Six In The Morning

1 DOCTOR ORG BACKING PRIVATE CARE? But it'll be about efficiency, not making more money I'm sure. (StarPhoenix.)

2 ATOMIC BOTTOM LINE The provincial NDP points out nuclear reactors are cash sinkholes. In other news, the sky is blue, water is wet and puppies are cute. (StarPhoenix)

3 FARGINADOME? That secret stadium study we're not allowed to see looked at Fargo's facility. Anyone know if that thing's got a retractible roof? Indoor football sucks. (Leader-Post) UPDATE: Rosie just dropped by to distract me from working. He says the Farg-dome isn't retractable.

4 FACEBOOK SLAPPED Social networker must do a better job protecting people's privacy, says Canada's privacy commissioner. (Globe And Mail)

5 PILE UP THE DEAD The Iranian government's stormtroopers killed a lot more than 20 people, the Guardian reports. If you're too busy to read the article at least read the last sentence, which is nuts.

6 40 YEARS AGO TODAY Probably not the most efficient use of money but geez, for a little while we could really believe in our dumb little species there. Here's a great, huuuuge feature in the New York Times. And here's a moon mission video of the day. Because everyone deserves a moon mission video of the day.

Six in the Morning

1. CSIS IGNORED KHADR'S HUMAN RIGHTS, SAYS WATCHDOG: A report from the government's Security Intelligence Review Committee says that in 2003 CSIS ignored human rights concerns when they chose to interrogate then-minor Omar Khadr. (Globe and Mail)

2. LOBBYIST CLAIMS NEW ICEAGE A-COMIN': Virtually every glacier in Europe and North and South America is in retreat, but that isn't stopping US lobbyist Robert Felix of iceagenow.com from urging senators to vote against climate change legislation because he believes we're on the verge of another ice age. Felix, by the way, is by his own admission "no scientist" but rather a former architect and also a twit. (desmogblog.com)

3. WHY I HAVEN'T ANY MONEY INVESTED IN... WELL... ANYTHING.... Because guys like Earl Jones can engineer a Ponzi scheme and leave the country with $50 million. Well, there's that and the fact that when the high waters come the booze in my liquor cabinet will be worth more than your mutual funds. (Globe and Mail)

4. ISRAELI SOLDIERS ORDERED TO SHOOT FIRST: Soldiers who served in the Gaza Strip in December and January's offensive admit to being ordered to shoot without hesitation. (Guardian)

5. FARMERS' MARKET OPENS NEW OFFICE: The Regina Farmers' Market is opening an office downtown today. (Leader Post)

6. DARWIN OPENS TIFF: It's the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and Creation, a movie about the famous naturalist, is opening the Toronto International Film Festival. This is only the third time in the festival's 34-year history that it hasn't opened with a Canadian film. (Leader Post, Globe and Mail)

Vive Le Revolution!

The people of France are celebrating a national holiday today that is popularly known as Bastille Day. (Wikipedia) Here's a little gift from Canada to help them commemorate it. (YouTube)

Rosie LaRose’s Top Six in the (Yes, It’s Still ) a.m.

1 UP IN SMOKE California is broke. (MSNBC) So how come they're still using tax dollars to go after pot growers instead of legalizing it and taxing the substance like cigarettes? (Mother Jones)

2 TWO MORE COUNTRIES P'OED AT US Harper's government today issued travel restrictions for Mexicans and Czechs wishing to visit our country.(CTV via msn.ca) Given Harper's recent erratic performance on the international scene (Inside the Queensway) it wouldn't surprise me to wake up one morning and learn we're at war with Antarctica. And losing. Gay penguins can really put up a fight, eh?

3 REGINA MAYOR NO LONGER A LITTLE SHORT WITH HIS INCOME Holy Mother of God, will someone think of the poor suffering taxpayer? Oh, it's going to Regina's Mayor Mullethead and his city council glee club. Okay, everybody, go back to sleep. But don't think for a moment that Regina's civil servants are going to get an 11 per cent wage hike. Four legs good, two legs better. (Leader-Post)

4 MONORAIL, MONORIAL, MONORAIL! One of the biggest problems with having a taxpayer-funded carnie an economic development officer as your premier is that you get someone who's anxious to make a sale – any sale – without realizing what he's getting into. Case in point – getting into the radioactive medical isotope industry (Leader-Post) just as Wall's buddy Stephen Harper wants out and the U.S. is developing its own market (and that's where 90 per cent of Chalk River's production went). (Impolitical) Wall's interest is like Tommy Douglas announcing a program to build avionics for the Avro Arrow the week after Diefenbaker scrapped the project.

