I ran into that phraseology more than once in my journey through my Globe and Mail this Saturday. (Ya, still six dollars and thirty cents from the Korean extortionist.)
Generally speaking, you'll find that morsel when you're reading the ubiquitous apologists for American Empire.
And they're everywhere!
Of course they are... when every media outlet is owned by apologists for American Exceptionalism, did you imagine you would find something else?
But just to mess them up a bit, ask them what rules in the rules based world order allow US forces to be building military bases in Syria today.
Saturday, March 31, 2018
Lunch in Toronto
Made it down to TO to have lunch with 4/5 of the kids and a few of the add-ons. Hit the Laterna, a Greek place up near Yonge and Steeles.
I've always said the Greeks know from restaurants, and this place is the living proof. The only complaint I have is there's no parking.
But not to worry; Centrepoint Mall is just across Yonge and they've got acres of parking!
As the "patriarch" I got to pay the bill. That patriarch shit gets kinda stale with me. If I'm the supposed patriarch, how is it that I have the Farm Manager and five kids bossing me around?
Does that sound patriarchal to you?
Nevertheless, I'm pleased to report that all in, our party of ten came outta there for well under four hundred bucks.
And the food was excellent!
I've always said the Greeks know from restaurants, and this place is the living proof. The only complaint I have is there's no parking.
But not to worry; Centrepoint Mall is just across Yonge and they've got acres of parking!
As the "patriarch" I got to pay the bill. That patriarch shit gets kinda stale with me. If I'm the supposed patriarch, how is it that I have the Farm Manager and five kids bossing me around?
Does that sound patriarchal to you?
Nevertheless, I'm pleased to report that all in, our party of ten came outta there for well under four hundred bucks.
And the food was excellent!
Friday, March 30, 2018
Covfefe unleashed
Top story in my Globe and Mail today features the erstwhile Mark MacKinnon doing what he's won journalism awards for; rooting through the archives in search of a new slant on old stories. And by golly, he found a winner, at least in the eyes of his editors.
Yup, the dastardly Putin has been systematically rubbing out his critics! How do we know? Well, the "nerve-agent attack against former spy Sergei Skripal" in Britain three weeks ago has reopened the cases of 14 other "mysterious deaths" that the conspiratorially inclined would like to link to Bad Vlad.
Skripal was found semi-comatose on a park bench in England on 4th March.
The last time I was found semi-comatose on a park bench, they thankfully didn't make a big deal of it, and by the way, I really appreciate that.
Sergei Skripal had no such luck.
By 5th March highly placed British authorities were speculating for the record that the Kremlin was behind this "assassination attempt." By 6th March Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was openly calling out Putin in parliament...
Proof?
Hey, if you need proof, you're obviously a Putin stooge. Just like the year and a half long (and counting) investigation into Putin's tampering with America's "democracy," no proof is forthcoming because a) there isn't any, and b) if you think it might be a good idea to provide some, you're obviously... a Putin stooge!
Case closed!
By the way, "covfefe" is an accidental Trumpian invention that, roughly translated, means "gibberish."
Yup, the dastardly Putin has been systematically rubbing out his critics! How do we know? Well, the "nerve-agent attack against former spy Sergei Skripal" in Britain three weeks ago has reopened the cases of 14 other "mysterious deaths" that the conspiratorially inclined would like to link to Bad Vlad.
Skripal was found semi-comatose on a park bench in England on 4th March.
The last time I was found semi-comatose on a park bench, they thankfully didn't make a big deal of it, and by the way, I really appreciate that.
Sergei Skripal had no such luck.
By 5th March highly placed British authorities were speculating for the record that the Kremlin was behind this "assassination attempt." By 6th March Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was openly calling out Putin in parliament...
Proof?
Hey, if you need proof, you're obviously a Putin stooge. Just like the year and a half long (and counting) investigation into Putin's tampering with America's "democracy," no proof is forthcoming because a) there isn't any, and b) if you think it might be a good idea to provide some, you're obviously... a Putin stooge!
Case closed!
By the way, "covfefe" is an accidental Trumpian invention that, roughly translated, means "gibberish."
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
RIP Peter Munk
Never met the guy, but that didn't hold me back from offering sporadic commentary on his various adventures.
And he had plenty of adventures. Check out this story by Peter C. Newman at Macleans from 2014.
I never met Peter Newman either, but I do have a story. Back in one of my past lives I called up the guy who owned the two biggest apartment towers in Guelph at the time.
I said, hey, it's Dieter Neumann, can I have a couple minutes of your time?
He thought I'd said Peter Newman, and he was delighted to give me at least a couple hours. Little did he realize that Peter C. was by then the biographer of choice for Canada's business elite, nor did he realize that owning a few hundred rental units in Guelph was a long way from the "elite."
But back to Mr. Munk.
As an "aristocratic Jew" from Hungary (Newman's words), Munk obviously had some advantages in the game of life, and he was able to take full advantage of those advantages. The mining game will always be awash with rampant naysaying from environmentalists and social justice types of all stripes, who as often as not are funded by your competitors.
I've followed Munk's adventures, at some remove, for a long time, and while his rep was far from spotless, he was a long way from "worst offender" status too.
Happy trails, Mr. Munk!
And he had plenty of adventures. Check out this story by Peter C. Newman at Macleans from 2014.
I never met Peter Newman either, but I do have a story. Back in one of my past lives I called up the guy who owned the two biggest apartment towers in Guelph at the time.
I said, hey, it's Dieter Neumann, can I have a couple minutes of your time?
He thought I'd said Peter Newman, and he was delighted to give me at least a couple hours. Little did he realize that Peter C. was by then the biographer of choice for Canada's business elite, nor did he realize that owning a few hundred rental units in Guelph was a long way from the "elite."
But back to Mr. Munk.
As an "aristocratic Jew" from Hungary (Newman's words), Munk obviously had some advantages in the game of life, and he was able to take full advantage of those advantages. The mining game will always be awash with rampant naysaying from environmentalists and social justice types of all stripes, who as often as not are funded by your competitors.
I've followed Munk's adventures, at some remove, for a long time, and while his rep was far from spotless, he was a long way from "worst offender" status too.
Happy trails, Mr. Munk!
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Gun control and the limits of flash-mob activism
Have to say I'm somewhat mystified by the American public's resistance to even the most cursory limitations on their "right" to buy guns.
