With the latest tweaks to the Google algorithms that decide who might or might not happen upon this blog, I think my regular readership has dwindled down to Mum, Dad, my old pals Kipling, Robert, and Iris, and Ken from BC. A blog that for several years had three to four thousand looks per month struggles to attract two dozen per day.
Why?
I don't think the problem is the quality of the writing. Hell no! In fact, this blog is pure poetry compared to a lot of stuff out there!
No, I think it's more about content... and there is no denying that a lot of stuff here falls afoul of the parameters set out by the freshly minted "Critical Election Incident Protocol Group," also known as the Ministry of Truth.
Those are the folks charged with making sure the general public doesn't get exposed to "fake news." What is fake news? It's anything that doesn't jibe with official Western ideology as promulgated by NATO, the Atlantic Council, and "mainstream" media.
Let me walk you through today's Globe and Mail to provide a few examples of this phenomenon.
The Globe and Mail remains, pretensions of PostMaster Paul Godfrey aside, Canada's "newspaper of record." The front page today is the first of a five page nothingburger about Bad Vlad's "seizure" of Crimea. A couple of thousand words into the story, Mark MacKinnon acknowledges that "most Crimeans did, and do, favour union with Russia."
In other words, there's no actual story here. You can call the Crimean referendum a "sham" all you want, but once you've acknowledged that the overwhelming majority of Crimeans prefer being part of Russia to remaining part of Ukraine, there is no point in pursing this line of reasoning.
Elizabeth Renzetti's service to objective journalism I've already dealt with, in a post that has garnered a grand total of one page view several hours after it was published.
In the "opinion" section, we've got Mr. Renzetti, Canada's answer to Thomas Friedman, giving over his entire column to Bill Browder's paranoid fantasies. Apparently Bill is disappointed that Canada has failed to take a leadership role in his campaign to slander Putin and glorify himself. We've done much, but we coulda done more!
Here's how Doug characterizes Browder's wholesale looting of the post-Soviet Russian economy; "Bill Browder... became very wealthy running an investment fund that profited from Russia's awkward postcommunist transition."
I guess that's one way of putting it.
Not only did Browder make himself very wealthy on the backs of the impoverished Russian populace, he has been gifted with a CIA-supplied magic wand that opens up editorial board rooms of newspapers of record throughout the "free" world!
So, in this new era of post-truth Truths, you can bet that the fantasies of a Bill Browder will meet the truthiness criteria of the "Critical Election Incident Protocol Group" with flying colours, whereas any dissenting opinions will be well and truly buried.
Showing posts with label Elizabeth Renzetti. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elizabeth Renzetti. Show all posts
Saturday, February 9, 2019
Elizabeth Renzetti delivers tutorial in shoddy journalism
Fifty years ago, when Nancy Pelosi was already clawing her way into the upper reaches of the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Party was known as the party of civil rights. By 2016, it was instead known as the party of Wall Street, and Nancy Pelosi is now the most powerful woman in America.
That's why it's hard to square her actual history of connivance with money and power with the portrait painted in Renzetti's editorial in today's Globe and Mail, where Pelosi is rendered an icon of progressivism.
Renzetti seems aware of the cognitive dissonance echoing through her article. The "progressive members of her own party (i.e. the DSA contingent) think she's part of the old guard..."
That's because she most assuredly is a member of the old guard! Who could think otherwise?
Yet, "they fall into line behind her when she demands it." She is "terrifying to her opponents, both Republicans and rebellious members of her own party" (i.e. the DSA contingent).
The most interesting question in US politics at the moment is how long will it take for the true progressives to either mute their progressivism, or get terrorized out of the party. My hunch is that the old guard will effectively muzzle them... forget the wealth tax, forget public health care, forget free post-secondary education; focus instead on symbolic gestures like clapping back at Trump!
That's "resistance," Pelosi style!
Renzetti also gets a shot at a book review this week, giving us the low-down on former NYT executive editor Jill Abramson's tell-all, "Merchants of Truth."
Alas, the biggest story around this title for the past week has been a plagiarism scandal! Seems the esteemed NYT alum who penned "Merchants of Truth" especially likes lifting the work of students at Toronto's own Ryerson Journalism School!
