Climate researchers hard at work solving global warming.

I haven’t been around lately. That’s mainly because I just finished my first term in journalism school and it was extremely time-consuming. Yesterday I even went in to school to finish my last assignment.

As a result I haven’t had time to read the news and write about it. I did do a little catching up today, however, and I enjoyed some articles featured in the National Post pertaining to the global warming fad.

Lawrence Solomon has a good piece about the imminent collapse of the green industry in Canada, an industry that has only managed to stand with the assistance of government subsidization. Ontario’s Liberal government, facing a nearly $20 billion deficit and yawning collapse of industry, has expedited that ruin by investing billions in green technology.

Green subsidies are being slashed globally as nations attempt to rebound from the recession. Spain, France, and even green-obsessed Germany have decided to tone down spending on the green machine, realizing that taxpayers aren’t as generous with these wealth redistributions during tight times.

Meanwhile, climate alarmists are escaping the terrible cold of Europe to partake in taxpayer-sponsored junkets in — of all places — Cancun, Mexico. I suppose they learned their lesson shivering in lineups in Copenhagen last year.

As Rex Murphy writes, “the grim, grey priesthood of sustainable living are convening in one of the great sybaritic strips of the entire Western world.”

The global recession that hit immediately after the crowning of Al Gore’s mockumentary was a fitting antidote to this poisonous fad. And though the co-religionists continue to shun unbelievers of the climate science, most people can’t help but feel as though they’re playing characters in a global play about an Emperor’s invisible clothes.

For a time we feared to speak, lest we be called stupid and ignorant for failing to see the beautiful fabric. But at a certain point one is left with the inescapable truth, its self-righteous pasty nakedness staring you in the face.

…were he American.  It’s all at SDA.

Mark
Ottawa

A fair fight? Ezra Levant vs. Dizzie Lizzie May, moderated by Terry Glavin.  Dukes up!  Some highlights of the festival below, lots more at the website:

Elizabeth May to debate Ezra Levant!
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Library and Archives Canada
4:00 PM
Yes, The Showdown in O-Town!  Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada, will be debating Ezra Levant, author of “Ethical Oil:  The Case for Canada’s Oil Sands,” on Saturday, November 13th at 4:00 PM.  Seating precedence will be given to Festival Pass Holders.
OUR THREE MAIN GALA EVENTS

Opening Night Gala
“Kalifornistan”
Friday, November 12, 2010
Library and Archives Canada
Main Auditorium
7:00 PM

The opening night gala is also a fundraiser for the
Military Family Resource Centre which helps
military families in the capital region.

In the shadowy Port of Los Angeles, an insane terrorist stalks a beautiful dancer … while plotting the nuclear apocalypse he hopes will make him a celebrity. KALIFORNISTAN is a darkly comic satire on terrorism made by Canadian actress and filmmaker Govindini Murty and American filmmaker Jason Apuzzo. KALIFORNISTAN follows the deranged leader of a terror cell called ‘Glorious Jihad of Kalifornistan’ as he plots to destroy Los Angeles with a nuclear bomb – while being distracted by a sultry exotic dancer. KALIFORNISTAN fuses film, video, documentary and surveillance footage into a cutting-edge narrative on the violence, narcissism and delusional fantasies that fuel contemporary Islamic terrorism. KALIFORNISTAN takes viewers on a twisted journey of the post-9/11 world from Gitmo to Iran, from the dark corners of LA harbour into the mind of a terrorist too deranged even for Al Qaeda.

Human Events says of KALIFORNISTAN: “The film clicks as strong, effective satire … Kalifornistan … dares to see the average terrorist for what he truly is — a laughably warped soul with a world view shaped by Islamic radicalism — and too many extremist blogs … and once you meet the terrorist at the heart of the film you’ll wonder why more filmmakers haven’t taken this approach before.” LA’s Daily Breeze says that “Kalifornistan may be the South Bay’s 21st century cinematic equivalent of Gone in 60 Seconds, the 1974 cult classic.” Online journal Rational Review says that KALIFORNISTAN “is beautifully shot” and “it’s Fellini meets Kubrick.”

Govindini Murty is an Ottawa native who co-founded the Liberty Film Festival in Los Angeles with her husband Jason Apuzzo in order to provide a greater diversity of viewpoints in Hollywood. Murty and Apuzzo have been frequently featured in the media, are independent filmmakers, and are also the Co-Editors of Libertas Film Magazine.

Speakers after the film:  Govindini Murty and Jason Apuzzo

A Night with Philippe Karsenty
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Library and Archives Canada
Main Auditorium
7:00 PM

Philippe Karsenty, internationally known media analyst and founder of Media-Ratings, a media watchdog which monitors the media in France and who exposed the false allegations that Israeli soldiers killed a 12-year old Palestinian, Mohammed al-Dura during a gun battle in Gaza in 2000.

