When journalists don't like the people they're reporting on, they try to discredit everything those people say. And that's not bad if the journalist has evidence. But if there is no evidence and if, in fact, the journalist doesn't even know if there's any, then you see a headline like the one in today's National Post.
"North Korea arrests American citizen for 'crime'."
Why the ' ' around crime? That's to hint to readers there was no crime. North Korea is lying. But is North Korea lying? The reporter doesn't know.
The story also says that the American was arrested at the time of protest of North Korea's firing of a rocket. What does that have to do with it? Nothing - except that it hints, again with no evidence, the the arrest was simply a revenge attack on the US.
Interestingly, I have rarely, if ever, seen such a use of insinuation where the situation is reversed - with our side arresting a foreigner for a crime. It simply doesn't happen. And so we are conditioned to see the world as our governments want us to see it. Our side is good. The other side lies and is evil.
A reporter is supposed to report what is known to be true. If someone says the story is doubtful, then the reporter quotes that someone so we know where the opinion is coming from, and can make up our own minds about whether it is credible.
But that would be news reporting. And most North American news media much prefer propaganda reporting.
____________________________________________________________________________
A picture can tell a thousand words, so they say. The picture on the front page of today's Moncton Times and Transcript tells ten thousand. It a stunning picture of great rows of food boxes filled with donations and now being delivered by volunteers. It's a story that tells ten thousand words about the generosity and the voluntary efforts of Monctonians. They are, without doubt, the most public-spirited people I have ever seen.
But it's tough to control a message delivered by picture. I saw ten thousands words about generosity in this one. But I also saw one, stunning story about a society which does not make sure that its people, especially the young and the elderly, are fed properly every day.
I'm not suggesting even more volunteer effort. That would never do it. I am suggesting that as a society and through our governments, we have a responsibility to ensure that all people are adequately fed. And, no, I'm not talking about charity. I'm talking about decent pay, about the rich being forced to put something back into the society they fleece so shamelessly, about giving the children of the poor a chance by making sure they go to school on even terms. If you check grade scores for example, you will find they are not related to intelligence or to teaching nearly so much as they are to income levels, opportunity for intellectual stimulation, adequate diet. (These are matters the Atlantic Intstitute rarely mentions in its bogus ideas about education.)
_______________________________________________________________________________.
The business page has get another story of a Moncton CEO getting a prestigious-sounding honour. He's head of a communications (which includes propaganda) company; and he's now a member of The Canadian Public Relations Society's College of Fellows.
Well, it's a start. The business world is now launched on collecting nearly as many poumpous-ass titles as professors do.
______________________________________________________________________________
On p. C3, we learn that our provincial government isn't crazy about a recommendation from its medical professionals for a drug insurance plan. Many people, lacking insurance or the ability to get any, simply cannot get the drugs they need. This is particularly true in North America where we have a pharmaceutical industry so greedy and out of control that it makes the oil industry look like Santa Claus.
Our provincial finance minister says it can't be done at this time given our financial reality. Right. Our top priorities have to be building hundred million dollar events centres, cutting taxes for the very rich (who are actually enjoying their biggest profits in history), and lending money to companies that go broke anyway.
There is a huge gap between the generosity of New Brunswickers in general, and they're indifference to needs as a society.
_____________________________________________________________________________
The editorial is, well, the editorial. It says Monctonians are generous, and I agree. But, for pete's sake, that's the message of at least half the news stories. Yes, I agree we do well as individuals. But, as a society, we just don't seem to give a damn.
Alec Bruce has better economic news than I had hoped to see. It's intriguing. Nice column by Norbert. On op ed, there's an intriguing take on the Christmas story by Lynda Mac Gibbon. There's also a column on railways by David Lindsay of the Forest Products Association of Canada. He looks at our failure to appreciate the value of railways from an industry point of view. And I think he's right - on many points more than he has room for. I also think we need to take a serious look at them for mass transit in a province so heavily rural.
_____________________________________________________________________________
There's a whole, cutesy section on letters to Santa. But I chose not to read it. I don't like to fwow up.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Dec. 20: how to make a nothing into...
Wow! Big front-page story. "Public like on-street parking". It seems the city has asked the public what it thinks now it has down-town parking."It got an overwhelming amount of response."
Uh, yeah. Who was asked? How many were asked? Was it based on a scientific sampling? Or just asking people to call in? What, exactly, does overwhelming mean?
The city spokesman answered none of these questions. And the reporter never thought to ask them. This isn't a news story. It's a pep rally for city council.
And, once again, we get this repetition of "what a downtown is supposed to look like." In fact, there is no such thing as what a downtown is supposed to look like. Yes, in the 1950s most downtowns had lots of retail business downtown and lots of cars parked. But that was sixty years ago. Is that Moncton's big plan for the future? To bring back the 1950s?
And even the teeniest of brains would realize that even if cars were packed solid all the way across the street, you still wouldn't have enough room for the supermarkets. big box stores, Canadian Tire, and all the rest.
The future of downtown is tied to the future of transportation, especially mass transit. And Moncton hasn't even begun to think of that.
_________________________________________________________________________
Again, lots of stories about Christmas boxes and turkey - and I certainly commend all those donors and volunteers who make this possible. But hunger is not a one day a year problem. There is something that is seriously wrong about a society that has so many people who go hungry. And this is not a problem we can solve with donors and volunteers. Here's a problem that shows we are, some of us, pretty good as individuals. But, as a society, there is surely something wrong with us when we let so many people go hungry for 364 days a year.
This is a problem we should be dealing with as a society, not as scattered individuals. For a start, we could demand that our various levels of government spend less on sweetheart land deals and tax breaks and gifts for billionaires, and rather more on ensuring that everyone's basic needs are provided for.
If you want a spiritual place to think about that, drop into the Irving Chapel. I'm told it's a great place for reflection.
__________________________________________________________________________
NewsToday is its usual blah. Both Liberals and Conservatives in the NB legislature announced support for a pipline to carry tar sands oil to St. John. Women fainted. Others called for smelling salts. The NDP supported it. I fainted and called for smelling salts.
