Friendly,Peaceful
CANADA?(Updated)

Canadians sometimes have to grimace at spectacles such as an arena in say, Portland, full of homer fans cheering on a team of young Canadian hockey players, maybe the Portland Winterhawks, as they battle another team of mostly young Canadians, say the Brandon Wheat Kings, chanting endlessly, USA,USA,USA. Of course maybe they just have to keep reminding themselves where they live, in order to get home after the game. But no more must we Canucks feel like pencil neck geeks, carefully avoiding the bullies of the world - actually we are the meanest bastards on the block - well on a per capita basis.

Indigenous Canadian Douglas Jack, also known as Ou-ee-ii-jay-ii has compiled a list that demonstrates that Canada is number one in most of the important areas necessary to be a successful "belligerent aggressor," and qualified to hold their heads up high among the other tough guys in the world. This Mr. Hyde side of Canada, though not new, is undoubtably being accelerated under the extra macho manly leadership of our man Steve! The full list with more details can be found at Friendly Peaceful Canada....., but a quick listing follows here.

• A. # 1 Mine developer and mineral extractor around the world per capita
  
  
• B. # 1 Forestry exploiter around the world per capita
  
  
• C. # 1 Energy developer, infrastructure supplier and consumer per capita,
  
  
• D. # 1 Consumer worldwide per capita for all major non-renewable materials. Canadians identify themselves & lifestyles as consumers,
  
  
• E. # 1 Source of Depleted Uranium per capita.
  
  
• F. # 1 Source of Refined-Uranium for Nuclear Power per capita
  
  
• G. # 3 Arms Producer and Sales per capita (after Israel, USA) - Canada is # 1 supplier of major arms components / capita to the US arms system, but #1 and #2 in this category are better at turning a profit
  
  

Now I've always felt that Canada should be cut some slack for being such a heavy user of energy, after all it is a VAST country and the distance between folks is not like getting to London from Paris or even Milan. Then it is really cold at least part of the year in most of the country, dem damn Hawaiians don't have near the fuel bills and are even air-conditioned for free by the marine breezes and daily showers to windward. Besides even if dem billions of Chinamen, original Indians from the Sub-Continent and all them Islamofacists only each hog a fraction of the earth's bounty as one Canadian, there are so damn many of 'em it is no use for a few Canadians to try to conserve, even if just to inspire by example. And of course all them billions of "others" can honestly say, you'all in the West got yours, now we want ours, and we are gonna put thousands of new cars on the roads every day until nobody anywhere can breath - you guys been driving around for decades, our turn!

The amazing thing is how Canada has managed to be regarded by so much of the world as our tough and mean Southern Uncle Sam's really nice neice/nephew. It may have been because, in spite of our sometimes unavoidable (unless we chose to stay home in the dark and freeze) appetites, we still tried to make the world a better place. Lester Pearson kept the ME from the boiling point a little longer, and our soldiers mostly tried to keep the peace or provide aid after natural, or un-natural disasters anywhere on earth.

But the days of being America's wimpy next door neighbor are over and Our Dere Leder Steve is doing everything possible to make sure everybody knows that Canada Rules and sorry Unca Sammy, you are now Number TWO at best!

Updated - 7:30am - July 14
Energy Hogs!

In the Business section of the Winnipeg Free Press, we learn that Canadian excess makes us energy hogs. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy issued score cards for 12 leading developed countries/economies and Canada managed to avoid being the biggest loser, thanks to an even worse rating garnered by Russia - another big and often cold country, though the ACEEE doesn't put much stock in the big and cold excuse.

Before we even begin to look at Canada's abysmal showing, we should set aside two common excuses for this country's high energy consumption: cold winters and a thinly spread population.

Australia also has a thin population spread over a large area, but its performance is far better than that of Canada or the U.S., ranking it a middle-of-the-pack sixth overall.

And Germany, where winters are nearly as cold as Canada's, was an outstanding performer, ranking second.

The 12 economies that are ranked here represent more than 78 percent of global gross domestic product, 63 percent of global energy consumption, and 62 percent of the global carbon-dioxide equivalent emissions. The ACEEE rankings follow below, for more information about the scoring system, the full report or a combination map-scorecard visit ACEEE.org.

( 1) United Kingdom

( 2) Germany

( 3) Italy

( 4) Japan

( 5) France

(6-7-8 |three way tie)

     European Union
     Australia
     China

( 9)United States

(10) Brazil

(11) Canada

(12) Russia.

The ACEEE has also ranked the fifty U.S. states plus the District of Columbia, using similar protocols. How come I'm not surprised to see that Dick Cheney's home stomping grounds, Wyoming, managed to nail down second worst only to North Dakota in the 2011 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard