The murder of Boris Nemtsov has unleashed the predictable barrage of anti-Putin diatribe across all media platforms in the "free world."
When you think about it for more than two seconds, the person who has the least to gain from the murder of Boris Nemtsov would be Vladimir Putin.
It is the anti-Putin opposition, generously financed by the National Endowment for Democracy and other US government run NGO's who gain from this.
This totally plays into the hands of the Putin-haters.
If a pot-addled hillbilly in Bruce County can figure that out, I'm guessing Putin figured it out too.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Chopping firewood till the axe handle breaks...
It's been one hell of a winter.
Cold records set all across the land, month after month.
They call it "global warming."
I'm not so sure.
We enjoyed a warm spell in these parts today. Temperature went up to -7 Celsius I'm told. Apparently that's not enough to mitigate the Owen Sound frozen water-pipe crisis.
Personally, the only water-pipe crisis I ever experienced was when Junior stole my water pipe, but that's a matter for another blog-post.
As for this one, my legal team, who vet every blog-post before it hits the world-wide-web, have strongly recommended that I delete certain relevant details due to matters that are, or are about to be, "before the courts."
I spent this balmy day in shorts and flip-flops digging firewood out of the snow-drift behind the woodshed. The reason I am digging firewood out of the snow is because the nice lady at XXXXX Fuel Supply suddenly took a bitch pill one day last October, and advised me that since my furnace inspection certificate had expired the previous day, they would not be able to provide me with furnace oil until said inspection was duly expedited and archived in their files.
Well!
I have a problem with ultimatums.
No matter how reasonable the ultimatum, I just want to say fuck you.
So I've spent the entire winter, the coldest winter in history, proving to the XXXXX Fuel Supply bitch that I don't need her fuel supply.
This has not been as simple a project as it seemed that day when I first told her to go fuck herself.
As the regular reader knows very well, the prime fuel supply here at Falling Downs is that firewood I harvest every summer. The regular reader will also be acquainted with the 1,001 sound reasons why summer is never long enough to get enough wood in for the winter.
Luckily, I had a great surplus of tree trunk rounds that were waiting for the wood-splitter that I never got around to fixing, because summer was just too short. They're sitting under four feet of snow right behind the empty wood-shed.
So I've been out there with the snow-shovel, and it's a bit like an archaeological expedition; you just randomly dig in and hope for a lucky strike!
Sure enough, I've discovered a motherlode of those two hundred pound rounds under four feet of snow. They were too big to bother with last summer, but suddenly they're golden... I've been dragging them into the wood-shed and carving them up with the ten-pound maul.
It's an exercise that's been keeping the house warm and the Farm Manager quiet...
But just an hour ago, chopping those frozen rounds, the axe handle broke...
Could be trouble ahead...
Cold records set all across the land, month after month.
They call it "global warming."
I'm not so sure.
We enjoyed a warm spell in these parts today. Temperature went up to -7 Celsius I'm told. Apparently that's not enough to mitigate the Owen Sound frozen water-pipe crisis.
Personally, the only water-pipe crisis I ever experienced was when Junior stole my water pipe, but that's a matter for another blog-post.
As for this one, my legal team, who vet every blog-post before it hits the world-wide-web, have strongly recommended that I delete certain relevant details due to matters that are, or are about to be, "before the courts."
I spent this balmy day in shorts and flip-flops digging firewood out of the snow-drift behind the woodshed. The reason I am digging firewood out of the snow is because the nice lady at XXXXX Fuel Supply suddenly took a bitch pill one day last October, and advised me that since my furnace inspection certificate had expired the previous day, they would not be able to provide me with furnace oil until said inspection was duly expedited and archived in their files.
Well!
I have a problem with ultimatums.
No matter how reasonable the ultimatum, I just want to say fuck you.
So I've spent the entire winter, the coldest winter in history, proving to the XXXXX Fuel Supply bitch that I don't need her fuel supply.
This has not been as simple a project as it seemed that day when I first told her to go fuck herself.
As the regular reader knows very well, the prime fuel supply here at Falling Downs is that firewood I harvest every summer. The regular reader will also be acquainted with the 1,001 sound reasons why summer is never long enough to get enough wood in for the winter.
Luckily, I had a great surplus of tree trunk rounds that were waiting for the wood-splitter that I never got around to fixing, because summer was just too short. They're sitting under four feet of snow right behind the empty wood-shed.
So I've been out there with the snow-shovel, and it's a bit like an archaeological expedition; you just randomly dig in and hope for a lucky strike!
Sure enough, I've discovered a motherlode of those two hundred pound rounds under four feet of snow. They were too big to bother with last summer, but suddenly they're golden... I've been dragging them into the wood-shed and carving them up with the ten-pound maul.
It's an exercise that's been keeping the house warm and the Farm Manager quiet...
But just an hour ago, chopping those frozen rounds, the axe handle broke...
Could be trouble ahead...
Canada's submarine fleet now stalking the seven seas...
...or at least as far out into the seven seas as those air hoses will reach from Esquimalt and Halifax!
In one of the greatest boondoggles ever perpetrated on the Canadian taxpayer by our ruling class, our sub fleet has cost billions and is deemed three-quarters seaworthy a mere seventeen years after their purchase. Bear in mind they were ten years old and considered obsolete when the Brits sold them to us, and you begin to get a sense of the senselessness of this fiasco.
Canada needs a sub fleet for what? All we ever read about the Royal Canadian Navy is the yeoman's work they do as me-too tag-alongs in NATO exercises and providing back-up to the DEA in the "war on drugs." Sure we have lots of coastline, and these submarines are going to protect them from what?
A Russian invasion?
A US invasion?
Not likely...
In one of the greatest boondoggles ever perpetrated on the Canadian taxpayer by our ruling class, our sub fleet has cost billions and is deemed three-quarters seaworthy a mere seventeen years after their purchase. Bear in mind they were ten years old and considered obsolete when the Brits sold them to us, and you begin to get a sense of the senselessness of this fiasco.
Canada needs a sub fleet for what? All we ever read about the Royal Canadian Navy is the yeoman's work they do as me-too tag-alongs in NATO exercises and providing back-up to the DEA in the "war on drugs." Sure we have lots of coastline, and these submarines are going to protect them from what?
A Russian invasion?
A US invasion?
Not likely...
Sis-boom-al-Shabaab
When the supposed al-Shabaab video came out a week ago threatening the Ghermezian malls in Alberta and Minnesota, the only people who pretended to take it seriously were the nabobs in Ottawa who are desperately trolling for terror threats of all types in order to whip up support for their draconian anti-democratic Bill C-51. After all, al-Shabaab has never hit a target more than a day's donkey-cart drive from the border of Somalia.
But a week later, our resolve to stand strong in the face of ludicrously implausible terror threats is beginning to crumble. At last count, no less than twelve cheer-leading squads have dropped out of the Alberta Cheer-leading Association Championships, scheduled to begin next week at West Edmonton Mall.
Those vile al-Shabaabbers have struck a blow at the heart of Western civilization...
Is nothing sacred?
But a week later, our resolve to stand strong in the face of ludicrously implausible terror threats is beginning to crumble. At last count, no less than twelve cheer-leading squads have dropped out of the Alberta Cheer-leading Association Championships, scheduled to begin next week at West Edmonton Mall.
Those vile al-Shabaabbers have struck a blow at the heart of Western civilization...
Is nothing sacred?
U of T exposed!
Some solid investigative journalism at Canada's newspaper of record has revealed an ugly truth; Canada's leading institution of higher learning claims to respect "academic freedom!"
It's right there on page A19 of today's Globe and Mail. Unlike their truth-loving brethren a couple of hours up the 401, the heretics at the University of Toronto continue to employ an academic who preaches scepticism about the efficacy of vaccines.
In fact, the article quotes a University PR hack claiming the school is "committed to the principles of academic freedom and freedom of speech," if one can even imagine such a thing!
What's next?.. an all-out critique of Big Pharma?
It's right there on page A19 of today's Globe and Mail. Unlike their truth-loving brethren a couple of hours up the 401, the heretics at the University of Toronto continue to employ an academic who preaches scepticism about the efficacy of vaccines.
In fact, the article quotes a University PR hack claiming the school is "committed to the principles of academic freedom and freedom of speech," if one can even imagine such a thing!
What's next?.. an all-out critique of Big Pharma?
Friday, February 27, 2015
Guy who beheaded Greyhound passenger back on bus
The Vincent Li story put a wobble in the knees of anybody who ever took a Greyhound. Li was found not guilty of murder because the defence lawyers successfully played the nutso-kookoo card. He has been making such a spectacular recovery that he's now getting passes for unsupervised travel from Selkirk to Winnipeg.
Here's the CBC today;
Here's the CBC today;
... Li will be granted day passes to visit Winnipeg unsupervised as long as he has a working cellphone.
Li has been staying at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre since he was found not criminally responsible for stabbing and beheading Tim McLean, a 22-year-old carnival worker, aboard a Greyhound bus in July 2008.
Here's my question; will he be taking the Greyhound on those trips from Selkirk to Winnipeg?
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Here comes the latest attack on police unions
And who better to lead the attack than Stephan Cretier, boss of Garda, the biggest private security company in the world, and his eager minions among the think tanks and the media.
Until now, at least in Canada, policing has been one of the few professions that has successfully avoided being ground down to poverty-level shit-job status, along with nursing and teaching. Why?
Essentially it's because policing, nursing, and teaching can't be outsourced to Mexico or China.
Mr. Cretier thinks he's found a compelling argument to circumvent this problem, and it certainly hits a lot of the right buttons. Let's re-define policing!
Yes, real he-man cops don't want to be receptionists at the police station!
Let his private mall-cop agency handle those duties, at major savings for the taxpayer!
Real cops don't want to direct traffic and answer burglar alarms.
Let the private security companies do that!
That'll free up real cops to focus on all that real crime that's been decreasing year after year, decade after decade.
In other words, if we restricted "real cops" to "real cop" work, we'd only need a quarter of the cops we have now.
The other three quarters of their work could be done by... his company!
At massive savings to the taxpayer!
We can turn tens of thousands of police jobs into security guard jobs! After all, they have "similar educations."
That's true. Over the last twenty years there's been an explosion in "Police Foundation" programs at colleges across the land. They graduate ten times more qualified applicants than can be absorbed by police forces. A lot of them end up as security guards while they await their big break into a "real" job.
Cretier is being truthful when he says they don't want to replace the police. They want to be police.
So, going forward, this is how things will shake out. The public will gradually come to the realization that Police Foundations programs will train your kid for a job as a security guard. Interest will rapidly wane. Once we've stripped actual police of all duties other than armed confrontation, the same right-wing ideologues driving this anti-cop agenda will propose that armed confrontation is best left to the military.
Voila! We won't need cops at all! It'll be min wage security guards for the light-duty stuff, and the Canadian Forces for the heavy duty stuff!
Good-bye police unions!
Good-bye, tens of thousands of well-paying middle-class jobs.
Until now, at least in Canada, policing has been one of the few professions that has successfully avoided being ground down to poverty-level shit-job status, along with nursing and teaching. Why?
Essentially it's because policing, nursing, and teaching can't be outsourced to Mexico or China.
Mr. Cretier thinks he's found a compelling argument to circumvent this problem, and it certainly hits a lot of the right buttons. Let's re-define policing!
Yes, real he-man cops don't want to be receptionists at the police station!
Let his private mall-cop agency handle those duties, at major savings for the taxpayer!
Real cops don't want to direct traffic and answer burglar alarms.
Let the private security companies do that!
That'll free up real cops to focus on all that real crime that's been decreasing year after year, decade after decade.
In other words, if we restricted "real cops" to "real cop" work, we'd only need a quarter of the cops we have now.
The other three quarters of their work could be done by... his company!
At massive savings to the taxpayer!
We can turn tens of thousands of police jobs into security guard jobs! After all, they have "similar educations."
That's true. Over the last twenty years there's been an explosion in "Police Foundation" programs at colleges across the land. They graduate ten times more qualified applicants than can be absorbed by police forces. A lot of them end up as security guards while they await their big break into a "real" job.
Cretier is being truthful when he says they don't want to replace the police. They want to be police.
So, going forward, this is how things will shake out. The public will gradually come to the realization that Police Foundations programs will train your kid for a job as a security guard. Interest will rapidly wane. Once we've stripped actual police of all duties other than armed confrontation, the same right-wing ideologues driving this anti-cop agenda will propose that armed confrontation is best left to the military.
Voila! We won't need cops at all! It'll be min wage security guards for the light-duty stuff, and the Canadian Forces for the heavy duty stuff!
Good-bye police unions!
Good-bye, tens of thousands of well-paying middle-class jobs.
Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be journalists
So Junior wants to go off to Carleton or Ryerson or Columbia for a few years to study up for a career in journalism?
Just say no!
First of all, a journalism degree is a ticket into the precariat. After four or five years Junior will be lucky to find him or herself in an unpaid internship.
Even "real" journalists who get paid find themselves recycling corporate press releases and passing them off as "news."
For example, Christina Blizzard had a great article across the Sunmedia (soon to be a division of Postmedia, because two stinkers make a rose...) chain on Feb. 12 about how we can save a lot of money on policing. Good solid journalism, eh? She even talked to Stephan Cretier, boss of one of the worlds biggest private security outfits, Garda. Her keen investigative journalism reveals that we can replace a lot of $100,000/yr cops with $40,000/private security guards.
Dig around a little, and you'll soon discover that all she's done is recycle this Jan. 29 Garda press release!
That's what passes for "journalism" today.
Journalism was once an honourable profession.
And PS, the only mall cop making 40k is some poor shmuck with no life working three or four double shifts every week.
Just say no!
First of all, a journalism degree is a ticket into the precariat. After four or five years Junior will be lucky to find him or herself in an unpaid internship.
Even "real" journalists who get paid find themselves recycling corporate press releases and passing them off as "news."
For example, Christina Blizzard had a great article across the Sunmedia (soon to be a division of Postmedia, because two stinkers make a rose...) chain on Feb. 12 about how we can save a lot of money on policing. Good solid journalism, eh? She even talked to Stephan Cretier, boss of one of the worlds biggest private security outfits, Garda. Her keen investigative journalism reveals that we can replace a lot of $100,000/yr cops with $40,000/private security guards.
Dig around a little, and you'll soon discover that all she's done is recycle this Jan. 29 Garda press release!
That's what passes for "journalism" today.
Journalism was once an honourable profession.
And PS, the only mall cop making 40k is some poor shmuck with no life working three or four double shifts every week.
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Plucky Gaza militants dig terror tunnel all the way to Toronto!
What-ever else those Palestinians may be, you have to admire their work ethic!
That six thousand mile long tunnel must have taken years to build. Its purpose is obvious - to provide a direct link between Gaza and York University, an internationally famous hotbed for anti-Semitic activism.
Luckily for the free world, the astute Canadian authorities, under the direct supervision of the steely Stephen Harper, have discovered the tunnel in the nick of time - and just in time to give an extra PR boost to the odious Bill C-51 anti-terrorist legislation the Harper gang is currently ramming through the legislative process.
That six thousand mile long tunnel must have taken years to build. Its purpose is obvious - to provide a direct link between Gaza and York University, an internationally famous hotbed for anti-Semitic activism.
Luckily for the free world, the astute Canadian authorities, under the direct supervision of the steely Stephen Harper, have discovered the tunnel in the nick of time - and just in time to give an extra PR boost to the odious Bill C-51 anti-terrorist legislation the Harper gang is currently ramming through the legislative process.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Why school districts need a "new" sex-ed curriculum every few years
As far as I can see, and I don't mean to be too crass about it, there's been nothing new in the pole-in-the-hole game at least since the time of Caligula.
Nevertheless, Departments of Education, School Boards, etc, feel obliged to offer up "new" sex education curricula every few years.
The latest manifestation of this tendency is currently on display right here in Ontario.
Oh ya, it's CONTROVERSIAL according to the news media.
Nothing like a controversial sex-ed curriculum to goose viewership!
Apparently it's controversial because it talks about wanking and anal sex.
Well, that's not new. See Caligula above.
Even the Bible references that wanker Onan spilling his seed on the ground...
Nothing new about that!
As for the anal sex bit, ya, a utilitarian may be tempted to deem a hole a hole, but we have biblical antecedents to that proclivity as well; google Sodom.
Nothing new there either.
Apparently what IS new is the discussion about cyber sex and all its derivatives; cyber dating, cyber stalking, sexting...
But that's not about sex, it's about technology. That should be part of the technology curriculum.
Here's the real reason we need a new sex ed curriculum every few years; it makes oodles and oodles of work for educational consultants!
Now, not to put too fine a point on it, but generally speaking, the "educational consultant" cohort were teachers at one time, teachers who realized that they hated students. Teachers who decided to work their way up. Teachers who realized that they would much rather spend their working days liaising with other educators than actually teaching yucky students.
And if you're going to spend your working life liaising, what more juicy a topic to liaise over than sex education!
Think about it!
Endless round tables and focus groups and study sessions on how deep to go into anal sex... masturbation... oral sex...
Hell, no wonder it takes years to come up with a new curriculum!
Nevertheless, Departments of Education, School Boards, etc, feel obliged to offer up "new" sex education curricula every few years.
The latest manifestation of this tendency is currently on display right here in Ontario.
Oh ya, it's CONTROVERSIAL according to the news media.
Nothing like a controversial sex-ed curriculum to goose viewership!
Apparently it's controversial because it talks about wanking and anal sex.
Well, that's not new. See Caligula above.
Even the Bible references that wanker Onan spilling his seed on the ground...
Nothing new about that!
As for the anal sex bit, ya, a utilitarian may be tempted to deem a hole a hole, but we have biblical antecedents to that proclivity as well; google Sodom.
Nothing new there either.
Apparently what IS new is the discussion about cyber sex and all its derivatives; cyber dating, cyber stalking, sexting...
But that's not about sex, it's about technology. That should be part of the technology curriculum.
Here's the real reason we need a new sex ed curriculum every few years; it makes oodles and oodles of work for educational consultants!
Now, not to put too fine a point on it, but generally speaking, the "educational consultant" cohort were teachers at one time, teachers who realized that they hated students. Teachers who decided to work their way up. Teachers who realized that they would much rather spend their working days liaising with other educators than actually teaching yucky students.
And if you're going to spend your working life liaising, what more juicy a topic to liaise over than sex education!
Think about it!
Endless round tables and focus groups and study sessions on how deep to go into anal sex... masturbation... oral sex...
Hell, no wonder it takes years to come up with a new curriculum!
Make politicians work for minimum wage
Have to say I'm surprised at the robust defence that Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Jack Straw are putting up after they were caught out offering to sell their "access" for sums in the range of ten thousand British pounds per day.
This is, in polite circles, known as "lobbying" rather than influence peddling or something even more foul, ie bribe taking.
To hear them tell it, no reasonable person would expect a British MP to get by on a mere 67,000 pounds per year. They are forced by circumstance to supplement those paltry pay packets by farming out their insider knowledge and connections to the private sector.
The parliamentarians' poverty wage, inadequate though it may be, is about 500% greater than the wage of a Brit working full time at minimum wage, which millions do, at least if they are "lucky" enough to find full-time work in the era of the zero-hours contract.
The pols argue that higher pay is required in order to attract political candidates of the appropriate calibre. They may well have a point, given the tawdry calibre we've been getting across the so-called democratic world.
On the other hand, enacting laws requiring politicians to be paid minimum wage would soon ensure a proper minimum wage.
This is, in polite circles, known as "lobbying" rather than influence peddling or something even more foul, ie bribe taking.
To hear them tell it, no reasonable person would expect a British MP to get by on a mere 67,000 pounds per year. They are forced by circumstance to supplement those paltry pay packets by farming out their insider knowledge and connections to the private sector.
The parliamentarians' poverty wage, inadequate though it may be, is about 500% greater than the wage of a Brit working full time at minimum wage, which millions do, at least if they are "lucky" enough to find full-time work in the era of the zero-hours contract.
The pols argue that higher pay is required in order to attract political candidates of the appropriate calibre. They may well have a point, given the tawdry calibre we've been getting across the so-called democratic world.
On the other hand, enacting laws requiring politicians to be paid minimum wage would soon ensure a proper minimum wage.
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Not all dead babies were born equal
A terrible tragedy unfolded in Toronto last week. Three year old Elijah Marsh wandered away from his grandmother's apartment during one of the coldest nights of the winter. Canadians have responded with an out-pouring of grief and financial donations. Young Elijah's funeral fund has raised more that $150,000.
Elijah's tragic death came hard on the heels of the tragic deaths of two children in a house fire on a remote Saskatchewan Indian Reservation. Two year old Harley Cheenanow and his 18 month old sister Haley were also staying with their grandmother during one of the coldest nights of the winter.
The house caught fire, Haley and Harley died, and the closest fire department refused to respond because Haley and Harley's community hadn't paid up their fire department account.
Outside of their immediate community, their deaths have caused out-pourings of neither grief nor financial donations. Instead, there has been a plethora of media attention focused on the fact that the Makwa-Sahgaiehan First Nation was delinquent in its account for fire-fighting services with the nearby town of Loon Lake.
Aha!
It was THEIR fault!
No candlelight vigils, generous donations, or sympathetic publicity for Haley and Harley.
Elijah's tragic death came hard on the heels of the tragic deaths of two children in a house fire on a remote Saskatchewan Indian Reservation. Two year old Harley Cheenanow and his 18 month old sister Haley were also staying with their grandmother during one of the coldest nights of the winter.
The house caught fire, Haley and Harley died, and the closest fire department refused to respond because Haley and Harley's community hadn't paid up their fire department account.
Outside of their immediate community, their deaths have caused out-pourings of neither grief nor financial donations. Instead, there has been a plethora of media attention focused on the fact that the Makwa-Sahgaiehan First Nation was delinquent in its account for fire-fighting services with the nearby town of Loon Lake.
Aha!
It was THEIR fault!
No candlelight vigils, generous donations, or sympathetic publicity for Haley and Harley.
Friday, February 20, 2015
Frozen firewood throws off a cold heat
When I walked the hounds this morning the temperature was -35 degrees C. Had I known that when I set out, I would not have set out.
I like to start my day with a brisk walk in the bracing cold. Lucy and Boomer have fur coats that allowed their ancestors to survive a million years of evolution before we domesticated them into lazy-ass moochers who want to do nothing but sit by the fire and fetch your slippers.
They're OK with the cold.
Me? Not so much.
Luckily, first thing in the morning, I am not yet "firing on all cylinders" as the saying goes. In fact, many a morning has turned to afternoon before there is much of a spark in some of those cylinders.
No matter. I find nothing clears the head like a brisk walk in the bracing cold, and my head was really clear by the time we got back this morning.
Ya, it's been one hell of a cold winter. From what I read in the news it's been one hell of a winter all over the place. Heard they had a snow-storm in Jerusalem today. No doubt there will be some debate in the Holy Land about whether this is the work of Allah or Jehovah.
Or Satan.
Funny how nobody can agree on the name of God but everybody agrees the name of the bad guy is Satan.
Funny how everybody can agree that record cold and record snowfall everywhere from Boston to Birmingham to Berlin to Beirut to Jerusalem is caused by something we call "global warming."
But I'm not getting into that debate...
Me and Boomer and Lucy hike down to the corner and head up the Burgess side road. Half a mile up there we pick up Bella. That's the neighbour's dog. One thing I love about Falling Downs is that the neighbours are a half mile away.
At Falling Downs you can piss from the porch or even from the balcony and nobody ever cares.
That's the kind of shit that can get you in the newspaper when you do it in town... and not in a good way.
Me and the hounds head a couple miles down the side-road and turn around by Harvard's place. Harvard got his name because he actually attended that fabled Boston institution of higher learning for a year.
Then his scholarship ran out, and he was back in Bruce County.
Even though I'm a high-school drop-out, I enjoy matching wits with Harvard. He's not one for cold weather walks, but now and then his dog comes out for a bum-sniff with the other hounds.
By the time I got home my water bottle was iced up.
But the temperature inside Falling Downs HQ was closing in on 80 degrees F.
The Farm Manager was sitting near naked in front of her computer with the temperature outside setting record lows.
I'd topped off the furnace with a load of frozen firewood I dug out of the snow-drift behind the woodshed. It was throwing off cold cold heat when I left.
But apparently that cold heat warms up real fast.
I like to start my day with a brisk walk in the bracing cold. Lucy and Boomer have fur coats that allowed their ancestors to survive a million years of evolution before we domesticated them into lazy-ass moochers who want to do nothing but sit by the fire and fetch your slippers.
They're OK with the cold.
Me? Not so much.
Luckily, first thing in the morning, I am not yet "firing on all cylinders" as the saying goes. In fact, many a morning has turned to afternoon before there is much of a spark in some of those cylinders.
No matter. I find nothing clears the head like a brisk walk in the bracing cold, and my head was really clear by the time we got back this morning.
Ya, it's been one hell of a cold winter. From what I read in the news it's been one hell of a winter all over the place. Heard they had a snow-storm in Jerusalem today. No doubt there will be some debate in the Holy Land about whether this is the work of Allah or Jehovah.
Or Satan.
Funny how nobody can agree on the name of God but everybody agrees the name of the bad guy is Satan.
Funny how everybody can agree that record cold and record snowfall everywhere from Boston to Birmingham to Berlin to Beirut to Jerusalem is caused by something we call "global warming."
But I'm not getting into that debate...
Me and Boomer and Lucy hike down to the corner and head up the Burgess side road. Half a mile up there we pick up Bella. That's the neighbour's dog. One thing I love about Falling Downs is that the neighbours are a half mile away.
At Falling Downs you can piss from the porch or even from the balcony and nobody ever cares.
That's the kind of shit that can get you in the newspaper when you do it in town... and not in a good way.
Me and the hounds head a couple miles down the side-road and turn around by Harvard's place. Harvard got his name because he actually attended that fabled Boston institution of higher learning for a year.
Then his scholarship ran out, and he was back in Bruce County.
Even though I'm a high-school drop-out, I enjoy matching wits with Harvard. He's not one for cold weather walks, but now and then his dog comes out for a bum-sniff with the other hounds.
By the time I got home my water bottle was iced up.
But the temperature inside Falling Downs HQ was closing in on 80 degrees F.
The Farm Manager was sitting near naked in front of her computer with the temperature outside setting record lows.
I'd topped off the furnace with a load of frozen firewood I dug out of the snow-drift behind the woodshed. It was throwing off cold cold heat when I left.
But apparently that cold heat warms up real fast.
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Canada's warmongering press shills for Ukraine escalation
While even US puppet Poroshenko seems to realize he's up a stump, that's not stopping Canada's right-wing paper of the far-right record from shilling for more death and destruction in Ukraine.
The National Post was originally a Conrad Black contrivance dreamed into being because Conrad, back when he was still marginally solvent, thought that Canada's newspaper of record, the solidly right-slanting Globe and Mail, was a bit too leftish for his tastes.
Now the Post is little more than an anchor around the neck of the flailing Postmedia Network, but they still have two or three writers on staff who aren't unpaid interns, and John Ivison is one of them.
As you can see, John is a true believer in the "Putin plots world domination" theory, and therefore it behoves him to rally all freedom loving peoples the world over to do what they can to fight Putin.
And if that means supplying the bankrupt failed state of Ukraine with weapons, well, we gotta do what we gotta do!
The "Putin plots world domination" theory is an uneasy cousin of the "Putin isolated" meme that the National Post and like-minded propaganda outlets like to spin out for our edification.
Putin is so isolated that yesterday he received a warm welcome in EU member Hungary.
In the past month the isolated Putin has signed off on mutual cooperation deals with India, China, NATO member Turkey, Egypt, and others.
That doesn't sound like isolation to me.
The National Post was originally a Conrad Black contrivance dreamed into being because Conrad, back when he was still marginally solvent, thought that Canada's newspaper of record, the solidly right-slanting Globe and Mail, was a bit too leftish for his tastes.
Now the Post is little more than an anchor around the neck of the flailing Postmedia Network, but they still have two or three writers on staff who aren't unpaid interns, and John Ivison is one of them.
As you can see, John is a true believer in the "Putin plots world domination" theory, and therefore it behoves him to rally all freedom loving peoples the world over to do what they can to fight Putin.
And if that means supplying the bankrupt failed state of Ukraine with weapons, well, we gotta do what we gotta do!
The "Putin plots world domination" theory is an uneasy cousin of the "Putin isolated" meme that the National Post and like-minded propaganda outlets like to spin out for our edification.
Putin is so isolated that yesterday he received a warm welcome in EU member Hungary.
In the past month the isolated Putin has signed off on mutual cooperation deals with India, China, NATO member Turkey, Egypt, and others.
That doesn't sound like isolation to me.
Queen's University caves to Big Pharma, waves bye-bye to Academic Freedom
These days it is deemed headline worthy that six cases of measles have been discovered in Southern Ontario (pop. 9,000,000+).
When I was a kid in grade school, it was nothing if six kids in my class (pop. 28) got measles in the course of the school year.
In fact, pretty much everybody got measles or chicken pox or mumps somewhere in the course of their childhood. I had all three at one time or another, and I don't think that's anything unusual. Lots of kids had all three at one time or another.
Life went on.
Fast forward fifty years, and Queen's University has just deep-sixed adjunct professor Melody Torcolacci for spreading the heresy that vaccines may not be all that Big Pharma has cracked them up to be.
According to the story, one of Canada's most prestigious universities has taken this measure in response to the concerns of students upset by Professor Torcolacci's alleged dissemination of anti-vaccine propaganda.
Ya right!
Kind of reminds you of a certain Galileo chappie pilloried for spreading anti-Papist propaganda a few centuries ago.
I've had enough experience with post secondary education to know that university administrations don't give a shit for the sensitivities of their students, nor should they. That's a claim that rings false regardless in this case; university students in undergrad courses are preoccupied with planning their next kegger, not with expunging vaccine sceptics from the faculty.
Queen's University is banishing Professor Torcolacci because of pressure from vaccine manufacturers, not pressure from undergrads.
When I was a kid in grade school, it was nothing if six kids in my class (pop. 28) got measles in the course of the school year.
In fact, pretty much everybody got measles or chicken pox or mumps somewhere in the course of their childhood. I had all three at one time or another, and I don't think that's anything unusual. Lots of kids had all three at one time or another.
Life went on.
Fast forward fifty years, and Queen's University has just deep-sixed adjunct professor Melody Torcolacci for spreading the heresy that vaccines may not be all that Big Pharma has cracked them up to be.
According to the story, one of Canada's most prestigious universities has taken this measure in response to the concerns of students upset by Professor Torcolacci's alleged dissemination of anti-vaccine propaganda.
Ya right!
Kind of reminds you of a certain Galileo chappie pilloried for spreading anti-Papist propaganda a few centuries ago.
I've had enough experience with post secondary education to know that university administrations don't give a shit for the sensitivities of their students, nor should they. That's a claim that rings false regardless in this case; university students in undergrad courses are preoccupied with planning their next kegger, not with expunging vaccine sceptics from the faculty.
Queen's University is banishing Professor Torcolacci because of pressure from vaccine manufacturers, not pressure from undergrads.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
You want to believe this isn't true
How is it possible for a fire department to refuse to answer a fire call because the community at the other end of the line has an outstanding bill?
Going by early news reports, that's what happened this week at Loon Lake, Saskatchewan.
Loon Lake Fire Chief Larry Heon is quoted as saying that the nearby Makwa-
Sahgaiehcan First Nation had been warned about paying their bills.
I sincerely hope he was misquoted.
You let two kids burn to death because the grown-ups in their community haven't paid their bills?
How is such a thing even possible in the Canada I live in?
Going by early news reports, that's what happened this week at Loon Lake, Saskatchewan.
Loon Lake Fire Chief Larry Heon is quoted as saying that the nearby Makwa-
Sahgaiehcan First Nation had been warned about paying their bills.
I sincerely hope he was misquoted.
You let two kids burn to death because the grown-ups in their community haven't paid their bills?
How is such a thing even possible in the Canada I live in?
Monday, February 16, 2015
Canadian taxpayer to fork over $122 millions for Harper's grandstanding on Islamic State
We're not sure who we're fighting over there in Iraq... ISIS, ISIL, the Islamic State? But apparently our participation is costing us $122 million for the first six months.
Or perhaps $166 millions according to a new estimate released today.
And since ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State has only expanded in those first six months, a re-up is a foregone conclusion. The smart money says this could go on for years, if not decades.
Meanwhile, I know at first hand that the local high school is holding fund-raisers to keep their breakfast program alive...
But we got hundreds of millions to stick it to "Islamic fundamentalists."
Frankly, I don't understand how fighting Islamic fundamentalists in Iraq is any of our concern. Is this really about "fighting terrorists?" If I'm not mistaken, our much ballyhooed "terror attacks" of recent memory were carried out by French-Canadian Roman Catholics.
They were allegedly "recent converts" to Islam, but that should be considered a red flag, not a green one. Having been married to a couple of Roman Catholics (not at the same time, mind you) I think abandoning that dodgy superstition in favour of a foreign superstition every bit as dodgy should be taken as a cry for help.
That's what frosts my ass about the way this government tosses millions of dollars into adventures that are, if we're lucky, irrelevant. If we're not lucky it'll give authentic jihadists a legitimate reason to treat us to some real terror.
Sadly, while we seem to have money to burn on flying counter-productive bombing runs in Iraq, we can't afford to properly care for mentally ill young men who want to lash out at the world by running over a soldier in uniform, we can't provide housing for the homeless, we can't come to equitable agreements with our native population, we cant rein in rogue corporations who are destroying jobs and befouling the environment; in short, when messed up young men are wildly waving red flags, we can't respond.
But we can afford $122 million dollars to bomb Iraq for six months. Billions more will be spent to see this mission through to its conclusion, and the only conceivable purpose is to make Harper look like a bold warrior king.
What a waste!
Or perhaps $166 millions according to a new estimate released today.
And since ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State has only expanded in those first six months, a re-up is a foregone conclusion. The smart money says this could go on for years, if not decades.
Meanwhile, I know at first hand that the local high school is holding fund-raisers to keep their breakfast program alive...
But we got hundreds of millions to stick it to "Islamic fundamentalists."
Frankly, I don't understand how fighting Islamic fundamentalists in Iraq is any of our concern. Is this really about "fighting terrorists?" If I'm not mistaken, our much ballyhooed "terror attacks" of recent memory were carried out by French-Canadian Roman Catholics.
They were allegedly "recent converts" to Islam, but that should be considered a red flag, not a green one. Having been married to a couple of Roman Catholics (not at the same time, mind you) I think abandoning that dodgy superstition in favour of a foreign superstition every bit as dodgy should be taken as a cry for help.
That's what frosts my ass about the way this government tosses millions of dollars into adventures that are, if we're lucky, irrelevant. If we're not lucky it'll give authentic jihadists a legitimate reason to treat us to some real terror.
Sadly, while we seem to have money to burn on flying counter-productive bombing runs in Iraq, we can't afford to properly care for mentally ill young men who want to lash out at the world by running over a soldier in uniform, we can't provide housing for the homeless, we can't come to equitable agreements with our native population, we cant rein in rogue corporations who are destroying jobs and befouling the environment; in short, when messed up young men are wildly waving red flags, we can't respond.