There was not and there has not been a single word of any risks involved in oil pipelines. We also live in an age when scientists warn of us that fossil fuels are doing enormous damage to the earth we have to live on. So here we are entering a major project that will speed up that damage.
But there might be jobs in this. There will be some. But there is no evidence there will be nearly so many as the government is talking about. In any case, there won't be any jobs as the environmental damage kicks in. _________________________________________________________________________
The editorial is of a type common to editorial writers who have nothing to say. This one is about mass transit. In effect, it says, "something must be done." Well, yeah. there's lot of that going around.
But Wow! Norbert Cunningham does it again. This time it's a superb article, largely on Netanyahu of Israel. There's no ranting, no wild accusations, just a solid, focussed analysis in clear and simple language. This one is fair, impartial, and well-informed.
Alec Bruce and Jody Dallaire are both worth reading, as usual, though both not quite in full stride today. Alec has a point, but never takes it seriously enough to do anything with it. Jody strays from her point of the lone-parent family. then wanders into male and female self-images.
Rod Allen continues to be a smart high school kid who thinks his precocious high school humour makes him one of the great comic writers of our time.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Letters to the editor?
Well, one says that safe shale gas would serve well,. Perhaps so. But that's not the point of the debate. The debate is over whether safe shale gas is possible.
There is a long letter from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business on how Labrador is learning to deal with growth. After two readings, I can't find anything it says that is worth saying; (it's extremely vague).
Then there's a similar one about the proposed oil pipeline, this letter from the Miramichi Valley Business Assoc. It claims that a pipeline would be a "fantastic" opportunity. Quite so. Fantastic means unreal, imagined, non-existent.
There is the customary religious argument letter, this one justifying genocide if carried out on the orders of God. After all, some of those people that God ordered the Hebrews to kill used slaves and had sexual deviations. (So did Canada, Britain, France, the U.S....) I think we had sexual deviations, too - way back. I mean, having sex is pretty deviant in itself.
Then there is a brilliant letter by Senator Percy Downe. This one is the real letter of the day. It's about how the very wealthy use illegal means to avoid taxes- and are seldom, if ever, prosecuted for it. Nobody in Canada, for example, has ever been prosecuted for illegally hiding money in overseas bank accounts.
It is a serious problem? Senator Downe refers to millions of dollars in such accounts. In fact, they can climb into the billions.
For years, the very rich have been getting much richer while the rest of us are getting poorer. According to theory (propaganda) that's good because as the rich make money, they invest it and create jobs. Oh. So how come we've been sinking into recession for over five years, exactly when the very rich are making record profits? If that idiot theory were true, we'd all be wallowing now in prosperity. But, as you may have noticed, we aren't.
The story that cutting taxes for the rich is good for us is a crock. The taxes are cut. So we aren't getting the money to stimulate prosperity and to provide for basic needs. And we don't even get the low taxes we assess. So what happened to the money?
It wasn't burned. It still exists. But it exists in bank vaults overseas. And, when it comes out, it's as likely to go to some country where labour is so cheap it's just a notch above slavery -and where there are no taxes because nobody gives a damn about the people.
Can that be sustained? Of course not. You can't forever take money out of an economy without putting it back. What happens then, inevitably, is that you run out of customers and run into depression - and worse.
As financiers, people like the Irvings are good at making money - for themselves. But as leaders of a national economy, they are walking disasters. Yet political leaders like Alward and Harper consistently call on people like these to give advice on national financial policy. It's something these people are utterly incompetent to do. And that's where depressions come from.
And hungry children at Christmas.
Uh, yeah. Who was asked? How many were asked? Was it based on a scientific sampling? Or just asking people to call in? What, exactly, does overwhelming mean?
The city spokesman answered none of these questions. And the reporter never thought to ask them. This isn't a news story. It's a pep rally for city council.
And, once again, we get this repetition of "what a downtown is supposed to look like." In fact, there is no such thing as what a downtown is supposed to look like. Yes, in the 1950s most downtowns had lots of retail business downtown and lots of cars parked. But that was sixty years ago. Is that Moncton's big plan for the future? To bring back the 1950s?
And even the teeniest of brains would realize that even if cars were packed solid all the way across the street, you still wouldn't have enough room for the supermarkets. big box stores, Canadian Tire, and all the rest.
The future of downtown is tied to the future of transportation, especially mass transit. And Moncton hasn't even begun to think of that.
_________________________________________________________________________
Again, lots of stories about Christmas boxes and turkey - and I certainly commend all those donors and volunteers who make this possible. But hunger is not a one day a year problem. There is something that is seriously wrong about a society that has so many people who go hungry. And this is not a problem we can solve with donors and volunteers. Here's a problem that shows we are, some of us, pretty good as individuals. But, as a society, there is surely something wrong with us when we let so many people go hungry for 364 days a year.
This is a problem we should be dealing with as a society, not as scattered individuals. For a start, we could demand that our various levels of government spend less on sweetheart land deals and tax breaks and gifts for billionaires, and rather more on ensuring that everyone's basic needs are provided for.
If you want a spiritual place to think about that, drop into the Irving Chapel. I'm told it's a great place for reflection.
__________________________________________________________________________
NewsToday is its usual blah. Both Liberals and Conservatives in the NB legislature announced support for a pipline to carry tar sands oil to St. John. Women fainted. Others called for smelling salts. The NDP supported it. I fainted and called for smelling salts.
There was not and there has not been a single word of any risks involved in oil pipelines. We also live in an age when scientists warn of us that fossil fuels are doing enormous damage to the earth we have to live on. So here we are entering a major project that will speed up that damage.
But there might be jobs in this. There will be some. But there is no evidence there will be nearly so many as the government is talking about. In any case, there won't be any jobs as the environmental damage kicks in. _________________________________________________________________________
The editorial is of a type common to editorial writers who have nothing to say. This one is about mass transit. In effect, it says, "something must be done." Well, yeah. there's lot of that going around.
But Wow! Norbert Cunningham does it again. This time it's a superb article, largely on Netanyahu of Israel. There's no ranting, no wild accusations, just a solid, focussed analysis in clear and simple language. This one is fair, impartial, and well-informed.
