Message to Rex Murphy: Cut That Out Right This Minute

Yet more evidence that having a really marvelous grasp of the English language doesn't mean you actually know anything -- or, rather, that critique is not the same as analysis: in his Globe And Mail column last week, Rex Murphy attempted to make the case that global warming isn't happening. His evidence? He stepped outside, apparently. I guess if things are chilly in Toronto then so goes the globe.

It's a loathsome position Mr Murphy is staking out for himself but fortunately it's one he should find he's rather isolated in. I have to wonder if he knows what he's getting himself into. Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Bill O'Reilly, George Noory. Not exactly the class of people I expect Rex is used to palling around with. What will they talk about? He'll have to buy all his new chums pocket dictionaries.

But that's the hell he's condemned himself to.

Thing is, while having such an eloquent voice out shilling for the forces of ignorance is a VERY dangerous thing, I can't help but feel a little sorry for the cranky ol'coot from Newfoundland (my current favourite province, I should note). It seems he has fallen under the spell of one of those lengthy tomes of shoddy, conservative-pleasing, quasi-science that pop up in airport bookstores now and then: Ian Plimer's Heaven and Earth: Global Warming - the Missing Science. It's over 500 pages long, has a raft of citations throughout and has both a colon and an N-dash in the title, I can see how Rex might be tricked into thinking it's legit.

As it turns out, it's anything but.

You can find a list of rebuttals of Plimer's book here. A particularly good one is a point-by-point analysis by mathematical physicist Ian Enting. The thrust of his critique is that Plimer's work has numerous internal inconsistencies and that despite extensive referencing, his more controversial claims lack citation or the contents of his reference are mis-quoted.

In short, Plimer never actually manages to prove that humans aren't causing climate change but that fact is obfuscated by all his misleading assertions, phony references and deceptively rendered graphs.

Meanwhile, Rex Murphy calls the book "fearless" and practically dares us to read it. Which, admittedly, I won't be doing. But then, I haven't read any of the more recent works on UFO research, homeopathy or cryptozoology but still I'm confident they're crap.

This Week At City Hall

Have to say, I'm not minding this new one-week-on, one-week-off summertime council schedule. Looks like this is an off week as there are no meetings listed.

Six In The Morning

Back from Winnipeg! And, you think the Riders suck? You should've seen the unhappy Bomber fans this weekend. Hahaha! Anyway:

1 CONWAY RUNNING FOR COUNCIL Former School Board member John Conway has thrown his hat into the ring for this fall's municipal election. You can read Joe Couture's Leader-Post story here. Prairie dog readers will recognize John for his political column, which appears in most issues but is currently on summer hiatus. Conway will contest Ward 3, which includes the Cathedral neighbourhood and downtown. The ward is currently served by five-term councillor Fred Clipsham. The municipal election will be held Wednesday Oct. 28.

2 JUST BECAUSE ALBERTA DOES IT DOESN'T MEAN WE HAVE TO Our Western neighbours are offering everyone free flu shots this fall. Saskatchewan, however, is not. You have to be in an at-risk group if you want a free jab. On the bright side, Swine Flu vaccination will be free. (StarPhoenix, CBC)

3 RELIGIOUS OBJECTOR LOSES APPEAL This is last week's news but we haven't had anything on it so here it is now: Tough luck Mr. "God Hates Homosexuals"-- If your job is marrying people in civil ceremonies, you have to marry them. Your personal hang-ups, sorry, "beliefs", are irrelevant. If you don't want to marry gays and lesbians, become a priest/pastor/whatever and go not-marry people for a real church or other recognized religious body. Thank you and have a nice day.

4 SEALED AND DELIVERED Europe bans Canadian seal stuff (with exemption for traditional hunters). Canada goes tattling to the World Trade Organization. (Globe And Mail)

5 "THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO PLAN" Sarah Palin, proud recipient of 20 ethics complaints, is done in Alaska. (New York Times)

6 FIVE NHL GAMES IN SASKATOON? Not a bad idea but I doubt the NHLPA would go for five extra road games.

Sports Report

Tough day for fans of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday. Against the Tampa Bay Rays, the Jays led 8-0 after four innings, but eventually lost 10-9 in 12 innings. The Riders, meanwhile, were up 22-0 on the Edmonton Eskimos, but couldn't hold the lead and ended up losing 38-33. What was it Yogi Berra used to say?

Saturday Morning Cartoon

After running across the strange and bizarre Pac-Man cartoon, I discovered that while the first season of Pac-Man played in the The Pac-Man/Little Rascals/Richie Rich Show. Season two was The Pac-Man/Rubik the Amazing Cube Hour. That's right - they made a cartoon out of puzzle toy.

The plot featured a Rubik's Cube that came to life when the puzzle was solved. Unlike the Lament Configuration puzzle from Hellraiser - instead of hooks and chains, it grew legs and a head and flew around helping people.

It's name was Rubik and it all sorts of magic powers. It had escaped from an evil magician and it spent most of its time being solved and saving the three Hispanic kids who had found it.

