Moonbattery

Liberals Know All About Special Advisors (Because They Wrote The Book)

Mulder

When the Liberals claim Prime Ministerial adviser positions, like that of Walid Khan, are not getting any value out of the positions, they ought to know.

Liberals may be basing their skepticism about the value of MP Wajid Khan’s report to Stephen Harper on their own experience with special prime ministerial advisers.

Onetime Liberal MP Sarkis Assadourian says he never did a day’s work after being appointed a special adviser to former prime minister Paul Martin.

Shortly before the 2004 election, Assadourian agreed to step aside in his Brampton riding so that a star recruit, Ruby Dhalla, could run for the Liberals in his stead. In return, Martin gave him a job as a special foreign policy adviser.

“They put out a press release and he said to the media and the nation with a straight face I was working with him as (his) adviser on the south Caucasus and Middle East,” Assadourian said in an interview.

“The whole thing was a lie . . . I never a single day worked in his office. I was never paid a single penny.”

Repeat after me. “The whole thing was a lie ….. The whole thing was a lie ….. The whole thing was a lie.”

Wait it get’s better:

“For 15 months I was lied to,” he said.

Asked if he regrets accepting Martin’s job offer and giving up his seat, Assadourian said: “I regret knowing him as a person.”

Paul Martin should hang his head in shame.

H/T to DBT and Jack’s Newswatch.

Crack Pipe Kits NOT Municipal Jurisdiction

Mulder

As Ottawa city council works through ways through the budget for 2007, the issue of spending money on free “crack pipe kits” has come up again. And, as expected, the Ottawa medical officer of health, David Salisbury, is defending the program.

However, the police chief is standing by his statements too.

Police Chief Vince Bevan has said that he opposes the program because it promotes illegal drug use.

“The chief’s position is clear on this,” said spokeswoman Isabelle Lemieux.

Am I wrong in assuming that a program designed to minimize the spread of HIV and Hep C should be left to the provincial government? I always thought health care was provincial jurisdiction.

In fact, last fall during the election run, I called in to a radio show hosting the candidates for Cumberland ward (not my ward) and asked how the candidates would vote if the idea of safe injection clinics was brought up. Rob Jellett, the incumbent, was the only one who stated clearly that this fell under provincial jurisdiction. Since safe injection clinics give free needles and are there to help prevent the spread of diseases, one would conclude the free crack pipe kit program is in the same boat.

I think we need more of city council to read Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species.

ADDENDUM

From CFRA:

Ottawa Police are responding to the scolding they received from the city’s Medical Officer of Health.

A frustrated Dr. David Salisbury says the police service has done everything in its power to interfere with the needle exchange and crack pipe programs by confiscating the kits. However, Ottawa Police Superintendent Gilles Larochelle isn’t offering any apologies.

He says in a criminal investigation, police will seize drug paraphenalia(sic) no matter where it came from. He adds they sometimes take away the pipes for “safety reasons”.

Ontario Liberals Redefine Hypocrisy In Opening Of Smoking Lounges

Mulder

The Ontario Liberal government has decided that government owned casinos are no longer considered public places because the Niagara Falls Casino and the Windsor Casino will be opening smoking zones.

Today, Ontario Health Minister Jim Watson defended the announcement by saying that the ban on restaurants and bars is different because they serve food but that the primary reason for a casino is not to serve food.

This plan comes on the heels of the drop in business at the Windsor casino after the Detroit casino opened up a smoking area.

In related news, Legion’s are still smoke free zones which means the Provincial Liberals, headed by Dalton McShifty, are giving more rights to gamblers than to veterans who fought to create a free Canada.

I guess the dollar is almighty to the Ontario Liberal government and public businesses just don’t get a level playing field.

OfficiallyScrewed … again.

Ask For Bacon, Or You Only Get A Cheeseburger

Mulder

My wife teases me a lot with the phrase “You think you can change anything with a bit of money.” because if I can’t find something specifically the way I like it, I wonder how much money it would take to customize to my needs.

I know this makes me sound like some overpaid ass, but in reality, it comes from the fact that I work in the fast paced high tech industry and if a customer comes to me asking for something out of the ordinary, I never say no unless it is completely impossible. The conversation usually ends up with an explanation of the time and effort involved to make it happen and the opportunity cost is assessed and a surcharge is brought in, because my industry understands customization.

It was this same philosophy that created the “Add Bacon 50 cents” option on cash registers. It was people like me who grew up with banquet burgers asking Wendy’s and McDonalds for bacon on our cheeseburgers and offering to pay more for it that revolutionized restaurant cash register operation and, more importantly, gave us more options as consumers.

Life truly is better.

Where am I going with this? Well Yahoo news has an article about how a BC clinic is charging customers $30 for appointments and the NDP (go figure) is bitching about how this is a violation of the Canada Health Act and that the clinic needs to be stopped.

I thought this was the usual private clinic argument until I read this:

“Without the benefits offered under the plan, beginning March 1, 2007, there will be a $30 reservation fee in order to schedule an appointment to see one of the doctors at a specific time,” the letter states.

Drop-in patients or patients without scheduled appointments will not be charged the appointment fee.

