Cory Morgan RAW

It seems every day I pick up the paper and read about how or why we are all reaching some kind of Armageddon due to our modern lifestyles. Whether it is somebody insisting that pesticides are killing us, to the idiotic and baseless anti-inoculation crowd, to the global warming kooks telling us that skin cancer will wipe us all out, to the anti-Genetically modified foods bunch, to the organic foods bunch, to the “alternative medicine” crowd and on and on and on.

Why do people feel this need to distrust technology? Why in light of the obvious fact that we in Canada are healthier than we ever have been do people feel compelled to jump on the fear bandwagon? People are afraid of modern medicine. People fear any chemical that they can’t pronounce. People are afraid of development and expansion.

One of the easiest stats to accurately trace is life expectancy in developed nations as we are prone to keeping good records of deaths. As of last January, the average life expectancy in Canada was 80.4 years.

I am having trouble finding the historical data for Canada, but the USA is similar. In 1900 life expectancy was 48.23 years. In 1950 life expectancy was 66.31 years.

 Is the trend clear enough for anti-development kooks yet? It appears not. Despite all the nasty pollutants and evil modern medicines, we are living vastly longer than we had only 100 years ago.

 When I hear some idiot telling me that their herbal remedy or whatnot is good as people have been using it for hundreds or thousands of years, I need only ask how long people expected to live only a hundred years ago. No need to go back thousands when the expectancy was about 30 years.

 The eco-nuts claim our lifestyles are unhealthy due to development. Well by that logic, undeveloped regions of Africa should enjoy blissful health should they not? Alas, in those parts of Africa they are struggling to live as long as 40.

 No we should not blindly accept any technological advancement and assume it is good. No we need not get rid of every old remedy that has been out there for a long time.

 We do need to end the fear-mongering though. The industrial revolution, capitalism and development have been the best thing to ever happen to mankind. One need only look at the life expectancies of undeveloped or non-capitalist societies in order to see that.

 Give me my chemical based medicines, pesticide laden foods, GM foods, vaccinations and modern pollution of the air. I want to see 100 years of age and with the direction life-expectancies are going I stand a reasonable chance of that.

Technorati Tags: eco-kooks, fearmongering, life expectancy, natural foods

 A few weeks ago, Ezra Levant was one of three panelists debating Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act at a function hosted by the Canadian Association of Journalists. Liberal MP Keith Martin was one of the other panelists as well as Ian Fine (relation to Larry Fine perhaps?) from the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

 It was good to see Fine actually appear at something like this as it was certain to be a hot-seat. Journalists in Canada are rather concerned about the chilling effect that the latest onslaught of frivolous human rights complaints against major media outlets in Canada by Islamic radicals and the debate was sure to be rather rough on Fine. I suspect that Fine regrets having appeared at the function now. Had Fine been able to defend the behaviour of the CHRC with fact he could have come out of this. Sadly, Fine resorted to fabrication and distortion. I guess this is not surprising from an organization that has been selectively deleting incriminating sections of transcripts of hearings that are relevant to the RCMP investigation of their corruption.

 Ezra Levant was well prepared and countered Fine every time he was fibbing at the microphone (which was rather constant) and the bulk of the debate was some shaky damage control efforts on Fine’s part. Personally I think Ezra was a little over the top in his approach, but he certainly had well researched fact behind his every point.

 The entire debate is close to 1 1/2 hours and CPAC has it in it’s entirety here. 

 As that is longer than many would like to sit at a computer watching a video, Richard at No-Libs kindly condensed the debate to it’s most relevant points in an 8 minute version. The video was initially hosted at Youtube and had a great deal of viewings. Shortly after it having been placed up, the video was pulled as Youtube had apparently pulled the video as they had been advised of a defamation action related to it.

 I don’t really blame Youtube for this. They have to cover their butts and do not want to get caught in the middle of every legal wrangling that comes from posted videos. When they get such complaints, they err on the side of safety. The question is, who complained? How could a condensed version of Ian Fine’s own words be defamation? If anything, the foolish thug simply defamed himself.

 The efforts on the part of the CHRC and it’s handful of anti-speech defenders to hide facts and keep debate from the public eye and are pretty telling in themselves. It is nothing less than disgusting that our tax-dollars are paying these people.

 Well, the internet is much more than YouTube alone and the video has travelled elsewhere. The cheap censorship efforts of the CHRC and ilk such as Richard Warman are failing. Richard has assured us that the video will be hosted in perpetuity wherever such videos may be hosted.

 I strongly recommend that those who have not seen this video watch it now and spread the word. Let these censors know that the more they try to shut down open-debate, the louder the debate will get.

 The pitch on this issue is heating up daily as the rats scurry around their sinking CHRC ship trying to patch the holes on their corrupted vessel.

Technorati Tags: Canadian Human Rights Commission, Ezra Levant, Free Speech, Ian Fine, Weasels

The NDP and Liberals celebrated what they may consider to be a moral victory by passing a motion for Canada to give asylum to American military deserters the other day. Thankfully, that motion is non-binding fluff and will by all appearances be ignored by the government.

Canada is in need of quality immigrants. We have people waiting and applying all over the world to try and set roots in Canada in order to work hard and better themselves. We need not displace any of these people by taking American deserters under our wing.

Corey Glass is the latest poster boy for the left to raise up on this issue. They are trying to paint this man as a “conscientious objector”. Cory Glass is not a conscientious objector. Glass is not in Canada because he has moral or religious grounds keeping him from taking part in the military. If that were the case, the fellow never would have joined the military in the first place.

Some people are trying to compare the current situation with the situation during the Vietnam war. There is a world of difference between the Iraq war and the Vietnam war; that difference is conscription. Every American soldier currently serving in Iraq right now joined the military voluntarily!

 Corey Glass joined the military in 2002. This was after 911 and when the military was becoming rather active overseas. Was it really so far beyond this coward’s imagination that he may be sent to a war zone? Many of these deserters foolishly joined the military seeking cheap education upgrading. These people seem to have overlooked the reason why the government is willing to subsidize their training and even pay them to get it. Military service comes with obligations to your country as well as benefits.

 With all participation in the Iraq war being done by members who joined the military voluntarily, it is rather easy to see how one could avoid going over there. If you want to avoid war zones, don’t join the damned army.

 I have never felt compelled to being under the control of the government and sent to whatever dangerous region that they my choose to, thus I have not joined the armed forces at any point of my life. That could change with some catastrophic and unforseen incident in the future, but for now I have managed to stay clear of army life.

 Corey Glass and others like him are not heros. They are not resisters. They are cowards and deserters and we do not need them sullying our nation. Send them back to face the consequences of their actions. They will not be shot upon arrival in the USA. They will be discharged or serve time in prison for their cowardice. This is not cruel and unusual, this is the price that these cowards must pay for breaching the contract that they signed with their own nation.

Technorati Tags: Corey Glass, cowards, deserters, Liberals, NDP

Ahh despite so many unfounded assurances that we are all going to fry like bacon due to global warming, we have suffered under one of the most delayed springs in my recollection.

 Spring is now finally here though and along with it are the ravenous mosquitoes who have been delayed in their early feeding season.

 Not only do mosquitos ruin barbeques or long walks in the park, the nasty little fellas are responsible for millions of deaths worldwide. Malaria alone kills an estimated 1 million people per year.

 Back before the enviro-hysteria had DDT banned all over the place due to some rather shaky evidence, it had been found to be incredibly effective in reducing malaria infections in third-world locales. In India, DDT use reduced annual infections from 8 million cases to 50,000 (rather effective I would say). In Sri Lanka between 1934 and 1955 there were 1.5 million reported cases of malaria. When DDT was brought into use in Sri Lanka cases of malaria dropped to a reported 17 in 1963. When DDT use was halted, malaria cases in Sri Lanka rebounded to 600,000.

 Despite the fact that DDT was saving lives in the hundreds of thousands, people living in the comfort of the developed world where malaria is not a problem decided to go on an international rampage about this. 

 The egg thinning theory regarding some pretty birds was the main culprit behind the screeching for bans of this marvelous chemical. Who cares if hundreds of thousands of rather disheveled looking third-world people die? Apparently these people are worthy of sacrifice if we can increase the breeding levels of some carnivorous birds. While the evidence that DDT saves countless people is pretty clear, the evidence of DDT causing harm to birds is not quite so well documented.

 The eco-movement knows a good myth to perpetuate when they see one though. Just as they latch on to fuzzy seals and polar bears as figures to promote (despite neither being threatened), they have found that many donors to the cause are moved by the potential plight majestic birdies.  No sense letting facts get in the way when the contributions are rolling in eh?

If nothing else, the anti-human eco-kooks are good with marketing. I can see them vetting poster and flyer covers in some studio apartment.

Perfect, big eyes and clean and fuzzy. Disney could not have drawn something so cute. Who cares if the babies are no longer hunted, we need to put people out work in Labrador.

 Ahh look at that. It could have been one of the stuffed toys in a child’s bedroom. Who cares if their population is exploding, lets put some Inuit out of work and call them threatened.

 Ahh. majestic and a national symbol for many. We must imply that these birdies are at risk.

 Eeeeek. Too much reality. Get that picture out of there and keep encouraging use of food crops for biofuel. The mosquitoes will take care of those that don’t starve. It takes actual groundwork to help those people anyway, it is much easier to lobby for baseless bannings!

 Most of the myth came from the book “Silent Spring” where some info was erroneously written.

“Rachel Carson sounded the initial alarm against DDT, but represented the science of DDT erroneously in her 1962 book Silent Spring.Carson wrote “Dr. DeWitt’s now classic experiments [on quail and pheasants] have now established the fact that exposure to DDT, even when doing no observable harm to the birds, may seriously affect reproduction. Quail into whose diet DDT was introduced throughout the breeding season survived and even produced normal numbers of fertile eggs. But few of the eggs hatched.” DeWitt’s 1956 article (in Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry) actually yielded a very different conclusion. Quail were fed 200 parts per million of DDT in all of their food throughout the breeding season. DeWitt reports that 80% of their eggs hatched, compared with the “control”" birds which hatched 83.9% of their eggs. Carson also omitted mention of DeWitt’s report that “control” pheasants hatched only 57 percent of their eggs, while those that were fed high levels of DDT in all of their food for an entire year hatched more than 80% of their eggs. “

One rather uglier reason that some supported the ban on DDT is that they were aware that DDT saves lives but were worked up by the cause of the day trumped up in the book “The population time bomb” that predicted a virtual Armageddon due to increasing world population. Now that nearly 40 years have passed, it can pretty much be safely said that the author of the aforementioned book was full of crap. Despite his being full of crap, many people felt that the world could be saved if enough disease ravaged the third-world and held off that nasty population spike. Of course the supporters of such ideas are usually Volvo driving latte-lappers who have no concept of what suffering is actually occurring in undeveloped countries. They just want to feel better about saving the birdies and seals. People are secondary.

 DDT if taken in massive doses can indeed cause trouble to people and critters. Of course, were you to ingest a gallon of the mosquito repellent that you smear on your kids every day, you likely would have some health issues as well. DDT when properly used has far far more benefit than harm.

Aside from malaria, mosquitoes carry and spread all sorts of other nasty bugs. Typhus, St. Louis encephalitis, eastern equine encephalitis, highlands J virus and of course the one that is spreading to us here and now, West Nile virus.

  As usual though, environmentalists are still trying to save the world on the backs of innocent humans. Alderman Brian Pincott in Calgary (predictably) is lobbying for a ban on pesticides in Calgary.

 I doubt that Mr. Pincott and his ilk are willing to come over to my place and swat the mosquitoes off my kids in the yard. I doubt that they will come and pull the masses of dandelions that will sprout in my yard or sweep the ants from my kitchen (they will support the cash cow if I get fined for having my weeds out of control).

 Look folks, there are all sorts of nasty chemicals out there. Those chemicals have profound benefits though when properly applied and idiotic bannings solve nothing (aside from making the coffee shop crowd feel good). I can see reason for studies on specific chemicals and restrictions on specific usages. Blanket bannings however are idiocy and do much much more harm than good. Calling for blanket bannings is simply laziness and people being indifferent to benefits of chemical usages.

 Rest assured, they can ban all they like. I don’t have time to hand-weed my lawn or try to kill ants with soap and water mixes (if even that would be allowed). I will carry on as before though I may have to wait until sundown to do it.

Technorati Tags: DDT, malaria, pesticides, Pincott

 There are many aspects of American politics that I am envious of. The equal, elected and effective senate is certainly one of them. One thing that I have been happy as a Canadian to see though is that we really have not gotten into the national enquirer style coverage of our politician’s personal lives.