But we can afford $122 million dollars to bomb Iraq for six months. Billions more will be spent to see this mission through to its conclusion, and the only conceivable purpose is to make Harper look like a bold warrior king.
What a waste!
Outtaluck Jonathan's impossible Nigerian quagmire
Nigeria watchers everywhere are wondering what the next six weeks will bring.
That's the timeline Jonathan has established for not only crushing Boko Haram but also holding an election!
I'm not the only one who finds this fanciful beyond belief. Sonala Olumhense has been writing about Nigerian politics for thirty years, and it's very hard to find even a hint of optimism in his most recent ruminations.
The think tank here at Falling Downs is betting military coup.
That's the timeline Jonathan has established for not only crushing Boko Haram but also holding an election!
I'm not the only one who finds this fanciful beyond belief. Sonala Olumhense has been writing about Nigerian politics for thirty years, and it's very hard to find even a hint of optimism in his most recent ruminations.
The think tank here at Falling Downs is betting military coup.
Bibi's crass marketing campaign
The blood of today's terror victims in Copenhagen had not yet congealed on the pave-stones before Israel PM Netanyahu was making campaign fodder of it.
Yes, now we have more proof that every European Jew belongs in Israel.
Let's have a reality check.
More Jews have died in traffic accidents in Israel in the past month than have perished in European terror attacks in the last twenty years.
Perspective can be a beautiful thing!
Yes, there are Jew-haters aplenty in Europe...
So move to the safety of Sderot.
It of course remains forbidden to mention why these blood-thirsty Arabs are such Jew-haters...
Could it, at the end of the day, have something to do with occupation and settlements and state-sponsored land theft?
Yes, now we have more proof that every European Jew belongs in Israel.
Let's have a reality check.
More Jews have died in traffic accidents in Israel in the past month than have perished in European terror attacks in the last twenty years.
Perspective can be a beautiful thing!
Yes, there are Jew-haters aplenty in Europe...
So move to the safety of Sderot.
It of course remains forbidden to mention why these blood-thirsty Arabs are such Jew-haters...
Could it, at the end of the day, have something to do with occupation and settlements and state-sponsored land theft?
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Egypt to annex Libya
Think about it.
Egypt; 80 million people, no oil resources.
Right next door, a mere five million people sitting on the greatest oil reserves in all Africa, at least it will be after those fanciful Nigeria numbers ever get a proper audit. And what are those Libyans doing with that oil bonanza?
Why nothing! In fact, since the Nations of Virtue gifted them the precious gift of freedom a couple years back, all they been doing is running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off, trying to cut off each others heads!
Not only that, but now you got your IS types mixed up in the mayhem, and by golly, they be choppin' heads too!
Now think big picture...
Our boy al-Sisi could do us a big favour and impose law and order on Libya, which has become nothing more than a breeding ground for extremism since we freed them from their evil dictator. Not only that, but he could save all that oil at the same time!
Bonus!
And after those whacko long-beards of IS lopped off the heads of the last 21 Egyptian Christians the other day, the entire Western world will be cheer-leading for al-Sisi!
Not only that, but this fits hand-in-glove with the plan afoot to rebuild Gaza in "Western Gaza," ie Egypt!
This is a win-win and win again, folks!
Israel finally gets rid of the Palestinians.
The Palestinians get their own country.
What Egypt loses in the Sinai to the new Palestinian State they more than make up with the annexation of Libya.
Plus, they get the oil reserves!
I think we got us a winner!....
And by the way, in case the beltway boys get cold feet about this bold plan, did you notice Putin was sniffing around in Cairo the other day?
Egypt; 80 million people, no oil resources.
Right next door, a mere five million people sitting on the greatest oil reserves in all Africa, at least it will be after those fanciful Nigeria numbers ever get a proper audit. And what are those Libyans doing with that oil bonanza?
Why nothing! In fact, since the Nations of Virtue gifted them the precious gift of freedom a couple years back, all they been doing is running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off, trying to cut off each others heads!
Not only that, but now you got your IS types mixed up in the mayhem, and by golly, they be choppin' heads too!
Now think big picture...
Our boy al-Sisi could do us a big favour and impose law and order on Libya, which has become nothing more than a breeding ground for extremism since we freed them from their evil dictator. Not only that, but he could save all that oil at the same time!
Bonus!
And after those whacko long-beards of IS lopped off the heads of the last 21 Egyptian Christians the other day, the entire Western world will be cheer-leading for al-Sisi!
Not only that, but this fits hand-in-glove with the plan afoot to rebuild Gaza in "Western Gaza," ie Egypt!
This is a win-win and win again, folks!
Israel finally gets rid of the Palestinians.
The Palestinians get their own country.
What Egypt loses in the Sinai to the new Palestinian State they more than make up with the annexation of Libya.
Plus, they get the oil reserves!
I think we got us a winner!....
And by the way, in case the beltway boys get cold feet about this bold plan, did you notice Putin was sniffing around in Cairo the other day?
Enough with the Luka Magnotta story already
Canadian media continue to lavish Luka Magnotta with the attention he so desperately sought his entire life.
Today's headline-grabbing reveal informs us, on news sites across the land, that the government spent $376,128 flying Magnotta from Berlin to Montreal in 2012.
How is this newsworthy? Andy Blatchford had this exact story, less $1,128, which is bupkiss on a big ship like this, making headlines two and a half years ago.
So why is it "news" again today?
The only thing that's new is the fact that today's version reveals that senior military and political boffins sent 1,700 e-mails back and forth to each other to make sure this trip was as big a deal as possible. Without their involvement Magnotta could have been repatriated for a few thousand bucks by a couple of Mounties on a commercial flight.
But that wouldn't have provided much in the way of photo-ops or headlines. Harper's "tough on crime" crew aren't the type to forego that kind of publicity.
Today's headline-grabbing reveal informs us, on news sites across the land, that the government spent $376,128 flying Magnotta from Berlin to Montreal in 2012.
How is this newsworthy? Andy Blatchford had this exact story, less $1,128, which is bupkiss on a big ship like this, making headlines two and a half years ago.
So why is it "news" again today?
The only thing that's new is the fact that today's version reveals that senior military and political boffins sent 1,700 e-mails back and forth to each other to make sure this trip was as big a deal as possible. Without their involvement Magnotta could have been repatriated for a few thousand bucks by a couple of Mounties on a commercial flight.
But that wouldn't have provided much in the way of photo-ops or headlines. Harper's "tough on crime" crew aren't the type to forego that kind of publicity.
Friday, February 13, 2015
US working hard to derail Ukraine cease-fire
Here's Sec of State underling Jen Psaki telling us why the Hollande-Merkel cease-fire is a sham.
America's puppet Poroshenko saw with his own eyes, even while he was at peace talks in Minsk, Russian tanks crossing into Ukraine.
As is routinely the case, no on-the-ground journalists nor any of the vaunted NATO satellite imagery were able to verify these claims.
But the US-installed Ukrainian oligarch "president" says so, so a thousand Western media outlets immediately report Poroshenko's fantasies as the "truth."
Support for the US-engineered coup was luke-warm in Ukraine a year ago, even when the odds of success were even.
Almost a year later, when Poroshenko's multiple attacks on the "terrorists" in the East have routinely failed, when conscripts to Poroshenko's "army" are fleeing to Russia by the tens of thousands to avoid the draft, we continue to be inundated by ignorant propaganda about "Russian aggression."
Ukraine is a deeply troubled country; troubled mostly by the fact that her own oligarchs have raped it into the ground, but troubled doubly by the Western interlopers who promise EU access while delivering nothing of the sort.
As Western cheerleaders promote more violence in Ukraine, isn't it time for Ukrainians to make up their own minds?
America's puppet Poroshenko saw with his own eyes, even while he was at peace talks in Minsk, Russian tanks crossing into Ukraine.
As is routinely the case, no on-the-ground journalists nor any of the vaunted NATO satellite imagery were able to verify these claims.
But the US-installed Ukrainian oligarch "president" says so, so a thousand Western media outlets immediately report Poroshenko's fantasies as the "truth."
Support for the US-engineered coup was luke-warm in Ukraine a year ago, even when the odds of success were even.
Almost a year later, when Poroshenko's multiple attacks on the "terrorists" in the East have routinely failed, when conscripts to Poroshenko's "army" are fleeing to Russia by the tens of thousands to avoid the draft, we continue to be inundated by ignorant propaganda about "Russian aggression."
Ukraine is a deeply troubled country; troubled mostly by the fact that her own oligarchs have raped it into the ground, but troubled doubly by the Western interlopers who promise EU access while delivering nothing of the sort.
As Western cheerleaders promote more violence in Ukraine, isn't it time for Ukrainians to make up their own minds?
Top money launderers win exemption from Canadian money-laundering regs!
Truth be told, the only "money laundering" I have any personal acquaintance with happened when the Farm Manager put my Wranglers in the wash with a couple twenties in the pocket.
That German guy who got his money into the Canary Islands and then couldn't get it out has nothing to do with that new G63 Gelandewaggen you see parked in my driveway.
But what I do know for a fact is that money laundering can't happen without lawyers.
So the international money-laundering community won a major victory when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled today that lawyers were exempt from the regulations that oversee money laundering in Canada.
While people who have to live here know better, Canada still has the sheen of First-World correctitude about it, and our banks have top-drawer reputations.
Today's decision by the Supreme Court, (all lawyers by the way!) paves the way for Canada to become an international hub for money laundering.
I really missed the boat when I declined that offer of admission from U of T Law forty years ago...
That German guy who got his money into the Canary Islands and then couldn't get it out has nothing to do with that new G63 Gelandewaggen you see parked in my driveway.
But what I do know for a fact is that money laundering can't happen without lawyers.
So the international money-laundering community won a major victory when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled today that lawyers were exempt from the regulations that oversee money laundering in Canada.
While people who have to live here know better, Canada still has the sheen of First-World correctitude about it, and our banks have top-drawer reputations.
Today's decision by the Supreme Court, (all lawyers by the way!) paves the way for Canada to become an international hub for money laundering.
I really missed the boat when I declined that offer of admission from U of T Law forty years ago...
Fahmy wonders why Canada won't "bring him home"
Mohamed Fahmy, the Canadian-Egyptian journalist ensconced in a Cairo prison for over a year, for allegedly aiding and abetting the Muslim Brotherhood, wondered aloud today about why Canada has not done more to bring him home.
The Muslim Brotherhood, as you may recall, won the last free election held in Egypt. Many would argue that they won the only free election ever held in Egypt.
When the reactionary blowback from al-Sisi's forces shuffled the democratically elected Morsi off to prison, nobody applauded longer and harder than the Government of Canada.
At last the people of Egypt had an opportunity to pursue true democracy by overthrowing a democratically elected leader. In hindsight it looks like a trial run for the Ukraine coup.
The Nations of Virtue are all about democracy till the people in some foreign land elect someone who does not have the stamp of approval from the Nations of Virtue, and suddenly deposing a democratically elected government becomes a virtuous blow for democracy!
Ya, I know; I can't follow the logic either...
Fahmy, the think-tank here at Falling Downs has nothing but the best hopes for you, and we hereby extend an invite to our famous Canada Day celebration on July 1. Hope you can make it.
(Just hot-dogs, burgers, and lots of beer, but if you can make it we'll bust the budget and throw on some steaks!)
However, we are driven by duty to explain why Canada isn't doing more for you.
The Harper gang doesn't like Arabs, unless they're buying stuff, especially Arabs who don't dance to the tune of the great democratic Emirs of the Gulf statelets and the King of Saudi Arabia.
Let's not pussy-foot around; Fahmy, in official Ottawa circles, you stink.
And if you think your 400 plus days of confinement was a tough row to hoe, think about your fellow Canadians Maher Arar and Omar Khadr.
Their respective ordeals make your 400 days a cake-walk in comparison!
So buck up, stop whining, and we hope to see you July 1st!
The Muslim Brotherhood, as you may recall, won the last free election held in Egypt. Many would argue that they won the only free election ever held in Egypt.
