ReeferMadness

lol Inventories are at an all time high, oil companies desperately need to continue to pump because they need cash to stay above water, Iran will ramp up production, economic growth is sluggish, growth in alternative energy will dampen demand, and there is a 4,000 well "fracklog" (shale wells that have been drilled but not completed) that will dampen any price upswing. On the flip side, big car sales are rising, new projects have been cancelled, shale wells are notorious for having steep rates of decline, there's always the possibility of war or instability in the middle east, at some point large mature oil pools that have been supplying the world for decades will go into decline and nobody knows when or if the world economy will take off again. IOW, nobody can tell when or if the price of oil will spike again. Don't bet the grocery money on it.

Yeah. I could tell he was imperfect when he tried to scare people into voting for him with a 'cultural practices hotline'. It seems like you share his disdain for Atlantic Canada. Ever think of joining Derek in Texas?

I'm culturally illiterate - I had to google Bruno Mars. Not my type of music.

So, let's agree that it would have been much better if Harper had been competent as a PM. You know what? You're absolutely wrong. There are lots of low income people out there who are anti-union, anti-government and completely bought into the religion of right wing capitalism. And I know that because I used to be one of them. I've been at lots of different tax rates and my political views have had nothing in common with the amount of taxes I've paid. So, maybe you're just projecting how you see things.

And you have some reason to believe that the people who stayed home felt differently? Don't forget, btw, that the Harper base (older, middle class and above) tend to vote in much bigger numbers than those who don't support him. So, if anything, that number is probably very conservative.

I bet if "none of the above" were on the ticket, he'd win with a landslide. What a sad bunch.

What a bitter view of 70% of the population.

I just listened to Cross Country Checkup on CBC - today's segment was on the Energy East pipeline. The more I hear about this debate, the more I realize it has nothing to do with the fate of Alberta workers. After all, Energy East wouldn't be completed for at least another decade even if Trudeau pulled a Harper and decreed it go ahead. This is about competing views of Canada. In one corner, we see those who view Canada as a nation of resource extractors, 'hewers of wood and drawers of water". in the other are those who want Canada to move beyond that and use resources as a base, a lever on which to build an advanced economy.

Damn. You sound exactly like Rafe Mair!

I'm not convinced that this is a pressing issue for most Canadians. And from everything I've heard, it matters little to our allies.

In many parts of the world, solar is already cost competitive with coal. And that's without subsidies. Countries that burn a lot of coal are subsidizing their economy with their health. It's a false economy and a bad deal no matter which way you look at it. And I don't think there is any country in the world that has a viable long term strategy to dispose of nuclear waste. When it comes to nuclear, your grandchildren's grandchilren's grandchildren's great grandchildren will be subsidizing your power because they're going to be caring for the wastes. The big advantage of wind and solar is that they are scalable. You can add capacity as needed. For nuclear and coal, you need to build massive plants and once running, you need to keep them running. The IMF pegs worldwide energy subsidies at $US5.3 trillion, the vast majority of which is attributable to subsidization of fossil fuels. If energy were priced appropriately, we wouldn't be agonizing over paying a few cents more for solar power, we would be screaming for it because it is so much less expensive. Environmental impact = average impact per person * number of people. Controlling the number of people is only half the equation. The other half is limiting our own resource demands. It's been shown in country after country that when the economy develops to the point where children stop being economic assets, the birth rate fixes itself. That may seem cold be it's true. And it's a lot less draconian than a lot of other ideas I've heard on MLW.

I'm not sure what you mean by abuse - people can't consent to being injured. BDSM is perfectly legal as long as it's not severe enough to cause serious bruises or other injuries. I haven't followed the trial closely but I haven't heard of the plaintiffs providing and proof of injury.

That's a very one-sided view of things. You are sure of his innocence how exactly?

I don't think that Montreal should be dumping raw sewage but what it has to do with the pipeline is beyond me.

"true aims"?? "these people"?? Do you have something to say?