Personally, I'm glad it's not as easy to buy a gun here in Ontario as it is in the neighbouring states. I've got two ex-wives, both of them feisty Irish Catholics. If you've ever been married to an Irish Catholic you'll know "feisty" is code for "highly emotional with a hair-trigger temper." Yup, if I lived in Ohio instead of Ontario I'd more than likely not have survived those divorces.
So at some level it was good to see Apathy Nation rise up and march for something, anything, yesterday, and the fact that they were marching for gun control, well, I guess that's something too.
They can't march for single-payer health care.
They're oblivious to the fact that their country is routinely killing kids just like them in at least half a dozen Muslim countries, and in numbers completely unfathomable in the American context. No marches to protest US foreign policy.
They're ignorant of the fact that the oligarchs who run their country, including the one who funded yesterday's shindig, have foreclosed any prospect for a decent life for most of their generation.
But they're suddenly woke to the NRA's plot to kill America's children.
Circumstances around the school shooting that ostensibly triggered this outburst of activism would suggest that access to guns is only one facet of the issue. Yet no one is protesting big pharma's pushing of SSRI drugs, which almost all mass shooters seem to have been on.
No one is protesting the lack of a mental heath care infrastructure that could and should have flagged the shooter years ago.
No one is demanding resignations at the FBI, who obviously dropped the ball after receiving numerous reports warning about the extreme threat that the shooter posed.
But by golly, they're pumped to take down the NRA.
Personally, I'm glad it's not as easy to buy a gun here in Ontario as it is in the neighbouring states. I've got two ex-wives, both of them feisty Irish Catholics. If you've ever been married to an Irish Catholic you'll know "feisty" is code for "highly emotional with a hair-trigger temper." Yup, if I lived in Ohio instead of Ontario I'd more than likely not have survived those divorces.
So at some level it was good to see Apathy Nation rise up and march for something, anything, yesterday, and the fact that they were marching for gun control, well, I guess that's something too.
They can't march for single-payer health care.
They're oblivious to the fact that their country is routinely killing kids just like them in at least half a dozen Muslim countries, and in numbers completely unfathomable in the American context. No marches to protest US foreign policy.
They're ignorant of the fact that the oligarchs who run their country, including the one who funded yesterday's shindig, have foreclosed any prospect for a decent life for most of their generation.
But they're suddenly woke to the NRA's plot to kill America's children.
Circumstances around the school shooting that ostensibly triggered this outburst of activism would suggest that access to guns is only one facet of the issue. Yet no one is protesting big pharma's pushing of SSRI drugs, which almost all mass shooters seem to have been on.
No one is protesting the lack of a mental heath care infrastructure that could and should have flagged the shooter years ago.
No one is demanding resignations at the FBI, who obviously dropped the ball after receiving numerous reports warning about the extreme threat that the shooter posed.
But by golly, they're pumped to take down the NRA.
Saturday, March 24, 2018
Indians, Jews, and genocide
Took the hounds for a ramble over the back seventy this afternoon. It was a bright sunny day but a bitingly cold Nor'wester meant you had to bundle up.
Indian Creek runs through the property. It hails from lakes Mary and Gowan and melds with the Indian River somewhere in the marsh across the way; the front thirty to us.
Indian Creek and Indian River bear mute homage to the fact that this area was once populated by Indians.
You can safely drink the water from our creek. There's no cash-cropping going on upstream, so there's no toxic chemical run-off polluting the groundwater. In fact, we've got multiple springs right here at Falling Downs that leak potable water out of the ground and dribble down to Indian Creek.
We are truly blessed!
Generally speaking, the Indians who used to call this land their own are not so blessed. Google a list of Canadian communities that don't have potable water, and what do you find?
It's been a cold spring so far. The meadows are brown, with random splotches of not-yet-melted snow. The hounds sniffed out a really plump coon chilling on a branch just out of their reach. In spite of the hysterical caterwauling on the part of the hounds, that old raccoon didn't bat an eye. It crossed my mind to toss a stick at it...
But why?
Leave it be.
There's a beaver dam at the back of the property, just after Indian Creek crosses onto our place. The beavers have made the marsh upstream navigable. Without the beavers the bikers wouldn't have waterfront property.
The bikers are fascinating local legends.
They are allegedly affiliated with outlaw biker types. I don't know if there's any truth to that. All I know is that in late middle age they bet everything on starting a restaurant over in Sauble.
That's something I have a lot of respect for. It was actually a pretty decent place, but alas, it didn't work out. But the point of the story is that when we first moved out here, and for the first few years that was weekends only, we actually shared a party line with them!
In the age of everybody having a cellphone in their pocket, most people wouldn't know what that means.
But that inadvertently led the Farm Manager to have several serious wine-fueled conversations with Mrs. Outlaw, whose name was Pansy if I remember correctly, on the general theme of "men are assholes."
Luckily, we expunged that party line before too much damage was done.
But back to Indian Creek.
Besides the beavers, there's a family of river otters who have made their home in our creek.
There's lots of folks who claim that the settler treatment of native people here in Canada is nothing less than genocide. I can't disagree.
My Saturday Globe featured a lengthy anti-Putin diatribe by noted Russophobe Anne Applebaum, which invoked the concept of genocide. I'm willing to buy that Stalin's treatment of the Ukraine was effectively genocide...
If that was genocide, what we've done to the native people here in Canada is genocide at least twice over.
But here's the thing; I'm German and the Farm Manager is a Jew. Seventy-five years ago my forebears were busy cramming her forebears into ovens at Auschwitz.
Today Germany is one of the top destinations for millennial Jews fleeing Israel in search of a better life.
That's why we don't have a lot of sympathy for folks who want to wallow in the wrongs inflicted on them two hundred years ago.
Life goes on.
Indian Creek runs through the property. It hails from lakes Mary and Gowan and melds with the Indian River somewhere in the marsh across the way; the front thirty to us.
Indian Creek and Indian River bear mute homage to the fact that this area was once populated by Indians.
You can safely drink the water from our creek. There's no cash-cropping going on upstream, so there's no toxic chemical run-off polluting the groundwater. In fact, we've got multiple springs right here at Falling Downs that leak potable water out of the ground and dribble down to Indian Creek.
We are truly blessed!
Generally speaking, the Indians who used to call this land their own are not so blessed. Google a list of Canadian communities that don't have potable water, and what do you find?
