Wildfire in Fort McMurray and the aftermath

The hellish wildfires which presumably started on May 1, 2016 are now hopefully over.  There was some fear that the blazes would spread to Saskatchwan, but it seem they were either contained or died out by May 9th.

From Wikipedia (May10)
On May 1, 2016, a wildfire began 
southwest of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. On May 3, it swept through the community, destroying more than 2,400 homes and buildings and forcing the largest wildfire evacuation in Alberta's history.[5] The fire continues to spread across northeast Alberta, and has impacted Canada's oil sand operations.[6] The wildfire may become the most costly disaster in Canadian history.[7]....

Rick McConnell at CBC  (May 10)
Fort McMurray is 'still alive,' fire chief says — but safety concerns linger
'This is rewriting the book on the way a fire moves, on the way a fire behaves,' Darby Allen says
On the eastern bank of the Clearwater River, the battle to save downtown Fort McMurray raged for 12 solid hours.

In the end, the wildfire burned to the water's edge. And there, firefighters won perhaps their most significant victory in a long and heartbreaking campaign to save as much as possible of Alberta's oilsands city.

"The fire was stopped there," Fire Chief Darby Allen said, as he pointed to the charred trees on the steep riverbank during a tour through the city on Monday afternoon. "If that fire had got down into the downtown, we would have lost the downtown."......

Lauren O'Neil at CBC  (May 8)
Fort McMurray evacuees share stories  of the wildfire's devastating impact
Residents of the northern Alberta community tell stories of pain, loss and hope

If your house caught fire and you could save only one thing, what would it be?

It's a question most of us have been asked at one point or another – one so common that entire books have been filled with answers to it.

Hypothetically, the choice is a tough one. In reality, you may not get a choice at all.

More than 80,000 Canadians were forced to leave their homes and belongings behind last week as wildfire spread to Fort McMurray, Alta. and surrounding areas.
With as little as minutes to prepare to leave their homes, residents fled without hesitation when a mandatory evacuation order was issued on Tuesday – but many still don't know what will be left of their houses, jobs and already-struggling community when they return.

The wildfire has already destroyed more than 1,600 homes and buildings by the most-recent estimates, and conditions remain extreme despite incredible efforts to combat it. .......

Peter Mills at CBC  (May 8)
Smoke biggest concern as Alberta wildfires creep toward Saskatchewan
Smaller fire in Alberta about 20 kilometres away from the Saskatchewan border

Saskatchewan fire officials provided some good news for the province on Sunday, saying the wildfires in Alberta have not made it over the border this weekend.

However, active fires in the province, smoke from Alberta, and the hot and dry weather continues to be worrisome.

Officials say there are 12 wildfires currently burning in Saskatchewan, and all but two of them are considered contained....

Will Canada's economy suffer big time because of falling oil prices ....

or are we being spooked needlessly?    
Everything points to Canada going through a small patch of hiccups from which we will hopefully recover within the next year.

from Raúl Ilargi Meijer's article at Zerohedge:
The Oil Market Actually Works, And That Hurts  

Please allow me to revert back again a little to what I wrote earlier today in Will Oil Kill The Zombies? I think we need to be clear on what’s going on here. The oil market actually works. And that’s a rarity in today’s world of manipulated everything, of no mark to market, of huge stock buybacks financed by zero interest rates, you know the story......

........Here’s one of the first oil-producing countries about which serious alarm bells are raised. It’s not Venezuela or Nigeria, it’s Canada. From MarketWatch:

Falling Oil Threatens Canada’s Bulletproof Banking System......

......“The drop in oil prices, as mentioned above, will have wide-ranging implications on the Canadian economy,” Pavilion strategists Pierre Lapointe and Alex Bellefleur said in the note. It’s not just that Canada’s banks will find themselves saddled with souring loans from underwater energy producers. The problem, Pavilion argues, is that Canada’s employment rate could suffer as oil-related businesses are forced to close.

 Here’s how they put it: “In this context, the risk to Canadian banks doesn’t stem necessarily from a narrow view of loans to oil companies, but morefrom a broad macro risk perspective. As employment in the oil industry declines, a negative income and wealth shock to many households will take place, impacting a variety of loans (credit card, mortgage) on Canadian bank balance sheets.”...........

Bad news for Canadian Oil and Gold companies

Just take a look at our Oil and Metals sectors and you will want to weep.  How many of the companies we see today will still be around this time next year?  I have a couple of oil and gas stocks I had bought for around $9 and right now both are sitting at below $3.

