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By Greg Fingas, on May 7, 2013, at 9:41 am This and that for your Tuesday reading…
- Joseph Stiglitz discusses the abuse of intellectual property law to turn publicly-funded research into privately-held profit centres (no matter how many people die as a result): (A) Utah-based company, Myriad Genetics, claims more than that. It claims to own the rights to any test for the presence of the two critical genes associated with breast cancer – and has ruthlessly enforced that right, though their test is inferior to one that Yale University was willing to provide at much lower cost. The consequences have been tragic: Thorough, affordable testing that identifies high-risk (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on April 28, 2013, at 5:11 pm Erin is right to question Doug Elliott’s attempt to split hairs between a “slowdown” and a “deceleration”. But Elliott’s parsing ranks a distant second behind Russ Marchuk in the field of evasive dissembling.
Shorter Marchuk: It’s outrageous that anybody would suggest we’re imposing a disastrous policy like universal standardized testing on students. Instead, our policy is one of (flips through thesaurus) unified province-wide (flipflipflip) regular (flipflip) assessments for individual pupils. Which I’m sure you can see is something totally different.
By Greg Fingas, on April 28, 2013, at 11:18 am Miscellaneous material for your Sunday reading.
- Daniel Kaufman notes that the EU is on the verge of implementing new standards for transparency in oil extraction – while recognizing that big oil has fought the effort every step of the way in an effort to keep its activities secret. And Shaun Thomas discusses the no-knowledge zone set up around the Northern Gateway pipeline, as Nathan Cullen’s questions within the review process revealed that the federal government hadn’t so much as talked to First Nations or affected industries about the possible impact of an oil spill.
- But then, the Cons (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on April 28, 2013, at 11:18 am Miscellaneous material for your Sunday reading.
- Daniel Kaufman notes that the EU is on the verge of implementing new standards for transparency in oil extraction – while recognizing that big oil has fought the effort every step of the way in an effort to keep its activities secret. And Shaun Thomas discusses the no-knowledge zone set up around the Northern Gateway pipeline, as Nathan Cullen’s questions within the review process revealed that the federal government hadn’t so much as talked to First Nations or affected industries about the possible impact of an oil spill.
- But then, the Cons (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on April 15, 2013, at 9:28 am Miscellaneous material to start your week.
- Peter Gillespie discusses the problems with tax cheats (and the overseas tax havens which encourage them): Multinational corporations and banking and financial institutions routinely use tax havens to lower or eliminate their tax obligations, avoid regulation, and shield themselves from liability. Tax havens host more than two million “international business corporations,” often little more than shell companies with a postal address. The British Virgin Islands, with a population of 30,000, hosts an estimated 460,000 business corporations. One modest building in the Cayman Islands is home to more that 18,000 of these entities.
Last
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on April 3, 2013, at 2:09 pm Aaron Wherry nicely points out some of the jaw-dropping contradictions in the Cons’ climate change messaging. But let’s not forget a few more worth adding into the mix.
Having refused to implement any meaningful regulations or carbon pricing at the federal level, the Cons have tried to take credit for provincial attempts to fill the vacuum – even ones they’ve fought against with every fiber of their being. And they’ve not only scrapped the public organization which dared to highlight that difference, but they’ve since gone out of their way to hide its work.
Which is to say that in
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: On contradictions
By Greg Fingas, on February 19, 2013, at 10:15 am This and that for your Tuesday reading.
- Jim Stanford points out that any “bitumen bubble” will only get worse if the Cons and their provincial cousins get their way in shifting the Canadian economy even further toward immediate tar sands extraction: (I)f the problem exists because we’re pumping out raw bitumen faster than markets can absorb it, will it really help to pump it out even faster? Few analysts believe the Keystone pipeline to the United States would solve the problem, even if it does get built; at best, it would displace downward price pressure from Oklahoma southward to
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on February 16, 2013, at 10:21 am Assorted content for your weekend reading.
