Dec.31 Getting past our prejudices and myths.

It's New Year's Eve, and I've been chauffering visitors all day. Fortunately, there is little to be said about the Irving press. There is nothing worth reading in Section A news. And there is only one opinion column worth reading. It's on A9, and it's about dementia and altzheimer's. (or maybe I'm just getting sensitive about the topic.)

What is does have is an editorial cartoon that is well drawn – but spreads an ignorance that is already too well-spread.

It shows a fighter-bomber flown by a grinning Putin. For many years, aircraft have carried decals to indicate how many of the enemy the pilot has shot down. In this cartoon, as the bombs drop, the decals are of men, women and children. There is really quite enough ignorance and hatred in this world without adding to it.

Aircraft have been killing men, women and children for over a century. And they have been doing so deliberately for over a century. But perhaps the great turning point came in 1942 when Britain, the U.S. - yes, and Canada, too – decided civilians would become the main target of bombers. (And, yes, I did say Canada.)

And the biggest killers by far have been the western powers. They have killed millions of innocent men, women and children since World War 2. They are still killing today with bombs and aerial mines dropped in 1960. Today, Canadians are dropping bombs in Iraq. Could we have a funny cartoon of them? Today, Saudi Arabia is dropping bombs on children in Yemen, bombs sold to it by the U.S. How about a neat cartoon of one of those starving kids with his stomach blown out?

It's bad enough that we cannot see evil in ourselves, only in others. There is a terrorist attack in Paris, and the whole of the U.S. is living in an hysteria of panic, fear, hatred...and never a thought for the millions they have killed, and go on killing every day.

We don't need any more fear and hypocrisy and blood lust than we already have. A cartoonist is supposed to have the guts to show us the unpleasant reality that we don't want to see.

World News doesn't have any – unless you consider the last page of it which is one of the biggest stories in the section. It's about how cute cats are. And it has 6, colour photos of cats being cute.

The only other bit worth reading is in C2. It's a column by student columnist Aurelie Pare. It's about how young people should be taking up environmental issues. But they aren't. They've been raised to believe in only brainless entertainment and consumption. In short, they are far too much like their parents.

Fortunately, there are other newspapers in this world.

The Guardian has the story of severe and unheard of flooding in Northern England and Scotland. The reason for it, according to the British government and British scientists, is climate change – very much like the terrible storms the U.S. is getting. But we don't need to worry. I'm sure Mr. Irving wouldn't allow anything like that to happen here. Anyway, we know this is all just a lot of busybodies worrying about nothing. Anyway, if we get diesel buses, I'm sure that will take care of the whole thing.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/video/2015/dec/31/couples-home-floods-fourth-time-storm-frank-chaos-scotland-video

Whenever a nation or a religion get angry at us, our news media invariably plant all the blame on them, and they commonly pronounce the other side as driven by evil. That's, to put it kindly, simple-minded.

The opinion column below explains how the disruption of Muslim society began a century ago with deals made by the British and French to create new countries in the middle east, often with phony kings, and then to exploit those countries. That's true enough; but it doesn't go back nearly far enough. The British, for example, ruled their empire by setting religious groups against each other. That is what has led to Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan pointing nuclear weapons at each other.

It was all made worse, much worse, by the U.S.-British invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. The best way to understand that is to read books by people on the other side, or friendly to the other side. For that purpose, the best book on China I've seen is Wealth and Power. And I'm just now reading one by an American historian who grew up in Afghanistan. His analysis of that country's problems and the origins of them is quite different from the western one. It's Tamim Ansary, “Games Without Rules”.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/on-the-middle-east/2015/dec/30/middle-east-still-rocking-from-first-world-war-pacts-made-100-years-ago

I really didn't want to publish the next excerpt. It's an opinion from al Jazeera. I had hoped to find something cheerier for New Year's Eve. I can only remind readers that we are the ones who set all this in motion. It started with the British in India, the British and French in Africa and the Middle East, and now the Americans who really blew the lid off with their very foolish invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm not sure the author is right about ISIS continuing to grow for years to come – but there's no doubt we have created a situation in which that might happen.

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/12/isil-has-launched-a-world-war.html

So, what's the biggest problem facing us in 2016? It's not ISIS. It's not war with China or with Russia. The most immediate problem face is the political power of big money. When we go rid of most kings and aristocracies a couple of hundred years ago, we thought we were establishing democracies. We really didn't.

The dominant power in our society became big money. I don't call it capitalism, because it isn't capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system. That's all it is. When it begins dictating policy to government, it's making itself a political system as well. But big money's only interest is bigger money – and making it now. It has no understanding of social needs, and no morality to make up for that lack of understanding. Nor does it have any understanding of foreign affairs except as a means to make money for the already wealthy.

For at least 200 years, big money has dominated almost every aspect of our lives, a domination that was enhanced by the development of cheap newspapers just over a century ago, and now by TV and film. Big money is the force behind imperialism – and the prime beneficiary of imperialism.

The idea that we fought two world wars to bring democracy and equality to the world is simply not true. It is true that we restored democracy to a few countries, like France, that had lost it to Germany. But the only country to get freedom and democracy for the first time was India – and it got them only because the British could not longer stop it. Africa had to fight for what freedom it got – and it didn't get much. Latin America remained under the domination of American dictators and puppets.

We should remember those who served. But we do nobody any good in pretending that they died to preserve democracy. We should remember and we should feel indebted to them – but we should remember the truth.

The world is in great turmoil. It's in turmoil because so much of the power in this world is not in the hands of government, but in the hands of greedy and incompetent and murderous asses who constitute the very wealthy of this world.

Free trade agreements have been used to take power away from our governments, and give even more of it to the wealthy who answer to nobody. 2016, if it sees the approval of Trans-Pacific and European trade deals, could see the final step in reducing national governments to irrelevance. (Even as it is, the power of big money has made the American leadership race into just another piece of bad TV.)

That power, lacking in intelligence and morality, has created all the other problems we face, including climate change and international war. And for proof of their lack of intelligence and morality, read tomorrow's (or any day's) edition of the Irving press.