It's been a cold spring so far. The meadows are brown, with random splotches of not-yet-melted snow. The hounds sniffed out a really plump coon chilling on a branch just out of their reach. In spite of the hysterical caterwauling on the part of the hounds, that old raccoon didn't bat an eye. It crossed my mind to toss a stick at it...
But why?
Leave it be.
There's a beaver dam at the back of the property, just after Indian Creek crosses onto our place. The beavers have made the marsh upstream navigable. Without the beavers the bikers wouldn't have waterfront property.
The bikers are fascinating local legends.
They are allegedly affiliated with outlaw biker types. I don't know if there's any truth to that. All I know is that in late middle age they bet everything on starting a restaurant over in Sauble.
That's something I have a lot of respect for. It was actually a pretty decent place, but alas, it didn't work out. But the point of the story is that when we first moved out here, and for the first few years that was weekends only, we actually shared a party line with them!
In the age of everybody having a cellphone in their pocket, most people wouldn't know what that means.
But that inadvertently led the Farm Manager to have several serious wine-fueled conversations with Mrs. Outlaw, whose name was Pansy if I remember correctly, on the general theme of "men are assholes."
Luckily, we expunged that party line before too much damage was done.
But back to Indian Creek.
Besides the beavers, there's a family of river otters who have made their home in our creek.
There's lots of folks who claim that the settler treatment of native people here in Canada is nothing less than genocide. I can't disagree.
My Saturday Globe featured a lengthy anti-Putin diatribe by noted Russophobe Anne Applebaum, which invoked the concept of genocide. I'm willing to buy that Stalin's treatment of the Ukraine was effectively genocide...
If that was genocide, what we've done to the native people here in Canada is genocide at least twice over.
But here's the thing; I'm German and the Farm Manager is a Jew. Seventy-five years ago my forebears were busy cramming her forebears into ovens at Auschwitz.
Today Germany is one of the top destinations for millennial Jews fleeing Israel in search of a better life.
That's why we don't have a lot of sympathy for folks who want to wallow in the wrongs inflicted on them two hundred years ago.
Life goes on.
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Why Trump picked Bolton as the new National Security Advisor
McMaster was widely touted as one of the "adults in the room" keeping Trump on the leash. No one will harbour any such delusions about John Bolton.
To the contrary; this guy needs adult supervision himself, and lots of it.
Bolton has been consistent throughout his career in advocating for more bellicosity, more interventions, more sanctions, and more war. He is a true believer in American Exceptionalism. Everything America does is great, and if things don't work out, as they haven't in any US military adventure since 1945, it's never because America was in the wrong.
Instead, it's because American leadership has been tripped up by a traitorous media, the UN, pinko liberals, etc etc etc...
Now he'll get to whisper vile somethings directly into the president's ear.
Bombs away!
To the contrary; this guy needs adult supervision himself, and lots of it.
Bolton has been consistent throughout his career in advocating for more bellicosity, more interventions, more sanctions, and more war. He is a true believer in American Exceptionalism. Everything America does is great, and if things don't work out, as they haven't in any US military adventure since 1945, it's never because America was in the wrong.
Instead, it's because American leadership has been tripped up by a traitorous media, the UN, pinko liberals, etc etc etc...
Now he'll get to whisper vile somethings directly into the president's ear.
Bombs away!
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Jordan Peterson shows his feminine side
To be honest, I'd never heard of Peterson until those folks who get overwrought about his lectures made him an international celeb with their attempts to shout him down.
For what? For filling the void left in our culture after the death of Ann Landers? I mean, "stand up straight and pull your shoulders back" is the kind of advice your Auntie Flo gave you when you were fifteen and she was worried you were gonna turn out a callow schmuck.
Look people in the eye... a firm handshake makes a good first impression... yadayadayada, heard it all long before Peterson.
What baffles me is that the guy allegedly trousers tens of thousands of dollars per MONTH for these inanities. Seriously?
It must baffle Pankaj Mishra too. Mishra's been a driven self-promoter for a quarter century, and while he's achieved a certain renown as the exotic "other" in certain high-brow-lit circles, he's certainly nowhere near tens of thousands of dollars per month. That obviously burns his ass big time.
So he struck back. Check out his no-holds-barred take-down of Peterson in The New York Review of Books. I doubt that paid more than a few hundred bucks, but it must have felt good!
So how does Peterson respond? Does he challenge him to a duel? Does he threaten him with a knuckle sandwich or a kick in the balls or an ice-pick to the temple?
No. Jordan Peterson, champion of the classical virtues of manhood, responds with name-calling and a threat to slap Mishra... if he was there, of course.
Dude, that sounds kinda girlie to me.
For what? For filling the void left in our culture after the death of Ann Landers? I mean, "stand up straight and pull your shoulders back" is the kind of advice your Auntie Flo gave you when you were fifteen and she was worried you were gonna turn out a callow schmuck.
Look people in the eye... a firm handshake makes a good first impression... yadayadayada, heard it all long before Peterson.
What baffles me is that the guy allegedly trousers tens of thousands of dollars per MONTH for these inanities. Seriously?
It must baffle Pankaj Mishra too. Mishra's been a driven self-promoter for a quarter century, and while he's achieved a certain renown as the exotic "other" in certain high-brow-lit circles, he's certainly nowhere near tens of thousands of dollars per month. That obviously burns his ass big time.
So he struck back. Check out his no-holds-barred take-down of Peterson in The New York Review of Books. I doubt that paid more than a few hundred bucks, but it must have felt good!
So how does Peterson respond? Does he challenge him to a duel? Does he threaten him with a knuckle sandwich or a kick in the balls or an ice-pick to the temple?
No. Jordan Peterson, champion of the classical virtues of manhood, responds with name-calling and a threat to slap Mishra... if he was there, of course.
Dude, that sounds kinda girlie to me.
Saturday, March 17, 2018
Boomer
I'm not a big fan of taking animals to the vet. Even after the most egregious porcupine encounter there's no need to run to the vet. I remember my old German Shepherd (or "Alsatian" as my elderly Jewish neighbour insisted on calling him) Buddy, who had a truly fearsome killer instinct, lunging up a utility pole time after time in a vain attempt to get at the porcupine who'd already left hundreds of quills in his snout.