When I hear western premiers issue thinly veiled threats to Montreal mayors who object to their communities being used as a conduit for toxic sludge, I can't help but think of western alienation. Again, this "western" alienation has always been mostly about Alberta. No. I think that every advanced economy has gotten that way with deliberate policies, support and protection of their governments. I think that Canada is lagging behind in developing an innovation economy because the governments are stuck in a 19th century mentality. And one of the people behind Canada's biggest ever technology success story agrees with me. China didn't get 2 digit rates of growth by opening the economy and hoping for the best. Neither did Korea. Or Japan. Or the USA. Or anybody. It just became fashionable during the Harper years to pretend that all of the oil dollars rolling in were somehow a result of Harper's superior economic management. In fact, what was happening was a huge giveaway to multinational oil companies and governments betting the farm on a single volatile commodity. I posted a link that showed other industries are already rebounding. In part that's the dollar and in part its US demand. Manufacturing may rely on cheap labor (today anyway) but innovation does not. Go and check out the Balsillie link above. That remains to be seen. I heard T Boone Pickens say today that there are thousands of wells that have already been drilled and are just waiting to be fracked. The price of oil could stay low for years to come. Regardless, one thing is undeniable. The petroleum age won't last forever. And when it ends, the longer we stay addicted to it, the hard it will be when we have to move on to something else.

Not true. Consent is not possible only if the victim is impaired. idk how it works if both parties are impaired.

That template has been in place for years. If it were possible to suddenly apply sexual assault laws to the letter, I suspect most couples would be in prison. Human interactions are complicated and none more complicated than those that involve sexual intimacy and attraction. Our criminal legal system has to have a villain and a victim - real world relationships don't often work that way. The issue of consent is one where the standard of the law and the actual reality often don't meet. The decision to have sex (particularly early in a relationship) is often (usually?) clouded by hormones, emotions and/or drugs. I've often wondered whether there should be an option to go with some sort of restorative justice model for crimes where the accused and the accuser know each other well or intimately. The problem with our binary justice system is that there is no incentive for either party to critically examine their own actions or accept any responsibility. One puts on the mantle of victimhood and the other wears the mantle of innocence.

These agreements are negotiated in secret between governments with business leaders getting privileged access. Given Harper's market fundamentalist and commodity-focused stance, it's not surprising that the agreement does nothing for innovative business in Canada.

This Huffington Post article claims that Trump is quickly losing momentum as New Hampshire approaches. What really caught my eye, though, is the editor's note at the bottom of the article. This is the quote from the Huffington Post: To support the claim, there are links associated with the terms "serial liar", "rampant xenophobe", "racist", "misogynist", "birther", and "bully" to support the claims. These guys aren't pulling their punches.

I've gotten to the point where I just scroll past most of what BC writes. If he wants to spend his life getting to 100K posts, that's awesome but I find most of it to be just diversionary. Also, there are a few others who don't debate, mostly just repeat what they already said and rarely, if ever, find any citations to support their beliefs.

Rather than being PM for all of Canada, you would prefer that Trudeau just be PM for market fundamentalists who deny climate change and human contributions to it. Almost none of whom voted for him or ever would vote for him. Did I get that right?

I was accused of insulting someone when I modified the saying "stick your head in the sand" (which is a metaphor for avoiding the issue) to "stick your head in the tar sand". Yesterday, I was accused derailing the Zika thread. (I don't know how you derail a thread that consists of nothing but the OP). I was trying to be funny and point out that the link was broken. I have a lot of sympathy for the moderators - it's a tough job. Having said that, it would be nice if there were an appeal mechanism where you can explain yourself before being evicted.

It is about the future appointments. And let's not forget - Harper did this in secret. This came as an unpleasant surprise to the new government. Only dedicated Conservative partisans could defend a government that rode into power on promises of "transparency and accountability", stacking future appointments on the way out without telling anyone. It stinks and it's indefensible.

Ugh. What an embarrassment. I wonder how much money we could raise if we offered to entice Levant to move south. I'm sure Fox News or the Trump campaign could make good use of this guy. It worked with David Frum.