God Calls in One of His Servants, Sends Him 'Down There'

Oral Roberts, one of the first of that particular breed of American holy roller/sociopaths to harness the power of television to share the word of God -- and make shitloads of money -- has died at 91. (New York Times)

In the eighties, Roberts claimed that if he couldn't raise $8 million, "God would call him home." God called in that debt on Tuesday. We -- okay, I -- didn't think God was serious about it, but I guess you just never know people. Deities. Whatever. I can only imagine the kneecapping/waterboarding/nipple twisting poor Oral got for not coughing the money up sooner.

By the way, I got this photo off of a blog called Pandagon, who used the picture of the statue in front of the Oral Roberts University (presumably of Roberts' own greasy, begging hands) to illustrate an article about the university. Pandagon claims the school is a veritable hotbead of greed, sexual abuse and other terribly sleazy things. I am shocked. Shocked.

Rosie's Top Six (maybe the last for a while, maybe)

Reason number six will illustrate why, hopefully to your satisfaction … though I would also say that there’s no way right now I can compete with the awesome posts made by Gordeaux and Paul recently. (prairie dog)

NOT AGAIN … In an effort to keep from explaining why the Canadian Armed Forces aided and abetted those torturing prisoners in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Harper is again threatening to prorogue Parliament (The Globe and Mail). I don’t think I could write anything better than what Canadian Cynic (Canadian Cynic) and The Galloping Beaver (The Galloping Beaver) have already said. Except for James Travers, of course (Toronto Star)

ALBERTA MEDIA, YOU’VE BEEN PUNK’D! Delegates at the Copenhagen climate treaty talks weren’t the only ones who were taken in by the pranksters. So was another source of hot air production, talk-show host Dave Rutherford. (Big City Liberal)

ELDERLY SENIORS DIVORCE TO AFFORD HEALTH CARE The next time someone tries to tell you that right-wing governments are pro-family values, hit them with this story (Challenging the Commonplace). Hopefully you don’t break your laptop doing it.

SCHOOLYARD FIGHT When the Sask. Party announced that it was taking over the duty of setting mill rates (and, therefore budgets) for school boards, few objected (apart from John Conway) because the province already negotiated contracts with teachers, support staff etc. on a province-wide basis. But since the government can’t promise all the money the school boards say they need to keep operating, they’re now caught between a rock and a hard place (Leader-Post).

SOMETHING TO WATCH My university buddy Will Dixon deconstructs and skewers the ‘Save local TV’ campaign. Apparently, we’re not going to be saving much. (Uninflected Images Juxtaposed)

LOOK WHO’S HERE Tammy and I are parents for the third time. Welcome to the world Caitlin Elizabeth LaRose Olmstead, who arrived Saturday afternoon, weighing 8 pounds 5 ounces. Right now, Mom’s a little sore, so I’ll let The Verve do the speaking for me. (YouTube)

12 Days of Christmas: 3 Godfathers

"Hand over the pot. We'll slick him up a mite."

John Ford's 3 Godfathers (1948) was a remake of a 1916 silent film. Based on a book by Peter B. Kyne - the story has been remade at least seven times, including once in 1919 by Ford.

The film has John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz and Harry Carey Jr. as a group of outlaws being chased across a desert in Arizona after they robbed the bank in New Jerusalem. They come across a dying woman on Christmas Eve who gives birth to a baby boy. She makes the three men the baby's godfathers after naming the baby after all of them.

After she dies, Wayne and company decide to try and keep their promise to the dying woman to save her baby. They make the harsh and treacherous way back across the desert with stock Ford actor Ward Bond hot on the Duke's trail.



Brilliant Japanese animation director Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Paprika) loosely remade 3 Godfathers as the film Tokyo Godfathers in 2003.

The movie has three homeless people, a teenage runaway, a homeless man and a transvestite who find a baby on Christmas Eve. The movie follows their adventures through modern day Tokyo as they try to reunite the baby with it's family.

Pick of the Day: Wayne Newton

Danke Schoen, Baby, Danke Schoen

Man, am I so stoked for tonight's concert at Casino Regina Lounge by Mr. Vegas himself.

I've only actually spent six hours in my life in the U. S. (courtesy of a shopping excursion in July 1973 to Whynot Minot on a rainy day during a family vacation at Kenosee). But if I ever do decide one day to aquire a passport and journey south to the land of the brave and the home of the free Las Vegas would definitely be one of the primo destinations I would consider visiting after New York, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Boston, Miami, St. Louis, Denver, San Diego, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, Atlanta, Washington and maybe a dozen other cities.