When the reactionary blowback from al-Sisi's forces shuffled the democratically elected Morsi off to prison, nobody applauded longer and harder than the Government of Canada.
At last the people of Egypt had an opportunity to pursue true democracy by overthrowing a democratically elected leader. In hindsight it looks like a trial run for the Ukraine coup.
The Nations of Virtue are all about democracy till the people in some foreign land elect someone who does not have the stamp of approval from the Nations of Virtue, and suddenly deposing a democratically elected government becomes a virtuous blow for democracy!
Ya, I know; I can't follow the logic either...
Fahmy, the think-tank here at Falling Downs has nothing but the best hopes for you, and we hereby extend an invite to our famous Canada Day celebration on July 1. Hope you can make it.
(Just hot-dogs, burgers, and lots of beer, but if you can make it we'll bust the budget and throw on some steaks!)
However, we are driven by duty to explain why Canada isn't doing more for you.
The Harper gang doesn't like Arabs, unless they're buying stuff, especially Arabs who don't dance to the tune of the great democratic Emirs of the Gulf statelets and the King of Saudi Arabia.
Let's not pussy-foot around; Fahmy, in official Ottawa circles, you stink.
And if you think your 400 plus days of confinement was a tough row to hoe, think about your fellow Canadians Maher Arar and Omar Khadr.
Their respective ordeals make your 400 days a cake-walk in comparison!
So buck up, stop whining, and we hope to see you July 1st!
Thursday, February 12, 2015
After ten years of Harper, Canada is still Canada
And here's the proof.
There was at one time a fear/hope, depending on your point of view, that SUN TV would become sort of a Fox News North.
Guess we found out that Ezra can't be O'Reilly no matter how hard he tries.
And let's face it; he tried way too hard for way too long...
One of the big Canadian news outlets recently opined that ten years of Harper has left Canada without a political left, and that Harper has irrevocably moved the entire nation to the right.
Insofar as Mulcair's NDP have moved right, that may be true. But there's a whole lot 'o "left" left after that happens.
Anybody up for a Syriza Canada Party?
There was at one time a fear/hope, depending on your point of view, that SUN TV would become sort of a Fox News North.
Guess we found out that Ezra can't be O'Reilly no matter how hard he tries.
And let's face it; he tried way too hard for way too long...
One of the big Canadian news outlets recently opined that ten years of Harper has left Canada without a political left, and that Harper has irrevocably moved the entire nation to the right.
Insofar as Mulcair's NDP have moved right, that may be true. But there's a whole lot 'o "left" left after that happens.
Anybody up for a Syriza Canada Party?
Saints Sinners Muslims Jews Christians
When Edgar Bronfman went to his reward not too long ago, the papers were full of tributes to his great accomplishments as a businessman, philanthropist, and his leadership of the World Jewish Congress through some very difficult times. Nowhere in those accolades did I notice any references to a recurring theme in Mr. Bronfman's writings and speeches; the necessity of establishing a binding peace deal with the Palestinians.
Parse his writings and speeches carefully enough, and you can make a case for Edgar Bronfman being a great champion of Palestinian rights.
Mr. Bronfman's wealth earned him great respect, especially among the many recipients of his philanthropy, who loved his money but couldn't care less about his convictions about an Israel-Palestine "solution."
His wealth accrued from the fact that his dear daddy had the sharpest elbows and the roughest enforcers among the underworld clans who provisioned America with booze back in the prohibition era.
The good deeds of the son absolved the sins of the father...
And here's a good one; Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi was recently voted world's best mayor. Nenshi is the Muslim mayor of the most red-neck big city in all of Canada... how does such a thing even happen?
What Nenshi's success tells me is that even among a population that is traditionally very conservative, excellence trumps stereotypes.
When a right-wing Christian city elects a Muslim as mayor; when a billionaire Jewish philanthropist champions Palestinian rights, you know hope is still alive...
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Three Jews murdered in dispute over parking space
If we saw such a headline, we would automatically assume "anti-Semitism." (Unless of course it was three reform Jews murdered by an Ultra-Orthodox Jew, in which case we'd only be surprised that an Ultra-Orthodox Jew needed a parking space.)
But when three Muslims are murdered, we indulge a debate over whether this was a case of "Islamophobia," or whether it was about a parking space.
Meanwhile, Obama is angling for a little more leeway for putting at least a few special ops boots on Muslim ground in the interest of fighting terrorism in its latest mutation as Islamic State.
They hate us for our parking spaces, and if we don't deal with them in Iraq and Syria today, we'll be fighting them off in shopping mall parking lots from Seattle to Sarasota and from Boston to Santa Barbara tomorrow...
But when three Muslims are murdered, we indulge a debate over whether this was a case of "Islamophobia," or whether it was about a parking space.
Meanwhile, Obama is angling for a little more leeway for putting at least a few special ops boots on Muslim ground in the interest of fighting terrorism in its latest mutation as Islamic State.
They hate us for our parking spaces, and if we don't deal with them in Iraq and Syria today, we'll be fighting them off in shopping mall parking lots from Seattle to Sarasota and from Boston to Santa Barbara tomorrow...
Fahmy family lashes out at Canadian govt
Mohamed Fahmy's family in Canada has had some rude things to say about the Harper government's utter disinterest in the case.
Can't say I blame them.
Have to admit the think tank here at Falling Downs believed Baird was going to make Fahmy's release his swan song. Apparently five millions wasn't enough to seal the deal. After all, what's five million from Canada when Mad-Dog-Putin shows up a week later and puts a multi-billion nuclear energy program on the table?
Canada under the Harper gang has never missed an opportunity to poke Putin in the eye. Had we been but a tad more diplomatic in our "diplomacy," it's not hard to imagine Putin lobbying for the release of our Canadian journalist. (Interesting to read the comments for the NP article and see how many Canadians don't consider Fahmy a "Canadian.") The non-stop anti-Putin vitriol out of Ottawa for the last decade could give al-Sisi a motive to keep Fahmy just to suck up to Putin.
Ironically, at the time al-Sisi was deposing the democratically elected Morsi, he was getting nothing but accolades from Canadian media and the Harper gang. The praise was virtually universal.
And there he is today, holding hands with Putin.
Obviously we've had some shortcomings in the world 'o diplomacy...
As for the Fahmys, I understand their confusion. The Canada they thought they moved to when they arrived here twenty-five years ago isn't the Canada they live in today.
Sorry about your luck, folks, but you'll get more sympathy from the Egyptian embassy than from the government of Canada.
Can't say I blame them.
Have to admit the think tank here at Falling Downs believed Baird was going to make Fahmy's release his swan song. Apparently five millions wasn't enough to seal the deal. After all, what's five million from Canada when Mad-Dog-Putin shows up a week later and puts a multi-billion nuclear energy program on the table?
Canada under the Harper gang has never missed an opportunity to poke Putin in the eye. Had we been but a tad more diplomatic in our "diplomacy," it's not hard to imagine Putin lobbying for the release of our Canadian journalist. (Interesting to read the comments for the NP article and see how many Canadians don't consider Fahmy a "Canadian.") The non-stop anti-Putin vitriol out of Ottawa for the last decade could give al-Sisi a motive to keep Fahmy just to suck up to Putin.
Ironically, at the time al-Sisi was deposing the democratically elected Morsi, he was getting nothing but accolades from Canadian media and the Harper gang. The praise was virtually universal.
And there he is today, holding hands with Putin.
Obviously we've had some shortcomings in the world 'o diplomacy...
As for the Fahmys, I understand their confusion. The Canada they thought they moved to when they arrived here twenty-five years ago isn't the Canada they live in today.
Sorry about your luck, folks, but you'll get more sympathy from the Egyptian embassy than from the government of Canada.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Sextopia
Welcome to Sextopia.
Sextopia is neither a Utopia nor a Dystopia; it is both.
It's a Utopia as long as you're on top. A Dystopia when you're being toppled.
Max Mosley knows this.
DSK knows this.
Bill Clinton knows this.
In the age of the cyber-panopticon, nothing is secret and nothing is sacred.
That which is concealed will be revealed.
That is the one certitude of our age.
That machine in your purse or your pocket
remembers every naughty selfie, every furtive search, every guilty moment.
Porn made the commercial internet possible, and the internet
made free porn inevitable.
It's everywhere now...
It's at your child's fingertips from the moment
you hand him his first iPhone.
From that moment on, there will be no secrets,
no surprises.
That machine will forward every lapse of judgement to the cloud.
There it will be duly archived and catalogued and stored for future reference.
And when your child announces his White House aspirations in forty years time,
those cloud archives will be duly reviewed and released as required.
After all, the nation built by Puritans for Puritans still believes in its
innate purity no matter how many terabytes of ass-grabbing skin-slapping
digital memories reside in the hands of the archivists.
Welcome to Sextopia.
Sextopia is neither a Utopia nor a Dystopia; it is both.
It's a Utopia as long as you're on top. A Dystopia when you're being toppled.
Max Mosley knows this.
DSK knows this.
Bill Clinton knows this.
In the age of the cyber-panopticon, nothing is secret and nothing is sacred.
That which is concealed will be revealed.
That is the one certitude of our age.
That machine in your purse or your pocket
remembers every naughty selfie, every furtive search, every guilty moment.
Porn made the commercial internet possible, and the internet
made free porn inevitable.
It's everywhere now...
It's at your child's fingertips from the moment
you hand him his first iPhone.
From that moment on, there will be no secrets,
no surprises.
That machine will forward every lapse of judgement to the cloud.
There it will be duly archived and catalogued and stored for future reference.
And when your child announces his White House aspirations in forty years time,
those cloud archives will be duly reviewed and released as required.
After all, the nation built by Puritans for Puritans still believes in its
innate purity no matter how many terabytes of ass-grabbing skin-slapping
digital memories reside in the hands of the archivists.
Welcome to Sextopia.
America-bashers at al-Jazeera now peddling Heritage Foundation propaganda
There was a time not long ago that the al-Jazeera network was deemed such a threat to US interests that George W. Bush considered bombing their offices.
W can rest easy. AJE has an opinion piece on view today straight from the Heritage Foundation's "Margaret Thatcher Fellow" Luke Coffey; It's time to arm Ukraine.
Leaving aside Mr. Coffey's extravagantly padded bio at the Heritage Foundation, (he "helped shape British Defence policy" while still a wet-behind-the-ears whipper-snapper in his 20's), reading his article clarifies that he owes his post at HF not to his keen insights or rigorous analyses, but to his ability to hew to a particular ideological program in the face of all evidence against it.
We start with the usual PNAC bromides, apparently none the less appealing for having lead to unmitigated disaster for America over the past 15 years; the unspoken and unquestioned assumption of American exceptionalism and the inference that anyone who disagrees with America's right to intervene in the internal matters of sovereign states at will is ethically and intellectually challenged.
As we all know, Russia is the aggressor and Obama is dithering. We expect nothing else and nothing less from the thinkers at this think tank.
Having set the stage, Coffey delivers his one-two punch of reasons the US needs to arm Ukraine now;
First, the people of Ukraine have demonstrated, whether on the streets of the Maidan or through the ballot box, that they see their future in the West and not under Russian domination.
There was a time not too long ago that closer ties with the West were discouraged by Ukraine's leaders. In fact, until a few months ago there was even a law that prohibited Ukraine from ever joining NATO. Since the disposal of the Russian backed former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich this has all changed.
Second, the security situation has stabilised when compared to several months ago. When Russia first started backing the separatists the situation on the ground was chaotic. Nobody knew how far the separatists would go and where they would be stopped. The Ukrainian military was in disarray.
Now the situation is different. There is a front-line and a traditional linear battlefield. The Ukrainian military has consolidated. Although it has a long way to go, recruitment and training is taking place. Also, there is a less of a chance that western weapons will end up in the hands of the separatists.
That's quite a batch of half-truths, non-sequitors, distortions, and out-right fabrications to serve up in two short paragraphs! The security situation has stabilised? The Ukrainian military has consolidated?...
