Six In The Morning

PRIVATE PRESCRIPTIONS Doctors at the Canadian Medical Association conference call for private competion in health system and a ban on antibacterial soaps (Globe And Mail). The conference wrapped up yesterday in Saskatoon.

SASK HIV RATES SKYROCKETING AMONG FIRST NATIONS Not a new story (this was reported on extensively a few months back) but still critically important. (CJME)

AFGHANISTAN ELECTION COUNT BEGINS Votes are being counted. (Guardian)

ANONYMOUS SMEARERS, BEWARE A maligned model forces Google to reveal the identity of the blogger who cyber-bashed her. (Globe And Mail)

ALIENS? OR JUST SOME ASS-HAT? A mutilated cow found on a farm north of Saskatoon might not be the victim of animal predators. (CBC)

HEADLINE OF THE DAY! "Flight to Ottawa delayed by drunken fracas". (CBC)

Library Open House

Stephen Whitworth and I dropped by Central Library this afternoon to see where things were at with the proposed expansion of the downtown branch. James Youck from P3 Architecture was there, and based on a number of principles that had been developed in visioning sessions, his firm had produced several drawings exploring different options for how the project might proceed. These were strictly blue-sky, so a lot of things are still up in the air. But here's a few points.

• P3 is looking at infill on the entire block where the library currently sits ie the empty lot west of Knox Met, the parking lot south of the Masonic Temple, and the pocket park west of the library. No negotiations have taken place to acquire the properties, but it seems likely that the expanded facility will occupy more than just the existing library lot.
  
• Harvard Developments is in charge of finding possible public and private partners to become part of a new complex. Youck said Harvard had received favourable responses from a number of parties, but that no committments had yet been made. Retail stores, a condo tower and rental housing are some of the possibilities being explored, but integral to any mixed use complex that might emerge is the idea of it being a cultural hub.
  
• most of the drawings incorporated the existing library, but in conversation Youck said that it was still possible that it could be demolished and an entirely new library built. One person at the open house proposed building a condo tower on the site, then using the revenue garnered from the sale of a prime piece of real estate overlooking Victoria Park to build a new library elsewhere. But I think there's a firm commitment that the library will remain at its current site.
  
• for people paranoid about parking in the downtown, Youck said that if a large-scale complex was built, underground parking could be incorporated.
  
• with a municipal election scheduled for Oct. 28, it's likely that nothing much will happen until after a new mayor and council are in place, but further opportunities for public input will occur down the road once more details are fleshed out.

U.S. Congressman Destroys Health Care Critic

Barney Frank for the win. Finally a politician acknowledges you can't argue with crazy people. Here's a short news piece on this exchange, which happened yesterday in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. (Boston Globe)

For Those About to Rock

Going on over the lunch hour is an Angus Young air guitar contest where people have the opportunity to win tix to the sold-out AC/DC show next Monday, along with a number of consolation prizes, including an electric guitar and AC/DC memorabilia. The contest, which was sponsored by Regina Downtown and Jack FM, had originally been scheduled for Victoria Park, but it got moved to Tower II on the Scarth St. Mall because of inclement weather. Here's hoping conditions improve by Monday (YouTube). The top photo, by the way, features judge Michael Huber of Regina Downtown showing contestants how it's done.

Child Stands On Wing Of Flying Plane

Why, why, why is the phrase "child endangerment" not in this story? (Leader-Post/AFP)

Tiger Brewer, aiming to be the world's youngest wing walker, stood on top of his grandfather's plane as it climbed to an altitude of 1,000 feet (300 metres) during the stunt at an airfield near Cirencester in southwest England.

The name of the dad is pretty good though. (Thanks to Alex Whyte for the link.)

Six in the Morning

1. PR COMPANY EVIL Old but relevant story I just stumbled upon: Think Progress has outed the Coalition to Protect Patient Rights, as a complete sham. The American group, which is advocating against healthcare reform was created, surprise surprise, by PR company the DCI Group. As Desmog Blog is pointing out today, DCI Group is notorious for protecting tobacco companies and attacking climate science. (Think Progress, Desmog Blog)

2. NOT SHOCKING Taser International is filing a lawsuit against the Braidwood Inquiry findings. (rabble.ca)

3. POTTY MOUTHED PMO In advance of PM Harper's trip to the Arctic, the PMO sent out a press release in which it repeatedly misspelled "Iqaluit" with an extra "u". The extra vowel makes a big difference as "Iqualuit" means "a person with an unwiped bum". Ha! Ha! He said "Iqualuit". (Globe and Mail)

4. A LITTLE LATE FOR AN APOLOGY A campaign in the UK is calling for the British government to apologize to Alan Turing. Turing was a genius computer scientist and mathematician. He was also gay. And he was prosecuted by the British government for being gay then chemically castrated to cure his gayness. As a result, Turing committed suicide in 1954. (Manchester Evening News, Pharyngula)

5. FOOD SPECULATORS IMPERIL MILLIONS The head of the International Food Policy Research Institute is saying that speculation in the world food market leads to malnutrition and starvation worldwide. (Guardian)

6. SO WRONG, IN SO MANY WAYS They're casting children to appear in a live-action film version of the Smurfs. (Cinema Blend)

Regina's New Sunday Bus Schedule Is A Disaster

Last spring Regina Transit, in response to a petition requesting expanded service on Sundays (when buses typically run hourly from 11 a.m.-6 p.m.) and stat holidays (when there's no service at all) to make it easier for transit users to do stuff like go to work/church and attend special holiday events, announced plans to extend service on Sundays (no mention was made of holidays) so that buses ran from 8 a.m.-7 p.m. At the same time it announced a fare increase (adult jumped from $2.10 a ride to $2.25).

