tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62566891805792438212024-03-19T04:47:38.921-04:00neumann's blogUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7123125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-46155235820218789452024-03-18T16:47:00.000-04:002024-03-18T16:47:16.982-04:00We have already lost the war with Hamas, and we are losing our allies in the world - retired IDF GeneralIt’s comforting to know not everyone in Israel has completely lost their minds. What’s not comforting is that it may be impossible for the people in charge to change course before things get exponentially worse.
Major General Barik was commenting on a recent survey that spelled out what an all-out war with Hezbollah would look like. The conclusions do not bode well for Israel. The main concern is that Israel will be targeted by 2500 to 3000 missiles PER DAY! Iron Dome will be depleted within the first half hour. Unfortunately, IDF and Israeli intelligence sources estimate that Hezbollah can keep up that volume of missile attacks for at least six weeks.
Hezbollah missiles are not to be confused with the homemade “rockets” Hamas randomly fires over the Gaza fence. We’re talking serious technology here, the best the “Axis of Resistance” and its allies can come up with. In fact, it is on par with the best US armaments, as the past two years of the Ukraine war have demonstrated.
Netanyahu needs to declare victory over the “children of Amalek” and put an end to the ongoing genocide sooner rather than later.
Later may be too late.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-75515032164397199202024-03-16T18:46:00.000-04:002024-03-16T18:46:55.406-04:00Canada's "Minister of Mental Health" assaults mental health of Jewish CanadiansCanada's Minister of Mental health, Ya'ara Saks, tagged along with FM Melanie Joly on a recent PR junket to Israel.
While in the Holy Land, they made the obligatory side-trip to visit with Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority. Not only did they visit him, but they released a photo over official government channels of them holding hands with the antisemitic holocaust denier.
This has inflicted serious mental anguish on many Jewish Canadians. Isn't Israel at war with the Palestinians even as these air-heads are holding hands with Mahmoud Abbas?
Yes, but here's what we're forgetting; Abbas is Israel's man. Every friend of Israel owes Abbas a debt of gratitude for being Israel's faithful Kapo in the West Bank.
So relax, Jewish Canadians; you're in good hands with Mahmoud Abbas.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-76711927798250428322024-03-15T17:04:00.000-04:002024-03-15T17:04:09.228-04:00Justin Trudeau's bimbo goes to Holy Land for photo-op; hilarity ensues!Foreign Minister Melanie Joly went to Israel for no possible reason but to create some PR about how Canada is engaged with the world blah blah blah... Somebody should take Canada aside, give it a kick in the pants, and tell it to shut up and stay out of the way, instead of forever interjecting our virtue-signalling selves into other people's business.
Joly was doing OK on her trip till she opened her mouth. I know it's hard to believe anyone can be this stupid, but she used the occassion to announce Canadian support for a program that assists Palestinian victims of sexual violence.
The easily predictable (by anyone with a room-temperature IQ) furor hasn't let up. Canada has ditched Israel and sided with the terrorists!
Melanie Joly's political career is toast.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-44573966230551026772024-03-15T15:19:00.000-04:002024-03-15T15:19:12.017-04:00Top US Jew demands regime change in IsraelWhat’s come over Chuck Schumer? Has he had a change of heart re: the Holy Land? Has the daily barrage of dead baby pics from Al Jazeera awakened his conscience?
I doubt it. As Madeline Albright so aptly demonstrated with her remarks on dead Iraqi children, there’s no such thing as “too many” dead babies when it comes to furthering the interests of the American Empire.
What’s at work here is the Americans are giving the world a bit of political theatre to create the illusion that they’re not the prime enabler and facilitator of the Gaza genocide. Israel is a favored member of the “Nations of Virtue” club led by Uncle Sam, and while dead babies in and of themselves are irrelevant, six months of non-stop slaughter is making it increasingly difficult to present “the West” as the good guys on the world stage.
If the US government were serious, they’d pull their ambassador from Israel and halt all military and financial support. Instead, they’ve vetoed every ceasefire proposal at the UN. Yes, they’ve made numerous calls for Israel to permit more aid into Gaza and try harder to avoid killing civilians, but there are no consequences when Israel does the opposite.
Ralph Nader published an essay a few days ago which argued convincingly that the true death toll in Gaza is over 200,000. That’s 10% of the population. Mass starvation is just ramping up. How many months will it take to eliminate the other 90%?