For now, though, I'll have to content myself with basking in the glow of Vegas royalty at this gig. If Mr. Newton's staying at the Hotel Sask, I might even stake out the lobby in the hopes of catching a glimpse of him. There's plenty of video of Mr. Newton on YouTube, but for true fans, I found this gem. (YouTube)

Not a Hoax: Cons Pondering Weaker Emission Targets for Tarsands

The CBC has come into possession of documents suggesting the Harper government is looking for ways to weaken the already lax greenhouse gas emission targets that the oil and gas sector is subjected to.

Geez, guys. Think maybe you're the punching bag of the COP15 Conference because you deserve to be?

More Coming from Climate Pranksters

Here is Margaret Matembe from the Ugandan delegation responding earlier today to the announcement that Canada would be bringing forward aggressive, new carbon emission targets.

Uganda Responds
Uploaded by cop15dk. - Up-to-the minute news videos.

As we noted before, that Canadian press release was a hoax.

So is this press conference with the Ugandan delegation.

There was also a hoaxed article from a hoaxed Wall Street Journal website, hoaxed articles on other hoax media websites, and a press release from the Canadian government denouncing the first press release as a hoax that was itself a hoax.

It's a twisty knot of hoaxery. Here's the Globe and Mail to sort it all out.

It's looking like the Yes Men are behind all these hi-jinx and they're promising more for tomorrow at 13:00, Copenhagen time.

It's been a bad day for Jim Prentice. Here's hoping tomorrow will be worse.

Author of Dystopian Futures Has Brush With Same

Canadian science fiction author, Dr Peter Watts, was arrested by US border guards last Tuesday. He was then beaten, pepper sprayed, held in jail over night, not allowed access to a lawyer then deposited in Canada during a cold snap without his jacket.

His computer, flashdrive and notepad were confiscated.

Looks like the illiterates they have manning the US/Canada border can't tell the difference between notes written by a science fiction author and plans for a nefarious terrorist plot. Watts writes far-future sci-fi, by the way, not near-future, semi-plausible thrillers about geopolitical conflict.

Maybe the guards thought the references to genetically modified fishmen, posthuman zombies and vampire starship captains were some sort of sophisticated code.

Watts is charged with assaulting a federal officer (as if) and will have to defend himself against the charge in a US court. Mounting a defence is expected to be very costly. Watts is a successful writer, but as a successful Canadian writer, this will likely bankrupt him. As such, a fund is being put together to help him out.

Read a full account of Watts' ordeal over at BoingBoing, another at the Toronto Star or this one direct from Peter Watts himself.

Find out how to contribute to Watts' defense here.

And while you're at it, you should read what Watt's has to say about the CRU email scandal. The guy likely has the best and truest take on the scandal so far.

We're so screwed -- economically speaking

Well, if the world economy really does implode at a yet-to-be-determined date in the not so distant future, we can't claim we weren't warned.

And make no mistake, it will. Why? Because apparently we've some how lost our ability to take in new information and form new beliefs based on this new information. I believe they called it “learning” before it completely went out of fashion.

The always interesting, and usually quite right nobel laurete in economics, Paul Krugman, offers an excellent take-down of the alternative reality that the hard right finds themselves stuck in these days.

As he explains, they continue to delude themselves that all is well, despite the fact that their beloved business mavens have been the recipients of the largest and most shocking display of public largesse, um, ever, because their utterly unregulated business transactions blew up in their faces and their first reaction was to go running for the shelter of the welfare state.

Which, to recap, remains a bad thing for individuals, but apparently a good thing for companies and the wealthiest individuals the world has ever seen.

Oh, and he doesn't spare what passes for a left in American politics either, pointing out that the utter lack of meaningful reform by the bought-and-paid for by finance Democrats pretty much guarantees a repeat because, in the words of philosopher George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

And, as an added bonus, enjoy Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi's well-deserved drubbing of the Obama administration's craven cave-in to big finance, delivered in the fine form of a first class polemicist.

Americans Don't Want to be Seen Shaking Hands with Canadians

The Toronto Star is reporting that environment minister, Jim Prentice, was stood up at planned photo op with US environment secretary, Steven Chu. (Planned by Prentice's people but never approved by Chu's.)

Apparently, Prentice's people were trying to change the fake press release story by having a few chummy shots taken with his opposite number from south of the border. Chu, however, will only meet with Prentice and his people behind closed doors. He has no interest in being seen shaking the man's hand.

Remember when America was the bad guy of the globe and a Canada pin worn overseas could score you free beer?

Times are changing.

Priorities

Received an email from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) today announcing the release of a new report on Canadian military spending. At $21.185 billion, our expenditure on defence in 2009-10 ranks us 13th highest in the world and sixth highest among NATO's 28 members on a per capita basis. For comparison purposes, the CCPA notes, the federal Department of the Environment received $1.064 billion. And I'll throw in this tidbit: in 2009-10 federal spending on arts, culture and heritage will total a humungous $535 million. Makes you think, doesn't it? Here's a link to the CCPA news release and report here.