Alec Bruce and Jody Dallaire are both worth reading, as usual, though both not quite in full stride today. Alec has a point, but never takes it seriously enough to do anything with it. Jody strays from her point of the lone-parent family. then wanders into male and female self-images.
Rod Allen continues to be a smart high school kid who thinks his precocious high school humour makes him one of the great comic writers of our time.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Letters to the editor?
Well, one says that safe shale gas would serve well,. Perhaps so. But that's not the point of the debate. The debate is over whether safe shale gas is possible.
There is a long letter from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business on how Labrador is learning to deal with growth. After two readings, I can't find anything it says that is worth saying; (it's extremely vague).
Then there's a similar one about the proposed oil pipeline, this letter from the Miramichi Valley Business Assoc. It claims that a pipeline would be a "fantastic" opportunity. Quite so. Fantastic means unreal, imagined, non-existent.
There is the customary religious argument letter, this one justifying genocide if carried out on the orders of God. After all, some of those people that God ordered the Hebrews to kill used slaves and had sexual deviations. (So did Canada, Britain, France, the U.S....) I think we had sexual deviations, too - way back. I mean, having sex is pretty deviant in itself.
Then there is a brilliant letter by Senator Percy Downe. This one is the real letter of the day. It's about how the very wealthy use illegal means to avoid taxes- and are seldom, if ever, prosecuted for it. Nobody in Canada, for example, has ever been prosecuted for illegally hiding money in overseas bank accounts.
It is a serious problem? Senator Downe refers to millions of dollars in such accounts. In fact, they can climb into the billions.
For years, the very rich have been getting much richer while the rest of us are getting poorer. According to theory (propaganda) that's good because as the rich make money, they invest it and create jobs. Oh. So how come we've been sinking into recession for over five years, exactly when the very rich are making record profits? If that idiot theory were true, we'd all be wallowing now in prosperity. But, as you may have noticed, we aren't.
The story that cutting taxes for the rich is good for us is a crock. The taxes are cut. So we aren't getting the money to stimulate prosperity and to provide for basic needs. And we don't even get the low taxes we assess. So what happened to the money?
It wasn't burned. It still exists. But it exists in bank vaults overseas. And, when it comes out, it's as likely to go to some country where labour is so cheap it's just a notch above slavery -and where there are no taxes because nobody gives a damn about the people.
Can that be sustained? Of course not. You can't forever take money out of an economy without putting it back. What happens then, inevitably, is that you run out of customers and run into depression - and worse.
As financiers, people like the Irvings are good at making money - for themselves. But as leaders of a national economy, they are walking disasters. Yet political leaders like Alward and Harper consistently call on people like these to give advice on national financial policy. It's something these people are utterly incompetent to do. And that's where depressions come from.
And hungry children at Christmas.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Dec.18: Lots of big news today....
In The Guardiam, Dec. 18,while Obama mourns the killing of 18 children in a Newtown school, he continues to send the drones over Pakistan that have killed over a hundred Pakistani children as well as over a thousand of their parents. Think children in Newtown are scared?
On the cheerier side, the US has just supplied Israel with 10,000 shiny, new bombs to make up for the ones they used up in Gaza. (That must have been quite a bombing for such a tiny area.) The new ones include bunker busters that can penetrate 60 feet of concrete and go through 200 feet of earth before they explode. By a happy coincidence, this was exactly what was on Netanyahu's Christmas wish list for use against Iran.
Congress and Obama are negotiating the fiscal cliff deal. What that really means is they are beginning the destruction of social programmes begun by Roosevelt in the 1930s. Worst hit will be those who rely on medicare, medicaid and social security pensions. - about 50 million in each category.
Well, there's no choice. Every cent of federal tax revenue is taken up in spending on the military. And over 90% of those who take home a million a year pay no income tax at all. So any spending outside the 10,000 bombs for Israel, the inflated contracts for defence companies, the graft to Afghanistan - has to come from borrowing. And borrowing's bad. So somebody has to pay. So it's going to be the poor.
Feeling insecure about all this? Move to Paragould, Arkansas. It's a lovely little town of 26,000 where squads of police patrol the streets in full combat gear, including camouflage suits, assault rifles. They have power equivalent to martial law. They can question anybody, ask for ID - and if you get smart, you end up in the station. Before this began, the town has always has a low crime rate - and particularly low murder rate. But you can never be too careful.
Lots of news today. Too bad none of it is in the Moncton Times and Transcript.
____________________________________________________________________________
There is a laughable insert on business called New Brunswick Business Journal. Most of it is idle chatter and blurbs for local business. The one article that even tried to be serious was on how N.B. optimism is based on hopes of a U.S. recovery.
Get real. There isn't going to be a U.S. recovery. Such a recovery, to be useful to us, would have to be based on a rise in consumer spending in the US. Ain't going to happen.
US consumer spending is going down as the weatlhy continue to loot the American nation,and as poverty continues to rise. Remember those states that recently voted to break industrial unions? What do you think is going to happen to salaries in those states? What do you think is going to happen to consumer spending? And where does that leave us?
The good days for the US are over. It is a nation that has been fleeced and impoverished by its big business leaders. And they aren't going to change just because it's a new year. In fact, we should be preparing for similar treatment here in New Brunswick. (Sorry. That should have read "More similar treatment here in New Brunswick.
_______________________________________________________________________
The new, shale gas rules will be a little late. Big surprise. What will be a surprise is if the TandT ever tells the whole truth about them - and about whether they are enforced. Though it and the government promised us full infomration on shale gase long ago, it has published barely a word. And word a lie. The rest of section A is only for people who are very lonely and semi-literate.
NewsToday is still focussed on the Newtown killings. The child killings in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia are still irrelevant.
On p. C5, a Conservative MLA has repeated her accusation that the Liberals were complicit in faking the books for Atcon, a faking that cost us fifty million collars. But she did it in the legislature where she can't be sued for it. And she offers no evidence whatever.
Meanwhile, the Liberals accuse her of inventing the charges.
Now, a reporter with any wit would ask the conservtive MLA to present her evidence. And, if the Liberals are serious in their denial, that same reporter would ask why they aren't demanding a criminal investigation.