That’s where things are going. Replacing Netanyahu with Gantz or someone else would make no difference. The public mood in Israel demands vengeance. Schumer’s ploy is a feeble attempt to create the appearance that America tried to prevent the Gaza genocide, when in reality it is Israel’s accomplice and enabler.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-62205386047041295042024-03-13T20:01:00.003-04:002024-03-13T20:01:21.984-04:00What's important?Lately there’s been wall-to-wall coverage of the carnage in Ukraine and Gaza. Haiti is slowly coming into focus.
But it’s always been the end of the world somewhere. There are several ongoing conflicts in Africa that blow even Gaza’s horrendous casualty counts out of the water. Congo. Sudan. Somalia… and they’ve been going on for decades without us ever obsessing over them like we do with Ukraine or Gaza.
Some would say that’s because it’s easier for white middle-class audiences to identify with Ukrainian Christians and Israeli Jews than with Africans. No doubt there’s something to that, but my point is that if we can relegate some foreign conflicts to the back burner, we can leave all of them there.
Which brings us to what’s important.
As you know, I spend a lot of time on the stoop watching the world go by, and thinking about it. That “thinking about it” part allows me to pass off sloth and inertia as “mindfulness.”
What I see in the sky on a clear night is an infinite array of stars from horizon to horizon. What I hear is nature; geese in the marsh, coyotes, and the wind in the trees.
Last night I traded my perch on the porch for a room overlooking the 401 highway. All I saw was traffic. All I heard was traffic. No night sky and no nature. When you’re counting uncountable stars, you get a sense of your insignificance.
When you’re counting uncountable traffic on the 401, you just want to stop counting and go home to your stoop.
But we were on a mission. We’d missed our granddaughter's first birthday due to winter weather, and finally made up for it. On the way home we stopped in for a visit with family.
Family.
That’s what’s important.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-14714689458634386522024-03-12T22:53:00.000-04:002024-03-12T22:53:42.996-04:00If you don't need a license to open-carry, why should you need a license to drive a carSomewhere in my news-junkie meanderings through the www interverse today I saw a story how South Carolina just became the 26th state to permit open-carry of small arms without a permit. Yup, it’s just like the good old days in the old west! Walk in the gun store, pick out your piece, and off you go!
Personally, I’m not against gun laws. As a guy with two ex-wives I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be writing these words today if we didn’t have some restrictions on gun purchases. Like maybe background checks and a mandatory gun safety course, and a 30 day “cooling off” period, just in case you come to the realization that the gun was a bad idea in the first place.
But that story got me thinking. CBC had an expose the other day about how driving schools are conniving to short-circuit competency requirements in the mandatory driver’s test. Here’s my advice to Premier Doug.
Doug, my friend, ( I know we’re not friends but that’s what you always called me when you needed to flatten the curve again and again) you’ve made some good common-sense decisions. Like doing away with license plate stickers.
Doug, my friend, think about how many public servants could be made redundant if you eliminated vehicle licensing altogether! And even more than that, Doug, why don’t we do away with driver licensing while we’re at it. Think of the savings, Doug!
And now that our free press has revealed that rampant cheating has totally destroyed the integrity of the driver’s test, what’s the point!
Do the right thing, Doug.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-27139411392074912492024-03-10T19:41:00.000-04:002024-03-10T19:41:57.589-04:00Kipling's hemiThis is a repost from 2011. Wow! It's been 13 years? Anyway, Kipling is still among us, but instead of a 66 hemi-Charger he's now piloting a 1964 Pontiac sedan with the original six-cylider and three on the tree. Shit happens.
neumann's blog
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Kipling's Hemi
In 2006 Dodge brought out its new Hemi Charger. For those of us who knew the original from forty years before, it was a sad day indeed. A four door Charger? Please, don't do that on my dear grandmother's grave. What were they thinking?
Kipling had one of the originals. It was a brutish nasty piece of work. A silver '66 with the solid-lifter 426 hemi. Two four-barrels. 4:10's in the back. Unreal power. Terrorized the Highway 86 dragstrip that summer. The big-block Chevy guys would pull up beside you at the lights, think about it for a couple of seconds and suddenly remember they had a hair appointment and turn their signal light on.