Dec. 30:

Well, there's some good news about the Irving press. Today, Gwynne Dyer is back. He's more optimistic than I am, and this column is his usual, very sound and sensible stuff. But, in the Irving press, it really is a petunia in a field of onions. Note in particular what he says about the Syrian rebel army (the ones on our side, and against Assad). Our news media constantly tells us that these rebels are “moderate” Muslims. In fact, they are exactly the same as ISIS. And the U.S. has been supplying ISIS and the rebels from the start.

Dyer thinks the danger of nuclear war is small. I don't think it is. Not at all. We are very close to one by accident – and perhaps even not by accident.

Apart from Dyer, there's no news and no opinion worth reading in the whole paper. Norbert is back to ranting, though always in a vague sort of way. One rant he repeats is that the education system needs to be revised. If he would take the trouble to read the student columns in his own newspaper, he'll find they're quite a bit better than his – and that's evidence that the schools have improved enormously since his days.

And both Norbert and Alec Bruce have a habit of talking at length about the problem of our public finances without once ever mentioning the name Irving, or Ganong, or Oland. And the news never has a mention of Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world, where the U.S. is supplying the Saudis with bombs to murder thousands of helpless people who are already starving to death.

There are days when one can only get angry. Today, in the supermarket, I noticed the magazine Hello, Canada which is full of gush about Harry and Kate and the Queen and Charles. Prince Charles, an obvious inheritor of the royal family's lack of brains (a lack that goes back for centuries), lives in a palace, and has over a hundred and fifty personal servants. Harry's stunningly brainless brother who lives for nude parties with expensive hookers, will routinely fly half way around the world for a round of golf. The Duke of and Duchess of Windsor (with the Duke holding the record as probably the most brainless and useless one of the bunch), lived for decades, travelling around the world, and living in the most expensive hotel suites – and all on the taxpayers' shillings.

Meanwhile, thousands of British children live on the streets, and the rate of poverty in Britain is rising.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/two-million-more-children-will-slide-into-poverty-by-2030-while-the-rich-get-richer-economic-a6789806.html

(Oh, doesn't baby George look sweet?)

In other news, The Guardian has resumed its count of Americans killed by their own police. With another day to go, U.S. police have killed 1126 people. This is not a tsk! Tsk! Story. This is a story about a nation with profound and very dangerous social problems. And these, combined with rising poverty and hysteria, are getting close to a flashpoint. But not a single Republican candidate has even mentioned this. They all just want to kill Muslims. The fabric of an American society is being shredded. Most of the rights supposedly won in 1776 have been lost. The U.S. has become a secret police state in which freedom is history, and the constitution barely exists. Its only remaining purpose is to make its super rich even richer.

On the climate change front, we're heard hints about action from governments – though only hints. And we've heard nothing at all from the oil industry. In fact, it is pushing wars, investing money in exploration and processing and this can only mean it plans to keep selling oil forever. There really isn't much that came out of the Paris conference. I think the greed and arrogance of big oil won the day.

Notably, I haven't seen a big, colour ad from Irving. You know, like the one he had for protecting our forests. But no. I haven't seen such an ad dealing with oil. The oil companies don't care about climate change. They are not going to do anything unless forced to. And our governments have drifted so far from democracy that they don't force billionaires to do anything.

This brings us to climate change, again. And the big question that hasn't even been asked. Climate change is going to make the Syria refugee crisis seem pretty minor compared to the many millions who will be forced to flee their homes because of climate change. Is anyone even thinking of how we're going to deal with that? I've seen no sign of forward thinking on this (or anything else) from the U.S. Republican candidates. Indeed, the only country which has responded well to the Syrian refugee crisis is Germany, while Britain remains its old, racist self.

In good news, of a sort, one half of all weapons in the whole word now come from the American weapons industry. This is what President Eisenhower warned against – a military-industrial complex so wealthy and powerful ( and corrupt and corrupting) that it has displaced democracy, and has so shifted government policy that government has no power or to do anything about the spread of poverty in the U.S., the crumbling of education, and the social collapse of the United States. It's a complex that encourages war because it makes its money out of war.  

And our news media helps the defence industry, stirring up fears and publishing outright lies to justify defence contracts that commonly go way over promised cost. The example below is The New York Times. The writer of this report, Eric Margolis, in one of the best and most honest journalists in the business.   http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43817.htm

We don't hear much about Bernie Sanders in the Democrat leadership race. But he's probably the only one on either side who isn't driven by hatred or greed. He actually sees a political responsibility we have to each other. Here's a sample of his thinking.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/12/29/bernie_sanders_audit_the_department_of_defense.html

Oh, I should mention that the war in Afghanistan is still on after 14 years. And the U.S. is losing as the Taliban gains strength. The means the U.S. will have to beef up its forces there, and that it will be looking for patsies to join it. I would hope Canada would show more brains this time, and more concern for its own people so that it won't send more Canadians to die for a war that is a disaster masterpiece of purely American construction.

More locally, our provincial government in New Brunswick is studying fracking to determine whether it is perfectly safe. And we all know that they'll find it is perfectly safe “with regulations that will be the strictest in the world”. By the way, Oklahoma and Texas are conducting studies to see whether fracking is the cause of many earthquakes those states are having. But I'm sure Premier Gallant will be able to tell us it is perfectly safe.

Then there's the firing of our chief medical officer, Dr. Cleary, for no known reason. This is more than a little strange. Dr. Cleary is highly regarded and publicly defended by virtually every medical association in Canada. She was fired by a member of the government with no medical expertise apart from knowing he should always, after a shower, use the towel to dry between his toes. And the government refuses to tell us why she was fired. What kind of democracy is this if some twit in the government can fire a highly regarded professional without telling us why? This is something we all have a right to know. We should go right to the top to demand an answer. And here's what we should ask. Mr. Irving, why was Dr. Cleary fired?

Dec. 29: Private news media, lying and propaganda

The Irving press is still on holiday, so section A is still big on memories of 2015, and heart-warming tales of how some people help the elderly to shovel snow.

The editorial uses nine paragraphs to tell us the Confederation Bridge to PEI is nice. It concludes with a ringing challenge to all of us. “We believe New Brunswick could do more to promote the fact that this amazing landmark has one foot in our province, giving tourists one more reason to visit.” Way to lay it on the line, kid.

I'm really not sure what Norbert's column is about. There's a flash of anger and contempt for those of us who lack the foresight to see the wonder of having an 'events centre'. And, apparently, those who disagree with Norbert 'whine'. So puut me down for a real 'oink'.

