cartoon life

How many oppressive pro-Chinese government bloggers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Western media is biased stay out of internal affairs unless you lived in Tibet so you don’t have right to opinion we were a civilization before your country was even found monks made slaves screw in their lightbulbs nobody can deny the truth!

John Fraser says it right with every breath in Butchers And Monsters;

And the answer, too, is always the same, or at least it will be so long as the Chinese Communist party controls the country: China overreacts, cares so much, and never “gets it” because it can’t do anything else. Because it lacks the confidence of its own people, the party’s endurance is based on never underestimating the power of small but dedicated protest groups. Because the party knows from its own successful experience 60 years ago that a small but dedicated protest group can take over and control an entire country, it can never let its guard down. Not once. Not ever. 

This reality never seems to penetrate over here. Over here, Falun Gong is just a weird group of exercise and “I-can-do-it” enthusiasts. Over there, it’s different. Falun Gong, unchecked, could replace the Communist party. Over here, we wonder why no one in Beijing is negotiating with the pacifist Dalai Lama, who offers the best hope of a fair and workable compromise. Over there, it’s different. Tibetan monks, unchecked, could replace party cadres as moral leaders in at least three major areas of China. Against such a threat, the bleatings of the West are merely ripples in an ocean. If it comes down to a choice of appearing “weak” to such groups or brutal to outsiders, the Communist authorities would not hesitate to choose resolute repression, regardless of the moral or economic costs, regardless of world opinion, regardless — if it comes to that — of the 2008 Olympics. Nothing will be allowed to diminish or otherwise threaten its power base.

And more, so much more. Air drop this as leaflets over the whole of China.

Sing a simple-minded song… Do what the government says! Laws are laws, our rights can wait. Mexico’s a sovereign state! Brenda Martin’s dead.

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I’ve been having some fun with the Globe & Mail forums over this easter holiday weekend. Here and here. Gee, I really should be blogging. My hit stats have gone down. Oh, well.

[edit] A comment of mine from the first thread link:[/edit]

“China shows itself still and again to be a paranoid, self-interested ego-maniacial state, shall I say modern corporation? Anything that that goes ‘wrong’ must have been manifested by enemies of it’s self-involved paranoid ego. Practically the opposite of the Dalai Lama it vilifies. No wonder there is no understanding or even a chance for compromise. China, like so many today, believes it and only it [has] the truth.”

[edit]The threads usually break down into trails of badly named posters and poorly spelled complaints that the Chinese are just misunderstood.[/edit]

Here is a story with actual news and some balanced point of view.

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A two-week hearing before the Ontario Municipal Board ended with lawyers for the city and an activist defending a policy that protects most of the city’s larger woodlands against development. Under that policy, adopted by council in 2006, the city expects to declare as significant — and protect — about 96 per cent of woodlands that are at least four hectares. An older policy protected as little as 25 per cent of those woodlands.

But his argument and that of the city was challenged by lawyer Barry Card, who’s representing developers such as Farhi Holdings, Sifton Properties, Drewlo Holdings, Z-Group and a lobby group that represents the industry, the London Development Institute.

Rather than make changes by amending the city’s official plan, a labour-intensive step that engages the public and experts, the city adopted a new policy, Card said.

“It really amounts to a sell-out of the planning process,” he said.

Under old rules, a woodland wasn’t significant unless it rated high in three of several categories that include size, composition, age and history. New rules require only a single high rating.

“That takes 1,000 hectares (of woodlands) off the table,” Card said.

That takes 1000 hectares of trees off the protected state and allows them to be clearcut to build suburbs, driveways, roads and golf ball driving ranges. In an earlier story, Debate blooming again over London’s tree-protection policy from Wed, January 16, 2008 By PATRICK MALONEY, SUN MEDIA, Card said:

“It’s not about whether significant woodlands will be protected — but whether insignificant woodlands will be protected,” said lawyer Barry Card, who is representing a consortium of local developers at the hearing. “Developers like treed communities. What they don’t like is a change of the rules that’s arbitrary or ill-advised.”         

