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Oh! A smooth ride ahead for the citizens of Alberta. Now the Deregulated Powah!
Alberta, Alberta, Alberta… The home of batshite crazy capitalist thinking and tomfoolery in general when it comes to fiscal policy (among many other things).
It is amazing to me that we are in such a mad rush to get back to the good ole’ days of being gouged by private utilities for what should be a public corporation. The Alberta Government has changed the rate structure in an attempt to scare and intimidate Albertans into signing long term contracts with private power companies, whose rates, of course, are higher than the current regulated rate.
I just laugh now when people start to whinge and complain about how unresponsive their government is to their demands. To make thinks perfectly clear, we do not have a democracy in Alberta, but rather a hepped up redneck Failarchy that believes, honest to god and jebus, that the only policies that are worth doing come solely from the right end of the political spectrum. And we (F’n) LOVE it here in Alberta as we continue to vote them in again and again.
The Calgary Herald has some interesting information about the power rates in Alberta:
“The concern stems from the regulated rate option changing in July to be fully based on short-term market prices, rather than a mix of short-and long-term contracts.”
Essentially, lets add instability into the price of power and see how many people we can scare into signing up with the private power companies. People should be up in arms, marching in the street, righteously pissed off with this sort of over-the-top pandering to the business class. But no, past a few irate letters to the local paper the Alberta sheep bleat on, blissfully happy with their Tory Kleptocracy.
Please notice the wonderful phrasing of what in short stands for “Bend Over Here Comes the Spiny Shaft of Capitalism.
“The intent that we expressed with this change is that this would give consumers a clearer picture of the market price of electricity,” Cummings said. “It gives them a clearer understanding of the cost of electricity so they can adjust their usage, and understand better when prices are high and can adjust accordingly.”
Boo! Aaaaaah! Quick run (don’t even think about walking you seniors and low income families) to the private sector to pay them more money for the same power you were getting before! Did you ever wonder who the Government of Alberta represents? If you are not incorporated Buck-O, it ain’t fracking you.
However there is a bit of bright side to the naked ratbaggery that is going on here.
“Consumers choosing to remain on the regulated rate could see more fluctuations in monthly bills, but, historically, electricity rates in Alberta have ranged between six cents and eight cents per kilowatt hour, Wachowich noted. And spikes in price are generally short-lived.”
So those who have more than two neurons to rub together and decide to stay on the regulated rate will be fine, but need to plan ahead accordingly for the minor fluctuations ahead. Crisis put on hold until the insipid clowns politicians that lead us decide we need to more directly fund the corporate elite become more competitive.
Bill 44 reminds me of why I love living in Alberta darn so much. Bill 44 is about parental choice:
Alberta’s controversial legislation that gives parents the option of pulling their children out of sexual education or religion classes they deem inappropriate or offensive will not affect how Catholic schools are run, board officials say.
Oh hey, fantastic. Having the option to be excluded from religious nuttery 101 is a good thing. The problem is that somehow in the topsy-turvey world of educational policy Science Education has been given the same status as Religious Studies. Parents who do not ‘believe’ in Evolution can have their children withdrawn from class using this same polished gem of legislation.
Set ignorance to 11!
Just to state the obvious Science and Religion are most certainly not the same thing. The critical thinking and skepticism that can be learned in science class are vital in shaping the minds of today’s youth. We do not need less critical thinking in the curriculum, but heaps more.
The short sighted nature of educational policy in Alberta aggravates me. This legislation is giving the delusional a means to further inoculate their children against Science and the rest of the modern world.
quag·mire
1.
an area of miry or boggy ground whose surface yields under the tread; a bog.
2.
a situation from which extrication is very difficult: a quagmire of financial indebtedness.
3.
anything soft or flabby.
Sometimes it is good to get back to basics when dealing with complex issues like our ongoing colonial occupation war in Afghanistan. The CBC reports:
“A dramatic increase in the number of homemade bomb attacks is part of an “alarming trend” in Afghanistan, a UN report released Saturday said.
The report to the UN Security Council said bombings and assassinations have soared in the past four months amid ramped-up military operations in the Taliban-dominated south.
The number of attacks involving improvised explosive devices increased by 94 per cent over the same period in 2009, while assassinations of Afghan officials rose by 45 per cent.
“The rise in incidents involving improvised-explosive devices constitutes an alarming trend,” the report said.
Suicide attacks occurred at a rate of about three a week, half in the restive south. Such bombings have tripled this year compared with 2009.”
Is any of this really surprising? I mean, Afghanistan is the anvil on which Imperial armies go to be smashed. It has happened before, and will happen again. So why is Canada still there? Are we really preserving freedom and democracy? Fighting terror? It is all rather nebulous.
“Nevertheless, the UN found the number of security incidents had “increased significantly compared to previous years,” in large part because of more military operations in the south early this year. NATO spokesman Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz told reporters in the capital on Saturday that despite negative assessments, the international force was making steady strides.
“Tough fighting is expected to continue, but the situation is trending in our favour as more forces flow into the area,” Blotz said.
“It has to be tougher perhaps before it goes easier,” Blotz said.”
