Listening to Mark Carney you'd almost think LNG Canada is a Canadian company

Which it is not, but this foreign entity gets many hundreds of millions in taxpayer money sent its way. And Mark sounded right next to euphoric when he was enthusing about what a great day this is for Canada, that this foreign company is doubling its capacity to ship Canadian resources out of the country. Frankly, this strikes me as the complete opposite of the "firming up our sovereignty" claptrap the national propaganda network has been pushing. Don't they have journalists anymore? I mean old-school sorts who used to ask questions, unlike the current generation of journos, with post-grad degrees from Carleton or the rebranded Ryerson, whose career prospects are limited to passing along press releases from all the companies and government agencies and NGOs they should be asking hard questions of. Anyway, Carney's polling numbers are the highest in Canadian polling history, so I guess the general public is all aboard for selling off our infrastructure and our resources to foreign investors. What I can't figure out is how anybody with an IQ of any kind would see that as strengthening our sovereignty? At the end of the day, the complete lack of critical thinking skills so obvious in the content of today's media platforms has to be laid at the feet of the journalism schools.

Me and Stu

I met Stu in what I think was my second year teaching. He was, if I recall, in my grade ten welding class, which consisted mostly of farm boys, juvenile delinquents, and a single female student who happened to be rebuilding an antique tractor, by far the most ambitious project anybody had going on that year. We're up Bruce County way, which is perhaps the Appalachia of Ontario. Our high school was built in the mid-fifties - and had a rifle range built into its lower level! Pretty sure they're not building them like that anymore! Maybe that wouldn't be a bad idea though... far as I'm aware, there's never been a school shooting in a school with a rifle range. Perhaps it has a similar deterent effect as Archie Bunker's brilliant idea to end airline hijackings by handing every passenger a handgun as they're boarding. But back to Stu. He was an affable, fun-loving lad, who was looking for an easy credit. Kids like that can easily become management problems if you don't stay ahead of them. My rule of thumb; if you show up 50% of the time, do at least 50% of the work, and don't piss me off too often, you've got a solid 50% on your report card. Your credit is in the bag! Stu liked that deal so much he actually went above and beyond; near perfect attendance, and while never a font of raw ambition, actually got enough stuff done and ended the year as a solid B student. One thing that puzzled me about Stu was why everybody called him Stu, when on my paperwork he was only and always "Roger." One day I asked him. Oh, Roger is my name. It is? So why are we calling you Stu? Stu laughs, "it's short for Stupid. Everybody's been calling me that since kindergarden!" Well, that presented a conundrum. Poor Roger has suffered a lifetime of bullying, and here I am using that abusive nick-name just like his tormentors. Should I start calling him Roger? Should I make a rule that henceforth we'll all call him Roger? Nah... the kid I knew was lazy, smart, and anything but tormented, so I concluded we'd all leave well enough alone. Fast foward a few years. I've moved schools and haven't seen Stu since. One day I'm driving through town and stop for lunch and a pint at Rob's Sports Bar, and if I don't run into my former student! He graduated and has been living down Windsor way. He had family down there, and one of his uncles helped him get into the hiring hall of the painter's union, where he was earning more than his former teacher. But it wasn't all fun and games and big paycheques. Back in 2000 there was an industrial accident at the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and Detroit. A painting crew working underneath the bridge suffered a scaffold failure. Three of them fell 90 metres into the Detroit River, where they were quickly scooped up by the US Coast Guard. Five were left dangling from the bridge in their safety harnesses. According to the Globe & Mail's reporting, two of those were pulled up promptly, while the other three were left dangling "somewhat longer." Stu was one of those. According to him, somewhat longer stetched to at least six hours. Holy moly! That coulda been bad! Stu is lucky to be alive! I offer him some commiseration. "Geez man, that musta been real scary... I woulda shit my pants hanging from that bridge for six hours!" Nah... "that fucking harness was so tight I couldna shit my pants if I'd wanted to."

Upper class wanker Jacob Rees-Mogg declares British youth should die for Ukraine

Yup. Sign up and die to save freedom and democracy! This privileged jerk-off is totally 100% serious when he says we absolutely gotta save Western Civ by crushing our authoritarian adversaries. You can bet your bottom shekel this warmongering turd will never volunteer himself or any family members for this sacred mission to save freedom and democracy! We're so far beyond satire, parody, or any possible path whatsoever to making sense of the insanity being pushed on us. I've seen enough videos of how they recruit fresh troops in Ukraine to know that's not what freedom and democracy should look like! Our legacy media, the CBC and the Globe, have pushed a completely bullshit narrative since the collapse of USSR. NATO had to expand after promising not to and then had to expand again and again, because, well, freedom and democracy! And here we are! Today we're promising hundreds of billions in spending for bombs and bullets so we can preserve freedom and democracy in Ukraine? It's a bad wind a-blowin' and I hope we snap out of our stupor before it's too late.