Kipling was an original himself, a nasty piece of work in his own way. Then he had one of those life-altering moments. Woke up after a three day party in the Canadian Club and found himself pissing blood. Decided on the spot to switch from rye and hops to the weed of wisdom. Best decision he ever made. Saved his life.
Among the people who are into driving fast cars fast, there's always debate about how high you can rev a motor. Nobody really believes that "factory recommended redline" stuff. That's like an official speed limit; a helpful suggestion but everybody knows you can go faster. Oh, the Chevy small-blocks with hydraulic lifters can be "safely" wound to 6 grand, but with a solid cam you're "safely" good for 7500. Trouble is, you never really know for sure the upper limit of "safely" until it's too late.
Kipling is one of those mechanical geniuses with an intuitive understanding about what makes things run and what makes them run faster. Everybody needs somebody like that in their life, at least if your life includes rebuilding engines, replacing clutches, restoring cars. I personally have a vague understanding of how stuff works, but I'm a bit of a lame-ass in the hands-on department. It's somewhat disconcerting to have a handful of screws and bolts and nuts left over after you've done a brake job on your car. That's why I always call on Kipling.
Now a repair or a rebuild with Kipling always starts with a trip to the NAPA store. How about we fire up one of these before we go, he'll say. Alrighty, I'll say. So we do. Sit around and chat a bit. Maybe fire up another one. Then we're off to NAPA. By now we're getting a little hungry, so we stop at Tim Hortons, have a few donuts. I'm partial to the apple fritters myself. The fruit explosion muffins are damn tasty too, if you've never tried one. Then we sit around there for awhile, shoot the shit some more, and by God, by the time we hit the parts store the day is half over.
By Kipling's calculations the solid lifter hemi should be good for 8,000 rpm, no matter what the factory manuals said. After all, the Nascar guys run them that hard for 500 miles at a time.
So we get our shopping list and make it back to the shop, get the job organized. Well goddamn if we didn't forget the whatever! And this! And that! And the gasket sealer... Guess we gotta go back to the NAPA store. But lets fire up one of these first. Alrighty. So a job that should take an afternoon takes three weekends, but it's done, it's done right, and you had a good time doing it.
Kipling pulls the hemi up behind the start line at the Highway 86 dragstrip and lets loose a burnout that wouldn't have been out of place in the Pro Stock finals at the Winternationals, ten seconds of screaming hemi at 8,000 rpm with just the nose of the Charger peeking out of a billowing tower of tire smoke a hundred feet high. Suddenly, an eerie silence.
Turns out you couldn't "safely" twist the hemi that far after all.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-48616141001167810092024-03-09T19:10:00.000-05:002024-03-09T19:10:50.647-05:00Revisiting Maslow's hierarchy of needsI was on Kijiji scoping out older class B motorhomes similar to one I owned 50 years ago. That's because when we were in town today, we saw a very well-kept Home & Park model in the parking lot at Food Basics, mid-80s vintage on a Dodge chassis, and I was wondering what something like that might go for today.
There's a banner ad from Scotiabank I can't shake. It follows me to every class B I click on. It is inviting me to sign up for a Scotiabank Momentum Visa card. "Earn 2% cash back on your everyday needs..." it begins.
2% off on everyday needs! I'm in! Sign me up! Food, shelter, clothing... you can save 2% on all your basic needs!
Here's the quote in full; "Earn 2% cash back on your everyday needs, from snacking to streaming."
When I consider my everyday needs, neither snacking or streaming ever comes up. Makes me wonder what kind of idiots sign up for this credit card, and how they can possibly mistake snacking and streaming for human needs.
Society is doomed.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-43677551655824296882024-03-09T14:41:00.001-05:002024-03-09T14:41:54.456-05:00Genocide Joe is murder on Gaza; Trump will be even worseIn December, CNN published an analysis of IDF use of 2000lb "bunker-buster" bombs in the first month of the war. They concluded that many hundreds had been used on densely populated urban centres in Gaza. The story notes “Israel has come under pressure internationally over the scale of the devastation in Gaza, with even staunch ally US President Joe Biden accusing Israel of “indiscriminate bombing” of the coastal strip.”
That was months ago, and indiscriminate bombing continues daily. Joe Biden has obviously overcome whatever qualms he harbored about civilians being slaughtered with US supplied bombs, as his government has since shipped thousands more tons to keep the carnage going.