Oh, Norbert also says we live in a global society. We should but, actually, most of us don't. How could we? The Irving press tells us almost nothing about the rest of the world – and what little is does tell us is usually propaganda.

Alan Cochrane has a column he should have titled “What I did last year”. Above it is a big, colour photo of a woman wearing horns on her head. I have no idea why either the photo or Cochrane is on a comments page.

Alec Bruce has a column about our failure to deal with economic problems. That's reasonable enough. But the column goes nowhere on suggesting a solution.

Then there's a column about the work of the ombudswoman for the Irving press. That's reasonable enough. But, by its nature, it's not likely to stir a whole lot of thinking.

Speaking of this 'global society' that Norbert says we live in, the Canada and World section of the paper is over half about Canada, with this as one of the big stories. “Toronto cop taken to hospital after bite from sick raccoon.” There is very little from the Middle East, nothing about Europe or Africa or Latin America. And the only story from all of Asia is about Japan apologizing to South Korea for its abuse of South Korean women in world war two. ( Yes, I agree what the Japanese army did was terrible. But that was over 70 years ago.) Today, it might be more important to be told that Japan is repositioning its fleet in a way that seems intended to be threatening to China. What's happening? Why?

Even worse, there is no column of opinion on anything more global than our own bellybuttons. Of course, New Brunswick is parochial. Of course, it has little sense of major issues even within the province. And the Irving press is designed to make sure it stays that way.

For example, an enormous environmental disaster is happening, and has been happening for some time, and with almost no notice from our news media. Think Indonesia. Think lush forests, wild life. Than think – Indonesia releases more greenhouse gasses into our skies than the whole of the United States does.

It's so bad that, throughout Indonesia and bordering countries, people have to wear masks to breath. Almost the whole country is in flames. And it's all the result of many years of corporate, plantation development. Think you could write a column on that, Norbert? Could anybody at that paper do it? Can't you even buy a copy of the story from a news service? After all, that's how you got that big flash on B6 about a Toronto cop being bitten by a raccoon.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/views-expressed/2015/11/biggest-man-made-environmental-disaster-preceding-paris-clima#at_pco=smlrebv-1.0&at_si=5682d4c482bc08c5&at_ab=per-2&at_pos=1&at_tot=5

This story is by Karl Nerenberg, for many years an outstanding reporter on Canada's parliament.

Then he has this one – about how our provincial and federal pension plants are among the worst in the developed world.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/karl-nerenberg/2015/12/trudeaus-finance-minister-and-his-provincial-colleagues-play-s

I also recommend the following one on Alaska because it deals with the economic advice of the Fraser Institute, a very far right-wing 'think tank' financed by billionaires to spread their propaganda. Its 'studies' are highly thought of in the Irving press, and frequently appear on the Comments page.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclimenhaga/2015/12/baked-alaska-and-fraser-institute-what-changes-and-what-doesnt-w

The Guardian has run the kind of story the Irving press would never dream of running. It's about how British banks, despite huge profits, pay little corporation tax and, often, no tax at all. The page also suggests other stories which reveal the banks aren't the only cheats.

Gee! I wonder if we have any cheats like that in New Brunswick. Is it possible this is part of the reason why we have a fiscal crisis? Is it possible this is part of the reason why the very rich in much of the world are getting richer, while the rest of us are getting poorer? Does this suggest a reason for the enthusiasm for 'free trade' deals?

Any thoughts, Norbert? Or anybody at the Irving press? Remember – the recession we really haven't scrambled out of was caused by cheating bankers and billionaires whom we then foolishly bailed out at our expense. They stole a trillion dollars. And we (mostly the U.S.) paid them a trillion more so the wouldn't feel bad about it.

Unregulated, or poorly regulated capitalism does NOT create prosperity. That has never been true. We have a long way to go, but we have to learn that. As it is, the more we let big business run loose, the more it will rip us off, and the greater the damage it will cause to our society and our environment. The NDP made a big mistake when it accommodated itself to popular opinion in order to win votes. Being a majority view does not make anything right. The great challenge we face is to not to win people over, but to make them think, and make them look at reality.

And the great task of Irving press is to make sure that doesn't happen.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/dec/22/anger-at-city-banks-paying-little-or-no-corporation-tax

The next story attracted me because of the photo. I lived and taught in The Netherlands for a time, and I miss it.) But the story itself is an important one. It sounds impossible. But it's far superior to and cheaper than our current welfare system. It's not just The Netherlands that is looking at this. Several other countries are ready to move on it. It's cheaper than welfare. It preserves self-respect. And it generates economic activity that would benefit all of us.

Watch for an attack on if from The Fraser Institute and Atlantic Institute of Market Studies. They're interested only in systems that make billionaires richer. But billionaires do not create wealth for anybody but themselves. We, all of us, create wealth for all of us.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/26/dutch-city-utrecht-basic-income-uk-greens

The Independent, like The Guardian, is a British paper. I've generally found it a pretty good one. It comes in useful today because The Guardian seems to have discontinued its record of tracking police shootings in the U.S. That's too bad, because even the FBI says The Guardian is the only source that keeps an accurate record of such shooting. If The Guardian were still counting, the number of such shootings for 2015 would be about 1100 – as opposed to the Washington Post's 965.

But The Independent adds a suggestive figure.

Of all the unarmed men killed by U.S. police, one-half were African-American.

The story below is useful for an understanding of what these counts mean, and how the U.S. compares to other countries.

http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/the-shocking-extent-of-fatal-police-shootings-in-the-us-in-one-graphic--lJkmbhc5yb

The following story – that the U.S. in the post-1945 period had planned and approved a nuclear war which would concentrate on killing civilians. That might sound wild but, in fact, aerial bombing has ALWAYS been aimed at civilians. The first such bombing was carried out by Italy about 1910, using the 'string-bag' aircraft of the time with American, mercenary pilots to bottom native villages in Ethiopia.

Churchill used aircraft in the same way against kurdish civilians in 1920. The Germans did it in the Spanish Civil War. And from 1942 on, civilian targets became the rule. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed BECAUSE they were civilian. (We call it terrorism - when other countries do it.)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-intended-to-destroy-civilian-populations-in-enemy-cities-during-cold-war-according-to-a6784756.html

Finally, a cautionary tale for those who think the world is made up of nice people and bad people.

