....and, oh, it hurts.
I don't agree with the values (if they have any) of the New Brunswick Conservatives or the Liberals. Therefore, I would not run for office for either of them. Nor would I vote for either. But Dr. Parrot joined the Conservative club and sat, not only in the legislature as a Conservative, but as a member of the caucus in which the party carries on its confidential discussions.
Dr. Parrott expresses quite different views from the party, and expresses them publicly. So Mr. Alward says he can't come to the clubhouse any more. Fair enough. Nobody is saying he can't say whatever he wants to say - any time, any place. He still has a seat in the legislature. He still has full access to the public and to the news media. He can still criticize the government.
Indeed, I cannot understand why he ran as a Conservative in the first place. He seems to have nothing in common with that party. Or with the Liberals. (and, in my book, that's good.) So he should check out the other parties. If he doesn't like them, he should start his own or run as an independent. (Indeed, his popularity might make him a quite challenging independent.)
But, in expelling him from caucus, Premier Alward did what any party leader has every right to do. (In fact, I would at least have called him on the carpet for the way he expressed himself on language duality.)
There's a story on p. A7 that reminds me of a time I asked a man who he hired to plough his driveway. What I got was a long answer, delivered in something between a whine and a teary plea for justice. What I got was a lecture, a cry of despair that there aren't enough enterpreneurs in this world. We live, apparently, in world of people with no drive, no hustle, no ambition, no spirit of enterprise. It wasn't an answer so much as it was an appeal to justice and to the deepest values.
At the end, he said, yes, he knew a man who would do it for $20. This information was followed by another whine, "He's an entrepreneur", and the whine really meant, "Why aren't there more people like that?"
Well, the man I was questioning was a quite successful businessman. He lived in the propaganda world of big business, a propaganda I had seen often enough spread in commerce courses as well as in The Moncton Times and Transcript. Entrepreneurs are good. Entrepreneurs build societies and prosperity. We should encourage everybody to be an entrepreneur, and then get out of the way. Get rid of government regulations and taxation that only crush the souls of these saints.
Now to p. A7. "Youth need incentives to stay in the province: panel". 'Moncton businessman George Donovan says we need to breed a new generation of enterpreneurs and get out of their way'. (that last bit is a hint of the Norbert rant, 'government is bad.' (except, of course, when its giving tax reductions and forest land, etc. to the boss.)
The "panel" was an activity of an independent think tank - you know, one of those independent think tanks whose board of governors is made up of independent thinking business executives. Yep - entrepreneurship without any restraint is good. Never mind that it has created the economic disaster we living through, that it lives off brutal exploitation and poverty in countries like Haiti and Congo (and, often enough, Canada.) We'll forget, for the moment, it makes money out of an infrastructure it refuses to pay taxes for. We'll even forget that pay raises seldom come from "entrepreneurs". They more often come from the workers themselves when they join unions.
And entrepreneurs, the very big ones, have created the growing wage gap that is destroying western society. They are,as well, hypocrites. For all their preaching about government being bad and inefficient, They need big government. They live off it. They need big government to fight their wars, to supply them with roads and bridges and trained workers, to give them resources like timber and oil, to quash any civil unrest they cause. They need big government to buy their produce. If the US, for example, didn't have a government big enough to buy more weapons than any country in the world, it would have almost no industry at all.
Yes, this is a role for the entrepreneur. But it would be nice to have a newspaper to give us balanced information rather than just publicity blurbs for "think" tanks.
By the way, if the panel were one on how young people should get active in unions, would the TandT have made such a big story - or any story - out of it?
In NewsToday (which, like all newspapers, is really NewsYesterday), there is one story worth a read. "Minister vows to end prison pizza parties". The minister is Vic Toews, Canada's minister of public safety - which includes prisons ,who is very worried that eating pizzas and having chocolate bunnies (which do not raise prison costs), will spoil prisoners, That going for a walk with their families will turn them into raging beasts. Lots of people, who know nothing about prisons or the people in the them, think he's right. That's why he and Harper are busy returning our prison system to medieval times - to create even more and worse criminals.
That appeals to the people who vote for the Harpers and Toews of this world.
Norbert's column looks nice; but it's so vague (and sometimes so plain wrong) that it's just meaningless. He uses the word ideology, for example, without seeming to know what it means. Or he makes ideology acceptable for one party (the Conservatives) while unacceptable for another party (the NDP) - even though the Ottawa Conservatives are far the most ideological of the two.
As well, he refers to news media as 'biased' media - the implication being that they aren't biased at all. Come off it, Norm. Look in a mirror.
In an intriguing column, Alec Bruce talks of the rise of unmarried couples, of single parents as shown in the census. Without taking any side as right, doesn't this suggest a more general breakdown of social customs? We have a rise of consumerism, a rise is self-centredness, a decline of community volunteerism (most notable in the near collapse of youth groups which were so prominent from about 1900 into the 1970s. A large part of this collapse due to the lack of adult volunteers.) Then there is the decline of religious institutions, not only in numbers but in activities.
In parallel, we have developed a business ethic that says self-interest is good. Greed is good. That concern only for oneself is good. There is surely a good deal more to this census that shows in the figures.
A final thought, I came across information that Crandall University, which discriminates against gays, has received, on average, some two million dollars a year from us tax payers. I had known about the $150,000 from the city. But two million a year from public funds?
I cannot recall ever reading a report on this in the TandT. Has any read ever seen one?
I have read all the Baptist defences of this. It is certainly true that they have a right to exercise their religious beliefs. But there are at least two exceptions to this. They don't have a right to inflict their beliefs on others. And they don't have a right to expect taxpayers to pay for the cost of their religious beliefs.
Consider this. Moslems set up a university in Moncton. They refuse to permit either Christians or Jews any access to employment in it or use of it. They also demand 200 million a year in taxpayers' money.
Do you see Moncton's Baptists out there demonstrating in the streets in favour of Moslem U and its government handouts?
And let's not even guess how they would react to a gay university.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Sept. 2 0: What isn't in the TandT.....
....and what shouldn't have been....
Drones are unmanned aircraft that are used for espionage, rocket fire, and bombing. You have probably heard that the US is using drones in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. You may even have heard that They are also used by police to spy on people without going to the nuisance of getting a warrant. And that can be very useful against people have haven't done anything but, for any reason, just aren't liked by the government in power. That's very useful in a dictatorship or police state.
Betcha didn't know that Canada has them.
The US Government Accountability Office has announced that Canada is the proud (if shy) owner of drones. It doesn't say whether they are owned by the military or by police forces - or both.Nor does it say what they are being used for. But Canada has them.
So have 76 other countries - including Britain and France and Russia and China and Israel - indeed, countries that cover most of the land surface of the earth. Now, everybody can be spied on - or bombed - at no risk whatever - except, of course - those who get in the way.
The development and spread of drones has been so rapid because - well - because selling them - to whoever - is very profitable to the US defence industry.
This does pose a fundamental problem to democracy (not to mention innocent people who happen to be standing near a person that somebody sitting at a computer screen 5,000 miles away wants to kill.)
Democracy requires limits on the powers of government and police. The term individual freedom means that those powers are limited. If they aren't, then you have the Gestapo of Hitler's Germany or the NKVD of the Soviet Union. Constant surveillance of everybody for whatever reason some official decides on is fatal to democracy.
Gee! Funny The Moncton Times and Transcript never ran this story.