That's the kind of dishonesty that empowers those who want to paint the journalism profession with the "fake news" label. The fact that Renzetti can pen a two thousand word book review without so much as a single line acknowledging the plagiarism controversy strikes me as a little... dishonest.
That's why it's hard to square her actual history of connivance with money and power with the portrait painted in Renzetti's editorial in today's Globe and Mail, where Pelosi is rendered an icon of progressivism.
Renzetti seems aware of the cognitive dissonance echoing through her article. The "progressive members of her own party (i.e. the DSA contingent) think she's part of the old guard..."
That's because she most assuredly is a member of the old guard! Who could think otherwise?
Yet, "they fall into line behind her when she demands it." She is "terrifying to her opponents, both Republicans and rebellious members of her own party" (i.e. the DSA contingent).
The most interesting question in US politics at the moment is how long will it take for the true progressives to either mute their progressivism, or get terrorized out of the party. My hunch is that the old guard will effectively muzzle them... forget the wealth tax, forget public health care, forget free post-secondary education; focus instead on symbolic gestures like clapping back at Trump!
That's "resistance," Pelosi style!
Renzetti also gets a shot at a book review this week, giving us the low-down on former NYT executive editor Jill Abramson's tell-all, "Merchants of Truth."
Alas, the biggest story around this title for the past week has been a plagiarism scandal! Seems the esteemed NYT alum who penned "Merchants of Truth" especially likes lifting the work of students at Toronto's own Ryerson Journalism School!
That's the kind of dishonesty that empowers those who want to paint the journalism profession with the "fake news" label. The fact that Renzetti can pen a two thousand word book review without so much as a single line acknowledging the plagiarism controversy strikes me as a little... dishonest.
Saturday, May 6, 2017
How not to get rich
Oh, let me tell you the ways...
Writing is a sure-fire way to stay poor.
That's why I was somewhat mystified by the last couple of paragraphs of Elizabeth Renzetti's love letter to Hillary in today's Globe. Hillary is obviously not a conniving greed-bag, because look, she'll be writing a book!
She will almost certainly be criticized as a cash-hungry monster by people who do not realize that writing books is precisely the wrong way to get rich (unless you're JK Rowling).
Really?
Here's a story from Forbes that claims the Clintons have made at least 23 millions for their previous books, and that includes the eight million advance Hillary got for her last memoir.
Eight million for a book might not be getting rich, but it's getting close. And however many millions she gets for her next book should put her into the rich zone for sure.
So I agree with Liz that writing a book is precisely the wrong way (among many) to get rich.
Unless you're Hillary Clinton.
Writing is a sure-fire way to stay poor.
That's why I was somewhat mystified by the last couple of paragraphs of Elizabeth Renzetti's love letter to Hillary in today's Globe. Hillary is obviously not a conniving greed-bag, because look, she'll be writing a book!
She will almost certainly be criticized as a cash-hungry monster by people who do not realize that writing books is precisely the wrong way to get rich (unless you're JK Rowling).
Really?
Here's a story from Forbes that claims the Clintons have made at least 23 millions for their previous books, and that includes the eight million advance Hillary got for her last memoir.
Eight million for a book might not be getting rich, but it's getting close. And however many millions she gets for her next book should put her into the rich zone for sure.
So I agree with Liz that writing a book is precisely the wrong way (among many) to get rich.
Unless you're Hillary Clinton.
Life lessons from The Korean
When I drove into town today to pick up my Saturday Globe, I found The Korean's wife and mother-in-law out in the parking lot putting up a tent.
I made a lame joke about it being shitty weather for camping. They laughed.
The Korean is a bit of a joker himself. He scans the bar-code on my paper and announces "five hundred and twenty-five dollar please!"
Ha ha... not enough good news in the world for that price, I tell him.
He settles for $5.25.
Have to say the paper was on the thin side today.
Big feature in the Focus section on condo flippers messing up the Toronto real estate market. That might be mildly interesting if you don't already have multiple friends and relatives milking that for all it's worth. You view them with a mix of envy and contempt; envy because at some level you wish you'd jumped into the game when the jumping was good.
