Election Made Easy

So in my last post I offered a mentat lesson on strategic voting. It was pretty long-winded but also straightforward and a way for you to look at your riding and find a way to make your vote prevent the Conservatives from winning another election.

Then today a friend forwarded me a link to voteforenvironment.ca which makes strategic voting really simple. The site recognizes that the Conservatives have no real plan for climate change and for reducing our greenhouse gas emissions while the other parties have much more progressive policies. I've embedded their video below this post.

Essentially they are targeting certain ridings which the Conservatives only won marginally or have a chance to steal in the next election. Your riding might very well be on the list.

Hotly contested ridings (with links to their recommended voting):

• Ancaster--Dundas--Flamborough--Westdale
• Beauport--Limoilou
• Brant
• Burnaby--Douglas
• Central Nova
• Edmonton Centre
• Edmonton--Strathcona
• Esquimalt--Juan de Fuca
• Essex
• Etobicoke--Lakeshore
• Fleetwood--Port Kells
• Fredericton
• Gaspésie--Îles-de-la-Madeleine
• Guelph
• Halton
• Hull--Aylmer
• Huron--Bruce
• Kamloops--Thompson--Cariboo
• Kenora
• Kitchener Centre
• London West
• Louis-Hébert
• Madawaska--Restigouche
• Miramichi
• Mississauga South
• Mississauga--Erindale
• Mississauga--Streetsville
• Nanaimo--Alberni
• New Westminster--Coquitlam
• Newmarket--Aurora
• Newton--North Delta
• Niagara Falls
• Nipissing--Timiskaming
• North Vancouver
• Northumberland--Quinte West
• Oak Ridges--Markham
• Oshawa
• Ottawa South
• Palliser
• Parry Sound--Muskoka
• Peterborough
• Pontiac
• Québec
• Random--Burin--St. George's
• Regina--Qu'Appelle
• Richmond
• Saanich--Gulf Islands
• Saint Boniface
• Saint John
• Saint-Hyacinthe--Bagot
• Saint-Maurice--Champlain
• South Shore--St. Margaret's
• St. Catharines
• St. John's South--Mount Pearl
• Tobique--Mactaquac
• Vancouver Island North
• Vancouver Quadra
• Welland
• West Nova
• West Vancouver--Sunshine Coast--Sea to Sky Country
• Winnipeg South

The best hope is for a Liberal minority government supported by the NDP. The corporations will have less power (and the Liberals definitely love corporations) and they will have to give in to NDP demands like mandatory labeling of genetically modified food. The most important thing is that the NDP will hold them on their climate change promises. Climate change is the only thing that matters: fuck the economy! What good is an economy on a climate crazy planet?

Here is how the vote would break down if environmentally-conscious Canadians vote smart for the environment:

Conservative
Liberal
NDP
Green
Bloc
IND

97
109
46
1
53
2

As dirty as it feels to vote Liberal you should probably do it if it means keeping a Conservative out of power. Please spread the word to anyone you know (especially those Canadians in the hotly contested ridings).

Extraordinary Rendition

I just watched this film on TVO and thought I would share it with you. Unlike North American films, thankfully the British still (sometimes) just put it all out there. I hope you can imagine yourself in this man's place. If only some of the fuckers that pound on him had this ability. But civilization has bred it out of them and here we are at the end of history.

Here's Your Cure!

Tipping Point

This video does a good job explaining the concept of the tipping point and positive feedback loops. However I don't think it gives enough credit to the earth's capacity to rebalance itself. For instance, as ice melts in Greenland fresh water floods into the North Atlantic. This freshwater is likely to shut down the Gulf Stream leading to a cooling trend in Europe specifically. Forget about crops in Scandinavia then. But of course what do I know, this may not happen at all.

I personally don't think that climate change will lead us to Venus-like conditions since I have faith in our wonderful earth but we, humans, are most definitely fucked. But as long as there is microscopic life around volcanic vents under the ocean I will die moderately happy. Human civilization has definitely failed and is irredeemable, the only tragedy would be if we took the magic of life on earth with us.

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip
by lmmesq

New Law

Just read a story on Al-Jazeera regarding the legal proceedings arising from a protest against Guantanamo Bay that happened back in January. Naturally we don't hear about such things on the news which is run by the corporations that get rich off war and fear. But Al-Jazeera will sometimes cover it (rich Middle Eastern kings apparently will still get rich even if they annoy the American state).

Anyway the point is what these protesters (totally nonviolent and therefore largely ineffective) are being charged with. All they did was walk up and sit on the steps of the Supreme Court. That's it. Al-Jazeera reports that they are to be charged with "unlawful free speech". In case you didn't get that I'll write it again more clearly:

UNLAWFUL FREE SPEECH

Yes there's a law against that despite the fact that it's a total oxymoron. Free speech by definition can't be unlawful.

Good luck to all of us as laws like these spread like so many sweatshops around the world. I guess it makes sense to have such laws in a time of endless, growing scarcity. People have been used to so much and now will have to do with less, forever. But thankfully everyone will still obey the law, even though it has nothing to do with justice.

Rows or Columns

I appreciate that this gentleman didn't do what most people do and claim that technology will save us from the menace of human-induced climate change. Remember, it won't and it's likely to get us into more trouble. But still this is a worthwhile video.