In other good news missed by the TandT, the last year saw a rise in wealth for the very wealthy in the US of 13%. Weren't they lucky while the rest of the country was sliding into poverty? Now, wouldn't it be interesting if The Moncton Times and Transcript would get the figures for New Brunswick? Perhaps they could spare one of those oped staff writers who writes columns about what fun it is to ride a motorcycle? Or sentimental stuff about how they just buried grandpa with his trusty toothbrush in his pocket?
It was just over a year ago that the TandT was writing almost daily editorials attacking the New Brunswick school system. They were, in fact, among the most vicious editorials (and the most ignorant) I have ever seen. I confess that I have hard feelings toward Norbert because I suspect he wrote at least some of them.
The theme was, not accidentally, picked up by Atlantic Institute of Marketing Studies which,also not accidentally, had some association with a businessman whose last name began with I. The plan was to gradually privatize the public schools for private profit. This would copy the model being set by the US for some decades, and now in Britain. And the results are in, folks.
According to The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, American education now ranks with the lowest in the developed world. (And the developed world list is big and wide enough to include countries you never even heard of.) American teachers, by the way, are the hardest worked and among the worst paid in the developed world. As for university graduates, the US ranks only 14th in the developed world.
Now, this would be a wonderful opportunity for an enterprising editor right here in Moncton to go to his computer, press Google, and type the organization for economic cooperation and development Canada education. (No. Not Atlantic Institute for Market Studies. Just do what I say.) Then print it for a change in this lying. propagandizing newspaper.
To move to what IS in the paper, NewsToday has the current propaganda line - oh, oh, Iran is supplying the Syrian government with weapons ---oh, they're so treacherous.
1. Who the hell does Reuters think is supplying the rebels? Some fairy Godmother? It's the dictatorships of Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, and also Turkey, Britain, the US, and others.
If these governments are supporting one side, why is it terrible for a government to support the other side?
2. Is this for democracy? Get real. Saudi Arabia and The Emirates are among the most vicious dictatorships in the world. They don't encourage democracy.
3. The rebels are made up of a least thirty, distinct groups - some of which are already fighting with each other. Very few have the slightest interest in democracy.
Why are the western powers involved? Probably because they hope nobody wins. They want Syria, among other countries, to be broken up into small and weak parts so it won't get into the way of plans they have for the region.
There is, at least, sensible placing for a decent story on the census - headline story on p. 1. Yesterday's story said, "It's coming. It's coming" when, in fact, it had come by the time the paper hit the stands. That means most people already knew the story before they saw it this morning. What a newspaper should have done with such a story today is to present it in more detail than radio and TV can spare the time for - and to add some INFORMED comments. It's kind of silly to pay for yesterday's news.
The only other item of interest in section A is yet another big ad for the autobiography of an Irving journalist.
This has been going on for some time now. Sales must be slow.
Then we go off to the world of sport - with not a female reporter in sight. The only story about a woman is about a champion golfer. It was written by a man.
The first female sports reporter in Canada was Myrtle Cook, an outstanding Olympic athlete who became a sports columnist about 1930 for a career of some forty years. Hey, folks! It's okay for women to cover sports. It's been going on for close to a century.
P. C3 (NewsToday) has an important story on the need for equal medical services in French in New Brunswick. Read it to the end because in it is a remarkable statement by Conservative Dr. Parrott, "In the wake of duality, you find mediocrity." ( Of course, what he might have meant is that he was born a twin). Not surprisingly, he was praised yesterday in the Times and Transcript for his stance.
Even if he statement were true (which I don't think it is), it was a remarkably insensitive, dismissive and even stupid remark to make.
Speaking of insensitive, dismissive and even stupid, Alec Bruce has an excellent column on the American champ in those fields, Mitt Romney. Mitt could still win the election, though. Much depends on who controls the voters registration lists and the electronic voting machines.
Jody Dallaire is her usual, good stuff. But, given what one sees of commentators and editors with the TandT, I'm surprised they don't assign a man to comment on women's issues.
Drones are unmanned aircraft that are used for espionage, rocket fire, and bombing. You have probably heard that the US is using drones in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. You may even have heard that They are also used by police to spy on people without going to the nuisance of getting a warrant. And that can be very useful against people have haven't done anything but, for any reason, just aren't liked by the government in power. That's very useful in a dictatorship or police state.
Betcha didn't know that Canada has them.
The US Government Accountability Office has announced that Canada is the proud (if shy) owner of drones. It doesn't say whether they are owned by the military or by police forces - or both.Nor does it say what they are being used for. But Canada has them.
So have 76 other countries - including Britain and France and Russia and China and Israel - indeed, countries that cover most of the land surface of the earth. Now, everybody can be spied on - or bombed - at no risk whatever - except, of course - those who get in the way.
The development and spread of drones has been so rapid because - well - because selling them - to whoever - is very profitable to the US defence industry.
This does pose a fundamental problem to democracy (not to mention innocent people who happen to be standing near a person that somebody sitting at a computer screen 5,000 miles away wants to kill.)
Democracy requires limits on the powers of government and police. The term individual freedom means that those powers are limited. If they aren't, then you have the Gestapo of Hitler's Germany or the NKVD of the Soviet Union. Constant surveillance of everybody for whatever reason some official decides on is fatal to democracy.
Gee! Funny The Moncton Times and Transcript never ran this story.
In other good news missed by the TandT, the last year saw a rise in wealth for the very wealthy in the US of 13%. Weren't they lucky while the rest of the country was sliding into poverty? Now, wouldn't it be interesting if The Moncton Times and Transcript would get the figures for New Brunswick? Perhaps they could spare one of those oped staff writers who writes columns about what fun it is to ride a motorcycle? Or sentimental stuff about how they just buried grandpa with his trusty toothbrush in his pocket?
It was just over a year ago that the TandT was writing almost daily editorials attacking the New Brunswick school system. They were, in fact, among the most vicious editorials (and the most ignorant) I have ever seen. I confess that I have hard feelings toward Norbert because I suspect he wrote at least some of them.
The theme was, not accidentally, picked up by Atlantic Institute of Marketing Studies which,also not accidentally, had some association with a businessman whose last name began with I. The plan was to gradually privatize the public schools for private profit. This would copy the model being set by the US for some decades, and now in Britain. And the results are in, folks.
According to The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, American education now ranks with the lowest in the developed world. (And the developed world list is big and wide enough to include countries you never even heard of.) American teachers, by the way, are the hardest worked and among the worst paid in the developed world. As for university graduates, the US ranks only 14th in the developed world.
Now, this would be a wonderful opportunity for an enterprising editor right here in Moncton to go to his computer, press Google, and type the organization for economic cooperation and development Canada education. (No. Not Atlantic Institute for Market Studies. Just do what I say.) Then print it for a change in this lying. propagandizing newspaper.
To move to what IS in the paper, NewsToday has the current propaganda line - oh, oh, Iran is supplying the Syrian government with weapons ---oh, they're so treacherous.
1. Who the hell does Reuters think is supplying the rebels? Some fairy Godmother? It's the dictatorships of Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, and also Turkey, Britain, the US, and others.
If these governments are supporting one side, why is it terrible for a government to support the other side?
2. Is this for democracy? Get real. Saudi Arabia and The Emirates are among the most vicious dictatorships in the world. They don't encourage democracy.