Contempt because they're one of the reasons your children will never own property in Toronto.
But their children will.
Interesting, but nothing like the tour de force Cathal Kelly had on view a couple of weeks ago.
"Too drunk to fuck" indeed!
There's a couple of stories that cast well-deserved aspersions on Justin's captaincy of the ship of state. On page B-1 unpaid intern Rachelle Younglai has a story about shrinking paycheques for the working and middle classes.
On page A-4 Bill Curry has a story about how Justin's infrastructure initiatives are being massaged by the very people who will "ultimately own and manage infrastructure assets."
Public money, private profits; that's hardly a news story.
One thing I'd like to see more of in the Globe is coverage of the Supreme Court case that Rocco Galati has been pursuing for years now on behalf of COMER, the Committee for Monetary and Economic Reform. Follow that story and you soon realize there's no reason whatsoever for our infrastructure assets to end up in the pockets of Black Rock or the multitude of like-minded hedgies and finance sharpies.
But that's not a story the Globe is keen to spread around.
Elsewhere, Liz Renzetti uses her A-2 slot to let us know she's still pouty about Hillary's very bad and awfully terrible day six months ago. Apparently it wasn't just Russian interference in America's democratic process that sunk Hillary, although the Ruskies do get several shout-outs in her column.
No, it was even worse than that, if such a thing can be imagined.
There was a "pink elephant" in the room.
That would be sexism, for those too stunned to figure it out.
Well... sure.
Maybe.
I'd hazard a guess that the pink elephants were bigger when Golda became PM in the sixties or Maggie became PM in the seventies, but maybe Liz isn't old enough to remember those days.
Hillary lost because she and her army of consultants and advisers were outworked and outsmarted at every turn by a condo salesman from Manhattan.
Best story by far in today's paper was the profile of Toronto restauranteur Jen Agg. A far more palatable role model for young women than Hillary, if you ask me.
She's kicking the shit out of pink elephants every day, and may God bless her for it.
Anyway, I've come to accept that The Korean isn't responsible for what's in the newspaper he sells me.
His wife and mother-in-law were putting up that tent to protect the plants that all the Korean variety stores have on offer this time of year.
The weather channel is suggesting we'll get snow tonight.
So the flowers are camping tonight, I offer.
Yes! We must be prepared, he says.
Sound advice from The Korean.
Be prepared.
I made a lame joke about it being shitty weather for camping. They laughed.
The Korean is a bit of a joker himself. He scans the bar-code on my paper and announces "five hundred and twenty-five dollar please!"
Ha ha... not enough good news in the world for that price, I tell him.
He settles for $5.25.
Have to say the paper was on the thin side today.
Big feature in the Focus section on condo flippers messing up the Toronto real estate market. That might be mildly interesting if you don't already have multiple friends and relatives milking that for all it's worth. You view them with a mix of envy and contempt; envy because at some level you wish you'd jumped into the game when the jumping was good.
Contempt because they're one of the reasons your children will never own property in Toronto.
But their children will.
Interesting, but nothing like the tour de force Cathal Kelly had on view a couple of weeks ago.
"Too drunk to fuck" indeed!
There's a couple of stories that cast well-deserved aspersions on Justin's captaincy of the ship of state. On page B-1 unpaid intern Rachelle Younglai has a story about shrinking paycheques for the working and middle classes.
On page A-4 Bill Curry has a story about how Justin's infrastructure initiatives are being massaged by the very people who will "ultimately own and manage infrastructure assets."
Public money, private profits; that's hardly a news story.
One thing I'd like to see more of in the Globe is coverage of the Supreme Court case that Rocco Galati has been pursuing for years now on behalf of COMER, the Committee for Monetary and Economic Reform. Follow that story and you soon realize there's no reason whatsoever for our infrastructure assets to end up in the pockets of Black Rock or the multitude of like-minded hedgies and finance sharpies.
But that's not a story the Globe is keen to spread around.
Elsewhere, Liz Renzetti uses her A-2 slot to let us know she's still pouty about Hillary's very bad and awfully terrible day six months ago. Apparently it wasn't just Russian interference in America's democratic process that sunk Hillary, although the Ruskies do get several shout-outs in her column.
