statism watch

Terence Corcoran, Financial Post
March 3, 2009

The main economic tool driving renewable energy under the Green Energy Act will be subsidies paid directly to producers of wind, solar and other renewables

In the midst of a major economic meltdown, and with looming budget deficits totaling more than $18-billion, now might not be the best time for the government of Ontario to be embarking on a crushing new green energy policy that could add billions to the province’s electricity costs. But Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is nothing if not immune to the folly of his own righteous policies and the fiscal crisis he faces as a result.

Mr. McGuinty once promised to maintain balanced budgets and to never raise income taxes, so he raised taxes, watched provincial revenues soar by 40%, and then spent all the money, ending up with major deficits. And now he is set to abandon another sacred provincial principle: electric power at the lowest possible price. Under a new Green Energy Act introduced last week by Energy Minister George Smitherman, Ontario’s new energy strategy is to deliver power to Ontarians at whatever price can be rammed through by government fiat to achieve green results.

Already famous as a green nanny state, where every course at every school is to be larded with environmental propaganda, Ontario is now set to become a kind of green fascist state. The new energy act sets up carbon reduction and renewable energy — wind, solar, biomass — as quasi-religious goals that will be achieved via a massive power grab. Clause by clause, the act transfers authority to the province, giving the Energy Minister and the McGuinty cabinet the right to operate, control, regulate and direct the production, distribution and consumption of every kilowatt hour of electricity.

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Flashback: Listeria reporting rule dropped before crisis

Steve Rennie, Canadian Press
March 3, 2009

OTTAWA—Contrary to earlier claims, the subject of Listeria was broached by federal officials and Maple Leaf Foods prior to a deadly outbreak last summer that was linked to tainted meat products, documents show.

Handwritten notes from a July 24, 2008, meeting indicate officials from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Maple Leaf discussed “food safety in relation to Listeria,” although no details about the substance of the talks were available.

The discussion took place roughly two weeks before tests linked the company’s luncheon meats to the outbreak.

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This journal never imagined they were talking about an office stapler all this time. There had been an assumption that it was a deadly staple gun that was at issue. But seriously, the elephant in the room here is that the RCMP training was evidently to TASER first, ask questions later, and freely use the device for pain compliance – torture, in other words.

Ian Bailey, The Globe and Mail
March 3, 2009

Mountie who wielded taser tells inquiry he felt threatened when victim grabbed stapler

VANCOUVER — A bulletproof vest, handgun, baton and pepper spray were not enough to quell the fear RCMP Constable Kwesi Millington says he felt when confronted by Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski during a fatal October 2007 incident at Vancouver airport.

At the time, Mr. Dziekanski was armed with a stapler he had grabbed from a counter.

So Constable Millington, the only one of four attending Mounties equipped with a taser, used the conducted energy weapon on Mr. Dziekanski once, then went on to jolt Mr. Dziekanski four more times over a total of 31 seconds as officers struggled to restrain and handcuff Mr. Dziekanski.

“He had the stapler open, his other fist raised. He was in a combative stance, as we call it, and was approaching the officers, I believe, with the intent to attack so I deployed the taser at that point,” he told the Braidwood inquiry into Mr. Dziekanski’s death on Monday.

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In the famous Milgram shock experiments conducted at Yale University in the 1960s to test obedience to authority (the trial of Adolph Eichmann was splashed across the headlines at the time), it was revealed that human beings were most likely to defer to authority and cause suffering to another at the expense of their own better judgement and moral sense when they felt they were merely performing a secondary task within the context of a larger system. How readily we give our own power over to the representative of some larger system of authority – in this case, the management of the prison. And all to save filling out a few forms. Are we really so infantile? It’s a fitting analogy for the turn the world has taken. In a micromanaged system, this is how the state looks after you. From throwing apples, to death in a maximum security prison – one size fits all.

Tu Thanh Ha, The Globe and Mail
March 3, 2009

As Ashley Smith slowly choked herself to death at dawn in her Kitchener, Ont., prison cell, seven guards looked on because they were instructed not to intervene if the troubled federal inmate was still breathing.

Court transcripts about Ms. Smith’s 2007 death, obtained by The Globe and Mail, show that prison managers were trying to curtail the reviews and paperwork triggered each time guards entered her cell to stop her frequent attempts at self-asphyxiation.

A manager testified she was pressured to reclassify incident reports so that they wouldn’t be filed as “use-of-force” interventions, which require more red tape.

Also, the transcripts reveal that Ms. Smith was to be transferred to a psychiatric hospital, but there were no beds available so she was still in her cell when she died. In addition, the prison ignored a grievance she had filed, seeking to end her segregation. The complaint wasn’t opened until after her death.

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“This is our land. A land of peace and of plenty. A land of harmony and hope. This is our land. Oceania. These are our people. The workers, the strivers, the builders. These are our people. The builders of our world, struggling, fighting, bleeding, dying. On the streets of our cities and on the far-flung battlefields. Fighting against the mutilation of our hopes and dreams. Who are they?” Big Brother introductory voiceover from the film 1984

Out of work? Why not just have everyone work for the state? (Hail IngSoc!) These people move fast, but so does this journal. Never fear, StatismWatch is here to serve you – so you don’t have to serve them.

Flashback: New World Order Crony Gary Hart Calls for “Civic Duty” | Justin Trudeau introduces National Voluntary Service motion | US Democrats Introduce Public National Service Bills

Mark Lazarowicz MP, The Guardian
March 3, 2009

A modern-day Conservation Corps would engage people in their local environment and create jobs – quickly

A community ‘training rally’ from the film 1984

As the economic downturn gathers pace, the number of people out of work is increasing also. Some commentators suggest that without remedial action UK unemployment could reach 3 million by the end of the year. Government measures to support businesses are welcome and will undoubtedly make a difference, but although some measures will have a swift effect others may not significantly impact employment figures for some time. So there is a need to take more steps which will help keep unemployment down now — not next year or in five years, but within months.

We have plenty of models from history for what can be done. There has been much talk of the 1930s recession, and the parallels with Roosevelt’s administration have been drawn by many. Some of Roosevelt’s most successful New Deal measures were the programmes of direct labour creation.

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Will Dunham, Reuters
March 3, 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have created a strain of the human AIDS virus able to infect and multiply in monkeys in a step toward testing future vaccines in monkeys before trying them in people, according to a new study.

This strain of HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, was developed by altering a single gene in the human version to allow it to infect a type of monkey called a pig-tailed macaque, the researchers said on Monday.

The genetically engineered virus, once injected into this monkey, proliferates almost as much as it does in people, but the animal ultimately suppresses it and the virus does not make it sick, they said.

The strain is called simian-tropic HIV-1, or stHIV-1.

Researchers hope to be able to test possible new AIDS drugs and vaccines in monkeys before trying them in people.

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