Linda McQuaig: Though business sits on $500 billion, workers’ salaries are under siege (in The Toronto Star)

Linda McQuaig discusses the attempts by the 1% to drive a wedge between the 99% and the unions. She tells the tale about "the capitalist and the worker who order a pizza together. When the pizza arrives, the capitalist reaches in and helps himself to eleven of the twelve slices, then whispers in the ear of the worker: “Watch out for that union guy over there. He’s got his eye on your slice.”"

Full article: Though business sits on $500 billion, workers’ salaries are under siege.

Andrew Nikiforuk denounces the Energy of Slaves (in The Toronto Star)

"These self-serving arguments from the world’s petroleum brokers are based on a singular falsehood: that more energy translates into better living. Decades of human slavery peddled the same lies...

"...Every dominant energy system, from human slavery to nuclear power, has regarded itself as the master resource and has defended its reign with combustible rhetoric and the call for more.

"Yet none of these arguments are rational, moral, or equitable."

Full article: Andrew Nikiforuk denounces the Energy of Slaves.

Incredible that at one time people actually made such claims to support slavery. Nikiforuk demolishes the claim that increased energy use brings more happiness.

Carol Goar: Jim Flaherty to business leaders: Loosen your fists (in The Toronto Star)

"To Jim Flaherty’s frustration, there is a massive wad of idle cash in the Canadian economy. The finance minister would like to get the money in circulation, creating jobs, improving productivity, boosting consumer confidence and helping the country to compete against the world’s emerging economic giants. ...

"They could afford to thumb their noses at the government as long as there were no consequences. Flaherty made it easy. Regardless of their behaviour, he gave them tax cuts, praised them for generating economic growth, followed their recommendations and watched passively as they squirreled away billions.

"If he wants a different outcome, he’ll have to take a different approach."

Full article: Jim Flaherty to business leaders: Loosen your fists.

The Disaffected Lib: Will British Columbia be Harper's Waterloo?

"Harper isn't going to get supertankers sailing out of Kitimat without first imprisoning hundreds, perhaps thousands, of us and when he starts tossing otherwise law-abiding British Columbians into jail for standing up for their province, support will coalesce around them and turn our province into electoral scorched earth for the Tories for a generation, possibly more."

Full post: The Disaffected Lib: Will British Columbia be Harper's Waterloo?

Antonia Zerbisias: Is Toronto ready for climate change? (in The Toronto Star)

"Imagine people are trapped in their sweltering highrises, with no access to drinking water because most pumps don’t have pressure above the sixth floor. Imagine cars floating along the Bayview extension. Imagine downed century-old maples blocking fire trucks and ambulances."

Full article: Is Toronto ready for climate change?.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange granted asylum by Ecuador (in The Toronto Star)

"“I think the Foreign Office have slightly overreached themselves here,” Britain's former ambassador to Moscow, Tony Brenton, told the BBC.

"“If we live in a world where governments can arbitrarily revoke immunity and go into embassies then the life of our diplomats and their ability to conduct normal business in places like Moscow where I was and North Korea becomes close to impossible.”"

Full article: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange granted asylum by Ecuador.

"Slightly"! Typical British understatement! The threat from Britain was a very dangerous piece of overreaction - to keep the Yanks happy...?

Heather Mallick: Romney pick Paul Ryan is hard-right theorist Ayn Rand in a prettier suit (in The Toronto Star)

"Ryan is fighting the same battles [Ayn] Rand fought in her St. Petersburg adolescence. Why he sees the need in a country that so badly tends its own citizens eludes me.

"Rand attracts the young, who think they will never suffer or die."

Full article: Romney pick Paul Ryan is hard-right theorist Ayn Rand in a prettier suit.

Another witty and insightful article by The Star's Heather Mallick - this time about Ayn Rand, the inventor of "Objectivism", which Heather calls "selfishism". She thinks you will be hearing a lot about Ayn Rand in the next few months - and you need to know more about her.

