statism watch

While this journal isn’t sure what to think of Mr. Sardi’s claims for immune boosting vitamins (bottom chart), the salient feature of this article for our purposes is the study he has found in the medical journal Euro Surveillance.

Flashback: Flu vaccine shortage expected to last a week | Washington Man Paralyzed After Routine Flu Vaccination | Mass Rejection Of Swine Flu Vaccine Continues Throughout Europe | GlaxoSmithKline profit rises on flu drug | Swine Flu Scam Reaches New Heights With Obama’s Emergency Declaration | Deaths Associated With Swine Flu Vaccine Reported In Europe | US Government Hijacks Kids TV To Propagandize For Swine Flu Shots | Swine flu vaccine approved in Canada | German Government to get special swine flu vaccine | Harper’s hedge on H1N1 shot sparks confusion | Higher instance of severe H1N1 cases in natives, women | UK: National Health Service frontline staff shun H1N1 vaccine | US: Hospitals fear ‘Flumist’ H1N1 nasal vaccine could spread swine flu | New swine-flu wave hits GTA: Provincial Health Official | Canadian taxpayers on hook for any H1N1 vaccine damages | Second wave of swine flu pandemic begins to hit US | Seasonal flu shots delayed for non-seniors on fears of increased H1N1 risk | Seasonal flu shot may increase H1N1 risk | Swine flu death rate similar to seasonal flu: expert | Swine flu unlikely to become superbug | UK: Half of all pregnant women will refuse swine flu jab, poll reveals | Flu vaccine plan will be too slow: CMAJ | Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists over 25 deaths in America | Canada to order 50.4 million H1N1 vaccine doses – with adjuvant additive | Genetically modified Swine Flu hybrid may provide vaccine yield solution | Washington Post: Swine Flu Vaccine Will Contain Mercury | UK Government Swine Flu Advisor On Vaccine Maker Payroll | Fast-tracked swine flu vaccine will be safe, officials insist | Swine flu: How scared should we be? | Top Epidemiologist Slams Swine Flu Fearmongering | Legal immunity set for swine flu vaccine makers | Swine flu ‘related’ to 1918 pandemic virus – survivors exhibit resistance | Did leak from a laboratory cause swine flu pandemic? | Swine Flu May Be Human Error; WHO Investigates Claim | Lessons of 1976: swine flu, fear, mass vaccinations, wasted millions | ‘Accidental’ Contamination Of Vaccine With Live Avian Flu Virus Virtually Impossible | Officials investigate how bird flu contaminated vaccines in Europe | Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic

Bill Sardi, Lew Rockwell.com
October 31, 2009

According to a newly released report, the flu season for the H1N1 pandemic flu has already peaked and the federal government’s vaccination program would only reduce the number of infected individuals by 6% by the end of the year.

Small children, who take up to four weeks to produce sufficient antibodies, would not likely experience any benefit from vaccination if they were to undergo vaccination now (late October 2009). The full report, published in the journal Euro Surveillance, can be found here.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the current vaccine used for H1N1 pandemic strain only produces immunity among 25% of children age 6–35 months and 36% for children age 3–9 years. So the vaccine is largely ineffective in young children.

(more…)

Flashback: If passed, HST locked in through 2012 | New HST tax is fair, McGuinty says | Thousands rally against coming HST tax in BC | Flaherty offers taxpayer-funded bribe to adopt HST tax, holdout provinces demur | BC, like Ontario, moves to harmonize taxes | Ontario Liberals pressing to hide new ‘harmonized’ tax in prices | Ontario to merge GST, PST in ‘harmonized’ tax hike | EU approves free-trade talks with Canada | Canada expects EU free-trade talks soon: Stockwell Day | Harper, Sarkozy vow to work toward Canada-EU deal | CD Howe Institute backs Canada-EU deal, deep integration | Towards a new world order: Canada-EU trade proposal rivals scope of NAFTA

Maria Babbage, Canadian Press
October 31, 2009

Ontario Premier says even his mom questions the tax, but province must forge ahead with controversial plan

There may be some doubters in the Liberal ranks about tax harmonization, but that shouldn’t stop Ontario from forging ahead with the controversial plan, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Saturday.

