Simon's Cat in 'Double Trouble'

This is why we are not getting another cat till after Zeus is gone.

Heli-logging in British Columbia with Rick Mercer

Very odd, thought I had posted this sometime ago. Anyways, I have been up in the area they filmed this and have had conversations with some of the people in the film. Heli-logging is quite the way to do things. It minimizes the impacts on the environment but can be quite expensive. For it to be profitable you must have the right trees in the right place and a very efficient crew. I have been told that a 2-3 minute turnaround time is the best to make it profitable, which means from the time from pick-up to drop to pick-up should be within 3 minutes. The helicopter in this clip is a Chinook, but the company Helifor also flies a Boeing Vertol 107, which the sharp eyed amongst you will recognize as the same type as the old Labrador SAR helicopters we used to have. I think the company bought the air frames off of the RCAF.

Going, going.......

Well talk about striking while the iron is hot, the Tories are already on to the 2nd reading of C-19, the bill to end the long gun registry, they have adopted a motion giving only 3 days to debate it. I am not sure what is to debate, the Tories want it gone and the data destroyed. I am in favour of this for several reasons. the 1st being the purpose of the gun registry has always been eventual confiscation, the authors of the registry have admitted this themselves and every instance in history shows these registries eventually leads to that conclusion. 2nd not having a registration paper for a firearm is a CRIMINAL offense, not a civil offense. So a law abiding gun owner could easily run afoul of the law and get a record. 3rd. It has been a complete and utter waste of money, only about 1/3rd of the legal guns in Canada were ever registered, none of the illegals guns ever where and much of the information in the registry was wrong and inaccurate. The gun registry was supposed to cost $200 million, instead somewhere near 2 billion was spent on it.

The purpose of destroying the current data is to ensure another government does not circumvent the wishes of the legal gun owners by creating another registry using the remains of this as a foundation. It also protects the privacy of gun owners and prevent the illegal use of the data by anti-gun organizations and organized crime.

Even with the passing of C-19 there will still be a long gun and handgun registry. The requirement to have handguns, restricted rifles, shotguns and prohibited firearms registered remains. personally in my view all rimfire firearms should be made non-restricted as well, not to mention other stuff.

We gun owners have waited a long time for this, but for us this is only the beginning. we won't be satisfied till there is a complete re-write of the Firearms Act and relevant sections of the Criminal Code. the current version is useless and criminalizes the law abiding gun owner. About the only thing we want to keep from the current Act is concept of training for new shooters and hunters. (funny enough about the only part of the Act that Firearm groups had input on and the only part that seems to have any positive effect). Looking forward to toasting the end of the registry with a nice bonfire of registry certificates.

The real reason the anti's fear the demise of the gun registry is not some mythical "Blood in the streets" scenario (They would actually welcome that, as they love to dance on graves) but the slow but sure realization by the general public that they have been fed a lie for the last 2 decades, a very expensive lie at that. Once the public see that the world has not come to an end they realize that most of the anti's arguments are just as hollow and the anti's will lose what creditably and funding they currently enjoy.