Russia has a large, Muslim population – and that's a military concern for it. Next door to many of the Russian Muslims is a Muslim Afghanistan. That's a major reason why Russia invaded Afghanistan in 1979. And that's when the 'secret war' strategists in the Washington, those very clever ones who use foreign wars to their advantage, secretly helped the Afghanis with weapons, money, and training. They also worked closely with other good-hearted souls like Osama bin-Laden. (which may explain why they would later kill bin-Laden rather than take him back to the U.S. for trial.)

This alliance with Afghanistan is what led to the rise and success of the Taliban. It also led to the creation of al-Quaeda. It was all very clever. It beat the Russians, and severely damaged the Russian economy. And it was all done by proxies rather than by American troops.

Alas! Any gain from that was lost and worse than lost when those clever planners decided that the U.S. should invade Afghanistan. The excuse was that good ol' buddy Osama bin Laden had planned 9/11 there with the help of Afghanistan. No evidence for this has ever been given. (In fact, we now know the planning was done in Europe.)

No matter, the war soon turned into a war against the Taliban – the same ones who had been trained and equipped by the U.S. It's turning into a very long war – and the U.S. is losing.

The war also gave rise to more militant groups like al-Quaeda and today's ISIS.

Again , the bright lads decided, in their clever way, to use these new groups as proxies in the US attempt to get rid of Assad in Syria so that American oil billionaires could control the middle east. Some, for example, became the Syrian 'rebels' – most of whom were not Syrians, and who were much like al-Quaeda. U.S. news media covered this by always referring to them as 'moderate' rebels. 'Moderate' is such a nice word.

The rebels got weapons and money from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. But they failed to overthrow Assad. Well, that's because most Syrians preferred Assad. That's when ISIS burst on the scene. Again, the bright lads in Washington had another flash. They would use ISIS as a proxy army to get rid of Assad. That's why the U.S. has been surprisingly gentle with ISIS. That's why ISIS can get its oil to market to finance the war. That's why it can ship its oil out through Turkey. That's why it can get money and supplies from Saudi Arabia.

But two things went wrong.

1. ISIS intended to take Syria and Iraq and more to create a large, Islamic state. But the U.S. wanted itself to control the region. And it particularly did not want a large state of any kind to emerge. It wanted to break up Syria and Iraq into a number of small and weak states that the U.S. oil industry could control.

2. Then, Russia got itself invited to help Assad, and it opened vigorous attacks on ISIS.

The US was in a corner. It had now to at least pretend to fight ISIS, and pretend to cooperate with Russia. But its objective remains to get control of that oil – and that means scaring Russia off. Thus the appeal to NATO, including Canada, to join the war.

Will Putin back off? I doubt it. He has outplayed the U.S. diplomatically for some time, now. He also knows the old rule of the streets. If a bully hits you, don't back off because he'll just keep pounding you.

Dec. 28: Get ready for tough decisions.

Front page news. Read all about it. People went shopping on Boxing Day. We had heavy snow in 2015. There's a big picture on the front page of a man shovelling snow -  presumably for people who have never seen that. The headline is that the premier says the public wants shale gas dealt with. And the government is thinking about it. Who woulda guessed?

Then the premier says that social license to develop shale gas is necessary. 'Social' and 'License' - two words that sound good - unless  you know what they mean. It means the general public would have to show strong support in order for shale gas to be approved.

May I point out, then, that Adolf Hitler had social licence to massacre Jews? That the U.S. government had social licence to kill over a million Iraqis?

It is not the function of government to do only what people support. Its function is to do what is necessary for the public good. "Social license" is just a weasel term to let Gallant please his masters, even if it means something deadly for the general public. And if any peasants object? Well, then he calls out the boys wearing camouflage suits and carrying combat rifles.

It seems the biggest story of 2015 for New Brunswick was the tightening of rules for daycare. Gee. I dunno. It thought that big ad about how JDIrving Ltd. loves us so much he's really going to demand a tough government study of his chemical spraying of our forests  (and us).

Maybe even bigger was the silence of JDIrvingLtd. on the Paris climate change conference. In fact, there's been a deathly silence from the oil industry all over the world - except to  intensify its efforts to find and sell more oil - as JDIrving Ltd. is doing with its proposed new refinery, and as the U.S. doing with its massive spending and massive killing to give American billionaires the ownership of all oil in the Middle East.  In fairness, American oil billionaires also bring the good word of Jesus from our Christian society to the murderous heathens of that part of the world.  (As we now know, Jesus was an American with blue eyes, and almost certainly a Republican.)

News and comment?  Something less than trivial. Craig Babstock deepens our understanding of the world with his tale of how he once had a broken pen. Alec Bruce tells us he loves his wife.

The only thing worth reading in the whole first section is Steve Malloy's column on our new, minimum wage.    

The only story in Section B that looked as it if might be worth reading was on B1 - 'Canada-U.S. relations face suspenseful 2016'. We do,  I'm quite sure, face a suspenseful time. But the article in the Irving press is so shallow and vague as to be worthless. (And there was really nothing else in the whole section).

What is happening is that the U.S. has decided this will be a  year of throwing down the gauntlet to Russia and China. But the reality is that for all its world record spending on armaments, the U.S. is almost certainly not capable of winning such a war. (This has more than a little to do with the stunning levels of corruption in U.S. military spending.) So, to make even a serious threat, the U.S. needs its whole empire on board. That's why Britain, France, and Germany are now in Syria. That's why almost all of NATO is nominally on board.

ISIS is really a minor player in all this. It's certainly evil and vicious. War is, itself, not an occupation for the virtuous.   In religious terms, ISIS is no more vicious than Saudi Arabia is - and it's less vicious than the US has been over the past fifty years. In fact, it's less vicious than the U.S. has been with its native peoples, with the people of Latin America, and less vicious than the empires of  Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal were.

The reality is that ISIS has been equipped and financed largely by the U.S. with the help of good ol' boys like the Saudis from the start. The real target is and always has been Syria. And the U.S. has been using ISIS to destroy Syria. It is the U.S. that has permitted ISIS to finance its war with Syrian oil, to ship it through Turkey, and to sell it on the world market at very cheap prices to western oil barons.

