Opinion by Helge Nome
“Despite its strong denial of any involvement and expressions of sympathy for lost fellow Koreans, fingers are being pointed at North Korea over the tragic sinking of the 1,200-ton South Korean corvette Cheonan in the West Sea or Yellow Sea on the night of March 26.”
So begins an article in Asia Times Online by Kim Myong Chol, a North Korean with close ties to Kim Jong-il, the North Korean ruler/strong man. The sinking of the Cheonan has been a prominent story in the main news media recently, before being overtaken by more spectacular events in the last few days. The Obama administration has pointed an accusing finger at North Korea, siting “irrefutable evidence” involving recovered torpedo parts of North Korean origins. Now, North Korea stands accused and summarily judged by its accuser which is using the incident to build support for isolating North Korea even further from the world community.
This story has a faint ring of familiarity for those that remember the “evidence” presented to the UN Security Council by the US “proving” that Iraq had a supply of “Weapons of Mass Destruction” that could be used against the US on short notice.
This has since been proved to be a total fabrication of facts fueled by post 9/11 paranoia. The decision to invade Iraq had been made long ago in Washington and London and all that was needed to go ahead was a pre-fabricated excuse.
Then there was Vietnam. From Wikipedia:
“The second Tonkin Gulf incident, which occurred on August 4, 1964, was also a naval battle, but this time, may have involved the "Tonkin Ghosts"[7], and no actual NVN Torpedo Boat attacks. The outcome of this second incident was the passage by Congress of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be jeopardized by "communist aggression". The resolution served as Johnson's legal justification for deploying US conventional forces and the commencement of open warfare against North Vietnam.”
Back to the Korean incident, according to Kim Myong Chol: “The disaster took place precisely in the waters where what the Pentagon has called "one of the world's largest simulated exercises" was underway. This war exercise, known as "Key Resolve/Foal Eagle" did not end on March 18 as was reported but actually ran from March 18 to April 30.” See Kim’s story here
How likely is it that a North Korean submarine would have entered into South Korean waters with such an exercise under way? And attacked a South Korean naval vessel, while there? It would have been a suicide mission. What most likely happened was an accidental collision between vessels that were part of the exercise that has now conveniently been blamed on the North Koreans for political reasons. The complete absence of critical thinking on the part of the mainstream media has been duly noted.
Do those guys ever get out of the bar?
Monday, May 31, 2010
Red Deer Royals show
The Red Deer Royals marching band put on a great show on the school grounds in what has become an annual event in Caroline. The Royals take this show on the road over the summer and many locals miss out on this event in Caroline. The band also participated in the annual parade below.
Getting ready for the parade
The Caroline Lions Club provided pancake breakfast on Main Street from 8am on MAY 22.
Olympic medal winner
Lyndon Rush from Sylvan Lake was a member of the four man bobsled team that went on to win a bronze medal for Canada at the Vancouver Winter Olympics this year.
Cool table
This table, located at the Caroline Museum, was not for sale at big yard sale on May 22.
And nobody used it because the weather was just too cold.
Dark Filament on Aten
This SDO close-up of a filament and active region, taken in extreme UV light, shows a dark and elongated filament hovering above the Sun’s surface (May 18, 2010). The bright regions beneath it, which show where heating is going on in the magnetic field, send up shafts of plasma that trace magnetic field lines emerging from them. Filaments are cooler clouds of gas that are suspended by tenuous magnetic fields. They are often unstable and commonly erupt. This one is estimated to be at least 60 Earth diameters long (about 500,000 miles). More information here
Monday, May 24, 2010
Pen Meets Paper May 24'10
Opinion by Helge Nome
Clearwater County, in the west-central part of Alberta is in the final stages of coming up with a Municipal Development Plan to guide future development within county boundaries. During this process, which has been going on for many months, a number of public consultation meetings have been hosted by county staff and elected councillors to solicit public opinion on the content of the plan as it has evolved under the hand of the hired consultant and county planning staff.
