At least not when it's coming from "Christians."
Those folks have lost sight of the fact that Christianity started out as a Jewish cult. One of a multitude of cults within Judaism, from what I understand. Somehow this one got out of control. Today we'd say it went viral.
I guess the technical term for this would be "schism." The birth of Christianity represented a schism within the Judaic belief system.
It wasn't long before the usurpers infected vast swathes of the Roman Empire, and before you know it, the Jews who had masterminded the latest craze were turning on the Jews who didn't sign up.
The passage of time has allowed a lot of your Christians to forget their roots. The usurpers have in the interval also suffered numerous schisms. In fact, the earliest days of Christianity were schism city all the way.
Then you had your big split in the main church, and after that Martin Luther invented protestants. The fact that the word "protest" is part of their name is an irony lost on most of them today.
All this schisming has thrown some real absurdities at the canvas of history. Look at "the Troubles" for example. They're all white and they all love Jesus, but they're ready to start a new war if this Brexit thing gives them the excuse.
And apparently the schisming continues to this day. I heard that one of the local Amish communities suffered a schism because the Bishop made a couple of the brothers swap farms. There may have been some coveting involved... the neighbours's wife or ass or both.
Which underlines once again the fact that we're just human, no matter how many schisms it took to make us who we are.
We're all brothers in spite of the schisms.
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Falling Downs going to the dogs
From time to time me and the Farm Manager talk about getting another dog. Boomer, our Rottweiler-Shepherd mix, is closing in on fourteen years. She's not quite as nimble as she used to be. Stumbles now and then on our morning ramble, and in the hot weather I'd shave a couple of kilometres off the walk just to make sure she's not over-stressed.
Our baby, the Tennessee Treeing Brindle, is seven. She's never known a day without another dog since she arrived here, and we intend to make sure she never does.
The upshot of these periodic discussions was that when the time was right, we'd add a third hound to the pack, and we developed a few criteria.
No puppies. They spend a year or more chewing everything they can clamp their jaws on. Lucy literally ate the better part of a couch, not to mention numerous shoes, random articles of clothing, and a Bible.
No sirree; no more puppies for us. We'd get a dog from the pound about Lucy's age. That way they'd hopefully expire around the same time, freeing us to explore some non-canine pet options.
Second criteria; it's time for a smaller dog. When the FM "walks" one of our girls she looks like she's wakeboarding. She's got both hands gripping the tow-rope while she struggles to stay upright... while the dog goes wherever it wants.
Here's the new hound.
Meet Phil. A fourteen week old Mastiff.
Ticked all the right boxes, obviously... Sure, fourteen weeks isn't quite seven years, and ya, she's maybe not gonna grow up to be a "small" dog, but what the hey. She'll be meeting her new sisters on the weekend.
We had dinner at the Twin Dragons tonight. Best water-view of any Owen Sound restaurant by far, and the food's pretty decent too. The two of us can get out of there for fifty bucks including the buffet, a couple of drinks, and a generous tip.
The FM's fortune cookie read:
A new member is joining your happy family soon.
I couldn't make that up.
Our baby, the Tennessee Treeing Brindle, is seven. She's never known a day without another dog since she arrived here, and we intend to make sure she never does.
The upshot of these periodic discussions was that when the time was right, we'd add a third hound to the pack, and we developed a few criteria.
No puppies. They spend a year or more chewing everything they can clamp their jaws on. Lucy literally ate the better part of a couch, not to mention numerous shoes, random articles of clothing, and a Bible.
No sirree; no more puppies for us. We'd get a dog from the pound about Lucy's age. That way they'd hopefully expire around the same time, freeing us to explore some non-canine pet options.
Second criteria; it's time for a smaller dog. When the FM "walks" one of our girls she looks like she's wakeboarding. She's got both hands gripping the tow-rope while she struggles to stay upright... while the dog goes wherever it wants.
Here's the new hound.
Meet Phil. A fourteen week old Mastiff.
Ticked all the right boxes, obviously... Sure, fourteen weeks isn't quite seven years, and ya, she's maybe not gonna grow up to be a "small" dog, but what the hey. She'll be meeting her new sisters on the weekend.
We had dinner at the Twin Dragons tonight. Best water-view of any Owen Sound restaurant by far, and the food's pretty decent too. The two of us can get out of there for fifty bucks including the buffet, a couple of drinks, and a generous tip.
The FM's fortune cookie read:
A new member is joining your happy family soon.
I couldn't make that up.
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Weed report
When I ran into that old school grower the other week he gave me a couple of samples to try. This guy is known for his organic stuff. It's popular among folks who care about what they're doing to their bodies... the same kind of folks who pay five bucks or more for a dozen farm-fresh eggs from free-range chickens.
Here's what I thought. Something branded CR was a decent mellow. I like that. Some people want to get messed up by the stuff they smoke. That's not me.
I just want to get mellow and stay there for a spell. If my mother calls during that spell, I want to be able to talk to her.
Not for me that new school bud that's been treated with every yield-boosting and buzz-boosting chemical known to man, by people who are just in it for the money.
And the other sample, called "green beer" or something, was more or less similar. I could function, but I knew I was stoned.
The reason I like to support these old school growers is a) because I've proven myself useless at growing my own, and b) I'd rather support these guys than the army of suits who have descended on the legal weed free-for-all.
Also, it's nice to know where your shit comes from.
It's not often we get to do that since Clint Eastwood stopped building Torinos.
Here's what I thought. Something branded CR was a decent mellow. I like that. Some people want to get messed up by the stuff they smoke. That's not me.
I just want to get mellow and stay there for a spell. If my mother calls during that spell, I want to be able to talk to her.
Not for me that new school bud that's been treated with every yield-boosting and buzz-boosting chemical known to man, by people who are just in it for the money.
And the other sample, called "green beer" or something, was more or less similar. I could function, but I knew I was stoned.
The reason I like to support these old school growers is a) because I've proven myself useless at growing my own, and b) I'd rather support these guys than the army of suits who have descended on the legal weed free-for-all.
Also, it's nice to know where your shit comes from.
It's not often we get to do that since Clint Eastwood stopped building Torinos.
Monday, November 27, 2017
Hats off to Prince Harry
Prince Harry hogged the headlines all day.
Seems he bagged a lassie and they're gonna tie the knot. Why anybody would give a shit is the part I can't figure out.
Be that as it may, I'd like to take my hat off to Prince Harry with this salute to the time Prince Harry bagged a wog.
Oy, he's a real man... got blood on his hands.
There was a little diner in Neustadt called Hat's off to Harry. Harry, or whoever it was owned the place, had dreams.
He dreamed of owning a pool hall.
So he took the plunge and built one. On top of his diner. Yup, had to build an entire second story to accommodate the new venture. Even got himself a liquor license!
He done it up right.
He was ready to go!
Pool-cue totin' rubes from all around flocked to the place. Even made a couple visits myself.
Then the county's new smoking regs kicked in. If a denizen of the pool hall wished to smoke a cigarette, she or he would have to work their way down a long flight of stairs, and then move fifteen metres from the entrance way.
I know! That's what you do in a pool hall - smoke!
Smoke and drink beer. Billiards is an afterthought.
It was tits up for Harry.
Which is a timely reminder that sometimes the winds of propriety shift. Never mind the pool hall - I can remember when people smoked in the supermarket.
I can remember when I was a pump boy at John's Supertest in my teens, every other car that pulled in on a Friday or Saturday night had open liquor in it. That's not kosher anymore either.
Things change.
The winds of propriety shift...
Seems he bagged a lassie and they're gonna tie the knot. Why anybody would give a shit is the part I can't figure out.
Be that as it may, I'd like to take my hat off to Prince Harry with this salute to the time Prince Harry bagged a wog.
Oy, he's a real man... got blood on his hands.
There was a little diner in Neustadt called Hat's off to Harry. Harry, or whoever it was owned the place, had dreams.
He dreamed of owning a pool hall.
So he took the plunge and built one. On top of his diner. Yup, had to build an entire second story to accommodate the new venture. Even got himself a liquor license!
He done it up right.
He was ready to go!
Pool-cue totin' rubes from all around flocked to the place. Even made a couple visits myself.
Then the county's new smoking regs kicked in. If a denizen of the pool hall wished to smoke a cigarette, she or he would have to work their way down a long flight of stairs, and then move fifteen metres from the entrance way.
I know! That's what you do in a pool hall - smoke!
Smoke and drink beer. Billiards is an afterthought.
It was tits up for Harry.
Which is a timely reminder that sometimes the winds of propriety shift. Never mind the pool hall - I can remember when people smoked in the supermarket.
I can remember when I was a pump boy at John's Supertest in my teens, every other car that pulled in on a Friday or Saturday night had open liquor in it. That's not kosher anymore either.
Things change.
The winds of propriety shift...
Why the battle to preserve "net neutrality" has nothing to do with fighting censorship
The sacred world wide web is positively aflame with screeds denouncing the imminent collapse of a "free internet."
Hey, don't get me wrong; I too am 100% aboard for a "free internet." I'd be 200% aboard if the Farm Manager wasn't paying the equivalent of three cases of beer to access this "free" service every month. That ain't "free" where I come from.
But what's interesting is how much of this outpouring of concern conflates "net neutrality" with censorship. Check out this article at Salon, or check out the previous post about Sarah Kendzior.
The purveyors of this misconception want you to believe that the fate of the First Amendment hinges on a FCC vote that will be held on December 14.
It doesn't.
Big Tech are already censoring what you see by tweaking their search algorithms in such a way that you are far less likely to have your patriotic eyeballs alight on offensive and subversive anti-American propaganda.
It's entirely possible to preserve the "net neutrality" at stake in the FCC decision while expunging every trace of critical anti-Empire opinion from that neutral net.
We are being bamboozled yet again.
Hey, don't get me wrong; I too am 100% aboard for a "free internet." I'd be 200% aboard if the Farm Manager wasn't paying the equivalent of three cases of beer to access this "free" service every month. That ain't "free" where I come from.
But what's interesting is how much of this outpouring of concern conflates "net neutrality" with censorship. Check out this article at Salon, or check out the previous post about Sarah Kendzior.