NATO, not Russia, bears ultimate responsibility for the destruction of Ukraine

Mind you, we in Western Civ are treated to endless treatises in our legacy media about how, after winning for four years plus, Ukraine is now winning more decisively than ever before! All the NATO top dogs and all the EU top dogs are in unanimous agreement on that point! Since none of them are even remotely interested in putting their own troops on the front lines, they're prepared to fight Putin's evil empire right down to the very last Ukrainian. Unfortunately for the people of Ukraine, the tall tales the MI6 toffs are spinning bear no resemblance whatsoever to realities on the ground. On the ground, what's left of the Ukrainian military is being obliterated every day. Where's all that kit the allies were to provide, whatever it takes for as long as it takes? No NATO member state, no EU member state leader, has failed to repeat that mantra. "Whatever it takes for as long as it takes." Within a week of the fullscale unprovoked Russian invasion, Ukrainian and Russian negotiators were working on a ceasefire in Belarus. Three weeks in, negotiations had moved to Istanbul, and the two sides had initialed a peace agreement. That's when Boris showed up, and reminded our puppets in Kyiv who's really in charge, and it's been "whatever it takes for as long as it takes" ever since. Here's a post from the archives a few years back, and quite literally, nothing has changed. We're still being regaled with utter horseshit about a few more months and a few more billions and Putin will throw in the towel. Utter insanity! ******************** Tuesday, January 17, 2023 Guess what? Ukraine needs more weapons! Does anyone see a pattern yet? Ukraine has been winning since March, or perhaps even February, thanks to the support of her NATO allies, who have generously donated billions of dollars in weapons to the cause. A few weeks go by, and ya, they're really putting the run to the Rooskies, but the final glorious victory demands a few more months and a few more billions worth of arms. We've been treated to a non-stop loop of this tape every few weeks since this started. When do Western news consumers wake up and smell the coffee? Those billions in weaponry aren't being donated. You, the taxpayers in the "donating" nations, are paying for them. They mostly come from the same US arms manufacturers who fund the think-tanks who dreamt up this brilliant plan to bleed Russia and thereby prolong America's "full spectrum dominance" of life on earth. Don't look now, but things are not going to plan. The current debate around main battle tanks is a good illustration. Ukraine won't get anywhere near the number of tanks it's asked for, but they'll get just enough to prolong the war a few more weeks, and then we'll be back at "Ukraine just needs a few more billions and a few more months." Meanwhile, Ukraine is being systematically destroyed. But who cares? It's happy days for Raytheon and General Dynamics and the rest of America's war profiteers!

Anita Anand declares Canada's leadership of new "middle-powers bloc" at UNGA speech

I'd love to give you a link to her speech, but because I remain a bad boy who violates community standards, you'll have to look it up for yourself. It's certainly worth a look, because my brief critique will but scratch the surface of delusional fantasies fully embraced by the American Empire Loyalists who call the shots in Canada. We have, in spades, the Canadian fantasy that we are "leading" the world in something... anything! If it can't be peacekeeping or quantum computing, maybe it can be artificial intelligence or green hydrogen, or global resistance to Mafia Don. One way or another we're inspiring like-minded allies who share our values to join us as we stand up to the big powers and defend the little guys. I've written often about this magic potion, "Canadian Values." Our Canadian values come up multiple times in Anand's speech. She's a rich and powerful brown person who is 100% hunky-dory with this bastion of diversity and champion of human rights, as a matter of policy under her party, poaching trained nurses and doctors from poverty-stricken African countries. Then there's the Canadian value of kowtowing to every genocidal Israeli outrage with some version of "Israel has a right to defend itself." Anita confirmed our Canadian commitment to the fantasy Two-State Solution. As the one or two percent of Canadians who give a shit have known for decades, that's long over. It took us sixty years to publicly declare our support for a two-state solution, and by now, when 800,000 genocidal religious fanatics are running wild in a murderous rampage which you'll never in a million years denounce, let alone do anything about, we declare our support for an independent Palestinian state? Sorry Anita, I don't see this imaginary middle-powers bloc under Canadian leadership as anything other than empty PR.

A happy 90th and a wish for many more for my dear Onkel Horst

Here's the deal on my Onkel Horst. Since the passing of my dear daddy he's the Grand Old Man of the clan. I did six hours of driving today to be at his party. I do that because he holds a special place in my heart. He's the only adult in my childhood who never ever not-even-once told me a Bible story! But here's an even more crucial consideration. To the best of my recollection, Onkel Horst has never had a gym membership, never engaged in manual labour if it could be avoided, never ever met a bratwurst or a schnitzel he didn't fall in love with, and has never in the past 75 years been seen in any photograph without a pint in his hand! Yet Horst Bruno Neumann is the guy who's still standing while the guys going to private clinics and pricey gyms are long gone to their rewards. That's worth celebrating! And on his 90th he's at least as sharp as me and walks better, and regaled us with tales of all the NHL players he'd known. Given his aversion to manual labour he naturally drifted into sales, and ended up spending a few years at a veterinary supply wholesaler. Turns out a lot of your NHL stars back in the day had farms, horse farms, cattle farms, and so forth, and were a staple of his employer's client list. From Gordie Howe to Bobby Hull to Bobby Orr the lazy square-head ended up on first name terms with a bunch of those guys. Lieber Onkel even left me a couple of hints re his robust good health. Don't over-do it with the vegetables, and remember to take time every day to put your feet up and have a pint. Will do, Lieber Onkel!

Dreck rules

I was rooting through the archives this evening and happened across this gem from five years ago. ******************** Saturday, January 2, 2021 The triumph of dreck If you look up some archival street photography of American life in the 50's and 60's, you find a curious thing. At the beginning of the 50's, folks still had a "Sunday best" view of themselves. If somebody was taking pictures for posterity, you'd want to be remembered, for posterity, in your Sunday best. By the end of the sixties, that was over, collateral damage in the triumph of dreck. There was no "Sunday best" anymore because Sunday wasn't there anymore. We never appreciated how much we lost when we lost Sunday. From a day of peace and grace to a day of jest and madness and business as usual. Why force shops to close on Sunday? Because the min wage retail workers don't deserve weekend time with family? But that's a mere symptom of our descent into the pit of dreck. Dreck demands that the lowest common denominator prevail everywhere at all times, and especially on the screens you're addicted to 24/7. Dreck addiction is what propels "entertainers" with no apparent attributes other than a top-shelf management team to the very pinnacle of pop culture success. Dreck has triumphed. DRECK RULES! Once you're acclimatised to dreckwelt, everything kinda makes sense, don't it?