 A couple weeks ago the Liberals in parliament tried to make a big deal out of the fact that Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier’s ex-girlfriend, Julie Couillard had once been married to an informant who was with the Hells Angels years ago. Big bloody deal. You would think that parliament had better things to do than discuss a minister’s personal life that was a couple degrees of separation from a criminal gang.

 Last week, it hit the media that cabinet minister Vic Toews is getting a divorce and has a young, pregnant girlfriend. 

 So what? Is that any of my business? Do I think Toew’s behaviour in his personal life is admirable? Not really. I still don’t care.

 My only concern (and I wish the media would stick to those concerns) with elected politicians is their actions within their respective legislatures. I could not care less if one of my elected representatives went home after work, put on a latex nurses uniform and had themselves whipped by lasagna noodles by their significant other who is dressed as the skipper from Gilligan’s Island. (does paint a mental picture though don’t it?)

 We elect legislators not saints. These people are not in their positions to lead by puritanical example in their personal lives, they are there to represent constituents.

 Alas, the idiot Minister Maxime Bernier has just fed the jackals and fed them well. The fool left left secret documents relating to a NATO summit at his girlfriend’s apartment. Bernier likely was drawn to Couillard’s twin assets which are not class or discretion, they are rather defined in the picture above. Rather than quietly return the documents, Couillard made sure to get some more TV time by exposing it on Quebec television. The documents have been returned, and Bernier resigned as Foreign Affairs Minister yesterday.

 Now the people howling for puritanical politicians will have been given more ammunition in their drive to expose the personal lives of the elected. They can claim that Bernier’s choice in girlfriends reflected low moral character and it was right to pillory him over that.

 The only thing that Bernier should be pilloried over is outright stupidity. He was entrusted with classified documents that potentially impact upon our entire nation. Not only should Bernier be gone as a cabinet minister, he should be gone as a member of parliament altogether.

 The media and opposition were seeking dirt and we richly rewarded by Bernier. Sadly, this may lead to an increase in poking into the personal lives of our politicians in the future and that will only further degrade Canadian politics.

Technorati Tags: Bernier, Couillard, foreign affairs, idiot, Toews

 As consumers enjoy record high gasoline prices (and the taxes attached at the pump), governments are scrambling to find other ways to increase our general cost of living.

 In the mad scramble to reduce carbon dioxide emissions (that stuff we exhale), North America and Europe have jumped on the scheme of subsidizing and encouraging the production of ethanol. Never mind that a world food crisis has been exacerbated by this process as fields that used to grow food are now seeded for ethanol production. Never mind that ethanol is a net loser in actual energy output once the energy inputs are taken into account. Never mind that when burned ethanol releases carbon dioxide when it is burned just as fossil fuels do. The policies feel good and help to shut up the eco-crowd thus we pursue them.

 Tax increases and oppressive environmental legislations are making conventional oil and gas production more expensive than ever. Many of these added burdens usually are justified by pointing out that the world needs to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Still to this day, there has not been any actual proof that carbon dioxide emissions are indeed causing climate change or that our reduction of them would have any impact at all on the climate. Why let facts get in the way of good global hysteria though? Al Gore makes a movie laden with untruths and exagerations that a court actually exposed and laid out.    Instead of public shunning, Gore got a Nobel peace prize to bring up up to par with fellow winner Yassir Arafat.

 So, we have made it increasingly expensive to drive. We are causing food prices to shoot up. Where to next?

 Well in Alberta we have decided to go after coal. Alberta has 70% of Canada’s coal reserves and much of it is the cleanest type of coal to be found. Much of Alberta’s electricity is coal generated and we have enough here to keep generating through coal for generations.

 Rather than make use of this resource we have decided to make it more expensive as well. While I am hardly a bleeding heart, I do feel for people on fixed incomes such as seniors who somehow have to cope with this spiraling cost of living that comes with feel-good environmental idiocy. If we follow through with Ed Stelmach’s plans, we can look forward to the cost of electrical generation in Alberta to jump by 50%. Rest assured that jump in cost will go directly to the bills of consumers.

 Windmills kill birds, dams kill fish, oil and gas eat the ozone, coal is dirty and nuclear is simply evil. There is no acceptable means of large-scale energy generation in the world of environmentalism. The modern world is not going away. We depend on energy and a large part of our daily expenses are directly tied to the cost of energy.