Even his own mother has a name for it: “Holy sales tax!”

But party members must be honest with the public about every obstacle his government faces, from the eHealth scandal over untendered contracts to Ontario’s looming $24.7-billion deficit — the largest in the province’s history, Mr. McGuinty said. [Ed. Note: Why not submit a 'Consumer Proposal' to the Federal Government? And they, in turn, to the IMF?]

(more…)

Flashback: Marijuana activist Emery surrenders to court, awaits extradition | Vancouver pot activist Marc Emery to plead guilty to U.S. drug charge | The Post editorial board: Emery should be a free man | Canada “Prince of Pot” reaches deal on U.S. charges

Update (2009/11/01): David Nutt’s sacking provokes mass revolt against Alan Johnson

David Batty, The Guardian
October 31, 2009

Professor David Nutt warns resignations may result from prime minister’s ‘absurd’ stance on reclassification

‘Gordon Brown comes into office and, soon after that, he starts saying absurd things like cannabis is lethal’, says David Nutt.

The government’s former chief drug adviser today accused the prime minister, Gordon Brown, of tightening the law on cannabis for political reasons.

Professor David Nutt warned that other experts on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) could resign in protest at his sacking by the home secretary, Alan Johnson, yesterday.

Nutt was forced to quit after he accused ministers of “devaluing and distorting” the scientific evidence over illicit drugs when they decided last year to reclassify cannabis from class C to class B against the advice of the ACMD.

Nutt told the BBC today that Brown had “made up his mind” to reclassify cannabis despite evidence to the contrary.

“Gordon Brown comes into office and, soon after that, he starts saying absurd things like cannabis is lethal… it has to be a class B drug. He has made his mind up.

“We went back, we looked at the evidence, we said, ‘No, no, there is no extra evidence of harm, it’s still a class C drug.’ He said, ‘Tough, it’s going to be class B’.”

(more…)

Flashback: UN: Drone attacks may violate international law | US drone ’shot down over Somalia’ | Canada’s military peers into future, sees drone patrols, draft, insurgency | Military spycraft patrols Ontario border from Fort Drum | Homing chips are CIA’s latest weapon against ‘al-Qaida’ targets hiding in Pakistan’s tribal belt | CIA: Our Drones are Killing Terrorists. Promise | Remote-controlled planes could spy on British homes | Predator drones patrolling border irk Manitoba MLA | Report: CIA runs secret bases in Pakistan | U.S. set to launch Predator drones to monitor Manitoba border | Military Tech on the Home Front: Predator drones to begin surveillance of Canada-US border | Hoverdrone to be deployed to Iraq | Kids to Help Create Drones, ‘Fuzzy’ Line to Be Drawn between Military and Civil Spheres | Canadian military acquiring new helicopters, drones | Unmanned spy planes to police Britain | Austin police testing unmanned spy drones | Nunavut taken aback by military plan for drone patrols | U.S. to patrol Manitoba border with drone aircraft

Robert Burns, Associated Press
October 31, 2009

U.S. Secretary of State faces sharp questions from civilians as she ends tense three-day tour

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was confronted repeatedly by Pakistanis yesterday as she ended a tense three-day tour of the country, chastised by one woman who said a U.S. program using aerial drones to target terrorists amounted to “executions without trial.”

On another thorny topic, Ms. Clinton slightly softened her blunt charge of a day earlier that Pakistani officials know where al-Qaeda terrorists are hiding and are doing little about it.

Ms. Clinton faced sharp questions from Pakistani civilians about the U.S. effort that uses unmanned aircraft to launch missiles to kill terrorists along the porous, ungoverned border with Afghanistan.

But she refused to go into detail about the classified strikes that have killed both key terrorism leaders and bystanders, long a source of outrage among Pakistan’s population despite an equally deadly campaign of militant-spawned bombings.

(more…)

So much for the privacy commissioner’s credibility. A compromise to your privacy is not ‘protection’ – all it takes is another staged event to galvanize public support around increased security, a bill quickly passed in the house, and you’re all walking through this thing. Some studies have reported significant damage to DNA exposed to Terahertz radiation. A Los Alamos team discovered that THz rays have the potential to ‘unzip’ DNA strands. Why in the hell has Helath Canada approved them? While the scientific consensus remains inconclusive on this matter, StatismWatch urges a mass boycott of these machines. Opt for the pat-down if the CBSA insists on treating you like a slave.