The contentious issue that has emerged is the creation of rural acreages in what are traditional farmland areas. During the real estate boom in recent years multiple subdivisions have come into being, both on a large concentrated scale and scattered smaller ones all the way down to individual parcels subdivided out of farm quarter sections (for overseas readers: A quarter section is about 160 acres on average).
As it turns out, both traditional rural residents and those that have moved from big cities to settle in the country on these acreages are beginning to react to the ever increasing number of subdivisions created while at the same time realizing financial gains from the process.
The outcome to date is a slightly bewildered county council trying to make sense of all the feedback, some of which has been quite acrimonious. One irritant has been the party crowd coming into the west country on holiday weekends, leaving a legacy of beer cans/bottles and bush tracks churned up by powerful quads, though these are hardly the same people that buy land and settle in the county.
The existing land use policy allows anyone to take one parcel out of an undivided quarter, adding some $150,000 to the land value of that quarter. This policy was originally intended to allow an elderly farming couple to retire in their own home by subdividing off the house and yard and sell the remaining farm lands as a retirement nest egg.
Recently, I heard about a speculator buying many quarters just so that he could take this traditional one-parcel-out and make a mint on this transaction without lifting a finger higher than a computer keyboard.
Perhaps this is where things have gone wrong: Land has been turned into a faceless commodity, just like most else in this world. The real durable value of the land has been forgotten in the head over heel chase after the dollar itself, which is deemed to be of supreme value. The result is the fragmentation of potentially productive land into increasingly useless parcels creating a rural sprawl, akin to the urban sprawl around big cities. Is this really what we want, just to be able to create numbers in computers that are supposed to represent wealth?
We need to take a new (old) look at land and regard it as our heritage rather than a commodity.
Clearwater County, in the west-central part of Alberta is in the final stages of coming up with a Municipal Development Plan to guide future development within county boundaries. During this process, which has been going on for many months, a number of public consultation meetings have been hosted by county staff and elected councillors to solicit public opinion on the content of the plan as it has evolved under the hand of the hired consultant and county planning staff.
The contentious issue that has emerged is the creation of rural acreages in what are traditional farmland areas. During the real estate boom in recent years multiple subdivisions have come into being, both on a large concentrated scale and scattered smaller ones all the way down to individual parcels subdivided out of farm quarter sections (for overseas readers: A quarter section is about 160 acres on average).
As it turns out, both traditional rural residents and those that have moved from big cities to settle in the country on these acreages are beginning to react to the ever increasing number of subdivisions created while at the same time realizing financial gains from the process.
The outcome to date is a slightly bewildered county council trying to make sense of all the feedback, some of which has been quite acrimonious. One irritant has been the party crowd coming into the west country on holiday weekends, leaving a legacy of beer cans/bottles and bush tracks churned up by powerful quads, though these are hardly the same people that buy land and settle in the county.
The existing land use policy allows anyone to take one parcel out of an undivided quarter, adding some $150,000 to the land value of that quarter. This policy was originally intended to allow an elderly farming couple to retire in their own home by subdividing off the house and yard and sell the remaining farm lands as a retirement nest egg.
Recently, I heard about a speculator buying many quarters just so that he could take this traditional one-parcel-out and make a mint on this transaction without lifting a finger higher than a computer keyboard.
Perhaps this is where things have gone wrong: Land has been turned into a faceless commodity, just like most else in this world. The real durable value of the land has been forgotten in the head over heel chase after the dollar itself, which is deemed to be of supreme value. The result is the fragmentation of potentially productive land into increasingly useless parcels creating a rural sprawl, akin to the urban sprawl around big cities. Is this really what we want, just to be able to create numbers in computers that are supposed to represent wealth?
We need to take a new (old) look at land and regard it as our heritage rather than a commodity.