ISIS has been the proxy for the American war on Syria, the nation which has sinned by maintaining trade relations with Russia.  That's why Assad has to go. But he would almost certainly win a democratic election if it were held. And that's why the U.S. has so often insisted he cannot be allowed to run.

Originally, Assad was supposed to be overthrown by a Syrian rebel goup which was created and funded by the U.S.  But the rebels never had popular support and, for that matter, were never rebels for the most part. They were hired mercenaries and, at that, they effectively collapsed a long time ago.    That's when the U.S. turned to ISIS. It replaced the rebels as the American proxy to destroy Syria, to divide much of it into five or six quite powerless states, and to give much of its land to its neighbours.

But Putin messed that up with his intervention. The whole cost of this war has been taken from American taxpayers to fight a war for American oil billionaires. That is why so many Syrians are dead, so many are crippled or orphaned , so many are refugees. It is also why so many Americans now live in poverty, and their government has no money to help them.

 Forget the Trumps and Bushes and Clintons. They are greedy, vicious and often mentally disturbed. But they don't run the U.S.

Their speeches are not about poverty, suffering, racism, social hopelessness within the U.S. That's because the oil billionaires don't give a damn about those. The politicians speak mostly about ISIS. Now, the oil billionaires don't give much of a damn about ISIS, either. But they need the fear and hysteria about ISIS to convince most Americans to impoverish themselves, to destroy what the American revolution was supposed to be about,  and even to destroy their society in order to support a war for oil - which we are (supposedly) phasing out.
The only sane candidate,  the only one who sees the social disaster the U.S. is heading to, is Bernie Sanders. But not enough Americans will listen to him because they have been whipped into the hysteria by news media owned by those people who benefit from the hysteria.

But, for the oil industry, the destruction of Syria makes it necessary, at the minmum, to force Putin to back off. And, for that, the U.S. needs the support and the hysteria of its full empire. So the great question for 2016 and 2017 is the question of where Canada stands.

Like Afghanistan, this is a war that has nothing to do with Canada. (Incidentally, and depite the silence in our new media, the war in Afghanistan is still on - and the U.S. is losing.)  Would we send Canadians to die in such a war? Of course we would. We did it in Afghanistan. Would we send Canadians to kill innocent civilians? Of course. Everybody does that in war.

Canadians are not a race separate from the Germans who slaughtered Jews. Or a race separate from the U.S. which killed millions of innocent people and children in Vietnam and Iraq and Latin America. We're not even a separate race from the Romans who cheered as gladiators killed each other and as wild animals ate humans alive in the colosseum. (I once sat in the colosseum in Rome, looking down to where men had killed each other, and animals had killed people - and I realized that if I had been there 2,000 years earlier, I could have been one of the cheering mob.)

We humans, all of us, are just humans. And we can all be made hysterical to be as brutal and murderous as any Hitler or Stalin - or Bush.

And we will quite forget that we cannot devote ourselves and our resources to kllling to make the rich richer without sacrificing what is needed for the work of stopping climate change or dealing with social problems.

The pressure on us to take part in the Syria war is going to be tremendous. Obama, so far, has not really put that much pressure on us. But he will. And I note that Trudeau has done nothing to recall our aircraft from Iraq - though that was an election promise. The pressure will get much greater after the U.S. presidential election - no matter who wins. (Here, I assume that Bernie Sanders will not win.)  And we can be quite sure that our privately-owned news media will be beating the drums for war.

U.S. foreign policy, especially with the Iraq war, has become a tool for the very rich, a disaster militarily and economically, and a cause of the widest hatred of one country ever known. The U.S., even in the unlikely event that it should defeat both Russia and China, is itself facing disaster. It has profound social and economic problems that are serious enough, alone, to destroy it.  And it shares with all of us a climate crisis which it will not deal with - because dealing with it would cut profits for the very, very wealthy.
In the same period, we shall be facing the final steps of destroying democracy and national integrity through trade deals that make the very rich the rulers of the world.

It is essential that we, all of us, make decisions now, and make our views known. ___________________________________________________________________
To move to a cheerier and local note, I have a suggestion to revive Moncton's Main St. for shopping and tourism so that it can offer the services and convenience of a mall.

First. No cars and no parking on Main St. The automobile and parking are what have destroyed Main streets all over the world. The success of the mall rests in having a place where cars can be left aside so that people can walk freely and comfortably from store to store. (A shopping mall in which people could drive their cars through the halls would not be likely to do well.)

But a main st. needs some convenience of personal mobility. Eternal walking won't do it. It should also be cheap  to operate, cheap in fares, and should offer use with a minimum of waiting. It should also add something of a sense of novelty and interest.

The diesel bus won't work. There's no novelty. It's not cheap to buy or to operate. And it is too expensive to offer adequate frequency of service. The answer is to be found in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong stores are mostly on main streets - even the big stores, and there are lots of them. Reaching them is quick, cheap, easy, frequent - and a lot of fun. Hong Kong uses double-decker tram cars.

These take up little space because of the two decks. They run on rails sunk into the street. They operate on electricity. And, oh, it's a real thrill, even for people who have lived their whole lives in Hong Kong to sit in the upper section, and look down at the streets and across at the lights. Even after the stores close at night, it's magnificent to sit up there, and look at the city lights.

People like those tram cars so much that they frequently rent a tramcar for events such as birthday parties that roll through the streets.

And they are the most durable vehicles I have ever heard of. Most of the ones in Hong Kong were built in 1905, and are still good as new  (despite going through a war). And maintenance is very light.

Five or six would be adequate to provide short waits, and with lots of stops  no more than two streets apart from Vaughan Harvey to Champlain Mall. This would revive Main St. by making it convenient to shop and dine there. And tourists would love it.

Dec. 27: This is late and short because....

 

 

 I've been crying. I spent three hours on a blog; and lost it all. I have no idea why. My only consolation is that it was a bad blog . Luckily, a reader sent me the message below. It's by an Anglican bishop, no less.  But he's unlike any clergyman I ever heard of.

I have often, as the reader pointed out, been critical of our churches. Now, I was raised in a Protestant church - and might even have become a clergyman if I had not not flunked out of high school. I even did some considerable preaching as a teenager. It was in a mission church in Montreal's red light district. and a short walk from the hangouts of the gambling mob. They were all very attentive.