Vet time? No way. Me and Buddy, a pair of pliers, and a bottle of brandy shared between the two of us was all it took, at a savings of at least a couple hundred bucks. By the way, if you can't get your dog to down the brandy, try mixing it with eggnog.
I always figure, worst case scenario, a bullet costs less than fifty cents.
Not that I could bring myself to do that; that's more tough-guy bluster than anything else. But the Farm Manager has a different approach. Even though I've never known her to make a medical appointment for herself, she's really keen on taking the hounds to the vet on a regular basis.
So it was that we took the girls to Wiarton to have their shots updated and get a general assessment of their health.
While I don't want to blow his cover, I'm pretty sure the Wiarton vet is that Bulgarian weight-lifter who applied for political asylum during the Montreal Olympics. His biceps are bigger than my thighs. He can pick up a hundred pound mutt by the scruff of the neck and plop her on the examination table - with one hand.
We'd had some dark conversations around the old girl the last couple weeks. We're not 100% sure of Boomer's vintage, but she's more than likely in her early teens. That would be around 90 in dog years. We've noticed that there's sometimes a puddle under her when she's lounging in front of the fireplace for an extended period. If she's on the couch for a spell she'll leave a wet spot.
So my thinking, as the guy who pays the vet bills, is maybe the only bill that makes sense is the last one, if you know what I mean.
But as the guy who takes her on that 5k walk every morning, I've got another perspective. She's perky as all get out on that morning walk. She has serious quality of life! Sure, she may be tuckered out by the end of it, especially in the summer months, but what the hey?...
Putting down a creature that still has decent quality of life would be a crime.
The Bulgarian didn't seem to think the leakage was a big deal. She's an old girl, he says. A course of hormone replacement therapy should fix her up in no time.
Alrighty! Got out of there for a whisker under five hundred bucks, plus whatever a few months of hormone therapy is gonna cost...
And it's nice to know we can look forward to a few more seasons of Boomer.
Vet time? No way. Me and Buddy, a pair of pliers, and a bottle of brandy shared between the two of us was all it took, at a savings of at least a couple hundred bucks. By the way, if you can't get your dog to down the brandy, try mixing it with eggnog.
I always figure, worst case scenario, a bullet costs less than fifty cents.
Not that I could bring myself to do that; that's more tough-guy bluster than anything else. But the Farm Manager has a different approach. Even though I've never known her to make a medical appointment for herself, she's really keen on taking the hounds to the vet on a regular basis.
So it was that we took the girls to Wiarton to have their shots updated and get a general assessment of their health.
While I don't want to blow his cover, I'm pretty sure the Wiarton vet is that Bulgarian weight-lifter who applied for political asylum during the Montreal Olympics. His biceps are bigger than my thighs. He can pick up a hundred pound mutt by the scruff of the neck and plop her on the examination table - with one hand.
We'd had some dark conversations around the old girl the last couple weeks. We're not 100% sure of Boomer's vintage, but she's more than likely in her early teens. That would be around 90 in dog years. We've noticed that there's sometimes a puddle under her when she's lounging in front of the fireplace for an extended period. If she's on the couch for a spell she'll leave a wet spot.
So my thinking, as the guy who pays the vet bills, is maybe the only bill that makes sense is the last one, if you know what I mean.
But as the guy who takes her on that 5k walk every morning, I've got another perspective. She's perky as all get out on that morning walk. She has serious quality of life! Sure, she may be tuckered out by the end of it, especially in the summer months, but what the hey?...
Putting down a creature that still has decent quality of life would be a crime.
The Bulgarian didn't seem to think the leakage was a big deal. She's an old girl, he says. A course of hormone replacement therapy should fix her up in no time.
Alrighty! Got out of there for a whisker under five hundred bucks, plus whatever a few months of hormone therapy is gonna cost...
And it's nice to know we can look forward to a few more seasons of Boomer.
Canada to send aging Sea King helicopter fleet to Mali
Top brass at the Canadian Forces have been at wit's end about what to do with their fleet of obsolete Sea King helicopters now that their replacements are coming on stream, a mere 25 years late. Now a win-win solution to the conundrum has presented itself.
The decrepit fleet is to be gifted to the UN mission to restore freedom and democracy to Mali, a benighted land-locked African "shit-hole" nation that has proven remarkably impervious to both freedom and democracy.
The fleet of 18 Sea Kings includes three whirly-birds believed to be fully operable, and the remainder are considered "parts" vehicles. The Canadian contribution to the UN mission will include 750 maintenance technicians tasked with keeping those three operable choppers in the air.
Mali has been over-run with terroristic types ever since the Canadian-led mission to restore freedom and democracy in neighbouring Libya concluded in 2011. It is believed that the mission will last at least until the last Canadian-owned gold mines in the country are completely worked out.
The decrepit fleet is to be gifted to the UN mission to restore freedom and democracy to Mali, a benighted land-locked African "shit-hole" nation that has proven remarkably impervious to both freedom and democracy.
The fleet of 18 Sea Kings includes three whirly-birds believed to be fully operable, and the remainder are considered "parts" vehicles. The Canadian contribution to the UN mission will include 750 maintenance technicians tasked with keeping those three operable choppers in the air.
Mali has been over-run with terroristic types ever since the Canadian-led mission to restore freedom and democracy in neighbouring Libya concluded in 2011. It is believed that the mission will last at least until the last Canadian-owned gold mines in the country are completely worked out.
Thursday, March 15, 2018
A drive to Tobermory in winter
I've been making a slow rebound from that nasty flu that's been going round, and the Farm Manager's been keen to get out of the house, so this morning she says, hey why don't we take a tour up the Peninsula.
I'm as sick of my company as she is, so I said, why not?
And away we went! First stop Wiarton, to ransom my Globe and Mail from the Korean extortionist. We were hardly out the drive when the CBC news comes on. Top story; Donny J admits to making shit up in his meeting with Justin a few months ago.
How is this the top story? How is Donald Trump pulling a whopper out of his ass even newsworthy? According to the Toronto Star's official Trump Fib Tracker Daniel Dale, Trump is up to 1,314 whoppers as of today. Trump lying is the top story? Surely there are more newsworthy goings on in the world.
Got our Globe, grabbed a pie at New Orleans, and up the Highway 6 we went. Turned off at Colpoys Bay road and headed for Lion's Head.
