August 16, 2012

(Canada) Enbridge deletes islands to push pipeline

Canadian energy giant Enbridge wants to put an oil pipeline/tanker route from the already dubious tar sands through waterways and rainforest to move oil. Seem dangerous? Well, in order to make it seem -less- dangerous, Enbridge had 1000 square kilometers of islands deleted from a map in both images and a video showing the project, in order to make it look more appealing.

Enbridge has been in the news a lot lately due to terrible pipeline oil spills like this:
http://bc.ctvnews.ca/experts-fear-long-term-health-impact-of-michigan-spill-1.915380

but this latest move just seems that much more offensive, because it assumes that all the people involved are stupid. From the article in the Vancouver Sun:

About 1,000 square kilometres of islands have disappeared from Douglas Channel in an animated depiction of Enbridge Inc.'s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline and tanker route.

The project would send bitumen by pipeline from Alberta's oilsands to Kitimat, where it would be loaded onto tankers for export to Asia.

A video on the Enbridge website shows Douglas Channel as a wide open funnel leading from Kitimat to the Pacific, omitting the narrow channels, islands and rocky outcrops that make up the potential tanker access route.

The view of Douglas Channel sprang to public attention after Lori Waters, a Vancouver Island researcher and owner of a biomedical communications company, created overlays and maps showing the real Douglas Channel and posted the images on Facebook.

Enbridge is a dirty, polluting, unsafe company, and is lying through their teeth to get us to just buck up and let them do what they want, and damn the torpedoes. Here are links to some of the relevant sources and resources:

Vancouver Sun article:
http://www.vancouversun.com/Enbridge+sinks+islands+angers+critics/7099740/story.html
Sum Of Us blog post with the images:
http://sumofus.org/campaigns/enbridge/?sub=tw
The website of Enbridge itself:
http://www.enbridge.com/

August 2, 2012

Fantastic short essay about Chick-fil-a

From the Owldolatrous Productions blog:

http://www.owldolatrous.com/?p=288

A sample:

Now, let’s get to the nitty-gritty of things. Please read carefully. These things have been said before, but not by me, and not all in one place. Please read with an open mind. If you can’t read with an open mind, please leave, take a minute, come back, and try again. If you can’t do that, then please don’t bother. Please read all of the words here, rather than just reading half of the argument and assuming you know what I’m saying. Read these words as they are written. Again, if you don’t want to read my words, then don’t continue.

So here goes:

1. This isn’t simply about marriage. Shocker, right? It’s extremely frustrating that same-sex marriage is the great continental divide. People are judged according to how they stand on this issue, as if no other issue matters. Did you know that a person can be for same-sex marriage and still be homophobic? Did you know that a person can be against same-sex marriage and be gay? We all get categorized very quickly based on the marriage issue and maybe that’s not fair. But here’s what you should know:

- In 29 states in America today, my partner of 18 years, Cody, or I could be fired for being gay. Period. No questions asked. One of those states is Louisiana, our home state. We live in self-imposed exile from beloved homeland, family, and friends, in part, because of this legal restriction on our ability to live our lives together.

- In 75 countries in the world, being gay is illegal. In many, the penalty is life in prison. These are countries we can’t openly visit. In 9 countries, being gay is punishable by death. In many others, violence against gays is tacitly accepted by the authorities. These are countries where we would be killed. Killed.

- Two organizations that work very hard to maintain this status quo and roll back any protections that we may have are the Family Research Council and the Marriage & Family Foundation. For example, the Family Research council leadership has officially stated that same-gender-loving behavior should be criminalized in this country. They draw their pay, in part, from the donations of companies like Chick-Fil-A. Both groups have also done “missionary” work abroad that served to strengthen and promote criminalization of same-sex relations.

- Chick-Fil-A has given roughly $5M to these organizations to support their work.

- Chick-Fil-A’s money comes from the profits they make when you purchase their products.

He goes on for a few more excellent points. By and large the comments are very supportive, but even as clearly as he's put it, there are still some who -just don't get it!!-

This is also making the rounds on Facebook and Twitter.