Thomas Walkom: Why we could be at war with Iran by November (in The Toronto Star)

"Would a war on Iran help the incumbent? In a rational world, the answer is no. The U.S. has just extricated itself from Iraq and is desperate to get out of Afghanistan.

"But the world of politics is not always rational. A joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran would win Obama praise from those firmly committed to the Jewish state — and that could be enough to give his Democrats the edge in, for instance, the key battleground of Florida."

Full article: Walkom: Why we could be at war with Iran by November.

A scary, but believable, scenario from The Star's Thomas Walkom. This could be a lot worse than Iraq or Afghanistan. It's not clear whether Israel would survive it either.

Heather Mallick: It’s Kalamazoo vs. Calgary in clash of civilizations (in The Toronto Star)

"In the U.S., there’s almost no personal restriction on guns and ammo, and no restriction on a citizen’s own government targeting him from the sky with a Predator Drone. Killing is the option of first resort. Talking is the last. As for diplomacy, the first response is to arm the local “friendlies” and bomb the “unfriendlies,” then switch, then bomb everyone. The last would be to ask the UN for a sit-down.

"Think of what daily life must be like in the U.S.A. if you’re Wawra and always armed."

Full article: Mallick: It’s Kalamazoo vs. Calgary in clash of civilizations.

Heather Mallick weighs in on the Nosehill story - in her usual inimitable style...

Texas farmer sows seeds of doubt over Keystone pipeline (in The Toronto Star)

"“The line in the sand for my family is that we don’t believe a foreign company building a pipeline to put money in their pockets can take a Texan’s land,” Crawford said. “If you’re going to take it, you’re going to have to prove you can.”"

Full article: Texas farmer sows seeds of doubt over Keystone pipeline.

I believe I read that someone described this as a fascinating struggle shaping up between two fundamental US rights.

Apocalypse Now: Do We Have A Global Death Wish? (Alternet)

"Many Christian Zionists, for example, believe that a massive war in the Middle East is unavoidable, imminent, and part of the divine plan for humanity—and are supporting policies that raise the probability of just such a war."

Full article: Apocalypse Now: Do We Have A Global Death Wish?.

Thomas Walkom: Harper’s pipeline ‘about-face’ is anything but (in The Toronto Star)

"This is not a government that welcomes science.

"It has terminated scientific programs aimed at monitoring climate change just because it doesn’t like their conclusions.

"It has muzzled its own scientists from discussing their findings publicly, particularly when these findings contradict government plans to eliminate environmental laws and regulations.

"It has hobbled economic and social research by killing Statistics Canada’s mandatory long-form census. ...

"... by changing the law so that cabinet — in the unlikely event of a decision against the pipeline — can override the energy board, Harper has done himself no favours.

"He has made the lines of responsibility, which in classic Canadian fashion had been deliberately blurred, crystal clear."

Full article: Walkom: Harper’s pipeline ‘about-face’ is anything but.

Heather Mallick: U.S. drought will hit food prices like a derecho (in The Toronto Star)

"What’s the upside, people ask. There is no upside because we are global now. We import and export, we rely on each other, we hope to be able to flee the heat. We won’t suffer equally, but we will all suffer."

Full article: U.S. drought will hit food prices like a derecho.

"Batman joins the police to take on Occupy Wall Street" (The Toronto Star editorial)

"...whether the film’s authoritarian vision is political propaganda or artistic oversight, the troubling message communicated to millions of viewers is the same."

Editorial: Batman joins the police to take on Occupy Wall Street.

2-year-old girl’s bionic arms are the world’s best use of 3D printing (Grist)

Full article, including video: 2-year-old girl’s bionic arms are the world’s best use of 3D printing | Grist.

This is absolutely amazing - not even the most hardened Luddite can resist this!

Thomas Walkom: The disturbing side of Mitt’s excellent adventures abroad (in The Toronto Star)

"Mitt Romney isn't just a joke figure. As someone poised to become the next U.S. president, he's a serious joke figure."

Full article: Thomas Walkom: The disturbing side of Mitt’s excellent adventures abroad.