Archive for January, 2009
Furious George Pulls Head From Own Ass and Begins to Listen.
Minister Smitherman began what will be a hard and lonely climb down from some of the more obnoxious clauses contained within the Green Energy Act in today’s Toronto Star
. His much touted, anti democratic, anti environment, pro industry bill written by industry for industry, still has a whole mess of problems, but it appears even Minister Smitherman saw some of it’s clauses as being so obnoxious and ridiculous they are being removed.
Smitherman has backed down on the ‘green energy audits’ this governments latest attack on homeowners. He also appears poised to back down on the reverse onus aspect that said while Toronto Hydro could poison our drinking water without any environmental assessment, I – joe citizen, would in 15 days have to prove they were going to do so, if I wanted to stop them.
In my private meeting with Minister Best, I offered her a legal opinion that the reverse onus was completely ridiculous and could not withstand a court challenge, and mused openly about the optics of citizen’s having to sue their government to get their right’s of participation back. I pointed out that under Canadian common law and through previous court rulings the government stood no chance of defending a clause that it was clear as day the moneyed interests that bought this bill had put in.
I doubt this conversation was enough to throw cold water on the reverse onus, but wonder how many of these conversations were had, and how many letters like mine did Minister Smitherman’s office choose to ignore (I am still waiting on a response and it’s been months) where they were warned.
When Premier McGuinty decided he was actually the meant to help industry screw over communities and came out swinging against mine, I was asked by the Toronto Star respond to his attacks on Scarborough (attacks that will surely cost him seats as he and his party have yet to even try to mend that fence).
“We’re not going away – residents won’t lay down,” said local activist John Laforet, adding opponents are already fired up “because of the way we’ve been treated by the government. I expect residents will only get noisier.” McGuinty vows to stop wind-farm NIMBYs – Toronto Star, February 11th 2009
“If it’s such a great idea, why not do an environmental assessment and prove there are no health risks?” said an angry Laforet. “Why do we need to be bludgeoned by legislation if the facts are on their (the government’s) side?” McGuinty vows to stop wind-farm NIMBYs – Toronto Star, February 11th 2009
While there are signs that Smitherman is understanding the Green Energy Act could be renamed the ‘Legislative Cyanide Act, 2009′ due to it’s impact on the Ontario Liberal Party’s chances at retaining government in 2011, I cautiously wait to see what these amendments will look like, considering we know just how deeply bought and paid for this government is on this issue.
Ontario Liberal Party MPPs need to know they will lose their seats over this bill, even with these changes local municipalities will lose their rights, environmental protection takes a back seat and far too much of the process is decided behind closed doors by bureaucrats who aren’t accountable. Under the current rules, it seems like Mark Patterson of Natural Resources (the approver of Toronto Hydro’s application) is there to carry their water, assisting them in damaging ours, considering he so openly defends a process that as breached more legislation that I even thought possible by a Project Evaulation Report. He too should know, that Scarborough residents are taking names and kicking ass (the ass of reputations that is) and we will not give up until this ridiculous project is dead in the water and the government understands why it was such a bad idea in the first place.
11 Comments »The Adventures Of Annie Mometer
The poem below originated in a wartime publication called “The Breeze.” It was published by the Weather Bureau at the Southern Region Headquarters of the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). I found it when googling Anne Mometer to determine how original that moniker even was.
Other poems from The Breeze can be found at the following link: Poems From “the Breeze”
If you haven’t already voted on where you think Anne Mometer (possibly the granddaughter of Annie Mometer?) works, please be sure to do so soon. Who is Anne Mometer? The results so far are fascinating (I peaked), but if you haven’t already, do vote. When voting stops, I will provide my analysis of the results and confirm where in fact Ms. Mometer works…
…Until then, I leave you with this lovely poem.
THE ADVENTURES OF ANNIE MOMETER
By Lorena Pepper, Ketchikan, Alaska
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, but Anne, and a mouse.
The gadgets were clean and shiny with care,
And Annie* was hoping that the night would be fair.
The offgoing observer had gone for the day
With visions of eggnog ‘fore hitting the hay.
Anne pulled off her kerchief; hung it up in the hall
And sat down to work (She was right on the ball.) –
When out on the grounds there arose such a clatter **
She sprang from the desk to see what was the matter.
Away to the window she flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
A cloud o’er the face of the moon was then going
Leaving just light enough to show Anne it was snowing.
More rapid than eagles to record it she flew
Though, beefing enroute at the change in the view.
She knew kids the next morning would shout with delight
But it snowed and it stopped, required specials all night.
At zero four hundred on Greenwich CT
Snow stopped, the sky got as clear as could be.
The alcohol dropped down to twenty below
But Anne took a pibal, waist deep in the snow.
She spoke not a word, but went straight to her work
And plotted the pibal; then turned with a jerk***
She tried to lay finger aside of her nose
But couldn’t quite make it; the finger was froze.
At zero eight hundred, came relief with a whistle
And Anne disappeared like the down of a thistle.
She was heard to exclaim, skirting snowdrifts so steep,
“Happy Christmas to others, for me just some sleep!”
* The observer on duty.
** Caused by snowflakes grating against each other as they fell.
*** She was too cold to turn smoothly.
In: “The Breeze.” Vol. 2, No. 11, December 10, 1945. P. 8.
No Comments »Who Is “Anne Mometer”?
“Anne Mometer” made the following comment on my blog entry “Jack Simpson – Cover Your Eyes “commercially sensitive” information about the Exhibition Turbine is about to be disclosed…”
Anne Mometer Says:
January 27th, 2009 at 10:11 am edit
Hey John,
Forget the turbines, they should just put you offshore because with all the wind you’re generating you could power this whole province!
So what do we know about Anne?
‘She’ doesn’t have a clue how wind results in power generation. (To think adding more wind to a situation with no turbines could produce power demonstrates that)
‘Her’ assumptions of wind strength (my mouth) and possible generating output (the entire province) demonstrate an inability to effectively decipher between strong, consistent winds needed for wind power generation and no wind at all.
‘She’ has no answer or response to any of the thousands of words I’ve written on the Toronto Hydro Energy Services proposed offshore wind turbine.
‘She’ also does not want to stand behind her words.
What Do I Know About ‘Anne Mometer’
‘Anne’ doesn’t seem to know a heck of a lot about computers.
‘She’ doesn’t know that word press logs the IP addresses of individuals who make comments.
‘She’ doesn’t know that www.statcounter.com logs page activity and IP addresses for the last five hundred visits. They also provide the corporate name of large internet users.
‘Anne’ probably didn’t think I’d try to match the IP addresses in these two locations, but due to the increased attention from a number of organizations I have to say I was genuinely curious.
‘Her’ IP address has visited www.laforet.ca pages 22 30 times between 9:33am and 1:38pm 3:21pm this afternoon (January 27th 2009).
So Who Is Anne Mometer?
‘Anne’ is someone who should know better.
‘Anne’ is part of an organization with a vested interest in this project.
Can you guess where ‘Anne’ works? Vote in the poll below. I’ll be sure to provide the correct answer too.
Voting will close at 8pm tonight.
5 Comments »