Look, kiddies. It seems evident that a crime, and a very serious one, has been committed. Isn't it normal to report crimes to the police? Isn't it normal for a legislature to conduct a formal investigation of crimes committed by government?
What we're getting instead is lots of loud-mouthing on both sides, loud-mouthing that takes us nowhere. My guess? This is noise coming from both sides because both are implicated - and the noise is cover-up so that no serious action will ever be taken. And the Irving press is playing along with the cover-up. Connect the dots.
_________________________________________________________________________________The only column worth reading on the editorial and op ed pages is Alec Bruce's.
__________________________________________________________________________
Christmas has brought me a reminder of the daily barrage of propaganda inflicted on us. My son expressed some interest in Cuba. So I went looking for a stocking-stuffer, a National Geographic magazine with an article on Cuba. And I found a recent one.
The article began with a visit to a Cuban who was secretly building a boat to flee to the US. Now, that's an old and cheap journalistic trick. When Dr. Cleary spoke in Moncton, the TandT report damned her from the start by telling about those who disagreed with her - and did it without ever telling exactly what it was the doctor said.
In American eyes, Cuba is evil. It wasn't evil when it was ruled by a corrupt and murderous dictator who was an American puppet. But it became evil when it overthrew the American puppet. So almost every American publication will begin an article on Cuba with negative overtones.
How about the infant death rate which is far lower than that of the US? No. Or how about the hired killer who, employed by US intelligence, blew up a Cuban airliner killing all aboard? Oh, no. The article has to start with something that screams "EVIL CUBA".
Some years ago, I had a story in Reader's Digest. In the same issue was a story on the Russian AK-47 rifle., generally regarded as the world's best military rifle. The sub-title was AK-47: the choice of dictators.
Of course. It had to be immediately established that the AK-47 was evil. After all, it's Russian.In fact, though, I should think it almost certain that the rifle that is the choice of dictators is really the American M-16.
That's the one that's exported to all the American-supported dictators, like the ones in Central America, like Saudi Arabia, the emirates.... After all, the US is far the biggest weapons exporter in the world. But if Reader's Digest had an article on the M-16, the subtitle would be: M-16: Defender of Freedom.
On my desk is an almost year-old special by Time Magazine. (Time is a notorious propaganda mag.) This one is called The New Middle East. Mostly it's about how the Middle East is liberating, changing, as a new generation with new ideas comes to the fore. Yes. Yes. They all want to be just like Americans. The front cover has a picture of a young woman who could be a cheerleader in the some US ivy-league school. There's another of a very beautiful woman who still cover her face from the nose down, but is so liberated she's having her eyes and eyebrows done.
Even this early, only months after this special appeared, it's obvious nonsense. Far from becoming Americanized, Libya is a chaos with not the slightest sign of social change. The most dictatorial and hyper-Islamist states are still those supported by the US -Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. Syria is in a civil war with the "rebels" largely drawn from anti-democratic countries, most mercenararies, mostly paid for and supplied by various dictatorships - and the US, Britain and France.
The US, far from being a model for change in the region, is mostly despised.
Very little of our news is real news. More of it - even in Reader's Digest or National Geographic is propaganda.
On the cheerier side, the US has just supplied Israel with 10,000 shiny, new bombs to make up for the ones they used up in Gaza. (That must have been quite a bombing for such a tiny area.) The new ones include bunker busters that can penetrate 60 feet of concrete and go through 200 feet of earth before they explode. By a happy coincidence, this was exactly what was on Netanyahu's Christmas wish list for use against Iran.
Congress and Obama are negotiating the fiscal cliff deal. What that really means is they are beginning the destruction of social programmes begun by Roosevelt in the 1930s. Worst hit will be those who rely on medicare, medicaid and social security pensions. - about 50 million in each category.
Well, there's no choice. Every cent of federal tax revenue is taken up in spending on the military. And over 90% of those who take home a million a year pay no income tax at all. So any spending outside the 10,000 bombs for Israel, the inflated contracts for defence companies, the graft to Afghanistan - has to come from borrowing. And borrowing's bad. So somebody has to pay. So it's going to be the poor.
Feeling insecure about all this? Move to Paragould, Arkansas. It's a lovely little town of 26,000 where squads of police patrol the streets in full combat gear, including camouflage suits, assault rifles. They have power equivalent to martial law. They can question anybody, ask for ID - and if you get smart, you end up in the station. Before this began, the town has always has a low crime rate - and particularly low murder rate. But you can never be too careful.
Lots of news today. Too bad none of it is in the Moncton Times and Transcript.
____________________________________________________________________________
There is a laughable insert on business called New Brunswick Business Journal. Most of it is idle chatter and blurbs for local business. The one article that even tried to be serious was on how N.B. optimism is based on hopes of a U.S. recovery.
Get real. There isn't going to be a U.S. recovery. Such a recovery, to be useful to us, would have to be based on a rise in consumer spending in the US. Ain't going to happen.
US consumer spending is going down as the weatlhy continue to loot the American nation,and as poverty continues to rise. Remember those states that recently voted to break industrial unions? What do you think is going to happen to salaries in those states? What do you think is going to happen to consumer spending? And where does that leave us?
The good days for the US are over. It is a nation that has been fleeced and impoverished by its big business leaders. And they aren't going to change just because it's a new year. In fact, we should be preparing for similar treatment here in New Brunswick. (Sorry. That should have read "More similar treatment here in New Brunswick.
_______________________________________________________________________
The new, shale gas rules will be a little late. Big surprise. What will be a surprise is if the TandT ever tells the whole truth about them - and about whether they are enforced. Though it and the government promised us full infomration on shale gase long ago, it has published barely a word. And word a lie. The rest of section A is only for people who are very lonely and semi-literate.
NewsToday is still focussed on the Newtown killings. The child killings in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia are still irrelevant.
On p. C5, a Conservative MLA has repeated her accusation that the Liberals were complicit in faking the books for Atcon, a faking that cost us fifty million collars. But she did it in the legislature where she can't be sued for it. And she offers no evidence whatever.