Following Mr. Karsenty’s reporting that France 2, a French television network, had broadcast staged footage of the alleged killing, Mr. Karsenty was sued for libel by the network. He succeeded in having a lower court judgment overturned by the Paris Court of Appeal in May 2008.

Karsenty was born in France. When he was 26, he set up a share-trading company on the Paris Bourse and continued to work as a broker until 1997.  In 1996, he set up a business consultancy, and in 2002, ran for Parliament on a center-right ticket, losing to Nicolas Sarkozy. In 2008, he was elected Deputy Mayor of Neuilly.

Please join us for this M. Karsenty’s incredible presentation. Q&A session will follow his presentation, and then please join us for a reception outside the main auditorium.

Closing Night Gala
“The Stoning of Soraya M”
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Library and Archives Canada
Main Auditorium
7:00 PM

Academy Award® nominee Shorheh Aghdashloo stars as Zahra, a woman with a burning secret. When a journalist (Jim Caviezel) is stranded in her remote village, Zahra takes a bold chance to reveal what the villagers will stop at nothing to hide. Thus begins the story of Soraya (Mozhan Marnò), a kind woman whose cruel, divorce-seeking husband trumps up false charges of infidelity against her, which carry an unimaginable penalty.

Soraya and Zahra attempt to navigate the villagers’ scheming, lies and deceit to prove her innocence. But when all else fails, Zahra must risk everything to use the only weapon she has left – her voice – to share Soraya’s shocking story with the world.

Speaker:  Writer:Director Cyrus Nowrasteh

From the Wall Street Journal:

“The Stoning of Soraya M.” is as blunt as the rocks hurled in the execution of its title. The independent film, set in an Iranian village in the late 1980s, tells the story of a woman falsely accused of adultery, then put to death according to religious laws enacted after the country’s Islamic revolution. A grisly climax helped doom the film’s chances for traditional distribution in the U.S., but the filmmakers say it was essential to call attention to the horror of stoning, which still occurs in Iran and some other Muslim countries, according to human-rights groups.

“A movie like this needs to be absolutely uncompromising in its approach. The subject demands it,” says director Cyrus Nowrasteh, who was born in Colorado to Iranian parents. He has tackled sensitive topics in his previous work, such as the ABC miniseries “The Path to 9/11,” which he wrote and produced.

TICKETS

FULL FESTIVAL PASSES $68 (incl. HST) (includes access to all Galas and all films) GALA TICKETS $22.60 (incl. HST) (Galas include private reception) FILM TICKETS $17 (incl. HST) All tickets are available from TicketWeb Toll-Free: 888-222-6608 Tickets also available at : Compact Music (785 1/2 Bank Street and 190 Bank St.) Ottawa Folklore Center (1111 Bank Street)

SCREENING VENUE

All events and films take place at Library and Archives Canada located at Library and Archives Canada 395 Wellington Street Ottawa, ON K1A 0N4 Canada: VIEW LOCATION MAP

Mark
Ottawa

Read this Washington Post story and see who ain’t there:

Wariness abroad of new order in U.S.

“Canada’s National” whatever is certainly running up the wariness flag as fast as it can:

With new Congress, Canada can expect trade, border flare-ups

But wasn’t it the Democrats who were trying to block the planned new pipeline for Alberta oil sands crude, besides hammering the sands themselves? So why the Globe’s instant wariness?  Creating more “news” to suit their agenda?  And Postmedia News is no better with a piece that really has very little to do with trade, and in which Jumpin’ Jack Layton tells a real porkie:

Republican tide likely to hit Canadian trade
Obama also ditches plan to legislate carbon cap-and-trade system
…
NDP leader Jack Layton said he suspects trade relations will continue to dog the Canada-U.S. relationship…

He predicted Canada-U.S. trade will emerge as an issue in the run up to the presidential election in 2012, as it did during the campaign that ended with Obama’s election two years ago…

What blinking balderdash. If Canada-U.S. trade (as opposed to Mexico and NAFTA) was an issue in 2008 not one American in a thousand knew it. Canadians really need to get a grip on reality instead of stupidly navel gazing.

Otherwise some sense from Norman Spector about the Americans needing fewer Canadian pols:

Dumbest Canada-U.S. initiative ever
…
In short, can we now agree that it’s a good idea for Canadian politicians to stay out of U.S. partisan politics entirely — however tempting it might be to curry favour back home by being seen to stand up for our values in the United States?

Mark
Ottawa

This has been blazingly obvious to anyone who thinks about it–I guess that excludes governments fanatic about CO2 emissions reductions.  Good on Greg Keenan of the Globe and Mail (pity story is just in the Business section):

Green car revolution won’t be as advertised

An electric car made by Mini [test drive by The Economist]

The looming takeover of the world’s roads by “green” vehicles is hitting a yellow light.