Then I became a doubter of religion as it was presented. Mary got pregnant without sex? Joseph was a sucker to get pulled in on that one.

Jesus rose to heaven up above? Hey! the world turns. The morning's up is the evening's down. Anyway, there is not up or down in the universe. And what would He do with a body that was designed for life on earth?

But churches fasten on these obvious bits of nonsense that really, whether true or false, don't really mean a damn thing. The point of religion, any religion, is how we behave. And our churches largely ignore that. The fundamentalist ones, in particular, focus on our egos and self-righteousness.  Others emphasize conformity. You're okay so long as you're just like everybody else in the church.

If George Bush refused to believe that Jesus was the literal Son of God, he could not be a member of any Christian church. But he does believe in that. So, George Bush, mass-murderer, mass-torturer and servant of very greedy billionaires....well---it's come right in George. Welcome to the house of the Lord.

The United States thinks much of how it is blessed by God, and how God-fearing it is. It has the highest crime rate in the developed world. It has one quarter of all the prisoners in the world. It has been at war almost constantly since Europeans began going there in the 16th century. In the last 50 or so years, it has slaughtered millions of innocent people, most of them civilians. And at a time when the world is scrambling to control climate change, the U.S. is spending trillions of dollars to destroy the middle east and, possibly, to provoke a nuclear war so that oil billionaires can make more billions. God bless America and, as Billy Graham used to add - real good.

Look at the cast of murderous, possibly insanely murderous candidates for party leaderships in the U.S. I have no doubt they all give three cheers for Jesus. But I see not a trace of Christianity in their thinking.

Christians are marked by their insistence on believing the silly and irrelevant, and ignoring the spirit of their own, claimed faith. And for religions - Christian, Mulsim, Hindu, Confucian - to hate each other is an absurd contradiction.

Which brings me to the statement below by Anglican bishop John Shelby Spong.

