Gaza and R2P

I see where Bibirius of Judea, the Greatest Leader since Moses, has convinced his American sponsors that the impending invasion of Raffa will be the most humane genocide in history. And all the American Empire saints said “Amen.” What’s most remarkable here is the complete absence of protest from any of the “Nations of Virtue,” the USA/NATO/EU combine that presumes to be the conscience of the “world community.” After all, Israel is one of us. Shared values and all that shit. Not only that, but Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. That’s all it takes to silence the R2P crowd. The odious “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine was always about strong nations in Uncle Sam’s orbit beating up weak nations that showed signs of sovereignty. Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, to name a few. But when it comes to the genocide in Gaza, which you can follow almost livestream on Al Jazeera, nobody, but NOBODY, so much as whispers anything about the “responsibility to protect.” Why is that?

Breakfast in Bobcageon

I’m sitting in the sun outside the Full Cup Cafe. I’ve placed my order (three eggs easy-over, hash browns, bacon, gluten-free toast, and raspberry jam) and stepped out for a breath of fresh air. It’s ten o’clock on Sunday Morning. Easter Sunday. Not a lot of folks go to church anymore, but for those who do, Easter is a big deal. Oddly enough, it’s also the International Day of Trans Visibility. Those Christians just couldn’t resist scheduling Easter for the same day. What’s wrong with those people? There’s a church right across the street. The parking lot is full to overflowing. You can hear them singing hymns. But mostly what you hear is BB King on the speakers in front of the Full Cup Cafe. Inside, the place looks like a ‘50’s diner. I suspect that’s not because they hired a fancy-pants designer, but more likely they haven’t got around to a make-over since the ‘50’s. On one wall there’s a sign informing patrons that unattended children will be given an espresso and a kitten. The next wall has a BB King poster and an admonishment to purchase refreshing Coca-Cola. The far wall has the burger board (ten burgers available, including the Blues Burger and the Big Kahuna, which includes pineapple and ham). I’ll have to come back for lunch someday to take a crack at that Blues Burger. Bacon and blue cheese! What could go wrong? The last wall is the window wall where I’m sitting. There’s a pot shop next door, and there’s a couple of… elderly gentlemen? dudes my age? local fuck-ups?… huffing their brains out on their vapes right in front. The one guy must have hit the sweet spot, because he was pretty much doubled over and clinging to the railing to stay on his feet. They’re obviously smoking shit way more deadly than anything in my repertoire, and they’re getting it at a government approved pot shop! Then they got in their car and drove away. The crowd at the Full Cup seemed mostly working-class types. I suppose the not-so-rough folks were across the street on Easter Sunday. We ended up there only because we were heading home after a few days at Pigeon Lake. Don’t know why they call it that. We saw geese, ducks, loons, swans, a mourning dove, but no pigeons. Go figure! Right beside the burger board there’s a sign that reads TRUMP 2024 Take America Back. Yup. Right there on the wall in one of the most authentic diners I’ve seen in years… and in Canada!? What’s this world coming to? Breakfast was so great I left a five dollar tip. Breakfast for two, $45. Sitting in the sun with BB King? Priceless.

Ukraine losing large, so Globe & Mail tells Canadians to "empty the cupboard for Ukraine"

That’s the title of a full-page op-ed in the Globe today. Near the end of Justin Ling’s full-page opus, we find this nugget of clarity; “But one message I heard loud and clear in Ukraine, including from those who fought in this wretched war, is that they are much closer to losing this war than its allies seem to believe.” Indeed! In fact, by the time you get to that revelation, you’ve read about thirty paragraphs of pro-war propaganda exhorting us to mortgage the future of Canada to supply unlimited resources to Ukraine until they “win.” Win what? The end-times crowd wants to portray US/NATO’s war on Russia as some sort of battle between good and evil, democracy and autocracy. Ukraine is fighting Russia so our shared democratic values will prevail in the face of the totalitarian threat. That’s not fooling the rest of the world, aside from the usual lap-dog vassal states in the EU/NATO. Democracy? How does any sane person imagine the never-ending DC clown show makes anyone anywhere want to embrace American-style democracy? Human rights? Dust off your Abu Ghraib souvenir photo album to refresh your memory about the Free World’s (aka the American Empire) commitment to human rights. Free speech? Julian Assange. No, we’re not the good guys anymore…

It's always the end of the world somewhere

In Gaza and Kharkov they’re living through the end of the world right now. We know this because events in Israel and Ukraine are considered highly newsworthy. Truth is, there’s been assorted end-of-the-world scenarios playing out in Darfur, Congo, Somalia, and many other countries for far longer, yet we pay them no attention, unless we can turn tragedy into a Hollywood blockbuster, like Blackhawk Down. This raises a whole lot of questions about why we notice what we notice. Why do our media foreground some conflicts and bury others? But that’s a question for another day. Today I’d like to leave you some tips on how to survive when the sky is falling. Step one; turn off your screens. Ignorance may not be bliss, but it can get you closer. Step two; get a dog. Watching Spot romp at the dog park is way more edifying than watching Al Jazeera. Step three; get a hobby. That’ll keep you busy and your mind off whoever is being genocided this week. I’m a bit of a car guy from way back. Indeed, there is a 5.0 Mustang in the garage right now. It’s so old it qualifies for antique plates!

What to think about while trying not to think about genocide

Virtually the entire world is aware there is a genocide unfolding in Gaza. Mostly, we avert our eyes and change the subject. This is where mindfulness comes in. Mindfulness is all about living in the moment. Not just living “in” it, but literally living it into existence. You may need a toke and a pint to figure out that last part, but trust me, once you embrace mindfulness, you’re on the road to the Palace of Wisdom. Since in this particular moment I don’t live anywhere near the Middle East, mindfulness demands I focus on what’s real and right in front of me. That would be my faithful companion, Bruno the Italian mastiff. Truth be told, he’s not all that faithful. He’s only faithful when Mum’s not around to lure him away from me. As soon as she shows up, it’s see ya later alligator. But we do share twenty laps at the dog park every morning after we drop Mum off at work. That’s where Bruno meets his besties. I know the dogs at the dog park way better than I know anybody in Gaza. That’s my excuse for staying silent about a genocide in progress. What’s yours?

We have already lost the war with Hamas, and we are losing our allies in the world - retired IDF General

It’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.

Canada's "Minister of Mental Health" assaults mental health of Jewish Canadians

Canada'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.

Justin 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.

Top US Jew demands regime change in Israel

What’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.

What'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.

If you don't need a license to open-carry, why should you need a license to drive a car

Somewhere 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.

Kipling's hemi

This 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.

Revisiting Maslow's hierarchy of needs

I 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.

Genocide Joe is murder on Gaza; Trump will be even worse

In 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.

Are 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.

Why 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.

Israel and USA: we are about to find out who is the dog and who is the tail

I’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.

Explosive sex scandal devastates Canadian religious community

There’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.”

Russian 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.