5 GOLDENBALLS VERSUS LANDYCAKES Judging from the excerpts from Grant Wahl's new book on David Beckham (Sports Illustrated) it's going to be interesting times in the LA Galaxy locker room. (ESPN). My money's on Landon Donovan on this one. Not only is his wife better looking than Posh (Zimbo) but Donovan has a better attitude than some lazy-arsed Limey who's here for the elephant cheques. Ben Knight (former Globe and Mail soccer blogger, now doing it freelance) nails it: make Beckham sit on the freaking bench until he gets his head and his lazy butt working together for the Galaxy's greater good. (Onward!)

6 IF THEY WERE LOST IN THE STARS This week marks the 40^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moonshot – one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind and all that. One of the more interesting things about Apollo 11 is that William Safire, one of President Richard Nixon's speechwriters, was ordered to make a ghoulish, if necessary, contingency plan. He had to write a speech for Tricky Dick in the event that the lunar module crashed, or if it didn't lift off, stranding Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon forever. Afterward, a clergyman would deliver an elgy to commend their souls to the deep, akin to a burial at sea.The transcript of that (never delivered) speech can be found here. (abovetopsecret.com)

The Ultimate Staycation

This week marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission that saw U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong become the first human to set foot on the Moon. In honour of that historic event, the J.F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum has created a special website that, through archival audio, video, photos and real-time transmissions, will allow people to relive the mission as it actually unfolded. Lift off is set for July 16 at 9:32 a.m. EST, with the lunar landing to occur four days later. To reserve your spot aboard the spacecraft, head to this website. (WeChooseTheMoon.org)

Shepard Fairey Update

Further to this post from awhile back, we received a press release in the office today about this new book that's been published in the United States. Yet another reason for conservatives to rail against public funding for the arts, I guess. (M&C Books)

This Week at City Hall

Tuesday, July 14
Finance and Administration Committee (12:15 pm): Considering a proposal to enter into an agreement with the RPL to facilitate the relocation of the Prince of Wales Library into the Core Ritchie Neighbourhood Centre. Also, looking at Community Investment Funding for Evraz Place, the Regina Regional Opportunities Commission and Tourism Regina. The committee will also look at a possible sale of a plot of land 1700 Elphinstone, a property tax exemption for Restwell Mattress Inc under the Economic Development Incentive program, the city hall cafeteria agreement, and more.

Wednesday, July 15
Executive Committee (11:45 am): No items on the public agenda.
Community and Protective Services Committee (4 pm): Considering 2009 Community Investment Funding.

And, in case you've forgotten, you can download full meeting agendas and reports on the city's website.

Token Sunday Night Post

In the spirit of having at least one post up everyday, I offer my thoughts on the following items:

1.) ACTUALLY THAT'S MUCH BETTER THAN I THOUGHT Earlier this evening I edited an absolute nightmare of a column by Paul Dechene who's a total jerk as it turns out. Dechene wrote the Top 6 for the upcoming prairie dog's news section. The topic--tying in with the recent G8 pledge to hold global warming under two degrees--involved him doing a pile of web research on what, exactly happens when the world heats by 2/3/6 degrees etc. Yeah, as you'd expect, it starts out pretty awful then rolls smoothly into nightmarish and apocalyptic. We might have to give our copy editor danger pay for reading the thing. It's completely terrifying. So yeah, thanks for that Paul.

Anyway, on a related note, this past Thursday the Guardian had an article on American beliefs about climate change. A recent poll, the paper reports, shows that only 47 per cent of Americans believe climate change is a serious problem. Yeah, well, you know what? Given the state of public education in the U.S., which is constantly under siege by mystics, morons, dipshits and douchebags, along with the stresses caused by widespread poverty, economic collapse, hyper-religiosity, psychotic mass media and other well-documented, massive national failures, I think the fact that the 47 per cent of Americans have any grasp of reality whatsoever is cause to cheer. I'm not being facetious or sarcastic. This is much, much better than I would've hoped for.

You can read the Guardian's article here. Oh--surprisingly, Republicans are more skeptical about climate change than Democrats. Which makes sense since studies have long shown Republicans are also more likely to be stupid jerks.

