Big Love busted in BC?

Brainwashed religious fanatics accused of abusing their own women and children in a sealed-off enclave near Vancouver may finally face a little not-so-timely police intervention.

Vancouver Sun columnist Daphne Bramham has been writing for years about the polygamist community in Bountiful, BC. Despite the brilliant light the skilled investigative journalist has brought to the issue, and the efforts of the RCMP to look into the allegations, the progress of our own prosecutors in actually moving against the insular cult can only be described as glacial. Finally, something may be happening... but it's still too soon to tell.

The prosecutors' reasoning for its hesitation? Concern that our laws against polygamy would be struck down as a violation of freedom of religion. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

If it is true that women and children are being abused by a theocratic cult within spitting distance of one of Canada's major metropolitan areas, there is no need for the government to tread lightly.

Go in, arrest the perps, and let social services deal with the victims left behind. We're fighting a religious extremist insurgency thousands of kilometers from our homeland. Meanwhile, another group of pious nutbars in our own territory, breaking our laws with impunity, gets treated with kid gloves.

Go get 'em.

Life is a Hydrogen Highway

When those deja-vu inducing promos came out for "Who Killed the Electric Car?" came out a while back, I started wondering whether the technology for an environmentally friendly, non-oil sheik supporting car would ever be brought to the mass market. The most highly-skilled engineers in the world could build a magic flying carpet a la Alladin, but if entrenched corporate interests didn't like the ramifications (ie. oil profits plummet) then the final product just ain't gonna fly.

The proposed Hydrogen Highway of hydrogen refueling stations stretching from beautiful BC down to sunny California could finally get the hydogen-powered vehicle industry moving. After all, no one's going to buy a car that they can't drive because there's nowhere to fill it up. It truly is a case of "build it, and they will come."