Ron Bousso writing at Reuters:
More than $150 bln  of oil projects face the axe in 2015

* A fifth of projects at risk with oil at $80/barrel- Rystad
* Oil prices drop puts economics of some projects in doubt
* Canadian oil sands, LNG projects at high risk of delays
* Some North Sea, Arctic and Gulf of Mexico fields on hold

 Global oil and gas exploration projects worth more than $150 billion are likely to be put on hold next year as plunging oil prices render them uneconomic, data shows, potentially curbing supplies by the end of the decade.

As big oil fields that were discovered decades ago begin to deplete, oil companies are trying to access more complex and hard to reach fields located in some cases deep under sea level. But at the same time, the cost of production has risen sharply given the rising cost of raw materials and the need for expensive new technology to reach the oil.

Now the outlook for onshore and offshore developments - from the Barents Sea to the Gulf or Mexico - looks as uncertain as the price of oil, which has plunged by 40 percent in the last five months to around $70 a barrel.

Next year companies will make final investment decisions (FIDs) on a total of 800 oil and gas projects worth $500 billion and totalling nearly 60 billion barrels of oil equivalent, according to data from Norwegian consultancy Rystad Energy.

But with analysts forecasting oil to average $82.50 a barrel next year, around one third of the spending, or a fifth of the volume, is unlikely to be approved, head of analysis at Rystad Energy Per Magnus Nysveen said.

"At $70 a barrel, half of the overall volumes are at risk," he said.....

Cartoon: Keystone Pipeline

Canada stands to gain from EU's conflict with Russia

It's all about money and oil, oil and money.  Always has been, always will be.
Now, the question is:  How will oil and gas supplies route their way to the EU?  I can see oil being shipped, but gas too?  

Yadullah Hussain writing at FinancialPost:
....Europe softens stance   on Canada’s oil sands as relations with Russia sour.

As Europe reels from Moscow’s belligerence and utter dependence on its oil and gas supplies, the Harper government is positioning itself as a reliable partner ready to offer energy security to the continent.

In his first international assignment, Canada’s Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford was out in full force advertising the country’s formidable crude oil and natural gas resources to energy ministers of Germany, France, Italy, Japan, U.K. and U.S. in Rome on Tuesday..........

On the Keystone XL Pipeline issue

The article below tells it all.  It's all about politics and who or what actually controls the people in "power" in the government. The billionaires of the world are our real masters because they control the strings ... the purse strings as well as the strings on their own little puppets.

Byron York writing at WashingtonExaminer:
On Keystone pipeline, Democratic stalwart Laborers Union finds itself outbid by one enviro-billionaire
The Laborers International Union of North America, with about 570,000 members, wants the Obama administration to approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The union has a lot of clout in Democratic circles; according to the Center for Responsive Politics, it has contributed $38,089,860 to political candidates since 1989, with just seven percent of it going to Republicans.

Tom Steyer, the hedge-fund billionaire, wants the Obama administration to block construction of the pipeline. Although a relative newcomer to the political game, he has pledged to give Democrats $50 million, and raise $50 million more, to get his way.

Who has more clout on this issue, the longtime Democratic labor union that has contributed $38 million over the past quarter-century, or the guy who can come up with $100 million for this election cycle alone? The question answers itself. And so no one should be surprised that President Obama has again postponed a decision on the pipeline, and left the Laborers unhappy one more time.

Steyer’s contribution alone — not counting the amount he has pledged to raise — would top the total donations from almost any major Democratic constituency over the last 25 years. According to those Center for Responsive Politics numbers, Steyer’s $50 million is more than the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers has contributed in the last quarter-century ($45,516,130, two percent of it to Republicans). It’s more than the United Auto Workers has contributed in the same period ($41,669,153, zero percent of it to Republicans). It’s more than the Service Employees International Union has contributed ($38,569,790, two percent of it to Republicans). Go down the list. Only two unions — the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees ($61,339,129, one percent to Republicans) and the National Education Association ($58,783,738, four percent to Republicans) — have contributed more in the last 25 years than Steyer plans to give this cycle..........

Keystone XL Pipeline political cartoons

We go to far away countries fighting wars on behalf of Americans but they won't let  our pipelines run through their country.  Nice, eh?!!  That's gratitude for you, Mr. Harper... for continuing to hop and skip to their tune.

The USA is our friendly neighbor and best partner in the whole wide world. Wrong! Very Wrong!

The Americans hold us back just like they hold back the countries that get too powerful for their own good. I don't believe even for a sec that it's only the American Left that's against the XL pipeline.  The Right is also playing a game with us but the Canadian Cons will never admit it to be so.

