order to entice them to invade Iraq.  http://www.embassymag.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2006/november/22/dyer/

 

Again I say - fuck ups.

 

---

Ok, nuff of that.  Now some fun.

 

I believe that a man's wardrobe should NOT cost more than his date's.

 

I believe that wax should never touch a man's body unless he knocked over a candle.

 

I believe that manicures and pedicures are for women.  Period.

 

I believe that NO man, ever, should be seen in a SmartCar.

 

I believe that highlights belong on a sports show, NOT on a man's head.

 

I believe the only reason a man should ever watch Desparate Housewifes is to get nookie from his woman.

 

I believe that if a woman shows cleavage it is ok to look at it. (but look her in the eyes just long enough so that she doesn't think you a total perv, ya gotta make it look like you just can't help yourself)

 

I believe that the only skin care products a man puts on his face are shaving cream and after shave.

 

I believe the Canadian Tire guy needs his ass kicked (oh wait, his wife already did that)

 

MY NAME IS KEVIN AND I AM NOT A METROSEXUAL!

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to the New government (one must always remember to capitalize the N) Canada was booed on the world stage.  Kudos to Rona Ambrose who represented Canada at the conference as our Minister of the Environment.  Remember the first cuts made by the New government?  They cut funding to the federal Ministry of the Environment for research into alternative energy (can't blame them for axing the One Tonne Challenge though) as well as ending the EnerGuide program and said they would pursue a "made in Canada approach" paraphrasing the US right House statement a few years earlier.  The EnerGuide program provided homeowners with rebates for making their homes more energy efficient - they save money on the upgrades and saved money on energy costs.  I always thought putting money in the pockets of consumers was a conservative ideal?  It was however, a green iniative.  The Minister of the Environment is from...Oil industry heavy Alberta as is the Prime Minister as is the power structure of the Reform/ Alliance party that domintates the New conservative party.  So I suppose homeowners switching becoming more energy efficient and reducing the need for heating oil isn't politically expedient when you are from Alberta politics.  EnerGuide was a made in Canada solution, and other nations were using it as a model.

 

The New government has become an embarassment on the world stage.  Ambrose stood up in front of the world and played partisan politics stating that the reason they abandoned Kyoto and set emissions targets 50 years in the future is because the Liberals did a bad job.  Pathetic.

 

Wondering why I bold the N?  Well, there are directives from the Prime Minister's Office that all governmental  communication must be branded with "New Government", forcing non-partisan beauraucrats into the PMO's agenda.  They temporarily fired a government working for refusing the edict.  Oh yes - when speaking of gender issues 'equality' is a word that is not to be used.  'Innovation' is also on the banned words list now.

 

I now know who is the true communications director in the PMO, I just didn't know Winston Smith was available for hire. (cookie to the first person who gets that allusion)

 

Is it just me or does the word 'facism' come to mind?

 

Oh, and a new Decima poll released - the Liberal Party, that has no leader as of yet, is higher in the polls than the New conservatives.

 

I am getting hungry I tell you...

 

Most of us are familiar with the 3 Rs - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and the vast majority of people really only pay attention to recycle.  If you put it in the Blue Box every week it's all good, right?

Wrong.

That's right - an environmental tech who works for a recycling firm says that recycling is a myth.

Let's start with the concept of recycling - you have already consumed the product. That means that energy and resources were used to produce the product in the first place.  The plastic has been made, the oil pumped, the metals mined and the emissions produced.  Recycle is not the third R in reality - it is third from last.  This is the real Rs (with a P thrown in) - Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Precycle, Reuse, Recycle, Recover, Reclaim.  Notice how the first 3 limit work to eliminate the consumption in the first place.

Next let's look at the reality of recycling with real examples.  Glass is the one I will use.  How many of you think that post consumer glass is turned into new glass products like bottles, windows etc?  It isn't because each colour of glass has a different metal in it to create the colour, each metal with a different melting point.  Municipal recycling facilities (MRFs) have gone single-stream.  That means at the curb the recycled material is no longer separated by the guy picking it up, it is all dumped in the truck and sorted, somewhat, at the MRF.  While it is technically possible to colour sort glass it is prohibitively expensive and glass is just, well, sand.  We aren't going to run out of sand soon.  Most recycled glass ends up as a sandblasting material or aggregate - a replacement for dirt.

Let's stick with the collection and transfer of recycled materials to processing plants.  The trucks that collect the recycled materials burn fossil fuels, create emissions and degrade the roads they travel on.  As well from a taxpayers standpoint they cost money in wages, fuel and maintenance costs and road repair.  After is is somewhat sorted at the MRF it is send to yet another facility for processing.  A company that picked up glass from a MRF (approximately 1000 tonnes per week) had a monthly fuel bill in excess of $50,000.  At an average of $0.80 / Litre that is 62,500 Litres of diesel fuel consumed per month and the associated emissions.  Not to mention the lubricating oils and the metals and plastics used for replacement parts.  The electric bill to run the glass processing system ran close to $10,000.  Not in a year.  A month.  Take your monthly bill and kilowatts/hour used and figure out how much energy $10K is worth.  Then there is the approximate 30,000 tonne payload per truck on 5 or 6 runs a day on the 401 degrading the highway and shortening the times between required construction.

And then there is the statistics.  MRFs operating single stream are not very efficient at removing waste materials.  The volume of lightweight but bulky items such as plastic and paper, 20 gallon pails, sex toys etc varies from MRF to MRF.  At some a truck can reach its maximum payload with 2 buckets from the loader.  At others it takes 5 or 6 buckets of the same size to max out a truck due to the volume of non-glass waste.  The MRFs however can claim a decrease in materials sent to landfill, as well as disposing of waste at nearly half the cost.

Two years ago I contacted the Minister of the Environment regarding waste management issues and a deputy minister wrote back saying that 51% of materials collected in Blue Boxes were recovered.  51%.  And they were proud of that number.

Still think recycling is the best option?  Even if you disregard the net environmental loss incurred by consuming products and the recycling facility, consider the financial costs alone.  Cities pay for recycling - they pay for the collection of it and the disposal and transfer to processing facilities.  They use your tax dollars to pay for it.  That's without the deeper issues of road repair, air quality etc.  If everyone in a city reduced the products they consumed needlessly and reduced what was put in the Blue Box and what was thrown out as garbage, less tax dollars would be spent on waste and would be able to be diverted to other programs such as education, health care and other social programs.  That's just up front.

Follow this chain - goods consumed mean goods produced, which means transportation and energy costs, both for the product and waste derived from the consumption and the manufacturing process.  That means hydrocarbons (oil) used, that effects the air we breathe, the water and right down to, eventually, the Nigerian who loses his land or grazing territory to oil production.  Each link in that chain has a financial and socio-economic cost.  The monetary cost to produce the item, the monetary cost to consume the item and dispose of the waste and the tax dollars used to clean it up.  The social is much more difficult to asses.

Bottom line - people are being duped by governments looking for short term gains and by businesses promoting the effectiveness of recycling.  The priority is wrong, reducing consumption should be first.

No politics.

 

Remember -

 

Sacrifice

 

Death

 

Courage.

Quote from Ralph Klein about Belinda Stronach on November 7 2006:

 

 

I am just going to leave it at that.