So why does al-Jazeera, a network birthed to provide an alternative to the dominant Atlanticist world news industry, publish such obvious claptrap from such an obnoxious source? That's easy; on the matter of demonizing Putin, the PNAC freedom-fighters at the Heritage Foundation and the anti-democratic nutters of Qatar's royal family are on the same page.
W can rest easy. AJE has an opinion piece on view today straight from the Heritage Foundation's "Margaret Thatcher Fellow" Luke Coffey; It's time to arm Ukraine.
Leaving aside Mr. Coffey's extravagantly padded bio at the Heritage Foundation, (he "helped shape British Defence policy" while still a wet-behind-the-ears whipper-snapper in his 20's), reading his article clarifies that he owes his post at HF not to his keen insights or rigorous analyses, but to his ability to hew to a particular ideological program in the face of all evidence against it.
We start with the usual PNAC bromides, apparently none the less appealing for having lead to unmitigated disaster for America over the past 15 years; the unspoken and unquestioned assumption of American exceptionalism and the inference that anyone who disagrees with America's right to intervene in the internal matters of sovereign states at will is ethically and intellectually challenged.
As we all know, Russia is the aggressor and Obama is dithering. We expect nothing else and nothing less from the thinkers at this think tank.
Having set the stage, Coffey delivers his one-two punch of reasons the US needs to arm Ukraine now;
First, the people of Ukraine have demonstrated, whether on the streets of the Maidan or through the ballot box, that they see their future in the West and not under Russian domination.
There was a time not too long ago that closer ties with the West were discouraged by Ukraine's leaders. In fact, until a few months ago there was even a law that prohibited Ukraine from ever joining NATO. Since the disposal of the Russian backed former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich this has all changed.
Second, the security situation has stabilised when compared to several months ago. When Russia first started backing the separatists the situation on the ground was chaotic. Nobody knew how far the separatists would go and where they would be stopped. The Ukrainian military was in disarray.
Now the situation is different. There is a front-line and a traditional linear battlefield. The Ukrainian military has consolidated. Although it has a long way to go, recruitment and training is taking place. Also, there is a less of a chance that western weapons will end up in the hands of the separatists.
That's quite a batch of half-truths, non-sequitors, distortions, and out-right fabrications to serve up in two short paragraphs! The security situation has stabilised? The Ukrainian military has consolidated?...
So why does al-Jazeera, a network birthed to provide an alternative to the dominant Atlanticist world news industry, publish such obvious claptrap from such an obnoxious source? That's easy; on the matter of demonizing Putin, the PNAC freedom-fighters at the Heritage Foundation and the anti-democratic nutters of Qatar's royal family are on the same page.
Monday, February 9, 2015
Nacho craving leads to $50m lottery win
Is that a cool headline or what?
Get the munchies... win 50 mil. That's what I'm seeing here.
Kinda gives you hope, don't it?
Get the munchies... win 50 mil. That's what I'm seeing here.
Kinda gives you hope, don't it?
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Before Tim Hortons became the plaything of hedge funds, did Tim Hortons ever have to apologize for
this?
Ya, dousing sleeping homeless people with buckets of water is what made Timmys a Canadian icon.
I rest my case.
Closing the barn door long after you-know-what
Ya, not much new in the world 'o cliches...
Nevertheless, I thought this story from the Globe was worth a look.
Apparently entire communities in central BC are being evacuated due to unprecedented snow falls...
They're used to ten foot snow falls in BC, so obviously something truly apocalyptic would have to happen to spark that headline.
It would have to snow a hundred feet deep before Western Canada had an honest debate about climate change.
Nevertheless, I thought this story from the Globe was worth a look.
Apparently entire communities in central BC are being evacuated due to unprecedented snow falls...
They're used to ten foot snow falls in BC, so obviously something truly apocalyptic would have to happen to spark that headline.
It would have to snow a hundred feet deep before Western Canada had an honest debate about climate change.
CROP CIRCLES REVEAL MADONNA IS THE MESSIAH!!!
Oh, wait a minute... it's fuckin' February... there's four feet of snow in the fields!
THERE ARE NO CROP CIRCLES!
But what did I just see?... I think I just saw Madonna ascending to heaven...
I'm watching the Grammys, and I just burned a stick of Kipling's famous Puslinch Red-Hair... I'm confused...
Was that not Madonna?..
...ascending to heaven?
WTF, I'm pulling on my Wellys, strapping on the snow-shoes, and checking out the fields for those crop circles again...
I'll get back to ya...
THERE ARE NO CROP CIRCLES!
But what did I just see?... I think I just saw Madonna ascending to heaven...
I'm watching the Grammys, and I just burned a stick of Kipling's famous Puslinch Red-Hair... I'm confused...
Was that not Madonna?..
...ascending to heaven?
WTF, I'm pulling on my Wellys, strapping on the snow-shoes, and checking out the fields for those crop circles again...
I'll get back to ya...
American warmongers signal their next two wars
The bipartisan War Party in Washington is aghast that European interlopers Hollande and Merkel might succeed in defusing the US-engineered nightmare in Ukraine.
Quick, lets Fedex a rush shipment of rockets and missiles to the democrats we installed in Kiev, before that illegitimate joke of a government collapses under the weight of its absurdities.
That should push peace out of the picture for the foreseeable future!
Likewise in Iran, where those same two European interlopers plus Russia and China and even, maybe, Britain, seem amenable to continue negotiating towards the resolution of the supposed "nuclear crisis."
But leave it to Kerry to give that idea the ice bucket challenge.
After all, America's allies in the neighbourhood (half a dozen Sunni dictatorships and "the only democracy in the Middle East") would much prefer that America (and not themselves) bomb the Islamic Republic to ratshit.
Kerry seems willing to oblige.
Which is great news for Carlyle, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, and all the rest of them...
Quick, lets Fedex a rush shipment of rockets and missiles to the democrats we installed in Kiev, before that illegitimate joke of a government collapses under the weight of its absurdities.
That should push peace out of the picture for the foreseeable future!
Likewise in Iran, where those same two European interlopers plus Russia and China and even, maybe, Britain, seem amenable to continue negotiating towards the resolution of the supposed "nuclear crisis."
But leave it to Kerry to give that idea the ice bucket challenge.
After all, America's allies in the neighbourhood (half a dozen Sunni dictatorships and "the only democracy in the Middle East") would much prefer that America (and not themselves) bomb the Islamic Republic to ratshit.
Kerry seems willing to oblige.
Which is great news for Carlyle, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, and all the rest of them...
Revisiting "Po' chic organic farmin'"
I was kinda flattered to be invited as guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the Bruce County Organic Farmer's Co-op. That "modest honorarium in kind" remuneration didn't faze me one bit. I'm well known to talk hours for absolutely no compensation whatsoever, so walking away with a dozen free-range eggs or a jar of pickled organic beets was all bonus from my point of view.
Instead, three days later I'm still scraping tar off my butt-cheeks and picking feathers out of my ass-crack.
Boy, did it get ugly!
Seems the good folks at the Co-op somehow got hold of this blog-post and took it ENTIRELY the wrong way.
Instead of a warm welcome and a jar of pickled beets, they were waiting with a bucket of tar, a bag of feathers, and some really nasty looking root vegetables of indeterminate genus.
Somehow they had concluded that I was a shill for Satan; that I was dissing small-scale farming in favour of agri-business; that I was an agent for the Dark Side...
NONONO a thousand times NO!!!
What I did was point out a weakness in the Community Supported Agriculture model that I continue to believe is a weakness; that it too often depends on the free labour of idealistic young professionals in order to be viable.
That's a model that won't feed cities. It'll feed a limited number of CSA groups in cities, while the dominant model of 500 horsepower half-a-million dollar tractors towing 6,000 gallon vats of chemicals through the fields feeds everybody else. That ubiquitous bumper-sticker about farmers feeding cities is about the kind of farming that's feeding most city-dwellers today.
Monsanto and Cargill and all the rest of them love hiding behind the image of the wholesome farm family working the land.
The question is, how can we wean more farmers off their addictions to chemicals and genetically modified seeds?
I don't have the answer.
In the meantime, I applaud the efforts of everybody who is working so hard to make the CSA model work, especially those young professionals in their unpaid internships.
Instead, three days later I'm still scraping tar off my butt-cheeks and picking feathers out of my ass-crack.
Boy, did it get ugly!
Seems the good folks at the Co-op somehow got hold of this blog-post and took it ENTIRELY the wrong way.
Instead of a warm welcome and a jar of pickled beets, they were waiting with a bucket of tar, a bag of feathers, and some really nasty looking root vegetables of indeterminate genus.
Somehow they had concluded that I was a shill for Satan; that I was dissing small-scale farming in favour of agri-business; that I was an agent for the Dark Side...
NONONO a thousand times NO!!!
What I did was point out a weakness in the Community Supported Agriculture model that I continue to believe is a weakness; that it too often depends on the free labour of idealistic young professionals in order to be viable.
That's a model that won't feed cities. It'll feed a limited number of CSA groups in cities, while the dominant model of 500 horsepower half-a-million dollar tractors towing 6,000 gallon vats of chemicals through the fields feeds everybody else. That ubiquitous bumper-sticker about farmers feeding cities is about the kind of farming that's feeding most city-dwellers today.
Monsanto and Cargill and all the rest of them love hiding behind the image of the wholesome farm family working the land.
The question is, how can we wean more farmers off their addictions to chemicals and genetically modified seeds?
I don't have the answer.
In the meantime, I applaud the efforts of everybody who is working so hard to make the CSA model work, especially those young professionals in their unpaid internships.
Ivory Coast wins African Cup of Nations
For reasons unknown I accidentally sat through the African Cup of Nations final this afternoon. The match did not disappoint. The game that the rest of the world calls "football" is inevitably a snooze-o-rama, and sure enough, we were all tied up after 90 minutes.
0-0.
Yup. That sure was ninety minutes of soccer excitement.
After another thirty minutes of extra time, we're still tied up.
0-0.
But I have to admit, that penalty kick shoot-out had to be one of the most riveting finales in all of sports. It was easily a match for the final seconds of last week's Superbowl. After an afternoon of nothing, seeing 17 goals scored in a matter of minutes hits you like a methadrine overdose. The fact that the winner was scored by a guy past his prime and long considered a bit of an odd-ball, goaltender Boubacar Barry, gave the match that human interest element that keeps you coming back to sports spectator-ship even when you should know better.
Heart-stopping finish aside, it's somehow reassuring that the Africans can put on a match that is every bit as stupefyingly boring as the European's.
It's only a matter of time before an African team takes the World Cup.
0-0.
Yup. That sure was ninety minutes of soccer excitement.
After another thirty minutes of extra time, we're still tied up.
0-0.
But I have to admit, that penalty kick shoot-out had to be one of the most riveting finales in all of sports. It was easily a match for the final seconds of last week's Superbowl. After an afternoon of nothing, seeing 17 goals scored in a matter of minutes hits you like a methadrine overdose. The fact that the winner was scored by a guy past his prime and long considered a bit of an odd-ball, goaltender Boubacar Barry, gave the match that human interest element that keeps you coming back to sports spectator-ship even when you should know better.
Heart-stopping finish aside, it's somehow reassuring that the Africans can put on a match that is every bit as stupefyingly boring as the European's.
It's only a matter of time before an African team takes the World Cup.
Cops, Indian Chiefs, and racist media hysteria
Six months ago it looked like the Harper gang had hit the mother-lode with their odious "First Nations Financial Transparency Act." Chief Ron Giesbrecht became the poster boy for alleged Native financial hanky-panky when headlines across the land proffered outrage over his near million dollar "salary."
Six months later we've got a much quieter headline; "Median Salary for a Chief is $60,000: Toronto Star." Putting that in perspective, it's a good 25% less than the income of an RCMP constable with three years experience.