Meanwhile, the Liberals accuse her of inventing the charges.
Now, a reporter with any wit would ask the conservtive MLA to present her evidence. And, if the Liberals are serious in their denial, that same reporter would ask why they aren't demanding a criminal investigation.
Look, kiddies. It seems evident that a crime, and a very serious one, has been committed. Isn't it normal to report crimes to the police? Isn't it normal for a legislature to conduct a formal investigation of crimes committed by government?
What we're getting instead is lots of loud-mouthing on both sides, loud-mouthing that takes us nowhere. My guess? This is noise coming from both sides because both are implicated - and the noise is cover-up so that no serious action will ever be taken. And the Irving press is playing along with the cover-up. Connect the dots.
_________________________________________________________________________________The only column worth reading on the editorial and op ed pages is Alec Bruce's.
__________________________________________________________________________
Christmas has brought me a reminder of the daily barrage of propaganda inflicted on us. My son expressed some interest in Cuba. So I went looking for a stocking-stuffer, a National Geographic magazine with an article on Cuba. And I found a recent one.
The article began with a visit to a Cuban who was secretly building a boat to flee to the US. Now, that's an old and cheap journalistic trick. When Dr. Cleary spoke in Moncton, the TandT report damned her from the start by telling about those who disagreed with her - and did it without ever telling exactly what it was the doctor said.
In American eyes, Cuba is evil. It wasn't evil when it was ruled by a corrupt and murderous dictator who was an American puppet. But it became evil when it overthrew the American puppet. So almost every American publication will begin an article on Cuba with negative overtones.
How about the infant death rate which is far lower than that of the US? No. Or how about the hired killer who, employed by US intelligence, blew up a Cuban airliner killing all aboard? Oh, no. The article has to start with something that screams "EVIL CUBA".
Some years ago, I had a story in Reader's Digest. In the same issue was a story on the Russian AK-47 rifle., generally regarded as the world's best military rifle. The sub-title was AK-47: the choice of dictators.
Of course. It had to be immediately established that the AK-47 was evil. After all, it's Russian.In fact, though, I should think it almost certain that the rifle that is the choice of dictators is really the American M-16.
That's the one that's exported to all the American-supported dictators, like the ones in Central America, like Saudi Arabia, the emirates.... After all, the US is far the biggest weapons exporter in the world. But if Reader's Digest had an article on the M-16, the subtitle would be: M-16: Defender of Freedom.
On my desk is an almost year-old special by Time Magazine. (Time is a notorious propaganda mag.) This one is called The New Middle East. Mostly it's about how the Middle East is liberating, changing, as a new generation with new ideas comes to the fore. Yes. Yes. They all want to be just like Americans. The front cover has a picture of a young woman who could be a cheerleader in the some US ivy-league school. There's another of a very beautiful woman who still cover her face from the nose down, but is so liberated she's having her eyes and eyebrows done.
Even this early, only months after this special appeared, it's obvious nonsense. Far from becoming Americanized, Libya is a chaos with not the slightest sign of social change. The most dictatorial and hyper-Islamist states are still those supported by the US -Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. Syria is in a civil war with the "rebels" largely drawn from anti-democratic countries, most mercenararies, mostly paid for and supplied by various dictatorships - and the US, Britain and France.
The US, far from being a model for change in the region, is mostly despised.
Very little of our news is real news. More of it - even in Reader's Digest or National Geographic is propaganda.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Dec. 18: I was wrong.
I don't know Daniel bourgeois. I first heard of him last night when I received a post that he had resigned Moncton City Council due to "conflict of interest". My reaction was pretty negative. This is a province in which conflict of interest is practically a requirement for any elective position or job, not a hindrance.
This morning, I read the report by Brent Mazerolle on p. A1, the headline "Bourgeois leaving Moncton Council." It's a pretty good piece of reporting, even a model one. And the message is quite clear. Bourgeois' honesty and outspokeness were an obstacle to getting a job, or even a reference, in this city. The report shows Mr. Bourgeois as an honest and intelligent man. Some checking I did confirmed that.
I was wrong in my reaction of last night. And it seems that Moncton has suffered a serious loss.I do apologize to Mr. Bourgeois for cynically jumping to a conclusion.
Alas, the story also confirms a feeling I had when I first visited New Brunswick when the world and I were both young. I found it intellectually oppresive. A tiny group of people held all the power, used it ruthlessly. And there was a plodding fear of open discussion that ran all the way down to home and school groups. It's still like that. And New Brunswickers still vote largely for the same two parties, both of which obviously are owned by the boss.
Moncton City council has been no different. The loss of an intelligent and independent person is a heavy one in this province of submissive people.
And that's pretty well it for Section A.
___________________________________________________________________________
Section C (NewsToday) has the expected story about how good oil pipelines are "Two banks call for pipeline expansion." So far, the TandT has not carried a single hint that pipelines could be any trouble at all. And there are 12 million sites dealing with that topic on the web. I can only hope that in the election to replace Mr. Bourgeois, we will not see a TandT editor as a candidate.
Nor have the editors paid the slightest attention to warnings from scientists that the use of fossil fuels is speeding up the process of global warning. Instead, Canadian and New Brunswick governments are working hard burn more of them, and to supply other countries with them so we can get global warming even faster.
Hey! Who cares about tomorrow? And tomorrow, by the way is not a hundred years ahead of us. It's soon. While yourchildren are alive. Maybe while you're alive.
But, hey. There could be some jobs in fossil fuels.Maybe.
Corporation bosses can plan for a future only in economic terms and only as the economy affects them, and only if "future" means three months from now. And they are quite incapable of social planning of any sort. We can already see some of the consequences.
Capitalism has effectively been destroyed, replaced by mindless greed and arrogance. Only a fool could believe that New Brunswick is a democracy. And in this, one of the richest countries in the world, the distribution of wealth is so unfair that we think it a big, Christian deal to feed the poor one day a year.On that day, leave no child unstuffed.