From AP via CBC:
....Jimmy Carter urges Keystone XL rejection  
Former president says oil pipeline shouldn't be approved.
For the first time, a former U.S. president has come out against the Keystone XL pipeline.

The ex-president in question is Jimmy Carter.

The 39th president joined a group of Nobel laureates to sign a letter urging the current commander-in-chief to reject the pipeline from Canada.

The letter tells Barack Obama that he stands on the brink of making a choice that will define his legacy on one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced — climate change.

“History will reflect on this moment and it will be clear to our children and grandchildren if you made the right choice.... We urge you to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline," the letter reads.

It says his decision will either signal a "dangerous commitment" to the status quo, or "bold leadership" that will inspire millions counting on him to do the right thing for the climate.

Obama has signalled that a decision on the Alberta-to-Texas pipeline is imminent before summer.....

Americans would rather have Arabs come in and steal their resources, become their landlords, control their airwaves, rape their children ....

but they don't want  a Canadian pipeline in their land.  We go to wars for them but do they care about being neighbourly towards us?  Never!

From YahooFinance:
.... Opponents of a proposed pipeline to carry Canadian oil south to the U.S. Gulf Coast have carved a message of resistance into a Nebraska field in the project's path.
The 32-hectare artwork, which was done last week and reads "Heartland#NoKXL," is the latest protest environmentalists and landowners have employed against TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
Critics of the pipeline want President Barack Obama to reject the project because they fear it could contaminate groundwater and contribute to pollution.
TransCanada (TSX:TRP.TO - News) has said the pipeline will have upgraded safety measures, including remote control shut-off valves and frequent inspections. It has already built the southern leg of the pipeline between Oklahoma and Texas.
The section of the project that still needs approval would cross Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas.
More than five years have passed since TransCanada first proposed the project to complement its existing Keystone pipeline.
Last week, 11 Senate Democrats urged Obama to approve the project by the end of May, so that another construction season won't be lost..........

The blatant hypocrisy and double standards of those wishing us ill

IMO, demonizing Canada's oil sands is part of an intensive and extensive project, the only aim of which is to hit our economy.  Neil Young wants to damage our economy by pretending to care about the environment.  Many of us see his tactics for what they are but unfortunately there's  a multitude of  people who are unable to think for themselves and tend to believe everything that conniving people like Neil Young and his ilk choose to tell them.  This is a sad, lonely world for the less intelligent among us.  I pity them. Having pieces of paper to show capital letters after one's name does not an intellectual make. Moreover, in their blind ignorance, latching on to the CBC to be their guide dog while crossing a heavily congested road is pure folly ... especially when the guide dog is a bitch in heat.

Licia Corbella writing at CalgaryHerald:
....Nobody, other than perhaps   the President of the United States, has to fly on a private jet. To lecture others on the evils of oil production and global warming and then choose the most carbon-intensive way to travel, is hypocritical.

The defensiveness is clear. Any question that exposes his hypocrisy he calls “sophomoric.”

In light of the fact that Canada is the largest supplier of oil to the U.S., there’s no doubt that Young has used a lot of Alberta crude and bitumen flying around in those private jets. For someone who hates oil so much, he sure uses a lot of it.

During his four-city tour, Young made numerous other false statement about the oilsands, far too many to list here. For instance, he claimed that the oilsands produce the same amount of carbon dioxide on a daily basis as all the cars in Canada. Does he just pull this stuff out of thin air? According to Environment Canada’s Greenhouse Gas emissions inventory reports, transportation produces 24 per cent of Canada’s GHGs while the oilsands produce just seven per cent. And yet, the oilsands are responsible for about 25 per cent of the value on the Toronto Stock Exchange. That means jobs for us little people clear across the country, including aboriginals and everyone from bricklayers to boilermakers, engineers and nurses.

In total, Canada produces just two per cent of the world’s man-made GHGs, which means the oilsands are responsible for just 0.14 per cent. In 2012, U.S. coal-fired power plants produced roughly 25 per cent of the world’s man-made CO2. Why doesn’t Old Neil protest that?

Young has also stated that the reclamation of mined oilsand lands is a “myth.” Perhaps next time Young’s in the area he can see what it feels like to stand in the middle of a myth called a forest that was planted on a former mine site, where many species live and thrive.........

Traitors in our midst pretending to care about the environment

IMO, Mark Jaccard is a piece of shit.  What are the bets that this guy's bank balance has been made heavier by those who are doing their best to keep Canada from becoming one of the strongest nations in oil production?  

From YahooNews:
....A former Harper government   appointee used a keynote speech at a Washington event Monday to trample Canadian authorities' message on oil pipelines while describing the country as an environmental "rogue state.".....