No, it was even worse than that, if such a thing can be imagined.
There was a "pink elephant" in the room.
That would be sexism, for those too stunned to figure it out.
Well... sure.
Maybe.
I'd hazard a guess that the pink elephants were bigger when Golda became PM in the sixties or Maggie became PM in the seventies, but maybe Liz isn't old enough to remember those days.
Hillary lost because she and her army of consultants and advisers were outworked and outsmarted at every turn by a condo salesman from Manhattan.
Best story by far in today's paper was the profile of Toronto restauranteur Jen Agg. A far more palatable role model for young women than Hillary, if you ask me.
She's kicking the shit out of pink elephants every day, and may God bless her for it.
Anyway, I've come to accept that The Korean isn't responsible for what's in the newspaper he sells me.
His wife and mother-in-law were putting up that tent to protect the plants that all the Korean variety stores have on offer this time of year.
The weather channel is suggesting we'll get snow tonight.
So the flowers are camping tonight, I offer.
Yes! We must be prepared, he says.
Sound advice from The Korean.
Be prepared.
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Ten things I learned from today's Globe and Mail
1. Elizabeth Renzetti wants me to know that she appeared alongside Margaret Atwood at a fundraising breakfast this week. Her column on A2 was devoted to sliming Donald Trump, who really doesn't need any help with that. She is very sad that "a sizeable proportion of the electorate" is prepared to vote "an alleged groper" into the Oval Office. Don't cry Liz; it's happened before.
2. It must have been a busy week for Renzetti. In addition to rubbing elbows with Atwood, she's got a feature interview with Bruce Springsteen in the Arts section. Not only is he a mega-zillionaire rock star, I learned that he is quite an audacious political pundit with some astute insights. He likes Hillary and thinks she'd be a very good president, whereas Donald is a real danger to democracy. Who knew?
3. The Focus section is mostly focused on Donald Trump this week. Tabatha Southey assures us that "there's little to remark upon in WikiLeaks heavily hyped document dump." Really? Wonder what Brad Marshall, Luis Miranda, Amy Dacey, or Debbie Wasserman Shultz would think about that assertion? She's also alerting us to the fact that Bad Vlad, Donald's hero, is probably behind this WikiLeaks outrage. The most recent document dumps also illustrate that, while Obama may be right that it's impossible to rig an American election, the Podesta emails convincingly demonstrate that the Dem hierarchy is determined to try.
4. Joanna Slater and Affan Chowdry inform me that the suggestion the election could be rigged is "preposterous." Whew! Good to know!
5. Joanna and Affan also make the observation that Al Gore was gracious after being swindled out of the 2000 election. They're worried Trump might not be as gracious. Yes, when the preposterous happens, it's good to have a gracious loser who is happy to roll over... for the good of the country, of course.
6. Still in the Focus section, John Ibbitsson informs me that to steal the election would require corrupting the media, the pollsters, and the vote itself. On the last point, google "hacking voting machines." For the former, see what you can find in those innocuous WikiLeaks revelations.
7. John also throws in a plug for the journalism profession, informing me there's a "crusading tradition of the craft." Sorry John; the tradition of progressive muck-raking journalism was dead by the time Washington unleashed shock and awe to vanquish Saddam's arsenal of WMDs, to the enthusiastic cheer-leading of your profession. And that was a quarter century ago. Get real!
8. John quotes professor Arthur Lupia of U of Michigan who assures us that "voter fraud is a myth." Good enough then, I guess. That tidbit follows a paragraph which references Project Veritas. Two high-end Dem operatives, one of whom has allegedly made hundreds of visits to the Obama White House, lost their jobs this past week after they admitted hiring people to stir up violence at Trump rallies. Corruption? What corruption? Shades of Hitler's Brown Shirts?
9. Slate's culture podcast host Stephen Metcalf gets a guest slot in the Focus section. He informs me that in the Trump camp "...preparations are being made for a ghastly finale, in which populism is turned loose on democracy itself." Wow! That's some scary shit!