 How much longer can we afford to keep shooting ourselves in the feet?

Technorati Tags: coal alberta, ed stelmach, kneejerk, taxes

 Currently the reward for morbidly obese welfare recipients in Toronto is a paltry $20 per month. That paltry number can hardly get blob a small loaded pizza. To address this outrage, a review has proposed that the allowance for obese welfare folks be raised to $51 per month. That will get those overweight recipients at least a couple nights at an all you can eat buffet.

 To qualify for this little extra allowance, a person has to have a body mass index of >40 though the government is considering lowering that bar to >30. As it is at 40 (really damn big) there are currently 31,000 fat folks on welfare who qualify for the pork chop bonus. That means that taxpayers will be spending just a hair less than $1.6 million per month to subsidize the waistlines of fat welfare folks.

 Now in the usual logic of those who insist on pandering to and enabling the irresponsible, it is expected that this extra allowance tacked on to the welfare ticket will be dedicated to purchases of low-fat milk and whole-grain products. Come off it people, these people are grossly fat and not even responsible enough to maintain a job, do you really think that they are going to waddle down to the nearest organic market or gym?

 If anything, the morbidly obese should have their meal allowances cut. Clearly they can live with a little less food intake. These people insist on being wards of the state thus I say the state is obligated to cut these people’s diets for their own good. If the obese welfare crowd wants to maintain their excessive girths, they can do what most of the country does; get a job and buy your own fattening food.  When we read of those who have grown to such a point that they are bedridden, we can’t help but wonder; who is feeding these people? Well, in the case of Toronto welfare recipients it is the Ontario taxpayer.

 With the slippery slope of the naive bureaucrats who like to piss away hard-earned tax-dollars on bleeding heart projects, I don’t doubt that taxpayers will soon be on the hook for welfare recipients overweight pets soon too.

 The creative capacity of socialists who want to waste the money you work hard for is infinite.

Technorati Tags: fat, obese, pop-tarts, Toronto, waste, welfare

 There has been a great deal of righteous hysteria over bill C51 in Canada. This bill would bring herbal remedies on par with regular medicinal treatments as far as control and regulation is concerned.

 There has always been a large segment of people who are suspicious of conventional medicines and turn to “alternative” therapies. From the old traditional snake oil salesmen of the last century to modern “alternative” therapies such as ear candling and touch therapy, there has always been some sort of scam artist pulling people away from proven therapies and into fraudulent ones. Part of the reason for this is people do not like the often blunt and realistic prognosis that they get from conventional MDs. A long and expensive course of treatment may be recommended by an MD or even a diagnosis of in-curability. People going to many herbalists and such will get optimistic prognosis and a “prescription” for some remedy.

 Despite documentaries and articles constantly exposing the fraudulent Mexican cancer clinics, cancer patients are still flocking accross the border for “herbal” and prayer treatments for their cancer. The story is almost always the same. The Mexican “doctors” will declare the patient as cured when they have determined that the patient has no more money to spend and send them home. The “cured” patient will die shortly after coming home to an indebted or even bankrupted family.

 Conventional cancer treatments are terrible to endure and still come nowhere close to a 100% cure rate. One can see the temptation to pursue alternatives after a person has been told that they will have to endure months of sickness and pain and they may still only have a 50% chance of cure for example. What people have to consider though is that the survival and recovery rate with modern cancer treatments is worlds ahead of what they were only a few decades ago. Many cancers are no longer the death sentences that they used to be and many people have been able to enjoy a lifespan lengthened by decades due to modern treatment.

 I am not lumping herbalists in general as being as terrible as the odious souls running the Mexican cancer clinics. Most principled herbalists will recommend their clients to MDs when they  appear to have symptoms of something beyond herbal therapies. What I do want to illustrate though is the danger of eschewing modern and proven therapies for some of the “alternative” therapies.

 People often like to point out that herbal remedies are safe because they are natural or organic. There are countless natural and organic plants out there that will kill a person with a microscopic dose. A plant or fungus is hardly guaranteed to be safe simply because it has grown wild in the woods.