A hundred years ago the north shore of Colpoys Bay was totally built up all the way from Wiarton. This area was home to a major fishery at the time. In fact, fish from here went all over the world in those pre-globalization days. Entire trainloads of frozen fish departed Wiarton multiple times per week, in an era when you froze fish by storing ice from the bay year round.
Then another unintended consequence of global trade, the sea lamprey, decimated the fishery. Wiarton has yet to recover.
But it's hanging on. It's the last chance to pick up a Globe and Mail before you head up the Bruce. And while there's a couple of liquor stores further north, the Wiarton Foodland is an essential pitstop if your diet gets fancier than hotdogs and KD.
Went through Lion's Head, circled back to Highway 6 because I wasn't keen on trying the Forty Hills Road in winter, and ended up in Dyer Bay. That's a quaint enough cottage community just past the middle of nowhere. Still, a half decent waterfront shack is gonna run you half a million or more.
From there we made our way to Tobermory. I popped into the local grocery and came out with a bag of plums from Chile. $1.99/lb. Under five bucks for a bottle of Aquafina (tap) water and a bag of plums in the dead of winter.
Is this free trade thing great or what!?
In the Globe there's an opinion piece by Jeff Rubin called "Has global trade liberalization left Canadians behind?" Rubin used to be the top economist at CIBC. He's saying today what I've been saying since the middle eighties... "left behind" is way too kind... left for dead is more like it.
But then, it's one thing to figure this out in 2018 as a big-time economist. Maybe somebody will pay attention.
When I was saying the same thing in 1988 I was a shop-floor workee... what the fuck would those guys know? Anyway, the horses are so long out the barn its beyond ludicrous to think you're gonna corral them now.
Stayed on the no. 6 all the way back. The FM remarked on what a boring drive it was, and she wasn't even driving. She's right though. I've done this drive a hundred times and the only time it's interesting is if you're the last car off the ferry in Tobermory but the first car to reach Wiarton.
That's how accidents happen, she says.
I'm as sick of my company as she is, so I said, why not?
And away we went! First stop Wiarton, to ransom my Globe and Mail from the Korean extortionist. We were hardly out the drive when the CBC news comes on. Top story; Donny J admits to making shit up in his meeting with Justin a few months ago.
How is this the top story? How is Donald Trump pulling a whopper out of his ass even newsworthy? According to the Toronto Star's official Trump Fib Tracker Daniel Dale, Trump is up to 1,314 whoppers as of today. Trump lying is the top story? Surely there are more newsworthy goings on in the world.
Got our Globe, grabbed a pie at New Orleans, and up the Highway 6 we went. Turned off at Colpoys Bay road and headed for Lion's Head.
A hundred years ago the north shore of Colpoys Bay was totally built up all the way from Wiarton. This area was home to a major fishery at the time. In fact, fish from here went all over the world in those pre-globalization days. Entire trainloads of frozen fish departed Wiarton multiple times per week, in an era when you froze fish by storing ice from the bay year round.
Then another unintended consequence of global trade, the sea lamprey, decimated the fishery. Wiarton has yet to recover.
But it's hanging on. It's the last chance to pick up a Globe and Mail before you head up the Bruce. And while there's a couple of liquor stores further north, the Wiarton Foodland is an essential pitstop if your diet gets fancier than hotdogs and KD.
Went through Lion's Head, circled back to Highway 6 because I wasn't keen on trying the Forty Hills Road in winter, and ended up in Dyer Bay. That's a quaint enough cottage community just past the middle of nowhere. Still, a half decent waterfront shack is gonna run you half a million or more.
From there we made our way to Tobermory. I popped into the local grocery and came out with a bag of plums from Chile. $1.99/lb. Under five bucks for a bottle of Aquafina (tap) water and a bag of plums in the dead of winter.
Is this free trade thing great or what!?
In the Globe there's an opinion piece by Jeff Rubin called "Has global trade liberalization left Canadians behind?" Rubin used to be the top economist at CIBC. He's saying today what I've been saying since the middle eighties... "left behind" is way too kind... left for dead is more like it.
But then, it's one thing to figure this out in 2018 as a big-time economist. Maybe somebody will pay attention.
When I was saying the same thing in 1988 I was a shop-floor workee... what the fuck would those guys know? Anyway, the horses are so long out the barn its beyond ludicrous to think you're gonna corral them now.
Stayed on the no. 6 all the way back. The FM remarked on what a boring drive it was, and she wasn't even driving. She's right though. I've done this drive a hundred times and the only time it's interesting is if you're the last car off the ferry in Tobermory but the first car to reach Wiarton.
That's how accidents happen, she says.
Why Israel will avoid a direct show-down with Hezbollah
Much has been made of the alleged "increased tensions" in the Middle East, due in no small part to both Israeli and US meddling in Syria. The more paranoid factions of the punditocracy see an Israeli or combined Israel-US assault on Hezbollah in Lebanon as imminent, especially in light of Mr. Netanyahu's dire straits vis-a-vis those various corruption investigations.
It won't happen, and here's why. That number is from two years ago. Unofficial estimates have the Hezbollah arsenal at well over 200,000 rockets today, and we're not talking about the homemade stuff the Gaza rocketeers lob into the Negev on a regular basis. We're talking about the real deal.
If you assume a best case scenario wherein the various Israeli anti-missile defences, Iron Dome, David's Sling, and the Arrow program, all function flawlessly, they could be expected to be effective against an initial barrage of a few hundred incoming. They'd be less effective going forward, and they'd essentially be a non-factor after a few thousand, which in the case of all-out war would be a matter of hours.
Then what? Even if the IAF managed to take out half the Hezbollah arsenal in a massive first strike, that'll leave a hundred thousand missiles and Israel with it's missile shield spent. Political rhetoric aside, IDF leadership will never permit this.
What we're looking at is a regional case of MAD lite. There may be proxy battles here and there, but there will not be a head-on confrontation.
It won't happen, and here's why. That number is from two years ago. Unofficial estimates have the Hezbollah arsenal at well over 200,000 rockets today, and we're not talking about the homemade stuff the Gaza rocketeers lob into the Negev on a regular basis. We're talking about the real deal.
If you assume a best case scenario wherein the various Israeli anti-missile defences, Iron Dome, David's Sling, and the Arrow program, all function flawlessly, they could be expected to be effective against an initial barrage of a few hundred incoming. They'd be less effective going forward, and they'd essentially be a non-factor after a few thousand, which in the case of all-out war would be a matter of hours.