The purveyors of this misconception want you to believe that the fate of the First Amendment hinges on a FCC vote that will be held on December 14.
It doesn't.
Big Tech are already censoring what you see by tweaking their search algorithms in such a way that you are far less likely to have your patriotic eyeballs alight on offensive and subversive anti-American propaganda.
It's entirely possible to preserve the "net neutrality" at stake in the FCC decision while expunging every trace of critical anti-Empire opinion from that neutral net.
We are being bamboozled yet again.
Sarah Kendzior; disingenuous, misguided, or just plain stupid?
I like Sarah Kendzior. Back when she was a freshly minted Dr. Phil who found herself squeezed off the tenure track, she used to write about that. The writing was heartfelt and convincing because she knew what she was talking about.
She has yet to find that track, but she may no longer care. Check out the brand she's built. This woman is going places! She's one 60 Minutes profile away from becoming a serious public intellectual!
But when I consider that, and when I read of the various accolades she has won over recent years (Foreign Policy named her one of the 100 people you should follow on Twitter to make sense of global events - as if Twitter is required to make sense of global events...), I have to marvel at the fact that the bar has been set so astoundingly low.
Take her latest effort as "op-ed columnist for the Globe and Mail" for example; Gutting net neutrality is a death knell for the resistance.
Ah yes, "the resistance!"
That one word conjures all sorts of imagery of heroic anti-Nazi derring-do in occupied Europe during the '40s. The French resistance. The Dutch resistance...
The Greeks and Poles resisted too. In every case we saw courageous citizens, infinitely out-manned and out-gunned, standing against the Nazi behemoth.
Although she is fully aware that's the image you'll carry in your mind's eye when you read the word "resistance," that's not the resistance Kendzior is talking about. No, she's talking about the resistance to Trump's election victory. This is not a resistance led by courageous partisans hiding out in the woods and risking their lives for a cause.
It is a resistance led by Hillary Clinton and a Democratic Party elite that a year ago lost an election in spite of having more Wall Street money behind it than any previous campaign in US electoral history.
It's not the resistance of the oppressed.
It is the resistance of an entitled ruling class clique who are pouting because another, perhaps slightly less entitled ruling class clique, grabbed the steering wheel out of their hands.
I can see why they'd be pissed.
At the same time, the claim that the Dem Party establishment or any of the mainstream media platforms Kendzior regularly appears on are even remotely threatened is beyond hokum.
Seriously?
Some players in the internet ecosystem want to squash net neutrality so they can make more money, not because they want to silence the Globe and Mail and the US news sites the Globe reflexively parots, the Washington Post and the NYT.
Pretty sure they're not interested in silencing Kendzior either.
As you know, all those platforms are vehemently anti-Trump.
What's being silenced are media platforms that question the narrative of Kendzior, Dem Party elites, and the "resistance," sites like RT and Sputnik and Michael Chossudovsky's Global Research.
So relax, Sarah... so long as you continue to faithfully toe the official DNC line, you've nothing to worry about!
She has yet to find that track, but she may no longer care. Check out the brand she's built. This woman is going places! She's one 60 Minutes profile away from becoming a serious public intellectual!
But when I consider that, and when I read of the various accolades she has won over recent years (Foreign Policy named her one of the 100 people you should follow on Twitter to make sense of global events - as if Twitter is required to make sense of global events...), I have to marvel at the fact that the bar has been set so astoundingly low.
Take her latest effort as "op-ed columnist for the Globe and Mail" for example; Gutting net neutrality is a death knell for the resistance.
Ah yes, "the resistance!"
That one word conjures all sorts of imagery of heroic anti-Nazi derring-do in occupied Europe during the '40s. The French resistance. The Dutch resistance...
The Greeks and Poles resisted too. In every case we saw courageous citizens, infinitely out-manned and out-gunned, standing against the Nazi behemoth.
Although she is fully aware that's the image you'll carry in your mind's eye when you read the word "resistance," that's not the resistance Kendzior is talking about. No, she's talking about the resistance to Trump's election victory. This is not a resistance led by courageous partisans hiding out in the woods and risking their lives for a cause.
It is a resistance led by Hillary Clinton and a Democratic Party elite that a year ago lost an election in spite of having more Wall Street money behind it than any previous campaign in US electoral history.
It's not the resistance of the oppressed.
It is the resistance of an entitled ruling class clique who are pouting because another, perhaps slightly less entitled ruling class clique, grabbed the steering wheel out of their hands.
I can see why they'd be pissed.
At the same time, the claim that the Dem Party establishment or any of the mainstream media platforms Kendzior regularly appears on are even remotely threatened is beyond hokum.
Seriously?
Some players in the internet ecosystem want to squash net neutrality so they can make more money, not because they want to silence the Globe and Mail and the US news sites the Globe reflexively parots, the Washington Post and the NYT.
Pretty sure they're not interested in silencing Kendzior either.
As you know, all those platforms are vehemently anti-Trump.
What's being silenced are media platforms that question the narrative of Kendzior, Dem Party elites, and the "resistance," sites like RT and Sputnik and Michael Chossudovsky's Global Research.
So relax, Sarah... so long as you continue to faithfully toe the official DNC line, you've nothing to worry about!
Saturday, November 25, 2017
What the f@ck is a hubcap diamond star halo?
Seriously?
I mean, we listened to this shit all the time. Nice tune. You can kinda bop around to it if you're so inclined.
But what exactly is a hubcap diamond star halo?
I've spent the evening jogging down memory lane. Did you have any clue that Billy Idol had a duet thing out there with Miley?
Holy shit!
Who knew?
More to the point, who cares?
Anyway, laptop battery fading fast...
I'm outta here!
I mean, we listened to this shit all the time. Nice tune. You can kinda bop around to it if you're so inclined.
But what exactly is a hubcap diamond star halo?
I've spent the evening jogging down memory lane. Did you have any clue that Billy Idol had a duet thing out there with Miley?
Holy shit!
Who knew?
More to the point, who cares?
Anyway, laptop battery fading fast...
I'm outta here!
Maybe we should just turn the planet over to the millennials
After all, it's hard to imagine they'd fuck the place up more than our generation has done.
Here's a story that gives me hope. Seems both Ivanka Trump and Chelsea Clinton have chimed in to tell the media to lay off Malia Obama. That's the finest example of bipartisan solidarity we've seen in a long time.
I like it!
Both Chelsea and Ivanka strike me as kids who wouldn't hesitate to tell their respective daddies to go fuck themselves if they had serious misgivings about their policy initiatives.
That would be a good thing.
Here's a story that gives me hope. Seems both Ivanka Trump and Chelsea Clinton have chimed in to tell the media to lay off Malia Obama. That's the finest example of bipartisan solidarity we've seen in a long time.
I like it!
Both Chelsea and Ivanka strike me as kids who wouldn't hesitate to tell their respective daddies to go fuck themselves if they had serious misgivings about their policy initiatives.
That would be a good thing.
Friday, November 24, 2017
Credentialism
Credentialism is the feeding trough of the upwardly mobile.
The Farm Manager, in her capacity as a Educational Assistant in her day job, today took a one day course that rendered her a "Behaviour Management Systems Practitioner."
What the fuck does that mean?
In practical terms, nothing.
But she gets a certificate she can hang on the wall.
When one of my mentors in the world of commercial real estate, Vic Tucciarone, got his real estate license back in the '50's, it involved a five dollar fee paid at the Government of Ontario offices, and that was that.
No courses, no nothing.
Today an aspiring realtor has to take multiple courses that take many months and cost many thousands of dollars.
Does anybody really think this has given us "better" real estate agents?
I had a college prof, Al Jeffries, who warned us about this credentialism racket. Keep your resume to one page, he told us over and over again. Anything above that reeks of credentialism.
Then somebody dug up a copy of his resume.
It ran to fourteen pages.
The takeaway?
Credentialism pays!
I remember sitting in my dear uncle Werner's office at the University of Waterloo and admiring the many certificates/degrees/diplomas festooning the walls.
Tucked in amongst them was a Province of Alberta fishing licence circa 1962.
At least he had a sense of humour...
The Farm Manager, in her capacity as a Educational Assistant in her day job, today took a one day course that rendered her a "Behaviour Management Systems Practitioner."
What the fuck does that mean?
In practical terms, nothing.
But she gets a certificate she can hang on the wall.
When one of my mentors in the world of commercial real estate, Vic Tucciarone, got his real estate license back in the '50's, it involved a five dollar fee paid at the Government of Ontario offices, and that was that.
No courses, no nothing.
Today an aspiring realtor has to take multiple courses that take many months and cost many thousands of dollars.
Does anybody really think this has given us "better" real estate agents?
I had a college prof, Al Jeffries, who warned us about this credentialism racket. Keep your resume to one page, he told us over and over again. Anything above that reeks of credentialism.
Then somebody dug up a copy of his resume.
It ran to fourteen pages.
The takeaway?
Credentialism pays!
I remember sitting in my dear uncle Werner's office at the University of Waterloo and admiring the many certificates/degrees/diplomas festooning the walls.
Tucked in amongst them was a Province of Alberta fishing licence circa 1962.
At least he had a sense of humour...
Jared Kushner is Trump's point man in the Middle East... what could go wrong?
Everything.
Jared Kushner is the proverbial teenager dressed up in an old man's suit.
Trump, a B-list Manhattan property developer, if that, reached into the A-list of Manhattan property developers to source his Middle East envoy.
The fact that young Kushner is his son-in-law just makes this story more interesting.
What are Jared's qualifications for being Middle East point man?
Well, he's a Jew.
So what. Chomsky is a Jew. Gilad Atzmon is a Jew. Norman Finkelstein is a Jew. None of them are likely to become presidential advisers any time soon.
But Kushner is the right kind of Jew. He's the kind of Jew who learned his Middle East history at the feet of that great scholar of Judaism, Benyamin Netanyahu.
As such, he's pretty much on the same page as Israel's current Deputy Foreign Minister, Tzipi Hotovely.
