We all have responsabilities as citizens. Some, those with power and influence, those who are supposed to keep us informed, and those we choose to govern us have more responsibility than most. And every one of them has consistently betrayed us on the question of shale gas. That is the real issue in the whole debate about shale gas..
The exploration for shale gas deposits in New Brunswick has been going on for over ten years.
1. Did the news media tell us what was going on?
2. Did the government inform us, or even discuss retulations? Did it carry out environmental studies? Did it consult the available research?
3. Did business leaders inform us? (It wouldn't be hard. After all, they own a good deal of othe news media, not to mention the political parties.)
4. And where were all the experts in the universities?
For ten years the search went on with seismic testing. Is it possible that for ten years all these "leaders" did not know the search was gong on? That fracking was in use? That they didn't know that it is banned in some areas - including Quebec next door to us?
No. It is not possible they didn't know. Indeed, the conservative opposition raised the issue late in the Shawn Graham government. So why wasn't it an election issue? And if the Conservatives were aware of the problem, whyd didn't they enact regulations immediately on coming to power? Why did they waste time with those farcicial visits of Mr. Alward listening to people. What could they tell him? Most of us had never heard of fracking. Why did Alward wait until the public demonstrations to draw up a very hurried list of regulations?
And why should we believe that the very people who lied to us and kept us in the dark have now come up with regulations that are adequate? And how can we believe they will enforce them?
That is the real issue. The people who have power and influence in this province don't give a damn about our health and safety now, or about the health and safety of our families for generations to come.
The other issues are that New Brunswickers are so accustomed to being lied to, cheated, and generally ignored - and they're so fearful of the power structure in this province - that the big public protest is against bicycle lanes. Of course. That's a safe one to protest. Business leaders don't ride bicycles to work. The only people who use bicycle lanes are cyclists. And they have no power. So all the righteous of Moncton take out their anger on cyclists.
In the same way, it's safer and easier for some Christians to hunt down gays and point righteous fingers at them, than it is to discuss whether endangering, bullying and lying to us are Christian activities.
In practice, New Brunswick has no democracy. To have a democracy, you need the truth; and we have over the years been betrayed and even bullied by those who should be to tell us the truth. To have democracy, you need a population whose thinking does not revolve simply around the price of beer and the horror of bicycle lanes. To have democracy, you need a population that will not allow itself to be bullied and cheated.
Bethany Thorme-Dykstra gets big play in the T&T, which gives the impression that her organization is satisfied our politicians have acted properly. (We will pass lightly over the obvious fact that this must mean they acted impoperly for ten years. So, why, then, should we trust her judgement when she says they can now be trusted.)
And, she says, us cruel citizens are vicitmizing those nice multi-billionaires who want to develop shale gas. Isn't it terrible we won't let them put poison chemicals in our drinking water? Why are people always picking on helpless billionaires? So what is ms. Thorne-Dykstra, and what is she all about?
Have you ever heard the story of the Trojan horse?
The editorial, on the same subject, is the usual preachy and craven kissup for the boss.
Shale gas is an important issue. There is substantial evidence that extracting it is damaging to both health and the environment.
The bigger issue behind it is the collapse of any, real democracy in New Brunswick. It's happening because some people want it to happen. And it's happening because we let it happen.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
July 6: Lots of ads.
It was over 60 years ago that the CCF party (now the NDP) won a landslide victory to form the government of Saskatchewan, a province with then the second-highest debt in Canada. Worse, its heavily rural population meant that it gained little from the industrial properity of the rest of the country.
Not a single daily newspaper in the province supported the CCF. Indeed, they actively campaigned against it.
The government, mostly under Tommy Douglas for a generation, produced a surplus every year to pay down the debt. It rationalized electrical energy supplies to transform rural life, and to pruduce a profit. At the same time, it introduced social services like medicare and adequate pensions. Indeed, much of our modern social legislation across Canada arose from the pressure put on other parties by the Saskatchewan example.
That CCF government in Saskatchewar was arguably the outstanding provincial government for economic responsibility and social advance n Canadian history. And never, in all those years, did a single daily newspaper support it.
In North America, at least, newspapers do not exist to inform us about the news. They exist to t o sell ads (thus the free "news" stories about reliable advertisers); to distribute the owners' propaganda, and to keep people in the dark. In this, they are ably assisted by private radio and television - and for much the same reasons -advertising and wealthy ownership.
In this respect, The Moncton Times&Transcript is not different in purpose from any other North American daily. It's special only in its degree of sleaze and flimsiness. So be suspicious.
