Don't worry. It's all under control.

Michael Klare says what all Canadians kind of thought anyway.

Thanks, Stevie, for further selling out the country.

From Thursday, Nov. 28th Democracy Now podcast:

Michael Klare, Professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College. He is author of several books including “Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America’s Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum.” Klare’s latest article for the Nation is called Beyond the Age of Petroleum.

"Well, there’s a lot going on all at once that ensures that this oil crisis is qualitatively different from those of the past. And this is much more long-lasting. And one of the qualitative differences is that we have used up, over the past thirty years, most of the remaining oil in the global north—in the United States, in Canada, in Europe and other places that are near at hand and relatively under our control."

Well, Professor Klare, you might have Stevie and the boys (and a few of the girls) under your control, but you don't have the majority of the Canadian population under the imperialist thumb...yet.

The Tinkerbell Solution - Canada's asshat-pirational climate change goals

Nice going, Stevie. You've managed to bully the commonwealth countries into adopting a toothless environmental policy. Proud of yourself?

Canada gets its way: Commonwealth climate deal drops binding targets

Canada appears to have got its way at Commonwealth talks on climate change.

The 53-member organization has produced an agreement stripped of any reference to binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions.

Canada and Australia had been the lone holdouts against an earlier resolution that would have included such targets - and the Australian government has just been defeated in an election.

...The final Commonwealth deal says all countries should contribute to reducing emissions within a non-binding global target.

It's a problem, they all agree. They just hope something will happen ...somehow. I think they're called asshat-pirational goals...sorry - aspirational goals. Just like Tinkerbell - if we all hope really hard, the earth will recover.

"Instead the Lake Victoria Commonwealth Climate Change Plan points out the seriousness of the earth warming but recommends no targets or timelines for tackling greenhouse gas reduction.

The watered down plan is seen as a victory for Canada which is opposed to setting standards for industrialized polluting countries and not all polluters such as India and China."

But after all, Canada and Australia are behind this, aren't they? Hold on - a minor problem has occurred. Howard has been decisively booted out of office in Australia, and the new guy, Kevin Rudd, has said that he will sign Kyoto immediately.

Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd swept to power in Australian elections Saturday, ending an 11-year conservative era and promising major changes to policies on global warming and his country's role in the Iraq war.

...Rudd, a 50-year-old former diplomat who speaks fluent Chinese, urged voters to support him because Howard was out of touch with modern Australia and ill-equipped to deal with new-age issues such as climate change.

...But one of the biggest changes will be in Australia's approach to climate change. Rudd has nominated the issue as his top priority, and promises to immediately sign the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions.

Kind of lonely up there on your mountain top, is it, Mr. Harper? Maybe you won't be there for long.

That's my aspirational goal.

Morally superior slaughter in Afghanistan

The dead are equivalent in one way. They're dead - no matter who killed them, and their relatives still mourn, even if they were killed in a morally "superior" way.

NATO feels that it holds the moral high ground, however. The slaughter that it perpetrates is somehow morally superior to the slaughter attributable to the Taliban.

This is the stupidest and most morally vacant thing I've ever heard.

"Nato head Jaap de Hoop Scheffer says its forces are doing all they can to avoid Afghan civilian casualties.

After a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, he said that Nato forces had changed their procedure to reduce the threat to civilians.

...Gen Scheffer appealed for understanding on this issue and said there was no moral equivalent between the civilians killed by the Taleban and those killed by Nato."

Señor Harper, ¿por qué no te callas?

If Colombia is suspending human rights and accepting massive aid from the U.S. as Bush's bestest friend in América del Sur, then the best thing for Canada to do is push through a free trade deal with them.

"In July Harper visited Colombia and scoffed at the suggestion Canada should withhold support for a trade deal due to human rights abuses. "We're not going to say, fix all your social, political and human-rights problems, and only then will we engage in trade relations with you," said Harper, at the time. That's a ridiculous position."

If Pakistan has suspended civil liberties and locked up dissenters, then the best thing for Canada to do is suggest that they be suspended from the Commonwealth.

"Canada has called for Pakistan's suspension from the Commonwealth following the anti-democratic crackdowns imposed during its emergency rule."

Punching above our weight, are we, Stevie? Let's just push a Pakistan teetering on the edge of a disaster over the edge, shall we? Got any more brilliant ideas?

I have a suggestion for you.

Señor Harper, ¿por qué no te callas?

Tolstoy on war

From Tolstoy's War and Peace:

“A thought that had long since and often occured to him during his military activities -- the idea that there is not and cannot be any science of war, and that therefore there can be no such thing as a military genius -- now appeared to him an obvious truth.”