......Jaccard, an adviser to different governments and a professor at B.C.'s Simon Fraser University, said he doesn't want the oilsands shut down — he just doesn't want them to grow.
"On climate, Canada is a rogue state," Jaccard said.
"It's accelerating the global tragedy ... The U.S. government should reject Keystone XL and explain to the Canadian government that it hopes to join with Canada (on a global climate plan)."
That message stands in sharp contrast to that of the Canadian government, which has spent millions to publicize the benefits to both countries of developing the oilsands.
Jaccard was the headline speaker at a summit tied to a well-connected Democratic donor, the so-called "green billionaire" Tom Steyer, and attended by a number of U.S. media outlets.....

Whom do you blame for the craziness of the Canadian Indians?

I blame the government for anything and everything that is a mess with Native Indians, their protests, their lifestyle, education, standard of living,etc.etc.  just like  I blame the government for anything and everything that is a mess because  of shariah-desiring Muslim immigrants.  Why?  I'll tell you why  ... at least in the case of Indians.  The other problem  is an ongoing, never-ending subject of almost all my posts at this blog.

If the Canadian government, both provincial and federal, had not let the Ontario Indians rampage for months on end in Calendonia   without lifting a finger to either arrest the hooligans or draw up a law to prevent them from harassing citizens of Caledonia,  the Indians would be wary of trying similar tricks that we see today in New Brunwick. 

If the Canadian government had stopped giving free money to the Indians and instead made them work for their money and invested our taxpayers' money in more programs to get them to educate themselves, got social workers visiting their reservations every single day to check on their young people to prevent the rampant incest and human trafficking going unabated in those communities ..... instead of sending taxpayers' money overseas to other countries .... perhaps a bigger percentage of the Indian community would have bettered themselves. 

We have a government in place to protect the laws of the country which laws were put in place for the sole purpose of protecting the citizens and the citizens' property from just such troublemakers.  So, why didn't the cursed Dalton McGuinty, the ex-premier of Ontario do his duty?  Liberals can never answer difficult questions and Conservatives have never learnt how to keep repeating the questions until they are answered truthfully. The losers in these situations are always the ordinary people like us.

When a gardener is blind to small unwelcome shoots showing up where they shouldn't and neglects to uproot and destroy the  potentially thorny poisonous growths, then the gardener deserves to have his prized orchids infested with a bacteria that can spread to the rest of the garden.  Such willfully blind gardeners, in a world not gone blind on the whole, would be fired or thrown in prison and the keys dropped in the deepest end of the ocean.  Sadly for all us commonsense citizens, our world has gone crazy and our crazy gardeners in the halls of power are in charge of our crazy world.

In my opinion, the biggest mistake made with regard to the Indian issue was the fiasco in Ontario.  That and that alone has lead to what's happening now in New Brunswick and spreading to other places.



From CanadianPress via YahooNews:
Tensions at a shale gas protest in Rexton, N.B., remained high on Saturday as a small group of protesters seized vehicles and equipment from two news agencies while others blocked a highway.
Jim Haskins, news director for Global News in New Brunswick, said journalist Laura Brown was at the site of an ongoing shale gas protest around noon when about five protesters confronted another media outlet and seized a vehicle on Route 134.
Haskins said Brown got into her vehicle and locked the door, but was threatened by the protesters.
"They knocked on the window and demanded that she get out of the vehicle and leave it," said Haskins. "At first she refused, but the situation she felt was unsafe and unstable so reluctantly she locked the vehicle, left and started walking away.

RCMP Const. Jullie Rogers-Marsh said police had taken statements from the media and was investigating.
Haskins, who is based in Halifax, said Brown was able to retrieve her vehicle and equipment just after 4 p.m. with the help of some First Nations people. He said no equipment was damaged.
CTV News reported that one of its news crews was also told by the protesters to leave behind their satellite truck and equipment while filming in a warehouse parking lot. Wendy Freeman, the president of CTV News, said in the email the network had no other immediate comment......... 

Ezra Levant writing at his blog:
....Foreign money is radicalizing Canadian Indians.  Thursday’s riot in Rexton, N.B., was an act of eco-terrorism. 
Terrorism is defined as the use of violence, or the threat of violence, to achieve political objectives. 
Anti-oil and gas extremists have not been able to stop perfectly legal, perfectly safe seismic trucks from exploring for natural gas in New Brunswick. So if they can’t convince their fellow Canadians with arguments and facts, perhaps they’ll terrorize them into submission. 
Or maybe even kill them. 

Why else would the rioters have had a cache of high-power weapons at their encampment, including enormous stores of bullets, Soviet-style assault weapons, and even Iraq-style IEDs? 

