OfficiallyScrewed.com – Page 49 – You either pay attention or pay through the nose. I would rather pay attention.

Suzuki Math Indicates 4 x 0.4 = 2 : No Wonder EnviroNazis Are Wrong

February 11, 2007Mulder

Today’s Ottawa Sun has a Q and A session with David Suzuki about his carbon spewing bus tour across Canada and this is one of the questions.

Q: What role should Canada play on the international scene?

A: Canada produces 2% of C02 emissions, but represents just 0.4% of the world’s population.

So we produce four times more pollution per capita than the global average, and because of that, we have an obligation.

My 10 year old does better math, Mr. Suzuki.

But this is besides the point when we really think about it. Yes, Canadians may create five times the man made emissions of CO2 compared to our percentage of the population. But let’s look at some comparative information to assess the “obligation” part of his comment.

Canada has 10% of the world’s forests (StatsCan numbers) and as we know the 402 million hectares of woodlands we have eat up a massive amount of the earth’s carbon dioxide to produce the wood that becomes the tree trunk.

Newly planted trees can eat up to 15 tonnes of CO2 per hectare per year, so for my calculations I am going to say 10 tonnes to be conservative (which we all know I am).

This means that Canadian forests alone are pulling 4 GigaTonnes of CO2 out of the air each year. Yet our CO2 emissions are only about 60 MegaTonnes/year. Or let’s be less specific and say that Canadians are only producing 640 Megatonnes of GHGs/year (as per Greg Weston’s column that I blogged about here.)

This means that our nation is sinking approximately 66 times the CO2 that we produce and sinking about 6 times the GHG’s that we produce by CO2 equivalency.

I can hear the environmentalistas screaming now…..”But wait, you are only considering man made green house gases (and CO2)!!”

Ah yes. Man made. And this brings us back to the crux of the debate that keeps getting overlooked by these ecoterrorists. Where ARE all these other Green House Gases coming from??

And thus, we find ourselves back to water vapour. That elusive substance escaping from the earth’s oceans in massive amounts. That substance that makes up 95% to 97% of the GHGs on the planet.

If only we had enough Saran Wrap to cover the Pacific…

Liberals Take Meaning Of Opposition To A New Level And Oppose Their Own Bill

February 10, 2007Mulder

In what amounts to the Liberals coming out and stating “I spit in your general direction!“, they have come out and opposed the Tory plan to extend the Anti Terrorist bill that the Liberals themselves created and passed while in power.

The former Liberal government of Jean Chretien rushed the sweeping federal law through Parliament in the weeks after 9/11, arguing law-enforcement agencies needed extensive new tools to deal with the threat of terror.

But in response to concerns the law would trample civil liberties, the government placed a “sunset” clause on the provisions of the law enabling “preventive arrests” and “investigative hearings.” Both provisions expire at the end of next week, unless both Houses of Parliament pass a resolution to extend them.

The Conservative government tabled a motion yesterday that would extend the provisions for three years.

But now that the Liberals have withdrawn support, the motion looks doomed. Both the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois oppose any extension. A vote on the motion is expected next week.

The Liberal shift surprised national security experts, who were expecting an extension to sail through Parliament.

Has Dion lead the Liberals further left than they have been in a long time? Or is he opposing just to be opposing? I think it is a bit of both.

What’s your take?

H/T to Werner Patels

What's Wrong With This Picture?

February 10, 2007Mulder

Chateau Laurier The headline reads…

Big-city mayors seek common solutions

The the article goes on to say…

Mayors from 22 big cities across Canada met Friday at the Chateau Laurier Hotel to discuss how best to handle the problems facing Canadian cities.

Now for those of you living in the 21 big cities that are NOT Ottawa, you may not pick this out, but for those of us who live in Ottawa, noticing that they want a “common” solution while staying at the ritziest hotel in Ottawa seems a bit odd.

Just to give you an idea, the Chateau Laurier is a minimum of $189/night and for an Executive Suite we are talking over $500/night. Don’t bother asking about the Presidential Suite. Even a politician wouldn’t have the balls to book that one.

We in Ottawa are also lucky enough to not have to pay the travel expense and I would guess that our Mayor Larry O’Brien probably woke up in his own bed the day of the meeting and probably went back home to his own bed after the meeting.

I hope one of the problems that they discussed was the overspending on travel by city politicians.

The Fedora'd Crusader Challenges Dr. Attaran

February 9, 2007Mulder

Victor says it best, but the gist is Dr. Amir Attaran is calling for an open inquiry yet he, himself, has not shared HIS research.

I hereby dub him Dr. Dipper.

MP's Military Service

February 8, 2007Mulder

I figured that when it came to MPs and military service, the Tories would lead the pack, and I was right. But the runner up was a bit of a shock.

Conservative MPs who have served: 7
NDP MPs who have served: 2
Liberal MPs who have served: 1

(note I moved Wajid Khan over to the Conservatives, although he was elected as an Liberal originally)

H/T to my friend JP for this one.

