Now, obviously, six or seven Canadians watching Paul Krugman is not a scientific survey. There are 33.2 million Canadians , so seven people would not make a legitimate sample, would it? [That would be a sample size of .000002%] On the other hand, if you called up 527 self-identified Republicans nationwide , and only 221 of them said they were sure that Barack Obama was born in the United States, would that entitle you to say that 58% of all GOPers are potential birthers? Well, let's see: there are roughly 55 million Republicans in the US , so that would be a sample size of .000095%, which is an order of magnitude larger but hardly conclusive. Anyway, the Krugman video is funny in inconsequential, and only 34 seconds long.

From Al Jazeera (because somehow I never seem to read this stuff here): Canadian officials indirectly contributed to the arrest and torture of three Canadian citizens in Syria and Egypt, a Canadian inquiry has found. Canadians Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin were arrested by Syrian Military Intelligence during trips abroad between 2001 and 2004 on allegations of having links to al-Qaeda. All three were later released without charge. Frank Iacobucci, a retired supreme court judge who conducted the inquiry, concluded the men had been tortured with methods such as beatings with electric cables, burning with cigarettes and being kicked in the genitals. He said in a news conference on Tuesday: "Mistakes were made ... detention and mistreatment were connected to those mistakes, in my view, in an indirect way.'' Iacobucci said in his report the mistreatment of the men did not result directly from any Canadian action, but Canadian officials indirectly led to...

... you need to take 88 seconds to watch this video. What else is there to say? [h/t Drug War Rant ]

"There's A's and there's B's. The A's are guys like me, the B's are homosexual faggots with dirt on their fingernails that transmit diseases," given this statement it is no surprise that the story leads with these words: Regina MP Tom Lukiwski is apologizing for offensive remarks he made about homosexuals on an amateur video shot in 1991 and is expected to keep his place in the federal Conservative caucus. You can e-mail him your thoughts at his website . The thing that amazes me is not the radical homophobia it represents but that it comes from a man who dresses up as a prisoner being held by women who dress like men "just for laughs." I wonder what else he is laughing about. He has clearly been indoctrinated by movies like boys beware and the other classic that proves that Winnie the Pooh is a Satan worshiper . But he and I both know how his boys up in Saskatchewan got that damn little Pooh Bear ....next on to "the faggots with dirty ...

With the release of a Canadian Report from the CSIS Americas Program on the future integration of North American Society, called North American Future 2025 , that is the creation of MexiAmeriCanada- I have to say after reading it I am less then impressed by its lack of Pan Americanism. It basically creates a North American Empire that excludes the rest of the hemisphere. If you want integration and a borderless economy that is a fine goal for any one who honestly believes in free markets, but note that it should be the entire hemisphere and come as a result of sovereign republics that believe in the principles of Jeffersonian Democracy or Bolivarian Democracy and there will be less turmoil in doing it. You do not need to create crisis after crisis to bring a hemispheric society together, the OAS can do that through greater and uplifting cycles of mutual development, free markets, trade even with people we have had historical disagreements with, and prosperity for our citizens ens...

I love the title of this post from The Eco-Libertarian: Dept. of the Bleeding Obvious: Subsidies are not capitalist . David points out that several academics have taken to characterizing Carbon-Capture Subsidies in Canada as free-market measures, a circumlocution he rightly derides as "frankly, bollocks." Moreover, he emphasizes that while Carbon Capture may well be a critical strategy, government subsidies do not promote but rather distort the actions of the market: It’s a fair concern — that carbon-capture will be a stopgap that distracts us enough that we won’t solve the actual underlying problem — but that’s making better the enemy of the good. A world with extensive use of carbon-capture technology is a lot better than a world without it, whatever else is going on. But spinning government subsidies for the technology as a capitalistic measure is, frankly, bollocks. Subsidies are, in the most generous possible assessment, a necessary evil. They will interfere with the...

My daughter keeps pointing out to me that 90% of the time Senators Obama and Clinton give almost the same answers to every question. This is sometimes amusing, but as the pandering gets heavy in the rust belt (Ohio and soon Pennsylvania) their joint rush toward traditional Democratic trade protectionism has been little short of headlong ... ... and potentially dangerous. Investor's Business Daily (h/t to Fausta's Blog ) points out that all this noise will be awfully unsettling to our allies and trade partners: Both candidates threaten to leave NAFTA unless its "labor and environmental standards" are strictly "enforced." Enforcement? Hammer? What kind of criminals are these would-be G-men talking about? Evil ruffians out there committing . . . trade. This not only insults our allies and trading partners, it signals to everyone else that America's capricious, chest-thumping protectionist ally, Mexico, a third-world nation that is trying hard to transform i...

This just smuggled past the Council on Foreign Relations and the AFSBHOPAC*: In the growing push toward eliminating borders and border restrictions between the US, Mexico, and Canada, from superhighways to black helicopters landing illegal immigrants at construction hiring stations in the local Wal-Mart parking lot, comes a reality check: Canadians are not only queasy about this idea, but they don't want to give us their water, reports The Eco-Libertarian : “Water needs to be regarded as a fundamental human right and not as a commodity,” said international trade lawyer Steven Shrybman. “That is critically important. We need to strengthen sovereignty and negotiate an agreement with the United States that makes it very clear that we will determine when and where Canadian water resources will be used. And that agreement needs to trump any right of any claimant in a trade agreement to assert a claim on Canadian water.” Dan Reevely, who publishes The Eco-Libertarian, disagrees with Shry...