Long story short, there was never much of a story here. The First Nations Financial Transparency Act, patronizingly foisted on our Native brothers and sisters for their own good, of course, was designed to put the Native population on the defensive and distract the electorate from the utterly shabby way the Harper government has handled the Aboriginal Affairs file.
Now that this non-issue has been put to rest, will the Harper gang get on with addressing the many life-and-death challenges facing Canada's Native population, or will Side-show Steve fabricate another diversion?
Six months later we've got a much quieter headline; "Median Salary for a Chief is $60,000: Toronto Star." Putting that in perspective, it's a good 25% less than the income of an RCMP constable with three years experience.
Long story short, there was never much of a story here. The First Nations Financial Transparency Act, patronizingly foisted on our Native brothers and sisters for their own good, of course, was designed to put the Native population on the defensive and distract the electorate from the utterly shabby way the Harper government has handled the Aboriginal Affairs file.
Now that this non-issue has been put to rest, will the Harper gang get on with addressing the many life-and-death challenges facing Canada's Native population, or will Side-show Steve fabricate another diversion?
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Postmedia considers crowdfunding to appeal wrong-headed defamation lawsuit
The bankrupt Postmedia network is resorting to "crowd funding" to appeal a recent court decision that found Canada's dominant media conglomerate guilty of smearing some obscure global warming fanatic.
These are bad times for media in Canada, but salad days for the dirty oil crowd. In fact, just today news came out of Brussels that Canada's oily tar sands sludge would not be considered "dirty" going forward.
That's what passes for good news in Canada these days.
These are bad times for media in Canada, but salad days for the dirty oil crowd. In fact, just today news came out of Brussels that Canada's oily tar sands sludge would not be considered "dirty" going forward.
That's what passes for good news in Canada these days.
The dirty end of the "fame" schtick
I see where the media hounding of "famous person" Bruce Jenner has caused some collateral damage down Malibu way.
I don't get modern culture... how are people famous for being famous? I mean, he did win a medal in the '76 Olympics, but that was several life-times ago, by pop culture standards.
That TMZ headline is more than a little disingenuous, don't you think?
By golly, Bruce Jenner in a horrible car crash, and we just happened to be right there to film the whole thing! What a stroke of luck!
That's celebrity culture, baby!
I don't get modern culture... how are people famous for being famous? I mean, he did win a medal in the '76 Olympics, but that was several life-times ago, by pop culture standards.
That TMZ headline is more than a little disingenuous, don't you think?
By golly, Bruce Jenner in a horrible car crash, and we just happened to be right there to film the whole thing! What a stroke of luck!
That's celebrity culture, baby!
Bieber's shoes worth more than Honest Abe's hair, less than a Hitler watercolour
Justin Bieber is cementing his rep among the greats. A pair of stinky sneakers once worn by the Canadian heart-throb fetched a smooth $62,000 at auction yesterday.
That's more than double what a lock of Abe Lincoln's hair went for at an auction in Dallas last year.
But the sum is eclipsed by the $162,000 fetched by the recent sale of a water colour by the obscure Austrian painter Adolph Hitler. Hitler of course went on to notoriety in his second career as the democratically elected leader of neighbouring Germany.
That's more than double what a lock of Abe Lincoln's hair went for at an auction in Dallas last year.
But the sum is eclipsed by the $162,000 fetched by the recent sale of a water colour by the obscure Austrian painter Adolph Hitler. Hitler of course went on to notoriety in his second career as the democratically elected leader of neighbouring Germany.
Brian Williams off air for minor stretcher, while humongous whoppers go unchallenged
Why all this fuss about Brian Williams' embellishment of a story?
Here's why; it allows our corporate media to wrap themselves in the banner of "integrity." Yup, our media have so much integrity that even a harmless fish story such as the one Brian Williams told is a career ender.
Meanwhile, any number of well orchestrated massive lies are peddled as gospel truth by the same media. The economic recovery, Putin's plan for world domination, Israel's search for peace, America's war on terror... you could go on and on and on.
What we're supposed to conclude from this story is that our corporate media have such a commitment to truth-telling that not the slightest violation of the code of journalistic honour can be tolerated. Therefore, we're safe to believe everything we see on the corporate news...
What a crock of shit!
Here's why; it allows our corporate media to wrap themselves in the banner of "integrity." Yup, our media have so much integrity that even a harmless fish story such as the one Brian Williams told is a career ender.
Meanwhile, any number of well orchestrated massive lies are peddled as gospel truth by the same media. The economic recovery, Putin's plan for world domination, Israel's search for peace, America's war on terror... you could go on and on and on.
What we're supposed to conclude from this story is that our corporate media have such a commitment to truth-telling that not the slightest violation of the code of journalistic honour can be tolerated. Therefore, we're safe to believe everything we see on the corporate news...
What a crock of shit!
Democracy on hold as Nigeria heads down shitter
Nigeria has announced the long anticipated delay of the long anticipated Feb. 14 elections. Just for six weeks or so mind you - till that pesky Boko Haram menace is swept under the rug, which won't take long now that Goodluck has invited in the armies of Nigeria's neighbours to do what the Nigerian army has been unable or unwilling to do for the past six years. Maybe they'll even bring back the Chibok girls in the process, and hopefully the oil price will also bounce back in that time, thereby giving the incumbent something to crow about.
What could possibly go wrong?
Does Goodluck come up with this foolishness on his own or is this the handiwork of his US advisers?
What could possibly go wrong?
Does Goodluck come up with this foolishness on his own or is this the handiwork of his US advisers?
Friday, February 6, 2015
Pot-addled hillbilly blogger beats esteemed alternative news site Global Research to the story by two weeks!
On 18 Jan. we had this putrid morsel on offer right here at Falling Downs.
Two and a half weeks later, the top-shelf alternative news folks at Global Research discover the same story!
Hey guys, you should read the Falling Downs blog more often!
Two and a half weeks later, the top-shelf alternative news folks at Global Research discover the same story!
Hey guys, you should read the Falling Downs blog more often!
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Baird resigns; Western front collapses
Even though it's only been a day or two since Baird the Bombastic took leave of his post as Foreign Minister of the free world, the dominoes are beginning to topple...
Would this headline have been imaginable a mere two days ago?
A divided Western front is playing towards Putin's end game.
No!
John Baird was the glue that held the Western Alliance together!
On a personal level, you can not imagine how empty it feels to now click onto the website for the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Domestic Affairs, Mining Affairs, and Saving-the-World's Children and Especially Girls Affairs, and not find a fresh Baird condemnation.
It's not the same without you, John.
Would this headline have been imaginable a mere two days ago?
A divided Western front is playing towards Putin's end game.
No!
John Baird was the glue that held the Western Alliance together!
On a personal level, you can not imagine how empty it feels to now click onto the website for the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Domestic Affairs, Mining Affairs, and Saving-the-World's Children and Especially Girls Affairs, and not find a fresh Baird condemnation.
It's not the same without you, John.
Ukraine PM Yatsenyuk offers up magic spectacles so we can all see invisible Russian forces fighting in Ukraine
When Ukraine PM Arseniy "Yats" Yatsenyuk peers through his magical glasses, he sees entire Russian military divisions fighting in Ukraine, divisions that nobody else has ever seen.
Nor have they ever been photographed, shown up on omnipresent 24/7 NATO satellite surveillance, or made themselves visible in any way.
But when you look through Yats' magical eyewear, they are crystal clear!
Presumably these top-secret specs will be made available to Frau Merkel and Hollande the Conqueror this weekend, so they can see for themselves the gruesome toll the invisible Russian invasion is taking in Ukraine.
Or more likely, Yats just hammered another nail into what's left of his credibility.
Nor have they ever been photographed, shown up on omnipresent 24/7 NATO satellite surveillance, or made themselves visible in any way.
But when you look through Yats' magical eyewear, they are crystal clear!
Presumably these top-secret specs will be made available to Frau Merkel and Hollande the Conqueror this weekend, so they can see for themselves the gruesome toll the invisible Russian invasion is taking in Ukraine.
Or more likely, Yats just hammered another nail into what's left of his credibility.
Country music super-star Blake Shelton inks multi-million dollar contract to shill for Canadian sweat-shop giant Gildan
Canadian sweat-shop superstar Gildan has a new spokesperson, country music superstar Blake Shelton.
Gildan's sweatshops in Honduras, Haiti, and a dozen other third-world destinations employ over 30,000 lucky brown people to make T-shirts for starvation wages. According to Forbes, Shelton pulled in $23 millions last year, which is not too shabby. Mrs. Shelton, aka Miranda Lambert, is apparently doing OK in her own right.
Gildan is a big deal, and they also have a social conscience. Those "I can't breathe" Tees recently sported by a whole lot of your NBA bigs (also doing OK) were sourced from Gildan, according to The Washington Post, although the claim that Gildan pays $6/day seems to overstate Gildan's generosity by a wide margin.
Not doing OK are those tens of thousands of Gildan employees in the global south.
But at least they have something in common with $20 million per year NBA all-stars; they can't breathe either!
Gildan's sweatshops in Honduras, Haiti, and a dozen other third-world destinations employ over 30,000 lucky brown people to make T-shirts for starvation wages. According to Forbes, Shelton pulled in $23 millions last year, which is not too shabby. Mrs. Shelton, aka Miranda Lambert, is apparently doing OK in her own right.
Gildan is a big deal, and they also have a social conscience. Those "I can't breathe" Tees recently sported by a whole lot of your NBA bigs (also doing OK) were sourced from Gildan, according to The Washington Post, although the claim that Gildan pays $6/day seems to overstate Gildan's generosity by a wide margin.
Not doing OK are those tens of thousands of Gildan employees in the global south.
But at least they have something in common with $20 million per year NBA all-stars; they can't breathe either!
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Casual encounters with Homeland Security
Here's a perfect example of mission creep.
Or maybe a perfect example of creeper missions.
Either way, you have to wonder if it's the place for the Department of Homeland Security.
As you recall, Homeland Security was invented round the time of the 9/11 attacks on the Homeland. Coincidentally, that was also around the time when anyone anywhere first began to refer to the USA as the "Homeland."
Before that it was just America.
"Homeland" always had a bit of a Reifenstahlian ring to it, at least to my ear. "Homeland" has a statist odor usually associated with totalitarian dictatorships of one stripe or another.
Let's circle the wagons and defend the Homeland!
The mandate for America's Department of Homeland Security is to keep America safe from internal threats. And God knows, that as the last bastion for freedom on this planet, and an open society to boot, lots of threats may have slipped in while America was busy watching the Super Bowl or something.
So what is Homeland Security doing these days to keep the Homeland safe?
According to this story, they're keeping America safe by posting bogus adverts on Canadian websites hinting that there may be under-age nooky available in the USA!
Sure enough, Kuldip Singh Mahal, a doomed schmuck from BC, sees the ad and takes the bait.
Now, I don't mean to raise the ire of the forces of political correctitude, but just looking at the guy's name, it seems to me he comes from one of those cultures where their concept of "age of consent" bears little or no resemblance to ours.
The dude is looking for a bride! Ya, he's 47, the potential bride is 12, but that's how they roll in some of those foreign cultures. Why is it our job to judge that?
More importantly, why has it become part of Homeland Security's mandate to entrap foreigners into fanciful child exploitation cases?
There is absolutely nothing about this case that contributes in any way to keeping America safe from the scourge of international terror.
Seems Homeland Security has strayed way beyond its original mandate.
Or maybe a perfect example of creeper missions.
Either way, you have to wonder if it's the place for the Department of Homeland Security.
As you recall, Homeland Security was invented round the time of the 9/11 attacks on the Homeland. Coincidentally, that was also around the time when anyone anywhere first began to refer to the USA as the "Homeland."
Before that it was just America.
"Homeland" always had a bit of a Reifenstahlian ring to it, at least to my ear. "Homeland" has a statist odor usually associated with totalitarian dictatorships of one stripe or another.
Let's circle the wagons and defend the Homeland!