_______________________________________________________________________________
There is an important news story at the bottom of p. 1 one of Newstoday. "Pickton inquiry report highlights system failures". Pickton was the man who murdered dozens of drug-addicted prostitutes on his farm, and fed them to his pigs. Why did the police not catch him more quickly.?Well, the victims were women, native peoples, prostitutes,, on drugs. So who cared? This is a story that will cause many to dump all over the police. The reality is that the police very accurately reflected the attitudes of Canadians in general.
_____________________________________________________________________________
The editorial calls for more help to deliver Christmas food and toys. However, instead of feeding the poor once a year, it might be more useful to wonder why we live in a province that gives lavishly to billionaires every day, then feels all Christian for feeding the poor one meal a year.
Good cartoon by de Adder.
First-rate column by Norbert Cunningham. This one is insightful, well-written,and would deserve a spot in any newspaper.
Alec Bruce shows a talent for the comic or, more accurately the serious-comic. There's also an interesting op ed column by Michael Sullivan who is a retired employee of Moncton city hall.
For those who think all these favourable comments suggest we have a new Times and Transcript, there's a disillusioner in Alan Cochrane's op ed column. You will be fascinated by it only if you are a person who is really,really interested in learning that Regina had 234 mm of rain - sometime or other.
And, oh, the letter of the day (by Jason Lawson) in Letters to the Editor, is a gem not to be missed.
This isn't a good edition. But it has more good parts than any edition of this paper I have yet seen. As Spencer Tracy said of Katharine Hepburn, "Not much meat there. But what's there is cherce."
_________________________________________________________________________________
The office of Bruce Fitch, minister of environment and local government, has responded to my request for information about contamination in Highfield Square -sort of. It seems the minister DOES have the authority to order that the owner clean up contaminated land.
So why, over all these years has no minister ever issued such an order? There is a piece of property used for years for shopping, restaurants, still in use for a food store - all that time contaminated, and all that time with the minister not seeming to care.
The purpose of this sale is pretty clear. Mr. Fitch need now feel no compulsion to order a clean-up. Thisttakes the cost of a multi-million dollar clean-up out of the hands of the owners, and dumps it on the rate payers. It doesn't matter whether an "events centre" ever gets built. The owners are still ahead of the game. What they have is land made worthless until it is cleaned up. And what they're getting from us is a big price for that worthless land - plus we're going to pay to clean it up, too. Isn't that nice of us?
I had asked Mr. Fitch other questions, too. But he makes it clear he isn't going to answer them. His excuse is that I did not give him information he had requested. For example, I asked for the official list of contaminated sites in the province. His reply was he couldn't tell me that unless I first told him what they were, along with their official registration numbers. "Therefore," as he writes, "this request is now considered closed."
God bless you Mr. Fitch. And when you are born again, may it be as something higher on the scale of evolution.
This morning, I read the report by Brent Mazerolle on p. A1, the headline "Bourgeois leaving Moncton Council." It's a pretty good piece of reporting, even a model one. And the message is quite clear. Bourgeois' honesty and outspokeness were an obstacle to getting a job, or even a reference, in this city. The report shows Mr. Bourgeois as an honest and intelligent man. Some checking I did confirmed that.
I was wrong in my reaction of last night. And it seems that Moncton has suffered a serious loss.I do apologize to Mr. Bourgeois for cynically jumping to a conclusion.
Alas, the story also confirms a feeling I had when I first visited New Brunswick when the world and I were both young. I found it intellectually oppresive. A tiny group of people held all the power, used it ruthlessly. And there was a plodding fear of open discussion that ran all the way down to home and school groups. It's still like that. And New Brunswickers still vote largely for the same two parties, both of which obviously are owned by the boss.
Moncton City council has been no different. The loss of an intelligent and independent person is a heavy one in this province of submissive people.
And that's pretty well it for Section A.
___________________________________________________________________________
Section C (NewsToday) has the expected story about how good oil pipelines are "Two banks call for pipeline expansion." So far, the TandT has not carried a single hint that pipelines could be any trouble at all. And there are 12 million sites dealing with that topic on the web. I can only hope that in the election to replace Mr. Bourgeois, we will not see a TandT editor as a candidate.
Nor have the editors paid the slightest attention to warnings from scientists that the use of fossil fuels is speeding up the process of global warning. Instead, Canadian and New Brunswick governments are working hard burn more of them, and to supply other countries with them so we can get global warming even faster.
Hey! Who cares about tomorrow? And tomorrow, by the way is not a hundred years ahead of us. It's soon. While yourchildren are alive. Maybe while you're alive.
But, hey. There could be some jobs in fossil fuels.Maybe.
Corporation bosses can plan for a future only in economic terms and only as the economy affects them, and only if "future" means three months from now. And they are quite incapable of social planning of any sort. We can already see some of the consequences.
Capitalism has effectively been destroyed, replaced by mindless greed and arrogance. Only a fool could believe that New Brunswick is a democracy. And in this, one of the richest countries in the world, the distribution of wealth is so unfair that we think it a big, Christian deal to feed the poor one day a year.On that day, leave no child unstuffed.
_______________________________________________________________________________
There is an important news story at the bottom of p. 1 one of Newstoday. "Pickton inquiry report highlights system failures". Pickton was the man who murdered dozens of drug-addicted prostitutes on his farm, and fed them to his pigs. Why did the police not catch him more quickly.?Well, the victims were women, native peoples, prostitutes,, on drugs. So who cared? This is a story that will cause many to dump all over the police. The reality is that the police very accurately reflected the attitudes of Canadians in general.
_____________________________________________________________________________
The editorial calls for more help to deliver Christmas food and toys. However, instead of feeding the poor once a year, it might be more useful to wonder why we live in a province that gives lavishly to billionaires every day, then feels all Christian for feeding the poor one meal a year.
Good cartoon by de Adder.
First-rate column by Norbert Cunningham. This one is insightful, well-written,and would deserve a spot in any newspaper.
Alec Bruce shows a talent for the comic or, more accurately the serious-comic. There's also an interesting op ed column by Michael Sullivan who is a retired employee of Moncton city hall.
For those who think all these favourable comments suggest we have a new Times and Transcript, there's a disillusioner in Alan Cochrane's op ed column. You will be fascinated by it only if you are a person who is really,really interested in learning that Regina had 234 mm of rain - sometime or other.
