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Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

20 Apr - Late Links


Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Proposed Canada-EU trade agreement threatens Canada's procurement policies and public services

The third round of negotiations for the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) are taking place in Ottawa April 19-23. A new CCPA analysis of the proposed agreement warns that it poses a serious threat to Canada’s procurement policies and a broad range of public services.
According to the analysis—which draws heavily on leaked documents including the draft negotiating text—the proposed CETA would have an adverse impact on public services, such as waste, drinking water, and public transit. The proposed rules would entrench commercialization, especially public-private partnerships;  prohibit governments from obliging foreign investors to purchase locally, transfer technology or train local workers; and make it far harder for governments to reverse  failed privatizations.
Click here to read the full report.

MOST-VIEWED TODAY


Ottawa’s ‘offensive’ stand on detainee documents stuns inquiry

Afghan prisoner-transfer files will be turned over 'when they're good and ready,’ Justice Department tells Military Police Complaints Commission

Canada turns over twice as many detainees as allies in Afghanistan

Canada outstripped its NATO allies almost two-to-one in the number of prisoners it turned over to Afghan authorities in the first nine months of last year, figures prepared for the Afghan government show.
The statistics were compiled by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and made available to The Canadian Press. Ottawa does not release them.
More ominously, the commission complained in its latest annual report that it is still frustrated in attempts to check on prisoners handed over to the country's notorious intelligence service — the National Directorate of Security.

Old computers put tax refunds, cheques at risk

  • Agriculture Canada's research programs were panned. Some projects were poorly managed and 70 per cent of the department's lab and farm equipment were past expiry dates.
  • The eHealth initiative will miss a key target this year.
  • Mixed results on government human resource policies.
  • Marine Atlantic's aging ferries and docks need repairs.

'Texting eclipses talking' among US teens


Web hit by hi-tech crime wave


We now support our little Afghan KGB ('God, how valuable their intel!' says our flinchless general), corrupt little 'elected' leader (now musing openly about switching sides), and squandered the lives and treasure of ours and theirs. At home, in order to protect its membership in the gang and investment in the adventure, our government must subvert our own democracy and the truth of our involvement by hiding the facts with censor's ink, blocking our questions, and suspending our parliament.

Are we feeling tough enough yet? Or has gang life begun to lose its glamour, yet again?

Mexican elites have the money to buy armored cars and hire private security guards. But rampant corruption in the security forces means the common people seemingly have nowhere to turn for help at the local level (not an uncommon occurrence in the developing world). The violence is also having a heavy impact on Mexico’s tourist sector and on the willingness of foreign companies to invest in Mexico’s manufacturing sector. Many smaller business owners are being hit from two sides — they receive extortion demands from criminals while facing a decrease in revenue due to a drop in tourism because of the crime and violence. These citizens and businessmen are demanding help from Mexico City. The inexorable flow of huge quantities of cash and the pervasive violence, corruption and fear — are placing a tremendous amount of pressure on the Calderon administration. Calderon needs to find a way to strike a delicate balance, one that will reassert Mexican government authority, quell the violence and mollify the public while also allowing the river of illicit cash to continue flowing into Mexico.

And the proposed North American trade corridor . . . looks like a continuation of that drug map.

Remarkable Effects of Fat Loss on the Immune System

Australian scientists have shown for the first time that even modest weight loss reverses many of the damaging changes often seen in the immune cells of obese people, particularly those with Type 2 diabetes.
It has been known for some time that excess body fat, particularly abdominal fat, triggers the production of 'pro-inflammatory' immune cells, which circulate in the blood and can damage our bodies. In addition, other inflammatory immune cells, known as macrophages, are also activated within fat tissue.
The recent study looked at obese people with Type 2 diabetes or prediabetes who were limited to a diet of between 1000 and 1600 calories a day for 24 weeks. Gastric banding was performed at 12 weeks to help restrict food intake further. The study determined the effects of weight loss on immune cells
Undertaken by Dr Alex Viardot and Associate Professor Katherine Samaras from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research, the results showed an 80% reduction of pro-inflammatory T-helper cells, as well as reduced activation of other circulating immune cells (T cells, monocytes and neutrophils) and decreased activation of macrophages in fat. They are published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology Metabolism, now online.

Climate-induced earthquakes, bottomless pits of oil, pet dinosaurs and a miraculous energy source: For the sake of public policy, it's important to debunk the lies.

Huge Amazon dam gets go-ahead

Environmentalists and indigenous groups say Belo Monte would devastate wildlife and the livelihoods of 40,000 people who live in the area to be flooded.

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