Be suspicious when you see the T&T exulting in not one but two editorials for the new Moncton High School to be built on land where it will just happen to benefit a developer - who will also buy and fix up the old school, Any reasoning for that location is still pretty murky.
Then there's the pitch that converting the old school into condos will move more people downtown, a plus for the preservtion of downtown. Really? Then why do we want to spend a hundred million on a hockey rink? If hockey rinks encourage people to move into the area, then the old rink would be surrounded by condos instead of buttercups.
This whole story leaves the impression that council has not the slightest idea of how to plan development and, in any case, will do whatever it is told to do.
It also shows the T&Ts "flexibility". Just monhs ago, it was blaming the DEC for district 2 for the condition of the old high school. In fact, all the local news media were buying into a hate compaign against the public schools in general. It was obvious at the time that all were either lying or gullible. Now, we all know that the fault lay in irresonposible provincial governments. But we don't hear anything about that.
The NewsToday section features a picture of Willy and Katie with their mouths open. Undoubtedly a collectors' item.
The other big news is that many Canadian didn't bother to vote in the last federal election. Wow! Stop the presses! But for those who find this news, surely the reasons are obvious. How ofren in this country (and this province) have you heard a party campaigning on any clear programme? All the Conservatives had going for them in the last provincial election was thegeneral dislike for the Liberals. they had not programme during the campaign, and don't seem to have developed any since.
The news media, for the most part, made no attempt to point this out. They just told us to vote for whoever their owners watned to see in power.
Today, the editorial page has two, good columns. One, by Alec Bruce, gives an example of a failure of our provincial government to plan. The other is in intriguing commeentary on health care, on how it may not the the pending disaster the news medea will be.
Of course, the news media have a stake in getting rid of medicare. Most of their owners would like to go back to the good old days when sickness ment money in the bank for private health companies.
Eric Lewis, a staff writer, contributes the usual staff writer's pious reflections on how successful our troops have been in Afghanistan.
How can we judge how successful we have been in Afghanistan where we still haven't been told why we went in t he first place? How do we claim success when top authorities (of whom the staff writer has probably never heard) say the war is lost?
How many people have we killed? Why? How many dead people are made up for by building a school or a road? Why did Canadian die? To establish a democracy? We haven't. And the government we have put in power is rated the most currupt in the world. To get revenge for 9/11? Wasn't that why the US and Britain killed over a million civilians in Iraq? To get revenge on the Taliban? There is no evidence that the Taliban knew anything about 9/11. Nor is it likely they would have been informed. In fact, 9/11 seems to have been carried out by Saudi Arabians living in Europe. So why ae we now killiing people in Afghanistan? And, if the Taliban are evil, why is the US now carrying out talks with Taliban leaders? (Oops. sorry. Don't the news experts at the T&T know about that?) Why did most of NATO refuse to play any significant role in this war? Why are most of them bailing out now? Why are American commentators talking openly about "getting out with honour"?
Mr.Lewis concludes with T&T piety, "We should all make more of an effort to be aware of the influence our countrymen and women are having around the world."
Yes, we certainly should. But it's hard when we can't get it from our own news media. Nor does it help to be fed the pap in The Moncton Times&Trasncript.
Here's a hint, Eric,. Show your news editor where Libya is on the map,and ask him to explain why we are there. Ask him, too, what international law and agreements we have signed have to say about our killing Libyans (or Afghanis).
Not a single daily newspaper in the province supported the CCF. Indeed, they actively campaigned against it.
The government, mostly under Tommy Douglas for a generation, produced a surplus every year to pay down the debt. It rationalized electrical energy supplies to transform rural life, and to pruduce a profit. At the same time, it introduced social services like medicare and adequate pensions. Indeed, much of our modern social legislation across Canada arose from the pressure put on other parties by the Saskatchewan example.
That CCF government in Saskatchewar was arguably the outstanding provincial government for economic responsibility and social advance n Canadian history. And never, in all those years, did a single daily newspaper support it.
In North America, at least, newspapers do not exist to inform us about the news. They exist to t o sell ads (thus the free "news" stories about reliable advertisers); to distribute the owners' propaganda, and to keep people in the dark. In this, they are ably assisted by private radio and television - and for much the same reasons -advertising and wealthy ownership.
In this respect, The Moncton Times&Transcript is not different in purpose from any other North American daily. It's special only in its degree of sleaze and flimsiness. So be suspicious.
Be suspicious when you see the T&T exulting in not one but two editorials for the new Moncton High School to be built on land where it will just happen to benefit a developer - who will also buy and fix up the old school, Any reasoning for that location is still pretty murky.