And these brave “warriors” brought women and children with them. Why? As cannon fodder? As human shields? 
Let us take a moment to praise the RCMP, who took out this large terrorist encampment and made 40 arrests without the loss of life. .......

From CTVNews:
....Hundreds of people have gathered for a meeting  in New Brunswick to talk about an ongoing protest over shale gas exploration.
One speaker at the community hall in Elsipogtog First Nation has apologized to media who had their vehicles and equipment seized by some protesters Saturday.
The apology sparked a standing ovation from the crowd of 300 community members and protesters.
Grand Chief Derek Nepinak of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs is in Rexton to show his support for the protest and arrived at the meeting with Elsipogtog Chief Arren Sock.
The protesters want SWN Resources to stop seismic testing and leave the province..........

From TorontoSun:

...A Sun News Network reporter and four other journalists were swarmed by Native protesters Saturday near a shale gas exploration site in New Brunswick.
Sun News reporter Kris Sims said about eight people threatened her, a Global News journalist, a CTV reporter and two other crew members while they were filming six burned cop cars that were set ablaze by protesters during violent anti-fracking protests Thursday near Rexton.
Sims said a man dressed in camoflouge shouted, “Get the f--- out of here or I’ll break your f---ing cameras! All you tell are lies!”
The same protester then threatened to destroy their cars, vans and video equipment.
“Get your vans out of here before I seize it. Get it out of here right now before I seize it and that’s going where the f---ing other cars were going,” he said while gesturing to the razed RCMP cars.
As the journalists grabbed their cameras and tried to leave, the group surrounded them and demanded that they exit their cars, Sims said.
One woman blocked Sims’ car and threatened to drag her out, she said.
When she was asked who she worked for, Sims said she identified herself as a reporter.....

From GlobalNews:
....A Global New Brunswick reporter and other journalists had their vehicles and camera equipment seized while covering the ongoing shale gas protests in Rexton, N.B.
Hours after a threatening confrontation at the site of an ongoing anti-shale gas protest in northeastern New Brunswick, a Global News reporter was able to safely retrieve her vehicle and camera equipment.
Members of a local Mi’kmaq First Nation community who were at the site of the Rexton, N.B. demonstration were able to escort Global‘s Laura Brown to her vehicle late Saturday afternoon....

Nasty Baddies do their thing at "peaceful protest" in New Brunswick

I would look for a money trail to catch the core culprits behind the violence at the supposedly "peaceful protest" yesterday.  Money changed hands, that's for sure ... and once you find those hands or a whiff of the dirt on them,  you will have caught all the Nasty Baddies who are just tools in the hands of powerful entities determined to keep Canada from becoming the top oil-rich country.   I wouldn't trust the American oil interests either, especially those in bed with oil-rich nations of the Middle East.

From SunNews:
Mounties arrested at least 40 protesters at an anti-fracking blockade in New Brunswick after police cruisers were torched when RCMP moved in Thursday morning.

Charges include firearms offences, uttering threats, intimidation, mischief and refusing to abide by a court injunction.
Native protesters complained they were hit with rubber bullets and pepper spray. They apparently retaliated by torching at least five cop cars.

Mounties said at least one shot was fired by someone other than police and Molotov cocktails were thrown at cops.
The RCMP is also investigating other suspected explosive devices.
Mounties were trying Thursday to enforce an Oct. 3 court injunction at the standoff near Rexton, where SWN Resources Canada is testing for shale gas.
Elsipogtog Mi'kmaq First Nation members have been blocking workers' access to their trucks.
The protesters have been there since Sept. 30.
"The RCMP has worked diligently with all parties involved in hopes for a peaceful resolution. Those efforts have not been successful," RCMP Const. Jullie Rogers-Kent said in a release.
Videos posted online show some protesters cursing at cops and daring them to release their police dogs, while others yelled that there were elders and children present.

Others show a line of police stretched across Hwy. 11, moving slowly to contain the protest, and protesters washing out their eyes from what appeared to be pepper spray.
The area remained closed to traffic as police remained on the scene amid the "large gathering" of protesters, RCMP said.
AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo called for calm on both sides.
"We strongly remind the RCMP that, as in the time of treaty, their role is not to take sides in disputes, but to maintain peace," he said in a release.........

Sarah Palin calls Obama out on Keystone pipeline: Liar on Energy

We got her in our corner because she knows about pipelines like nobody else and knows first hand the abundance of  benefits that the pipeline will bring.  The following is what she wrote at her Facebook wall:

.....LIAR ON ENERGY   
President Obama’s claim that the Keystone pipeline would create “maybe 2,000 jobs” during its construction is such a blatant lie that even his friends at Politifact were forced to rate it false. 

