Defending The Harper Government's War On Science...It's The Economy, Stupid!

AllTheOpEdsThatFit
PushingTheEnvelopeWithLaughingGasVille



Last week Philip Cross, the former Chief Economic Analyst for StatsCan, wrote an OpEd in the Financial Post titled 'What War On Science?'.

Initially, Mr. Cross argues that 'everybody does it'.

What, precisely, everybody does, particularly those governments that do not muzzle their staff scientists, I'm not exactly sure.

Then, just before he offers up the 'what are they whining about anyway because total funding is up' gambit, Mr. Cross lets fly with a bizarre argument that links the 'good' science to the GDP.

That laughable argument goes like this:

"...Some of the tension between government and science revolves around how science relates to economic growth. Higher growth is how the scientific establishment justifies its ample government funding..."

So...

Should we start stuffing air conditioners, heating ducts, and breakfast cereal boxes with heart-smart asbestos flakes immediately?

Sheesh.


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Tip O' The Toque to Jessa Gamble and her piece posted at 'The Last Word On Nothing'.


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The Man Is Dead.

AllMetalAllMachined
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I never got what Mr. Beer 'N Hockey got from the guy and all he did.

But I did hear a really interesting anecdote about Lou Reed that came from John Cale during his recent interview with Marc Maron.

Cale and Maron were discussing the early days - the days before the Velvets made that album that spawned a million bands, despite the fact only a few thousand actually bought the thing on the first go round.

And Cale got to talking about busking on the streets of New York with the not-so-sweet (at least back then) Lou.

And what was really interesting to me was not so much what Reed was doing musically but, instead, the way he did it.

Which was to challenge passers by to actively hate what he was up to.

Now...

As somebody who has tried a little of the busking thing where, essentially, you are begging members of the passing crowd to like what you are doing, Reed's approach tells me that he was never going to wait for any man to let him do his own thing.

Which says a lot, I reckon.


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Sunday Morning Comin' Down...Replacing Holman.

ReplacingTheRealThingWith
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Don't know about you but, as a certified provincial politics junkie who can't kick the habit, I once spent many a Sunday morning getting my fix listening to Sean Holman and his Rabble Rousers.

Which is not the name of a funked-up cowpunk swing band.

Regardless, these (sun)days I mostly try and make do with Enright and/or a tape delay of Scott Simon.

Both of whom do interesting stuff, but the subject matter is rarely Lotuslandian.

And as for the remaining local politically-focused shows on commercial radio?

Well...

We've been through all that before.

Except for this thing that Ian Jessop has been doing semi-regularly for awhile now on CFAX.

Which is to have Norm Farrell on for a half hour or so so that he can actually ask him questions, straight-up, and then listen to the answers before asking the next one.

Here is Norm from last Friday afternoon talking about sparkle ponies (i.e. decreasing, not increasing, provincial natural resource revenue) and more - the perfect thing for a Sunday morning comin' down.



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Not sure how the good Mr. Baldrey is taking this given that, while he didn't call Norm a 'cultist', he did descend to name calling of another kind on the Twittmachine awhile back...
By the way....Mr. Holman is doing fine - teaching young cow punks in Calgary to do what he does so well (and getting paid for it!)...He also produced the excellent documentary on party-based political gridlock that is Lotusland-focused called 'Whipped'.


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What Did The Stomping Of The Therapeutics Initiative And The Six Million Dollar Deal Have In Common?

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A former very fine public servant by the name of Mr. Graham Whitmarsh, who just happens to be one of the two architects of the six million dollar deal that ended the RailGate trial just as Gary Collins was about to take the stand, did not work non-stop for the BC Liberal regimes of Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark before his recent, apparently permanent, departure.

Specifically, the good Mr. Whitmarsh took a little break from the Golden Era government a few years back and went to work for the pillar of society, purveyor of fine (reduced tax-levied) motorcars, and operator of golf courses, Mr. David Ho, with (surprise!) Mr. Gary Collins.

And when he came back to government, first in the Campbellerian end days, and then, later, in the dawning of the Age of Snooklandia, the good Mr. Whitmarsh spent some time running the Ministry of Health.

Which brings us to Rod Mickleburgh's recent post about the re-funding of the Therapeutics Initiative, an Health Ministry-funded entity that both the Campbelleros and the Snooklandians have done their best to kill for years, despite the fact that it has saved British Columbians millions of dollars and helped to protect them from useless and/or adverse drug reactions (or worse).

Here is Mr. Mickleburgh's final paragraph (but I recommend you go and read the entire thing):

...Finally, with the departure of Gordon Campbell-appointee Graham Whitmarsh as deputy health minister and the fine Stephen Brown in his place, the (provincial) government listened. Health Minister Terry Lake announced this week that the Therapeutics Initiative would be resuming its valuable work...

Imagine that!


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There Ain't No Guilt In This Pleasure.

