Canucktunes' Weblog

canucktunes — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:36:20 +0000

Americans – Give To Your Local Shelters Instead !

The HSUS do not represent your local shelter !

How to spot a Propogandist.

canucktunes — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:00:11 +0000

It’s quite simple really. Propagandists believe they can change the meanings of words or phrases because they think their cause(s) authorizes them to do so.

For example the term “spam” is well defined by the online community, from the unsolicited commercial email that I’ve been protesting for over a decade to the off-topic repetitive posts that clutters and hinders forums and video comments.

Apparently some anti-sealing activists are hoping to confuse those who do not know the meaning of “spam” on Youtube ; Those who haven’t read the definitions included in the terms of service.

The term “spam” is not so vague as to include everything that a person might dislike. The content needs to be intentionally off-topic and/or commercial in nature to be considered “spam”, as defined by Youtube’s Community Guidelines and Terms Of Service.

The comment rating system was implemented in response to the confusion found in new users in regards to what is and isn’t spam. But it doesn’t appear to have stopped the anti-sealing troll(s) from abusing the spam reporting system and the comment rating system is easily abused by anyone with multiple puppet accounts on Youtube.

But of course propagandists don’t want people to read anything but their opinion, as you can see by the comments in this video :

By Whose Authority ?

canucktunes — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:00:08 +0000

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society supporters apparently believe that this group has somehow obtained law enforcement abilities in Australia. They believe that they are authorized to police the whaling activities of the Japanese in Australian waters.

By whose authority ?

Australia ? No. They bared Paul Watson and several members of his crew from entering Australia by suspending their visas in 2009 and the Australian Federal Police raided one of their ships in October 2009.

The International Whaling Commission ? No. They passed a resolution condemning Sea Shepherd’s actions in March 2008 and the SSCS were banned from IWC meetings in 1987 for their “unacceptable behavior”.

The UN ? No. The SSCS may claim the World Charter for Nature gives them some authority but section 21 C clearly states that they are limited to legal acts, which does not include illegal boarding and property damage.

In a desperate attempt they enlisted Australian citizens to perform citizen arrests but these abilities would also be limited, as mentioned by this Australian Federal Police FAQ on citizen arrests : FAQ

The most interesting part of this FAQ is as follows :

“A person shall not, in the course of arresting another person for an offence, use more force, or subject the other person to greater indignity, than is necessary and reasonable to make the arrest or to prevent the escape of the other person after the arrest.”

On February 21st, 2008 Paul Watson authorized the crew members of the Steve Irvin “to board if required, to disable equipment if necessary, to destroy harpoons if possible and to intercept, blockade and harass all illegal whaling and poaching activities in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary”.

As previously mentioned the SSCS have not obtained a warrant to board ships in Australia from the Australian government and it is illegal for anyone to board a vessel without permission.

Property damage and the threat of property damage are also illegal and could possibly constitute an unreasonable force or “greater indignity”, voiding their use of citizen arrests.

But then citizen arrests are also questionable when the alleged criminals are not caught in the act.

It’s one thing to stop someone after they allegedly performed an illegal act, quite another to speculate that they would perform such an act if it weren’t for an intervention.

Hearsay is not evidence.

Youth In The Media

canucktunes — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:00:50 +0000

Swine Flu – My concerns about Vaccination

canucktunes — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:34:00 +0000

You know what’s annoying. I pick up my Ottawa Citizen and on the front page they talk about vaccine shortages and several pages in there are full page inserts appealing to everyone to get vaccinated.

I wish they would make up their minds !

If only the vulnerable should get vaccinated, then why pay for adverts implying that we’re all vulnerable ? Couldn’t they have waited ?

Then there’s the fact that Canadians can only get the injected version of the vaccine because the nasal spray vaccine hasn’t been licensed yet in Canada.

I would have liked the choice to get the nasal spray, not because I’m afraid of needles but because I’d rather have the vaccine introduced precisely where the virus would likely enter my body, avoiding some of the possible side effects associated with the injected version :

I will probably end up getting the injected version but I’ve decided to wait for the lines to empty out a bit.

Activists don’t inform – They manipulate.

canucktunes — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:43:12 +0000

The EFSA report published in December 2007 is straight forward and needs no interpretations : http://www.efsa.europa.eu/EFSA/efsa_locale-1178620753812_1178671319178.htm

The only reason some of the activists want to interpret it is to omit information from the report and imply statements that were not made in the report.

The General Conclusions and Recommendations found on pages 94 and 95 of the report discount many activist claims.

Are you an ignorant European ?

canucktunes — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 08:41:45 +0000

Then the HSUS want you !

Yes, the HSUS are trying their hand at the Canadian seafood boycott again, this time more extensively in Europe in the hopes to find Europeans that don’t know that very few fishermen in Canada are involved in the commercial seal hunt and that the commercials seal hunt is limited to a tiny geographical area off the East coast of Canada.

They are again trying to capitalize on ignorance, as they did have previously in the states since 2005, a country where importations of seal products was banned in 1972.

For years these opportunists have tooted their own horn, exaggerating the support and impact of the failed American boycott to solicit more funds. But in the end logic prevailed and the scam was exposed, as will this cash grab.

After all, didn’t the EU just ban importations of seal products ? What’s the point of this nonsense ? Are they simply hoping nobody will notice the inconsistencies this time ?

A message to Roger’s cable…

canucktunes — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 07:22:54 +0000

If you think I’m going to pay $10 more for local television, you’ve got another thing coming.

Every cable subscriber in Canada already pays for local television. It’s just that cable companies weren’t legally obliged to forward the funds over. And now they don’t want to hand a share of the pie over and are threatening to raise our rates further, on top of that 1.5% hike some of the cable companies started charging on September 1st for the “Local Programming Improvement Fund“.

Stupid and counterproductive.

HDTV will become the norm in September 2011 in Canada, allowing most Canadians to tune in to their local networks for free. And with the availability of programing on the internet, there’s a big possibility that quite a large number of Canadians will just pull the plug on cable, or at least reduce their services like yours truly.

Quite frankly, they don’t want me to reduce my cable down to one outlet with a digital terminal because Bell’s satellite service is significantly cheaper…

Universal Health Scare in America

canucktunes — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:25:51 +0000

It has become quite obvious that quite a few people in the United States are easily impressed by tall tales about the socialist boogieman they think live in Canada.

Yes, they do love to talk about the dreaded “waiting lists” that we apparently have here in Canada. But I guess they didn’t consider the fact that quite a few Americans would kill to be on a waiting list (instead of having no care at all) and that their Government health care programs need to be reworked, the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured report released in April 2006 having found that 60% of the poor aren’t eligible for Medicaid.

In March 2009, Families USA published a U.S. Census Bureau data based report that found that “86.7 Million Americans Were Uninsured at Some Point in 2007-2008″.

It is quite obvious that many of these protesters trust the health care industry more than government, having been lulled into a false sense of security when it comes to coverage.

They apparently haven’t considered the possibility that they are under-insured or might loose coverage at any time, like so many of the fellow Americans.

Addicted. Again.

canucktunes — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:37:42 +0000

You must be wondering what i’ve been doing over the past month. Well, i’ve been busy recuperating from one of the worse sinus infections i’ve had in my life and have since become addicted to Farmville on Facebook.

You see, I’m not one of those first person shooter fans but when I run into something like Simcity or Rollercoaster Tycoon, I just get addicted to it.

At least the game itself forced the player to take breaks as the crows grow.

Anyhow, I’m going to try to get here more often. Hopefully.