Back from Afghanistan
Dillon Gordon from Caroline returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan with colleagues from the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Regiment in early May and is currently spending some time with family and friends in Caroline before returning to active duty. Dillon spent two years in High School in Caroline before going to Calgary to join the famous regiment in January 2008. He received his basic military training and mission training in Manitoba before being deployed to Afghanistan in January this year. His job was to do foot patrols in Kandahar, helping to provide security for reconstruction and maintenance work in that city. In an interview at a family backyard BBQ in his honor on Saturday, May 15, Dillon said that Canadians had to compete with the Taliban to win the hearts and minds of the local people by providing them with what they need to improve their lot. It was impossible to predict where and when an attack would take place, creating a very tense situation for everybody involved.
Proud family
Dillon Gordon with his mother Colette and father Wes beside him at a family BBQ in Caroline on May 15. On left, Grandpa Jack Gordon and on the right Grandma Edna Mason and Grandpa Bill Minni.
Springtime at Crammond
This busy bumble bee helped itself to some early nectar at a flowering Nanking Cherry tree. Spring has arrived, finally.
Grad Tea speaker
Photo credit: Elaine NomePam Wright elaborated on the theme for the occasion, "Dream, believe, achieve" at the Legion Hall on Sunday, May 16. The small group who attended received a big treat with a piano prelude by Linda Proudlove, The Home Town Kids singers, Micah Turchet on guitar and Pam Wright as guest speaker. The grad students present received gifts and there were door prizes and snacks available. MC for the event was Joyce Pengelly.
The full text of Pam Wright's speech is posted here
Friday, May 21, 2010
Demoautocracy in Alberta?
Alberta’s demoautocracy is best exemplified by the recent events surrounding a landowners group’s radio commercial that is challenging AltaLink’s request to be paid $35 million dollars for a transmission line that was not built. The landowners are opposed to AltaLink getting paid $35 million dollars for essentially not doing what they were tasked to do!
The radio ad that raises this issue is currently playing on CFCW 790 AM in Camrose, and CHQR 770 AM in Calgary. Next week it will play on CKGY 95.5 FM and Z99 in Red Deer, but other radio stations in Alberta (1060 AM and Sunny 94.1 FM) have refused to accept the group’s money and play the ad for what can only be described as -- fear of retaliation. Further inquiries about this fear produced no results.
Are these radio stations fearful of losing AltaLink’s advertising business? AltaLink does spend prolifically on advertisements, and decisions based purely on commercial advertising revenues are legitimate, but here is the rub! AltaLink does not technically spend its own money to pay for advertising, and the issue regarding transmission lines is not commercial. It is not as if citizens can choose to use another transmission line company. This is purely a political issue. AltaLink is a regulated utility that gets reimbursed by the ratepayers and in effect, is spending the public’s money. So the question arises – is AltaLink in effect using public money, directly or indirectly, pressuring radio stations into a position where they are now unwillingly engaging in the suppression of public debate? The question is not intended to be an allegation. It is a reasonable conclusion based on the observation of the events unfolding, and only if the fear is based on the threat of the loss of AltaLink's patronage. Of course, if the threat of losing AltaLink’s patronage is not influencing the decisions to keep the ad from running, who is – what is, and why the fear?
The citizens responsible for running the ad were denied their right to question the “Need” for the transmission line back in 2007. Now AltaLink wants the public to pay $35 million dollars for its contribution in the 2007 process that was eventually deemed an “abomination of procedural fairness.” In late 2009 the public’s right to challenge or question the need for the transmission line was eliminated altogether by Alberta’s government. Coincidently, AltaLink was a registered lobbyist in support of the Bill that eliminated the public’s right to question the need. So, in effect, AltaLink spent the public’s money in support of eliminating of some of the public’s rights? Is this how the democratic process works in Alberta? Private companies get reimbursed by the public, for the costs they incur working against the public’s interest?
To complicate matters, AltaLink’s senior vice-president is also one of the vice-presidents of Alberta’s ruling PC Party. Now that AltaLink is the recipient of a multi-billion dollar no-bid award to build transmission lines and given that AltaLink successfully lobbied to eliminate the public’s right to question such an award; Alberta’s demoautocracy has more in common with Zimbabwe’s politics and not that of a free democratic society.