Then what? Even if the IAF managed to take out half the Hezbollah arsenal in a massive first strike, that'll leave a hundred thousand missiles and Israel with it's missile shield spent. Political rhetoric aside, IDF leadership will never permit this.
What we're looking at is a regional case of MAD lite. There may be proxy battles here and there, but there will not be a head-on confrontation.
Monday, March 12, 2018
Great to know your pacemaker has a ten year warranty...
I was down in Guelph today visiting with my dear father, who is 85 and just had a pacemaker installed. He was pleased to inform me that the pacemaker comes with a ten year warranty.
Let's think about this. Your pacemaker has a ten year warranty, but it quits after two years...
What are you gonna do?
Well, most likely you're gonna do nothing because if your pacemaker fails you're most likely gonna be dead! Shit, they might as well give it a fifty year warranty... who's coming back to claim the warranty after their pacemaker stops?
But it was a lovely visit. He's looking great. Getting a pacemaker used to be a big deal but today you're in and out in a few hours.
Nice opportunity to catch up on the family news. Nephew Sam has found a college course the curriculum of which runs from whitewater rafting to mountaineering.
I know! That used to be shit you did for fun in your spare time!
Now it's a college program? If they'd had that in my day I might have stuck around a bit longer.
And his brother Parker has been accepted at Trent.
I don't mind Trent at all. My daughter spent a couple of years there. In fact, I once delivered her from her Mom's house in Guelph to her dorm at Trent in a minute under two hours. Considering that mere mortals more often than not require over two hours just to traverse the City of Toronto West to East I found that a remarkable accomplishment.
I think they've still got Michael Neumann on staff. I've never met Michael but we've exchanged emails over political stuff. Here's why he should have the undying respect of anyone who cares about truth and justice.
That alone is a good reason to choose Trent.
After getting caught up on family news I had lunch with my dear son Jake. Sometimes I worry about him. He's a bit of a character. Takes after his old man a bit too much for my liking, although he's at least a hundred times more talented than me.
So he finally gives up the straight skinny on what really happened when his band got the slot at the Hillside Festival.
I was there. I knew what happened.
But it was nice to hear it from him.
Four dorkshit wannabee rockstars get a chance to play Hillside!
On hearing this great news they immediately proceed to halve their practice time and double their party time!
Ketamine, MDA, acid, and of course lots of pot and beer for the next two months... they're rock stars now, don't you know?!
Ya, I know. I saw the show. At the time I thought you idiots just blew the chance of a lifetime.
Good to hear Jake concur.
He did offer a post-script, though. He'd set up a web-site for future bookings. By the time he got around to checking it two months later the five bookings they'd garnered as a result of their Hillside show were all in the past.
Lesson for aspiring rock stars; keep your wits about you.
Let's think about this. Your pacemaker has a ten year warranty, but it quits after two years...
What are you gonna do?
Well, most likely you're gonna do nothing because if your pacemaker fails you're most likely gonna be dead! Shit, they might as well give it a fifty year warranty... who's coming back to claim the warranty after their pacemaker stops?
But it was a lovely visit. He's looking great. Getting a pacemaker used to be a big deal but today you're in and out in a few hours.
Nice opportunity to catch up on the family news. Nephew Sam has found a college course the curriculum of which runs from whitewater rafting to mountaineering.
I know! That used to be shit you did for fun in your spare time!
Now it's a college program? If they'd had that in my day I might have stuck around a bit longer.
And his brother Parker has been accepted at Trent.
I don't mind Trent at all. My daughter spent a couple of years there. In fact, I once delivered her from her Mom's house in Guelph to her dorm at Trent in a minute under two hours. Considering that mere mortals more often than not require over two hours just to traverse the City of Toronto West to East I found that a remarkable accomplishment.
I think they've still got Michael Neumann on staff. I've never met Michael but we've exchanged emails over political stuff. Here's why he should have the undying respect of anyone who cares about truth and justice.
That alone is a good reason to choose Trent.
After getting caught up on family news I had lunch with my dear son Jake. Sometimes I worry about him. He's a bit of a character. Takes after his old man a bit too much for my liking, although he's at least a hundred times more talented than me.
So he finally gives up the straight skinny on what really happened when his band got the slot at the Hillside Festival.
I was there. I knew what happened.
But it was nice to hear it from him.
Four dorkshit wannabee rockstars get a chance to play Hillside!
On hearing this great news they immediately proceed to halve their practice time and double their party time!
Ketamine, MDA, acid, and of course lots of pot and beer for the next two months... they're rock stars now, don't you know?!
Ya, I know. I saw the show. At the time I thought you idiots just blew the chance of a lifetime.
Good to hear Jake concur.
He did offer a post-script, though. He'd set up a web-site for future bookings. By the time he got around to checking it two months later the five bookings they'd garnered as a result of their Hillside show were all in the past.
Lesson for aspiring rock stars; keep your wits about you.
Saturday, March 10, 2018
Meet Doug Ford, next preem of Ontario
This will no doubt have the media bed-wetters in a tizzy. After all, Doug is the slightly more stable brother of former crack-head TO mayor Rob Ford, and surely you remember how relentlessly our "free press" hounded him to death.
In fact, Toronto Star intern Dan Dale did such a bang-up job on the Ford file that the Star dispatched him to Washington, complete with an actual paycheque and expense account, to become the official Donald Trump Fib Tracker.
Why a money-losing Canadian news platform would consider that a useful deployment of their dwindling resources is a question you'd have to ask them.
But back to Ford. Rob was relentlessly portrayed as a racist and misogynist bigot across the spectrum of our mainstream media.
That was mostly fake news.
Take a gander at this video of Rob Ford's funeral.
WTF?
I see brown people galore paying their respects to the racist. And women too!
Frankly, I didn't believe Doug could pull this off, but the Conservative leadership race was such a shit-show that anything was possible.
And here we are. Doug was the only candidate who had a chance at unseating Wynne. She could have easily whupped those females candidates, but Doug Ford is a new game.
Doug Ford will be the next premier of Ontario.
And that's not a happy thing.
In fact, Toronto Star intern Dan Dale did such a bang-up job on the Ford file that the Star dispatched him to Washington, complete with an actual paycheque and expense account, to become the official Donald Trump Fib Tracker.
Why a money-losing Canadian news platform would consider that a useful deployment of their dwindling resources is a question you'd have to ask them.