2.) Hey, if you're not depressed about climate change and human stupidity (which, as I just said, is actually not as bad as feared, thank goodness for small mercies) you could try reading this Paul Krugman article in the New York Times. Realllllly depressing. It'll knock you right down. A quote:

"Put it this way: if the consensus of the economic experts is grim, the consensus of the climate experts is utterly terrifying. At this point, the central forecast of leading climate models — not the worst-case scenario but the most likely outcome — is utter catastrophe, a rise in temperatures that will totally disrupt life as we know it, if we continue along our present path. How to head off that catastrophe should be the dominant policy issue of our time. But it isn’t, because climate change is a creeping threat rather than an attention-grabbing crisis."

Hooray! Hooray for doomsday scenarios!

3.) Speaking of Dechene, we went to a movie tonight. We're a couple of high-class, art-loving joes so naturally we went to Drag Me To Hell, the Sam Raimi horror-comedy now playing at the Rainbow. Yeah, so, anyone who's ever watched me watch a horror movie (or scary videogame) knows I'm not necessarily the best person for when there's things jumping out and loud, scary, sudden noises. I almost had a heart attack during M. Night Shyamalan's Signs, which proves I'm a humongous coward.

So, turns out Drag Me To Hell is basically all cheap scares for the first half of the movie. I had to watch it with my eyes covered. I still wrenched every muscle, joint and tendon in my body. Not going to be able to move tomorrow.

Oh--the movie is totally awesome. Dumb, stupid fun. Wheeee (ow)! Highly recommended if you like that kind of thing.


















A terrifying moment from Drag Me To Hell. Eeeek! The Lamia!

Where the Buffalo Days Roam...

"This ancient animal has survived everything nature could throw at it," intones the narrator of The Great Buffalo Saga, the 1985 NFB film below. Saskatchewan has a long history with the bison, a history worth remembering and (mostly) celebrating. From Chiefs Sweet Grass and Big Bear's warnings at the Treaty Six negotiations to the work of Saskatchewan artist Joe Fafard, the bison has been there when we've been at our best. The bison was absolutely essential (pdf) to the Cree, Nakota, Nakawe, Blackfoot and Dene people who were here before Europeans. At various points since Confederation, there has been talk of amalgamating Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba into one super-province called Buffalo.

But y'know what? All that's just too old-fashioned for those trail-blazing hipsters (Leader-Post)who booked MC Hammer as the big headliner at Regina's summer fair. Pat Fiacco, that long-haired hippie of a mayor, agrees, telling CJME "I think the organizer's [sic] are simply looking at continuing to make sure attendance is up and provide a brand that is more relfective [sic] of the current exhibition as to what it was 20 years ago."

Which is interesting, because it was nearly 20 years ago that anyone gave a non-ironic rat's ass about MC Hammer. Meanwhile, the Buffalo, or Bison has only seen its cultural currency rise over the years. First of all, the return of the bison to the Canadian Plains is a great parallel for the resurgence of First Nations cultures in Saskatchewan. Both of them survivors against terrible odds. Both of them representing great hopes for the future of Regina and Saskatchewan. And then, hellz yeah, there's rock & roll.

Righteous Vancouver metal act Bison B.C. (July 15 at the Exchange) are hardly the ones clued in to the awesomeness of the most majestic (and delicious!) of all the beasts. Toronto's rad-gnarly psych-rock combo Quest For Fire's best song is "Bison Eyes". Regina-born Daniel Brodie created the wondrous and evocative cover art seen at left for Roger Dean Young & the Tin Cup's sublime 2007 album Threshold. Australian Sally Seltmann, who co-wrote Feist's big hit "1-2-3-4" records her own tunes as New Buffalo. And let's not forget Neneh Cherry's (way better than "U Can't Touch This") 1988 hit "Buffalo Stance".

Frankly, the problem isn't the name, it's the stewards of the name. Since the organizers of the fair formerly known as Buffalo Days are so eager to relinquish the Bison Power, why not let someone else use it? The Regina Folk Festival has clearly had designs on becoming more of a pop festival for some time, a la Sled Island, so why not a name change? Or how about this: Why not set up a grand celebration of South Saskatchewan First Nations culture in Victoria for, let's say, a week every summer, call that Buffalo Days?

Family Ties

In honour of Taylor Swift's appearance at Craven last night, here's a nod to a Swift that I was a bit of a fan of when I was a kid. (Wikipedia)