I think the only statement that contains a grain of truth is Blotz’s final one. It will get tougher and I highly doubt it will get easier as time passes.
Canada’s military commitment in Afghanistan ends in 2011. Not a moment too soon.
Religion is dangerous.
One can arrive at that conclusion just by reading the sundry magic books and see the horror that they proscribe. Rape, slavery, torture and genocide round out biblical and koranical ‘solutions’ for societies problems. A rational being must question the veracity and utility of texts written some two thousand years ago. How does bronze age wisdom ‘fit’ with modern times and the challenges we face? Put simply, there is no fit, yet these fictive texts possess remarkable traction with many people. One must credit the church’s programs of propaganda and the institutional indoctrination of the young for religions’ unfortunate longevity.
I think the problem that religions are facing today is that the mendacious rosewater the major religions have been using to mask the river of shit routinely fed to the devout masses now simply fails to hide the intrinsic cruelty and barbarity that is inherent in religious belief. The one thing that religions cannot tolerate is careful rational examination. The Internet allows for the safe uncensored debate of almost any religious issue; and subsequent analysis is then generally free from religious reprisal. People can freely discuss the merits of the magic books openly and are not meekly accepting any particular religion’s claims at face value.
The Internet is where Religions come to die, because their rotten structures can be exposed for the malicious structures that they are. One of the more diabolical religious practices comes from the ‘religion of peace’ otherwise known as Islam is the so called honour killing of women who bring shame to their families. To expunge this shame, women who are raped, violate arranged marriages or even dress inappropriately can be killed to restore ‘family honour’.
People who say that Feminism has ‘achieved its goal’ really need to open their eyes and take a look at the world around them. Patriarchy thrives within the suppuratingly rotten edifice of religious belief. The struggle for women’s rights in far from over because things like this still happen within our supposedly civilized society.
“The father and brother of Aqsa Parvez, 16, have pleaded guilty to killing the Mississauga, Ont., teenager in 2007.
Muhammad Parvez and Waqas Parvez pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Tuesday and now face automatic life sentences.”
Father and son, both religiously frakking deluded embark upon the grizzly task of cleaning their families’ honour by killing Aqsa Parvez. It make perfect sense after all, she went against her Father’s wishes. And what were the great stains against the Father and the Son?
“Aqsa Parvez wanted to get a part-time job and be allowed to dress and act like other teenage girls in her neighbourhood… [Furthermore Aqsa] “did not have a door on her bedroom, her freedom to talk on the phone with friends was restricted, she was required to come straight home from school and expected to spend her evenings and weekends at home as well.”
Wow, just like in the Old Country where Men were people and Women were slaves. And we do know the consequences for habitually disobedient chattel women:
“On Dec. 10, 2007, Aqsa was taken from the school bus stop by her brother at approximately 7:20 a.m. It was just 36 minutes later that her father called 911 and told police he had “killed his daughter.”
Police arrived and found Aqsa on her bed.
“She was fully clothed and had her jacket on. She had no vital signs. There was blood coming from her nose,” according to the statement. She was pronounced dead later that evening.”
Aqsa had been staying away from home, she had known before that her life was in jeopardy, and had taken refuge at friends houses and a shelter. Her demise was hastened by religiously addled relatives who convinced her to go home again.
“In an interview with police, she says her husband told her he killed his youngest child because “this is my insult. My community will say, ‘You have not been able to control your daughter.’ This is my insult. She is making me naked.”
A big hat tip to Islam for being so frakking rational. Religion enables this sort of gross violation of human rights, and needs to extirpated from rational secular democracies such as ours.
Our current Canadian Government is funny. It campaigns to be tough on crime while cutting funding to women’s groups and trying to kill the Gun Registry. Another ‘fixture’ in the Conservative platform is a strong sense of fiscal responsibility and wise money management.
Obviously, the best way to show Canadians about sound fiscal management going on under watchful Conservative government is to build a two million dollar fake lake. I am not making this up, we are adding another two million dollars onto the millions we are pissing away on the G8 summit.
“Prime Minister Stephen Harper has defended building a $1.9-million tourism pavilion at the G8/G20 summit media centre in Toronto that includes an artificial indoor pool to simulate Ontario’s cottage country.”
One of the traditional ‘selling points’ about Canada is our abundant natural environment. Apparently, Mother Nature fails in the Conservative play book.
Your Tax Dollars in Action!
So instead, lets build a fake lake.
“His comments[Harper] came as the government scrambled Tuesday to correct the price tag associated with the so-called fake lake at the $1.9-million G8/G20 “Experience Canada” pavilion in Toronto’s Direct Energy Centre.
During Tuesday’s question period in the House of Commons, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff asked how Harper could instruct other countries how they should manage their own funds amid the government’s “astonishing” waste of taxpayers’ money on the summits.
The Liberal leader also questioned how much the public could expect to see at the end of three days of meetings, with topics such as climate change not even on the agenda.
“Canadians wanted leadership, and all they got was a fake lake,” Ignatieff told the House.”