But back to Ford. Rob was relentlessly portrayed as a racist and misogynist bigot across the spectrum of our mainstream media.
That was mostly fake news.
Take a gander at this video of Rob Ford's funeral.
WTF?
I see brown people galore paying their respects to the racist. And women too!
Frankly, I didn't believe Doug could pull this off, but the Conservative leadership race was such a shit-show that anything was possible.
And here we are. Doug was the only candidate who had a chance at unseating Wynne. She could have easily whupped those females candidates, but Doug Ford is a new game.
Doug Ford will be the next premier of Ontario.
And that's not a happy thing.
The terrible burden of white privilege
Embarrassing shit can happen when white folks get woke. Take this for example;
Ms. Downs is Superintendent of Schools for School District 74 in British Columbia. According to the BC sunshine list, she pulled down $158,530 in 2016 for doing whatever it is that school board bigs do, which near as I can tell involves a lot of liaising with other educrats to invent bullshit reasons for why their graduates can't read or write and struggle with grade-school math.
You'd think that if Ms. Downs was truly troubled by her white privilege she'd do the right thing and step down. After all, for a school district that is 60% native Canadian, there's got to be some capable aboriginal candidates around willing and able to do the job.
Instead, we're treated to this fatuous exercise in virtue signalling.
Ms. Downs is Superintendent of Schools for School District 74 in British Columbia. According to the BC sunshine list, she pulled down $158,530 in 2016 for doing whatever it is that school board bigs do, which near as I can tell involves a lot of liaising with other educrats to invent bullshit reasons for why their graduates can't read or write and struggle with grade-school math.
You'd think that if Ms. Downs was truly troubled by her white privilege she'd do the right thing and step down. After all, for a school district that is 60% native Canadian, there's got to be some capable aboriginal candidates around willing and able to do the job.
Instead, we're treated to this fatuous exercise in virtue signalling.
Thursday, March 8, 2018
How much "meritocracy" is too much?
The topic of income and wealth inequality is somewhat in vogue these days. Apparently, as income inequality rises, so does a lot of other stuff; crime, depression, infant mortality rates, and so on.
The voices of those clamoring that "something must be done" about this are inevitably drowned out by those determined to maintain the status quo. After all, every voice you read or hear comes to you via a medium owned by a billionaire. You don't seriously believe these folks are gonna beshit their own nest, do you?
That relentless barrage of pro-billionaire bullshit is why, stats be damned, every good sensible American knows in their heart that the rich deserve their riches. They're smarter than the poor, and they work harder, or their parents or grandparents did, or something. After all, if you worked as hard as, say, Steve Schwartzman, you too could be a billionaire!
I mention Steve only because of a headline making the rounds about his so-so year. Sure, that's a lot of money, but it's by no means a record in the world 'o hedgies, who as a group, are obviously the smartest and hardest-working motherfuckers on the planet!
Just to put Steve's boodle in perspective, I calculated how long it would take me to make 785 millions at Ontario's plump new business-killing minimum wage of $14 per hour.
It would take me 28,000 years.
The voices of those clamoring that "something must be done" about this are inevitably drowned out by those determined to maintain the status quo. After all, every voice you read or hear comes to you via a medium owned by a billionaire. You don't seriously believe these folks are gonna beshit their own nest, do you?
That relentless barrage of pro-billionaire bullshit is why, stats be damned, every good sensible American knows in their heart that the rich deserve their riches. They're smarter than the poor, and they work harder, or their parents or grandparents did, or something. After all, if you worked as hard as, say, Steve Schwartzman, you too could be a billionaire!
I mention Steve only because of a headline making the rounds about his so-so year. Sure, that's a lot of money, but it's by no means a record in the world 'o hedgies, who as a group, are obviously the smartest and hardest-working motherfuckers on the planet!
Just to put Steve's boodle in perspective, I calculated how long it would take me to make 785 millions at Ontario's plump new business-killing minimum wage of $14 per hour.
It would take me 28,000 years.
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
Whatever happened to comedy?
I've always been a sucker for the late-night comedy shows. Watched Carson forever, and Letterman too. Generally found Dave a little more to my taste than Leno. Arsenio had a really good show too. Could never figure why the plug got pulled on it.
One thing you could count on back in the day was a bit of light entertainment that might make you laugh on a good night. You could settle in the chair, maybe a little bummed out by your day, and you'd walk away feeling somehow better about the world.
Not anymore.
I mean take a look at Jimmy Kimmel. No matter how depressed you are when he comes on, I guarantee you'll feel worse when it's over.
And what's up with guys like Colbert and all the sophomoric homophobia they think is okeedokey as long as it's aimed at Trump and Putin? Come-on dude, the "cock-holster" vein of humour wasn't all that funny in the high-school locker-room where I first encountered it fifty years ago...
Up your game!
One thing you could count on back in the day was a bit of light entertainment that might make you laugh on a good night. You could settle in the chair, maybe a little bummed out by your day, and you'd walk away feeling somehow better about the world.
Not anymore.
I mean take a look at Jimmy Kimmel. No matter how depressed you are when he comes on, I guarantee you'll feel worse when it's over.
And what's up with guys like Colbert and all the sophomoric homophobia they think is okeedokey as long as it's aimed at Trump and Putin? Come-on dude, the "cock-holster" vein of humour wasn't all that funny in the high-school locker-room where I first encountered it fifty years ago...
Up your game!
Sunday, March 4, 2018
Disengaging from the teat of pop culture
Been working up to it for a long time. And it takes a long time. After all, what's not to like about that teat?
The Oscars are on tonight, as in on the TV.
I don't care. I haven't seen a single movie that's up for an award.
The big news out of Hollywood of course is all this stuff around #metoo and #timesup. Can you even imagine? Rich guys would force themselves on aspiring starlets, and they got away with it for decades?
Who knew?
Who didn't?
Who didn't indeed! That's one reason the current faux outrage strikes me as more than a little... well, faux.
So I won't be watching the Oscars. I've missed every awards show so far this season. Also missed the Daytona 500 and the Superbowl.
It ain't easy, but I'm gradually giving up that teat...
The Oscars are on tonight, as in on the TV.
I don't care. I haven't seen a single movie that's up for an award.
The big news out of Hollywood of course is all this stuff around #metoo and #timesup. Can you even imagine? Rich guys would force themselves on aspiring starlets, and they got away with it for decades?