10. I don't want to leave the impression that Canada's newspaper of record was only about American politics today. I did in fact learn about Adam Capay, a young native Canadian man who has spent over 1,500 days in solitary confinement. Thank you Patrick White!
For that The Korean charged me $5.75. I'm returning the paper tomorrow to get my money back.
2. It must have been a busy week for Renzetti. In addition to rubbing elbows with Atwood, she's got a feature interview with Bruce Springsteen in the Arts section. Not only is he a mega-zillionaire rock star, I learned that he is quite an audacious political pundit with some astute insights. He likes Hillary and thinks she'd be a very good president, whereas Donald is a real danger to democracy. Who knew?
3. The Focus section is mostly focused on Donald Trump this week. Tabatha Southey assures us that "there's little to remark upon in WikiLeaks heavily hyped document dump." Really? Wonder what Brad Marshall, Luis Miranda, Amy Dacey, or Debbie Wasserman Shultz would think about that assertion? She's also alerting us to the fact that Bad Vlad, Donald's hero, is probably behind this WikiLeaks outrage. The most recent document dumps also illustrate that, while Obama may be right that it's impossible to rig an American election, the Podesta emails convincingly demonstrate that the Dem hierarchy is determined to try.
4. Joanna Slater and Affan Chowdry inform me that the suggestion the election could be rigged is "preposterous." Whew! Good to know!
5. Joanna and Affan also make the observation that Al Gore was gracious after being swindled out of the 2000 election. They're worried Trump might not be as gracious. Yes, when the preposterous happens, it's good to have a gracious loser who is happy to roll over... for the good of the country, of course.
6. Still in the Focus section, John Ibbitsson informs me that to steal the election would require corrupting the media, the pollsters, and the vote itself. On the last point, google "hacking voting machines." For the former, see what you can find in those innocuous WikiLeaks revelations.
7. John also throws in a plug for the journalism profession, informing me there's a "crusading tradition of the craft." Sorry John; the tradition of progressive muck-raking journalism was dead by the time Washington unleashed shock and awe to vanquish Saddam's arsenal of WMDs, to the enthusiastic cheer-leading of your profession. And that was a quarter century ago. Get real!
8. John quotes professor Arthur Lupia of U of Michigan who assures us that "voter fraud is a myth." Good enough then, I guess. That tidbit follows a paragraph which references Project Veritas. Two high-end Dem operatives, one of whom has allegedly made hundreds of visits to the Obama White House, lost their jobs this past week after they admitted hiring people to stir up violence at Trump rallies. Corruption? What corruption? Shades of Hitler's Brown Shirts?
9. Slate's culture podcast host Stephen Metcalf gets a guest slot in the Focus section. He informs me that in the Trump camp "...preparations are being made for a ghastly finale, in which populism is turned loose on democracy itself." Wow! That's some scary shit!
10. I don't want to leave the impression that Canada's newspaper of record was only about American politics today. I did in fact learn about Adam Capay, a young native Canadian man who has spent over 1,500 days in solitary confinement. Thank you Patrick White!
For that The Korean charged me $5.75. I'm returning the paper tomorrow to get my money back.
Saturday, June 11, 2016
A double dose of Drumpfobia in today's Globe and Mail
Rolled into Wiarton this morning to fork over five bucks to The Korean for my Saturday Globe. Ya, I know, I can get the whole damn thing online, but I'm one of those old-school guys who just prefers to turn pages, even at that extortionate rate. Hell, I remember having the Globe and Mail delivered to my door every morning for twenty-five cents per.
Times have changed, and not for the better.
As luck would have it, the line-up at Timmies was way shorter than you'd expect in tourist season, so I ducked in for a medium with milk.
The folks who run this franchise made what is to me an incomprehensible decision recently; they spent a couple hundred thousand dollars on putting a second order board in the drive-thru. There's still only one drive-thru window, but now two cars can place their orders at the same time. Overall, this doesn't improve service or speed up your trip through the drive-thru, but it does provide the illusion that the line-up is shorter than it actually is.