Joe Anglin
(403) 843-3279
Rimbey AB
The radio ad that raises this issue is currently playing on CFCW 790 AM in Camrose, and CHQR 770 AM in Calgary. Next week it will play on CKGY 95.5 FM and Z99 in Red Deer, but other radio stations in Alberta (1060 AM and Sunny 94.1 FM) have refused to accept the group’s money and play the ad for what can only be described as -- fear of retaliation. Further inquiries about this fear produced no results.
Are these radio stations fearful of losing AltaLink’s advertising business? AltaLink does spend prolifically on advertisements, and decisions based purely on commercial advertising revenues are legitimate, but here is the rub! AltaLink does not technically spend its own money to pay for advertising, and the issue regarding transmission lines is not commercial. It is not as if citizens can choose to use another transmission line company. This is purely a political issue. AltaLink is a regulated utility that gets reimbursed by the ratepayers and in effect, is spending the public’s money. So the question arises – is AltaLink in effect using public money, directly or indirectly, pressuring radio stations into a position where they are now unwillingly engaging in the suppression of public debate? The question is not intended to be an allegation. It is a reasonable conclusion based on the observation of the events unfolding, and only if the fear is based on the threat of the loss of AltaLink's patronage. Of course, if the threat of losing AltaLink’s patronage is not influencing the decisions to keep the ad from running, who is – what is, and why the fear?
The citizens responsible for running the ad were denied their right to question the “Need” for the transmission line back in 2007. Now AltaLink wants the public to pay $35 million dollars for its contribution in the 2007 process that was eventually deemed an “abomination of procedural fairness.” In late 2009 the public’s right to challenge or question the need for the transmission line was eliminated altogether by Alberta’s government. Coincidently, AltaLink was a registered lobbyist in support of the Bill that eliminated the public’s right to question the need. So, in effect, AltaLink spent the public’s money in support of eliminating of some of the public’s rights? Is this how the democratic process works in Alberta? Private companies get reimbursed by the public, for the costs they incur working against the public’s interest?
To complicate matters, AltaLink’s senior vice-president is also one of the vice-presidents of Alberta’s ruling PC Party. Now that AltaLink is the recipient of a multi-billion dollar no-bid award to build transmission lines and given that AltaLink successfully lobbied to eliminate the public’s right to question such an award; Alberta’s demoautocracy has more in common with Zimbabwe’s politics and not that of a free democratic society.
Joe Anglin
(403) 843-3279
Rimbey AB
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Big Mystery: Jupiter Loses a Stripe
Lost: A giant belt of brown clouds big enough to swallow Earth twenty times over. If found, please return to Jupiter.
May 20, 2010: In a development that has transformed the appearance of the solar system's largest planet, one of Jupiter's two main cloud belts has completely disappeared.
"This is a big event," says planetary scientist Glenn Orton of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. "We're monitoring the situation closely and do not yet fully understand what's going on." Full article here
Monday, May 17, 2010
Pen Meets Paper May 17, 2010
Opinion by Helge Nome
We are now about to enter a predictable and very painful stage of the “Great Recession”. Reckless spending and speculation in the private sector initially created a sense of panic resulting in massive bailouts of private financial institutions by governments across the world. That meant that the financial junk created by financiers, laying claim to have some kind of value, was exchanged for good money by politicians directly connected to these same financiers. Fraud was committed on a grand scale.
The next stage in this crisis is that governments that issued bonds and borrowed in order to raise money to pay for all the private financial junk are no longer able to make payments on that debt without incurring new debt at an ever higher interest rate. It is a self destructive process that feeds on itself.
What is the other alternative? You guessed it: Raise taxes and cut government services in order to feed the debt monster. And that monster is precisely the same one that created the problem in the first place. If we comply and keep feeding this monster it will eventually consume us, beginning with the most vulnerable.