3. The rebels are made up of a least thirty, distinct groups - some of which are already fighting with each other. Very few have the slightest interest in democracy.
Why are the western powers involved? Probably because they hope nobody wins. They want Syria, among other countries, to be broken up into small and weak parts so it won't get into the way of plans they have for the region.
There is, at least, sensible placing for a decent story on the census - headline story on p. 1. Yesterday's story said, "It's coming. It's coming" when, in fact, it had come by the time the paper hit the stands. That means most people already knew the story before they saw it this morning. What a newspaper should have done with such a story today is to present it in more detail than radio and TV can spare the time for - and to add some INFORMED comments. It's kind of silly to pay for yesterday's news.
The only other item of interest in section A is yet another big ad for the autobiography of an Irving journalist.
This has been going on for some time now. Sales must be slow.
Then we go off to the world of sport - with not a female reporter in sight. The only story about a woman is about a champion golfer. It was written by a man.
The first female sports reporter in Canada was Myrtle Cook, an outstanding Olympic athlete who became a sports columnist about 1930 for a career of some forty years. Hey, folks! It's okay for women to cover sports. It's been going on for close to a century.
P. C3 (NewsToday) has an important story on the need for equal medical services in French in New Brunswick. Read it to the end because in it is a remarkable statement by Conservative Dr. Parrott, "In the wake of duality, you find mediocrity." ( Of course, what he might have meant is that he was born a twin). Not surprisingly, he was praised yesterday in the Times and Transcript for his stance.
Even if he statement were true (which I don't think it is), it was a remarkably insensitive, dismissive and even stupid remark to make.
Speaking of insensitive, dismissive and even stupid, Alec Bruce has an excellent column on the American champ in those fields, Mitt Romney. Mitt could still win the election, though. Much depends on who controls the voters registration lists and the electronic voting machines.
Jody Dallaire is her usual, good stuff. But, given what one sees of commentators and editors with the TandT, I'm surprised they don't assign a man to comment on women's issues.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Sept. 19: credit where credit is due
The Moncton Times and Transcript has carried a story that I did not think it would. Mother Jones Magazine took a secret video of Romney giving a speech at a fund-raising dinner for his campaign. It was given in a quite exclusive club; and only the wealthy were invited to attend. The message was simple.
The middle class and the poor in the US were lazy, spoiled, and had a sense of entitlement to that which they had not earned. It's not a surprise he made such a speech. It's not a surprise that his wealthy audience applauded.
I've known many people who sit in boardrooms, who are rich and have been rich from birth, and who routinely pour contempt on everybody who isn't rich. (That's even true for those who were born into money like George Bush in the US and __fill in the blank_____________ in New Brunswick.) In those circles, they hire entertainers who sing songs that ridicule the poor, and employees in general.
These are the people that Alward and Harper answer to. That's why, in a time of recession,, they take the axe to services for people who need services but can't afford them. That's why they investigate unions, but not corporations. That's why Americans have such poor health care. That's why the US cuts spending on school meals for hungry children while it cuts taxes for the very rich. That's why they don't give a damn what drilling for shale gas might do to you. It's a perfectly normal and human reaction.
Even the very rich, though, have consciences that need to be kept quiet. They make their money out of exploiting other people with the lowest possible wages and the cheapest possible services. If there's a recession caused by their own greed and illegal behaviour, then they rationalize it as the fault of the poor. I've read many of their statements that do exactly that. They hire columnists for their newspapers who make a point of saying that sort of thing. Guess who the TandT routinely blames for a strike, any strike. Bus drivers, they say, aren't worth it. Ever see the TandT say that a billionaire wasn't worth it?
Their banks go broke? Not their fault. They get a enormous bailouts all over the US and Europe. And the poor will pay through cut social programmes. And the bankers will get bonuses and tax cuts. Greece's billionaires go broke - and the middle class and the poor get condemned to generations of hardship for it.
Until you have met the rich, you can have no idea what contempt they hold you in, and how highly they think of themselves. How else could they rationalize their thievery?
Romney took that contempt of the poor to make a point that the poor were the lazy, useless, "entitled" people who supported Obama. He said that they were also the 47% to 48% who supported Obama.
In fact, the ones who pay little or no taxes are the ones who support Romney, just as they are the ones who support Alward and Harper. I haven't seen a figure for Canada, but in the US, 25 of the largest corporations paid no income taxes whatever. (The poor who don't pay taxes are people who have no money. The rich who don't pay taxes are those who get sweetheart deals from politicians, or who have bogus head offices on remote island states.) The rich who skip taxes are a small percentage of the total population - but they are one hell of a proportion of what doesn't get paid.
Will this have much effect on the election? I doubt it. Most American news media are owned by the very rich. They'll either ignore the story, or explain it away - or attack Mother Jones for revealing it. Will the middle class be affected by the story? Some will. Some not. Many middle class like to kid themselves in the same way the rich do. They'll say the rich help us all by their generosity in giving. Sure. Steal a billion. Give a few hundred thousand back. And the TandT will write you up as philanthropist.
It should be possible to see the video on Google, Mother Jones, or Youtube.
That's why P. A4 has a story on fees for government services going up. That's why children going to public schools have to pay fees and buy school supplies. That's why drinking and gambling, long recognized in most societies as creators of addictions and social problems, are encouraged for everybody by government. The keep taxes for the rich down. (You pay them in lottery tickets.) The level of gambling and its problems were much lower when it was all controlled by the mob.
The lead story in NewsToday is a good example of how The TandT is still stuck in the 1890s. It's headed "Census data to provide family snapshot". So what? We know what a census is. What's important is what's in it. But the newspaper went to bed shortly before the census was released so it didn't know what's in it.
That's why the story is useless information. And by the time you read the paper today, you could have had the story of what's in it on Google news. All the story in the paper does is to confirm that newspapers are useless for this sort of story. Now - a detailed analysis of what it tells us about Moncton and New Brunswick could be useful for tomorrow - something to give the census meaning to us.
C12 has an example of a very bad story, "Dozens of charities lose their tax-exempt status". (This is in relation to federal taxes.) What's wrong with is that Postmedia simply took a government statement. and used that as a story. - Really, a reporter is supposed to ask questions.
The headline spoke of dozens of charities. But it gave reasons for only two. So what's the scoop on all the others? After all, Harper has been known to cut off charitable groups that he just doesn't like. We need to know that. But any Postmedia reporter who asks the wrong kind of questions can expect to end up counting snowflakes at the North Pole..
The editorial, as expected, is pretty silly. Again it says bus drivers are overpaid. (Has it ever carried an analysis of whether the TandT's owner is overpaid? or the TandT's editor?) As well, it's suggestions of how to redesign the transit system are childish and even ignorant. What he would do is to create a system just dandy for 1945. That way we could have an antique transit system so we could read our antique newspaper on the way to work.
And, Wow! Norbert likes Bob Dylan, and knows something about him. I wonder if Norbert still has his flared jeans. It's a side of him I never guessed.
The op ed page is,well, it is. What can y' do, eh?
Where is the story, now over a week old, of the Moncton physicians and other medical workers who demanded a moratorium on shale gas?
Where is the story on the American woman who is being deported - almost certainly to an American prison - because she was disgusted by what she saw as a soldier in Iraq? She was in Canada as a refugee from the treatment she expected in the US for becoming anti-war. (The US is, after all, the country that uses torture, solitary confinement, and in which one can be imprisoned indefinitely without trial simply on the word of the president or the army.) Her children, born in Canada, will also be deported - but separated from their mother.