Who knew?
Who didn't?
Who didn't indeed! That's one reason the current faux outrage strikes me as more than a little... well, faux.
So I won't be watching the Oscars. I've missed every awards show so far this season. Also missed the Daytona 500 and the Superbowl.
It ain't easy, but I'm gradually giving up that teat...
Some reflections on family values
It wasn't hard to figure out what the family values were in the immigrant family I grew up in.
There weren't any focus groups to draw out the details... you just kinda knew.
You got out of bed in the morning, and went out and did something. If you were a kid, the thing you did was go to school. If you were out of school, you went to work.
Pretty simple!
Over the years, our immigrant family sponsored other immigrant families into Canada, families from Viet Nam and Afghanistan. Near as I can recall, families from those different cultures had pretty much the identical values.
I don't think there's any reason to believe that our latest wave of refugee immigrants will be any different.
There weren't any focus groups to draw out the details... you just kinda knew.
You got out of bed in the morning, and went out and did something. If you were a kid, the thing you did was go to school. If you were out of school, you went to work.
Pretty simple!
Over the years, our immigrant family sponsored other immigrant families into Canada, families from Viet Nam and Afghanistan. Near as I can recall, families from those different cultures had pretty much the identical values.
I don't think there's any reason to believe that our latest wave of refugee immigrants will be any different.
Friday, March 2, 2018
Gorsuch, Janus, Judas, and Jimmy Hoffa
My lefty friends tend to question our friendship when they hear me opine on Hoffa being the last great labour leader in American labour movement history.
What? He was mobbed-up out the ying yang! He was a thug! He was a crook!
Well, even if that's all true, so what? In his era, he was up against mobbed-up politicians, mobbed-up employers, private thug armies in the pay of the above, and a system that was designed from its inception to represent capital rather than labour.
He met that system on its own terms; with violence on the picket line. More often than not in the Hoffa era, the Teamsters prevailed. That's why being a Teamster meant living the American dream back in the fifties and sixties.
That's why Hoffa had to go.
Almost 45 years after that Lincoln dropped off Hoffa's corpse at the loading dock of a salami factory two hundred miles from Detroit, American labour awaits with baited breath the outcome of the Janus case. Every day we see multiple opinion pieces at Fox and elsewhere about how the greedy fingers of the corrupt unions are about to be pried from the wallets of America's working class.
Every day we see multiple opinion pieces in what's left of the lefty press. OMG, this is the final nail in the coffin for unions... the working class is screwed!
Here's my take, and I'm speaking as a life-long union guy who was at various times a member of the Steelworkers, the UAW, the IWA, the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Ironworkers, among others. I say, let Gorsuch give Janus his day.
If this kills Big Labour, good riddance.
Why do I say this? Because Big Labour long ago hitched their wagon to the Democratic Party. That may have meant something at one time, but as the Dems have moved ever to the right over the past two generations, Big Labour has failed to un-hitch. They have become accomplices of and stake-holders in a status quo that has immiserated the majority of American workers.
Getting rid of the status quo will allow American workers to start over.
What? He was mobbed-up out the ying yang! He was a thug! He was a crook!
Well, even if that's all true, so what? In his era, he was up against mobbed-up politicians, mobbed-up employers, private thug armies in the pay of the above, and a system that was designed from its inception to represent capital rather than labour.
He met that system on its own terms; with violence on the picket line. More often than not in the Hoffa era, the Teamsters prevailed. That's why being a Teamster meant living the American dream back in the fifties and sixties.
That's why Hoffa had to go.
Almost 45 years after that Lincoln dropped off Hoffa's corpse at the loading dock of a salami factory two hundred miles from Detroit, American labour awaits with baited breath the outcome of the Janus case. Every day we see multiple opinion pieces at Fox and elsewhere about how the greedy fingers of the corrupt unions are about to be pried from the wallets of America's working class.
Every day we see multiple opinion pieces in what's left of the lefty press. OMG, this is the final nail in the coffin for unions... the working class is screwed!
Here's my take, and I'm speaking as a life-long union guy who was at various times a member of the Steelworkers, the UAW, the IWA, the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Ironworkers, among others. I say, let Gorsuch give Janus his day.
If this kills Big Labour, good riddance.
Why do I say this? Because Big Labour long ago hitched their wagon to the Democratic Party. That may have meant something at one time, but as the Dems have moved ever to the right over the past two generations, Big Labour has failed to un-hitch. They have become accomplices of and stake-holders in a status quo that has immiserated the majority of American workers.
Getting rid of the status quo will allow American workers to start over.
Thursday, March 1, 2018
Canadian Air Force looking for a few good men and women who aren't retarded
Here's a headline from the Miami Herald; She thought it was a bomb. Turns out the Canadian Air Force just needs more practice.
Well, I think they're erring on the side of kindness with that one.
Seems that some of Canada's finest dropped a boat through the roof of Luce Rameau's house. Yup, one moment it was attached to their helicopter, then it wasn't. That's what's known as an "oopsie" in military parlance.
Although the Canadian Forces dropped their physical standards a few years ago, there's no word on them having dropped their IQ standards. You have to read between the lines. The article points out that a CF recruit needs to be 17 years old and have a grade 10 education.
Hmm... I have it on good authority that a typical Canadian high school boasts any number of seventeen year olds who have made it to tenth grade with an IQ of well under 70.
Dropping IQs, dropping standards... why should dropping boats from helicopters over suburban Miami come as a surprise? There's actually a certain poetry at play here.
As for Luce, I bet she'll never skip her Bible study group again!
Well, I think they're erring on the side of kindness with that one.
Seems that some of Canada's finest dropped a boat through the roof of Luce Rameau's house. Yup, one moment it was attached to their helicopter, then it wasn't. That's what's known as an "oopsie" in military parlance.
Although the Canadian Forces dropped their physical standards a few years ago, there's no word on them having dropped their IQ standards. You have to read between the lines. The article points out that a CF recruit needs to be 17 years old and have a grade 10 education.
Hmm... I have it on good authority that a typical Canadian high school boasts any number of seventeen year olds who have made it to tenth grade with an IQ of well under 70.
Dropping IQs, dropping standards... why should dropping boats from helicopters over suburban Miami come as a surprise? There's actually a certain poetry at play here.
As for Luce, I bet she'll never skip her Bible study group again!
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