Her take on Middle East affairs is that God promised that land to the Israelites all those many years ago, and if you're not on board with that, you are a God-defying antisemite.
Never before in history have so many atheists turned to the word of God to justify their racist policies than in the current Bibi cabinet.
As hilarious as this may be, it's only going to get funnier.
Jared Kushner is the proverbial teenager dressed up in an old man's suit.
Trump, a B-list Manhattan property developer, if that, reached into the A-list of Manhattan property developers to source his Middle East envoy.
The fact that young Kushner is his son-in-law just makes this story more interesting.
What are Jared's qualifications for being Middle East point man?
Well, he's a Jew.
So what. Chomsky is a Jew. Gilad Atzmon is a Jew. Norman Finkelstein is a Jew. None of them are likely to become presidential advisers any time soon.
But Kushner is the right kind of Jew. He's the kind of Jew who learned his Middle East history at the feet of that great scholar of Judaism, Benyamin Netanyahu.
As such, he's pretty much on the same page as Israel's current Deputy Foreign Minister, Tzipi Hotovely.
Her take on Middle East affairs is that God promised that land to the Israelites all those many years ago, and if you're not on board with that, you are a God-defying antisemite.
Never before in history have so many atheists turned to the word of God to justify their racist policies than in the current Bibi cabinet.
As hilarious as this may be, it's only going to get funnier.
Thursday, November 23, 2017
It's fickle, it's fragile, and it's all f@cked up
A week ago a neighbour was going about his usual routine. A fifty-three year old guy whose adult children were just coming into their own. Decent all-round family type with a successful business. He had a great life, and he appreciated it.
Visitation was today.
They're burying him tomorrow.
At some point between then and now a pick-up truck ran a stop sign at one o'clock in the morning.
What are the odds?
Visitation was today.
They're burying him tomorrow.
At some point between then and now a pick-up truck ran a stop sign at one o'clock in the morning.
What are the odds?
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Affordable housing
I've told this story before.
When my dear father (who just celebrated his 85th, and may God bless him with many more!..) got off the boat back in '56 his first job was shovelling coal. With a hand shovel.
By the time I was in my teens he'd remade himself as a real estate broker. I remember all us kids emptied our piggy banks to be part of the investment syndicate when he bought his first investment property.
I think it was on Barton Street, if I'm not mistaken.
Then we were all corralled into doing whatever we were capable of, from scraping old paint to applying new paint, so he could turn that place around.
The term "flip" had yet to be coined.
Dad was well on his way to joining the pantheon of post-war immigrants who done good in real estate.
And there was a ton of them. Germans, Italians, Ukrainians, Hungarians, and Jews from all over. I got to know lots of immigrants who did very well in the real estate business.
Some of them got seriously rich.
Most of them, and my father would be in this group, never got "rich," but they got seriously comfortable.
As a result of my father's success in that business, I was somewhat drawn to it myself, so I'd pick Dad's brain to get a handle on things.
So how do you know what a property is really worth?
It's worth whatever somebody is willing to pay for it.
What is "affordable housing?"
If somebody bought it, it was obviously affordable... and so on.
OK.
By that metric, when somebody pays five million for a penthouse condo in Toronto, it's obviously "affordable housing."
But that's not the definition of "affordable" that obtains when we discuss affordable housing today.
And that's where the private sector affordable housing model falls flat on its face. A $14/hr minimum wage means you'll never afford decent housing in places like Toronto.
Which is why governments need to get serious about public housing.
That's why we need a robust public housing strategy.
When my dear father (who just celebrated his 85th, and may God bless him with many more!..) got off the boat back in '56 his first job was shovelling coal. With a hand shovel.
By the time I was in my teens he'd remade himself as a real estate broker. I remember all us kids emptied our piggy banks to be part of the investment syndicate when he bought his first investment property.
I think it was on Barton Street, if I'm not mistaken.
Then we were all corralled into doing whatever we were capable of, from scraping old paint to applying new paint, so he could turn that place around.
The term "flip" had yet to be coined.
Dad was well on his way to joining the pantheon of post-war immigrants who done good in real estate.
And there was a ton of them. Germans, Italians, Ukrainians, Hungarians, and Jews from all over. I got to know lots of immigrants who did very well in the real estate business.
Some of them got seriously rich.
Most of them, and my father would be in this group, never got "rich," but they got seriously comfortable.
As a result of my father's success in that business, I was somewhat drawn to it myself, so I'd pick Dad's brain to get a handle on things.
So how do you know what a property is really worth?
It's worth whatever somebody is willing to pay for it.
What is "affordable housing?"
If somebody bought it, it was obviously affordable... and so on.
OK.
By that metric, when somebody pays five million for a penthouse condo in Toronto, it's obviously "affordable housing."
But that's not the definition of "affordable" that obtains when we discuss affordable housing today.
And that's where the private sector affordable housing model falls flat on its face. A $14/hr minimum wage means you'll never afford decent housing in places like Toronto.
Which is why governments need to get serious about public housing.
That's why we need a robust public housing strategy.
All you need is love: the Sunny Daze solution to Canada's affordable housing crisis
We're over half way through Justin's mandate, and the Liberal government just dropped their affordable housing strategy today.
They're gonna build 100,000 affordable housing units. Over ten years. Starting after the next election, nudge nudge wink...
Hmm.... a hundred thousand housing units?
And over the next ten years we'll be welcoming somewhere in the range of three to four million new arrivals?
And they'll live where?
Sorry Justin, this isn't an affordable housing policy.
It's a joke.
They're gonna build 100,000 affordable housing units. Over ten years. Starting after the next election, nudge nudge wink...
Hmm.... a hundred thousand housing units?
And over the next ten years we'll be welcoming somewhere in the range of three to four million new arrivals?
And they'll live where?
Sorry Justin, this isn't an affordable housing policy.
It's a joke.
Irresistible clickbait: LA's homeless pooping in streets...
That gem is on view at Fox News as I write these words.
Alas, once you click on it, the homeless are no longer "pooping," they are "defecating."
It's the old bait 'n switch; promise a poop but deliver mere defecation. I'm not sure I'd have clicked on that. "Poop" is so much more poetic. Puppies poop. Babies poop. It's a rather benign thing, pooping is.
Defecation seems much more clinical. Serious. Almost scholarly.
The truth of the matter is that LA's army of sidewalk dwellers don't poop and they don't defecate.
They shit. Fifty thousand of them take a shit in the street once or twice a day. More if you've got digestion issues, which I imagine you'd have often enough when you're eating out of dumpsters.
On the face of it you might be taken aback by this story. Isn't LA one of the great cities of America? And isn't America itself "the city on a hill?" The richest country in the world? The exceptional nation? The most advanced society in the history of history?..
And people shit in the street?
Get over yourself!
Coping with this phenomenon requires a global perspective. Think Mumbai, Lagos, Nairobi... all great cities where people shit in the street! LA is joining the ranks of the great international cities!
Coping with this phenomenon requires a global perspective. Think Mumbai, Lagos, Nairobi... all great cities where people shit in the street! LA is joining the ranks of the great international cities!
Having the homeless shit in the streets is a sign of America's rise to true world-class status!
Monday, November 20, 2017
Trump working hard to ensure USA remains most hated country in the world
To be sure, hating America isn't something that started with Trump.
Check out this morsel of statistical goodness from 2003.
Hey, if they hated us in 2003 you can bet they hate us even more today.
It didn't have to be this way.
Take a gander at this piece by Jeff Berg at Counterpunch.
Sure, if the USA spent 1% of its military budget on making sure everyone on this planet had access to clean water and a place to shit, America would be the bestie of besties!
Instead of hating us for our freedoms, they'd be loving us for a glass of clean water and a safe place to shit!
We wouldn't even need a military budget, because the whole world would be loving us!
Alas, that wouldn't do much for the bottom line at Boeing and Lockheed-Martin and General Dynamics and all the rest of them, would it?
Check out this morsel of statistical goodness from 2003.
Hey, if they hated us in 2003 you can bet they hate us even more today.
It didn't have to be this way.
Take a gander at this piece by Jeff Berg at Counterpunch.
Sure, if the USA spent 1% of its military budget on making sure everyone on this planet had access to clean water and a place to shit, America would be the bestie of besties!
Instead of hating us for our freedoms, they'd be loving us for a glass of clean water and a safe place to shit!
We wouldn't even need a military budget, because the whole world would be loving us!
Alas, that wouldn't do much for the bottom line at Boeing and Lockheed-Martin and General Dynamics and all the rest of them, would it?
The United States of Generals and Billionaires
Hey, how's that "democracy" of yours working out for ya, Yankee neighbours?
I see where the Trumpster has added N. Korea to the "state sponsor of terrorism" list. I'm guessing the impetus for that came from the Generals
Not that the Billionaire side of the cabinet would raise any objections. After all, the more enemies America has, the longer the back-order list at Lockheed Martin and Boeing and all the rest of them.
And there's not really any ideological daylight between the Generals and the Billionaires. The Generals in Trump's cabinet all aspire to great wealth, and the Billionaires all wish they were Generals.
It's what used to be called a "closed shop."
Closed off and sealed tight from any threat of common sense or basic human decency.
Speaking of state sponsors of terror, I can't wait till Uncle Sam adds his own name to the list.
But I won't hold my breath.
I see where the Trumpster has added N. Korea to the "state sponsor of terrorism" list. I'm guessing the impetus for that came from the Generals
Not that the Billionaire side of the cabinet would raise any objections. After all, the more enemies America has, the longer the back-order list at Lockheed Martin and Boeing and all the rest of them.
And there's not really any ideological daylight between the Generals and the Billionaires. The Generals in Trump's cabinet all aspire to great wealth, and the Billionaires all wish they were Generals.
It's what used to be called a "closed shop."
Closed off and sealed tight from any threat of common sense or basic human decency.
Speaking of state sponsors of terror, I can't wait till Uncle Sam adds his own name to the list.
But I won't hold my breath.
Saturday, November 18, 2017
We used to call this "firewood"
This is a piece of stove-length dried elm that hasn't been through the splitter yet.
It's also a $349.00 end table, according to something I saw in the "Style" section of the Globe and Mail today.