 Another defense of some alternative treatments is to point out that some have been used for hundreds or even thousands of years. This shallow defense of these treatments overlooks how low life expectancies were only a hundred years ago. In past times, people drilled holes in people’s skulls in order to let the evil spirits out. That practice was common and accepted at the time. Shall we embrace that traditional therapy again?

 Another common defense (though we certainly don’t hear it as much now) of herbal therapies was that they have never been properly studied thus we must assume that they are effective until proven otherwise. The reason that I say we don’t hear that defense as much as we used to is due to the fact that many herbs have now had proper clinical studies conducted and they have proven the herbal remedies to often be completely ineffective.

Echinacea has been a popular purchase for many as herbalists have informed people that it is effective in warding off and treating the common cold. With a proper study however, echinacea has unfortunately proven to be completely ineffective.

Ginkgo biloba has been prescribed as a remedy for tinnitus. This herb has now had a proper study and been proven to be completely ineffective.

Black cohosh has been recommended by naturopathic “doctors” as an alternative to hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women. With proper clinical study, this herb has been found to be completely ineffective.

St. Johns Wort has long been recommended as a treatment for depression. A clinical study was conducted and the herb was found to be completely ineffective.

 Not only have many of these herbal treatments been found to be ineffective, they often can have side-effects and interact dangerously with prescription medications. St. Johns Wort in particular can have reactions from “seratonin syndrome” to nullification of oral contraceptives. I wonder how many herbalists warn purchasers of this?

 People have to understand that a product in the suppliments aisle is not guaranteed to be safe. Iron suppliments are very common but an overdose of iron can be deadly. While doctors and herbalists agree that vitamin suppliments can be very beneficial, they still can be dangerous if a person overdoses.

 The proposed government bill will require such things for alternative medicines as warnings regarding misuse as well as proper content labelling. Because herbal remedies have been under very little control, the purity and dosages of many products can vary wildly from brand to brand. While some herbs may indeed be effective, the effacy can be lost if the product has reduced purity or is of poor quality. The consumer has no way to see these things right now.

 There may indeed be some excellent herbal remedies hiding out there that can replace conventional medicines more effectively and cheaper. Until proper studies are conducted however, we have nothing but anecdotal evidence to rely on which is exceedingly shakey at best. Many people do feel better due to the placebo effect of herbal suppliments. Why pay for expensive herbs as a placebo when cheap glucose pills can be given just as effectively?

 Many in the herbal industry oppose this bill as they know that their products will never be able to withstand the scrutiny that conventional medicines are exposed to. With exposure to proper study, many products will likely leave the shelves as they are proven to be impure or ineffective. Again people, keep in mind that proper studies may make great discoveries from the herbal world as well.

 Many people have a general distrust of the medical establishment. Conspiracy theories abound about how “Big Pharma” and doctors are suppressing natural remedies for profit. Considering how overworked Canada’s doctors currently are, I really don’t think they need to resort to some international conspiracy in order to keep business booming. Conspiracy theories are convenient for many as of course you never have to prove them, you simply blame the lack of evidence on the conspiracy itself. Human nature and the volume of people involved pretty much debunk almost every conspiracy theory. It is hard to believe that hundreds of thousands in the world medical community are all part of this conspiracy.

 Bill C51 may not be perfect, but it is a step in the right direction. Consumers deserve to know what they are purchasing and what the risks/benefits may be. I find it ironic that those howling about this bill are often the same people demanding better food labelling to identify organic foods or GM foods. Why do they not want their products to be held to the same standard that they are demanding of commercially produced foodstuffs?

 The goal is to find the most effective treatments and cures for maladies in a cost-effective way. I am sorry that some backyard herbalists may be put out of business by this. If you are going to claim something, you should not be afraid to have it exposed to study.

 As I said, bring on the studies.

Technorati Tags: C51, healthcare, herbalists, medicine

Now while I am generally a regionalist and am more often than not being in favor of the provinces making their own decisions, I do recognize that as long as we insist on the feds holding the purse-strings in our socialized medical system, they have the right to call some of the shots.

 Conservative MP, Pierre Poilievre says that Ottawa should cut the expenditures on sex-change operations from federal health transfers to the provinces.

 The reality of socialized medicine is that we have a finite pool of spending and that spending has to be prioritized. In a perfect world we would have a bottomless pool of cash to throw at every Prince Charming who wants to become a princess. Sadly, the world is not perfect and we have much better things to do with our increasingly dwindling healthcare dollars than to fund sex-changes.