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BetterMakeAStopAtJason'sVille


Look.

I've got a confession to make.

Which is that I actually watch Nashville.

I know, I know, I know, I know - It's only a matter of time until they pull a 'Who Shot JR/Powers Boothe/Jimmy Jones.

But, still, I like the idea of people sitting around just making up songs - and they do almost/kinda/sorta show you a bit of that.

Anyway...

If anybody ever told the real story of all that that sittin' around makin' the thing...

Well,  I would watch and listen over and over and over again.

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What's that?

They already have? 

And it's playing in Vancouver right now?

The hell you say!

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Dipper Developments: Is The Guard (Really) Changing?...Part Deux

Personally, I'm watching the Twittmachine a little more closely than usual this afternoon to see to see which way the old guard wind is blowing...



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And why don't those fine Dipperian MLA's who are calling up fine folks like Mr. Bailey just go on the record with their comments so that we can keep score? 
In case you missed it, Part One is.....Here.


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Wallin Then And Now....There Is An Actual Documented Record Of What Harper Said.

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And the thing is, it's not hard to find.

Which is the infuriating, because the proMedia so often refuses to do the digging.

And/or they refuse to print/broadcast what they find/know.

In this specific instance, Norm Farrell gets right to the darkest heart of the matter just by reading Hansard.

You will find Norm's report.....here.


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Dipper Developments...Is The Guard (Really) Changing?

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SometimesIt'sAWholeLotMoreVille


From the CP (unbylined in The Province):

VANCOUVER — The provincial council of British Columbia’s New Democrats has put off a decision on the date of a leadership vote to replace outgoing party leader Adrian Dix.

Earlier this week, the party’s executive recommended that the vote be set for May 25 of next year.

The date needs to be ratified by a vote of the provincial council, which now says a decision won’t be made until the issue has been discussed at a meeting on Nov.17.

The council says the meeting, immediately following the party’s convention, will allow for a better process for discussion...

As we noted previously, this whole 'date for the BCNDP leadership vote' thing may be about a whole lot more than Nathan Cullen.

Which means the kiboshing of the party executive's attempt to ram through an early date by the provincial council may actually open the door to a new guard, from inside the party, to have a run at the thing.

Which was a point that John Horgan made the other day on the MoCo.

Which makes this date change stuff a pretty big deal, right?

Particularly when you consider the fact that the entire puffed-up punditry around here has been calling for a changing of the Dipper guard, pretty much non-stop, since May 14th at approximately 8:17pm give or take 90 seconds or so.

Well, apparently not.

Because if you are the Dean of the Lotuslandian Legislative Press Gallery it would appear that it is actually a point of cynical derision.

Or some such thing....

Sheesh.


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Is Mr. Frum The Greatest Serial Obfuscator Of Them All?

Look.

I don't give a hoot-in-heckfire about how or why David Frum pulled off his resurrection shuffle down south so that he could re-merge, unscathed and Sunday show-safe, as the 'reasonable' conservative who never really believed in the Bush Doctrine, the Prince of Darkness, or the divide, stomp and conquer strategy of the four horseman of the racist apocalypse (eg. Atwater/Ailes/Rove/Luntz) that is killing America.

But I do care that Frum might try to pull off his 'reasonable' act up here in the event that his buddy in Straussianism, Mr. Harper, finally pulls the chute and brings him home to run the MoCo.

Which is why, I think, it is important to point out that Mr. Frum has been making stuff up about Canada for quite awhile now.

We noted one particularly egregious instance of this awhile back, here.

And another more recently, here.

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As for the tweet, from yesterday, above....

Well, Frummy does know that what he wrote there is actually the opposite of what is really going down, right?

Which has me wondering if he will soon coin some sort of nifty descriptor for the dynamic Wallin-Duffy duo like, say....

...The Axis of Bo-Weevils?

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This Day In Snookland...A Twittmachine Feed That Is Not Ours.

The Inonoaklin River valley. Goodbye, trees. Enjoy your trip to China! #bcpoli http://t.co/PiaakVyFgv pic.twitter.com/La6dC9SWj1
— Premier Barbie (@Premier_Barbie) October 23, 2013

Not that we have taken a disliking to said feed based on anything that has flowed through it so far...


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When I Was A (Much) Younger Man...

...Hats!

Bigger E. was not always thus.

In fact, back in the days of Berkeley she was the tiniest of e's.

And on Saturday mornings we almost always got up early and walked up Hopkins past Monterey Market to the park next to the King School Pool.

It's just a little park, really, with a few swings and a climber, a small field, and a toddler area right next to a huge eucalyptus tree.

Because the lab I worked in back then was up in the hills, the smell of eucalyptus will aways be Berkeley too me.

But for tiny e. eucalyptus trees meant hats.

Because that's what the shells of their fallen seeds look like:

And on those Saturday mornings I would line those little fallen hats up along the edge of the toddler area.