She went to war. She saw the killing of civilians, many of them children. It turned her against war.
George Bush dodged war service. He killed over a million people. We are sending a women of conscience to prison because she has a conscience. We honour Bush because he doesn't have a conscience.
There are warrant out for Bush in several countries, countries on our side with whom we have agreements to deport people to be tried for their crimes. Bush is charged with war crimes, among them torture. Would Harper depart Bush? No. But he will deport a woman with two children because she opposes war.
Our hero.
I have written to city council about the pollutants under Highfield Square. There is an online form at the city's site. It's not entirely used friendly. For example, it asks for a signature - on the screen. I'm sure that's possible. I'm not sure many people know how to do it. I know I don't.
It also requires the precise date of the information that I ask for. How can I give a precise date when even the city can't know precisely when the pollutants developed? And they won't tell me when they discovered them?
We'll see.
The middle class and the poor in the US were lazy, spoiled, and had a sense of entitlement to that which they had not earned. It's not a surprise he made such a speech. It's not a surprise that his wealthy audience applauded.
I've known many people who sit in boardrooms, who are rich and have been rich from birth, and who routinely pour contempt on everybody who isn't rich. (That's even true for those who were born into money like George Bush in the US and __fill in the blank_____________ in New Brunswick.) In those circles, they hire entertainers who sing songs that ridicule the poor, and employees in general.
These are the people that Alward and Harper answer to. That's why, in a time of recession,, they take the axe to services for people who need services but can't afford them. That's why they investigate unions, but not corporations. That's why Americans have such poor health care. That's why the US cuts spending on school meals for hungry children while it cuts taxes for the very rich. That's why they don't give a damn what drilling for shale gas might do to you. It's a perfectly normal and human reaction.
Even the very rich, though, have consciences that need to be kept quiet. They make their money out of exploiting other people with the lowest possible wages and the cheapest possible services. If there's a recession caused by their own greed and illegal behaviour, then they rationalize it as the fault of the poor. I've read many of their statements that do exactly that. They hire columnists for their newspapers who make a point of saying that sort of thing. Guess who the TandT routinely blames for a strike, any strike. Bus drivers, they say, aren't worth it. Ever see the TandT say that a billionaire wasn't worth it?
Their banks go broke? Not their fault. They get a enormous bailouts all over the US and Europe. And the poor will pay through cut social programmes. And the bankers will get bonuses and tax cuts. Greece's billionaires go broke - and the middle class and the poor get condemned to generations of hardship for it.
Until you have met the rich, you can have no idea what contempt they hold you in, and how highly they think of themselves. How else could they rationalize their thievery?
Romney took that contempt of the poor to make a point that the poor were the lazy, useless, "entitled" people who supported Obama. He said that they were also the 47% to 48% who supported Obama.
In fact, the ones who pay little or no taxes are the ones who support Romney, just as they are the ones who support Alward and Harper. I haven't seen a figure for Canada, but in the US, 25 of the largest corporations paid no income taxes whatever. (The poor who don't pay taxes are people who have no money. The rich who don't pay taxes are those who get sweetheart deals from politicians, or who have bogus head offices on remote island states.) The rich who skip taxes are a small percentage of the total population - but they are one hell of a proportion of what doesn't get paid.
Will this have much effect on the election? I doubt it. Most American news media are owned by the very rich. They'll either ignore the story, or explain it away - or attack Mother Jones for revealing it. Will the middle class be affected by the story? Some will. Some not. Many middle class like to kid themselves in the same way the rich do. They'll say the rich help us all by their generosity in giving. Sure. Steal a billion. Give a few hundred thousand back. And the TandT will write you up as philanthropist.
It should be possible to see the video on Google, Mother Jones, or Youtube.
That's why P. A4 has a story on fees for government services going up. That's why children going to public schools have to pay fees and buy school supplies. That's why drinking and gambling, long recognized in most societies as creators of addictions and social problems, are encouraged for everybody by government. The keep taxes for the rich down. (You pay them in lottery tickets.) The level of gambling and its problems were much lower when it was all controlled by the mob.
The lead story in NewsToday is a good example of how The TandT is still stuck in the 1890s. It's headed "Census data to provide family snapshot". So what? We know what a census is. What's important is what's in it. But the newspaper went to bed shortly before the census was released so it didn't know what's in it.
That's why the story is useless information. And by the time you read the paper today, you could have had the story of what's in it on Google news. All the story in the paper does is to confirm that newspapers are useless for this sort of story. Now - a detailed analysis of what it tells us about Moncton and New Brunswick could be useful for tomorrow - something to give the census meaning to us.
C12 has an example of a very bad story, "Dozens of charities lose their tax-exempt status". (This is in relation to federal taxes.) What's wrong with is that Postmedia simply took a government statement. and used that as a story. - Really, a reporter is supposed to ask questions.
The headline spoke of dozens of charities. But it gave reasons for only two. So what's the scoop on all the others? After all, Harper has been known to cut off charitable groups that he just doesn't like. We need to know that. But any Postmedia reporter who asks the wrong kind of questions can expect to end up counting snowflakes at the North Pole..
The editorial, as expected, is pretty silly. Again it says bus drivers are overpaid. (Has it ever carried an analysis of whether the TandT's owner is overpaid? or the TandT's editor?) As well, it's suggestions of how to redesign the transit system are childish and even ignorant. What he would do is to create a system just dandy for 1945. That way we could have an antique transit system so we could read our antique newspaper on the way to work.
And, Wow! Norbert likes Bob Dylan, and knows something about him. I wonder if Norbert still has his flared jeans. It's a side of him I never guessed.
The op ed page is,well, it is. What can y' do, eh?
Where is the story, now over a week old, of the Moncton physicians and other medical workers who demanded a moratorium on shale gas?
Where is the story on the American woman who is being deported - almost certainly to an American prison - because she was disgusted by what she saw as a soldier in Iraq? She was in Canada as a refugee from the treatment she expected in the US for becoming anti-war. (The US is, after all, the country that uses torture, solitary confinement, and in which one can be imprisoned indefinitely without trial simply on the word of the president or the army.) Her children, born in Canada, will also be deported - but separated from their mother.
She went to war. She saw the killing of civilians, many of them children. It turned her against war.
George Bush dodged war service. He killed over a million people. We are sending a women of conscience to prison because she has a conscience. We honour Bush because he doesn't have a conscience.
There are warrant out for Bush in several countries, countries on our side with whom we have agreements to deport people to be tried for their crimes. Bush is charged with war crimes, among them torture. Would Harper depart Bush? No. But he will deport a woman with two children because she opposes war.
Our hero.
I have written to city council about the pollutants under Highfield Square. There is an online form at the city's site. It's not entirely used friendly. For example, it asks for a signature - on the screen. I'm sure that's possible. I'm not sure many people know how to do it. I know I don't.
It also requires the precise date of the information that I ask for. How can I give a precise date when even the city can't know precisely when the pollutants developed? And they won't tell me when they discovered them?
We'll see.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Sept. 18: "Rosie the cat finds a home"
This is a a big story on p.1. And it has a picture of 'Rosie' for those who have never seen a cat. There's also a picture of a man tossing a frisbee for a dog - for those who have never seen a man, a frisbee or a dog. Also, "Murder trial jury selected" Well, yes. That's the way the justice system works. So?
The latter story also has a picture of the defendant with his mouth open. It's the same picture as the one they ran yesterday.
This is elementary school stuff. - except that elementary school child reporters would look for something more interesting - like "Drunken teacher dances on desk".
There is very little in section A that anyone needs to know. Rising gas prices are still only the early signs of what is going to hit us with one hell of a shock. We live in a city designed for travel by car. City planners are encouraging that by allowing for more parking downtown. Where are the reporters which should be preparing stories about what the rest of the world is doing in the face of this crisis?
Where are the stories on, for example, how cities in China are limiting the number of cars permitted in their streets, how cities around the world are coping with the challenges of mass transit, how they're all trying to get away from reliance on the internal combustion engine, how they are redesigning their cities as walking cities?
Meanwhile, Moncton's vision of the future so far consists of installing parking meters on Main, and building new schools in sites as remote from where people live as possible. This is a city that gets very excited about attracting new business. But it shows not the slightest concern about how people are going to live in this city. And The Moncton Times and Transcript seems blissfully ignorant of all this.
NewsToday is a bare two pages. And there is nothing in it we did not know yesterday from radio and television and google news on the computer. It must be a good 25 years ago that I attended a conference of journalists on how to make print news competitive in a world that also has universal access to radio and TV that deliver the same news much earlier. There are ways to be competitive. For a start, radio and TV are more limited in the ability to provide useful analysis of the news. (Two minutes on air is a long time. On TV, twenty seconds can be a long time.)
And that was a conference 25 years ago. Actually, we've had TV for almost 70 years, and radio for almost a hundred. The Moncton Times and Transcript is still a newspaper of a century ago, but with less in it.
There's a bitterly amusing item on p.2 of NewsToday. A couple of professors report "N.B. ranks at top in corporate tax report." Does that sound good? Well, what it means is that NB charges the lowest taxes in Canada on corporations and the wealthy and, as well, as offers them the best tax avoidance schemes.
That might go some considerable way to explaining our debt, and why schools have to waste their time on fund-raisers so they can operate, and why parents have to pay school fees and buy supplies for them
N.B. ranks at the top in corporate tax report? That's like saying N.B. ranks at the top in easy bank robberies. Interesting how editors choose their words.
The editorial beats another, aging drum. Moncton needs a Canadian Football League team. (People as far away as Halifax think so. Trouble is, you need to convince people as far away as Toronto. And you have to convince a lot of people as far away as Halifax that's it's worth driving three hours each way to see a game. This is a bozo scheme that ranks with the "events centre".)
These big events sound nice. But I have yet to see figures on how much they cost to stage - and how much of the money they attract actually stays in Moncton, and who it is that really profits from out generous sponsorship.
Norbert has a decent and sensible column. I wish he could learn to write, though. The topic is the film that has led to rioting in Moslem countries. But he doesn't say so until halfway through. And that means that an article worth reading will be missed by the many people who will lose interest before they get that far.
Good column by Alec Bruce. Well written and well worth a read - particularly since it deals with an important, local news item of last week that the Times and Transcript still hasn't reported.
Alan Cochrane contributes a must-read column for all those who care that Christmas is the day of lowest water use in Moncton.
Louise Gilbert has some interesting thoughts on how to age gracefully. Alas! I was never even young gracefully.
There's an interesting Letter of the Day from Desmond Bird which deals with military purchasing, and our air force. We don't build our own aircraft. Nobody knows why not. And, of course, it has never occured to the TandT to ask why not. Bird focusses on Sweden which has a long history of making its own military equipment - and some very good equipment, though Sweden is much smaller than Canada. Why doesn't Canada do it for a new fighter plane? My guess is the US aviation industry doesn't want competition. And that's what it told John Diefenbaker just before he canned the Avro Arrow.
In general, this edition is a pretty drab one, even by the standards of The Moncton Times and Transcript. The news part is particularly stinking.
Estimated reading time for all that is worth reading? Five or ten minutes. Tops.
The latter story also has a picture of the defendant with his mouth open. It's the same picture as the one they ran yesterday.
This is elementary school stuff. - except that elementary school child reporters would look for something more interesting - like "Drunken teacher dances on desk".
There is very little in section A that anyone needs to know. Rising gas prices are still only the early signs of what is going to hit us with one hell of a shock. We live in a city designed for travel by car. City planners are encouraging that by allowing for more parking downtown. Where are the reporters which should be preparing stories about what the rest of the world is doing in the face of this crisis?
Where are the stories on, for example, how cities in China are limiting the number of cars permitted in their streets, how cities around the world are coping with the challenges of mass transit, how they're all trying to get away from reliance on the internal combustion engine, how they are redesigning their cities as walking cities?
Meanwhile, Moncton's vision of the future so far consists of installing parking meters on Main, and building new schools in sites as remote from where people live as possible. This is a city that gets very excited about attracting new business. But it shows not the slightest concern about how people are going to live in this city. And The Moncton Times and Transcript seems blissfully ignorant of all this.
NewsToday is a bare two pages. And there is nothing in it we did not know yesterday from radio and television and google news on the computer. It must be a good 25 years ago that I attended a conference of journalists on how to make print news competitive in a world that also has universal access to radio and TV that deliver the same news much earlier. There are ways to be competitive. For a start, radio and TV are more limited in the ability to provide useful analysis of the news. (Two minutes on air is a long time. On TV, twenty seconds can be a long time.)
And that was a conference 25 years ago. Actually, we've had TV for almost 70 years, and radio for almost a hundred. The Moncton Times and Transcript is still a newspaper of a century ago, but with less in it.
There's a bitterly amusing item on p.2 of NewsToday. A couple of professors report "N.B. ranks at top in corporate tax report." Does that sound good? Well, what it means is that NB charges the lowest taxes in Canada on corporations and the wealthy and, as well, as offers them the best tax avoidance schemes.
That might go some considerable way to explaining our debt, and why schools have to waste their time on fund-raisers so they can operate, and why parents have to pay school fees and buy supplies for them
N.B. ranks at the top in corporate tax report? That's like saying N.B. ranks at the top in easy bank robberies. Interesting how editors choose their words.
The editorial beats another, aging drum. Moncton needs a Canadian Football League team. (People as far away as Halifax think so. Trouble is, you need to convince people as far away as Toronto. And you have to convince a lot of people as far away as Halifax that's it's worth driving three hours each way to see a game. This is a bozo scheme that ranks with the "events centre".)
These big events sound nice. But I have yet to see figures on how much they cost to stage - and how much of the money they attract actually stays in Moncton, and who it is that really profits from out generous sponsorship.
Norbert has a decent and sensible column. I wish he could learn to write, though. The topic is the film that has led to rioting in Moslem countries. But he doesn't say so until halfway through. And that means that an article worth reading will be missed by the many people who will lose interest before they get that far.
Good column by Alec Bruce. Well written and well worth a read - particularly since it deals with an important, local news item of last week that the Times and Transcript still hasn't reported.
Alan Cochrane contributes a must-read column for all those who care that Christmas is the day of lowest water use in Moncton.
Louise Gilbert has some interesting thoughts on how to age gracefully. Alas! I was never even young gracefully.
There's an interesting Letter of the Day from Desmond Bird which deals with military purchasing, and our air force. We don't build our own aircraft. Nobody knows why not. And, of course, it has never occured to the TandT to ask why not. Bird focusses on Sweden which has a long history of making its own military equipment - and some very good equipment, though Sweden is much smaller than Canada. Why doesn't Canada do it for a new fighter plane? My guess is the US aviation industry doesn't want competition. And that's what it told John Diefenbaker just before he canned the Avro Arrow.
In general, this edition is a pretty drab one, even by the standards of The Moncton Times and Transcript. The news part is particularly stinking.
Estimated reading time for all that is worth reading? Five or ten minutes. Tops.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Sept. 17: Wow! Did the TandT ever blow it!
Section A is pretty much a wipe-out unless you just live for pictures of kids playing ball hockey and for a picture of a man with his mouth open. The one story worth reading is on Battle of Britain anniversary. Few readers survive who know much about the tremendous tensions of the German aerial assault on Britain, and the heavy casualties suffered by air crew, and by civilians. That's at the bottom of p. 1.
As I wrote last night, I didn't expect the TandT to have the wit to carry a report on Netanyahu's bizarre speech on US television yesterday. This may be the biggest story of many decades - depending on how much goes wrong over the next few weeks. But the TandT limited itself to just four stories in foreign and Canadian news, three of them pretty minor stuff. The only one of importance is about correctional officers protesting overcrowding in our prisons. (Harper, the great advocate of returning to the middle ages to deal with crime, has created a mess that will cause more crime, and take many years to straighten out.)
But a Netanyahu speaking on US television, accusing the Obama of lying, demanding the US declare war for no very clear reason, and clearly interfering with an American election just wasn't worth mentioning - not even when Harper has effectively committed us to take part in such a war (and without consulting parliament).
The editorial is the usual juvenilia about how the whole world is watching New Brunswick. "New Brunswick has made an international name for itself....." Yeah. Right. That's all they're talking about in Beijing and Rio de Janeiro and California.
Norbert has a column which seems to confirm that he has only a shaky idea of what a newspaper is supposed to do. His theme is that pundits and commentators usually don't know what they're talking about when they comment on political matters - like Harper's closing of diplomatic links with Iran. The don't have all the facts. Often, politicians don't give full reasons for what they do...."And there may be a good reason for government witholdng information", says Norbert.
Yes. And there may be a bad reason. That's why we need commentaries to stiumlate our thinking.
Norbert, my child:
1. In a democracy people need information because they have to come to a decision on voting day - whether they have full information or not. We never in our lives have "full information" on anything, not on who we marry, how to raise children, what the wisest investment would be.... But we still have to make decisions - so we make them. We can't just stand around with our faces hanging out and sayin', "duh, I dunno. The government must have had a good reason but just couldn't tell us...duh..."
And, like, Mao-Tse-tung who killed tens of millions of Chinese...maybe he had a good reason - but couldn't tell us, duh... Stalin and Hitler, too. So let's not rush into judging them.
2. Norbert, you have spent most of your life writing commentaries. But by your own definition you must be engaged in "pure speculation" because you don't have 'full information." And, in your case, it's even worse. You not only and frequently don't have any information, but are heavily biased. I have rarely seen a columnist who could produce so much rant of no intellectual value whatever.
3. There are people who, though they may not have full information, are extremely well informed, are not biased, and can produce a suggestion a whole lot better than "nothing on which to reach a reasonable conclusion." Gwynne Dyer is a good example - a scholar in foreign and military affairs, a well connected man, and a highly intelligent one and an honest one, he can reach some very reasonable conclusions.
4. The job of a newspaper is to give us what information is available, and to get informed commentary from honest commentators. That is the very foundation of democracy. You and The Moncton Times and Transcript don't do that. Not at all.
5. Reread your concluding paragraph. It is unintelligible. Then, reread your final quotation. It has nothing to do with your topic.
Alec Bruce shows an understandable impatience about the failure of the Atlantic provinces to work together. What irks him today is their failure to cooperate in electricity, a move that could save a billion dollars. But it's always been this way.
That Charlottetown Conference that turned out to be the beginning of confederation was actually called to discuss maritime union or, at least, cooperation. But it couldn't even start on that topic because all the capital cities were afraid of losing that capital status, and all the local timber barons were afraid of losing the local power that provided them with cheap timber and cheap labour. (That's right. New Brunswick has a long history of monopolies and political influence that goes way back before the current barons.)
The failure of the Atlantic provinces to get together at that conference is what gave the Canadians their opening - and left the Atlantic region weak and divided within Canada.
Cut out the op ed page. Mount it in a frame. Then give it as a birthday present to someone you really don't like.
And we won't worry at all about the catastrophe that hangs over our heads. Norbet's right. Just concentrate on those things we have all the facts on. Check out page D1. There's a big story on how an Actress named Jennifer Lawrence says she can't dance very well.
Think about it.
As I wrote last night, I didn't expect the TandT to have the wit to carry a report on Netanyahu's bizarre speech on US television yesterday. This may be the biggest story of many decades - depending on how much goes wrong over the next few weeks. But the TandT limited itself to just four stories in foreign and Canadian news, three of them pretty minor stuff. The only one of importance is about correctional officers protesting overcrowding in our prisons. (Harper, the great advocate of returning to the middle ages to deal with crime, has created a mess that will cause more crime, and take many years to straighten out.)
But a Netanyahu speaking on US television, accusing the Obama of lying, demanding the US declare war for no very clear reason, and clearly interfering with an American election just wasn't worth mentioning - not even when Harper has effectively committed us to take part in such a war (and without consulting parliament).
The editorial is the usual juvenilia about how the whole world is watching New Brunswick. "New Brunswick has made an international name for itself....." Yeah. Right. That's all they're talking about in Beijing and Rio de Janeiro and California.
Norbert has a column which seems to confirm that he has only a shaky idea of what a newspaper is supposed to do. His theme is that pundits and commentators usually don't know what they're talking about when they comment on political matters - like Harper's closing of diplomatic links with Iran. The don't have all the facts. Often, politicians don't give full reasons for what they do...."And there may be a good reason for government witholdng information", says Norbert.
Yes. And there may be a bad reason. That's why we need commentaries to stiumlate our thinking.
Norbert, my child:
1. In a democracy people need information because they have to come to a decision on voting day - whether they have full information or not. We never in our lives have "full information" on anything, not on who we marry, how to raise children, what the wisest investment would be.... But we still have to make decisions - so we make them. We can't just stand around with our faces hanging out and sayin', "duh, I dunno. The government must have had a good reason but just couldn't tell us...duh..."
And, like, Mao-Tse-tung who killed tens of millions of Chinese...maybe he had a good reason - but couldn't tell us, duh... Stalin and Hitler, too. So let's not rush into judging them.
2. Norbert, you have spent most of your life writing commentaries. But by your own definition you must be engaged in "pure speculation" because you don't have 'full information." And, in your case, it's even worse. You not only and frequently don't have any information, but are heavily biased. I have rarely seen a columnist who could produce so much rant of no intellectual value whatever.
3. There are people who, though they may not have full information, are extremely well informed, are not biased, and can produce a suggestion a whole lot better than "nothing on which to reach a reasonable conclusion." Gwynne Dyer is a good example - a scholar in foreign and military affairs, a well connected man, and a highly intelligent one and an honest one, he can reach some very reasonable conclusions.
4. The job of a newspaper is to give us what information is available, and to get informed commentary from honest commentators. That is the very foundation of democracy. You and The Moncton Times and Transcript don't do that. Not at all.
5. Reread your concluding paragraph. It is unintelligible. Then, reread your final quotation. It has nothing to do with your topic.
Alec Bruce shows an understandable impatience about the failure of the Atlantic provinces to work together. What irks him today is their failure to cooperate in electricity, a move that could save a billion dollars. But it's always been this way.
That Charlottetown Conference that turned out to be the beginning of confederation was actually called to discuss maritime union or, at least, cooperation. But it couldn't even start on that topic because all the capital cities were afraid of losing that capital status, and all the local timber barons were afraid of losing the local power that provided them with cheap timber and cheap labour. (That's right. New Brunswick has a long history of monopolies and political influence that goes way back before the current barons.)
The failure of the Atlantic provinces to get together at that conference is what gave the Canadians their opening - and left the Atlantic region weak and divided within Canada.
Cut out the op ed page. Mount it in a frame. Then give it as a birthday present to someone you really don't like.
And we won't worry at all about the catastrophe that hangs over our heads. Norbet's right. Just concentrate on those things we have all the facts on. Check out page D1. There's a big story on how an Actress named Jennifer Lawrence says she can't dance very well.
Think about it.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Sept. 16: a very late Sunday night special....
I write this now because there's a strong chance the Moncton Times and Transcript will not publish this story - not just out of editorial sloppiness, but because of sheer ignorance of the meaning of it.
Here's the context:
Israel, a country scarcely bigger than Toronto, gets more US aid than any other country in the world. Virtually the whole Israeli military is a gift from US taxpayers. The US is one of the very few friends of Israel in the world, and the only one that can give it the economic and military support it needs.
Prime minister Netanyahu wants an immediate attack on Iran. He says Iran will have a nuclear bomb within months. (He has been saying that for at least ten years.)
Obama knows there is no evidence that Iran is even developing a bomb. He also knows that a war with Iran would likely open up a situation that would lead to regional catastrophe - and possibly world catastrophe. He probably intends to invade Iran, anyway - but first wants Syria out of the way as an obstacle - and might hope to settle for regaining some control over Iran's oil.
Netanyahu's military and intelligence leaders have publicly said they think such a war would be disastrous for Israel.
Though visiting the US, Netanyahu will not be visiting the White House. He says he was denied an invitation.
The American election is in the home stretch - and it's close.
That's the context. Here's the story.
Today, Nethanyahu appeared on American TV.
1. He effectively called Obama a liar, and insists the White House denied him a visit.
2. He publicly criticized Obama for having his own foreign policy, and insisted he must follow Israeli foreign policy.
3. He intervened in an American election campaign in a way that could only benefit Romney.
Offhand, I cannot think of any head of state who has ever done such a thing. Normally, this would mean immediate deportation, cutting of diplomatic relations - even war.
A man like that is the biggest threat to world peace I can think of. He could well tip the scales in this election - and he will then surely get his war with Romney as President backed up by nutbar evangelists who think that such a war would mean the end of the world, the return of Jesus, and they would all get a chance to sit around naked in heaven. (I don't exaggerate.)
It could tip the scales. There is an Israeli lobby across Canada and the US (heavily supported by our tax dollars. It has great influence with the news media, and with politicians. Right wing columnists like Mark Steyn are already using it. Steyn, always a gutter columnist, and so a favourite at the National Post, has already been playing with this theme.
Just the impertinence of it is breath-taking. Netanyahu must have thought he was dealing with Stephen Harper.
In any case, that TV interview means we are in for the most dangerous period we have seen since Kennedy's confrontation with Russia over missiles for Cuba - some sixty years ago.
Will the TandT carry the story? Maybe - if it doesn't get pushed aside for a more important story about parking meters on Main St. Will it comment on the story? Probably not in either the editorial or on the op ed page. Will it be an intelligent comment? Probably not. It probably broke to late for Alec Bruce to write a piece on it.
Here's the context:
Israel, a country scarcely bigger than Toronto, gets more US aid than any other country in the world. Virtually the whole Israeli military is a gift from US taxpayers. The US is one of the very few friends of Israel in the world, and the only one that can give it the economic and military support it needs.
Prime minister Netanyahu wants an immediate attack on Iran. He says Iran will have a nuclear bomb within months. (He has been saying that for at least ten years.)
Obama knows there is no evidence that Iran is even developing a bomb. He also knows that a war with Iran would likely open up a situation that would lead to regional catastrophe - and possibly world catastrophe. He probably intends to invade Iran, anyway - but first wants Syria out of the way as an obstacle - and might hope to settle for regaining some control over Iran's oil.
Netanyahu's military and intelligence leaders have publicly said they think such a war would be disastrous for Israel.
Though visiting the US, Netanyahu will not be visiting the White House. He says he was denied an invitation.
The American election is in the home stretch - and it's close.
That's the context. Here's the story.
Today, Nethanyahu appeared on American TV.
1. He effectively called Obama a liar, and insists the White House denied him a visit.
2. He publicly criticized Obama for having his own foreign policy, and insisted he must follow Israeli foreign policy.
3. He intervened in an American election campaign in a way that could only benefit Romney.
Offhand, I cannot think of any head of state who has ever done such a thing. Normally, this would mean immediate deportation, cutting of diplomatic relations - even war.
A man like that is the biggest threat to world peace I can think of. He could well tip the scales in this election - and he will then surely get his war with Romney as President backed up by nutbar evangelists who think that such a war would mean the end of the world, the return of Jesus, and they would all get a chance to sit around naked in heaven. (I don't exaggerate.)
It could tip the scales. There is an Israeli lobby across Canada and the US (heavily supported by our tax dollars. It has great influence with the news media, and with politicians. Right wing columnists like Mark Steyn are already using it. Steyn, always a gutter columnist, and so a favourite at the National Post, has already been playing with this theme.
Just the impertinence of it is breath-taking. Netanyahu must have thought he was dealing with Stephen Harper.
In any case, that TV interview means we are in for the most dangerous period we have seen since Kennedy's confrontation with Russia over missiles for Cuba - some sixty years ago.
Will the TandT carry the story? Maybe - if it doesn't get pushed aside for a more important story about parking meters on Main St. Will it comment on the story? Probably not in either the editorial or on the op ed page. Will it be an intelligent comment? Probably not. It probably broke to late for Alec Bruce to write a piece on it.
Sept. 16: Stray thought on a Sunday...
Inevitably, if you argue current events, somebody is bound to say "All you do is talk about problems. You don't have any solutions."
Quite true. You see, before you can present solutions, you have to decide what the problem is. I had a problem about a month ago, a severe stomach pain. I had a solution. I took an anti-gas pill. A few hours later, I was being rushed into an operating room for an appendectomy.
I had guessed the wrong problem. That's why I chose the wrong solution. I was damned lucky there was time to make up for my mistake. Israel may not be so lucky. Nor we. Consider these points....
1. Israel depends absolutely and entirely on US support for its economy and its security. This tiny country with a population not much larger than metro Toronto gets more US foreign aid than any other country in the world. Virtually all of is powerful military is US equipped. This is a very, very dependent country.
(Just to put that in context, every year some 15 million children, twice the Jewish population of Israel, die of starvation.)