 If a person feels that bigger breasts, a better nose or a lack of a pecker will benefit their mental well-being, hey power to ya. Spend your own money on it.

 If a person is mentally confused and thinks they are Napolean, shall healthcare pay for surgery to shorten them to help them fit the role? The possibility of surgical intervention to ease the mentally confused is endless, our taxdollars are not.

Technorati Tags: Canada, healthcare, sex change

 Ahh I see that the United States has leaped out and declared polar bears to be a threatened species. This is despite estimated polar bear populations having doubled in the last 40 years.

 I wonder how much the speed of growth must increase before populations are considered stable?

 Now this declaration will have some impacts of that there is no doubt.

 The push to ban aboriginal guided polar bear hunts will now have more strength to it. Sure that industry is only worth a few million a year, but in considering how few people actually live up there this is a strong economic hit to them. But hey, why not put a few more native people on welfare in order for latte-lappers in urban areas to feel better about protecting them cute fuzzy critters eh?

 The next impact will be an increased push against Arctic oil exploration.  Ironically, those opposed to Arctic oil production are often those who are howling about high energy costs. You cant have it both ways guys.

 This is an area where I have some knowledge. I just got back from spending a few months on the Beaufort Sea a little while ago. That was my third winter spent in the Arctic working on oil exploration projects. My company builds maps and measures ice-thicknesses to assure the safety of workers up there.

 I love working in the Arctic. I have had the rare privilege of seeing a wild polar bear among other animals and they are beautiful. I would never want to see these animals threatened with extinction.

 What I am stumped on though is how people think oil exploration is going to harm polar bears? So far in three years up there, the worst incident that I have seen due to our operations has been a ptarmigan that got hit by a truck on an ice-road. No polar bears have even come close to being harmed yet.

 When working on the sea, our prime form of transportation is shown below.

 While those nodwells are pretty handy on the ice, rest assured they do not move quickly enough to run down a polar bear. Anti-freeze is specially contained and we have pans under all vehicles in order to avoid leaving so much as a drip of motor oil on the ice.

 Oh and Paul there who is pictured above will likely end up on welfare as will his kids if the environmentalists have their way. I keep saying the welfare thing simply as it is true. There are not many ways to make a living in the Arctic. The oil and gas industry offers generations worth of prosperity for native populations in the North. While the latte-lappers like to envision noble Eskimos living in igloos in tune with nature, they seem to always forget to ask the aforementioned natives if indeed that is what they want. Rest assured, while most northern aboriginals proudly embrace many traditional aspects of their culture, they are not eager to return to the harsh days of living on the land with a life expectancy under 30 years.

 For our accomodations we stay in barge camps that are towed out in summer and frozen in for the season. We only work winters as transportation is easier and our environmental impact is nil. All waste is trucked out and taken to approved disposal facilities.

 Part of my posting pics is simply to show where I disappear to every winter, the other part is to point out that I do have some idea what the hell I am talking about regarding Arctic issues. The usual (urban dwelling) environmentalist reaction to criticism is that the critic has no knowledge of such issues.

 We have repeatedly dedicated space in our camps to university groups and such who are doing arctic studies and are on limited budgets. Yes those evil oil companies are actually encouraging impartial impact studies. I am happy to announce that a group studying seals who resided briefly with us a few years ago found that seal populations in active oil areas were far higher than they had anticipated. They seemed almost disappointed to discover that we had not been having a negative impact.

 That is the reality. Modern oil development in the Arctic has virtually no negative environmental impact.

 Environmental controls have a role and it is an important one. Blind opposition to development and kneejerk reactions to issues do not help anybody however.

 The world is suffering under high energy prices. There is tremendous amount of oil and gas in Canada’s Arctic. Rest assured if this is ever brought onstream we can see some easing on the cost of living for many Canadians. We also will see the employment of countless Inuit, Dene and Inuvialuit people up there who currently have nothing but dependency to look forward to. So far though, not a drop of Arctic oil or gas has been brought to market as the pipeline application has been mired by environmental challenges for decades.

 The energy companies and their contractors do not want to harm the environment believe it or not.

 Everybody involved will be better off if we keep our environmental concerns based within reality. The listing of polar bears by Americans as threatened was baseless and will have negative impacts on us all.

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