Hiking the Bruce Trail

Right off the top I have to apologize for the fact that the last few posts appear as run-on gibberish. Normally I at least try to compartmentalize my gibberish into paragraphs. But the fucking cat walked over the keyboard the other day, and I have no clue how to undo whatever the useless fur-bag just did. So here we are. Here at Falling Downs, we’ve got various strands of the Bruce Trail in close proximity. This morning I set out to explore one of those strands just on the other side of Bass Lake. To get there, I had to hike about a quarter mile east and then make a right at Lundy Road, cleverly named after the only family that lives on Lundy Road. What is essentially their very long driveway is maintained by the municipality, which is a good deal, but it’s also part of the Bruce Trail. The Lundys hike the Bruce every time they walk down the driveway! But enough about them. Walking is part of my mindfulness regimen. These are stressful times, and a little mindfulness helps dull the pain of the relentless mind-fuckery we are inundated with every day through our screens. I find it helpful to have a mantra you can repeat to yourself, something that keeps to the rhythm of your walking. I’m partial to Gregorian chant, but anything you can bend to your pace, even Bieber lyrics, would fit the bill. So I’m motoring up the Lundy Road and into the meadows beyond, the walking sticks a-flailing, talking to myself, and as I tend to do, I eventually go “off piste.” I’d done the trail that skirts the south side of Bass Lake, and at some point crossed a logging road. The Bruce Trail continued ahead. The logging road seemed to head in a vaguely westerly direction. I once did a lap around Bass Lake on my mountain bike. I figured it should be possible in hiking boots. I keep walking and chanting and inhaling the forest air. I’m in uncharted territory here. I emerge from forest trails into open pasture. More forest trails, more pastures… I’ve long since lost sight of the lake. I come to a fork in the logging trail. I bear right, because that should take me back towards the lake. Then there’s another fork, and I take the right again. More pastures, more logging roads, I’m totally in the zone. I got full mindfulness going on… About three hours into my hike, I had a sudden realization that the meadow I was traversing seemed uncannily familiar. Not only that, but I didn’t seem to be getting any closer to Bass Lake. I’d been walking around in circles. But here’s the thing. By the time I got home, I’d spent four hours out in the fresh air and away from the laptop. There’s still snow on the ground around some of those trails. The lake itself is mostly frozen. If we can get a spell of warm weather, the lake will thaw and the water will still be high enough I can take my canoe from my place right to the very end of Bass Lake. Just have to adapt the mantra to the paddle strokes.

Real time vs. screen time

That’s quite a budget-cum-propaganda exercise Agent Frida unleashed yesterday. Sure, there was some run-of-the-mill empty promises. The “experts” have apparently noticed housing starts haven’t kept pace with population growth for at least a quarter century. It boggles the mind how many millions have been spent studying the matter. My hunch is experts will still be studying the matter ten years from now. The experts can’t figure out how to get clean water to Indigenous communities, and they’ve been studying that one for at least fifty years. Don’t hold your breath waiting for an affordable place to live. But where Agent Frida truly broke new ground was in her assertion that the tyrant Putin needs to go. This was her prelude to the announcement that the Ukraine military will henceforth be partially funded out of Canada’s military budget. Eight billion fresh funding for the CAF over five years. That’s 1.6 billion annually, and you can bet most of that is weighted towards the end of that five year projection. If the half billion is earmarked for Ukraine’s immediate military needs, that means most of our increased military budget in the immediate future is for the benefit of Ukraine, not the CAF. But what the heck… if we can help the plucky Ukrainians stop the Rooskies in Ukraine, we won’t have to fight them on the Plains of Abraham. Meanwhile, back in the real world, the doyenne of the dog park had bad news when me and Bruno showed up this morning. She’s a blunt-spoken old gal. “Some fucking cunt stole the shit-shovel. That’s gotta be about as fucking low as you can go.” That is bad news. Not every dog poop lends itself to pick-up with one of those poo-bags they conveniently leave at the gate. I’ve used that shovel myself when Bruno has had maybe too much fruits and vegetables and KFC the previous day. Anyway, after that somewhat abrupt welcome, me and the Big Boy enjoyed a happy hour of me walking around in circles, and him cavorting with his canine friends. On her PR mission to Kyiv today, President of the EU Princess von der Leyen announced she and PM Fluffy would be co-hosting a fundraiser for the benefit of Ukraine. I’ll be pitching in for a new shit shovel instead.

Escaping the "news cycle"

These are stressfull times for news junkies. There's a lot of shit going on in the world. Putin with his totally unprovoked war on Western civilization. Women with weiners rewriting the NCAA record books. Then there's the housing crisis, the overdose crisis, the financial crisis... And at the end of the day, even if you survive that litany of existential threats, there's that climate crisis that just keeps getting worse! So it's easy to get bummed out. That's why I'm stepping away from the news cycle. It's making me miserable and depressed. Took a day away from screens to have lunch with Junior in Guelph. We went to a joint called "Carl's Roadhouse," which, if I'm not mistaken, used to be a Crabby Joe's, and before that, an Eddie Shack donut store. That's gotta be the best value in town. A burger and fries is less than a Big Mac meal at Mickey D's. Plus, they had a special on the 30 oz stein. Thirty ounces? That used to be called a pitcher. It was a day well spent away from the screens, and a smooth trip except for the last few miles. Got a flat tire at the top of 6th street. Found myself changing the tire in the parking lot behind city hall. Spent the next day arranging a tire. This is not as simple as it would seem. McArthur Tire, where I bought these, is offering bookings in the week after Easter. WTF is that? I'm driving around on a fake spare that you aren't supposed to put more than 100 miles on, and never over 50 mph. Lucky for me, the shop manager at McArthur felt my pain, and we were able to get going with the new tire this afternoon. That's two days I missed the latest Putin atrocity. Both of those days I managed to get the Big Boy to the dog park for a romp with his pals. That always puts a smile on my face. CNN/CBC/Al Jazeera never put a smile on my face. And now I'm advising the Farm Manager on which rubber boots to buy that will go with the awesome yello Eddie Baurer slicker she just got. We're planning a trip to Nova Scotia in June, and she wants to fit in. Because all the locals wear Eddie Bauer? I've escaped the news cycle for two days... And I like it!