Then there's the pitch that converting the old school into condos will move more people downtown, a plus for the preservtion of downtown. Really? Then why do we want to spend a hundred million on a hockey rink? If hockey rinks encourage people to move into the area, then the old rink would be surrounded by condos instead of buttercups.
This whole story leaves the impression that council has not the slightest idea of how to plan development and, in any case, will do whatever it is told to do.
It also shows the T&Ts "flexibility". Just monhs ago, it was blaming the DEC for district 2 for the condition of the old high school. In fact, all the local news media were buying into a hate compaign against the public schools in general. It was obvious at the time that all were either lying or gullible. Now, we all know that the fault lay in irresonposible provincial governments. But we don't hear anything about that.
The NewsToday section features a picture of Willy and Katie with their mouths open. Undoubtedly a collectors' item.
The other big news is that many Canadian didn't bother to vote in the last federal election. Wow! Stop the presses! But for those who find this news, surely the reasons are obvious. How ofren in this country (and this province) have you heard a party campaigning on any clear programme? All the Conservatives had going for them in the last provincial election was thegeneral dislike for the Liberals. they had not programme during the campaign, and don't seem to have developed any since.
The news media, for the most part, made no attempt to point this out. They just told us to vote for whoever their owners watned to see in power.
Today, the editorial page has two, good columns. One, by Alec Bruce, gives an example of a failure of our provincial government to plan. The other is in intriguing commeentary on health care, on how it may not the the pending disaster the news medea will be.
Of course, the news media have a stake in getting rid of medicare. Most of their owners would like to go back to the good old days when sickness ment money in the bank for private health companies.
Eric Lewis, a staff writer, contributes the usual staff writer's pious reflections on how successful our troops have been in Afghanistan.
How can we judge how successful we have been in Afghanistan where we still haven't been told why we went in t he first place? How do we claim success when top authorities (of whom the staff writer has probably never heard) say the war is lost?
How many people have we killed? Why? How many dead people are made up for by building a school or a road? Why did Canadian die? To establish a democracy? We haven't. And the government we have put in power is rated the most currupt in the world. To get revenge for 9/11? Wasn't that why the US and Britain killed over a million civilians in Iraq? To get revenge on the Taliban? There is no evidence that the Taliban knew anything about 9/11. Nor is it likely they would have been informed. In fact, 9/11 seems to have been carried out by Saudi Arabians living in Europe. So why ae we now killiing people in Afghanistan? And, if the Taliban are evil, why is the US now carrying out talks with Taliban leaders? (Oops. sorry. Don't the news experts at the T&T know about that?) Why did most of NATO refuse to play any significant role in this war? Why are most of them bailing out now? Why are American commentators talking openly about "getting out with honour"?
Mr.Lewis concludes with T&T piety, "We should all make more of an effort to be aware of the influence our countrymen and women are having around the world."
Yes, we certainly should. But it's hard when we can't get it from our own news media. Nor does it help to be fed the pap in The Moncton Times&Trasncript.
Here's a hint, Eric,. Show your news editor where Libya is on the map,and ask him to explain why we are there. Ask him, too, what international law and agreements we have signed have to say about our killing Libyans (or Afghanis).
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
July 5: A reminder....
The current events club will have it's monhtly discussion on Thursday, July 7, at 2 pm in the Moncton Library.
All are weclome.
All are weclome.
July 5: Kate's baby comment sparks frenzy...
What can one say about a half-wit headline like that? Obviously, The Moncton Times and Transcipt thinks we're all hsyterical morons, and has hired a staff to match.
Much of the first section is Willy and Kate smiling and waving. So is much of section C, NewsToday. The Business section is its usual joke. One item is a new beauty shop opening (free ad). Another is a hot item for close followers of the market; the price of beer is up. There was no room for the story that child poverty in the US is now up to 25 % ot the total child population.
France's ban on fracking still has not been mentioned.
Alec Bruce has the only intelligent comment on the royal visit that I have seen.
Ed Graham (Seniority Rules) has another excellent column on an excellent idea. The Moncton Museum offers a downlad for your MP3 player, smartphone or tablet (or get it in print), then use it to take your own guided tour of downtown Moncton. Count me in. Downtown Moncton has a fascinating history and some delightful buildings.
I'll do it on a day when,, contrary to the advice of one of the high culture staff writers of the Moncton T&T, the air is not full of the roar and smell of hot rode or motorcycles.