*emphasis mine

So the patients are not being charged if they are willing to accept regularly scheduled appointments or drop in and wait for a gap in the doctor’s time. The ONLY people getting charged are those who ask for a specific time. i.e. that person out there with a busy schedule because they are being productive to society and not willing to stop being productive without a bit of guarantee that when they arrive they will be seen right away so they can go back to being productive to society. Hell, I bet if I had this service my boss would be glad to pay it to get me back on the job quickly and efficiently.

The kicker is that the patient is NOT paying for healthcare at all. The price for the treatment is the same if you wait or if you take the appointment they give you or if they charge you to be flexible to your time requirement. The patient is paying for expediency. They are paying for time saved. They are paying for a customized treatment “time”.

i.e. They are paying for a bacon cheeseburger.

Hypothetically, Decima Research Is A Biased Pollster

Mulder

Showing their true Liberal colours, Decima Research ran a poll which presented people with a HYPOTHETICAL situation as follows:

Decima Research asked people to choose between two hypothetical election promises – a $1,000 Conservative tax break for every household and a $1,000 Liberal break limited to households that took pro-environment action.

Fifty-one per cent of respondents said they would prefer the Liberal promise versus 28 per cent who preferred the Conservative pledge, say the survey results provided to The Canadian Press. Twenty-one per cent were unsure.

So the campaign promises were hypothetical, yet Decima chose the Liberals and the Conservatives and portrayed the Liberals as environmentally friendly. Why would they not choose the Green Party and the Liberals in this scenario with the Green Party being the one with the pro-environment tax break condition?

To make things worse, even if the two options were apolitical, the pro-environment tax break combination is far more appealing to anyone, not just those interested in the environment making it the easy choice for most. In fact, I am surprised that the results were not much higher for the pro-environment choice which means that half of respondents either did not like the plan or were not willing to answer. This is actually quite dramatic when you think about it.

How about we try this one. Choose between these two hypothetical campaign promises. a) The Liberal plan to offer a $1000 tax break per household or b) the Conservative plan to offer a $1000 tax break to households that take a pro-safety stance by joining their neighbourhood watch?

I think we know which option would win out there.

“I think what we’re seeing here is a signal that’s really about what kind of policies people want,” Decima CEO Bruce Anderson said in an interview.

“While they appreciate the idea of tax cuts they also appreciate that policy should be increasingly directed towards achieving environmental improvement. That’s what that 51 per cent are telling us they think.”

I think Bruce Anderson needs to revisit his polling skills if he thinks this poll was by any means fair or determinate of people’s feelings about the situation.

Aside from the claims Decima Research makes, I can safely say that this poll does give one clear indication. And that would be that Decima Research is clearly a biased pollster.

H/T to Political Staples

Thermodynamically Speaking, Global Warming Will LOWER Sea Levels

Mulder

I have seen, read or heard numerous indications saying how the Earth’s Ocean’s will rise as iceberg’s melt. That was quickly refuted via Archimedes and good old fashioned displacement science.

Then came the fear-mongering about Antarctic ice melting. Considering the average temperature on the south pole is anywhere from -37 Celsius to -57 Celsius, I do not think a few degrees of planetary warmth will do much.

So now the environmentalists want to attack Greenland ice shelfs and other glaciers that are overland.

Well here is some science that no one has mentioned that counters rising sea levels.

It is a very well known but not well announced fact that warm air holds more moisture than cold air. By doing a bit of formula manipulation with the Ideal Gas law, I calculated that a cubic meter of atmosphere can hold an extra 0.85 grams of water vapour for every degree Celsius that the temperature rises. This fluctuates a very very small amount depending on what the two temperatures are or how high up in the atmosphere you go.

However, for a good rough estimate, you can assume the lowest 11km of the atmosphere holds about 75% of the Earth’s atmosphere density. Using the Earth’s average radius of 6.37 Million meters, I calculated that that 11km zone around the planet can hold AN EXTRA 851 Billion cubic meters of water. Taking into account the water surface area of the planet is 361 Billion square meters, then simple division would tell us that the planet’s water level would drop approximately 2.36 meters for every degree Celsius of increased average temperature.

Remember this when someone tells you melting ice will raise sea levels.

You can also point out that increased CO2 levels create bigger, stronger and more abundant plant life. These plants will need more moisture for photosynthesis which means they will be taking in more water than plant life in an environment with less CO2 and they will also convert more of that CO2 into O2.

i.e. warmer temperatures and more CO2 creates a buffering environment that counters the high levels with thriving plant life.

I think that’s enough science to last a week. I urge others to doublecheck my math. The data I used included:

The Ideal Gas Law (PV=nRT)
The Earth’s water surface is 361,126,400,000 square meters
The Earth’s average radius is 6.37 Million Meters
The average temperature is 283 Kelvin (or 10 degrees Celsius)
The average air pressure is 1 atmosphere or 101.325 KiloPascals
The weight of one mole of H20 is 18 grams

How Do You Say Kyoto Protocol In Martian?

Mulder

Marvin the MartianHave the environmentalistas told Marvin the Martian to stop flying his gas guzzling spacecraft yet? Because the past 3 Mars years the polar caps on Mars have been shrinking!!!

