In this case The Guardian and the Moncton Times and
Transcript (via The Asssociated Press) were reporting on exactly the
same story at the same time. But the starting point in The Guardian
was, in fact, the starting point of the incident it described.
President Erdogan of Turkey cited Hitler's Germany an example of any
effective state – and the kind of state he wants Turkey to be.
Then it said that
his office told the press that Erdogan had been misunderstood.
In the Irving press,
the story appears on B3, but the headline is “Turkish office denies
advocating Hitler-style rule”. If you read both stories and think a
little bit, it's clear he did advocate Hitler-style rule. And it's very hard to imagine that he didn't mean it. Why else
would one come up with Hitler as the example?
The difference is subtle. But note – The Guardian headline told the
whole story, just as The Associated Press did. But The Associated
Press reported it almost dismissively as no big deal. The Guardian
gave an honest report.
As usual for the
Irving press, foreign news is pretty meagre. Syria and Yemen don't
exist. U.S. drome bombings doesn't exist. China and India don't
exist. The one story worth reading is on B5. And if you aren't
worried about it, get worried.
An Oregon rancher
has been grazing his cattle for years on government land without
paying. He now owes a million dollars. He has also been setting
illegal grass fires. The case, much to the rancher's displeasure, has
been taken up my militias across the U.S. Now, militias does not
mean government troops. It means quasi-military gangs, very
right-wing, who assume the right, as free men, to take up arms
against the government. The have already had a confrontation with
U.S. troops, and they're looking for another one in Oregon today.
And this is in a
country with the world's highest gun ownership – with submachine
guns, heavy machine guns and even anti-tank guns easily available. No
wonder Obama wants to move on tougher gun laws.
All of this rests on
the bizarre notion that Americans, by virtue of the revolution, have
the right to take up arms against the government – and the fact
that it's an elected government makes no difference.
A lot of this sort
of thinking comes out of western films which portray the real
American as someone who can shoot his Colt Peacemaker .45 fast and
straight. That's why in Texas and some other states, it is now legal
to wear your Colt in public, ready for a quick draw on the steps of
the saloon. This cowboy flick scene has probably been the single
greatest influence on American social thought. It's also largely
myth.
The wearing of guns in public was banned in Texas in 1871. The Colt
.45 peacemaker, seemingly the only one western film makers have ever
heard of, wasn't invented until 1873.
Saturday's section
A, as is commonly the case with cheaply run newspapers, was probably
written days ago. Much of it is about the top stories of the year….
None of it is worth reading. The no. 1 news story of the year is
–wait for it---the building of the 'Events Centre' (hockey rink.)
And I guess that was the top story for those with their noses in
their bellybuttons. In my own view, it was beaten by the second-place
finisher – the weather. That's a really important change, with more
changes to come.
A REAL news story
would be one about how the city and the province plan to deal with
those changes – or whether they are even yet at the stage of
guessing what the changes might be.
The closest anybody
comes to seeing the consequences of our inactivity is Norbert
Cunningham on A8. Yes, climate change is real. We are going to have
to deal, among other things, with the greatest refugee problem in
human history. And some of those refugees could well be us.
Time is short.
That's clear in a story that appeared in The Guardian.
One generation. The
Irving press has been pretty indifferent to the floods in the U.S.
and Britain, and to the deaths. (Nor, obviously, has it followed the
al Jazeera story that this el nino attack is not over yet – so the
worst may be still to come.) I see little sense of urgency in New
Brunswick, no sign of planning to determine what our problems will
be, no desire to cut back on the oil industry. On the contrary, we
are prepared to applaud for an oil pipeline and massive improvement
of the oil refinery in St. John owned by what's-his-name.
Have you heard
anything from city council or the provincial government to suggest
they are working on this? Or for that matter, from Ottawa? Have you
seen oil billionaires in the streets demanding that action be taken,
and offering their help in reducing emissions?
The Irving press
also missed a huge story that has been going on for a couple of
months. A natural gas well has been spilling natural gas at billions
of litres a day in California. And this is raw natural gas that
pollutes worse that oil. Scientists are trying to figure out how to
stop it.
Let's see now, isn't
this the sort of thing that premier Gallant will be deciding on in a
very short time? How come the Irving press hasn't covered this story
to make us better informed about what we could be dealing with? How
come the owner of the paper hasn't demanded that we be better
informed on this issue?
There's a reality here we're missing. The time to deal with climate
change is short. We can't afford to pamper oil billionaires on this.
And we can't afford to fight wars and pour money into 'defence'
spending while doing the massive job we have to do. This has to be
full time, and a spending priority. It's going to call for massive
effort and massive international cooperation. We're not ever close to
that.
It's interesting
that no news medium has attempted to explain the reason for ISIS
terrorism. Oh, I know. It's because they're evil while we are
good. Proof of our goodness is shown by the U.S. mass murder of
millions of Vietnamese, then of Iraqis and Afghanis in wars that have
never been explained. And the Afghanistan War, still on after all
these years, is now going against our side – the good Christians.
Anyway, consider the
possibility that ISIS is both evil and smart – that they have a
reason for terror attacks in the U.S. and Britain. Now, they know
they aren't going to conquer either Britain or the U.S. So why the
terror?
It's to produce the extreme reactions they're getting. Donald Trump
is a model of what they want to achieve. They want disorder and
turmoil – and hatred and fear. They want our world in chaos. And we
are obliging them.
Finally, there's an
interesting site on education. It's produced by Paul Bennett. He's
the retired principal of a large, private school – and a very good
one. (I don't like private schools. But I'll make an exception for
Paul.) Here's the section dealing with the year 2015 for education in
Canada.
The site also
includes a story from the Washington Post that deals with education
in the U.S. It's not a pretty picture. The school system actually
encourages racism. As well, private business has poked its nose in
with Charter Schools. These are paid for by profit-producing fees
from the parents – and government subsidies paid in taxes by those
who can never afford to go to a Charter School. I have seen no reason
to believe that these are better than public schools – but they are
essential for anyone who wants a diploma with job or higher education
appeal. And they have been very destructive in their effect on public
schools.
The URL for the
whole site is --------------
Oh, you might want
to keep an eye on Israel. A former premier just went to prison on a
corruption charge. And premier Netanyahu and his wife, it seems, will
now suffer similar charges. Gee! Why does that make me think of
Ottawa and the senator from Prince Edward Island?
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