Then there's the usual far, right wing "think tank" propaganda piece from post media. This one is a sneering and not entirely truthful account of the socialist priniciples of Tommy Douglas, and of how the party has drifted from some of this principles.
As it happens, I agree that it has drifted; and I looked for an intelleigent discussion of it. I should have know known better. In fact, those views he attributes to Douglas are not only more than a little twisted in the presentatioon, but they are also the normal. (and usually far worse) views of the big business pirates that The Macdonald-Laurier Institute and their hack writers like Brian Lee Crowley so much admire. Mr. Crowley's little contribution is a sneering, backbiting piece about a man and a pary who are still several stages above him and his friends.
Medicare is an unearned privilege? Where does Mr. Crowley think the jmoney comes from? His big business friends who are shy about telling us howomuch tax they (don't) pay? And "payiing for hangnails" is a trivialization, and an extraordinarily ignorant and distasteful one, of what medicare does.
He then inserts Bob Raie as an example of an NDP government that ran up a deficit, nicely ignoring the fact that NDP governments ner general have been the most cautious spenders in all of Nortth America. Mr. Crowley knows that, of course. So he isn't just a backbiter. He lies by ommission.
And employment insurance does not come free - as Mr. Crowley suggests. We pay for it. That's why it's called insurance.
We also pay for much of Irving's electric bills Now, that does come free for Mr. Irving. I would have looked forward to Mr. Crowley's denunciation of that - but I doubt whether he was the courage or integrity to write it.
The NDP is the party of privilege? Really? Do they get funded by by millions of dollars from big business? Do they get supported by every wealthy newspaper owner in Canada. (including, of course the owners of Postmeida who distribute propagandists like Mr. Crowley to the propaganda newspapers of the rich - like Bunswick Media.)?
Does the NDP give away land and resources to big business? Does it defend the export of a businessman's asbestos aound the world? Does it give sweetheart contracts for friends of the party? Does it continually lower taxes for the only people who can afford to pay them?
Unionized public servants are aristocrats? Do they get millions of dollars a year in pay, and millions more in bonuses? Do they, like good little premiers, get offered seats on the board and in managaement of large, parivate companies after their years of public service?
I am not pleased with the direction in which the NDP has moved on some issues. But it is still well above Mr. Crowley's (and the T&T's and Postmeida's) natural habitat in the gutter.
Much of the first section is Willy and Kate smiling and waving. So is much of section C, NewsToday. The Business section is its usual joke. One item is a new beauty shop opening (free ad). Another is a hot item for close followers of the market; the price of beer is up. There was no room for the story that child poverty in the US is now up to 25 % ot the total child population.
France's ban on fracking still has not been mentioned.
Alec Bruce has the only intelligent comment on the royal visit that I have seen.
Ed Graham (Seniority Rules) has another excellent column on an excellent idea. The Moncton Museum offers a downlad for your MP3 player, smartphone or tablet (or get it in print), then use it to take your own guided tour of downtown Moncton. Count me in. Downtown Moncton has a fascinating history and some delightful buildings.
I'll do it on a day when,, contrary to the advice of one of the high culture staff writers of the Moncton T&T, the air is not full of the roar and smell of hot rode or motorcycles.
Then there's the usual far, right wing "think tank" propaganda piece from post media. This one is a sneering and not entirely truthful account of the socialist priniciples of Tommy Douglas, and of how the party has drifted from some of this principles.
As it happens, I agree that it has drifted; and I looked for an intelleigent discussion of it. I should have know known better. In fact, those views he attributes to Douglas are not only more than a little twisted in the presentatioon, but they are also the normal. (and usually far worse) views of the big business pirates that The Macdonald-Laurier Institute and their hack writers like Brian Lee Crowley so much admire. Mr. Crowley's little contribution is a sneering, backbiting piece about a man and a pary who are still several stages above him and his friends.
Medicare is an unearned privilege? Where does Mr. Crowley think the jmoney comes from? His big business friends who are shy about telling us howomuch tax they (don't) pay? And "payiing for hangnails" is a trivialization, and an extraordinarily ignorant and distasteful one, of what medicare does.
He then inserts Bob Raie as an example of an NDP government that ran up a deficit, nicely ignoring the fact that NDP governments ner general have been the most cautious spenders in all of Nortth America. Mr. Crowley knows that, of course. So he isn't just a backbiter. He lies by ommission.
And employment insurance does not come free - as Mr. Crowley suggests. We pay for it. That's why it's called insurance.