Holy shit!... I'm rich!!
Globe and Mail unmasks notorious Putin puppet
Campbell Clark and Mark MacKinnon are vying for yet another one of those "journalism awards" that mainstream media types periodically bestow upon one another for being really good at what mainstream journalists do; propagate official state propaganda.
By coincidence, I happened to catch a Jens Stoltenberg interview on CBC as I was driving into town to fork over the better part of ten bucks to the Korean extortionist for my Saturday Globe and Mail. Here's Jens on propaganda;
When we (NATO) are faced with Russian propaganda, we never reply with propaganda. We reply with facts. We reply with the truth.
The folks who wouldn't raise an eyebrow at that whopper are the kind of folks who are the target audience for the Clark - MacKinnon take-down of Michel Chossudovsky and the website he's run for the past fifteen years or so, Global Research.
I've been a news junkie pretty much since I learned to read, and one thing I know for sure is that there's no single news source that you can count on to tell the whole story. You have to read around.
I like to check out the NYT and Washington Post websites every day to see what's what in the world of news. Sputnik and RT can be relied on to supply another perspective. Deutsche Welle, France 24, AJE, Dawn, Haaretz, the JPost and Press TV round out my well-balanced daily news diet. And of course I like to have a real newspaper in my hands every day, and that's generally the paper Clark and MacKinnon write for.
I don't get around to Global Research very often.
When I do, it looks like an op-ed aggregator more than anything. The people I'd be inclined to read there, Johnstone, Parry, the indefatigable Paul Craig Roberts (who, btw is a little too intense for my taste, but nevertheless well worth reading) I've already read elsewhere.
So why does the Globe see fit to devote two pages to Chossudovsky?
Because he's a Putin stooge.
That's right.
He promotes the conspiracy theory that "the ouster of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was a Western-backed coup rather than a popular revolution."
That's a conspiracy theory?
Not to anyone familiar with the Nuland - Pyatt tapes.
What the Clark - MacKinnon story alludes to but fails to follow up on, is that Big Tech in it's role as hand-maiden to Empire is already re-jigging their aggregator algorithms to make sure you're far less likely to accidentally happen upon Global Research and other non-conformist sites.
That's something to think about.
By coincidence, I happened to catch a Jens Stoltenberg interview on CBC as I was driving into town to fork over the better part of ten bucks to the Korean extortionist for my Saturday Globe and Mail. Here's Jens on propaganda;
When we (NATO) are faced with Russian propaganda, we never reply with propaganda. We reply with facts. We reply with the truth.
The folks who wouldn't raise an eyebrow at that whopper are the kind of folks who are the target audience for the Clark - MacKinnon take-down of Michel Chossudovsky and the website he's run for the past fifteen years or so, Global Research.
I've been a news junkie pretty much since I learned to read, and one thing I know for sure is that there's no single news source that you can count on to tell the whole story. You have to read around.
I like to check out the NYT and Washington Post websites every day to see what's what in the world of news. Sputnik and RT can be relied on to supply another perspective. Deutsche Welle, France 24, AJE, Dawn, Haaretz, the JPost and Press TV round out my well-balanced daily news diet. And of course I like to have a real newspaper in my hands every day, and that's generally the paper Clark and MacKinnon write for.
I don't get around to Global Research very often.
When I do, it looks like an op-ed aggregator more than anything. The people I'd be inclined to read there, Johnstone, Parry, the indefatigable Paul Craig Roberts (who, btw is a little too intense for my taste, but nevertheless well worth reading) I've already read elsewhere.
So why does the Globe see fit to devote two pages to Chossudovsky?
Because he's a Putin stooge.
That's right.
He promotes the conspiracy theory that "the ouster of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was a Western-backed coup rather than a popular revolution."
That's a conspiracy theory?
Not to anyone familiar with the Nuland - Pyatt tapes.
What the Clark - MacKinnon story alludes to but fails to follow up on, is that Big Tech in it's role as hand-maiden to Empire is already re-jigging their aggregator algorithms to make sure you're far less likely to accidentally happen upon Global Research and other non-conformist sites.
That's something to think about.
Friday, November 17, 2017
Now would be a good time to bid adieu to NATO
NATO promotes democratic values and guarantees the freedom and security of its members -NATO
According to this story by Evan Dyer at CBC, our NATO allies France, Britain, and the US, are actively engaged in tracking down and killing their own citizens who had volunteered to fight with ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
Do these citizens of our NATO allies get the benefit of fair trials or the presumption of innocence or any of that fancy rule-of-law stuff?
No way Jose. Their names get added to a kill list and it's so-long Jihadi John.
That's what "democratic values" have been reduced to in the three most powerful NATO nations.
Do we really want to be part of that club?
Ever since its reason for being wafted away with the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO has been desperate to make itself relevant again.
Let's bomb Belgrade.
Let's liberate the women of Afghanistan.
Let's bomb Libya.... and so on.
Needless to say, none of these busy-work exercises did much for freedom or democratic values.
That's not all. How are "democratic values" faring in Turkey these days? Turkey is the NATO member with the second largest military after the US.
And how do our democratic values stack up against those of our NATO allies Poland and Hungary?
With tiny and entirely irrelevant Montenegro being made a full-patch NATO member just recently, it's beyond obvious that the leadership of the NATO gang sees goading Russia as a great strategy for keeping itself in business.
And just who is leading NATO?
Ostensibly it's General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg, but every serious person knows that it's the US that calls the shots in NATO.
And as we know, the Commander in Chief of the USA is one Donald J. Trump.
I'll say it again; how badly do Canadians really want to be in that club?
Thursday, November 16, 2017
Copping a feel
Remember that?
If you were a teen guy coming up in the latter half of the 20th century, I'll bet you at least tried to cop a feel. I mean you had to try. It's what your date, not to mention society at large, expected of you.
The girls knew it too.
"Oh! I've been out with Benny three times now, and he hasn't even tried to cop a feel... I think he must be a fag!"
Yup, people talked like that.
I guess it's one thing to try for a feel when you're a teen out with another teen, and it's a little different when you're a fifty year old exec in the entertainment biz auditioning a teenage wannabee.
But here's the thing; all those middle-aged exec types are still teenagers at heart.
Hell, even Silvio Berlusconi still feels like he's a teen at heart!
They're not trying to take advantage of vulnerable kids...
They're just trying to recapture their youth.
If you were a teen guy coming up in the latter half of the 20th century, I'll bet you at least tried to cop a feel. I mean you had to try. It's what your date, not to mention society at large, expected of you.
The girls knew it too.
"Oh! I've been out with Benny three times now, and he hasn't even tried to cop a feel... I think he must be a fag!"
Yup, people talked like that.
I guess it's one thing to try for a feel when you're a teen out with another teen, and it's a little different when you're a fifty year old exec in the entertainment biz auditioning a teenage wannabee.
But here's the thing; all those middle-aged exec types are still teenagers at heart.
Hell, even Silvio Berlusconi still feels like he's a teen at heart!
They're not trying to take advantage of vulnerable kids...
They're just trying to recapture their youth.
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Top cops launch medical marijuana biz
You'd think that with his pension for 23 years as a Toronto police officer, his pensions from three different cities where he served as chief of police, his pension from his stint as OPP commish, his MP pension, and his OAS and CPP pensions, veteran crime-fighter Julian Fantino would be spending his golden years under a beach umbrella making origami sculptures with his financial statements.
You'd be wrong!
Fantino has joined fellow top cop Raf Souccar, former Deputy Commissioner at the RCMP, in opening up a medical marijuana joint in Vaughn, north of Toronto.
As the CBC story points out, this is the same guy who once equated the legalization of pot with the legalization of murder.
I for one am glad that "science and the real world" have caused these gentlemen to reconsider the error of their Reefer Madness-inspired vendetta against pot smokers over the past fifty years.
The folks Julian and Raf put behind bars for their pot-related indiscretions will surely appreciate the irony of this story too!
You'd be wrong!
Fantino has joined fellow top cop Raf Souccar, former Deputy Commissioner at the RCMP, in opening up a medical marijuana joint in Vaughn, north of Toronto.
As the CBC story points out, this is the same guy who once equated the legalization of pot with the legalization of murder.
I for one am glad that "science and the real world" have caused these gentlemen to reconsider the error of their Reefer Madness-inspired vendetta against pot smokers over the past fifty years.
The folks Julian and Raf put behind bars for their pot-related indiscretions will surely appreciate the irony of this story too!
Monday, November 13, 2017
Sunny Daze progress report
So how is our PM Sunny Daze working out for you so far?
Frankly, I had high hopes for the guy, but I'm a little underwhelmed... but maybe that's actually a good thing in these days of negative interest rates.
My sense is that those constituencies that had high hopes of him are uniformly disappointed.
Veterans.
Natives.
Potheads.
Now, I don't want to put that last group on a par with the others, nor do I wish to speak for potheads, but it sure seems to me that he's giving the prize away to corporate weed.
And the distribution model is just retarded.
What was wrong with the Canada Post model?
I'm not impressed with the price point either. Ten bucks a gram? Really? I hear that's what folks pay on the street when they buy a gram of pot, but who buys a gram of pot?
I ran into a guy from way back the other day, I'll just call him "Old School," and he had some stuff on offer that, if I'm not mistaken, was also called Old School. Five bucks a gram.
And none of those extra taxes they're now piling onto what they believe will be a gravy train.
Ten bucks for a gram of weed, a one dollar special pot tax to grease political slush funds, and HST on top of that?
No thanks.
No, Canada's adventures in legal weed would have been better entrusted to the Wally Tuckers of this great land, but I guess it's too late for that.
Oh!... that five dollar a gram weed? Thumbs up!
So, Mr. Trudeau, you'll always have your base but you wouldn't have got in without those of us who were giving you the benefit of the doubt.
I'm not sure I can give you the benefit of the doubt next time round.
Frankly, I had high hopes for the guy, but I'm a little underwhelmed... but maybe that's actually a good thing in these days of negative interest rates.
My sense is that those constituencies that had high hopes of him are uniformly disappointed.
Veterans.
Natives.