All the while, Biden, Blinken, and perpetually heart-broken-for-the-lives-of-Gaza-children Linda Thomas-Greenfield veto every ceasefire proposal that comes before the UN Security Council. They can deliver bombs to the IDF, but delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza?
No can do!
Besides, our common values demand we support Israel regardless of what the antisemitic fuss-budgets at the ICJ may have to say about it.
Meanwhile, sensing that whatever approval rating Biden still has is rapidly unravelling over the dual wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Donald Trump hasn’t said much other than neither of those wars would have happened if he were president.
Really? I don’t recall any US efforts to enforce the Minsk agreements during Trump’s tenure, and without Minsk or something like it, Ukraine and Russia were inevitably heading for war.
As for Israel, Trump did more to embolden the racist hard right factions than any US president ever. Recall the jubilation in 2018 when Jared Kushner led the US delegation celebrating the opening of the American embassy in Jerusalem. 800 people partied at the embassy while, 40 miles away, IDF snipers did crowd control at the Gaza fence.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-21386212724605974102024-03-08T19:49:00.000-05:002024-03-08T19:49:46.003-05:00Are spider webs safe to eat?Don't get me wrong; I'm not in the habit of eating spider webs. But more than a few times, I've been hiking the Bruce Trail, and walked face-first and mouth open through a spider web.
Or when I attempt some off-roading on my mountain bike, gasping for breath on an extreme uphill with the pie-hole wide open when I ride right through a work of deadly art some anonymous spider spent hours creating. Could this be a possible health risk? I googled the matter to find out.
Here's the first thing that came up; "Spiderweb is slathered in neurotoxins..." Thats from a website called "Science Alert."
Guess I'm fucked for sure.
Then again, it says "slathered," not "saturated."
Maybe I still have a chance.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-87055804245580775032024-03-06T18:43:00.000-05:002024-03-06T18:43:48.625-05:00Why are all our "enemies" countries that use death penalty on crooked billionaires?Do you ever get pissed off about how the rich and well-connected get away with the most brazen scams and egregious frauds and rarely pay any price whatsoever? Sure, the odd time some fringe guy like Bernie Madoff is made a token sacrifice, but overall, it’s business-as-usual for the billionaire class.
Here’s a little factoid that may explain why our ruling class has designated these countries our “enemies,” and it’s got nothing to do with freedom and democracy.
In China, Russia, and Iran, crooked billionaires face the death penalty.
Here, they own our democracies.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-63939740261798855622024-03-04T18:32:00.000-05:002024-03-04T18:32:00.608-05:00Israel and USA: we are about to find out who is the dog and who is the tailI’ve followed Israeli politics for decades, because, at least until Trump, they were pretty much the most entertaining politics to follow. Of course, when you’re the only democracy in the Middle East, it’s not hard to be the most entertaining, but by golly, is there ever a show going on right now.
Former PM Benny Ganz is getting the red-carpet treatment in Washington as I type these words. This is after The Great Leader personally and publicly forbade Ganz from making the trip. Ooh-la-la!
I love the smell of defiance in the morning!
Do you see the game playing out here?
Team Biden are fed up with Netanyahu’s defiance. In return for a veto on every UNSC cease-fire resolution, Team Biden has a few simple asks:
-let more food in, because starving babies on Al Jazeera are gonna make Joe lose Michigan-
stop killing women and children, or at least scale back till after the election-
Pleasepleaseplease pretend the “two state solution” is still a thing.
All the Americans got in return is a big fat “Fuck you, Joe" as Bibi cranked the the war-crimes dial to 11.
Suddenly there’s a whole lot of defiance coming right back at Bibi. The Americans are hosting Bibi’s toughest political rival, who’s polling at 50% approval against Netanyahu’s 32%. And that’s after he caught a big jump post October 7.
I smell regime change in the wind.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-47096363934078487052024-03-02T20:27:00.004-05:002024-03-02T20:27:55.484-05:00Explosive sex scandal devastates Canadian religious communityThere’s a story been brewing down Guelph way ever since this nugget hit the local news. The scandal has since expanded to include the names of people I once partied with.