I think Ignatieff is being a little hard on Harper and the government. I mean, for a 3 day meeting experiencing the (simulated) Ontario cottage country 1.9 million dollars is super cheeeep! Only more outrageous things could cost more such as, oh say, actually going to cottage country?
Wait..no no no it can’t be just a lobe shattering grossly negligent abuse of the public purse. It is a marketing opportunity! Steven the Harper-Douche says so!
“In fact, it’s a $2-million marketing project,” Harper said, “We must not miss this opportunity.”
The mock lake inside the centre will actually be a 10-centimetre-deep pool, built at a cost of $57,000, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told the House. It was initially reported the pool itself cost $1.9 million.
Liberal MP Mark Holland hit back, saying $57,000 is more than the annual income for 40 per cent of Canadian families.”
Amazing! I’m sure the ‘buzz’ generated will pay big dividends to the poor people of Canada, I can just imagine the dollars rolling in!
This government is anything but fiscally conservative when it comes to spending the tax dollars of Canadians.
Extra Bonus!
The Liberal Party does Fake Lakeing on the Thrifty-Side!
“OTTAWA – Creating fake lakes for the amusement of reporters appears to be turning into a cottage industry.
Liberals have installed their own water feature in the garden at the Official Opposition leader’s residence in Ottawa.
And, they’ve done it for just $19.95 _ a fraction of $1.9 million the Harper government is spending to recreate the look of Muskoka cottage country in a Toronto media centre for the G-8 and G-20 summits.
In the middle of Liberal Leader Michel Ignatieff’s yard was a blue plastic children’s wading pool. A cardboard plaque proclaimed it to be “Fake Lake Harper” and warned “No Diving.”
Another sign declared the pond to be a project funded by the federal economic action plan, “supporting Canada’s fake lake industry.”
Obviously some political hay is being made at the Conservative Governments’ expense. I’m okay with that.
“Reporters were invited to lounge on vinyl Muskoka chairs and watch plastic ducks and tiny boats bobbing in the pond, while recorded loon calls played in the background. Life jackets were available for anyone who wanted to venture into the three-inch deep waters.
One boat _ carrying muppet Ernie and his rubber duckie _ was dubbed the “Captain Tony,” after Industry Minister Tony Clement, whose Muskoka riding has been flooded with cash in advance of the G-8 summit.
A remote controlled craft with a plastic action figure glued to its deck was dubbed the “Stuntwell Day” — a reference to Treasury Board president Stockwell Day, who once famously arrived for a press conference wearing a wetsuit and riding a personal watercraft.”
This will end badly for the Conservatives. Probably not as bad as their leader arriving to a press conference on Jetski, but close.
I miss the days when the Conservatives could actually display how batshite crazy they actually are. Thanks to the Harper 'Muzzle on the Crazy' we'll have to be happy with the Fake Lake-Gate scandal.
We'll get to your problems soon, we promise.
For all the hoopla the regular G8 conferences cause what really happens there. It seems one of the more anti-democratic features of the ‘new globalized economy’. According to the CBC the tough issues will not even be seriously discussed.
“A leaked draft of the final communiqué for the upcoming G8 summit suggests Canada has dodged a bullet on the thorny issues of abortion and climate change.
The draft, obtained by The Canadian Press, says the world’s most powerful countries are prepared to throw money at “all factors” affecting the health of women and children in poor countries but doesn’t specifically mention abortion.
There is no agreement yet on specific funding for the maternal initiative, climate change, food security or aid to developing countries, despite strong words urging concrete measures.”
Our anti-choice Prime Minister and his merry band of pro-life fascists are out to scuttle reproductive freedom for the Third World. It is good to know that we will stick to our ideological beliefs in the face of the facts (abortions save womens lives).
“Action is required on all factors that affect the health of women and children,” the document says. “This includes addressing gender inequality, ensuring women’s and children’s rights and improving education for women and girls.”
Message to Harper Government: Women are people too.
Hello, hello?! Abortion is a part of women’s rights! But hey it is just the womenz anyways marginalizing them has always been a slam dunk.
Climate Change though, WoW! Canada looks like to be putting forth this bold initiative:
“On the environment, the only thing G8 negotiators have apparently agreed to is that fighting climate change shouldn’t hurt countries’ economies — a position the Harper government has been pushing.”
Taking the status quo is really a non initiative. Restructuring our economy so we are not shitting in the air we breath and the water we drink is going to hurt economically. It is necessary to do it sooner than later because right now we have the choice to do it, when our ecosystems ‘decide‘ they have had enough of us I assure you, gentle reader, that the economies will be much more than “hurt”.
Well our Prime minister has enough sense not to tamper with women’s rights (well at least while he has a minority government).
You womenz can keep your rights... for now.
“Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he opposes any new abortion law for Canada and will vote against any of his backbenchers’ attempts to bring in such legislation.”
Furthermore he clarifies with regards to private members bills:
“My position is quite clear: I will oppose any attempt to create a new abortion law,” he told reporters in Niagara Falls.”
I have no doubt that his political pragmatism has gotten the best of him. We can breathe a small sigh of relief, but must remain vigilant as the Conservatives will continue to chip away at women’s rights.
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