The Alaska pipeline is a good example of the boom created by construction of a pipeline – a job boom that continues to this day with thousands of workers on the North Slope. During its construction and pre-construction phase, the Alyeska pipeline project employed some 70,000 workers from 1969 through 1977. During its peak, that pipeline provided 17% of the U.S. domestic supply of energy – that’s billions of barrels of oil.

To deny the multiple benefits involved in building the Keystone pipeline – from job creation to securing a reliable source of energy from an environmentally responsible country like Canada – is just ludicrous. It’s more of what we’ve come to expect from the Obama administration and his lapdog spokesmen....

Saudi Arabian ghouls whining because even $$$$$$$$$$s thrown at PR firms to demonize fracking fails miserably

Necessity is not only the "mother of invention" it is also the mother of "fracking for oil" in order to escape from the clutches of  Saudi ghouls  and  their blackmail and bribery that the West has been subjected to by the lowest of the species on God's good earth ... the oil-rich Saudis .  Thank you Necessity!  You have made us realize that our survival depends on finding our own oil and gas .... and  giving the Muslim oil producing hellholes  a big fat middle finger.

I wonder how much per hour anti-fracking activists  and anti-Keystone pipeline protesters make from their "real" paymasters, the Saudis, and whether they do it knowingly or not.   

....Saudi Prince: Fracking Is Threat To Kingdom.  A Saudi prince has warned that his oil-reliant nation is under threat because of fracking technology being developed elsewhere around the world.

Billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said the Gulf Arab kingdom needed to reduce its reliance on crude oil and diversify its revenues.

His warning comes as rising shale energy supplies in the United States cut global demand for Saudi oil.

In an open letter to his country's oil minister Ali al Naimi and other government heads, published on Sunday via his Twitter account, Prince Alwaleed said demand for oil from Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) member states was "in continuous decline"..........

Rex Murphy on the unethical Al Gore and his eager beaver fans ....

at the Globe & Mail.   In my opinion, Mr.Murphy is one of the last  clear-headed intellectuals remaining at the National Post.  National Post  used to be a bastion for conservatism, but sadly, not any more.

Rex Murphy writing at NationalPost:
....Because this column is written on Friday, I have no idea   what luminary graces the front page of today’s weekend edition of the Globe & Mail newspaper. But I am still recovering from their choice for the marquee spot last Saturday, when I saw, gleaming at me from a newsstand, a full, front-page photograph of Al Gore.

Such iconography suggests world importance on the scale of Nelson Mandela. Al Gore falls short of that level of epicness by several orders of magnitude.

In truth, Mr. Gore’s star has been fading for years, which is why the Globe’s front-page looked a decade old. His eco-alarmism is stale. The urgency of his early appeal has decayed into mere stridency. The very subject of global warming has grown more complicated.

Which raises the question of how relevant Al Gore is anymore. Has he been saying anything new to earn such a front-page tribute?

As far as I could tell, out of the fogbank of predictable platitudes and eco-mush he served up to his eager Canadian interviewer, the big “news” was that Gore slagged Alberta and the oil sands. He accused Alberta and those who support its oil industry, and the thousands and thousands of Canadians who work at it, of treating the atmosphere of sweet Mother Earth as an “open sewer.” He insisted on the point repeatedly.

Well, stop the presses indeed. Bashing Alberta is every lazy global warming environmentalist’s equivalent of morning prayer. Fort McMurray has been cast to play Hellmouth, the emblem of all that is..............

TVOntario uses our tax dollars to produce violent games

All us taxpayers  will be guilty of murder when such games produced by the publicly funded TVOntario inspire unbalanced individuals to blow up oil pipelines as shown in the game.   If even a single injury, or God forbid...a death is the  result of  TVO's  management giving their approval to this "terrorist" game .... then they definitely don't deserve a single penny from us.  If  they want to produce games, the kind that inspire madcaps to commit arson and murder, then let them produce them without using us as their accessories to potential future acts of arson and murder.

....A controversial pipeline is being pulled off the TVOntario website after sparking outrage in Alberta.

“We recognize the public concern regarding this game and have therefore decided out of an abundance of care to appoint individuals of experience and independent standing to review the game,” TVO said in a letter to Education Ministers Liz Sandals Friday.



TVO’s intention was to pull the video game from its website at least until a report is complete, expected to be by the end of April.

Sandals said she has serious questions about Pipe Trouble — a phone app video game in which a player attempts to build a natural gas pipeline without going so quickly that it causes livestock to die, people to become sick or an angry vigilante to blow up the project.