The fare hike was instituted Aug. 1. Today, our office received a fax from Regina Transit announcing its intention to begin expanded Sunday service on Aug. 30. Oh good, I thought. But then I read this:

In order to better serve riders' needs and provide extended hours without significant budget impact, service was redesigned resulting in removal of service from limited areas of the city. Sunday service will operate on 11 routes. Only three of those routes will be the same as on weekdays. The Sunday routes were designed to provide service to as many of the religious buildings, shopping areas and activity centres as possible. This means walk distances to the bus stop may be longer in some instances. Where changes to routes have been made, bus stops will also indicate whether there will be no Sunday service at a particular stop and some new signs will be installed for Sunday service only.

What it boils down to is that instead of 18 routes, there will be 11. They'll have different names than existing routes, and their own numbering system (901 through 912). And the bus routes themselves, except for three, will all be different--sometimes radically so -- from the routes people ordinarily ride Monday-Saturday.

Uh yeah, right. I cycle for transportation as much as I can, but for a good four months of the year I rely heavily on Regina Transit for getting around, and I wholeheartedly support it as a service vital to any notion of Regina being a modern and progressive city. And this is a pathetic joke. Way to make transit use safer, more convenient and user-friendly. Yes granny, we'll give you Sunday service. Only thing is, you may have to walk a bit further to catch your bus. Yeah, it's icy in the winter. And cold too. And it gets dark early. And buses only run once an hour. So make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to make it to the stop (heh-heh).

I don't blame Regina Transit. That phrase in the first sentence "without significant budget impact" says it all. Regina Transit doesn't control its own purse strings. It works with the money it has.

I can't wait to see what the petition organizers will have to say about this.

More On That Jerk With The Rifle At The Obama Rally

Turns out his show of force was planned in advance--police had been notified and the "journalist" who interviewed him is apparently a friend and fellow libertarian wackjob. Here's the story on Talking Points Memo.

So, instead of this being a spontaneous event where a lone asshole shows up with a gun to intimidate people who disagree with him it's an organized, calculated show of force by an organized group of armed right-wingers and fringe media creeps. Phew! A group of heavily-armed, self-absorbed egomaniacs with axes to grind and a following is so much better than one loon with a machine gun. I feel so much better about America's prospects for the future now.

The gunman's name is supposedly "Chris B.". In the interview he attacks the public option in health care by saying, and I quote, ""We will forcefully resist people imposing their will on us through the strength of the majority with a vote." (I wonder how he feels about gay marriage.)

Naturally, this guy also says taxation is theft--one of my favourite psycho anarchist right-wing talking points.

Here's the charming little video where he says many pleasant things.





Of course this is all insane garbage. No one is talking about taking his "right" to private healthcare insurance away. But most Americans want a public system. They voted for it. They should get it.

These gun-toting maniacs really need their own country. Ideally on Mars. In the meantime, where, exactly, is the FBI? Yeah, yeah I know, probably spying on some neighbourhood anti-poverty organization somewhere. Snort.

Here's the Guardian's take on the whole thing, by the way.

Library Development Drop-In Session Tomorrow

Here's the skinny on the library dealie:

The RPL will host a "Central Library development drop-in session" tomorrow. According to my information, the RPL will "share our progress to date on the Central Library Development and discuss the ideas that will create this new Regina landmark."

The drop-in will occur at the Central Library branch in downtown Regina and be located on the second floor in an easy-to-spot locale. According to the person I spoke with, the drop-in will be operational during library hours. I recommend going between one and five if you can, since those were the times I first heard so that's probably when they will be serving delicious confections. (I am speculating on this detail. I do not have confirmation that there will be confections.)

Sounds like something people should be following. You should go if you can.

See you tomorrow perhaps!

Obama Joker Artist Interviewed

The scoundrel behind that portrait of Obama as the Joker has been found--and he's not the conservative you'd think he is. From the Los Angeles Times:

When cryptic posters portraying President Obama as the Joker from "Batman" began popping up around Los Angeles and other cities, the question many asked was, Who is behind the image? Was it an ultra-conservative grassroots group or a disgruntled street artist going against the grain? Nope, it turns out, just a 20-year-old college student from Chicago. Bored during his winter school break, Firas Alkhateeb, a senior history major at the University of Illinois, crafted the picture of Obama with the recognizable clown makeup using Adobe's Photoshop software. Alkhateeb had been tinkering with the program to improve the looks of photos he had taken on his clunky Kodak camera. The Joker project was his grandest undertaking yet. Using a tutorial he'd found online about how to "Jokerize" portraits, he downloaded the October 23 Time Magazine cover of Obama and began digitally painting over it. Four or five hours later, he happily had his product.

Full, very interesting story here.

The pictures, of course, have been used by right-wingnuts to attack Obama as a socialist. The artist's critism of the President, however, is that there "wasn't much substance to him".

As for the Conservative red-baiting? "To accuse him of being a socialist is really ... immature," Alkhateeb tells the Los Angeles Times. "First of all, who said being a socialist is evil?"