Here in Alberta, Canada and the world generally, there will be massive cuts in government spending as the option of raising money through bond issues, or borrowing, gets increasingly costly. A sovereign nation has the legal ability to simply print its own fiat money and exchange it for outstanding bonds, but that has a net effect of increasing the total money supply and so decrease the value of each monetary unit (inflation). Those on fixed incomes and those with savings are the big losers here. There is no easy way out. We are really going to feel it now, just like our parents and grandparents did in the thirties when the catch cry was: ”There is no money!”
However, every problem has a long term solution. As a nation, Canada needs to become economically self sufficient and produce most of the goods and services required by its people. The nation’s money supply can then be regulated by the publicly owned Bank of Canada to match the goods and services available without anybody going hat-in-hand to a bunch of crooked money lenders that have fraudulently hoarded the nation’s money into their own possession.
We are now about to enter a predictable and very painful stage of the “Great Recession”. Reckless spending and speculation in the private sector initially created a sense of panic resulting in massive bailouts of private financial institutions by governments across the world. That meant that the financial junk created by financiers, laying claim to have some kind of value, was exchanged for good money by politicians directly connected to these same financiers. Fraud was committed on a grand scale.
The next stage in this crisis is that governments that issued bonds and borrowed in order to raise money to pay for all the private financial junk are no longer able to make payments on that debt without incurring new debt at an ever higher interest rate. It is a self destructive process that feeds on itself.
What is the other alternative? You guessed it: Raise taxes and cut government services in order to feed the debt monster. And that monster is precisely the same one that created the problem in the first place. If we comply and keep feeding this monster it will eventually consume us, beginning with the most vulnerable.
Here in Alberta, Canada and the world generally, there will be massive cuts in government spending as the option of raising money through bond issues, or borrowing, gets increasingly costly. A sovereign nation has the legal ability to simply print its own fiat money and exchange it for outstanding bonds, but that has a net effect of increasing the total money supply and so decrease the value of each monetary unit (inflation). Those on fixed incomes and those with savings are the big losers here. There is no easy way out. We are really going to feel it now, just like our parents and grandparents did in the thirties when the catch cry was: ”There is no money!”
However, every problem has a long term solution. As a nation, Canada needs to become economically self sufficient and produce most of the goods and services required by its people. The nation’s money supply can then be regulated by the publicly owned Bank of Canada to match the goods and services available without anybody going hat-in-hand to a bunch of crooked money lenders that have fraudulently hoarded the nation’s money into their own possession.
Shell donation to Caroline Playschool
Barb Bouchard from Shell presented a cheque for $1000 to Donna Wagoner from the Caroline Playschool Society on Thursday, May 6 at the playschool. The money will be used for equipment and building upgrades.
Caroline Farmers' Market is back
Betty Klooster presented her Tupperware collection at the market which is now open every Friday from noon to 3pm over the summer in the complex curling area.
New Caroline business hosts Open House
Pure Hair Design and Body Works, located at the west end of main street on the south side, officially opened its doors for business on Friday, May 7. With five hairdressers on including owner Amy Hindbo, and Massage Therapist Josey Hindbo, comprehensive body care is offered. Custom made jewelry is also available from Jonina Rimmer.
Here, Amy Hindbo is styling Kristina Kemp's hair. Hair arts, colors and perms are available with Raindrop Therapy, massage, including deep tissue, reflexology and pedicures for those that like some extra attention. To top it off, a sauna and shower is there as well. Your personal care team is available for bookings at 403 722-3157.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Is Aten waking up?
The Sun seems to be slowly emerging from its extended solar minimum with five solar eruptions over a four-day period (May. 5 - 9, 2010). SOHO captured the action with its C2 coronagraph in which the sun is blocked out (by the circular occulting disk in the center of the image) to reveal the faint structures in the corona. The white circle represents the size of the Sun. These eruptions were not Earth-directed, and there is little evidence that effects from any of these blasts were felt here at Earth. Check out this video
California: Canary in the coal mine?