And, oh, the letter of the day (by Jason Lawson) in Letters to the Editor, is a gem not to be missed.
This isn't a good edition. But it has more good parts than any edition of this paper I have yet seen. As Spencer Tracy said of Katharine Hepburn, "Not much meat there. But what's there is cherce."
_________________________________________________________________________________
The office of Bruce Fitch, minister of environment and local government, has responded to my request for information about contamination in Highfield Square -sort of. It seems the minister DOES have the authority to order that the owner clean up contaminated land.
So why, over all these years has no minister ever issued such an order? There is a piece of property used for years for shopping, restaurants, still in use for a food store - all that time contaminated, and all that time with the minister not seeming to care.
The purpose of this sale is pretty clear. Mr. Fitch need now feel no compulsion to order a clean-up. Thisttakes the cost of a multi-million dollar clean-up out of the hands of the owners, and dumps it on the rate payers. It doesn't matter whether an "events centre" ever gets built. The owners are still ahead of the game. What they have is land made worthless until it is cleaned up. And what they're getting from us is a big price for that worthless land - plus we're going to pay to clean it up, too. Isn't that nice of us?
I had asked Mr. Fitch other questions, too. But he makes it clear he isn't going to answer them. His excuse is that I did not give him information he had requested. For example, I asked for the official list of contaminated sites in the province. His reply was he couldn't tell me that unless I first told him what they were, along with their official registration numbers. "Therefore," as he writes, "this request is now considered closed."
God bless you Mr. Fitch. And when you are born again, may it be as something higher on the scale of evolution.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Dec. Batter up.....
The bad news is right at the top of p. 1. The main feature of today's edition is an interview of David Alward by Brent Mazerolle. In fact, There are TWO pages of interview with THREE suitable-for-framing pictures of Alward. It begins with a full column of babble about how unpretentious Mr. Alward's office is. Then Brent steps up to the pitcher's mound, holds the ball behind his back, nods at the catcher, spits, and sends a gentle pitch floating upward into an arc as though on the softly beating wings of a butterfly, right over the middle of the plate.
"Are you worried about the exodus of New Brunswickers to the the west?"
Alward, eyes closed but mouth, as always, hanging open, swings, just clipping the ball which then falls to earth in front of the plate as Alward admits he is worried. It's a homer. Then, as he jogs around the bases, Alward tells a long and quite pointless story about his family.
On the mound, Brent has another blazer ready. "Of course, it's a problem for all three maritime provinces."
Alward ignores this one, lays down his bat, and gives a long answer about something else. The umpire, who had dozed off during the home run, opens one eye, says "safe at home", then gently closes the eye again.
If you want to read this kind of thing, then this is the kind of thing you want to read.
________________________________________________________________________________
World news consists almost entirely of accounts of the Newtown tragedy, all of them over three days old.
So far, I have not seen a single news source (or a church) that has noticed that many times more children than that have been killed every day for over ten years by the bombs, bullets, starvation and exposure inflicted by our side in wars.
Mourners, says a headline, are dealing with grief all over the world. How self-centred can we get? How can we ignore the tens of thousands of parents - probably more - all over the world who have their own dead children to mourn. And where are the news stories giving psychiatric assessment of our leaders who order those killings?
And where is the study of a society that makes it possible for a person long diagnosed of mental disorder to get an assault rifle and semi-automatic pistols, weapons whose only purpose is to kill people? And why is it that the US government will not face up to all the implications of this tragedy? (You think it will? Dream on. At best, you'll see some quite minor legislation. Gun nuts are already suggesting that the answer is to arm teachers.)
________________________________________________________________________________
There are two editorials. The first, dealing with safety and emergency vehicles, defends a law that very, very few would dispute. So why bother writing about it? In fact, even without such a law, New Brunswickers are the most courteous and careful drivers I have ever seen.
The second editorial, a very brief one, is a model of self-righteous stupidity. The writer supports employment insurance reforms which will harm many people though, as the writer says, only a few have abused the system. Then read the thoroughly pig-headed and obnoxious last sentence,"Those few have necessitated this reform, and now all clients have to pay the consequences." (Little Tommy deliberately dropped his pencil on the floor. Now the whole class has to be punished.)
Where does the TandT find these twits?
Craig Babstock on op ed defends his title as chammpion of pointless columns. But Allen Abley makes a strong challenge with yet another irrelevant story about some place near Washington.
______________________________________________________________________________
Alec Bruce offers a moment of sanity.
________________________________________________________________________
Did anything escape the eagle-eyed editors of The Moncton Times and Transcript? Well, according to The Washington Post for Dec. 13, there is a report approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee that torture did not lead to the capture of Osama Bin Laden; and, in fact, torture has never produced useful information. There have been no breakthroughs in the war on terror - or on anything else - as a result of torture.
It barely passed the committee since all but one of the Republican members opposed it. It may not pass the whole Senate. In any case, we shall never see it because the CIA insists it contains "information harmful to the nation." Quite so. It would be very damaging to the US if the world were to learn that the CIA is a home for ineffectual goons.
Actually, the ineffectiveness of torture has been well known for decades. But most of our news media have never bothered to report that.
Meanwhile, an American soldier is now on trial before a military court in the US. The evidence is all based on what he said under three years of torture.
________________________________________________________________________________
Then there is a story I mentioned earlier about the 1.9 billion dollar fine levied on the British bank HSBC, the bank that had laundered tens of billions of dollars for drug cartels. It seems the story is even worse than that.
I had already mentioned that money laundering is not a misdemeanour. It is a very serious crime. If you got caught laundering drug money, you would be facing serious jail time.
The HSBC had no criminal charges to deal with. The 1.9 billion dollar fine is probably less than the profit they made out of the laundering. But it gets worse.
The period examined was only three years, 2006-2009. And examination of the years since and after, would probably show a hundred billion of more.
And the practice is widespread among banks in both London and New York. So that could take us beyond billions into trillions.
And the laundered money is not just from drug cartels but from international prostitution rings - and terrorist groups.