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			Important mainly because of the people in the conversation. Click to teach Gmail this conversation is not important.	unread, Scotia InfoAlerts, Scotia InfoAlert: Your ScotiaCard was used., 11:50 am, Your ScotiaCard was used for an Interac Debit for $113.53. If unrecognized, check your account. Scotia InfoAlerts	Scotia InfoAlert: Your ScotiaCard was used. - Your ScotiaCard was used for an Interac Debit for $113.53. If unrecognized, check your account		11:50 am
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			Important mainly because of the people in the conversation. Click to teach Gmail this conversation is not important.	me, Christina (3), a part of my book of life, 9:09 am, Yep. I got the idea in September. Nick's girlfriend was in a terrible state because the school. me, Christina (3)	a part of my book of life - Yep. I got the idea in September. Nick's girlfriend was in a terrible state because the school		9:09 am
			Important mainly because of the people in the conversation. Click to teach Gmail this conversation is not important.	me, Jaan (4), happy boxing day, Dec 26, Good to know about the DNA test! Many things are indeed changing – radio, newspapers, music, the. me, Jaan (4)	happy boxing day - Good to know about the DNA test! Many things are indeed changing – radio, newspapers, music, the		Dec 26
			Important mainly because of the people in the conversation. Click to teach Gmail this conversation is not important.	pdmitchell, me (2), Thinking about the Faith Page, Dec 26, Wonderful ! Quite wonderful. This is the only thing I have seen that would draw me back into a church. pdmitchell, me (2)	Thinking about the Faith Page - Wonderful ! Quite wonderful. This is the only thing I have seen that would draw me back into a church		Dec 26
			Important mainly because of the people in the conversation. Click to teach Gmail this conversation is not important.	pdmitchell, me (2), The Argument for Universal Basic Income, Dec 26, Thank you. Yet another one I can use. We are living through more interesting times than I care for.. pdmitchell, me (2)	The Argument for Universal Basic Income - Thank you. Yet another one I can use. We are living through more interesting times than I care for.		Dec 26
			Click to teach Gmail this conversation is important.	Denis, me (2), Re: Hi Dad, Dec 25, Well, at first I was alarmed. Then Cathy told me she had the same operation, and it worked. Denis, me (2)	Re: Hi Dad - Well, at first I was alarmed. Then Cathy told me she had the same operation, and it worked		Dec 25
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			Important mainly because of the people in the conversation. Click to teach Gmail this conversation is not important.	pdmitchell, me (2), A performance of carols and readings for Christmas, Dec 24, Thank you. I won't do a blog today or tomorrow. For some reason, the pieces you sent me remind me. pdmitchell, me (2)	A performance of carols and readings for Christmas - Thank you. I won't do a blog today or tomorrow. For some reason, the pieces you sent me remind me		Dec 24
			Click to teach Gmail this conversation is important.	Denis Gray, Meet Judeo-ISIS: The inevitable result of Israel’s presence in the West Bank, Dec 24, Meet Judeo-ISIS: The inevitable result of Israel's presence in the West Bank http://www.haaretz.. Denis Gray	Meet Judeo-ISIS: The inevitable result of Israel’s presence in the West Bank - Meet Judeo-ISIS: The inevitable result of Israel's presence in the West Bank http://www.haaretz.		Dec 24
			Important mainly because of the people in the conversation. Click to teach Gmail this conversation is not important.	WonderCafe2, What ISIS Really Wants - New reply to watched thread, Dec 23, WonderCafe2 Graeme Decarie, Mrs.Anteater replied to a thread you are watching at WonderCafe2. What. WonderCafe2	What ISIS Really Wants - New reply to watched thread - WonderCafe2 Graeme Decarie, Mrs.Anteater replied to a thread you are watching at WonderCafe2. What		Dec 23
			Click to teach Gmail this conversation is important.	unread, Change.org, He is in a North Korean prison for his humanitarian work, Dec 23, Hyeon Soo Lim, a Korean-Canadian pastor, was on a humanitarian mission in North Korea when he was. Change.org	He is in a North Korean prison for his humanitarian work - Hyeon Soo Lim, a Korean-Canadian pastor, was on a humanitarian mission in North Korea when he was		Dec 23
			Click to teach Gmail this conversation is important.	Denis, me (2), Fwd: Breaking: Three wounded in stabbing attack in Jerusalem's Old City, Dec 23, I'm afraid we're in for a year of lots of insanity. Pope Francis certainly is in a grim mood. Denis, me (2)	Fwd: Breaking: Three wounded in stabbing attack in Jerusalem's Old City - I'm afraid we're in for a year of lots of insanity. Pope Francis certainly is in a grim mood		Dec 23
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			Click to teach Gmail this conversation is important.	Denis, me (2), Fwd: Daily News: "Israel will pay for Kuntar," Hezbollah says as arch-terrorist buried ..., Dec 22, Academia refuses to call Jihadist terrorism by name? I certainly haven't noticed that. But I have. Denis, me (2)	Fwd: Daily News: "Israel will pay for Kuntar," Hezbollah says as arch-terrorist buried ... - Academia refuses to call Jihadist terrorism by name? I certainly haven't noticed that. But I have		Dec 22
			Important mainly because of the people in the conversation. Click to teach Gmail this conversation is not important.	me, Catherine (7), Holy Mackerel!, Dec 22, I'm sure we won't get that high. But it is above freezing. On Tue, Dec 22, 2015 at 6:56 AM,. me, Catherine (7)	Holy Mackerel! - I'm sure we won't get that high. But it is above freezing. On Tue, Dec 22, 2015 at 6:56 AM,		Dec 22
			Important mainly because of the people in the conversation. Click to teach Gmail this conversation is not important.	me, Jaan (3), me, Dec 21, I have posted it – it works out beautifully: http://preservedstories.com/2015/12/21/whenever-i-have-a. me, Jaan (3)	me - I have posted it – it works out beautifully: http://preservedstories.com/2015/12/21/whenever-i-have-a		Dec 21
			Important mainly because of the people in the conversation. Click to teach Gmail this conversation is not important.	Margaret Decarie, (no subject), has attachments, Dec 21, Can you print these correctly (so are e-mail messages don't show) for tomorrow? Print *as many as. Margaret Decarie	(no subject) - Can you print these correctly (so are e-mail messages don't show) for tomorrow? Print *as many as		Dec 21
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			Important mainly because of the people in the conversation. Click to teach Gmail this conversation is not important.	Denis, me (6), Fwd: Breaking news: Progress in West Bank arson probe, Dec 20, To watch, tonight, How Green was my Valley almost brought tears. graeme On Sun, Dec 20, 2015 at 11:14. Denis, me (6)	Fwd: Breaking news: Progress in West Bank arson probe - To watch, tonight, How Green was my Valley almost brought tears. graeme On Sun, Dec 20, 2015 at 11:14		Dec 20
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			Important mainly because of the people in the conversation. Click to teach Gmail this conversation is not important.	Jaan, me (3), Discussion continues - drinking; church conversions, Dec 18, The story would be great for Preserved Stories. I like the reference to supply teaching. It's. Jaan, me (3)	Discussion continues - drinking; church conversions - The story would be great for Preserved Stories. I like the reference to supply teaching. It's		Dec 18
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			Click to teach Gmail this conversation is important.	Denis, me (2), From ACNS: Churches provide humanitarian corridor giving safe passage for refugees, Dec 18, It's nice to see a piece of good news. I think I'll use it tomorrow in my blog. graeme On Fri. Denis, me (2)	From ACNS: Churches provide humanitarian corridor giving safe passage for refugees - It's nice to see a piece of good news. I think I'll use it tomorrow in my blog. graeme On Fri		Dec 18
			Click to teach Gmail this conversation is important.	Holly Lewis via SumOfUs.., Tampax, Dec 18, 85% of tampons and other cotton personal care products are contaminated with a toxic herbicide, a. Holly Lewis via SumOfUs..	Tampax - 85% of tampons and other cotton personal care products are contaminated with a toxic herbicide, a		Dec 18
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			Important mainly because of the people in the conversation. Click to teach Gmail this conversation is not important.	Denis, me (4), Fwd: Ralph Nader - The Tradition of Charity, Dec 18, I don't look in mirrors. I find they lie. graeme On Fri, Dec 18, 2015 at 7:18 AM, Denis Gray <. Denis, me (4)	Fwd: Ralph Nader - The Tradition of Charity - I don't look in mirrors. I find they lie. graeme On Fri, Dec 18, 2015 at 7:18 AM, Denis Gray <		Dec 18
			Click to teach Gmail this conversation is important.	Denis Gray, Fwd: Daily News: Proto-fascists, gas deals and one supermodel, Dec 17, Denis Charles Gray denysvic@gmail.com Begin forwarded message: Date: December 17, 2015 at 08:34:37. Denis Gray	Fwd: Daily News: Proto-fascists, gas deals and one supermodel - Denis Charles Gray denysvic@gmail.com Begin forwarded message: Date: December 17, 2015 at 08:34:37		Dec 17
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			Click to teach Gmail this conversation is important.	Denis, me (2), Fwd: Dawkins: ‘You don’t get your moral compass from religion’, Dec 17, The moral principles of the Ten Commandments are well proven by their importance in maintaining any. Denis, me (2)	Fwd: Dawkins: ‘You don’t get your moral compass from religion’ - The moral principles of the Ten Commandments are well proven by their importance in maintaining any		Dec 17