The game was developed in partnership with the publicly funded broadcaster.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford expressed disappointment that a taxpayer-funded game would depict the blowing up of pipelines.

“It’s exactly opposite of Canada’s interests given all of Canada benefits from a strong and diverse energy sector,” Redford said.

Earlier in the day Ontario Tory MPP Monte McNaughton called for the game to be pulled because it promotes a radical environmental agenda and has become a national embarrassment for the province.

Premier Kathleen Wynne should shut down the project and apologize to Alberta, he said.

Taxpayer-funded TVOntario put $10,000 into Pipe Trouble and $80,000 into the related documentary, Trouble in the Peace, which highlights the battle of British Columbia farmer and father Karl Mattson with gas companies in Peace River.

TVO has defended the entire project as balanced and appropriate, and well within its mandate of engaging people in important issues of the day........

Good News for Canada's Oil Sands .... the safest and the most ethical oil on the planet

All the fear and instability about Western oil interests in Muslim lands is great for Canada's oil sands. I am loving it !!

BP Libya is reviewing to see if their drilling operations in that terrorist-ridden country is safe from savage attacks like the kind seen in Algeria.  Do they really need a review to give them the answer?   BP Algeria is also reviewing the continuance of their operations in that country.  Foolish NATO countries have thrown Libya from a frying pan into the fire.  Thou shalt reap what you sow !

I wonder if terrorists are planning attacks on US Aramco in Saudi Arabia too?   Won't surprise me if one morning we wake up to the news that the Saudi oil wells have gone up in smoke.  Will USA then at long last wean themselves off from Saudi oil  and turn to Canada?

Robert Mendick writing at TheTelegraphUK:
The company is to launch a review   into drilling in the country amid serious concerns over security in the region.
BP signed a $900m (£569m) exploration and production agreement with Libya’s National Oil Corporation in 2007 but suspended the contract in February 2011 because of the civil war that eventually led to the overthrow of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
BP subsequently announced a resumption of exploratory drilling – due to begin in September – but has put that on hold following the murder of Westerners working at the Tigantourine facility in the Saharan desert in Algeria. Four BP employees were among 37 foreign hostages who died in the siege.
BP’s problems in the region are compounded by a Foreign Office warning last week of a “specific, imminent threat to Westerners” in the Libyan city of Benghazi. The Foreign Office urged British nationals to leave the city immediately.
A BP spokesman told The Sunday Telegraph: “We were due to drill in the second half of this year but we are now reviewing that as a result of the situations in Algeria and in Benghazi.
“What has happened in Algeria is absolutely tragic.
“We are committed to returning to Algeria and obviously we are heavily involved in Libya as well but it is only natural we review security and take a look at what we are doing.”

I would so love to torture most Islamic clerics within an inch of their miserable lives

It would be the right thing to do.  How about somebody declaring a "fatwa" for  drones or hit men to go after these guys... although those kind of killings would not give people like me enough satisfaction.  I would prefer a long slow torturous death for vermin like the hate spouting preachers.

I have a simple philosophy when it's a matter of eradicating evil.  Go after the big fish, not the little guys.  The Islamic clerics are the ones who are brainwashing their congregation ... those who are arousing hatred for infidels  are the ones to be silenced.  It's for this reason too that I feel it should be Saudi Arabia that we should be targeting for the most criticism we can fling at it.  It is that nation's  billions of dollars that flow to other countries for  the printing of hate literature to be used as school text books.   It is that nation's  billions of dollars that flow to other countries to train young gullible men and women into becoming suicide bombers and jihadis.   It is that nation's  billions of dollars that flow to other countries' universities, in the guise of  funding benign projects, to entrap the people in charge of those institutions to becoming addicted to the free money.   It is that nation's  billions of dollars that flow to other countries, especially non-Muslim countries for construction of mosques.   It is that nation's  billions of dollars that flow to other countries' NGOs, especially those involved in environmental protection, so they can focus mainly on condemning the development of  oil and gas .... for obvious reasons.

Worse still,  the world, by accepting the manipulation and the bribes from Saudi Arabia, is now beginning to see one more Saudi Arabia-like country on the horizon .... Qatar.  With that, the Judeo-Christian nations have jumped from the frying pan into the fire .... leading the suicide plunge is the United Kingdom.

Mona Alami writing at USA Today:
.... Abu Ghureir al-Traboulsi   spent three months in Syria fighting what he calls the "holy war."
"The afterlife is the only thing that matters to me, and I can only reach it by waging jihad," he said during a recent interview.
Traboulsi is among the many jihadists in the Middle East who are answering a call by radical clerics to enter the fight in Syria to depose dictator President Bashar Assad, according to analysts.