- Michael Harris concludes that we’re currently stuck in a golden age for political falsehood and deceit: (T)here are problems with blotting out inconvenient truths with self-serving Newspeak. It’s catchier than a flu-bug in a pup tent. Quite a few pairs of pants are on fire in Ottawa these days because cabinet ministers and senators have learned from the PM that the truth is what you need it to be. It can mutate, transform, even shed its skin. The trick is to say what you need to be true at a given moment.…Perhaps
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on February 13, 2013, at 9:02 am Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.
- Carol Goar discusses Canada’s broken fiscal stabilizers – as unemployment insurance and social programs intended to assure citizens of at least a reasonable standard of living have been cut to well below that level: Canada’s economic shock absorbers are badly worn.
Employment insurance, which once softened the blow of losing a job, has dwindled to the point that only a minority of the unemployed are eligible for benefits.
Welfare, which once prevented people from hitting rock bottom, now leaves recipients 60 per cent below the poverty line.
The income tax system has become
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on December 29, 2012, at 5:40 pm Sixth Estate and impolitical have both followed up on the Cons’ attempts to attack Canada’s opposition parties for having the nerve to ask questions of their government by noting that in contrast to the Cons’ spin, the UK offers answers to MPs’ questions at a hundredth of the cost. But I’ll note that there’s plenty more worth comparing between the two systems of questions and answers.
Let’s compare the answers to written questions provided by the respective governments of Canada and the UK for October 31, 2012.
The Harper Cons answered two questions in the following terms: Question No. 827–
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Question and answer
By Greg Fingas, on December 24, 2012, at 10:44 am Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.
- Michael Harris asks why Stephen Harper is afraid to look Theresa Spence in the eye: (Harper) believes that the government’s lying about all these things is far less important than the fact that it is the government. Incumbency is a magic potion. Under its influence, people are supposed to swoon. All too often, they do. That’s the way oligarchs think. Richard Nixon put it in a nutshell when he famously said that if the president did it, then it wasn’t a crime.
Stephen Harper has arrived at the exalted position of Tricky Dick.
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on December 22, 2012, at 12:47 pm Assorted content for your Saturday reading.
- Kate Heartfield worries that the NRA knows exactly what it’s doing with its jaw-dropping response to the Newtown shootings – and that it should be all too familiar based on the tactics of the Harper Cons: It’s ridiculous, but ridiculous works, time and time again. “Elite” no longer means rich and powerful. It means smart. It means anyone who takes the time to look at the evidence and construct a logical argument. Not to be trusted, that. So all academics and journalists are suspect. The only way a journalist can avoid being seen
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on December 14, 2012, at 8:47 am Assorted content for your Friday reading.
- Paul Dechene interviews Marc Spooner about Saskatchewan residents left behind in the province’s boom: One way that our growing income gap can be hand-waved away is by pointing to the fact that every other province that goes through an economic boom faces this.
Perhaps it’s just a natural result of us going through a transitional phase?
Spooner doesn’t find that argument compelling.
“That implies a very non-responsive government,” he says. “Can we not learn from our neighbours in the west? Can we not see what happened in Alberta and be forward-looking and do
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on December 10, 2012, at 10:00 am Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.
- Paul Krugman discusses two theories behind the ever-growing divergence between soaring profits and stagnant wages. But it’s particularly important to note that neither of them calls for “free money for rich people” as a rational response: Why is this happening? As best as I can tell, there are two plausible explanations, both of which could be true to some extent. One is that technology has taken a turn that places labor at a disadvantage; the other is that we’re looking at the effects of a sharp increase in monopoly power. Think of these
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on December 2, 2012, at 10:28 am This and that for your Sunday reading.- Louise Story reports on tax goodies and direct giveaways to businesses at the local level (which of course seldom deliver the promised economic return). That said, it’s worth noting that we’re desperately lacking… . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on November 29, 2012, at 8:12 am This and that for your Thursday reading.- There’s always been reason for skepticism about the pundit-class theory that the 2011 federal election should simply be deleted from the history books as an aberration. But Abacus provides a compelling example … . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on November 27, 2012, at 9:47 am This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Paul Boothe discusses the dangers of giving in to resource-boom hype rather than planning for sustainable development:The resource roller coaster and the crazy things it causes us to do are not new. Remember the… . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on November 16, 2012, at 9:57 pm By all means, I agree with the commentators pointing out that this is rather less than surprising treatment of (and by) a Con cabinet minister. But as always, there’s another rather important followup question: why would Don Martin or anybody else stil… . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: On editorial decisions
By Greg Fingas, on November 15, 2012, at 9:04 am This and that for your Thursday reading.- Andrew Potter highlights the difficulties in practicing and encouraging truth-based politics at a time when entire parties make a deliberate strategy of lying – as well as the one technique that seems to be wor… . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on November 1, 2012, at 11:58 am This and that for your Thursday reading.