The tens of billions of dollars being spent by auto makers and governments to develop environmentally friendly vehicles won’t transform the fleet by 2020 unless they lead to a breakthrough that dramatically reduces costs, consulting firm J.D. Power and Associates said in a study examining how plug-in hybrids and battery-powered vehicles will fare in the coming decade.

“Auto makers will be challenged to convince consumers to invest in these relatively expensive and unproven technologies,” said the 70-page study, called Global Hybrid and Electric Vehicles: More Hope than Reality During the Next Decade…

The cost of hybrid-electric vehicles and battery-powered cars and trucks will limit consumer demand, J.D. Power noted. They will make up just 7.3 per cent of the 70.9 million vehicles that will be sold globally in 2020, the report predicted.

Consumers won’t embrace such vehicles in large numbers unless there is a big jump in the price of gas, co-ordinated government policies to encourage drivers to switch out of internal combustion engines, or a major breakthrough in the technologies that would reduce cost and improve consumer confidence.

“None of these scenarios are believed to be likely during the next 10 years,” the study said.

The race to develop environmentally friendly vehicles is being driven mainly by government regulations that require auto makers to reduce the emissions generated by their fleets…

What Americans (and lots of Canadians) really like to buy:

Ford just keeps on truckin’

More reality:

Cars and electric fairyland: Not much jolt from the Volt

Also:

Auto emissions: Electric reLeaf?

Mark
Ottawa

Further to this post,

What, who is good for Ontario? And how’s your hydro doing?

further lack of confidence in the Ontario Tories:

Lawrence Solomon: Ourtherntario power lesson
Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak is a keynote speaker on Thursday [Oct. 14] at the Ontario Energy Association. Here is the speech he should, but won’t, give.

…I am here to say that, if elected premier, I will not shut down our perfectly viable coal plants, I will not subsidize one more windmill or solar collector or nuclear reactor or hydroelectric plant. Instead of pretending that I and my party can pick better winners in the electricity business, I will let Ontario households and Ontario businesses choose by finishing the privatization that Mike Harris began. Once the power system is privatized, competing companies will be free to produce all the electricity from wind, solar, nuclear, coal — what have you — that Ontarians are willing to buy, as long as the power producers do it on their own dime, without subsidies of any kind…

This takes me to my final promise this morning. Until today, I have pussy-footed around in my criticism of the Green Energy Act. No longer. If elected, I will repeal The Green Energy Act as well as privatizing the power sector. I will end the politicization and bring Ontario back from the brink.

Mark
Ottawa

Publius wonders, with a touch of despair:

The Man of Mush

The Dalt retreats:

Residents pointed out the obvious problems with the plant: it was smack in the middle of an area filled with schools and homes. Oakville already has its share of big industry — a mammoth Ford plant for one — and the air already suffers for it.

Too bad. This was one line Dalton McGuinty wasn’t going to cross. He was determined to show other communities he could stand up to pressure, and that his devotion to green energy outweighed his concern about his party’s popularity.

Until Thursday. Then, all of a sudden, Energy Minister Brad Duguid shows up in Oakville and announces that — ta-da! — the plant isn’t needed any more.

Let me admit something that bloggers, and writers in general, don’t often admit: I have no idea. I have no idea if Oakville is a good place to build a power plant. I suspect not. Surely we could bulldoze large swaths of Scarborough, with no one being aware. Better to put a gas power plant in Scarberia than in one of the nicest spots in all of Ontario. Just from the common sense view of the problem…

…The sad sorry thing is that Tim Hudak might not be much of an improvement.

More, from Matt Gurney in the National Post’s “Full Comment”:

Ontario’s power plans fade to black
…

So let’s review. Gas power is good until someone says it’s not, then it’s cancelled. Wind power is hated and expensive and, oh yeah, only works when it’s windy, so you need gas power as a backup … and those are getting cancelled. So we could go to solar power, except McGuinty already backtracked on that, making a lot of potential investors nervous. And our plans to build nuclear reactors to pick up the slack are on hold. Well, then. I guess we should count ourselves lucky that the population is “only” projected to grow a mere 36% over the next generation.

…As long as the cost remains reasonable … What? It’s not? It’s going up and up and up with no improvement in service and despite claims that smart metering would REDUCE our bills? Good Lord, Ontario. Why do you put up with this insanity?

Plus from Marvelous Margaret Wente of the Globe and Mail:

When it comes to power in Ontario, we’re in the dark

Actually I think the picture is pretty clear.

