Guess the author: ecology and overpopulation
Who said this, which has been tweaked to make it a bit of challenge:
“The annual increase of population in [Canada creates] difficulties of providing for this army of new citizens which grows from year to year and which will finally lead to a catastrophe, unless ways and means are found which will forestall the danger of misery and hunger and environmental disaster.”
Link here. Hitler said it in Main Kampf.
David Suzuki, who you perhaps thought said it, should get his head out of his ass.
Rollins’ top twenty punk albums
The Clash – The Clash
Generation X – Generation X
The Adverts – Crossing the Red Sea
X-Ray Spex – Germ Free Adolescents
Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks
The Ramones – The Ramones
Eater – The Album
The Damned – Damned Damned Damned
The Fall – Hex Enduction Hour
The Buzzcocks – Another Music In A Different Kitchen
The Saints – (I’m) Stranded
UK Subs – Another Kind of Blues
Wire – Pink Flag
The Lurkers – Fulham Fallout
Alternate TV – The Image Has Cracked
The Ruts – The Crack
The Germs – GI
X – Los Angeles
The Minutemen – The Punchline
Stiff Little Fingers – Inflammable Material
Full list here.
Very surprised to see Generation X up there – would’ve thought them way too poppy for the former Black Flag front man. Ditto the Buzzcocks – we in the Nasties loved ’em and covered ’em, but Rollins? Weird.
Other things I note: it’s Alternative TV, not Alternate TV. Surprising number of Brit waxings, too, and not much in the way of California punk sounds. And there is an overwhelming number of first albums in there. That’s because (as in the case of the Pistols, Germs) smack can seriously interfere with you life plans.
It’s also because – as some wag once said – you get your whole life to make your first album. But only two weeks to make the second.
Apropos of nothing, then, here is SFH’s latest, ‘Mayor On Crack?’ Push it over 11,000 views! We played together for the last time in a long time, last night, and we need the royalties for our many ex-wives!
Quebec sovereignty: a tale of two slides
There’d be winning conditions for a new referendum, this suggests:
If this wasn’t also happening:
More here. Harper, I have long felt, is the best argument for the Part Quebecois’ never-ending drive for separation. Fortunately, Marois has been a useful counter-argument.
For now, that is. She has been adept and adroit in Lac-Megantic. It’ll be interesting to see how Quebecois see her in the coming months.
Wire: Map Reference
Cavoukian: she got it wrong. And now she needs to do the honourable thing.
Here are quotes from statements that Ann Cavoukian, Ontario’s “Information and Privacy Commissioner,” made on June 5:
And:
And:
In sum, she (a) accused people of engaging in a criminal cover-up; (b) she suggested that the criminality was part of “a culture;” and – assigning herself the role of political analyst – she (c) urges voters to vote the way she, you know, wants them to. Immediately thereafter, Opposition politicians also started braying and screeching that laws had been broken, and the OPP decided to investigate Cavoukian’s claims.
Even before yesterday’s revelations, all of that stuff was bad enough. But Cavoukian – who usually devotes herself more religiously to international junkets paid for by the taxpayer, but has not once come into Minister’s offices to educate staff about the rules, in the way that the Ontario Integrity Commissioner regularly does – wasn’t done. No, sir. She loved the attention that her statements, and her over-the-top report, received. Her taxpayer-funded profile, as one former cabinet minister told me last week, suggests that she is quite fond of herself. So she kept at it, and dialled up the rhetoric and the hysterical tone.
On June 25, then, she was back before the klieg lights, saying:
And, about Chris Morley, Dalton McGuinty’s former Chief of Staff:
There she goes again: a conspiracy existed to “shield activities” from public view. Political staff were all a bunch of fibbers. And Chris Morley – who she did not interview or communicate, not once, before defaming him on an occasion where she knew she couldn’t be sued – was a liar. (When pressed, however, she admitted that Morley’s testimony had been “technically true,” quote unquote. Not many media reported that little factoid.)
Her turn before the committee and the Queen’s Park media done, Cavoukian then went on a media tour, appearing on as many TV and radio programs as she possibly could, and thereby wringing out of Maclean’s that she was “a rock star,” quote unquote.
She’s not a rock star. She’s (best case) incompetent or (worst case) a phoney, fabricating fabulist.
Yesterday’s news shows why. On June 5, she stated as a fact that emails had been “deleted,” and thereafter launched a campaign of defamation against people who mostly were in no position to defend themselves. On July 10, she revealed that, well, um, er, the emails hadn’t been “deleted” after all.
That’s a pretty big mistake, considering what her mistake led to – headlines, subpoenas and a police investigation. Her excuse is that some unidentified functionary in government told her the emails had been deleted, and it was that person who got it wrong, not her. But that’s not good enough, for five reasons.
- Cavoukian has a huge staff who are paid to – and supposedly expert in – weeding out information. They didn’t.
- By her own admission she rushed her report out the door – most likely, in my view, to capitalize on the political heat the gas plants issue was generating.
- Before accusing people of actual crimes, and viciously attacking them in print and on air, she had a legal obligation to leave no stone unturned. She didn’t do that.
- Similarly, before she kick-started a police investigation, she needed to ensure that there was no possibility – none – that she was wrong. She didn’t do that, either.
- Her report, and her subsequent comments, were as bad – if not worse – than the sort of crap John Gomery used to say, and for which he was later shredded by the Federal Court.
By her conduct, and by her words, Ann Cavoukian has diminished herself, her office, and an important issue. She has acted recklessly, without regard to the facts, and without regard for the reputations of innocent people. And – most seriously – she is the person most responsible for the launching of an actual police investigation that, we now learn, is based on her own factual error.
The emails weren’t deleted. What deserves deletion, instead, is Ann Cavoukian.
Resign, now.
Forum, deconstructed
Kooky Cavoukian et al. are full of shit
The entire premise of her previous hyperventilation and hysteria – that emails had been “deleted” – was false.
She, and the Opposition parties, got it wrong. They hadn’t been deleted, at all.
Cavoukian and the PCs and NDP owe McGuinty et al. an apology. Personally, if I were them, I’d sue for every statement that Cavoukian and her winged monkeys made on a non-privileged occasion.
Oh, and that OPP investigation that Cavoukian’s half-cocked claims kick-started? I guess that’ll be wrapping up, now.
In the meantime, the OPP should charge Cavoukian et al. with mischief. And/or wasting taxpayer dollars.
On that horrid witch Jan Wong: a legal review
My former partner and colleague at McBinch, who is far more judicious in his language than I would have been, assesses the latest legal twist in the Wong saga. He’s nicer to her than I have been.
Worth a read, right here. A fine lawyer from a fine firm.
Howard Levitt’s ride
How do I know Howard’s fun? Last time I saw him, he was at an SFH show, selling our merch at the Bovine Sex Club, and grinning from ear to ear.
No snob is Levitt. Only advice I’d give him? Get a Jeep like me. I hit that huge flood on Bayview, water was way up the side, and I cruised right through it.
Better than one of those sissy sport cars!