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			Click to teach Gmail this conversation is important.	Roy, me (2), Revolvers, Dec 16, The Browning was always a beautiful gun. But I never got to fire one. The Cooey I remember most for. Roy, me (2)	Revolvers - The Browning was always a beautiful gun. But I never got to fire one. The Cooey I remember most for		Dec 16
			Click to teach Gmail this conversation is important.	Denis, me (2), Fwd: Daily news: Republican war games, Dec 16, I watched the debate last night. I was so disgusted, appalled and scared by it that it took up half. Denis, me (2)	Fwd: Daily news: Republican war games - I watched the debate last night. I was so disgusted, appalled and scared by it that it took up half		Dec 16
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Homepage        My Profile        Essay Archive       Message Boards       Calendar Charting the New Reformation, Part III: The Twelve Theses “Time makes ancient good uncouth.” The poet, James Russell Lowell, who wrote these words, understood the difference between an experience and the way that experience is explained. So important is this distinction for our later theological work that I want to press it onto the memories of my readers with two rather commonplace illustrations. First, look at the motion of the sun. It rises in an absolutely same manner each day in the East and sets each day in the West. Look next at the variety of ways that this experience has been explained in human history. The Egyptians explained it by suggesting that their God, Ra, rode his chariot across the sky each day surveying the earth. Other ancient people explained it as the sun circling the earth, making the earth appear to be the center of the universe. Galileo explained it as the planet earth turning on its axis as it made its 365 ¼ day elliptical orbit around the sun. The experience being described was identical, but the explanations reflected the time in which the explainer lived and the level of knowledge that the explainer possessed. Now look at the experience of epilepsy, a phenomenon that affects only a small minority of people, but is common enough to be universally recognized. A 1st century epileptic seizure is identical with one that occurs in the 21st century. The way epilepsy was explained in the 1st century, however, differs so widely from the way it is explained in the 21st century that one would hardly recognize that they were describing the same thing. It is hard to relate “demon possession” to the “electrical chemistry of a brain cell.” These illustrations point to the distinction between an experience, which can be real and even eternal and the explanation of that experience, which is always time-bound and time-warped. Jesus was a 1st century experience in which people perceived that what they called the divine and what they understood as the human had somehow come together. The New Testament is a 1st century attempt to explain that experience. The creeds of the Christian church are a 4th century attempt to codify that experience. No explanation can ever become identical with the truth it seeks to explain. Lowell said it so clearly: “Time makes ancient good uncouth.” Historically, Christianity then proceeded to make excessive claims for the authority of its explanations, freezing them into their 1st and 4th century frames of reference. Literalized words are always doomed words since the perception of truth is always expanding and changing. The explosion of knowledge over the last five hundred years in the West has rendered most of the biblical and creedal presuppositions to be unbelievable. They rise out of a world that no longer exists. Yet churches continue to operate as if eternal truth can be placed into these earthen vessels, proclaiming that in both the Bible and the creeds ultimate truth has been captured forever. The result is that Christianity seems less and less believable to more and more people. Can we separate the Christ experience from the dying explanations of the past? If we cannot then surely Christianity will continue its relentless journey into a declining irrelevance. If we can achieve this separation, however, the result will necessitate a reformulation of Christianity that is so radical that Christianity as we know it may well die in the process. Death or radical revision, however, appear to be the only realistic alternatives. I cast my vote for the latter. I would rather die in controversy than die in boredom. So I issue today a call for a new reformation. To frame the debate I post through this column “Twelve Theses.” I state them as sharply and as provocatively as I can. People need to feel the dead weight of their traditional claims before they can develop the ability to open themselves and their ancient words to new possibilities. I now invite the Christian world into this debate. The Twelve Theses 1. God Understanding God in theistic categories as “a being, supernatural in power, dwelling somewhere external to the world and capable of invading the world with miraculous power” is no longer believable. Most God talk in liturgy and conversation has thus become meaningless. 2. Jesus – the Christ. If God can no longer be thought of in theistic terms, then conceiving of Jesus as “the incarnation of the theistic deity” has also become a bankrupt concept. 3. Original Sin – The Myth of the Fall The biblical story of the perfect and finished creation from which we human beings have fallen into “Original Sin” is pre-Darwinian mythology and post-Darwinian nonsense. 4. The Virgin Birth The virgin birth understood as literal biology is impossible. Far from being a bulwark in defense of the divinity of Christ, the virgin birth actually destroys that divinity. 5. Jesus as the Worker of Miracles In a post-Newtonian world supernatural invasions of the natural order, performed by God or an “incarnate Jesus,” are simply not viable explanations of what actually happened. 6. Atonement Theology Atonement theology, especially in its most bizarre “substitutionary” form, presents us with a God who is barbaric, a Jesus who is a victim and it turns human beings into little more than guilt-filled creatures. The phrase “Jesus died for my sins” is not just dangerous, it is absurd. 7. The Resurrection The Easter event transformed the Christian movement, but that does not mean that it was the physical resuscitation of Jesus’ deceased body back into human history. The earliest biblical records state that “God raised him.” Into what, we need to ask. The experience of resurrection must be separated from its later mythological explanations. 8. The Ascension of Jesus The biblical story of Jesus’ ascension assumes a three-tiered universe, which was dismissed some five hundred years ago. If Jesus’ ascension was a literal event of history, it is beyond the capacity of our 21st century minds to accept it or to believe it. 9. Ethics The ability to define and to separate good from evil can no longer be achieved with appeals to ancient codes like the Ten Commandments or even the Sermon on the Mount. Contemporary moral standards must be hammered out in the juxtaposition between life-affirming moral principles and external situations. 10. Prayer Prayer, understood as a request made to a theistic deity to act in human history, is little more than an hysterical attempt to turn the holy into the servant of the human. Most of our prayer definitions of the past are thus dependent on an understanding of God that has died. 11. Life after Death The hope for life after death must be separated forever from behavior control. Traditional views of heaven and hell as places of reward and punishment are no longer conceivable. Christianity must, therefore, abandon its dependence on guilt as a motivator of behavior. 12. Judgment and Discrimination Judgment is not a human responsibility. Discrimination against any human being on the basis of that which is a “given” is always evil and does not serve the Christian goal of giving “abundant life” to all. Any structure either in the secular world or in the institutional church, which diminishes the humanity of any child of God on the basis of race, gender or sexual orientation must be exposed publicly and vigorously. There can be no reason in the church of tomorrow for excusing or even forgiving discriminatory practices. “Sacred Tradition” must never again provide a cover to justify discriminatory evil. Can a new Christianity for a new world be forged on the basis of these Twelve Theses? Can a living, vital and real faith that is true to the experience of the past, while dismissing the explanations of the past, be born anew in this generation? I believe it can and so to engage this task I issue this call to the Christian world to transform its holy words of yesterday into believable words of today. If we fail in this task there is little reason to think that Christianity, as presently understood and constituted, will survive this century. Having laid these Twelve Theses out in the briefest of ways, I will start next week to address each one until we begin to catch a glimpse of what the Christianity of tomorrow might be. I will not stop until the case is clear, at least to me. I invite you, my audience, including academics, scholars, pastors, faithful and disillusioned people alike in the pews and even those who have long ago given up any religious commitments to take up citizenship in “The Secular City,” to join in this journey and to engage this debate. ~John Shelby Spong Now, I shall collect myself, dry my tears, and try to write a better blog tomorrow.