IPCC Debunked

February 7, 2007Mulder

Last night, on CFRA, John Counsel took it upon himself to invite paleo-climatologist Dr. Tim Patterson and Tom Harris from the National Resources Stewardship Project onto the show to discuss global warming. It was one of the most entertaining and informative assessments of Climate Change. It is not Al Gore spewing myths, it is true science at it’s best. I encourage everyone to listen to these audio files.

(Note, I managed to get my call in as the first caller (Steve) on part III discussing the increased plant life due to higher co2 concentration and temperature rise. Pardon me sounding like I am slurring speech, I called from my cell phone and was driving at the time.)

CFRA Call In Show On Climate Change Part I
CFRA Call In Show On Climate Change Part II
CFRA Call In Show On Climate Change Part III
CFRA Call In Show On Climate Change Part IV
CFRA Call In Show On Climate Change Part V
CFRA Call In Show On Climate Change Part VI
CFRA Call In Show On Climate Change Part VII
CFRA Call In Show On Climate Change Part VIII

Now for the real info. The IPCC report which claims to have input form hundreds, if not thousands, of experts and scientists was only written by 30 people and that this policy maker’s report has been written to coincide with the beliefs of the group and not necessarily directly due to scientific information. Then they come out and say they will release the full report in several months and that it will be changed to reflect the information that this preliminary policy maker’s report says.

This is called “Ass Backwards Science” or ABS for short. You can read a great commentary on it by David Warren in the Ottawa Citizen (H/T to Dudley DoRight, a commenter for this)

Listen to Dr. Patterson and Tom Harris. For those interested, Tom Harris is the one who took the ad hominem attacks galore on the John Duffy climateliberal website. Tom, as I have pointed out has a Masters of Engineering in Thermofluids. He also had a great article published on climate change.

I guarantee you will come out far smarter for having listened and read info by these two men.

Liberal Election Travel Funded Via Government Expense Accounts

February 7, 2007Mulder

And you won’t believe which Liberal this guy worked for at the time of these shenanigans … then again maybe you will.

OfficiallyScrewed … Again.

Click the video below ONCE to view.

If the video did not display for you, try clicking the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HpbBVApzjQ

Law Professor Allegations Meant To Remove Canadian Forces From Afghanistan

February 6, 2007Mulder

Ottawa University Professor Amir Attaran appeared on Canada AM this morning to discuss the possible abuse by Canadian troops of Afghani prisoners.

I have been doing some light reading this evening and I am wondering why Mr. Attaran would be so interested in the possible abuse of these men.

The information which will be presented in an investigation look pretty clear cut to me.

The three Afghans were captured near Dukah by a small group of Canadian soldiers.

One of the detainees was seen observing the soldiers but escaped, only to be captured the next day. In a field report, the soldiers described him as “non-compliant.”

Another is described as being “extremely belligerent” and “it took four personnel to subdue him.”

In the most serious instance, it was said that only “appropriate force” was used and that the suspect was an alleged bomb maker.

And what did these men suffer? Remember, one that they were “non-compliant”, “extremely belligerent” and one was an alleged bomb maker.

All three of them had a similar set of injuries to their face, to their head and the most seriously injured man had his eyes swollen, cuts on his eyebrows, a slash across his forehead and a cut on his cheek.

So in other words, these men looked like this.

Rocky

Big Deal. It took 4 men to subdue one of them. How do you expect these guys to look?

Right now it seems to me that most of this is still speculation, hearsay, and allegations by Mr. Attaran. Apparently, the men were returned to Afghan authorities and “never seen again.” (cue Twilight Zone music).

So what is this really all about?

Well we can tell you that Dr. Attaran has conveniently brought up these cases (with one file missing) when only a year ago he was criticizing Canada’s Prisoner Transfer Agreement with Afghanistan.

Professor Amir Attaran of the Faculty of Law fears that the agreement between Ottawa and Kabul on prisoner transfers makes Canadian soldiers complicit to torture.
He made this assertion during the conference on the “Canadian Legal Response to Torture” that took place on March 24, 2006 at the University of Ottawa.

This event, organized by the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Human Rights Research and Education Centre and the Faculty of Law, attracted more than two hundred people from different government departments, human rights organizations and lawyers interested in the subject.

So after criticizing the agreement almost a year ago, Mr. Attaran has been reviewing report after report after report on the Afghani prisoner transfers and has finally found 3 that can make his criticism valid. How many prisoner files did he need to review before he found these? How many hundreds of prisoners were processed properly without issue before three “Belligerents” took a couple of shots to put them back in line?

Mr. Attaran should produce a bit more evidence before making allegations as he has.

Judge him for yourself. Mr. Attaran has written for the Globe and Mail (left leaning), The Washington Post (left leaning), The New York Times (VERY left leaning) and his previous employer was the “Sierra Legal Defence Fund” (Granola crunching, left leaning, tree hugging, legal action group).

I think Mr. Attaran should come clean. His actions indicate he wants Canada out of Afghanistan. Just like his buddy Jack Layton.

ADDENDUM: Actually, Mr. Attaran is quoted on page 3 of one of Alexa McDonough’s “Global Perspectives” flyers from 2003. e

Liberal Garth Turner

February 6, 2007Mulder

It’s coming….