Blinken declares Russia has lost Ukraine war

Blinken took the good news to network TV this morning. Russia has already lost the war in Ukraine. The plucky Ukrainians are putting the run to them. NATO is stronger and more united than ever! Free and democratic Ukraine will be thriving long after Putin is gone!

I don’t mean to be the turd in the punch-bowl, but Ukraine is gone already. The map of Ukraine will never again look like it did on February 23. According to the latest Leveda poll, Putin’s ratings are thriving.

The US policy of avoiding direct confrontation with Russia, aped by the vassal states, is designed to prolong a hopeless war as long as possible by flooding Ukraine with weapons. Given the rampant corruption in Ukraine, it is inevitable that much of this hardware will find it’s way to the black market.

There’ll be blowback, big time.

Meanwhile, the US has sent emissaries to their long-time victims Iran and Venezuela, to talk nice and maybe see about getting a little of their oil, since our allies in the Middle East won’t open the taps…

WTF?

When you gotta suck up to your enemies, because your friends won’t help you, maybe it’s time to do some soul-searching.

And isn’t it curious that, in addition to avoiding at all cost F-35s having to face the competition head-on, the US Navy abandoned the Black Sea around the time the White House started claiming a Russian invasion was imminent?

The most powerful military in history absents itself from the battlefield just as actual war breaks out? What’s wrong with that picture?

As for NATO unity, even the dullest allies will soon realize the alliance is a liability, that their role is to be cannon fodder for the Empire, tucked away thousands of miles from the action.

Everybody gets it except the cretinous western elites. Here’s a cartoon from Global Times, a Chinese government owned newspaper.

Ukraine enlists Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland as lobbyist

That's according to a trio of Globe and Mail professional journos, which reminds me of a certain Newfie joke involving a light-bulb and a ladder.

Here's the context, from today's paper. Fife, Curry, and Chase insinuate that the reason the budget is late and most likely lame, is because Chrystia has been distracted by the crisis in her homeland.

Ukraine had enlisted Ms. Freeland, who speaks fluent Ukrainian and Russian, to plead the case among allies to target the Central Bank of the Russian Federation by cutting off access to its massive foreign exchange reserves, which Moscow could use to offset the impact of Western sanctions. 

They enlisted Agent Frida to lobby on their behalf because she speaks fluent Russian and Ukrainian? Is that what they speak in those allied nations to which she is pleading Ukraine's case?

Obviously that's BS. They enlisted Chrystia because she is a loyal Ukrainian partisan.

Doesn't she have a job in Canada?

How does this brazen conflict of interest get a pass?

Twitter and Facebook incite hatred

Will Smith’s slap heard round the world was more than a gift to racist stereotypes.

The fact that after his physical assault on a person who used hurtful words, he was applauded by the elite of American popular culture, has more sinister implications.

Smith has a lot of support in some circles. Facebook and Twitter are waiving their hate speech policies and allowing rampant hate mongering against other comedians who have offended those same circles.

Tweaking algorithms in such a way as to incite hatred is not a new development. Twitter sidelined its hate-speech policies to allow anti-Russia hate to blossom.

It’s not just social media, it’s news as well. Just a few weeks ago the nabobs at CBC were determined to find connections between the truckers’ protest and far-right extremism. Now the same “journalists” are working even harder trying not to see fascists in Ukraine. After all, they are fighting Russians, and every decent person of sound mind must surely hate Putin and Russia by now, and if Nazis are fighting Russia, we need to support them.

I tune in Al Jazeera a couple of times a day. You can’t watch half an hour of their Ukraine coverage without multiple anti-Russian slurs; “Russians are animals,” for example.

The Al Thani clan, Qatar’s “royal family,” fund Al Jazeera. They play a tidy double game. On the one hand they host US military bases and provide a steady stream of anti-Russian propaganda. Their correspondent Assed Baig is particularly fun to watch.

On the other, they are relentlessly pro-Palestinian, and declined participation in the Judas Accords. Nor are they in any rush to join in those Russia sanctions Uncle Sam is demanding, because they continue to maintain cordial relations, not only with Russia, but with Iran as well.

Like many of America’s supposed allies, the Qatari’s remain on the fence, waiting to see which way the winds of change are blowing.

When the time comes, they may have to change the target of their hate-mongering.

And that’s when we’ll have to reap what we’ve sown.

What is "real time?"

Spent most of the evening sitting in front of the fire, with the hound curled up by my side.

I am grateful that I can have a fire to sit in front of, and I love my dog, but instead of taking the time to appreciate these blessings, I've got one eye on Al Jazeera on the flat screen and the other on Redd Foxx on the laptop.

After considerable ponderation, I have concluded that your time isn't really real unless you get your face out of the screens.

Stepped out for a breath of fresh air just a few minutes ago. Lo and behold, the night sky is clear, and there are more stars than you could ever count. Standing dumbfounded staring at the sky isn't widely considered a productive use of one's time, but it does help you put things in perspective.

How many of those distant stars have planets whirling around them?

In an infinite sky, there are infinite possibilities.

But rather than considering those possibilities, we would rather retreat to our screens.