Potheads.
Now, I don't want to put that last group on a par with the others, nor do I wish to speak for potheads, but it sure seems to me that he's giving the prize away to corporate weed.
And the distribution model is just retarded.
What was wrong with the Canada Post model?
I'm not impressed with the price point either. Ten bucks a gram? Really? I hear that's what folks pay on the street when they buy a gram of pot, but who buys a gram of pot?
I ran into a guy from way back the other day, I'll just call him "Old School," and he had some stuff on offer that, if I'm not mistaken, was also called Old School. Five bucks a gram.
And none of those extra taxes they're now piling onto what they believe will be a gravy train.
Ten bucks for a gram of weed, a one dollar special pot tax to grease political slush funds, and HST on top of that?
No thanks.
No, Canada's adventures in legal weed would have been better entrusted to the Wally Tuckers of this great land, but I guess it's too late for that.
Oh!... that five dollar a gram weed? Thumbs up!
So, Mr. Trudeau, you'll always have your base but you wouldn't have got in without those of us who were giving you the benefit of the doubt.
I'm not sure I can give you the benefit of the doubt next time round.
Saturday, November 11, 2017
Wash cycle, rinse cycle, news cycle, spin cycle
Niall McGee has a fetching spot 'o news on page B5 of today's Globe. I like the vaguely cheeky tone of the headline; "No earnings, no problem: Investors buy Giustra's blockchain story."
The gist of the story is that legendary Vancouver flim-flam artiste and billionaire Frank Giustra's finger-prints are all over the meteoric rise of Hive Blockchain Technologies Inc, a "start-up" that's turned what was essentially a penny-stock shell company into a billion dollar concern.
Alas, nowhere in the article do we learn any more about Giustra, other than that he "worked with former US president Bill Clinton on philanthropic endeavours."
Did he ever!
All you have to do is type two words into your googlator, "giustra" and "clinton," and you'll be gobsmacked by what comes up. Between 2012 and 2016, scores of legit big-media platforms including the New York Times, the New Yorker, Bloomberg, CBC, and the Globe and Mail, ran stories that hinted at the foul odour emanating from the Clinton-Giustra "partnership in philanthropy."
Even the think tank here at Falling Downs got into the act with this effort from 5 November 2016.
Clearly things were building to a crescendo...
Three days later Trump won the US election and that was the end of that story. The "Trump Terror" has hogged the headlines ever since.
Giustra?
Oh ya... wasn't he the guy who did some philanthropy with Bill Clinton?...
The gist of the story is that legendary Vancouver flim-flam artiste and billionaire Frank Giustra's finger-prints are all over the meteoric rise of Hive Blockchain Technologies Inc, a "start-up" that's turned what was essentially a penny-stock shell company into a billion dollar concern.
Alas, nowhere in the article do we learn any more about Giustra, other than that he "worked with former US president Bill Clinton on philanthropic endeavours."
Did he ever!
All you have to do is type two words into your googlator, "giustra" and "clinton," and you'll be gobsmacked by what comes up. Between 2012 and 2016, scores of legit big-media platforms including the New York Times, the New Yorker, Bloomberg, CBC, and the Globe and Mail, ran stories that hinted at the foul odour emanating from the Clinton-Giustra "partnership in philanthropy."
Even the think tank here at Falling Downs got into the act with this effort from 5 November 2016.
Clearly things were building to a crescendo...
Three days later Trump won the US election and that was the end of that story. The "Trump Terror" has hogged the headlines ever since.
Giustra?
Oh ya... wasn't he the guy who did some philanthropy with Bill Clinton?...
Friday, November 10, 2017
Alabama: still putting the fun into fundamentalism
I see where Roy Moore's Senate run has hit some speed bumps.
Looks like they've found at least four women who used to be teens, and when they were teens Roy "Horndog" Moore allegedly had the hots for them.
This alleged discovery has caused GOP bigs like Mitch and McCain to call on Moore to fold his tent.
Which led to the local GOP folks stating, for the record, that they "don't give a shit" what Mitch and McCain say.
Good on them!
But wait! It gets way better!
Mary was a teen. Joseph was way older. They did the oinky boinky, and that's how we got the baby Jesus!
I don't want to rain on their parade, and my credentials as a biblical scholar probably won't hold up to serious scrutiny, but if I'm not mistaken, Mary and Joseph never did the oinky-boinky.
She was a virgin after all. The virgin Mary. It wasn't Joseph who planted his seed in her teenage womb, it was the Holy Spirit!
Joseph couldn't have been the sharpest tool in the shed if he fell for that one.
Looks like they've found at least four women who used to be teens, and when they were teens Roy "Horndog" Moore allegedly had the hots for them.
This alleged discovery has caused GOP bigs like Mitch and McCain to call on Moore to fold his tent.
Which led to the local GOP folks stating, for the record, that they "don't give a shit" what Mitch and McCain say.
Good on them!
But wait! It gets way better!
Mary was a teen. Joseph was way older. They did the oinky boinky, and that's how we got the baby Jesus!
I don't want to rain on their parade, and my credentials as a biblical scholar probably won't hold up to serious scrutiny, but if I'm not mistaken, Mary and Joseph never did the oinky-boinky.
She was a virgin after all. The virgin Mary. It wasn't Joseph who planted his seed in her teenage womb, it was the Holy Spirit!
Joseph couldn't have been the sharpest tool in the shed if he fell for that one.
Thursday, November 9, 2017
Change
I've always been a reader.
Got my start reading the funnies in the Guelph Daily Mercury in the late fifties.
Eventually got to the two Pauls, de Man and Feyerabend. I especially liked Feyerabend.
In the popular rendering of working class folks, we're a bunch of semi-literate yobs. There's an element of truth to that.
But there's always been a strong community of readers among us.
Like Johnny, who managed to get through most of the Globe and Mail crossword puzzle every day for thirty years. At work.
Or Andy, the pipefitter at Irving's shipyard in Saint John who happened to hold a degree in German Literature.
Or Dudley, who worked the pipe-bender at Kearney National during the week and partied with Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster on the weekend.
I'm still reading. Mostly I read stuff on my laptop these days, but I still indulge the luxury of the printed page from time to time. Like when the internet goes down.
Which is why I happened to pick up a copy of The New Yorker this evening and read about the legacy of the Sackler family. That legacy includes hundreds of thousands of opiod OD deaths and hundreds of millions in philanthropic gifts.
The two are intimately related.
That's the second time in a month I've read a mainstream take-down of the Sacklers.
And the mainstream has been busier than I could ever have imagined dismantling the legacy of Weinstein and his myriad fellow travellers.
Who ever imagined such a thing?
What's next?
A New Yorker critique of US foreign policy?
A NYT disavowal of capitalism?
A WaPo editorial slamming the occupation of the West Bank?
We are on the cusp of great changes.
Hold on to your hat... and keep reading.
Got my start reading the funnies in the Guelph Daily Mercury in the late fifties.
Eventually got to the two Pauls, de Man and Feyerabend. I especially liked Feyerabend.
In the popular rendering of working class folks, we're a bunch of semi-literate yobs. There's an element of truth to that.
But there's always been a strong community of readers among us.
Like Johnny, who managed to get through most of the Globe and Mail crossword puzzle every day for thirty years. At work.
Or Andy, the pipefitter at Irving's shipyard in Saint John who happened to hold a degree in German Literature.
Or Dudley, who worked the pipe-bender at Kearney National during the week and partied with Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster on the weekend.
I'm still reading. Mostly I read stuff on my laptop these days, but I still indulge the luxury of the printed page from time to time. Like when the internet goes down.
Which is why I happened to pick up a copy of The New Yorker this evening and read about the legacy of the Sackler family. That legacy includes hundreds of thousands of opiod OD deaths and hundreds of millions in philanthropic gifts.
The two are intimately related.
That's the second time in a month I've read a mainstream take-down of the Sacklers.
And the mainstream has been busier than I could ever have imagined dismantling the legacy of Weinstein and his myriad fellow travellers.
Who ever imagined such a thing?
What's next?
A New Yorker critique of US foreign policy?
A NYT disavowal of capitalism?
A WaPo editorial slamming the occupation of the West Bank?
We are on the cusp of great changes.
Hold on to your hat... and keep reading.
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
The Browder script
You gotta admit it's a compelling story line. Can-do Yankee hedge-fund sharpie goes to Russia to teach the locals the ins and outs of capitalism. As he was looting, stuffing his pockets, plundering investing billions of dollars in post-Soviet Russia, he became alarmed at the strong-arm tactics Putin was using to extort hard-earned cash from well-meaning foreigners like himself.
Unlucky for Putin, Bill Browder wasn't just going to put up with that nonsense. No, Browder is a rule-of-law kinda guy. Luckily, Browder has all kinds of friends in all kinds of really high places, and thanks to his valiant and selfless efforts, "Magnitsky Act" legislation is sprouting up across the verdant democratic meadows throughout the Nations of Virtue.
Andrei Nekrasov is a well-regarded Russian film-maker who was an outspoken Putin critic. He was hired to direct the script Browder had written about his adventures in Russia.
That would seem a marriage made in heaven; a Putin critic of long standing with an impeccable reputation paired with a virtuous American hedge-fund manager with super-deep pockets to produce the ultimate anti-Putin opus.
Alas, it didn't take Nekrasov long to deviate from the script. The more he delved into the "facts" of the matter the more he had doubts about the script he was supposed to be working from. Browder and Nekrasov had an acrimonious falling out.
They're still at loggerheads to this day. On the one side, an internationally esteemed anti-Putin film-maker, and on the other side, a guy who siphoned billions out of Russia while the country was suffering an apocalyptic economic collapse.
I know whose integrity I'd be banking with, but I'm an outlier.
The Nekrasov documentary got finished, but good luck trying to watch it. Yes, it's available on YouTube, but for some reason I've not been able to find a version in which the sound actually works, so unless you're highly adept at lip-reading Russian speakers, it's pretty much useless.
Hmm... you don't think that could be censorship, do you?
Of course not!
We, after all, are the Nations of Virtue, and even though Browder had to renounce his US citizenship for tax reasons, he's one of ours.