I think it's the weirdest product placement I've seen in awhile. And after watching this, I can't help but wonder when the IPod cartoon is coming.

Friday Afternoon Various-Animals

I'm sitting on a Greyhound bus somewhere between Virden and Brandon, Manitoba right now using my amazing powers to remotely post this week's Friday Pet Thing.

I am doing this even though 1.) I have no computer 2.) I have no Internet access 3.) I'm asleep with Ghost Bees' Tasseomancy playing quietly on my awesome purple iPod Nano, which (in case I didn't say) is purple.

Enjoy this video, which I post without any consideration whatsoever for credit or copyright. There's an annoying song too, so maybe turn it up.




(Okay yeah, so I wrote this Wednesday night and post-dated it for Friday. You know what? You'd never know if I hadn't told you.)

Right... like that's going to work...

Doubling down always works. Just ask anyone down at the casino...

So can anyone tell me exactly when everyone running something in the western world -- from our governments to our corporations to our pension plans -- became a complete friggin' idiot?

Business to Planet: Survival First, We'll Go Green Later

We are so screwed. Today's Business Incubator on the Globe and Mail website considers the question of how important the environment should be to your business. Considering this is being taped and put on the web for anyone to see, you have to assume this group of business owners and consultants are putting their best face forward. And as it turns out, the consensus Canada's business people want the world to see is that the public doesn't really care about the environment so why should they? Moreover, as we're in a recession, business people have to worry about their own survival before concerning themselves about anything as abstract as the planet's.

In other words, if you and I, as consumers, don't stop buying over-packaged, toxic products shipped from the four corners of the globe (because we have sooooo many options), companies won't stop making them. In fact, they'll make more.

Sounds like yet more evidence that the only way to get anything accomplished for the environment is through strong federal legislation. But, hey, that's just me.

That's gonna leave a mark on the ol' endowment fund

When you start eating your seed corn, you're screwed, or so the old story goes.

So, in a high-tech, information-age, knowledge economy, what happens when your elite universities are slipping into an economic death-spiral and refuse to face up to the fact?

This is a major, if understated, new development in the slow unwinding of America. If they don't figure it out, but quick, there is no good end to this story.

North America has, frankly, been suffering from a lack of investment in knowledge for quite some time, and this is only going to exacerbate it.

If it's not addressed, it's only going to be a matter of time before the exciting new breakthroughs begin emanating from China and India, not Europe and North America.

Six In The Morning

1 HAIL TO THE CHIEF Shawn Atleo is the new head of the Assembly of First Nations after a long, long, long vote that started yesterday and just ended shortly after eight this morning. The 42-year-old Atleo, who comes from Vancouver Island, defeated second-place candidate Perry Bellgarde of Saskatchewan by capturing 58 per cent of the vote, which was held in Calgary. Would-be leaders need 60 per cent support from the AFN, but Bellgarde conceded after Atleo captured 58 per cent of the vote onn the ninth ballot. Here's the story in the Globe and Mail.

2 WORKING CLASS Saskatchewan teens get the legislation they've been lobbying for and now they can start working at age 14 (some restrictions apply). Our teens deserve the right to work five three-hour shifts in the service industry every weekday (they can work extra shifts on the weekend, presumably). I'm just relieved that the bullies in Saskatchewan's business community--who I assume opposed the Sask Party government's changes because conservatives like traditional values, like saving your hard work for school--aren't trying to block this forward-looking legislation. (StarPhoenix)

3 TAZE TRUTH A report on Tasers and policing comes out today. The CBC has a brief report here. I suspect the report will report that tasers are insanely dangerous. Dog Blog will report back on this later.

4 COME ON, YOU GUYS! U.S. President Barack Obama held a high-profile news conference yesterday that observers say was an attempt to sell health care reform directly to Americans. But it's a hard sell because while Americans overwhelmingly (72 per cent in one poll) support a public option in health care, they also overwhelmingly vote for politicians--Democrats AND Republicans--who oppose such so-called socialism. Glad I live in Canada. If I get cancer I won't need my insurance agent's permission to have treatment. (New York Times)

"5 THERE WOULD BE NO UNITED STATES IF IT HAD NOT BEEN FOR GOD" The Guardian's journalists can write all the well-written, impartially-reported stories they want. I say it's time for Texas' school-sabotaging fundamentalist Christians to fuck off. I have no doubt Texas' many smart, sane citizens agree.

6 DAILY MOON: THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE Here's an amazing documentary by director William Karel on how the moon landing was faked. I post it for all you die-hard conspiracy cats. (Stanley Kubrick filmed it? Really?) I saw Dark Side Of The Moon (Opération Lune in the original French) on CBC's The Passionate Eye a few years ago and vouch for its excellence but I haven't watched this particular file to the end so if there are any weird problems please zap us an e-mail at feedback@prairiedogmag.com. UPDATE: well, here's one weird problem...the ending is clipped short and the credits are only partly visable. Which destroys the entire point of the doc, since (spoiler!) there's actually a twist ending. So I'm yanking this video. But if you ever get a chance to see Dark Side Of The Moon, check it out.