Drink it up, yum.

You've already been informed of my piercing hatred for the National Post. I feel like a battered wife. I despise it and everyone who writes for it so much, yet it keeps showing up on my doorstep, and I keep letting it in. What is my problem?

The above the fold headline this morning was, and I quote "The Herbicide Report Nobody Noticed (It Said It Was Safe)." Unhuh. This coupled with the report Stevo showed me last night on the CBC, re: the federal government's decision to quietly allow mining companies to dump their tailings in northern lakes in BC, Newfoundland, Alberta and Saskatchewan, makes me want to vomit. Oh, by the way, on the last point, Mr. Baird and his pals in the federal environment ministry are bypassing the consultation and environmental assessment usually required to reclassify natural spaces into dumping grounds. That's reform party grass roots demon-cracy for ya. Grass roots if you have deep pockets and are willing to grease a few palms.

We are heading toward a world water crisis with the onslaught of global warming. And our friends in the federal government and at the National Post think it's A-O-K to dump herbicides on our green green grass (which by the way, will be brown brown when we run out of water) and surrounding groundwater, and tar sluice in our lakes.

Stevo has a great suggestion to perhaps snap them out of their stupidity - serve them all up a nice tall glass of water sourced from the very sites they wish to pollute, assuring them of the purity and continued safety of what they're about to ingest. I say let's just serve them a nice tall glass of shut the fuck up, with a chaser of get the hell out of my government.

Ed Stelmach is an idiot

I didn't think it was possible, but I think I despise Ed Stelmach more than I ever did Ralph Klein. Ralphy was a doofus. Ed is an evil, demonic idiot.

On Monday, Ed issued a plea to Albertans to make certain sacrifices to help address the issue of climate change, though I betcha he didn't use that term since it's a left wing myth. After giving himself a whopping 34% pay increase and giving big oil carte blanche to use as much water as they need to destroy northern Alberta in pursuit of bubblin' crude, he's asking Albertans, amongst other things, to limit their time in the shower.

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, it takes 8 barrels of water to extract enough bitumen to make a barrel of oil. The Athabasca River is dropping at alarming rates, Native Canadians in northern Alberta are suffering from rare, never-before-seen cancers, and 500+ ducks met their demise in a Suncor tailing pond in April. Ed's solution, take a shorter shower.

Ed is right when he says government is evil. Just look at what he and his gaggle of right wingnuts are up to. Insert expletive here.

Hidden Creeks and Streams

If you live in Toronto you probably live near a creek or a stream or a river. Of course some of those creeks and streams might be hard to find. Many of us live on or near waterways that have be filled in or buried. Look at the landscape around High Park in the west end or one of the many tributaries of the Don and you can get a taste of the ravines and streams that used to be a big part of this landscape. As many people know Fort York used to be bordered on its east and northern sides by Garrison Creek. In fact the gully of the creek was incorporated into the forts defenses. Sadly the creek was filled in as the cities growth turned it into an open sewer and garbage tip. You have to summon a lot of imagination now to imagine a clear stream of water flowing out of the forest into Lake Ontario on a shore line where the Gardiner expressway now stands.

Recently I checked out a creek in my own neck of the woods here in Mimico. Within a short walk of my own house is Bonar Creek, a small tributary stream of Mimico Creek. I’m not sure if Bonar Creek is an original feature or if it was created after the City of Etobicoke filled in most of the wetland around the mouth of the Mimico Creek to build a sewage treatment plant (later dubbed the Humber Filtration Plant) thus altering the course of Mimico Creek.

Bonar Creek follows what I think was probably the western edge of the traditional

Mimico Creek waterway, it disappears briefly into a culvert at the entrance to the now demolished filtration plant, reappears before disappearing completely under the CN railway embankment that runs along the QEW (another buried creek). I wish I could say that the water here was clear and full of life; sadly it’s an olive green colour with nasty goop dripping off the embankment outflow. I’m sure there is hope though. Mimico Creek itself, despite nasty storm water and garbage does have little fish in it and if you look at it in the right direction you can forget you’re even in the big city for just a few moments.

Stupid American Tricks

This past week I spent some quality time in Ohio as ma mere was under the knife. I'm happy to report that she's okay, and that thankfully the Doc that worked on her was not the subject in the title of this blog. He's from San Francisco, so practically Canadian.

Anyway, the stupid American in question here was the dude filling up his SUV at the local SuperAmerica gas station. Yanks are up in arms about the $4+ a gallon price tag of precious crude. Clearly not this guy. He proceeded to fill the tank on his guzzler while it was running, with the door open, air conditioner on full blast. WTF? Reminded me of the bear Stevo and I encountered in Killarney a few years ago, eating mountain ash berries then barfing them up immediately. Shovel in, shovel out. Only the bear was smarter than this dude. Hope he enjoyed his $100+ bill. And choking on his own C02s. Assburger.