Mark
Ontario

…surely it’s a good thing. That’s what Peter Foster at the Financial Post thinks:

The growing fallout of the shale revolution
A sign that shale gas has great potential is that greens are trying to shut it down

Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert said this week that Alaskan natural gas would likely flow through the province ahead of gas from the Mackenzie Delta. Not so long ago, such a statement would have been regarded as treasonable. Now it appears merely common economic sense. In fact, the real issue is whether either source of Arctic gas will be developed before the age of hydrocarbons ends. That is due to the stunning improvements in the technologies of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling that have made the production of vast amounts of shale gas feasible.

This gas not merely presents the possibility of an economic bonanza in many areas, including B.C. and Quebec, but of enhancing much-coveted U.S. energy independence. It also promises to rearrange energy geopolitics…

So much for running out of hydrocarbons.

As for the geopolitical implications, shale gas, which is also present in large volumes in Europe, promises to reduce the significance of both Russian and Iranian gas, along with those suppliers’ potential for causing trouble. It also augurs a huge boost to gas-fired electricity, and further undermines the economics of nuclear, wind and solar power…

Another sure sign that shale gas has great potential is that environmental activists are trying hard to close it down (or at least use it as a new source of fundraising). At the World Energy Congress, protestors covered in oily-looking molasses (Where’s a hornet’s nest when you need one?) carried banners that read: “No to shale gas.”..

…the Quebec government being hoist on its own green petard. Mr. Charest has made a great point of posturing over climate change, going so far in Copenhagen last December as to criticize Alberta and Ottawa for their wicked ways. Now this pose is coming back to bite him, since gas production will inevitably mean more provincial emissions, about which green groups are publicly fretting…

Related:

American energy pipedreams…

Mark
Ottawa

Conference of Defence Associations’ media round-up, covering:

…
- Afghanistan
- Canadian Forces
- American Defence and Security Issues
- International Security and Defence Issues
- Recommended reading…

I found this especially interesting, esp, about the F-35 near the end; what does our government expect our new fighters really to do (see end of this post)?:

…
In the American Interest, Richard B. Andres provides commentary on the future of the US Air Force and some of the problems associated with its aging fleets.
http://www.the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=861..

Mark
Ottawa

Further to this post of Adrian’s on Mr Levant,

A Good Argument On The Oil Sands

this, received by e-mail, should be more fun than a barrel of…(the festival’s organizer is good friend Fred, do check out the whole festival):

Elizabeth May to debate Ezra Levant!

We have been working on this for over six months and the First Annual Free Thinking Film Festival is going to be an amazing event!

Please visit our official website for the complete schedule of films, presentations and events.

On November 13th, 2010, Elizabeth May will debate Ezra Levant on the oil sands of Alberta – as part of the First Annual Free Thinking Film Festival 2010.

Elizabeth May is the leader of the Green Party of Canada, and Ezra Levant is an author who has a new book out called “Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada’s Oil Sands.”

The debate will take place at the Library & Archives Canada right after the showing of the film, “Mine Your Own Business,” which starts at 2:30 PM on Saturday, November 13th.  The debate should start at approximately 4:00 PM.

“I am delighted to welcome both Ezra Levant and Elizabeth May to our festival,” said Fred Litwin, Managing Director for the Free Thinking Film Society of Ottawa.  “I want to present a fair and honest debate – something of substance for attendees.”

Since seating will be limited, precedence will be given to Festival Pass holders.

The First Annual Free Thinking Film Festival will run between November 12-14th and will feature three Gala Events:

• Kalifornistan
• An evening with Philippe Karsenty
• The Stoning of Soraya M
  

In between the 3 Gala events, the May-Levant debate, the Festival will also show 19 films like “The Cartel,” a film about the power of unions in public schools; “Mugabe and the White African,” a film about the injustice of the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe; “Generation Zero,” a film about the cultural roots of the global financial meltdown; “Atomic Jihad,” a film about Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s coming war for Islamic revival; “Mr. Conservative,” a surprising look at the life of Barry Goldwater; “Do As I Say,” a film about liberal hypocrisy;  “For Neda,” a look at the brave woman Neda Agha-Soltan who was murdered by Iranian militia during protests against Iran’s fraudulent election; “Conflict: The Power of Propaganda,” a Canadian film which looks at media bias against Israel; and “Outside the Great Wall,” a look at 12 prominent Chinese intellectuals and artist fighting for democracy in China.

Earlier from Kate McMillan on Mr Levant and a previous debate:

Ethical Oil

Predate: Fred was interviewed on CFRA Ottawa about an earlier film showing:

…
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
“Crossing”
Madely in the Morning – 8:40am — Steve Madely is joined by Fred Litwin of the Free Thinking Film Society, and Kyung Lee, the founding President of the Council for Human Rights in North Korea based in Toronto. They’ll discuss tonight’s showing at the Library and Archives Canada of “Crossing”, the first major film to capture the dire situation of North Korean refugees & North Korea’s denial of human rights.
mp3 (click here to download)…

Mark
Ottawa