statism watch

See Paul Hudson’s blog here as well for additional info.

Flashback: 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

Paul Hudson, BBC News
October 9, 2009

This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998.

But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures.

And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise.

So what on Earth is going on?

Climate change sceptics, who passionately and consistently argue that man’s influence on our climate is overstated, say they saw it coming.

They argue that there are natural cycles, over which we have no control, that dictate how warm the planet is. But what is the evidence for this?

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It’s necessary to add only one observation to Mr. Corcoran’s spot on article below – the centralization of Canadian’s health data in centralized databases carries with it massive risks to privacy and, if the political climate were ever to change, could result in dangerous health consequences if insurance firms or eugenics-minded professionals were ever granted access to the information, which could then be done with the stroke of a legislative pen. Note also that Britain and the US are seeking to implement similar systems. Imagine if they were to be interconnected in future, as is planned for ‘cybersecurity’ initiatives.

Flashback: EHealth scandal a $1B waste: auditor | Ontario health minister quits over $1B scandal | McGuinty had hand in hiring disgraced eHealth CEO | More untendered eHealth spending, Liberal connections emerge | Head of eHealth Ontario is fired amid contracts scandal, gets big package | Personal ties exposed in eHealth’s untendered contracts | Ontario eHealth approved 4.8 million in no-bid contracts | Electronic immunization records needed: Toronto health official

Terence Corcoran, National Post
October 9, 2009

Central planning strikes again

Ontario’s crash-and-burn eHealth experience, in which much of $1-billion in spending looks to be lost or sunk into unused and unusable technology, is being widely portrayed as a political scandal. Untendered contracts, political favouritism, silo management, cronyism — the usual stuff that clogs up the apparatus of government. But it would be a serious mistake if this disastrous experience were to be seen as just another local political mess that can be washed away with a Cabinet scrubbing and the removal of a few officials and appointees.

Ontario’s eHealth loss, documented in stunning detail by the province’s Auditor-General, should be seen as just the beginning of what is likely to be a series of mega-billion dollar provincial and national central planning boondoggles in Canada and abroad. The idea behind eHealth — that many lives and vast sums of money can be saved by building up centralized electronic medical records for every citizen — has all the makings of an IT fantasy being converted into a bureaucratic nightmare.

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The Olympics trumps freedom of speech. Why? Because nothing’s more important that playing in the ice and snow in Vankouver – not even the freedoms previously enjoyed in a constitutional state.

Flashback: 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

CBC News
October 9, 2009

A new B.C. law could allow municipal officials to enter homes to seize anti-Olympic signs with only 24 hours’ notice, and violators could be fined up to $10,000 a day and jailed for up to six months, according to the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

The proposed law was introduced by the provincial government Thursday as one of dozens of amendments in Bill 13, the Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act 2009, which is only at first reading and has not yet passed.

According to a statement issued by the B.C. government Thursday, proposed changes to the Municipalities Enabling and Validating Act will “provide the municipalities of Vancouver, Richmond and Whistler with temporary enforcement powers to enable them to swiftly remove illegal signs and graffiti during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.”

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Flashback: Conservatives claim ‘no decision’ made on leaving some troops in Afghanistan past 2011 | ‘Some’ Troops to stay in Afghanistan past 2011: McKay

CBC News
October 9, 2009

The Conservative government intends to keep some Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan in a non-combat role beyond Parliament’s 2011 end-date for the military mission, CBC News has learned.

Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office, told CBC News there will be Canadian troops in Afghanistan after 2011, though “exponentially fewer.”

“I would caution you against saying dozens or hundreds or a thousand, there will be exponentially fewer,” Soudas said. “Whether there’s 20 or 60 or 80 or 100, they will not be conducting combat operations.”

Soudas said the government will shift its focus from combat operations and in-the-field training of Afghan police and soldiers to a development and reconstruction mission.

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Flashback: Body of 130th soldier killed in Afghanistan comes home | Afghan front lines take mental toll on military and RCMP | 3 new deaths in Afghanistan push Canadian toll to 101 | Post-traumatic stress disorder’s hidden scars

CBC News
October 9, 2009

The number of former Canadian soldiers receiving disability pensions for psychiatric stress injuries is now more than five times what it was when troops first arrived in Afghanistan, new figures from the Department of Veterans Affairs show.

The total number of successful disability claims for mental injuries, including post-traumatic stress disorder, has risen to 11,888.

That’s up from 2,137 in 2002, in the early days of Canada’s mission in Afghanistan, with 843 successful new claims in the past year.

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