The “meeting people” were a fundamentalist Christian group, some would say “cult,” that flourished in the Guelph area when I was coming up. A lot of the kids my age who grew up in “the way,” walking with Jesus etc., rebelled hard. They were the hardest drinking, hardest partying teens you’d ever want to meet.
Over time, many of them made peace with “the way” and resumed the walk with the Lord they were destined for. But apparently there was more going on than we knew at the time.
That’s all starting to come out now.
“Be sure your sins will find you out.”Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-14826587497767113992024-03-02T15:45:00.000-05:002024-03-02T15:45:18.661-05:00Russian hopes for freedom and democracy died with Navalny
That’s according to the Globe & Mail’s “Chief Internet Correspondent” Mark MacKinnon, writing in today’s paper.
Alexei Navalny was never anywhere near as popular in Russia as Western media made him out to be. His popularity peaked during his run for the mayorship of Moscow in 2013, where he finished a distant second to the incumbent. With the exception of a brief period following his alleged poisoning in 2022, Navalny’s approval rating hovered in the range of 2-6%. Putin’s approval rating today is in the mid-80s. The idea that Putin feared losing to Navalny in a free and fair election is pure propagandistic piffle spread by anti-Putin media in the West.
Navalny initially drew attention to himself as an outspoken critic of Muslim immigration to Russia. He compared Muslims to cockroaches and recommended their extermination. His rantings were those of a typical “white nationalist.” In Canada his anti-immigrant speeches would be considered hate crimes.
Nevertheless, he caught the eye of important people in the West, and soon found himself at Yale University as a Yale World Fellow, there to mingle with other aspiring world leaders being groomed for service to the American Empire. It was after his return to Russia from Yale that we began to read his name regularly in Western media.
“He was everything Putin was not,” according to MacKinnon, “he was tall, handsome, and comfortable addressing the crowds of ordinary Russians the diminutive Mr. Putin does not.” How a leader can maintain an 85% approval rating without the support of “ordinary Russians” is a mystery MacKinnon does not explore.
Instead, he paints a picture of a Putin so afraid of Navalny that “his funeral was predictably ignored by Kremlin-controlled media.” Except it wasn’t.
Here’s funeral coverage at Kremlin-controlled Russia Today.
And here’s the story at TASS.
That’s some mighty sloppy work from the Globe’s Senior Internet Correspondent!
The only hopes that died with Navalny were the hopes of his Western backers that their boy would prove a viable alternative to Putin.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-54457427380643581572024-02-29T19:31:00.000-05:002024-02-29T19:31:41.152-05:00How Canadian PM Lyin' Brian Mulroney got rich fighting apartheidNow that Lyin’ Brian has gone to his reward, we will be endlessly harangued about his principled stand against apartheid in South Africa. And he was indeed a high-profile anti-apartheid activist.
When Brian came to power, the South African Krugerrand was by far the world’s most popular investment-grade gold coin. It was one of the most important exports for the SA economy.
A few years before Brian ascended the throne, Canada had introduced it’s own investment-grade gold coin, the gold maple leaf coin. It got off to a slow start. It would be a tough uphill slog to capture market share from the Krugerrand.
Enter the humble electrician’s son from Baie Comeau, and his principled stand against apartheid! Mulroney was a leading figure in the drive to impose sanctions against the South African economy, including, of course, international sales of the Krugerrand. Sales of Canada’s gold Maple Leaf took off!
Oddly enough, after Brian left office, he soon found himself on the board of directors of Barrick Gold, Canada’s premier gold producer! Brian advanced through the corporate governance ranks to become Chair of the Board of Directors, and if I’m not mistaken, remained a “special advisor” to the board until his passing.
Isn’t it great to see such a principled politician enjoy a lucrative payday!
Mind you, there were also those embarrassing ethical lapses around that Karl-Heinz chappie and his cash-stuffed envelopes... but let's not bring that up now...
RIP Mr Mulroney.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-31298786148853009762024-02-29T19:17:00.001-05:002024-02-29T19:17:56.282-05:00Lyin' Brian Mulroney gifted Canada's working class "free trade," and my butt still hurtsThe sales pitch went something like this; Yankee money and know-how, Mexican labour, and Canadian resources would invevitably coalesce into a world-beating economic bloc, bringing oodles of prosperity to all of us!
Yes indeedy! Sure, we'd lose a few jobs to Mexico, due to their tendency to work for $20 per week instead of our $20 per hour, but experts assured us we'd only lose the shit jobs like manufacturing cars and stuff. Really good high-tech jobs would replace them, because Mexicans are too stupid to do them.
Lyin' Brian didn't have to spell out the too-stupid part. It was implied. The only people who never bought it were the shop floor workees in Canadian factories. We knew from the get-go the Mexicans could do anything we could do.
They just did it way cheaper.
Free trade was the beginning of the end for Canada's working class.
Thanks Brian!
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-81468210672306745382024-02-27T10:11:00.004-05:002024-02-27T10:11:56.680-05:00Dementia Joe talks imaginary ceasefire while licking ice-cream coneThis is where we’re at in the world of international diplomacy, circa 2024.
The Leader of the Free World is taking a moment from his busy schedule of avoiding issues, to visit an ice-cream shop. Some nosey reporter types mistook the ice-cream stop for a press stop and began hurling questions at the Leader of the Free World.
Between licks on his cone, the President revealed that he expects a ceasefire in a week.
Boy, does Netanyahu have a surprise for him!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-87962425304447465632024-02-25T15:29:00.000-05:002024-02-25T15:29:26.168-05:00Trudeau makes surprise visit to Kyiv to blow more smoke up Zelensky's assPM Fluffy made a surprise visit to Ukraine to mark the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale, brutal, unprovoked, barbaric, and full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Did we mention it was a full-scale invasion? As we all know, Putin grew increasingly deranged at the prospect of seeing a thriving liberal democracy flowering next door. He knew once his long-suffering people noticed the pluralist paradise flourishing in the former Soviet satellite state, his days would be numbered. The Russian people would rise up and demand human rights and Pride parades just like they have in Ukraine.
Luckily for the Democratic World, the plucky Ukrainians have been putting the run to the Putinist hordes (remember - it was a full-scale invasion) ever since, thanks largely to Canada and our allies providing hundreds of billions in money and materiel, or in Canada's case, billions in promises. Canada has been more than a little light in the materiel department since long before the full-scale invasion, but we do what we can to show our allies that we're a reliable partner in the global struggle between Democracy(good guys) and Authoritarianism(bad guys).
To that end, Fluffy and Zelly signed a ten year mutual defence agreement at the weekend. The Canadian side promised aid worth 3 billions in the first year, but did not specify if that was in Canadian dollars or Ukrainian hryvnia. No amounts were committed beyond the first year, just in case. And due to the prudent nature of the Canadian side, our assistance comes as a loan, not a donation. Ukraine should have no trouble repaying once Putin is defeated.
Once again Canada proves it has what it takes; a leader who will make empty promises for as long as it takes, and isn't afraid to call Putin names!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-83935912417332125022024-02-25T14:48:00.004-05:002024-02-25T14:48:31.478-05:00Canada "investigating possibility" of aid airdrop to starving GazaThat’s supposed to be a good news story at CBC. It is intended to reassure readers that Canada is not ignoring the humanitarian catastrophe that has been unfolding in Gaza for almost five months.
Alas, we Canadians know there is a vast gulf between our government “investigating possibilities” and actually doing something. After investigating possibilities (2-3 months), a committee will be struck to commence a feasibility study (6-12 months).
Then another committee of experts will convene to determine the most viable option(s). No doubt this will require hearings (another 3-6 months,) but before that there will be several months of discussions over whether the hearings should be in camera or public.
Following the hearings, our preferred course of action must be sent to parliament for approval. That could easily take another month or more, depending on what other urgent matters are before parliament at that time.
Finally, when we get all our humanitarian ducks in a row, possibly in two years time, comes the tough part; getting Israel’s permission to feed the people they are deliberately starving.
It’s safe to say anyone in Gaza waiting for Canada’s help will be long dead before it arrives.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-45052700212033007962024-02-20T19:09:00.003-05:002024-02-20T19:09:56.893-05:00Royal Canadian Navy drowns in morass of bureaucratic inertia - zero ships delivered after 13 years If you follow the comings and goings of our utterly inept and incompetent political class, you’ll be well acquainted with our brand-spankin’ new fleet of warships that have been “in the pipeline” for quite some time now… oh wait… doesn’t seem to be any sign of those ships. In fact, other than Irving wangling another half billion out of the feds recently for “shipyard improvements,” we don’t hear much about the pipeline, let alone the ships.
Here’s a story from the archives.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Canada commits 25 billion for new combat ships
Minister of National Deference Peter MacKay announced last week that the Irving shipyard in Halifax would be contracted to build the next generation of warships for Canada's navy.
As Minister of Deference Mr. Mackay sees his job as being mainly about deferring to the big dogs in Brussels and Washington, and no doubt the big dogs will be pleased with this announcement. After all, it seals our commitment to being able to punch above our weight etc. whenever some dictator in some shithole foreign country who we've supported for forty years gets too big for his britches. And you know how we Canadians like to punch above our weight. It's almost an obsession.
But politics aside, it's good news for the lads in the shipyard. I worked on the last generation of warships, at the Irving shipyard in Saint John, and I have to say it's a good gig, in spite of my pacifist leanings. It's good news for the Irvings too.
As big-time capitalists go the Irvings are pretty cool. James Irving was the big gun at the Saint John yard back in the day. Used to come in unannounced at the oddest of hours just to see how things were going. One night he shows up on our late shift. One of the boys who'd had a few was a bit irate over having had to install the same set of bulkhead doors three times because the specs kept changing. Got right in Irving's face and gave him a whiskey laced piece of his mind.
I thought, well, Buddy's toast. Not so. James Irving was able to overlook the booze-breath because Buddy had some serious concerns about efficiency. That made him Irving's kind of guy.
If I was just a bit younger I'd be tempted to head east again.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-67444506667436048982024-02-20T19:01:00.000-05:002024-02-20T19:01:33.284-05:00Lying Jens Stoltenberg claims Ukraine getting F-16s "as early as possible"Really?
We’re at the two year anniversary of this war. The country formerly known as Ukraine is bleeding out in front of the eyes of anyone who cares to look. Mind you, looking ain’t easy if you rely on the typical Western propaganda cartel: CBC/CNN/BBC/Fox, for your news. They're still predicting a Ukrainian victory, if such delusion can be imagined.
While I’m no fan of the Bandera-oriented factions put in power by the Washington-organized coup in 2014, I find it outrageous how they’ve been goaded into war with Russia by their American masters, and then left to twist in the wind.
What happened to “whatever it takes for as long as it takes?”
Did America and her NATO vassals not have what it takes? Or did they deliberately hold back what it takes?
The F-16s are a case in point. I recall Ukrainians demonstrating in the streets during the first days of the war, with placards demanding “close the skies!”
Two years and half a million dead Ukrainians later, Jens reassures Ukraine we’re working on it…
If I were a Ukrainian I’d be pissed off at more than Putin.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-32441512959400582962024-02-18T20:08:00.002-05:002024-02-18T20:29:11.133-05:00Genocide shlemocide; how Bibi owns BidenIt’s dark days for the doomed American Empire. Uncle Sam is in a two-front hot war intended to show the world that the USA remains the “indispensable nation,” “city on the hill,” “mightiest military in history,” and so forth.
In Ukraine, the combined resources of USA/NATO/EU have failed to secure victory. In fact, Uncle Sam’s team is being humiliated.
“Whatever it takes for as long as it takes” turned out to be nothing more than a PR slogan.
What’s even more humiliating is watching the most powerful man on earth, the Leader of the Free World, Joe Biden, grovel before Bibirius of Judea, Greatest Leader since Moses, pleading for a brief pause in the genocide in Gaza.
Biden’s got an election to win. This Gaza thing has already cost the Dems the Arab vote, a good slice of the black vote, and the youth vote. Please, Netanyahu, tone it down! Get your snipers to stop shooting children for a few days… please!
Watch Al Jazeera news from inside Gaza for an update on how Israel has responded to Biden’s entreaties.
Genocide shlemocide… go fuck yourself, Joe!
And yet Uncle Sam keeps shoveling money and bombs to Israel to sustain the carnage. What message does that give to the rest of the world?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-32689487343072979992024-02-18T17:35:00.000-05:002024-02-18T17:35:25.986-05:00Let's help the homeless by sending them on Caribbean vacationsI stepped out on the stoop for a breath of fresh air. We're in the second day of a fierce blizzard. My thoughts turned to the plight of the homeless, or if you prefer, those unhoused, housing deficient, or living in a flimsy tent in a storm like this.
The unhoused keep a lot of people busy. Cops. Social workers. Paramedics. City employees who clean up after them. And don't forget all the academics interogating the manifold intersections of race, class, and gender that can be studied in your typical homeless encampment. On any given day there are dozens of such studies underway, and every research project got grant money from somewhere. Obviously, there's a lot of investment in the unhoused. Too bad none of it goes into building housing!
I came back inside and snuggled up with Bruno in front of the fire. I did a little research of my own. Did you know you can get an all-in caribbean holiday for under a thousand bucks? Our town has several dozen hard-core unhoused. If you add up all those expenses above, I'm guessing those folks eat up half a million of the town budget, easy.
So here's the plan. We round up that hard-core crowd, preferably during a blizzard, and hand them their tickets to a warm caribbean resort!
And wtf does a weeklong holiday have to do with alleviating homelessness, you ask? Think it through. You sent them south in the dead of winter. One week is long enough for them to realize they're in a place where living year-round in a tent is not only feasible and sustainable, it's considered a middle-class lifestyle. They ain't never coming back!
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-90690334986537069382024-02-17T16:37:00.002-05:002024-02-17T16:37:49.135-05:00Democracy icon Alexey Navalny compared Muslims to cockroaches and recommended their exterminationThere’s a ludicrous degree of Navalny overkill in the news today. Apparently now that he’s gone, there is no more hope whatsoever for democracy in Russia. Canadian politicians across the spectrum are outdoing one another to sing his praises, and more importantly, to blame Putin for his death.
This is highly ironic, given Navalny’s roots as an ultra-nationalist Russian who has compared Muslims to cockroaches and suggested they be exterminated. Needless to say, that sort of commentary would be instant career suicide for any politician in Canada. And not just politicians.
But hey, the man hates Putin, and that washes away a lot of sins in the eyes of our virtuous democracy-loving political class.
Here’s another angle; maybe that just proves there’s more freedom of speech in Russia than in Canada!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256689180579243821.post-73321737206112066462024-02-16T16:57:00.003-05:002024-02-16T16:57:40.703-05:00The Heart of Darkness
As the astute reader will have realized long ago, the Farm Manager manages much more than the farm around here.
She micro-manages virtually every aspect of my existence.
Not that I'm complaining. In fact, I've never been happier!
And sometimes her managing manages to birth a great concept for a business venture.
Hence the Hearts of Darkness Chocolate Company. That's a concept that has "home run" written all over it. It'll join our stable of start-ups that include the Stinkfoot Cheese Company and the BigAss Chair Company.
Yessirree, this commie is embracing capitalism big time!
It all started with a story she read me about the health benefits of dark chocolate. Due to considerations of age and lifestyle I'm a proud member of that cohort that can be reasonably expected to drop dead at any moment from a catastrophic cardiac event.
Ya, who knows, this could be the last blog post I ever wr... aarrrgggghhh.............. oh shit I can't breathe... call 911!..
Just kidding.
Anyway, she says guys my age can benefit big time from regular doses of dark chocolate. I don't have a problem with that. In fact I don't mind dark chocolate one bit. All things considered I'm more partial to white chocolate, but WTF, I like life, and I've never heard anything about the power of white chocolate stretching out my time in this mortal coil.
The problem, I think, is getting guys my age into the typical chocolates emporium to buy their life-saving dark chocolates. While we occasionally darken the doorways of such establishments when we have the good fortune of remembering a birthday or an anniversary or the fact that Feb 14 is more than just another day in February, we're otherwise disinclined to frequent these places.
It's just not that cool, and what guy goes to a fancy chocolate shop to buy himself chocolates?
That's where a bit of marketing savvy comes in, and after "Stinkfoot" and "BigAss" you'll have to admit that I'm up there with the heavy hitters of marketing. Welding was absolutely the wrong career choice for me, a decision that should haunt my grade 9 guidance counsellor to this day.
So Heart of Darkness Chocolate Company is going to partner up with the Snap-On folks. Yup, you can buy your life-saving dark chocolates right off the Snap-On truck when Buddy rolls round to sell you your next $150 screwdriver.
We're thinking of a NASCAR sponsorship too, especially if we can convince Mark Martin to hang around another year or two. Our people are talking to his people even as I write this.
I think we got us a winner! Look out Mill Creek!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1