It also makes a trip through the drive-thru far more stressful than it used to be. I don't care what kind of a peace-loving pacifist fairy you might be, you'll be pissed off when that car that pulled in after you makes it to the window before you. Frankly, I'd give up Tim Hortons altogether, but I'm addicted to whatever it is they put in their coffee. (Rumours were rife not long ago that the magic ingredient is nicotine, but corporate HQ denies this.)
Stopped at the Wiarton International Airport on the way home. They were having their second annual cars, planes and motorcycles show. Unfortunately, the cars, planes and motorcycles were far fewer in number than what I was promised in the promo piece the Farm Manager read me out of the local paper yesterday. Three hundred cars? It was more like three dozen.
Must have been the weather... or maybe I just showed up too early.
But at least I got to go home and tuck into my Saturday Globe earlier than I'd expected.
The most jarring thing about today's paper was that I read Southey's column just before I read the style section. Southey's dad was my economics prof in one of my past lives, and he used to bring little Tabatha to campus from time to time, so I feel a certain affinity.
Little Tabatha became a writer for the Globe, and apparently she's currently on a tour of Madagascar. Her reporting from Madagascar is bleak in the extreme. That's why the promos for $700 sandals in the "Style" section left me feeling somewhat discombobulated. Seven hundred bucks for a pair of sandals? Really? Most people who live in Madagascar do so on less than that. For a year.
I must say I really appreciate that automotive writer Pete Chenney has got his car column into the style section. Today he had a fine article about the hardtop version of the Shelby Cobra. Well worth a look. His column is generally the most interesting thing in Globe Style.
But let's get on to the Drumpfobia, shall we!
Today's Globe and Mail Trump-bashing is left to the husband and wife team of Elizabeth Renzetti (page two of the main news section) and Doug Saunders ( page seven in the Focus section).
Liz has a nice piece on view about how a couple of grannies are gonna put the boots to grandpa Donald Trump. It's kind of pleasant in a vapid way if you're a Clinton fan, which I'm not. But at the end of the day, I'd say if American politics comes down to Grannies bashing Grandpas, maybe America is really a gerontocracy, and not the plutocracy or oligarchy that so many sentient observers claim.
HRC getting the endorsement of Elizabeth Warren does do wonders for Clinton of course. It's almost as important as Trump getting the endorsement of establishment GOP guys like Newt or Chris Christie. Hillary is so far to the right of Trump that most of the PNAC crowd has no compunction whatsoever about supporting her, which tells you everything you need to know about Hillary. Getting the nod from one of the few genuine "progressives" in the Dem camp means the world to her campaign.
So Renzetti's story about the grannies getting together to take out the evil grandpa has at least some element of human interest.
Husband Doug's column, on the other hand, is just plain silly. Yup, time to erect a "cordon sanitaire" around the buffoon. After all, that's how they've been side-lining the radical right in Europe...
Really?
Perhaps Saunders' analysis had some legitimacy a couple of years ago. But the so-called anti-immigrant radical right has been radically on the up-tick since the refugee trickle became a flood. And whether that influx is a trickle or a flood depends entirely on the whims of Sultan Erdogan, our erstwhile anti-democratic NATO ally, who alone has his hands on the refugee taps. Europe has been busy trying to buy him off, but the wily Erdogan knows when he's got his adversaries over a barrel... and does he ever!
Yup, it's a mess, and it's gonna get way messier, especially if HRC's greedy grasping hands ever seize the levers of power. Which is not to say that things would be better with Trump at the helm. Trump is an unknown quantity. He might be better; he might not. At least with Trump there is a glimmer of possibility that America might change the disastrous course it's been on. With Hillary it will be full steam ahead.
So even though there were only a few dozen cars on view when I got to the Wiarton International Airport, a couple of them were very nice. There was a very pretty 1970 Cyclone GT. Unfortunately it had the 351 two barrel. That's not gonna stir up a lot of wind, nevermind a cyclone. The Mustang 50 I drove to the airport would probably have ten lengths on it over the quarter mile.
There was also a lovely '68 Impala SS with a 396 and four speed. I'm a sucker for the full size Chevy's from that era. Drove a '67 Impala SS for awhile, with the 327 and a powerglide. Also had a '67 Belair wagon for a few years, with a 283 and the powerglide. Paid two hundred for it, drove it for a couple of years, and sold it for two hundred.
