Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

I feel sorry for people who didn’t realize this happens. Anyone who has read blogs for even a few months, then listens to a talk radio hears the same tired talking points not only from radio hosts and frequent callers of the Conservative bend, but also others who get their kool-aid and unoriginality from different pitchers.

The Conservatives describe the practice as state-of-the-art politicking. A party spokesman said the practice offers enhanced transparency, and is used elsewhere in the world.

… in fine places like Burma, China, Rhodesia, Venezuela, Columbia, and parts of former East Germany.

“Enhanced transparency”. Gotta love it, eh? Also known as, “opaqueness“. Expect to hear it a lot on talk radio soon.

(more…)

My friend 1337 Hax0r is considering putting $1000 at stake, if the Liberal Party of Canada brings down the Conservative government in less than one month from the ‘wager’. What more can a blogger do at this point? The Cadman bribery scandal continues to go unpunished, and we’re left with a government content to let Canadians languish (or die) in foreign jails, and claim $1200 of taxable income is enough to cure child poverty.

If Canadians don’t start caring a lot more about having a good government, we’re in for a lot worse. History has shown that to be the obvious outcome of an apathetic and unempowered people. And I can’t think of better adjectives to describe the Liberals right now than apathetic, and unempowered.

Check it out if you’re in a lucky part of the country. The ESA’s Jules Verne is first, then the ISS and Shuttle.

TRIPLE FLYBY ALERT: Space shuttle Endeavour has undocked from the International Space Station and the two spaceships are now orbiting Earth in tandem. This sets the stage for a series of rare *triple* flybys, which many sky watchers will be able to observe on Tuesday, March 25th. It’s a triple because three spacecraft are involved. First to appear is the European Space Agency’s Jules Verne cargo carrier flying 2000 kilometers ahead of the ISS-Endeavour combo. Jules Verne is about as bright as a 1st magnitude star. Four minutes later, and even brighter, the space shuttle and space station follow Jules Verne across the starry sky–a spectacular sight!

March has had a flood of interesting guests at the UofR. Seymour Hersh is the latest, and is in town on Wednesday.

He’s a favourite guest of Jon Stewart.

SPR Rethinking Productivity Speaker Series
Social Policy Research Unit (SPR)
Faculty of Social Work
University of Regina
__________________________________

Seymour Hersh
Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Now:
Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan

Wednesday, March 26, 2008
7:30 pm
Education Auditorium, University of Regina
Presentation and parking in Lots 14 and 15M are free

Seymour Myron Hersh is an American Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, DC. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters. His work first gained worldwide recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War, for which he received the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. His 1983 book, The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House, won him the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times book prize in biography. […]

For further information, please call SPR at 585-4117.

Social Policy Research Unit
Faculty of Social Work
464 Education Building
University of Regina
Regina, SK S4S 0A2
Tel: (306) 585-4117

…And no, this time it isn’t me giving blogging a bad name. It’s that other political blogger from Saskatchewan - Kate at SmallDeadAnimals.com

In an apparent effort to link Liberals Warren Kinsella, Jason Cherniak, and Pierre Trudeau with Hitler, she’s suggested literally that it wasn’t Nazis who killed people in Germany during the early part of the 20th Century. Figuratively, of course. She was making a different, non-ridiculous point. Clever, eh?

While comparisons with Hitler are being made, since that cat is out of the bag, was Hitler famous for demonizing political enemies so it was easier to kidnap and kill them without public protest? Yes, that’s what happened in Germany. Fortunately that doesn’t remind me of anything going on in politics or on the blogosphere in North America these days…

I gave up reading her blog and commenting there last November after she modified In Flanders Field to mock Toronto media for political purposes. Since then she’s endeared herself with more Canadians by calling for a national catastrophic famine to wipe out socialist pansies, and made fun of Kinsella by making fun of holocaust survivors. SDA now reads (and possibly always has) like a big inside joke that only some of the most vile commenters on the web seem to actually enjoy. Everyone else sees it for the confusing, and mean spirited, angry train wreck that it is.

–
Hat tip to Scott Tribe

YouTube tools collection.

Sort Of Dunno Nothin’ - Peter Denahy

I lost track of where I first saw this song about Australian teenagers. It certainly applies in North America as well. It reminds me of talking with some of my cousins. His MySpace site with more music.

–
Hat tip to possibly Dr. Dawg.

I don’t suppose it’s come up for gardeners too much yet, but Monsanto has flexed its corporate might a great step too far with farmers the last decade (or longer). Percy took them on, on more than one occasion, and came away smelling like a rose. His latest victory is an important one. $660 isn’t as important as the win.

The seeds of the earth (and those manufactured by humans) should never be subject to patents.