Watch Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger present his revised budget for fiscal 2010/11 here
Alberta will likely face a similar situation in 6 months time
Alberta will likely face a similar situation in 6 months time
Unemployed are Unemployed for longer in Alberta
by Dan Sumner
Economist, ATB Financial
May 13, 2010
Job searchers in Alberta have had a tough go of it during
the past two years, and with the provincial unemployment
rate remaining stubbornly high at 7.4%, recovery in the
labour market has been slow. But even more troubling is
that the average length of unemployment continues to
increase, despite the economic recovery gaining traction in
the province.
The average duration of unemployment in Alberta
skyrocketed during the recession from a low of 6.6 weeks
in November 2008 to 18.0 weeks in April 2009 (see graph).
From 2006 to the end of 2008, the average length of
unemployment hovered around 8 weeks, its lowest
sustained level since the last oil boom in the late 1970s and
early 1980s.
Although the duration of unemployment has seen a
spectacular rise during the past 18 months, it is rising
from an unsustainably low level which makes the
increase look worse than it is. Even after the large
increase, the average length of unemployment in
Alberta is below the Canadian average of 19.3 weeks.
The length of unemployment is a very important
statistic in evaluating the health of the labour market.
When people become unemployed for longer periods,
they can suffer ‘skills atrophy,’ which makes finding a
job even harder – unemployment often begets
unemployment. The ultimate solution frequently lies
in obtaining new training or switching careers, which
means bringing the duration of unemployment down
following a recession can take a lot longer than it did
for it to increase.
Economist, ATB Financial
May 13, 2010
Job searchers in Alberta have had a tough go of it during
the past two years, and with the provincial unemployment
rate remaining stubbornly high at 7.4%, recovery in the
labour market has been slow. But even more troubling is
that the average length of unemployment continues to
increase, despite the economic recovery gaining traction in
the province.
The average duration of unemployment in Alberta
skyrocketed during the recession from a low of 6.6 weeks
in November 2008 to 18.0 weeks in April 2009 (see graph).
From 2006 to the end of 2008, the average length of
unemployment hovered around 8 weeks, its lowest
sustained level since the last oil boom in the late 1970s and
early 1980s.
Although the duration of unemployment has seen a
spectacular rise during the past 18 months, it is rising
from an unsustainably low level which makes the
increase look worse than it is. Even after the large
increase, the average length of unemployment in
Alberta is below the Canadian average of 19.3 weeks.
The length of unemployment is a very important
statistic in evaluating the health of the labour market.
When people become unemployed for longer periods,
they can suffer ‘skills atrophy,’ which makes finding a
job even harder – unemployment often begets
unemployment. The ultimate solution frequently lies
in obtaining new training or switching careers, which
means bringing the duration of unemployment down
following a recession can take a lot longer than it did
for it to increase.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Marko's Take: U.S. Budget Deficit Continues To Spiral Out Of Control
Friday, May 14, 2010
Yesterday, we wrote about the huge budget deficits plaguing the Euro-Zone. Greece, the center of attention, has a budget deficit equivalent to approximately 14% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The United States, thought to be much more fiscally prudent, is current running a deficit of 12% of GDP. Latest monthly budget numbers for April indicate a rapidly deteriorating fiscal situation. Full story here
Yesterday, we wrote about the huge budget deficits plaguing the Euro-Zone. Greece, the center of attention, has a budget deficit equivalent to approximately 14% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The United States, thought to be much more fiscally prudent, is current running a deficit of 12% of GDP. Latest monthly budget numbers for April indicate a rapidly deteriorating fiscal situation. Full story here
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Dance Magic recital in Red Deer
The Dance Magic club in Red Deer held its annual recital at the Memorial Center in Red Deer on the weekend of May 8/9. This very popular non-competitive dance club completely filled the stage with enthusiastic dancers at the end of the recital where everyone got to show what they had learned before a very appreciative audience.
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