And Nekrasov obviously found his way into Putin's pockets.
That's the Browder script, and I for one am sticking to it.
Unlucky for Putin, Bill Browder wasn't just going to put up with that nonsense. No, Browder is a rule-of-law kinda guy. Luckily, Browder has all kinds of friends in all kinds of really high places, and thanks to his valiant and selfless efforts, "Magnitsky Act" legislation is sprouting up across the verdant democratic meadows throughout the Nations of Virtue.
Andrei Nekrasov is a well-regarded Russian film-maker who was an outspoken Putin critic. He was hired to direct the script Browder had written about his adventures in Russia.
That would seem a marriage made in heaven; a Putin critic of long standing with an impeccable reputation paired with a virtuous American hedge-fund manager with super-deep pockets to produce the ultimate anti-Putin opus.
Alas, it didn't take Nekrasov long to deviate from the script. The more he delved into the "facts" of the matter the more he had doubts about the script he was supposed to be working from. Browder and Nekrasov had an acrimonious falling out.
They're still at loggerheads to this day. On the one side, an internationally esteemed anti-Putin film-maker, and on the other side, a guy who siphoned billions out of Russia while the country was suffering an apocalyptic economic collapse.
I know whose integrity I'd be banking with, but I'm an outlier.
The Nekrasov documentary got finished, but good luck trying to watch it. Yes, it's available on YouTube, but for some reason I've not been able to find a version in which the sound actually works, so unless you're highly adept at lip-reading Russian speakers, it's pretty much useless.
Hmm... you don't think that could be censorship, do you?
Of course not!
We, after all, are the Nations of Virtue, and even though Browder had to renounce his US citizenship for tax reasons, he's one of ours.
And Nekrasov obviously found his way into Putin's pockets.
That's the Browder script, and I for one am sticking to it.
Climate Barbie goes off-script
I see where Environment Minister Catherine McKenna had herself a "my-face-is-red" moment when one of her minions inadvertently sent out a tweet praising Syria for joining the Paris climate accord.
Can't be having any of that now, can we! We must never forget that the eye doctor from Damascus is a blood-drenched monster who delights in gassing his own people, especially children! And suddenly we've got our Environment Minister high-fiving him for joining the fight against green-house gasses?
Well, she's obviously WAY off the script there, and it didn't take the men behind the curtain long to yank her leash. She's realized the error of her ways and is back on track.
The Syria script has always been a little dodgy to my way of thinking. On the one hand, we're constantly told Assad is unfit to inhabit this planet etc, and on the other hand the Canadian security establishment used to outsource their torture operations to the Assad regime. We don't do that stuff ourselves of course, but we're not above sending a few recalcitrant towel-heads over there to get their just desserts.
The ones who lived to tell the tale are subsequently made multi-millionaires by our guilt-ridden government. The ones who didn't, and there had to be more than a few, we never hear about.
And another dodgy aspect to the Syria script; let's assume for a moment that Assad is every bit the butcher we're constantly told he is. Then why do we arrest idealistic young Canadians on their way to Syria to join the fight against him? How does that make any sense?
Given how famous Canadians are (at least in Canada) for "punching above our weight," these idealistic young Canadians could have made all the difference. Assad might very well be inhabiting the dustbin of history by now had we let them go. But no, we charged them with terror offences and locked them up, and Assad has all but won the war.
Were we yet again secretly in cahoots with Assad?
These are secrets known only to the script-writers.
Can't be having any of that now, can we! We must never forget that the eye doctor from Damascus is a blood-drenched monster who delights in gassing his own people, especially children! And suddenly we've got our Environment Minister high-fiving him for joining the fight against green-house gasses?
Well, she's obviously WAY off the script there, and it didn't take the men behind the curtain long to yank her leash. She's realized the error of her ways and is back on track.
The Syria script has always been a little dodgy to my way of thinking. On the one hand, we're constantly told Assad is unfit to inhabit this planet etc, and on the other hand the Canadian security establishment used to outsource their torture operations to the Assad regime. We don't do that stuff ourselves of course, but we're not above sending a few recalcitrant towel-heads over there to get their just desserts.
The ones who lived to tell the tale are subsequently made multi-millionaires by our guilt-ridden government. The ones who didn't, and there had to be more than a few, we never hear about.
And another dodgy aspect to the Syria script; let's assume for a moment that Assad is every bit the butcher we're constantly told he is. Then why do we arrest idealistic young Canadians on their way to Syria to join the fight against him? How does that make any sense?
Given how famous Canadians are (at least in Canada) for "punching above our weight," these idealistic young Canadians could have made all the difference. Assad might very well be inhabiting the dustbin of history by now had we let them go. But no, we charged them with terror offences and locked them up, and Assad has all but won the war.
Were we yet again secretly in cahoots with Assad?
These are secrets known only to the script-writers.
Sunday, November 5, 2017
What up in the Kingdom?
Doug Saunders, Canada's answer to Thomas Friedman, laid a bit of an egg with his opinion piece in the Globe yesterday, if you want to know my six dollars and thirty cents worth. I mean, what was that other than another not-so-thinly veiled plug for his book?
Ya Doug, we know! You've got a book coming out. Maximum Canada... I hope a hundred million Canadians get to read it someday. Now try to write your column without mentioning that you've a book coming out.
By the way, I'm guessing you've noticed by now you miss-spelled the name of Canada's Immigration Minister. Five times in one editorial. Come on, Doug, pull up your socks! I pay $6.30 every Saturday to read this shit.
But anyway, what's afoot in The Kingdom? Looks to me like the boss princeling is working overtime putting his stamp on things. Let's see... so far, he's engineered the Yemen war.
Epic fail.
The collapse of global oil prices.
Epic fail. As far as I can see, that ambitious strike against Russia and Iran turned out to be a near-mortal self-inflicted wound more than anything.
Let's not forget the brouhaha with Qatar. The only question about that fail is how epic it'll turn out to be in the final analysis.
And now, the putsch. The "night of the long knives" as some are calling it. The KSA hasn't seen this much intrigue since Bandar Bush went AWOL for a spell a few years ago! The Hariri angle is the icing on the cake.
Netanyahu went overboard trying to make hay out of that one. Hmm... maybe Hariri knows something? Maybe he knows that the immediate future of his country is looking rather bleak, and he'd rather spend the next few weeks in Riyadh than in Beirut?
But back to the putsch. One thing I'm wondering; was this a preemptive strike? Did Crown Prince MBS get wind of something and decide he'd rather be the hammer than the nail? In any event, looks like there could be a rush of "high net worth" Saudi refugees looking for a roof soon.
Or a luxury suite. Or a few floors of a five star hotel. Luckily, Canada has the infrastructure in place to accommodate this imminent refugee flow.
The Lebanese won't be a problem either, once the fireworks start. I mean, half those folks already hold Canadian passports. They won't even be refugees... they'll just be coming home!
Hezbollah today, here tomorrow! That's OK too. At least it'll get easier to find a decent tabbouleh. And that divine Bekaa Valley Blonde those people are renowned for.
I wouldn't worry about the Israelis either. Most of those people already hold US or German passports, so let them go there. The rest we can take in as refugees. That would make up for the shame of the MS St. Louis debacle back in '39.
So between a half million Israelis, six million Lebanese, and whoever can escape the clutches of the Insane Clown Prince, I figure we could be welcoming a good ten million refugees in the next few months.
Looks like we'll be well on our way to Maximum Canada!
Ya Doug, we know! You've got a book coming out. Maximum Canada... I hope a hundred million Canadians get to read it someday. Now try to write your column without mentioning that you've a book coming out.
By the way, I'm guessing you've noticed by now you miss-spelled the name of Canada's Immigration Minister. Five times in one editorial. Come on, Doug, pull up your socks! I pay $6.30 every Saturday to read this shit.
But anyway, what's afoot in The Kingdom? Looks to me like the boss princeling is working overtime putting his stamp on things. Let's see... so far, he's engineered the Yemen war.
Epic fail.
The collapse of global oil prices.
Epic fail. As far as I can see, that ambitious strike against Russia and Iran turned out to be a near-mortal self-inflicted wound more than anything.
Let's not forget the brouhaha with Qatar. The only question about that fail is how epic it'll turn out to be in the final analysis.
And now, the putsch. The "night of the long knives" as some are calling it. The KSA hasn't seen this much intrigue since Bandar Bush went AWOL for a spell a few years ago! The Hariri angle is the icing on the cake.
Netanyahu went overboard trying to make hay out of that one. Hmm... maybe Hariri knows something? Maybe he knows that the immediate future of his country is looking rather bleak, and he'd rather spend the next few weeks in Riyadh than in Beirut?
But back to the putsch. One thing I'm wondering; was this a preemptive strike? Did Crown Prince MBS get wind of something and decide he'd rather be the hammer than the nail? In any event, looks like there could be a rush of "high net worth" Saudi refugees looking for a roof soon.
Or a luxury suite. Or a few floors of a five star hotel. Luckily, Canada has the infrastructure in place to accommodate this imminent refugee flow.
The Lebanese won't be a problem either, once the fireworks start. I mean, half those folks already hold Canadian passports. They won't even be refugees... they'll just be coming home!
Hezbollah today, here tomorrow! That's OK too. At least it'll get easier to find a decent tabbouleh. And that divine Bekaa Valley Blonde those people are renowned for.
I wouldn't worry about the Israelis either. Most of those people already hold US or German passports, so let them go there. The rest we can take in as refugees. That would make up for the shame of the MS St. Louis debacle back in '39.
So between a half million Israelis, six million Lebanese, and whoever can escape the clutches of the Insane Clown Prince, I figure we could be welcoming a good ten million refugees in the next few months.
Looks like we'll be well on our way to Maximum Canada!
Suitable for first-time buyers or investors
Why is it that you can't scroll through real estate listings for more than two minutes without running across that line?
It's everywhere! That's bare-knuckle capitalism at its finest, isn't it? OK, immigrant family just starting out with your piddly savings from your minimum wage jobs... here's a cosy little starter for you! All you have to do is beat out all those savvy "investors" and the place is yours!