Flashback: Security may soon test ‘virtual strip search’ at large Canadian aiports | US Border Guards to Expand Use of X-Ray Body Scanners | Homeland Security seeks Bladerunner-style lie detector | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | Germany rejects full-body scans at airports | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | Air passengers to undergo ‘virtual strip search’ | US Homeland Security Keen on ‘Novel’ Israeli Airport Security Technology | Israel startup uses behavioral science to identify terrorists | Airport scanner a ‘virtual strip search’

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press
October 30, 2009

OTTAWA–Airport scanners that can see through your clothes have received the blessing of Canada’s privacy czar.

Chantal Bernier, the assistant federal privacy commissioner, said Friday that the national air security agency has successfully answered her office’s questions about the machines, which will be used only in limited circumstances.

The system, tested in British Columbia at the Kelowna airport, allows a screening officer to see whether someone is carrying plastic explosives or other dangerous items.

The proposal has stirred controversy because the scanner produces a three-dimensional outline of a person’s naked body.

“It is a very touchy issue, and we have addressed it with exactly that level of care,” Bernier told a gathering of security officials and academics. [Ed. Note: Clearly, she was at the same conference as CSIS and the RCMP.]

Under the plan approved by the privacy chief, the officer would view the image in a separate room and never see the actual traveller.

Only people singled out for extra screening would be scanned, and they would have the option of getting a physical pat-down instead.

(more…)

Looks like CSIS and the RCMP are tag-teaming the media to expand their operations. Beware the terror! Give us money to stage fight more terror!

Flashback: Canadians blind to terror threat: top spy | RCMP actions ‘gratuitous, ‘violent,’ BC needs own police lawyer tells inquiry | RCMP reject watchdog report on internal investigations | RCMP spokesman told to hold off correcting false details of Dziekanski incident, inquiry hears | RCMP shocked 16 people five times or more last year | RCMP still uses Tasers too often, watchdog finds | RCMP credibility battered by TASER inquiry | RCMP softened Taser-use restrictions | Ottawa cuts funding for RCMP watchdog in wake of TASER inquiry | Head of RCMP unit that framed Arar promoted to Assistant Commissioner | RCMP destroyed evidence, charges dismissed in second torture case for officers | Toronto 18 Terror case: RCMP agent Shaikh was instigator who broke law: defence | RCMP Investigates, Clears Self of Wrongdoing in Case of TASERed Inuvik Girl | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Report details RCMP agent offences shielded by new law | Canadians who trust our secret police should think again | RCMP bombed oil site in ‘dirty tricks’ campaign

Colin Freeze, The Globe and Mail
October 30, 2009

RCMP Commissioner William Elliott says police counterterrorism efforts need to be better funded

Ah, a bribe to pass the Copenhagen global tax legislation. Niiice.

Flashback: Copenhagen’s Plans for a New ‘Government’ are Scary | Copenhagen, carbon, and the global corporate agenda | Lord Nicholas Stern: The world’s future is being decided this weekend | Thatcher science adviser: Copenhagen goal is world government | UN plans ’shock therapy’ for world leaders at Copenhagen summit | German Scientists Call for ‘World Climate Bank’ | G8 Summit: Rich nations to pay green tab | US Congress Passes the 1,200-page Climate Bill that it was not allowed to read | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | Economic stabilization may rely on carbon economy, economist says | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Obama, Gore, tied to Chicago carbon exchange | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | EU calls for global carbon trading system to fight climate change

CBC News
October 30, 2009

The European Union’s member states said Friday they have agreed to pay “their fair share” into a global fund to aid developing countries in curbing their emissions and adapting to climate change, but didn’t specify how much.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso had earlier said that as much as $80 billion annually in public funds from around the world should go to aid developing countries, about half the $160 billion from all sources that the United Nations wants developing countries to receive.