We also pay for much of Irving's electric bills Now, that does come free for Mr. Irving. I would have looked forward to Mr. Crowley's denunciation of that - but I doubt whether he was the courage or integrity to write it.
The NDP is the party of privilege? Really? Do they get funded by by millions of dollars from big business? Do they get supported by every wealthy newspaper owner in Canada. (including, of course the owners of Postmeida who distribute propagandists like Mr. Crowley to the propaganda newspapers of the rich - like Bunswick Media.)?
Does the NDP give away land and resources to big business? Does it defend the export of a businessman's asbestos aound the world? Does it give sweetheart contracts for friends of the party? Does it continually lower taxes for the only people who can afford to pay them?
Unionized public servants are aristocrats? Do they get millions of dollars a year in pay, and millions more in bonuses? Do they, like good little premiers, get offered seats on the board and in managaement of large, parivate companies after their years of public service?
I am not pleased with the direction in which the NDP has moved on some issues. But it is still well above Mr. Crowley's (and the T&T's and Postmeida's) natural habitat in the gutter.
Monday, July 4, 2011
July 3: High school grad - moving on and out day.
I have relative who was born and schooled in New Brusnwick. As soon as he could, he got out. I now understand his feeling. The people are nice. But they accept unending crap and abuse from their leadership. And they don't seem to care, no matter what it does to them or their families or their province.
"Yessir. You can walk on my face. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
Today's paper comes close to a zero, unless you really haven't had enough photos of Willy and Kate, and haven't gushed enough yet.
The editorials in The Monctron Times and Trnascript are still on bicycle lanes. Really, t he rest of the world moved on decades ago Montreal has bicycle lanes and also cheap rentals at bicyclle racks all over the city. You can rent a bike at one, and leave it at another. Amerstdam has free bikes in racks at ever corner. Just take one, use it, and drop it off at another, convenient corner.
What next for our city councillors and our third rate newspaper editors - a proposal to build million dollar hitching rails for main street?
Days after the decision by France to ban "fracking", there is still no mention of it, even though is still going on in New Brunswick as I write this. Nor is there much discussion of it in the streets. ("please walk on my face, too, Mr rich man.")
The only item worth reading in the whole paper is a column by Alec Bruce on the editorial page. It's about the spineless way we have allowed the government to cheat our children by putting gifts to big business ahead of providing decent schooling.
And forget about this changing in the future. New Brunswick is headed in a different direction. When Mr.; Irving told us in the pages of The Moncton Times (and his other greasy sheets) that he had formed a coalition with the government, this was not just an act of stunning arroganze. (Imagine if you had made such an announcement that you were now a member of the government? So much for exlections and democracy.)
Then he capped it with the announcement he and others would plan the future economy for us. (So forget about the government we elected to do that.) And Mr. Alward, who appears to b both spineless and brainless, accepted that.
Big business has always sucked the blood of this province., and with precious little benefit for the rest of us, not even by paying decent taxes. But now it has gone a step further. I doesn 't just own governments. It doesn't just own governments. Now, it comes right out and says it is government. You like dukes? Get used to being the peasant class for the new dukes.
With the announcements of the coalition and of the economic planning group, democracy in New Brunswick is over. That is not an exaggeration. There's a word for government by a combination of politicians and big business. Check it up in the Oxford English Dictionary. Look under F.
For fascism.
Forget about hanging around in the hope of getting a cut if you're a good faxcist. There's room for only so many hogs and the trough.
Are you a graduate at any level, and looking for a job? Get out of New Brunswick.. Get out as quickly as you can. It's happening all over North America - so I'd stay away from the US, too. But there are parts of Canada where people haven't yet been beatecn down by our new dukes and barons.
Oh, and stay away from Quebec and New England. The Duke has his eye on those, too.
"Yessir. You can walk on my face. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
Today's paper comes close to a zero, unless you really haven't had enough photos of Willy and Kate, and haven't gushed enough yet.
The editorials in The Monctron Times and Trnascript are still on bicycle lanes. Really, t he rest of the world moved on decades ago Montreal has bicycle lanes and also cheap rentals at bicyclle racks all over the city. You can rent a bike at one, and leave it at another. Amerstdam has free bikes in racks at ever corner. Just take one, use it, and drop it off at another, convenient corner.
What next for our city councillors and our third rate newspaper editors - a proposal to build million dollar hitching rails for main street?
Days after the decision by France to ban "fracking", there is still no mention of it, even though is still going on in New Brunswick as I write this. Nor is there much discussion of it in the streets. ("please walk on my face, too, Mr rich man.")
The only item worth reading in the whole paper is a column by Alec Bruce on the editorial page. It's about the spineless way we have allowed the government to cheat our children by putting gifts to big business ahead of providing decent schooling.
And forget about this changing in the future. New Brunswick is headed in a different direction. When Mr.; Irving told us in the pages of The Moncton Times (and his other greasy sheets) that he had formed a coalition with the government, this was not just an act of stunning arroganze. (Imagine if you had made such an announcement that you were now a member of the government? So much for exlections and democracy.)
Then he capped it with the announcement he and others would plan the future economy for us. (So forget about the government we elected to do that.) And Mr. Alward, who appears to b both spineless and brainless, accepted that.
Big business has always sucked the blood of this province., and with precious little benefit for the rest of us, not even by paying decent taxes. But now it has gone a step further. I doesn 't just own governments. It doesn't just own governments. Now, it comes right out and says it is government. You like dukes? Get used to being the peasant class for the new dukes.
With the announcements of the coalition and of the economic planning group, democracy in New Brunswick is over. That is not an exaggeration. There's a word for government by a combination of politicians and big business. Check it up in the Oxford English Dictionary. Look under F.
For fascism.
Forget about hanging around in the hope of getting a cut if you're a good faxcist. There's room for only so many hogs and the trough.
Are you a graduate at any level, and looking for a job? Get out of New Brunswick.. Get out as quickly as you can. It's happening all over North America - so I'd stay away from the US, too. But there are parts of Canada where people haven't yet been beatecn down by our new dukes and barons.
Oh, and stay away from Quebec and New England. The Duke has his eye on those, too.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
July 2: Ooooooh look a the pretty pictures of katie's shoes. I could die. I could just die.
Yesterday, the National Assembly of France banned "fracking". They banned it because it is harmful to the environment and harmful to people. "Fracking" t he breaking of of shale rock to release a natural gas is what has been going on, unregulated and unreported, in New Brunswick for a decade. It's the process that we've learned about only because of public protest.
The government has, after a decade, finally enacted some regulations - and now it tells us to trust it because it's in control.
The T&T. which is still producing its daily, hard-hitting column on bicycle lanes, has barely mentioned fracking - and then only to tell us not to worry about it. (Obviously, fracking is somehing that Bunswick Media's boss wants to happen. There's big money involved. So who gives a damn about the people who live here?)
The T&T did not report the French ban - though it was well known long before press time. What we got, instead, was a close up picture duchess Katie's red shoes, page after page of worshipful poop about the ducal tour (being covered by 1,300 journalists to prove that Canadians are not the only population made up pre-adolescent gushers, and ours are not the only news media that pump out irrelevant drivel.)
The news that our oceans are dying made page A 7. Then it was back to Willy and Kate.
There is, way back on p. D5, a warning that the US is in danger of defaulting on its debt payments, thus causing world-wide economic catastrophe. But that comes after another page about Willy and Kate and, even on its own page, the default story was shoved aside by a wedding photo of Prince Albert (who?) of Monaco.
Yhe op ed page has an excellent article by David Suzuki on the conditions of our oceans. Above it is a column by staff writer Brent Mazerolle who obviously is intellectually and emotionally drained by his epic series on bicycle lanes.
As always, the teen columns were a good read. This time, my attention was caught by a very sensible column by Alex Corbett about the eternal question of the generation gap. He takes the view that it is much exaggerated. Too true. When I began teaching, it was to the peace and love generation. Lots of flowers.
That's the generation that grew up to vote for George Bush, torture, domestic spying, arbitrary imprisonment, world conquest. Their Canadian equivalents, flare pants now in the garbage along with the plastic flowers and love beads, have been voting for Harper - domestic spying, exporting Canadians for torture, and sending Canadians to die for American oil companies.
I remember their favourite saying, "Never trust anybody over thirty." They sure proved the truth of that one.
Oh, for the story on the French vote on "fracking", check the Google news site. (That seems to be too sophisticated a job for the hacks and propagandists at The Moncton Times&Transcript, but any kid can show you how to get it.)
The government has, after a decade, finally enacted some regulations - and now it tells us to trust it because it's in control.
The T&T. which is still producing its daily, hard-hitting column on bicycle lanes, has barely mentioned fracking - and then only to tell us not to worry about it. (Obviously, fracking is somehing that Bunswick Media's boss wants to happen. There's big money involved. So who gives a damn about the people who live here?)
The T&T did not report the French ban - though it was well known long before press time. What we got, instead, was a close up picture duchess Katie's red shoes, page after page of worshipful poop about the ducal tour (being covered by 1,300 journalists to prove that Canadians are not the only population made up pre-adolescent gushers, and ours are not the only news media that pump out irrelevant drivel.)
The news that our oceans are dying made page A 7. Then it was back to Willy and Kate.
There is, way back on p. D5, a warning that the US is in danger of defaulting on its debt payments, thus causing world-wide economic catastrophe. But that comes after another page about Willy and Kate and, even on its own page, the default story was shoved aside by a wedding photo of Prince Albert (who?) of Monaco.
Yhe op ed page has an excellent article by David Suzuki on the conditions of our oceans. Above it is a column by staff writer Brent Mazerolle who obviously is intellectually and emotionally drained by his epic series on bicycle lanes.
As always, the teen columns were a good read. This time, my attention was caught by a very sensible column by Alex Corbett about the eternal question of the generation gap. He takes the view that it is much exaggerated. Too true. When I began teaching, it was to the peace and love generation. Lots of flowers.
That's the generation that grew up to vote for George Bush, torture, domestic spying, arbitrary imprisonment, world conquest. Their Canadian equivalents, flare pants now in the garbage along with the plastic flowers and love beads, have been voting for Harper - domestic spying, exporting Canadians for torture, and sending Canadians to die for American oil companies.
I remember their favourite saying, "Never trust anybody over thirty." They sure proved the truth of that one.
Oh, for the story on the French vote on "fracking", check the Google news site. (That seems to be too sophisticated a job for the hacks and propagandists at The Moncton Times&Transcript, but any kid can show you how to get it.)
Friday, July 1, 2011
July 1: The good news is....
...it won't take you long to read the The Moncton Times and Transcript today. There's not much to read.
On page one, Brent Mazerolle continues his series on all you ever wanted to know about traffic lanes. The only other big news in Section A is that Canada Day will be sunny. WILL be sunny? Don't those ace newshawks know that we are readinig the paper on Canada Day? So shouldn't they say it IS sunny? And haven't some of the swifter minds among the editors realized that if it's sunny, we've probably already noticed it? (In fact, I am reading this at noon; and it's overcast.)
Okay, that takes care of all that's worth reading in Section A. In sports, the hot item is an an ad disguised as an editorial to shill tickets for the CFL game in Moncton. (Hurry, hurry, hurry. Only 2,000 left. plus instruction on how to order one.)
The big news (almost half of the NewsToday section) is that Willian and Kate have arrived. And they're smiling and saying they're delighted to be here. I'm so relieved. I was afraid they would frown, and say this country looks like a dog's breakfast.
And Kate wore a dress designed by a Canadian. (I could barely hold back a tear on that one.)
There was a brief mention of France supplying arms to Libyan "rebels" - an obvious violation of the UN mandate which said the NATO force was not supposed to taked sides. Why are Canadians there? Nobody seems clear on that.
The eidtorial and op ed pages are amusing. Norbert Cunnigham writes a gumpy "To the contrary" column about those who do mindless cheerleading about Canada on Canada Day. But in the editorial and the op ed pages, both of which Norbert is responsible for, are two prime examples of mindless cheerleading.
And both show an ignorance of Canada in babbling about how we welcomed immigrants of all nations, etc. In fact, Canada has a record of exploitation, killing, bigotry, and racism that takes second place to no-one. The Chinese were brought in to build the railways because they were cheaper than Canadians. They were worked close to death, then tossed aside to survive any way they could with cheap laundries and whatever else they could find. Nobody would hire a Chinese for a decent job.
Jews were banned, ghettoized, discriminated against from the 1890s on. We refused to help those who were trying to flee Nazi Germany - even though we knew what was happening to them. We continued that refusal even after the war.(Ever wonder why Israelis don't give a damn about what we thind of them?) We refused Jews, blacks and orientals equal opportunity to enter our unversities into the 1950s.
We put Ukrainian-Canadians into concentration camps in World War One. We did the same to Japanese-Canadians in World War Two, inflicting scars that will never heal. (We also stole all their property and sold it cheap to friends of the government.
We caused so much damage to native peoples that, to this day, they have not recovered.
We killed South Africans to please the British, just as we now kill Libyans and Afghanis
to please the US.
We have delivered up our own citizens for torture, knowing what was going to happen to them.
There is an column on climate change by the International Climate Science Coalition. It seems to be another of those climate change denier outfits sponsored by big business (Like the Simon Fraser Institute and AIMS); though it's hard to tell.
Anyway, it's main point is we should not waste time with cleaning up the air and the seas and the soil. We should help peoplel to adjust to the inevitable change.
Right. They should learn to adjust to having no fish in the sea, and no animal stock or fruit and vegetables on land.
The final sewage is a column from the Fontier Centre for Public Policy(another big business "think tank" on changes we should make in education. Much of it is bafflegab that I doubt whether the writer undestands. Some of it is outright lying.
This is an example of big business soft-sell to reorganize our schools so big business can get a piece of our education budget for it's personal profit. The game is to descredit the public schools, with the cooperation of propaganda sheets like the Times&Transcript, and insert their pseudo-scientific standardized testing, etc. into the schools - playing with our chnildren's minds to satisfy their greed..
Luckily, this column will have liitle effect. The writer is such a bad communicator that he doesn't know how to write for a general audience. Most people (including me) will see this just as the gibberish it is..
On page one, Brent Mazerolle continues his series on all you ever wanted to know about traffic lanes. The only other big news in Section A is that Canada Day will be sunny. WILL be sunny? Don't those ace newshawks know that we are readinig the paper on Canada Day? So shouldn't they say it IS sunny? And haven't some of the swifter minds among the editors realized that if it's sunny, we've probably already noticed it? (In fact, I am reading this at noon; and it's overcast.)
Okay, that takes care of all that's worth reading in Section A. In sports, the hot item is an an ad disguised as an editorial to shill tickets for the CFL game in Moncton. (Hurry, hurry, hurry. Only 2,000 left. plus instruction on how to order one.)
The big news (almost half of the NewsToday section) is that Willian and Kate have arrived. And they're smiling and saying they're delighted to be here. I'm so relieved. I was afraid they would frown, and say this country looks like a dog's breakfast.
And Kate wore a dress designed by a Canadian. (I could barely hold back a tear on that one.)
There was a brief mention of France supplying arms to Libyan "rebels" - an obvious violation of the UN mandate which said the NATO force was not supposed to taked sides. Why are Canadians there? Nobody seems clear on that.
The eidtorial and op ed pages are amusing. Norbert Cunnigham writes a gumpy "To the contrary" column about those who do mindless cheerleading about Canada on Canada Day. But in the editorial and the op ed pages, both of which Norbert is responsible for, are two prime examples of mindless cheerleading.
And both show an ignorance of Canada in babbling about how we welcomed immigrants of all nations, etc. In fact, Canada has a record of exploitation, killing, bigotry, and racism that takes second place to no-one. The Chinese were brought in to build the railways because they were cheaper than Canadians. They were worked close to death, then tossed aside to survive any way they could with cheap laundries and whatever else they could find. Nobody would hire a Chinese for a decent job.
Jews were banned, ghettoized, discriminated against from the 1890s on. We refused to help those who were trying to flee Nazi Germany - even though we knew what was happening to them. We continued that refusal even after the war.(Ever wonder why Israelis don't give a damn about what we thind of them?) We refused Jews, blacks and orientals equal opportunity to enter our unversities into the 1950s.
We put Ukrainian-Canadians into concentration camps in World War One. We did the same to Japanese-Canadians in World War Two, inflicting scars that will never heal. (We also stole all their property and sold it cheap to friends of the government.
We caused so much damage to native peoples that, to this day, they have not recovered.
We killed South Africans to please the British, just as we now kill Libyans and Afghanis
to please the US.
We have delivered up our own citizens for torture, knowing what was going to happen to them.
There is an column on climate change by the International Climate Science Coalition. It seems to be another of those climate change denier outfits sponsored by big business (Like the Simon Fraser Institute and AIMS); though it's hard to tell.
Anyway, it's main point is we should not waste time with cleaning up the air and the seas and the soil. We should help peoplel to adjust to the inevitable change.
Right. They should learn to adjust to having no fish in the sea, and no animal stock or fruit and vegetables on land.
The final sewage is a column from the Fontier Centre for Public Policy(another big business "think tank" on changes we should make in education. Much of it is bafflegab that I doubt whether the writer undestands. Some of it is outright lying.
This is an example of big business soft-sell to reorganize our schools so big business can get a piece of our education budget for it's personal profit. The game is to descredit the public schools, with the cooperation of propaganda sheets like the Times&Transcript, and insert their pseudo-scientific standardized testing, etc. into the schools - playing with our chnildren's minds to satisfy their greed..
Luckily, this column will have liitle effect. The writer is such a bad communicator that he doesn't know how to write for a general audience. Most people (including me) will see this just as the gibberish it is..
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