May the highest bidder win!
I'd say that's a competition highly skewed in the favour of the investors, wouldn't you think?
Time to roll out your affordable housing policy, Mr. Trudeau.
And make sure it's about affordable housing, not affordable investment vehicles.
It's everywhere! That's bare-knuckle capitalism at its finest, isn't it? OK, immigrant family just starting out with your piddly savings from your minimum wage jobs... here's a cosy little starter for you! All you have to do is beat out all those savvy "investors" and the place is yours!
May the highest bidder win!
I'd say that's a competition highly skewed in the favour of the investors, wouldn't you think?
Time to roll out your affordable housing policy, Mr. Trudeau.
And make sure it's about affordable housing, not affordable investment vehicles.
Robert Mugabe reads this blog!
On 28th October I wrote about Zimbabwe being the only country in Africa without a US military presence, but not to worry - the National Endowment for Democracy are busy beavers there, so it's only a matter of time.
Six days later, Martha O'Donovan, an American working for a NED funded project in Zimbabwe, gets arrested for offending President Mugabe. Coincidence?
In its 2016 Annual Report NED reveals that amongst the million and a half dollars it sprinkled around the country that year was a $45,000 stipend to the Magamba Network, O'Donovan's employer, "to promote freedom of expression and pro-democracy activism by youth through the use of satire, citizen journalism, and creative new media platforms..."
That is so Uncle Sam, is it not?
How is it that the US government has money for the youth of Africa to promote all that good stuff, but not for the youth of Flint or Baltimore?
Anyway, Martha, the old coot is 93 and won't be around much longer. When he finally kicks the bucket all those pro-democracy activists that the NED and Open Society Institutes have been training for years will spring into action.
It might get a little messy.
It might require a few special ops guys on the ground to protect America's enduring interests.
But change is coming to Zimbabwe!
Flint and Baltimore will have to wait.
Six days later, Martha O'Donovan, an American working for a NED funded project in Zimbabwe, gets arrested for offending President Mugabe. Coincidence?
In its 2016 Annual Report NED reveals that amongst the million and a half dollars it sprinkled around the country that year was a $45,000 stipend to the Magamba Network, O'Donovan's employer, "to promote freedom of expression and pro-democracy activism by youth through the use of satire, citizen journalism, and creative new media platforms..."
That is so Uncle Sam, is it not?
How is it that the US government has money for the youth of Africa to promote all that good stuff, but not for the youth of Flint or Baltimore?
Anyway, Martha, the old coot is 93 and won't be around much longer. When he finally kicks the bucket all those pro-democracy activists that the NED and Open Society Institutes have been training for years will spring into action.
It might get a little messy.
It might require a few special ops guys on the ground to protect America's enduring interests.
But change is coming to Zimbabwe!
Flint and Baltimore will have to wait.
The convenient myopia of elite opinion-makers
It's Sunday once again, so The Sunday Star treats its readership to a recycled Friedman column from the New York Times circa Tuesday last; "Trump, Niger and Connecting the Dots." Much more "economically efficient" than producing original copy, I suppose. At least I'm not asked to pay $6.30 for it... yet.
So Friedman, certainly one of the most influential voices in English language media, wants us to know "just how foolish, how flat-out dumb President Donald J. Trump is. Trump is a person who doesn't connect dots - even when they're big fat polka dots."
Friedman furthermore wants us to know that unlike the imbecile Trump, he knows something about Niger. Take it away Thomas!
Connect those dots for us!
Which he does. He finds the climate change dots and the overpopulation dots and the poor governance dots and offers numerous asides about the ineptitude of the current President, all without ever mentioning the one humongous dot that arguably dwarfs all those others; Libya.
Those US special forces in Mali and Chad and Niger aren't there to fight climate change or desertification or overpopulation; they're there to fight "terrorists."
And why did these African states see a sudden rise in terror activities in 2012? Could it have anything to do with the US led destruction of the Libyan state in 2011?
That would be an exceptionally obese polka dot to leave out when one is purportedly connecting the dots in Niger, wouldn't you think?
Friedman knows this of course. The NATO assault on Libya and the murder of Gaddafi was a monstrously foolish and way-past-flat-out dumb decision. It unleashed forces that will destabilize the region for decades.
Unfortunately for the narrative Friedman is spinning, that White House decision was taken several years before Trump took up residence there.
Best to leave out stuff we can't pin on Trump!
So Friedman, certainly one of the most influential voices in English language media, wants us to know "just how foolish, how flat-out dumb President Donald J. Trump is. Trump is a person who doesn't connect dots - even when they're big fat polka dots."
Friedman furthermore wants us to know that unlike the imbecile Trump, he knows something about Niger. Take it away Thomas!
Connect those dots for us!
Which he does. He finds the climate change dots and the overpopulation dots and the poor governance dots and offers numerous asides about the ineptitude of the current President, all without ever mentioning the one humongous dot that arguably dwarfs all those others; Libya.
Those US special forces in Mali and Chad and Niger aren't there to fight climate change or desertification or overpopulation; they're there to fight "terrorists."
And why did these African states see a sudden rise in terror activities in 2012? Could it have anything to do with the US led destruction of the Libyan state in 2011?
That would be an exceptionally obese polka dot to leave out when one is purportedly connecting the dots in Niger, wouldn't you think?
Friedman knows this of course. The NATO assault on Libya and the murder of Gaddafi was a monstrously foolish and way-past-flat-out dumb decision. It unleashed forces that will destabilize the region for decades.
Unfortunately for the narrative Friedman is spinning, that White House decision was taken several years before Trump took up residence there.
Best to leave out stuff we can't pin on Trump!
Saturday, November 4, 2017
Immigrant parents
The Farm Manager was more than pleased to inform me the other day that the most junior of our Juniors was carrying a 92% average in his second year at U of T.
Hmm... 92%?
On some level, I gotta say I'm kinda proud.
On another level, I gotta say "so what happened to the other 8%?"
That's what the FM's parents would have said to her.
That's what my parents said to me.
That's what responsible immigrant parents, no matter where they're from, say to their children to this day. If you're the child of immigrant parents, I'm guessing you can vouch for that.
Message to immigrant parents; if your kid only gets a 70 or a 60, or, God forbid, flunks out altogether, don't worry about it.
It's fine. Everything is OK!
That's called "assimilation."
And there's nothing wrong with that.
Hmm... 92%?
On some level, I gotta say I'm kinda proud.
On another level, I gotta say "so what happened to the other 8%?"
That's what the FM's parents would have said to her.
That's what my parents said to me.
That's what responsible immigrant parents, no matter where they're from, say to their children to this day. If you're the child of immigrant parents, I'm guessing you can vouch for that.
Message to immigrant parents; if your kid only gets a 70 or a 60, or, God forbid, flunks out altogether, don't worry about it.
It's fine. Everything is OK!
That's called "assimilation."
And there's nothing wrong with that.
Friday, November 3, 2017
I was so dreadfully wrong about Donald J. Trump, and I'm so sorry...
Ran across this spot of brilliance in my travels this evening.
I was not even remotely acquainted with the word "dotard" at the time.
Thank-you, Kim Jong-un.
I was not even remotely acquainted with the word "dotard" at the time.
Thank-you, Kim Jong-un.
School bus shenanigans
I didn't have a plan for this blog when I fired it up six years ago, and some 5,000 posts later, I still don't.
At the back of my mind I figured maybe someday I'd do some editing and winnow things down a bit and maybe come out with a "Best of Falling Downs" e-book or something.
But editing and winnowing are way too much like work, whereas just slapping my latest insights into the human condition out into the world is rather enjoyable.
Which is why this blog is what it is. Critical analyses of US foreign policy interspersed with commentary about where my dogs shit and too-fond memories of "the good old days."
I have zero interest in editing those 5,000 posts.
But when I see which of those five thousand posts have been looked at on any given day, it can sometimes jog me into a trip down memory lane. That's what happened when it came to my attention that Wheel of Karma had a few page views recently.
Looking at that from my 2017 perspective, I'd say my school-pal Billy was guilty of molesting schoolgirls on the school bus.
At the time, it was all "boys will be boys."
Be that as it may, it got me to thinking about other goings-on on the school bus.
My friend Ev Dargie, who hails from Ripley, told me about how her school-bus driver would stop at the Ripley pub...
"Sit tight kids," he'd say, and they'd sit tight while he got tight. Never a problem. He could down three pints in the half hour the bus sat idling at the curb.
Then there were the hooligans on my bus who prided themselves on their ability to cover roadside hitch-hikers with spit as the bus drove by. I secretly wished the bus driver would stop for one of those dudes, just to find out how tough those spitters really were, but it never happened.
Bullying was a fact of life on the school bus. I got lots of that, at least till I grew big enough to kick the shit out of the bullies.
In grade nine, I'd get on the bus, and I'd hear "oh look, it's the Moose Jaw Kid!"
Guffaws all around.
By grade ten, I'd put on fifty pounds and grown six inches.
"Oh look, it's the Moose Jaw... "
Thwack thwack thwack...
Buddy had his nose flattened, was dribbling blood all over the place, and I got temporarily banned from the bus, but I was never again called "The Moose Jaw Kid."
By grade eleven I had my driver's license and a car, so it didn't matter. I was one of the cool dudes by then.
The best school bus story by far comes from my Ponsonby Public School days. That bus driver from Ev's childhood must have got a job there, because one night on the way home, the bus just slowed down and gently veered into the ditch.
The driver was sound asleep.
Or shit-faced drunk... take your pick.
No matter. One of the thirteen year old farm boys on that bus was able to manoeuvre it out of the ditch and finish the bus route.
That would be a front-page scandal were it to happen today.
Back then, you just did what you had to do.
Even if you were just a thirteen year old farm boy.
At the back of my mind I figured maybe someday I'd do some editing and winnow things down a bit and maybe come out with a "Best of Falling Downs" e-book or something.
But editing and winnowing are way too much like work, whereas just slapping my latest insights into the human condition out into the world is rather enjoyable.