The US is very much larger, and with a far greater range of concerns. But Israel, heavily dependent Israel, insists that the US MUST automatically support Israeli policy no matter what its own interest might be. This has become an open fight, with Netanyahu publicly insulting the US president over it.
Do you see something out of balance in that? Canada is much bigger than Israel. It doesn't need foreign aid. It's a major market for the US, a far bigger one than Israel, and a far more important one for resources. And it's far more important for the future of the US economy and its defence than Israel is.
Can you imagine a Canadian prime minister publicly demanding that the US shape it entire foreign policy to put Canadian wishes in top priority? (Well, maybe. We have a Canadian prime minister stupid enough to be playing Netanyahu's game.)
2. No countries are friends. Toasts to eternal friendship sound nice at banquets. The reality is that all countries have interests that would lead them to slit anybody's throat.
The US was a great pal of the UK, Canada, France. But it didn't stir a finger when the UK was in danger of invasion and Canada was up to its neck in war. Nor did it help France. In fact, during the war, it bled as much money out of the UK as it could - and it tried very hard to take over the old, British and French empires. What do you think Vietnam was all about? As for being buddies with South Vietnam, it cooperated in the assassination of its president.
Canada and the US will brag about their "tolerance" of Jews. In fact, neither did a damn thing to help Jews in the 1930s, though we all knew what was going on. We wouldn't even accept them as refugees during the war. Both Canada and the US were thoroughly anti-semitic.
Just wait till the day coming soon when the US runs low on fresh water. See how nice it is to us when that happens. And it's not just the US. Canada would be just as bad if it were bigger.
The US does not help Israel because it is friends. It helps Israel because that gives the US a useful ally in the region. But that could change at any time.
3. But Nethanyahu has placed all his bets on a "friendship" with the US. It may not work much longer. The US, along with much of Europe, is an empire in collapse. It has not been impressive militarily for 70 years. It's hopelessly in debt. There is every chance it is facing internal disorder, every chance it will then have to drop Israel.
As it is, Israeli has spies in the U.S. Some have been caught, and deported or jailed. And there is no reason to doubt there are American spies in Israel. So much for friendship.
That means that anybody who encourages Israel into a war with a Moslem country may be cutting Israel's throat. Israel desperately needs to come to terms with its neighbours. Otherwise, the only edge it will have over them is its nuclear arsenal -and firing even one bomb could lead to consequences none of us can imagine.
4. The US would love to invade Iran. It already has, at least once; and it has also supported and supplied an Iraqi war with Saddam Hussein against Iran. But the dangers now are pretty high. The US has very foolishly interfered and warred with many Moslem countries in the last 70 years. It has created one hell of a reaction in the form of terrorism. It now has to contain that terrorism, reverse the slippage of its empire in Africa, the middle east and Latin America and, at the same time, face a rising China. Meanwhile, the US is steeply in decline, and may well have to make nice with Moslems.
In consequence, those many yahoos who think they are helping Israel with its demand for war against Iran are more likely to be helping it to destruction. Certainly, that is what is going through the minds of the Israeli Defence Force staff chiefs and Israeli intelligence. That's why they think - and have said publicly, that a war on Iran is sheer stupidity. More wars will be suicide for Israel. It needs peace.
Anyone who has a slick and easy solution for this problem, please write to us, and let the world in on your wisdom,
In return, I'll send that person an anti-gas pill to take next time he gets a sharp pain in the stomach.
Quite true. You see, before you can present solutions, you have to decide what the problem is. I had a problem about a month ago, a severe stomach pain. I had a solution. I took an anti-gas pill. A few hours later, I was being rushed into an operating room for an appendectomy.
I had guessed the wrong problem. That's why I chose the wrong solution. I was damned lucky there was time to make up for my mistake. Israel may not be so lucky. Nor we. Consider these points....
1. Israel depends absolutely and entirely on US support for its economy and its security. This tiny country with a population not much larger than metro Toronto gets more US foreign aid than any other country in the world. Virtually all of is powerful military is US equipped. This is a very, very dependent country.
(Just to put that in context, every year some 15 million children, twice the Jewish population of Israel, die of starvation.)
The US is very much larger, and with a far greater range of concerns. But Israel, heavily dependent Israel, insists that the US MUST automatically support Israeli policy no matter what its own interest might be. This has become an open fight, with Netanyahu publicly insulting the US president over it.
Do you see something out of balance in that? Canada is much bigger than Israel. It doesn't need foreign aid. It's a major market for the US, a far bigger one than Israel, and a far more important one for resources. And it's far more important for the future of the US economy and its defence than Israel is.
Can you imagine a Canadian prime minister publicly demanding that the US shape it entire foreign policy to put Canadian wishes in top priority? (Well, maybe. We have a Canadian prime minister stupid enough to be playing Netanyahu's game.)
2. No countries are friends. Toasts to eternal friendship sound nice at banquets. The reality is that all countries have interests that would lead them to slit anybody's throat.
The US was a great pal of the UK, Canada, France. But it didn't stir a finger when the UK was in danger of invasion and Canada was up to its neck in war. Nor did it help France. In fact, during the war, it bled as much money out of the UK as it could - and it tried very hard to take over the old, British and French empires. What do you think Vietnam was all about? As for being buddies with South Vietnam, it cooperated in the assassination of its president.
Canada and the US will brag about their "tolerance" of Jews. In fact, neither did a damn thing to help Jews in the 1930s, though we all knew what was going on. We wouldn't even accept them as refugees during the war. Both Canada and the US were thoroughly anti-semitic.
Just wait till the day coming soon when the US runs low on fresh water. See how nice it is to us when that happens. And it's not just the US. Canada would be just as bad if it were bigger.
The US does not help Israel because it is friends. It helps Israel because that gives the US a useful ally in the region. But that could change at any time.
3. But Nethanyahu has placed all his bets on a "friendship" with the US. It may not work much longer. The US, along with much of Europe, is an empire in collapse. It has not been impressive militarily for 70 years. It's hopelessly in debt. There is every chance it is facing internal disorder, every chance it will then have to drop Israel.
As it is, Israeli has spies in the U.S. Some have been caught, and deported or jailed. And there is no reason to doubt there are American spies in Israel. So much for friendship.
That means that anybody who encourages Israel into a war with a Moslem country may be cutting Israel's throat. Israel desperately needs to come to terms with its neighbours. Otherwise, the only edge it will have over them is its nuclear arsenal -and firing even one bomb could lead to consequences none of us can imagine.
4. The US would love to invade Iran. It already has, at least once; and it has also supported and supplied an Iraqi war with Saddam Hussein against Iran. But the dangers now are pretty high. The US has very foolishly interfered and warred with many Moslem countries in the last 70 years. It has created one hell of a reaction in the form of terrorism. It now has to contain that terrorism, reverse the slippage of its empire in Africa, the middle east and Latin America and, at the same time, face a rising China. Meanwhile, the US is steeply in decline, and may well have to make nice with Moslems.
In consequence, those many yahoos who think they are helping Israel with its demand for war against Iran are more likely to be helping it to destruction. Certainly, that is what is going through the minds of the Israeli Defence Force staff chiefs and Israeli intelligence. That's why they think - and have said publicly, that a war on Iran is sheer stupidity. More wars will be suicide for Israel. It needs peace.
Anyone who has a slick and easy solution for this problem, please write to us, and let the world in on your wisdom,
In return, I'll send that person an anti-gas pill to take next time he gets a sharp pain in the stomach.
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