Considering there is no life on mars to help warm the planet, this evidence points directly to something on a larger scale warming planets in our solar system. Scientists, for years, have speculated that solar flares affect the temperatures of the planets and this type of evidence provides a pretty good indication that they are right.

The image below is an animation of two images exactly 3 Martian years apart and was taken by the Malin Space Science System satellite currently in orbit around the red planet.

Mars South Polar Cap

Note to those inspecting the dates in the two photos. The typical Mars Year is about 669 days so when you take three Mars years it throws the Earth date out by about 6 months (or about 180 days).

The south polar residual cap of Mars is composed of layered, frozen carbon dioxide. In 1999, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) showed that the carbon dioxide layers have been eroded to form a variety of circular pits, arcuate scarps, troughs, buttes, and mesas. In 2001, MOC images designed to provide repeated views of the areas imaged in 1999–with the hope of creating stereo (3-D) images, so that the height of scarps and depth of pits could be measured–showed that the scarps had retreated, pits enlarged, and buttes and mesas shrank. Only carbon dioxide is volatile enough in the martian environment to have caused such dramatic changes–the scarps were seen to retreat at an average rate of 3 meters (about 3 yards) per Mars year. Most of the scarp retreat occurs during the southern summer season; in some areas the scarps move as much as 8 meters, in others, only 1 meter per Mars year.

Three Mars years have now elapsed since MOC first surveyed the south polar cap in 1999. Over the past several months, MGS MOC has been re-imaging areas that were seen in 1999, 2001, and 2003, to develop a detailed look at how the landscape has been changing. This animated GIF provides an example of the dramatic changes that have occurred during the past three martian years. The first image, a sub-frame of M09-05244, was acquired on 21 November 1999. The second image, a sub-frame of S06-00973, was obtained on 11 May 2005. The animation shows the changes that have occurred between 1999 and 2005. Each summer, the cap has lost more carbon dioxide. This may mean that the carbon dioxide content of the martian atmosphere has been increasing, bit by very tiny little bit, each of the years that MGS has been orbiting the red planet. These observations also imply that there was once a time, in the not-too-distant past (because there are no impact craters on the polar cap), when the atmosphere was somewhat thinner and colder, to permit the layers of carbon dioxide to form in the first place. Just as Earth’s environment is very different today than it was just 11,000 or so years ago, the martian environment has also been changing on a similar time scale.

I bet they find a way to blame Rona Ambrose for this.

Al Gore Takes Movie Money And Hides

Mulder

A friend of mine was telling me how global warming could be proven and that a big part of it was due to the cutting down of the rainforest. The current of water coming up along the east coast of South America was being dramatically affected, and warmed, which created an imbalance in water temperatures, thus creating more Atlantic Storms.

Bullchips is all I have to say.

If that was the case, this year should have been as active, or more active, in terms of Atlantic Storms. But here are the hard facts from the past 8 years. Notice that this year there is a significant drop in the number of tropical storms.

2006 Name Storms

But you can also look at the inconsistency in the East Pacific storms in the same time period.

2006 East Pacifici Name Storms

Let me put this in graphical terms, I put the following chart together indicating each sections name storms and outlining the total.

2006 Chart

The average number of storms in the two regions is 29.25/year over the past 8 years. In the same 8 year period, 4 years have been above that watermark and 4 years have been below that watermark, including 2006. (technically the year is not over, but there would need to be 4 new name storms in a week and a half start up to change this statistic so it is safe to make this claim.)

Considering there was some pretty significant fearmongering by Al Gore, his environmentalista followers and his propaganda movie last year, I think he owes society an apology for not waiting a few years to see if the trend was accurate.

So now I want to know why more Liberals are not on the CLEAN air bandwagon which Conservatives like Rona Ambrose and Stephen Harper have adopted, and why they continue to harp on the HOT air bandwagon Al Gore erroneously created.

Liberal Bloggers Don't Even Understand Kyoto…

Mulder

Liberals Can't CountBut they will keep plugging it.

I have seen this “counter” (displayed at right) on a few Liberal websites and need to make a clarification so that Conservatives who read my site can help educate others.

The counter has presented quite an erroneous view of both the Conservative Clean Air act and the Kyoto Protocol in a fashion I usually only credit the MSM with.

It states that there are 6000 and some odd number of days until the Conservatives set air quality targets. This implies the recent mercury ban does nothing to improve air quality. It also implies the restriction of the 200 or so hazardous substances does not improve air quality. This shows us how little Liberals know about what clean air actually is. Either that or they simply can’t count.

The number of days is a reference to the Tory green house gas targets which go out to 2050. What really makes the Liberals look stupid for posting this is that the Kyoto protocol aims to reduce green house gases and has nothing to do with air “quality”. The whole Kyoto concept is to reduce green house gases in an effort to prevent global warming.

Since warm air and cold air are both equally desireable depending on where you are and what season it is, and since neither is of “poor quality”, the statement just goes to show us that Liberals who believe Kyoto and green house gas reduction is about CLEAN air simply do not understand what Kyoto is about.