And e. would rush around knocking them down as fast as she could up screaming 'hats!' gleefully as she did so.

Afterwards, sometimes, we would head across the Bay to the Zoo to watch, amongst other things, the giraffes reach up to grab and chew eucalyptus leaves.

Often we would rent a wagon to haul our kid around when she got tired.

But sometimes our kid would help me pull it.

Gosh.

It really does all go by in a flash...

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Here's Bigger E. and me, from this just past summer, covering a Danny Michel song....

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The last of our tiny tomato haul this year, which is lined-up, hat-like, on our deck railing in the image at the top of the post  somehow got me to thinking of all this....


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Hey, Dippers!...Before You Decide On That Leadership Date...

....Why Don't You Listen To What Horgan Has To Say?

Here is the link to nine minutes of Mr. Horgan talking to that other Gregor guy on the CluffMaster-free MoCo Morning Show from Victoria yesterday.

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For the time-challenged and/or link-hitting averse, here's my short and snappy summary...

1) He wants the party to give the new/younger (i.e. non-old guard) MLA's like Mungall, Eby, Hebert and Fleming time to blossom.

2) He is in favour of waiting until 2015 for the Leadership decision to facilitate the above.

3) If Mr. Dix were to step down prior to a 2015 leadership race he would be willing to consider a short stint as interim leader.

4) He seems to be really concerned that, especially if the new/younger folks don't get a chance to really step to the fore, that the BCNDP may truly become a perpetual opposition party.

(if anybody has issue with the above, feel free to correct me/add insight in the comments)



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My take?...Makes a heckfire lot of sense...Also seems that Mr. Horgan made the decision to step aside for all the right reasons.
BTW...Scotty on Denman called the potential for an interim leadership deal before any of the proMedia punditry (see comments, here).


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This Day In Snookland...The Neighbourhood.

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(Updated at the bottom of the post...)

...“Could be in that neighbourhood”...

That was Premier Christy Clark's erudite and very finely-tuned, extremely fiscally thoughtful response to the floating of the kinda/sorta/maybe possibility that the Massey Megabridge thingy might cost three billion dollars, as re-quoted by the Dean in the VSun yesterday.

Mr. Palmer also noted that there may be little incentive for the Snooklandians to spend that kind of money on a rapid transit line out Broadway to UBC for all kinds of reasons (Beware the Shiny Gregor!), including the fact that, unlike the Massey Megabridge, such a line will service ridings that they do not own.



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Interestingly, in response to our latest Ferries post, a reader sent along a note in which they wondered if, maybe, the Snooklandians don't give a hoot-in-heckfire about BCF because most of VIsle and the rest of the Coast is currently Dipperland...
Update: Peter Ladner makes a good point about all this bridge building/car carrying madness, which is....Car travel on Lotsulandian bridges is actually down, significantly....Gosh....Perhaps the good Mr. Bateman (you know the fine fellow from the CTF who is so worried about how public monies are spent), who ran, in my opinion, an Astroturf operation that helped pave the way for the three billion dollar Ice Bomb bridge, could tell us what he thinks about that (and if you click through on the link you might find the name of the fine fellow who was promoting the Turf most interesting....In a 'Quick Wins' sort of way...If you get my drift).


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Lotuslandian Media Circles Within Circles Circling Most Circularly...

And it's all being done very smoothly, of course (i.e. no herky-jerky stuff allowed).



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In cased you missed it (and why wouldn't you have unless you, like me, are a member of the 'cult' that the good Mr. Baldrey helped name), Ms. Cox is quite close to one of the original RailGate principals (i.e. the guy who was scheduled to take the stand just before the six million dollar, prior inducement-assisted, 'deal' went down)....Interestingly, back in the day there was very little (i.e. no) concern raised in the proMedia's smoothly moving circles about (at the very least) the potential for...Well...You know...

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This Day In Snookland...Credit Where Credit Is Due...

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...For finally fixing a problem/disaster that they themselves (and their Golden Era Cronies) created.

Stephen Hui, of the GStraight, was one of the first off the hop on this one. Here's his lede:

THE HEAD OF the University of British Columbia's faculty of medicine says it's "good news" that the B.C. Liberal government has restored funding for the Therapeutics Initiative.

Managed by faculty members, the project provides evidence-based information about prescription drugs with no money from the pharmaceutical industry. The province had suspended its contract with the Therapeutics Initiative in September 2012, making the project's future uncertain.

According to the government, the reinstated contract is worth $550,000 a year and compensates UBC for providing health education and carrying out PharmaCare evaluations...

However, all is not completely happy-shiny-people quite yet.

Why?

Because the (in my opinion) deflector spinsterish 'probe' of the Snooklandians continues. Cindy Harnett of the VTC has that story at the bottom of her piece, here.


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Need background on the TI, and all that it is really and truly is good for, not to mention evidence that the initial attempts to kill it preceded the 'probe'?.... See this.


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