- Frances Russell discusses how the Cons have corporatized Canadian politics: In fact, elevating corporate rights over the rights of citizens and their democractic institutions seems to be the Harper government’s core agenda. Its aggressive “free trade” stance has led to agreements with Panama, Jordan, Columbia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Honduras. It’s negotiating with the European Union, India and the Trans-Pacific Partnership — not to mention its groundbreaking 31-year trade deal with China, slated to be signed next week with no parliamentary debate, let alone approval. Several of these countries are under
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on October 25, 2012, at 9:22 am This and that for your Thursday reading.
- Richard Thaler criticizes Mitt Romney’s obsession with upper-end tax cuts by pointing out the factors which actually serve to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship: Romney wants to cut top rates by 20 percent, maintain the favorable treatment given to capital gains and dividends, and completely eliminate the estate tax, which currently only kicks in on estates in excess of $5 million for an individual or $10 million for a (heterosexual) married couple.
In other words, this is a strategy that emphasizes maximizing the after-tax returns if and when you hit it big. Yet
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on October 21, 2012, at 1:47 pm This and that for your Sunday reading.
- Jim Coyle wonders whether or democracy is in decline, and cites as evidence the utter disconnect between the primary functions of elected representatives and the way politics are covered in the media: (R)eal influence and authority has left the precincts — drifting inexorably over recent decades into first ministerial offices, where cabals of unelected appointees make most decisions that matter and tell elected members what to say and how to vote.
Luminaries such as economist Don Drummond have far more access to premiers, and far more sway over public affairs, than any
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on October 20, 2012, at 10:09 am Assorted content for your weekend reading.
- Tim Harper slams the Cons for yet another omnibus abuse of parliamentary democracy: Stephen Harper didn’t invent prorogation and omnibus legislation, but he has made two arcane polysyllabic political terms part of our everyday lexicon, improving our vocabulary but diminishing our democracy.
His shut-it-down and take-it-or-leave-it approach to procedure and legislation has gone viral, with the Ontario legislature now sitting dark, prorogued by Dalton McGuinty.
This is the second chapter of a very cynical story by the Harper government, NDP House leader Nathan Cullen said, but it’s not clear whether the opposition response
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on October 18, 2012, at 10:45 am This and that for your Thursday reading.
- Annie Lowrey reports on the evidence showing that the perpetually-increasing inequality pitched by the right as an economic plan actually serves to damage economic development: The yawning gap between the haves and the have-nots — and the political questions that gap has raised about the plight of the middle class — has given rise to anti-Wall Street sentiment and animated the presidential campaign. Now, a growing body of economic research suggests that it might mean lower levels of economic growth and slower job creation in the years ahead, as well. “Growth becomes . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on October 10, 2012, at 10:04 am For all the concerns about the Cons paying absolutely no political price for their constant dishonesty, the NDP working to change that assumption:
So how effective does the new ad look to be, particularly compared to past efforts to develop the theme that the Cons can’t be trusted?
Well, the good news is that the NDP has avoided the trap which regularly tripped up the Libs. Rather than portraying the Cons’ dishonesty as an affront to the official opposition (which would have been rather easy to do given that the columns cited refer to lies about the NDP in the
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: On honest appraisals
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