From ArabNews
....The top cleric from Egypt’s   Muslim Brotherhood has denounced peace efforts with Israel, urging holy war to liberate Palestinian territories.
Yesterday’s call by Mohammed Badei came just a day after Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi, succeeded in brokering the truce.
Badei says “jihad is obligatory” for Muslims and that peace deals with Israel are a “game of grand deception.” He says there’s been enough negotiations, the “enemy knows nothing but language of force.”
A prominent Egyptian cleric said at a presidential campaign rally in June that Jerusalem should become the capital of Egypt, in case Musri wins the elections. 
“Our capital shall not be Cairo, Mecca or Medina. It shall be Jerusalem with God’s will. Our chants shall be: ‘millions of martyrs will march towards Jerusalem’,” prominent cleric Safwat Hagazy said, according to the video aired by Egypt’s religious Annas TV.
The Brotherhood and its members don’t recognize Israel and refuse to hold direct talks with Israelis.....

From AlArabiyaNews:
....A prominent Egyptian cleric said at a presidential campaign rally in June that Jerusalem should become the capital of Egypt, in case Musri wins the elections.
“Our capital shall not be Cairo, Mecca or Medina. It shall be Jerusalem with God’s will. Our chants shall be: ‘millions of martyrs will march towards Jerusalem’,” prominent cleric Safwat Hagazy said, according to the video aired by Egypt’s religious Annas TV.....

Raymond Ibrahim writing at FrontPageMag:
 ....According to several     reports in the Arabic media, prominent Muslim clerics have begun to call for the demolition of Egypt’s Great Pyramids—or, in the words of Saudi Sheikh Ali bin Said al-Rabi‘i, those “symbols of paganism,” which Egypt’s Salafi party has long planned to cover with wax.    Most recently, Bahrain’s “Sheikh of Sunni Sheikhs” and President of National Unity, Abd al-Latif al-Mahmoud, called on Egypt’s new president, Muhammad Morsi, to “destroy the Pyramids and accomplish what the Sahabi Amr bin al-As could not.”..........

From GlobalMuslimBrotherhoodDailyReport:
 ...In addition to his leadership    of the Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood, Zindani also has strong links to the global Muslim Brotherhood including serving on the board of global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi’s Union of Good Hamas fund-raising organization and his relationship to Muslim Brotherhood figure Zaghloul el-Naggar of Egypt. The connection with el-Naggar is based on both men’s position as leading exponents of the so-called “scientific basis of Islam.” As the Jamestown report explains:
Al-Zindani is also a leading exponent of the scientific basis for Islam, as outlined in various passages of the Quran that the sheikh interprets as descriptions of everything from black holes to photosynthesis........

This Yemeni loony  above is one of the looniest of all.  He has a strange fascination with urine and its cures !

And, when will someone cut up the slimy Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi  into a million pieces?   Obama's drones will not do it because Obama is in bed  with the Muslim Brotherhood and in fact there were reports about a year ago that Obama and his mad gang in the WH had approached  this slime to negotiate on their behalf with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Here's Andrew McCarthy reporting on that at the NationalReview:
...The surrender is complete now.    The Hindu reports that the Obama administration has turned to Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s leading jurist, to mediate secret negotiations between the United States and the Taliban.
I wrote about Qaradawi at length in The Grand Jihad and, here at NRO, have regularly catalogued his activities (see, e.g., here, here, here, here, and here; see also Andrew Bostom’s “Qaradawi’s Odious Vision”). For those who may be unfamiliar with him, he is the most influential Sunni Islamist in the world, thanks to such ventures as his al-Jazeera TV program (Sharia and Life) and website (IslamOnline.net). In 2003, he issued a fatwa calling for the killing of American troops in Iraq. As he  ............

Joke of the week: USA will overtake Saudi Arabia's oil production by 2017

This is surely a joke.  Or somebody is daydreaming or  sleepwalking towards a cliff. The tree huggers and the lefties in the USA are dead set against drilling for oil... heck,  they are dead set against anything which might prick  mother Earth's sensitive skin.  Have the idiots writing this report taken into consideration the  large percentage of the American population who is stark raving mad ... and worse .... it  votes.  Do people really take such reports seriously?  Pure foolishness to make such statements knowing how the present administration has done everything possible and will continue doing everything possible to refrain from giving drilling licences.

.... The United States will overtake   Saudi Arabia as the world’s leading oil producer by about 2017 and will become a net oil exporter by 2030, according to a new report released on Monday by the International Energy Agency.....