Which is why this blog is what it is. Critical analyses of US foreign policy interspersed with commentary about where my dogs shit and too-fond memories of "the good old days."
I have zero interest in editing those 5,000 posts.
But when I see which of those five thousand posts have been looked at on any given day, it can sometimes jog me into a trip down memory lane. That's what happened when it came to my attention that Wheel of Karma had a few page views recently.
Looking at that from my 2017 perspective, I'd say my school-pal Billy was guilty of molesting schoolgirls on the school bus.
At the time, it was all "boys will be boys."
Be that as it may, it got me to thinking about other goings-on on the school bus.
My friend Ev Dargie, who hails from Ripley, told me about how her school-bus driver would stop at the Ripley pub...
"Sit tight kids," he'd say, and they'd sit tight while he got tight. Never a problem. He could down three pints in the half hour the bus sat idling at the curb.
Then there were the hooligans on my bus who prided themselves on their ability to cover roadside hitch-hikers with spit as the bus drove by. I secretly wished the bus driver would stop for one of those dudes, just to find out how tough those spitters really were, but it never happened.
Bullying was a fact of life on the school bus. I got lots of that, at least till I grew big enough to kick the shit out of the bullies.
In grade nine, I'd get on the bus, and I'd hear "oh look, it's the Moose Jaw Kid!"
Guffaws all around.
By grade ten, I'd put on fifty pounds and grown six inches.
"Oh look, it's the Moose Jaw... "
Thwack thwack thwack...
Buddy had his nose flattened, was dribbling blood all over the place, and I got temporarily banned from the bus, but I was never again called "The Moose Jaw Kid."
By grade eleven I had my driver's license and a car, so it didn't matter. I was one of the cool dudes by then.
The best school bus story by far comes from my Ponsonby Public School days. That bus driver from Ev's childhood must have got a job there, because one night on the way home, the bus just slowed down and gently veered into the ditch.
The driver was sound asleep.
Or shit-faced drunk... take your pick.
No matter. One of the thirteen year old farm boys on that bus was able to manoeuvre it out of the ditch and finish the bus route.
That would be a front-page scandal were it to happen today.
Back then, you just did what you had to do.
Even if you were just a thirteen year old farm boy.
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Another good guy gone too soon
Just sent a condolence message to Phil's family. Thinking about Phil took me back to the night we met.
It was late at night and my pal Dave and I had been having an evening of it in Fergus. What did that look like? It looked like young hooligans gone wild. Tossed out of every drinking establishment in town, bloodied but determinedly unbowed. The town cops were closing in.
Back in the day, having the town cops actually catch up with you didn't necessarily mean you'd be facing charges. It did mean you were most likely in for a good thrashing that was intended to give you the message that you should take your assholery over to Elora instead. Or maybe Guelph or Elmira.
It was all fun and games till my 340 Dart ran out of gas. Oh-oh!
What-ever are we gonna do? Stand beside the car and listen to the sirens get louder?
Dave had a plan. His brother-in-law worked the night shift at the Moore's printing plant just a few blocks away. He'd be good for gas money!
We borrowed a couple of children's bicycles from an open garage door a couple houses away and high-tailed it to Moore's, pedalling those wee bikes as hard as we could. I remember wheelying my CCM Mustang past the guardhouse at the plant gate. The resident security guard abandoned his post and took off after us in hot pursuit.
Phil was found. Although unaccustomed to being accosted by drunken hooligans halfway through his midnight shift, he obligingly opened his wallet and forked over enough cash to get us safely out of town.
Our paths crossed from time to time, most recently when me and the Farm Manager were seated with him at a wedding a couple of years ago. He was the same quiet, unassuming, and gentle soul I'd first met forty years before.
He'd had more than his share of hard luck and bad breaks, but there wasn't a hint of bitterness in the guy. That's worth at least as much as fame and fortune.
Godspeed, Phil. Sorry you had to leave us so soon.
It was late at night and my pal Dave and I had been having an evening of it in Fergus. What did that look like? It looked like young hooligans gone wild. Tossed out of every drinking establishment in town, bloodied but determinedly unbowed. The town cops were closing in.
Back in the day, having the town cops actually catch up with you didn't necessarily mean you'd be facing charges. It did mean you were most likely in for a good thrashing that was intended to give you the message that you should take your assholery over to Elora instead. Or maybe Guelph or Elmira.
It was all fun and games till my 340 Dart ran out of gas. Oh-oh!
What-ever are we gonna do? Stand beside the car and listen to the sirens get louder?
Dave had a plan. His brother-in-law worked the night shift at the Moore's printing plant just a few blocks away. He'd be good for gas money!
We borrowed a couple of children's bicycles from an open garage door a couple houses away and high-tailed it to Moore's, pedalling those wee bikes as hard as we could. I remember wheelying my CCM Mustang past the guardhouse at the plant gate. The resident security guard abandoned his post and took off after us in hot pursuit.
Phil was found. Although unaccustomed to being accosted by drunken hooligans halfway through his midnight shift, he obligingly opened his wallet and forked over enough cash to get us safely out of town.
Our paths crossed from time to time, most recently when me and the Farm Manager were seated with him at a wedding a couple of years ago. He was the same quiet, unassuming, and gentle soul I'd first met forty years before.
He'd had more than his share of hard luck and bad breaks, but there wasn't a hint of bitterness in the guy. That's worth at least as much as fame and fortune.
Godspeed, Phil. Sorry you had to leave us so soon.
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Your marijuana is in the mail...
Well, not quite yet it isn't, and there's quite a collection of do-gooders and law 'n order types coming together to lobby for a delay in legalization.
One of their main concerns is how to cope with the deluge of pot-addled drivers who are just itching to hit the highways clutching their bongs and vaporizers. All hell's gonna break loose, don't ya know!
Doesn't really add up when you think about it. Yes, there are people, at least a few, although I must say I'm not personally acquainted with any, who do not and never have and will never smoke pot for the simple reason that doing so breaks the law. But think about those folks for a minute. Are they gonna fire up a legal fattie and jump in the car for a road trip?
No!
Why not? Because that'll still be illegal! Does it make any sense that folks who didn't toke because it's illegal would suddenly have no qualms about breaking impaired driving laws?
But you never know... after all, if you've seen Reefer Madness you know that the addicts are pretty quick to toss their moral compass out the nearest window after they've had a toke.
Which doesn't mean you can't get your marijuana in the mail. A pal of mine sent me a few doobs in a Christmas card a couple years back. It was a particularly pungent crop that year. Keeping a sealed baggie in a desk drawer would stink up the whole house after a few days. Buddy figured the postman would drop the envelope off in my mailbox and everything would be cool.
Little did he realize that I pick up my mail at the Post Office in the village up the road, and I don't pick it up ever day, especially in winter, when I have to hitch up the hounds and mush hours over the frozen tundra.
So it's nearing the end of January by the time I finally retrieve that Christmas card. Jenny the Postmistress has got it shrink-wrapped in multiple layers of plastic. Couldn't smell a darn thing!
Ya gotta love country people!
One of their main concerns is how to cope with the deluge of pot-addled drivers who are just itching to hit the highways clutching their bongs and vaporizers. All hell's gonna break loose, don't ya know!
Doesn't really add up when you think about it. Yes, there are people, at least a few, although I must say I'm not personally acquainted with any, who do not and never have and will never smoke pot for the simple reason that doing so breaks the law. But think about those folks for a minute. Are they gonna fire up a legal fattie and jump in the car for a road trip?
No!
Why not? Because that'll still be illegal! Does it make any sense that folks who didn't toke because it's illegal would suddenly have no qualms about breaking impaired driving laws?
But you never know... after all, if you've seen Reefer Madness you know that the addicts are pretty quick to toss their moral compass out the nearest window after they've had a toke.
Which doesn't mean you can't get your marijuana in the mail. A pal of mine sent me a few doobs in a Christmas card a couple years back. It was a particularly pungent crop that year. Keeping a sealed baggie in a desk drawer would stink up the whole house after a few days. Buddy figured the postman would drop the envelope off in my mailbox and everything would be cool.
Little did he realize that I pick up my mail at the Post Office in the village up the road, and I don't pick it up ever day, especially in winter, when I have to hitch up the hounds and mush hours over the frozen tundra.
So it's nearing the end of January by the time I finally retrieve that Christmas card. Jenny the Postmistress has got it shrink-wrapped in multiple layers of plastic. Couldn't smell a darn thing!
Ya gotta love country people!
Mericans even dumber than we thought
The latest chapter of Hillary's "Putin-made-me-lose" gambit is playing out in DC this week, where corporate nabobs from twittergooglefacebook are 'fessing up on how Putin's henchmen stole the election with $100,000 worth of Facebook ads.
The CBC even had David "Axis-of-evil" Frum on the other day explaining how this sinister "industrial scale" propaganda campaign worked. The ever-cunning Ruskies would put up adverts that subtly sowed seeds of doubt in the minds of gullible Americans. Even though the ads did not appear to be about the election at all, their cumulative effect was to sub-consciously guide the viewers to a place where they found themselves questioning American Exceptionalism.
You know what happens then; once that doubt reaches critical mass, unsuspecting Hillary voters suddenly find themselves getting aroused by Trump campaign slogans.
"Ya, I get it now! We really gotta make America great again! I'm voting Trump, dammit!"
Yup, that's how things went down. The most expensive election campaign in the history of democracy was blown out of the water by $100,000 in Facebook advertising.
The CBC even had David "Axis-of-evil" Frum on the other day explaining how this sinister "industrial scale" propaganda campaign worked. The ever-cunning Ruskies would put up adverts that subtly sowed seeds of doubt in the minds of gullible Americans. Even though the ads did not appear to be about the election at all, their cumulative effect was to sub-consciously guide the viewers to a place where they found themselves questioning American Exceptionalism.
You know what happens then; once that doubt reaches critical mass, unsuspecting Hillary voters suddenly find themselves getting aroused by Trump campaign slogans.
"Ya, I get it now! We really gotta make America great again! I'm voting Trump, dammit!"
Yup, that's how things went down. The most expensive election campaign in the history of democracy was blown out of the water by $100,000 in Facebook advertising.
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