The UN hopes the fund would get developing countries to sign on to a new climate change agreement that would replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

EU leaders meeting for a second day of a two-day summit in Brussels did not say how much Europe itself would contribute to the fund, saying only in a published document that they would pay “their fair share.”

The EU leaders were considering a proposal to make any aid deal more palatable to nine eastern EU members hit hard by the global economic crisis, each of whom demanded concessions.

(more…)

Is this damage control or sober, balanced science?

Flashback: UK: A bedtime story about drowning kittens and puppies… Labour’s £6m campaign to highlight the dangers of climate change | IPCC Crushes Scientific Objectivity, 91-0 | What happened to global warming? | IPCC case for global warming melts on multiple fronts | More defects, exclusions in key climate warming data are uncovered | Climate change complacency `global suicide pact,’ UN told | Washington Post Meteorologist: A Skeptical Take on Global Warming | Global warming is the new religion of First World urban elites | Warming oceans mean less cloud cover | Global Warming or Global Cooling? A New Trend in Climate Alarmism | Counterpoint: Climate skepticism for beginners | E-mails indicate EPA suppressed report skeptical of global warming | Polar bear expert barred from conference by global warming advocates | Global warming alarmists out in cold | Revealed: Antarctic ice growing, not shrinking | Scientists warn global warming accelerating | Top Japanese Scientists: Warming Is Not Caused By Human Activity | IPCC caught with false figures, doubt cast on accuracy of global temperature record

Mark Henderson, The Times
October 30, 2009

Exaggerated and inaccurate claims about the threat from global warming risk undermining efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and contain climate change, senior scientists have told The Times.

Images from 2001, top, and 2007 from Philip’s Universal Atlas of the World indicated a big decline in Arctic ice, used as ‘proof’ of climate change

Environmental lobbyists, politicians, researchers and journalists who distort climate science to support an agenda erode public understanding and play into the hands of sceptics, according to experts including a former government chief scientist.

Excessive statements about the decline of Arctic sea ice, severe weather events and the probability of extreme warming in the next century detract from the credibility of robust findings about climate change, they said.

Such claims can easily be rebutted by critics of global warming science to cast doubt on the whole field. They also confuse the public about what has been established as fact, and what is conjecture.

The experts all believe that global warming is a real phenomenon with serious consequences, and that action to curb emissions is urgently needed. [Ed. Note: No, not all experts believe that.]

They fear, however, that the contribution of natural climate variations towards events such as storms, melting ice and heatwaves is too often overlooked, and that possible scenarios about future warming are misleadingly presented as fact.

“I worry a lot that NGOs [non-governmental organisations] are very much in the habit of doing exactly that,” said Professor Sir David King, director of the Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, and a former government chief scientific adviser.

“When people overstate happenings that aren’t necessarily climate change-related, or set up as almost certainties things that are difficult to establish scientifically, it distracts from the science we do understand. The danger is they can be accused of scaremongering. Also, we can all become described as kind of left-wing greens.”

Vicky Pope, head of climate change advice at the Met Office, said: “It isn’t helpful to anybody to exaggerate the situation. It’s scary enough as it is.”

She was particularly critical of claims made by scientists and environmental groups two years ago, when observations showed that Arctic sea ice had declined to the lowest extent on record, 39 per cent below the average between 1979 and 2001. This led Mark Serreze, of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre, to say that Arctic ice was “in a downward spiral and may have passed the point of no return”.

(more…)

People are absolutely stampeding clinics now – the very few that have been opened – terrified they won’t be able to get their H1N1 jab. Media coverage has switched from the dire proclamations of David Butler-Jones to the dire spectacle of queues and Canadians being turned away after having waited hours. (Ever hear of artificial scarcity? – The vaccine manufacturers, unbelievably, apparently had no idea that retooling for non-adjuvanted vaccines would interrupt their schedule. Until ‘the last two days’.) Yet despite the fearmongering, around the globe people are rejecting this vaccine in droves and with good reason. Canadians need to become more savvy about media manipulation and do the research required to make an informed decision on the relative risks of the H1N1 virus and the flu jab. The archive below is one good place to start:

Flashback: Washington Man Paralyzed After Routine Flu Vaccination | Mass Rejection Of Swine Flu Vaccine Continues Throughout Europe | GlaxoSmithKline profit rises on flu drug | Swine Flu Scam Reaches New Heights With Obama’s Emergency Declaration | Deaths Associated With Swine Flu Vaccine Reported In Europe | US Government Hijacks Kids TV To Propagandize For Swine Flu Shots | Swine flu vaccine approved in Canada | German Government to get special swine flu vaccine | Harper’s hedge on H1N1 shot sparks confusion | Higher instance of severe H1N1 cases in natives, women | UK: National Health Service frontline staff shun H1N1 vaccine | US: Hospitals fear ‘Flumist’ H1N1 nasal vaccine could spread swine flu | New swine-flu wave hits GTA: Provincial Health Official | Canadian taxpayers on hook for any H1N1 vaccine damages | Second wave of swine flu pandemic begins to hit US | Seasonal flu shots delayed for non-seniors on fears of increased H1N1 risk | Seasonal flu shot may increase H1N1 risk | Swine flu death rate similar to seasonal flu: expert | Swine flu unlikely to become superbug | UK: Half of all pregnant women will refuse swine flu jab, poll reveals | Flu vaccine plan will be too slow: CMAJ | Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists over 25 deaths in America | Canada to order 50.4 million H1N1 vaccine doses – with adjuvant additive | Genetically modified Swine Flu hybrid may provide vaccine yield solution | Washington Post: Swine Flu Vaccine Will Contain Mercury | UK Government Swine Flu Advisor On Vaccine Maker Payroll | Fast-tracked swine flu vaccine will be safe, officials insist | Swine flu: How scared should we be? | Top Epidemiologist Slams Swine Flu Fearmongering | Legal immunity set for swine flu vaccine makers | Swine flu ‘related’ to 1918 pandemic virus – survivors exhibit resistance | Did leak from a laboratory cause swine flu pandemic? | Swine Flu May Be Human Error; WHO Investigates Claim | Lessons of 1976: swine flu, fear, mass vaccinations, wasted millions | ‘Accidental’ Contamination Of Vaccine With Live Avian Flu Virus Virtually Impossible | Officials investigate how bird flu contaminated vaccines in Europe | Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic

Robert Benzie, Theresa Boyle, Joanna Smith, Toronto Star
October 30, 2009

A severe shortage of the H1N1 vaccine across the country has prompted Ontario public health officials to cancel vaccination clinics for the general public next week.

In a sudden change of plans for the mass vaccination, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Arlene King said only priority groups will be getting the shot.

“It’s disappointing we aren’t getting more vaccine next week,” King told a news conference Friday, adding that she had been hoping the province would be getting 722,000 doses.

Toronto public health officials, which began clinics for priority groups this week, had intended opening up clinics to the general public starting Monday, following this week’s hectic lineups and confusion.

At an earlier news conference Friday in Ottawa, the federal government announced it will only receive about 665,000 doses of the swine flu vaccine from manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline Inc. next week.

That includes 400,000 doses of the regular version containing an adjuvant – a chemical additive that stretches supply and boosts immunity – and 225,000 doses of an adjuvant-free version intended for pregnant women.

(more…)

Flashback: Anti-Olympic signs could net 6 months’ jail: rights group | Olympic security follows protester’s friend | UK: Police given powers to enter homes and tear down anti-Olympics posters during 2012 Games | 2010 Olympic security plans include ‘free speech’ zones | Olympic security boss puts protesters on notice | Activists seen as potential threat to Vancouver Games | CSIS Spying on Natives, Olympic Dissidents

James Keller, Dirk Meissner, Canadian Press
October 29, 2009

VICTORIA–Anti-Olympic activists forced the 2010 Olympic torch run to divert from its planned route Friday night as the relay headed toward what was supposed to be a triumphant finale at the B.C. legislature.

Several hundred protesters, angry that billions are being spent on the Olympics instead of housing and health care, blocked Victoria city streets for hours.

As the run was supposed to pass by Government House, protesters jammed the streets, forcing organizers to reroute.

Torchbearers were packed into the vehicle that transports them to their starting points as organizers attempted to move around the demonstration. But they eventually gave up, driving the torchbearers several kilometres to Victoria’s waterfront instead.

(more…)