That's cheap driving!
Times have changed, and not for the better.
As luck would have it, the line-up at Timmies was way shorter than you'd expect in tourist season, so I ducked in for a medium with milk.
The folks who run this franchise made what is to me an incomprehensible decision recently; they spent a couple hundred thousand dollars on putting a second order board in the drive-thru. There's still only one drive-thru window, but now two cars can place their orders at the same time. Overall, this doesn't improve service or speed up your trip through the drive-thru, but it does provide the illusion that the line-up is shorter than it actually is.
It also makes a trip through the drive-thru far more stressful than it used to be. I don't care what kind of a peace-loving pacifist fairy you might be, you'll be pissed off when that car that pulled in after you makes it to the window before you. Frankly, I'd give up Tim Hortons altogether, but I'm addicted to whatever it is they put in their coffee. (Rumours were rife not long ago that the magic ingredient is nicotine, but corporate HQ denies this.)
Stopped at the Wiarton International Airport on the way home. They were having their second annual cars, planes and motorcycles show. Unfortunately, the cars, planes and motorcycles were far fewer in number than what I was promised in the promo piece the Farm Manager read me out of the local paper yesterday. Three hundred cars? It was more like three dozen.
Must have been the weather... or maybe I just showed up too early.
But at least I got to go home and tuck into my Saturday Globe earlier than I'd expected.
The most jarring thing about today's paper was that I read Southey's column just before I read the style section. Southey's dad was my economics prof in one of my past lives, and he used to bring little Tabatha to campus from time to time, so I feel a certain affinity.
Little Tabatha became a writer for the Globe, and apparently she's currently on a tour of Madagascar. Her reporting from Madagascar is bleak in the extreme. That's why the promos for $700 sandals in the "Style" section left me feeling somewhat discombobulated. Seven hundred bucks for a pair of sandals? Really? Most people who live in Madagascar do so on less than that. For a year.
I must say I really appreciate that automotive writer Pete Chenney has got his car column into the style section. Today he had a fine article about the hardtop version of the Shelby Cobra. Well worth a look. His column is generally the most interesting thing in Globe Style.
But let's get on to the Drumpfobia, shall we!
Today's Globe and Mail Trump-bashing is left to the husband and wife team of Elizabeth Renzetti (page two of the main news section) and Doug Saunders ( page seven in the Focus section).
Liz has a nice piece on view about how a couple of grannies are gonna put the boots to grandpa Donald Trump. It's kind of pleasant in a vapid way if you're a Clinton fan, which I'm not. But at the end of the day, I'd say if American politics comes down to Grannies bashing Grandpas, maybe America is really a gerontocracy, and not the plutocracy or oligarchy that so many sentient observers claim.
HRC getting the endorsement of Elizabeth Warren does do wonders for Clinton of course. It's almost as important as Trump getting the endorsement of establishment GOP guys like Newt or Chris Christie. Hillary is so far to the right of Trump that most of the PNAC crowd has no compunction whatsoever about supporting her, which tells you everything you need to know about Hillary. Getting the nod from one of the few genuine "progressives" in the Dem camp means the world to her campaign.
So Renzetti's story about the grannies getting together to take out the evil grandpa has at least some element of human interest.
Husband Doug's column, on the other hand, is just plain silly. Yup, time to erect a "cordon sanitaire" around the buffoon. After all, that's how they've been side-lining the radical right in Europe...
Really?
Perhaps Saunders' analysis had some legitimacy a couple of years ago. But the so-called anti-immigrant radical right has been radically on the up-tick since the refugee trickle became a flood. And whether that influx is a trickle or a flood depends entirely on the whims of Sultan Erdogan, our erstwhile anti-democratic NATO ally, who alone has his hands on the refugee taps. Europe has been busy trying to buy him off, but the wily Erdogan knows when he's got his adversaries over a barrel... and does he ever!
Yup, it's a mess, and it's gonna get way messier, especially if HRC's greedy grasping hands ever seize the levers of power. Which is not to say that things would be better with Trump at the helm. Trump is an unknown quantity. He might be better; he might not. At least with Trump there is a glimmer of possibility that America might change the disastrous course it's been on. With Hillary it will be full steam ahead.
