Mid-Week Post

 

 

Your mid-week moment of panic ...

 

There is a reason why no one like Bill C-11 except the dictators in Ottawa:

C-11 makes user-generated videos or podcasts — virtually anything involving sound or video — subject to CRTC regulation. Indeed it is a wonder the government stopped there: why not regulate email as well? Nor does the regulation of speech stop at Canada’s borders. Bill C-11 permits the CRTC to exercise global authority over “programs” in any language, from any source.

Defenders of C-11 have argued that nothing the bill allows for would threaten freedom of speech because a clause in the act says so. Which is like the Holy Office of the Inquisition saying it is guided by respect for diversity of opinion. The commission’s decision on the use of the n-word has just proven that statement to be false. The CRTC is all about control: who gets to speak, within what limits, how often, and to what effect. Usually the control is exercised indirectly, but in this case it was overt.

 

Yes, about that:

“Misleading political communications” should be federally regulated, say censorship advisors appointed by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez. Unregulated political discussion and disinformation was a kind of pollution that “erodes the foundations of democracy,” said the group: “By polluting the information environment with false, deceptive or misleading information, disinformation undermines citizens’ rights to form their own informed opinions.”

 

And how does pointing out that you are a craven, unaccomplished lackey to an even more craven and unaccomplished lackey to China  "misinformation"?

 

Speaking of dictators:

One in three Dutch farms may need to close. It’s the most painful outcome of the government’s policy to cut nitrogen emissions in half by 2030.

The farmers’ lobby is furious, calling the plan “unrealistic” and an attack on the countryside. Pro-farmer parties have gained in the polls at the expense of the ruling Christian democrats and liberals.

Provincial deputies, who would have to decide on a case-by-case basis which farms can stay and which need to go, fear a backlash in regional elections in March. That would also put the ruling coalition at risk. Provincial deputies elect the Senate.

My own party, Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s liberal VVD, is split down the middle. 51 percent of members who attended the yearly congress on Saturday supported a motion to soften the policy.

The cabinet minister who is responsible for it, Christianne van der Wal — who is of our party, but who answers to parliament, not the party — told a reporter on Sunday she has little wiggle room. “I’m always open to good ideas,” she said. “But the targets are crystal clear.”

 

Yes, mass starvation. 

 

I'll just leave this right here:

 

Yep.

Let's laugh when Chrystia Freeland loses her pension:

Watch: Christian Freeland is asked about lowering the carbon tax to help Canadians with fuel costs. Freeland responds blaming Vladimir Putin and says, “This price increase in fuel cost is a reminder of why climate action is so important.” 👇 pic.twitter.com/xysRVjVaz4

— The Canadian Independent (@canindependent) July 6, 2022

Also - Poland doesn't care how "green" you are:

Simply put, we are witnessing the formation of a new energy order in both Europe and the wider world. And in this new order we must be able to balance many different interests.

We wanted low-cost raw materials, freedom from dictatorship, clean energy and socially inclusive economic growth. But after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have instead increasingly expensive raw materials, dependence on a criminal regime for them, instability and rising energy poverty. Inflation in general, and the sharp rise in the price of energy in particular, are the direct results of Russian aggression.

Until recently, the EU’s energy policy was concerned solely with climate change. Today, other member states agree with Poland, which has long emphasised the need to diversify energy sources, build up gas reserves and wean ourselves off Russian fossil fuels. In addition to climate protection, the energy security of countries is now paramount. This is a message I have conveyed to other EU leaders on behalf of all Poles and Europeans concerned about their future.

The energy sector must be understood in a wider context and the issue of security must take priority. Poland recognises the importance of fighting climate change. However, we must do everything possible to ensure that the virus of neo-imperialism does not develop in our own backyard. Left unchecked, it will threaten our entire continent.

Vladimir Putin’s energy blackmail and the war in Ukraine are already contributing to a significant increase in electricity prices, and a significant increase in inflation. Europe has a very important lesson to learn. It must drastically reduce the costs of CO₂ emission allowances, which are a decisive factor in energy prices and which have risen considerably in recent years. Five years ago, the cost of emitting a tonne of carbon dioxide was well below €10. Currently it stands at between €80-€100. Such high costs make it difficult for manufacturing companies to invest in the development of new green technologies, such as renewable energy or hydrogen.

