Excited Delirium

Stories about Excited Delirium, the Shock Economy and a little fiction here and there.

Daily Archives: July 10, 2010

Will Conservatives Start Running Out Of …?

… losers?

The word ‘loser’ seems a little harsh, but when you run in an election and you’re rejected by the people of Canada, what’s an appropriate word to use?  Unwanted?  Destined for something bigger?

A BCer in Toronto has compiled a spectacular list of the appointment of Conservative candidates that failed to get elected in past elections.

It’s hard not to be cynical about what’s happening in Canada when you have someone in charge who made such a massive issue out of accountability, transparency and the end of patronage appointments and yet flips the bird at all three on a constant and near daily basis.

The corruption and hypocrisy is pretty much absolute now.

When will we get a break from this madness?

When will Stephen Harper finally run out of people that the people of Canada didn’t want to run our country … to run our country anyways?

Margaret Atwood: “A Second Change Or A Boot in the Face”

What a great read I had when I was pointed to Margaret Atwood’s article in response to the brutish violence that Canada and the world had to endure last week (source:  another Progressive Blogger, although I can’t remember who).

What astounds me about this article is that it was published in the Glob and Fail.  Are they trying to protect themselves, particularly given the backlash they keep getting every time the let Christie Belchforth open her mouth?

Atwood hints at some important questions, which I’ll reformulate here:

  • Why didn’t the police forces arrest the few people who were actually destroying public property, including well-placed and abandoned police cars?  Did they not want to arrest their own kind?
  • Who was calling the shots on the whole affair?
  • To what extent was Stephen Harper involved with the decision making process?  The police were mostly provincial and municipal employees, but rumours are swirling that the operation was handled out of an office far from downtown Toronto.  Were Canadian politicians even remotely close to some of the decisions being made?
  • Why are we spending so much money on incarceration and security?  Are they signs of things to come for all Canadians, even if they are law-abiding and simply disagreeing with Harper?

Ultimately, here’s my issue:  last week, Canadians lost the right to free assembly.

What Constitutional Right will we lose next?

Demand and hold an inquiry, but make sure we’re asking the right questions and we’re not just pissing away more taxpayer dollars.  We need to find out why our government no longer believes in the Canadian Constitution because one right denied is the equivalent of ALL rights denied.

Germany to be Carbon-Free by 2050

Germany has always been known as a leader with wind and solar power collection – two of several options for renewable energies.

However, according to Germany’s Federal Environment Agency, there is a distinct possibility that Germany will have completely quit it’s reliance on carbon-based energy by the year 2050.

Here are some of details to consider:

  • “A complete conversion to renewable energy by 2050 is possible from a technical and ecological point of view,” Jochen Flasbarth, president of the Federal Environment Agency, told reporters earlier this week.
  • The transition would also create new jobs and increase exports of renewable energy technologies.
  • The country already employs some 300,000 in the renewable energy sector and is the world’s leader in installed photovoltaic capacity and second largest generator of wind power after the US.
  • Currently around 40% of Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions come from electricity generation, particularly coal-fired plants, but the Government has committed to cutting emissions 40% on 1990 levels by 2020 and 80-85% by 2050.
  • Meanwhile, the German authorities have finally agreed a two-step plan to reduce feed-in tariffs by 3% later this year.
  • The German Federal Network Agency says that 714 MW of solar capacity was installed in Q1 of this year, a ten-fold increase on last year. The change to the feed-in tariff is expected to calm the market but not lead to a collapse, according to media reports.

Going one step further, I started to browse the German Environment Agency web site and found that most of the articles are those that would make head-in-the-sand Conservatives and environment-deniers shriek:

  • “Germany met its Kyoto Protocol Climate Protection Obligations in 2008″
  • “Unecological subsidies cost 48 billion Euros in tax revenues every year”
  • “How to reduce Germany’s CO2 emissions by 40%”
  • “CO2 capture and storage is only an interim solution” (and not a real one, Steve)
  • “Climate protection fuels employment”

All of this goes to show that ‘necessity really IS the mother of invention’.  Germany’s not known for its natural energy resources – except for coal – so they’ve got to take care of themselves some other way.  And because Canada is sitting on the world’s biggest cess pool of crap some people call ‘oil’, we don’t bother investing in technology and energy supplies that might actually be sustainable.

Despite how distressing the situation is (and how much it makes me want to move to Germany), I can’t help but laugh at the image of Merkel and Harper in a literal wrestling match and exchanging fisticuffs every time they get together for a little $1.2 billion party.  But then, I suppose Merkel’s probably thinking ahead with ideas like “we’ll be selling these trolls everything they need over the next 50 years and we’ll pretty much own Canada”.