I guess breathing is ill-advised. Developers like treed communities because the houses on the edge of the woodlot sell for more money. Funny. Seems people like trees. They like cars, and they like trees. From Trees In Trust;

An acre of trees absorb enough carbon dioxide in a year to equal the amount produced when you drive a car (41,000 km). (North Carolina State University Trees of Strength).       

Now get out a calculator.

if 1000 hectares = 2471.05381 acres

then 1 acre = .40468564224 hectare

1 acre can deal with the CO2 from 1 car driving 41,000 km so

the CO2 absorption per hectare would be… 41,000 x .40468 or 16,592.085 km

Let’s do some rounding:

CO2 per hectare: 16,500 -> 16000 -> 4     

year avg mileage: 12,500 -> 12000 -> 3     

So, 1.33 cars per hectare. 1000 hectares support the annual CO2 emissions from 130,000 cars, and London should have about twice that many vehicles.

Ask yourself then, is 1000 hectares an insignificant woodlot?

Mr. Card and this developer consortium argue that it’s good policy to cut out your lungs. Ironically, trees support urban sprawl. The more trees you have, the more CO2 from cars you can support.

A deep sigh from exasperation and resignation. I thought I lived in a country that did the right thing.

Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun Published: Monday, January 14, 2008 

Facing an extradition hearing Jan. 21 and the all-but-certain prospect of delivery to American authorities, Emery has cut a deal with U.S. prosecutors to serve his sentence in Canada.       

If accepted by the courts in both countries, Emery said he will serve the full term and not be eligible for Canada’s lenient get-out-of-jail-early rules.”I’m going to do more time than many violent, repeat offenders,” he complained. “There isn’t a single victim in my case, no one who can stand up and say, ‘I was hurt by Marc Emery.’ No one.

“He’s right. Whatever else you may think of Emery - and he grates on many people, what is happening here is a travesty of justice. Emery’s case mocks our independence as a country. Prosecutors in Canada have not enforced the law against selling pot seeds and all you need do is walk along Hastings Street between Homer and Cambie for proof.

Canadian police grew so frustrated that neither prosecutors nor the courts would lock up Emery and throw away the key, they urged their U.S. counterparts to do the dirty work. And that’s what’s wrong.

Our extradition law puts Canadian citizens at the mercy of foreign governments and judges can’t do much about it. Emery is being forced to accept a deal because not only are two of his friends in jeopardy if he doesn’t, but also to go south for an unfair trial would mean serving as much as 20 years in prison, perhaps more.

I have cartooned Marc a few times. Yes he’s brazen. Yes, he’s in your face. But what he has done is not illegal in his country.

Why can’t you stay dead?

Apparently the Generals have restored ‘Peace’ to the country. Really, we need another word. To say it is ‘Peace’ stains the meaning.

Myanmar, Somalia top 2007 corruption index

Myanmar’s business elite thrive by serving the generals, while many in the country go without regular food and electricity, the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar, Shari Villarosa, told reporters earlier this year.

The far point of the Art of Selfishness.

The Swindle of the “Great Global Warming Swindle” film at Smashing Telly

The Great Global Warming Swindle, was a very popular rebuttal of the idea that Global Warming is caused by humans. … This film, which consists of a lecture presentation and commentary by Chris Merchant a lecturer in geophysics at Edinburgh University takes it apart, piece by piece.  

Mulroney ridicules Trudeau
It took him 25 years to think of something?

Creationism raised as Ont. election issue

John Tory Promotes Creationism

Rapid back-pedalling and “clarification”:
Creationism in science class would disqualify schools for funding: Conservatives

I caught the last half of an interview by Kevin Sylvester on Sounds Like Canada with Sarah Lazarovic, illustrator, about her founding of The Montrose Portrait Gallery of Canada.

The Torontoist post fill in some details.
Sarah sounds like a fun person, and while we wait for Bev Oda to decide what to with $45 million, she set up this gallery in her garage. I lived for a time on Crawford Street, so I know that garage.
BTW Kevin, that is a great portrait of our dear Stephen.