Rather than stimulating the development of green energy, the current Emissions Trading System (ETS) drives inflation and threatens to send millions of citizens into fuel poverty. That is why the Polish government has long called for changes that will block artificial increases in energy prices driven by financial speculators. At several European Council summits, I have argued that we must put an end to such speculation. This pressure has paid off. Today it looks as if our proposals will be implemented.

And:

Toyota Motor Corp.’s leader criticized what he described as excessive hype over electric vehicles, saying advocates failed to consider the carbon emitted by generating electricity and the costs of an EV transition.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda said Japan would run out of electricity in the summer if all cars were running on electric power. The infrastructure needed to support a fleet consisting entirely of EVs would cost Japan between ¥14 trillion and ¥37 trillion, the equivalent of $135 billion to $358 billion, he said.

“When politicians are out there saying, ‘Let’s get rid of all cars using gasoline,’ do they understand this?” Mr. Toyoda said Thursday at a year-end news conference in his capacity as chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.

Oh, no!

Canada, a country that can't find the bags its main carrier lost, is threatening Russia's air carrier:

Federal regulators yesterday warned the Russian airline Aeroflot it faces permanent loss of its license to fly in Canada. Cabinet temporarily banned Russian aircraft from Canadian airspace last February 27: “You know what? You have to pick sides.”

 

 

Again, Canada is as useless as it is bullying:

The Canadian Armed Forces didn’t have the “assets” to safely help clear the blockade in Coutts, Alta. earlier this year, while the Alberta government had the authority to deal with the problem itself under provincial legislation, Public Safety Canada told the emergency preparedness minister.

Behold the schizophrenia of the left:

Women have described sitting in chairs in chaotic ERs for hours waiting for an ultrasound, and being made to feel minimized and dismissed, that a miscarriage is “normal.” “I didn’t feel any compassion because it was kind of rushed,” one woman told Varner and her research colleagues. “It was just kind of casual. ‘Oh, sorry you lost your baby.’ That’s it.”

Women have reported being sent home with little to no information about what to expect, the assumption being that things were “over” once they left the hospital. “Forget about the bleeding now,” one woman remembered a doctor telling her. “You will be fine …. We fixed you.”

Instead, “some pregnant patients describe going home only to unexpectedly pass a recognizable fetus into the toilet amidst enormous amounts of bleeding and pain,” Varner wrote.

(Sidebar: that happens with abortions, too, but I digress ...)

Aside from the fact that Canadians are tactless, thoughtless, boorish, rude and loud and, therefore, not the people with whom to share personal information, why complain that news of a miscarriage is met with shallow concern when the national sport is abortion?

What makes that baby bump so special?

Idiot:

Radically left-wing Just Stop Oil demonstrators glued themselves to Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper painting in protest of oil and other fossil fuels, choosing to attack the painting of Jesus Christ and his disciples because it was created with oil-based paint.

Extraordinary:

A website that uses artificial intelligence to help Holocaust descendants find previously unseen photos of their loved ones in image archives has uncovered a photo of Rush rocker Geddy Lee’s mother.

Mary Weinrib, who died a year ago at the age of 96, survived Auschwitz before starting a new life in Canada back in 1946, with her husband, Morris Weinrib, whom she met in the concentration camp.

Mary Weinrib always shared her traumatic experiences in Auschwitz with her children, Lee has said, but now the family has new images that show what life was like during the Holocaust. A photo has been discovered that shows Weinrib at Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp in northwestern Germany.

Weinrib was born Manya (Malka) Rubinstein in Warsaw in 1925. She grew up near a Jewish shtetl. In 1939, when Nazi soldiers took over her home, she was sent to a labour camp in Starachowice before being relocated to Auschwitz and later Bergen-Belsen.

In an interview with Q1043 New York, Lee said his mother survived through the strength of his grandmother, who kept the family together.

“She believed that if they were all going to perish, they would perish together and if they were all going to survive, they would survive together,” Lee said.