1 ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENTS ARE FOR SISSIES Arrrrrgh! The oil-industry-fellating Stephen Harper government announced it wants to streamline the approval process for projects like the Gateway oil pipeline. Basically criminal, but whatever–same as usual from this mob. Just read this unreal open letter from Canada’s natural resources minister, who characterizes people legitimately concerned over environmental damage as “radical” and “jet-setting celebrities.” “These groups threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda,” writes Joe Oliver in his self-righteous and self-serving essay. A guy from the government that pulls out of the Kyoto accord who can turn around and sign his name to this kind of miserable, toxic and dishonest bullshit has no place in public life. Just wow.
The truth is, we’ve got to get off fossil fuels and yes, it’s going to be really hard because there’s nothing to replace it — but delaying the pain just hurts our future. These are facts, and they’re a big reason why “environmentalists” (i.e. reasonable people with a grasp of the facts) tend not to like pipelines. There’s also the risk of horrific spills and accidents.
2 REMEMBER THAT COYOTE CULL? IT ISN’T WORKING. Who knew? Oh yeah. Trevor Herriot. Gee, maybe governments should learn to listen to people who actually know something, eh?
3 INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY The trial of a husband, his wife and their son who are charged with murdering three daughters (and/or sisters) is heading into the home stretch in Montreal. The crown says the girls were killed because their liberal, boy-dating ways brought dishonour on their family.
4 PENSIONS ARE SO SCREWED The Toronto Star has a report on cutbacks to public sector pension plans. It’s alarming. Well, at least Canada just cut corporate taxes. That’ll fix everything, right?
5 OBAMA HEARTS THE GRAND CANYON The U.S. president will introduce a uranium mining ban on a million acres of land around the Grand Canyon. This is very sad because CLEARLY it would be better to exploit every last resource in every corner of our planet no matter what the cost to the beauty of the natural world, not to mention the health of the environment in general. Oh well.
6 MERCY KILLING The Columbus Blue Jackets have fired poor, poor, poor coach Scott Arniel.
LOOK AT THIS COOL THING FROM THE INTERNET Gimmicky but still amazing! H/T to Dog Blogger Kat–thanks for the link.
