1 THE HEADLINE SAYS “REGINA MAN REPEATEDLY STABBED AS CHILD WATCHES” Whitworth is very, very angry about this crime and has no useful suggestions, other than maybe think twice before tackling the asshole punk breaking into your car. (CBC)
2 CONSERVATIVES WANT TO LOOSEN TELECOM OWNERSHIP RULES More here (Globe And Mail). Betting money says any changes will benefit your annoying, humongous service provider while effectively blocking competitive start-ups who want to give you better service. And Sask-Tel will find itself uncomfortably squeezed in the middle. Yay!
3 THIS IS LAST WEEK’S NEWS BUT I WAS ON VACATION SO I’M POSTING IT NOW Casino workers are on strike in Regina and at least one fellow union is being a good ally and not crossing the picket line (Leader-Post). You shouldn’t, either.
4 WHO DO CIVIL SERVANTS WORK FOR? THE PUBLIC, OR A CONTROL-FREAK PRIME MINISTER? Take a wild guess. (Toronto Star)
5 HOPE YOU DIDN’T LIKE POLAR BEARS The ice-free season in Hudson’s Bay is growing longer thanks to climate change, no matter what the deniers, liars, suckers and contrarian fools are telling you. Now, researchers say this spells doom for Manitoba’s polar bears within a generation. (Winnipeg Free Press)
6 MEANWHILE IN THE WORLD Israel keeps killing people, oil is not leaking quite as badly as it was Friday, there’s a new iPhone in town and Britain is probably about to launch a Canada-style deficit battle (Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Wired, The Telegraph). About the last one, the British deficit situation and the Canadian connection: in 1994, after winning an election on promises to steer the country back to pre-Mulroney values, the Liberals brought in massive cutbacks that hurt students, the poor, women, the unemployed and other not-rich people. And then once the deficit battle was won, the government cut taxes rather than fully re-investing in the social programs — which they’d promised to do when they were making painful cuts — that made us a strong country. One might suggest that a legitimate problem was cunningly used by corporate-toady Liberals as an excuse to re-shape this country into something more acceptable to business interests. And now we’re a dumber, meaner, weaker nation that votes for extremist politicians. (Not extremist Grits so much, though. For some reason we don’t seem to vote Liberal like we used to). Of course Britain’s situation really does look bad. I’m sure righty politicians won’t go further than they need to.