The mandate for America's Department of Homeland Security is to keep America safe from internal threats. And God knows, that as the last bastion for freedom on this planet, and an open society to boot, lots of threats may have slipped in while America was busy watching the Super Bowl or something.
So what is Homeland Security doing these days to keep the Homeland safe?
According to this story, they're keeping America safe by posting bogus adverts on Canadian websites hinting that there may be under-age nooky available in the USA!
Sure enough, Kuldip Singh Mahal, a doomed schmuck from BC, sees the ad and takes the bait.
Now, I don't mean to raise the ire of the forces of political correctitude, but just looking at the guy's name, it seems to me he comes from one of those cultures where their concept of "age of consent" bears little or no resemblance to ours.
The dude is looking for a bride! Ya, he's 47, the potential bride is 12, but that's how they roll in some of those foreign cultures. Why is it our job to judge that?
More importantly, why has it become part of Homeland Security's mandate to entrap foreigners into fanciful child exploitation cases?
There is absolutely nothing about this case that contributes in any way to keeping America safe from the scourge of international terror.
Seems Homeland Security has strayed way beyond its original mandate.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Canada celebrates 100 years of fighting terrorism!
Well before 9/11, Canada was knee-deep in the yet undeclared war on terror. Here's the nitty-gritty;
Meanwhile, fast forward 100 years, and the Government of Canada has some genuine towel-head terror-types on trial. Esseghaier and Jaser (very Germanic names for towellers, wouldn't you agree?) were gonna blow up a rail line between Toronto and New York, but unlike their Germanic counterparts of 100 years ago, they were, evil evil-doers that they apparently are, gonna pull this off while a passenger train chock full 'o passengers were on those very rails they were plotting to blow up!
Oh, the pure evil of it all!
Alas, the trial is merely at day one, so we are a long way from hearing from the multiple police informants who were no doubt paid millions to frame up our latest terrorists.
Werner Horn's St. Croix bridge bombing in WW I happened 100 years ago today
Rail bridge between New Brunswick and Maine targeted by Germans as possible route for Japanese army
CBC News
Posted:Feb 02, 2015 1:02 PM AT
Last Updated:Feb 02, 2015 2:23 PM AT
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the bombing of a train bridge on the Maine-New Brunswick border during the First World War.
The bridge between Vanboro, Maine, and St. Croix, N.B., that German agent Werner Horn attempted to sabotage during the First World War. (Submitted by Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society)
In the early-morning hours of Feb. 2, 1915, German agent Werner Horn and his Irish accomplice planted a large satchel of explosives on the CPR train bridge between Vanceboro, Maine, and St. Croix, N.B., says Brent Wilson, director of the New Brunswick Military Heritage project at the University of New Brunswick's Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society.
They thought they could take out a strategic supply line to the Canadian war effort, says Wilson.
Japan had recently entered the war and the conspirators misguidedly thought a Japanese army might soon be using the rail line to get to the Western Front.
The group actually planned to destroy several bridges along the New Brunswick-Maine border, including those in St. Stephen, Debec and Perth Andover.
The conspirators gathered beforehand in Portland, Me., where the plan was actually given up, partly due to the cold, windy weather, says Wilson.
Werner Horn was convicted of attempting to sabotage the rail between between St. Croix, N.B., and Vanceboro, Maine, during the First World War. (Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society)
Horn, however, missed that meeting, says Wilson, and didn't realize the operation had been cancelled.
The bomb went off, damaging, but not destroying the bridge. It was closed for a few days for repairs. It also shattered shop windows in Vanceboro and St. Croix.
It didn't take long for the authorities to figure out who was behind the incident.
They had seen Horn arrive in the community a few days earlier and were suspicious of him already. He was quickly arrested by Maine police before he had a chance to move on to St. Stephen-Calais.
Put on trial in Fredericton
Horn was put on trial in the U.S. for the property damage caused in Vanceboro, and held for a few years, during which time the Canadian and British governments presented the Americans with arguments he was part of a major German government conspiracy, using the U.S. as a springboard for espionage against Canada.
Three or four years later, Horn was extradited to New Brunswick. He was put on trial in Fredericton, convicted and sentenced to 10 years in the Dorchester Penitentiary.
The German government interceded on his behalf, and by 1921, Horn was deported to Germany, a very sick man. He had been officially classified as insane, but was later discovered to be in the advanced stages of syphilis, says Wilson.
Horn faded into history, says Wilson, but the effect of his attack was to help awaken American officials to the fact that Germans were using agents, including the military attaché in Washington, Franz von Papen, to organize activities aimed at conducting attacks on Canada.
Von Papen was said to be the mastermind of the bombing.
The incident was a clear violation of American neutrality, says Wilson, and served to worsen relations between Germany and the United States and push the Americans slowly towards supporting the Allied cause.
The U.S. eventually entered the war in 1917.
-------------
Oh, the pure evil of it all!
Alas, the trial is merely at day one, so we are a long way from hearing from the multiple police informants who were no doubt paid millions to frame up our latest terrorists.
Will Kasasbeh execution rally Jordan behind America's "War on Terror?"
It's a particularly brutal chapter in a brutal war; Islamic State has allegedly executed Jordanian Air Force pilot Muath Kasasbeh by burning him alive.
Jordan has been one of the more delicate dominoes in the region, with a sizeable minority of the population being sympathetic to Islamic State. Why would Islamic State deliberately undermine their support in Jordan by providing the regime with this incendiary rallying point for anti-Islamic State propaganda?
This just doesn't add up, unless...
Jordan has been one of the more delicate dominoes in the region, with a sizeable minority of the population being sympathetic to Islamic State. Why would Islamic State deliberately undermine their support in Jordan by providing the regime with this incendiary rallying point for anti-Islamic State propaganda?
This just doesn't add up, unless...
Monday, February 2, 2015
Raping Ukraine; competing narratives
Looks like everybody is blaming everybody for the rape of Ukraine these days.
At the New York Post it's the Russians who are the rapists.
Once you deploy the "rape" metaphor in your political analyses, you leave yourself wide open (no pun intended) to the infinite proliferation of that metaphor and its derivatives...
Yes, maybe US or Russia is fucking Ukraine, but it is not "rape," it is consensual relationship. They consent to be raped and we consent to donate ten billions, fifteen or twenty billions, depending on where you read the story... and once again we are up against the competing narratives.
Seems that the only point of agreement is that Ukraine is getting fucked.
At the New York Post it's the Russians who are the rapists.
Once you deploy the "rape" metaphor in your political analyses, you leave yourself wide open (no pun intended) to the infinite proliferation of that metaphor and its derivatives...
Yes, maybe US or Russia is fucking Ukraine, but it is not "rape," it is consensual relationship. They consent to be raped and we consent to donate ten billions, fifteen or twenty billions, depending on where you read the story... and once again we are up against the competing narratives.
Seems that the only point of agreement is that Ukraine is getting fucked.
From bad to worse for Noluck Jonathan
With less than two weeks to go before the general election, President Goodluck Jonathan's election rallies are being stalked by exploding suicide bombers.
This phenomenon can only assist Mr. "Law and Order" Buhari, not only in the north but in the rest of the country as well.
What many Nigerians readily acknowledge but few Western media outlets will report, is that Nigeria has long been a "failed state" by any conventional definitions of the words "failed" and "state."
Instead, what we in the West get is the happy-time story of the Nigerian economy mysteriously being elevated to the biggest and most robust in all of Africa! You have to wonder if we're just getting that message due to the efficacies of Goodluck's hundred thousand dollar a month retainer at Levick, one of the most influential PR concerns in Washington.
The reason everybody knows it and our media fails to report it is because Goodluck is down with our "War on Terror."
Buhari, on the other hand, is a Muslim.
This phenomenon can only assist Mr. "Law and Order" Buhari, not only in the north but in the rest of the country as well.
What many Nigerians readily acknowledge but few Western media outlets will report, is that Nigeria has long been a "failed state" by any conventional definitions of the words "failed" and "state."
Instead, what we in the West get is the happy-time story of the Nigerian economy mysteriously being elevated to the biggest and most robust in all of Africa! You have to wonder if we're just getting that message due to the efficacies of Goodluck's hundred thousand dollar a month retainer at Levick, one of the most influential PR concerns in Washington.
The reason everybody knows it and our media fails to report it is because Goodluck is down with our "War on Terror."
Buhari, on the other hand, is a Muslim.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Globe and Mail reports Fahmy to be released imminently
That's nothing; we reported that Fahmy's release was imminent two weeks ago.
Five million dollars goes a long way in Egypt!
Five million dollars goes a long way in Egypt!
Jesus guides New England to Super Bowl
Jesus hasn't been this busy since he guided that Wallenda dude over the Niagara Falls!
Tonight it's Malcolm Butler and Jesus. Obviously, only supernatural forces could account for this finish.
When you're talking about the greatest spectacle on the American cultural calendar, it would be blasphemous if you forgot to bring Jesus into the mix...
Well, thank God that's over!...
Back to those 90 million working-age Americans mysteriously absent from the work-force...
The multi-trillion dollar national debt...
The multiple wars America is pursuing all over the Islamic world...
Hey, at least we got three glorious hours without any hard questions...
Tonight it's Malcolm Butler and Jesus. Obviously, only supernatural forces could account for this finish.
When you're talking about the greatest spectacle on the American cultural calendar, it would be blasphemous if you forgot to bring Jesus into the mix...
Well, thank God that's over!...
Back to those 90 million working-age Americans mysteriously absent from the work-force...
The multi-trillion dollar national debt...
The multiple wars America is pursuing all over the Islamic world...
Hey, at least we got three glorious hours without any hard questions...
Where's an American Sniper when you need one?
I'm watching Katy Perry flying around the Super Bowl half-time show on a spark-shittin' hang-glider, and all I can think is, where the hell is a sniper when you need one?
You gotta admit, though, that nobody does schlock like America does schlock!
Schlock, spectacle... spectacular schlock!
Can't touch this, Putin!
Don't even bother tryin'...
You gotta admit, though, that nobody does schlock like America does schlock!
Schlock, spectacle... spectacular schlock!
Can't touch this, Putin!
Don't even bother tryin'...
Hillbilly blogger gets serious cred upgrade
They don't make stuff like they used to. When we bought our Kenmore washer-dryer combo not five years ago or so, we figured it would be the last time that appliance purchase would have to be made. I mean really, a washer or dryer is good for twenty years easy, ain't it? By then I'll be sitting in a puddle of drool in the corner of the nursing home, waiting for somebody to change my diaper.
So last week the washer unit of our stacking combo goes for a shit. Hardly five years old. What the hell is that all about?
Damned right they don't make shit like they used to... now they just make shit!
The Farm Manager got right cranky about this turn of events. She was back at Sears with a bad case of appliance rage. I felt sorry for the sales folks... they were ducking for cover. Hey, let's not blame them. It wasn't some "sales associate" at your local department store that invented planned obsolescence.
But if you try to keep a positive outlook, you can find a silver lining even in a unmitigated piss-off such as this. As Junior and I were wrestling the defunct washing machine onto the front porch, I suddenly realized something...
I have now got, right as of today, on the front porch here at Falling Downs, a broke-down washing machine!
I can't tell you how thrilled I am to make it into the hillbilly elite!
So last week the washer unit of our stacking combo goes for a shit. Hardly five years old. What the hell is that all about?
Damned right they don't make shit like they used to... now they just make shit!
The Farm Manager got right cranky about this turn of events. She was back at Sears with a bad case of appliance rage. I felt sorry for the sales folks... they were ducking for cover. Hey, let's not blame them. It wasn't some "sales associate" at your local department store that invented planned obsolescence.
But if you try to keep a positive outlook, you can find a silver lining even in a unmitigated piss-off such as this. As Junior and I were wrestling the defunct washing machine onto the front porch, I suddenly realized something...
I have now got, right as of today, on the front porch here at Falling Downs, a broke-down washing machine!
I can't tell you how thrilled I am to make it into the hillbilly elite!
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