So even though there were only a few dozen cars on view when I got to the Wiarton International Airport, a couple of them were very nice. There was a very pretty 1970 Cyclone GT. Unfortunately it had the 351 two barrel. That's not gonna stir up a lot of wind, nevermind a cyclone. The Mustang 50 I drove to the airport would probably have ten lengths on it over the quarter mile.
There was also a lovely '68 Impala SS with a 396 and four speed. I'm a sucker for the full size Chevy's from that era. Drove a '67 Impala SS for awhile, with the 327 and a powerglide. Also had a '67 Belair wagon for a few years, with a 283 and the powerglide. Paid two hundred for it, drove it for a couple of years, and sold it for two hundred.
That's cheap driving!
Saturday, May 16, 2015
What I learned today from Canada's national newspaper of record
We're at $4.75 for the Saturday Globe and Mail at Chow Dong's variety store in Wiarton.
Just so you know... I obviously take the news seriously.
What did I learn today?
Well, I read the whole thing cover to cover, and what I learned is that Islam is seriously messed up.
Yup, there's something wrong with that religion.
Right there on page F3 Elizabeth Renzetti has an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali. That's the Somalian woman who has carved out a great career in the West by slamming Islam.
Normally I have a certain amount of respect for Ms. Renzetti. She's generally more on top of things than her idiot partner, who also happens to write for the same national newspaper of record.
Ya, I know...
But I think she dropped the ball with today's story.
Hirsi Ali, like Canada's own Irshad Manji, has an axe to grind and books to sell. The "Islam is intrinsically evil" trope is a big hit in the West. Both Ali and Manji have been flogging it to death, pun intended.
Not that there's anything punny about flogging anything to death....
But back to Renzetti's interview with our prized Islamic rebel Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She is apparently Islam's iteration of Martin Luther.
No shit!
So she gotta be great!
Hmm... all I see in that interview is how there is something inherently "wrong" with Islam...
There's gotta be... after all, how else to account for all that extremist Islamic terror?
Well, you could start by addressing France's war on Algeria...
Israel's relentless ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem...
America's (and the me-too ass-kisser states) wars on Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria...
There's something fundamentally amiss in Islam?
The biggest problem with Islam is that the Nations of Virtue have been bombing them to ratshit for the last fifty years.
Unless of course they are totalitarian puppet states who agree to spend their oil booty on lots and lots of bombs and guns manufactured by their betters in the Nations of Virtue.
No wonder the Muslims are pissed off!
Just so you know... I obviously take the news seriously.
What did I learn today?
Well, I read the whole thing cover to cover, and what I learned is that Islam is seriously messed up.
Yup, there's something wrong with that religion.
Right there on page F3 Elizabeth Renzetti has an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali. That's the Somalian woman who has carved out a great career in the West by slamming Islam.
Normally I have a certain amount of respect for Ms. Renzetti. She's generally more on top of things than her idiot partner, who also happens to write for the same national newspaper of record.
Ya, I know...
But I think she dropped the ball with today's story.
Hirsi Ali, like Canada's own Irshad Manji, has an axe to grind and books to sell. The "Islam is intrinsically evil" trope is a big hit in the West. Both Ali and Manji have been flogging it to death, pun intended.
Not that there's anything punny about flogging anything to death....
But back to Renzetti's interview with our prized Islamic rebel Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She is apparently Islam's iteration of Martin Luther.
No shit!
So she gotta be great!
Hmm... all I see in that interview is how there is something inherently "wrong" with Islam...
There's gotta be... after all, how else to account for all that extremist Islamic terror?
Well, you could start by addressing France's war on Algeria...
Israel's relentless ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem...
America's (and the me-too ass-kisser states) wars on Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria...
There's something fundamentally amiss in Islam?
The biggest problem with Islam is that the Nations of Virtue have been bombing them to ratshit for the last fifty years.
Unless of course they are totalitarian puppet states who agree to spend their oil booty on lots and lots of bombs and guns manufactured by their betters in the Nations of Virtue.
No wonder the Muslims are pissed off!
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