And nobody went to jail. It's just like the great bank bailout. The banks acted illegally, drove the world into recession, - and the government paid them for it. Not a single person faced any criminal charge. Almost all of the law-breakers got millions in rewards.
But, boy, we gotta crack down on them there EI people. Indeed, it is quite common in some circles to hear the poor blamed for the recession.
There's a line in G.K Chesteron's novel, "The Man Called Thursday". The line is "Religion will be destroyed by the rich." Amd that has pretty much happened. The making of wealth in our time is based on principles that are in defiance of any religion I ever heard of.
In the same way, capitalism is being destroyed by the capitalists. When you have people like those in control of our great corporations, we don't need anarchists and revolutionaries. The CEOs and the owners will do it for us.
"Are you worried about the exodus of New Brunswickers to the the west?"
Alward, eyes closed but mouth, as always, hanging open, swings, just clipping the ball which then falls to earth in front of the plate as Alward admits he is worried. It's a homer. Then, as he jogs around the bases, Alward tells a long and quite pointless story about his family.
On the mound, Brent has another blazer ready. "Of course, it's a problem for all three maritime provinces."
Alward ignores this one, lays down his bat, and gives a long answer about something else. The umpire, who had dozed off during the home run, opens one eye, says "safe at home", then gently closes the eye again.
If you want to read this kind of thing, then this is the kind of thing you want to read.
________________________________________________________________________________
World news consists almost entirely of accounts of the Newtown tragedy, all of them over three days old.
So far, I have not seen a single news source (or a church) that has noticed that many times more children than that have been killed every day for over ten years by the bombs, bullets, starvation and exposure inflicted by our side in wars.
Mourners, says a headline, are dealing with grief all over the world. How self-centred can we get? How can we ignore the tens of thousands of parents - probably more - all over the world who have their own dead children to mourn. And where are the news stories giving psychiatric assessment of our leaders who order those killings?
And where is the study of a society that makes it possible for a person long diagnosed of mental disorder to get an assault rifle and semi-automatic pistols, weapons whose only purpose is to kill people? And why is it that the US government will not face up to all the implications of this tragedy? (You think it will? Dream on. At best, you'll see some quite minor legislation. Gun nuts are already suggesting that the answer is to arm teachers.)
________________________________________________________________________________
There are two editorials. The first, dealing with safety and emergency vehicles, defends a law that very, very few would dispute. So why bother writing about it? In fact, even without such a law, New Brunswickers are the most courteous and careful drivers I have ever seen.
The second editorial, a very brief one, is a model of self-righteous stupidity. The writer supports employment insurance reforms which will harm many people though, as the writer says, only a few have abused the system. Then read the thoroughly pig-headed and obnoxious last sentence,"Those few have necessitated this reform, and now all clients have to pay the consequences." (Little Tommy deliberately dropped his pencil on the floor. Now the whole class has to be punished.)
Where does the TandT find these twits?
Craig Babstock on op ed defends his title as chammpion of pointless columns. But Allen Abley makes a strong challenge with yet another irrelevant story about some place near Washington.
______________________________________________________________________________
Alec Bruce offers a moment of sanity.
________________________________________________________________________
Did anything escape the eagle-eyed editors of The Moncton Times and Transcript? Well, according to The Washington Post for Dec. 13, there is a report approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee that torture did not lead to the capture of Osama Bin Laden; and, in fact, torture has never produced useful information. There have been no breakthroughs in the war on terror - or on anything else - as a result of torture.
It barely passed the committee since all but one of the Republican members opposed it. It may not pass the whole Senate. In any case, we shall never see it because the CIA insists it contains "information harmful to the nation." Quite so. It would be very damaging to the US if the world were to learn that the CIA is a home for ineffectual goons.
Actually, the ineffectiveness of torture has been well known for decades. But most of our news media have never bothered to report that.
Meanwhile, an American soldier is now on trial before a military court in the US. The evidence is all based on what he said under three years of torture.
________________________________________________________________________________
Then there is a story I mentioned earlier about the 1.9 billion dollar fine levied on the British bank HSBC, the bank that had laundered tens of billions of dollars for drug cartels. It seems the story is even worse than that.
I had already mentioned that money laundering is not a misdemeanour. It is a very serious crime. If you got caught laundering drug money, you would be facing serious jail time.
The HSBC had no criminal charges to deal with. The 1.9 billion dollar fine is probably less than the profit they made out of the laundering. But it gets worse.
The period examined was only three years, 2006-2009. And examination of the years since and after, would probably show a hundred billion of more.
And the practice is widespread among banks in both London and New York. So that could take us beyond billions into trillions.
And the laundered money is not just from drug cartels but from international prostitution rings - and terrorist groups.
And nobody went to jail. It's just like the great bank bailout. The banks acted illegally, drove the world into recession, - and the government paid them for it. Not a single person faced any criminal charge. Almost all of the law-breakers got millions in rewards.
But, boy, we gotta crack down on them there EI people. Indeed, it is quite common in some circles to hear the poor blamed for the recession.
There's a line in G.K Chesteron's novel, "The Man Called Thursday". The line is "Religion will be destroyed by the rich." Amd that has pretty much happened. The making of wealth in our time is based on principles that are in defiance of any religion I ever heard of.
In the same way, capitalism is being destroyed by the capitalists. When you have people like those in control of our great corporations, we don't need anarchists and revolutionaries. The CEOs and the owners will do it for us.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Dec. 15: words, words....
Words don't just have logical meanings. They can also convey meanings that have nothing to do with any logic. When I was a kid in Montreal, we used to call French kids "Frenchpeasoups". The idea, I suppose, was that French people were addicted to pea soup, and this indicated their inferiority. (Actually, I loved pea soup, too. But that never occurred to me.)
The French kids didn't know was peasoup meant. But they felt it was an insult. So they shouted back, "Englishpeasoup."
Something similar happened with the word "bastard". We use the word to mean someone low, treacherous, inconsiderate. Those are the images we get from the word, but none has any connection with its real meaning.
News media use words like that all the time - not to convey any logical meaning, but to create an image, a tone.
In the early 1950s, Guatemala was a democracy. The US didn't like that because it began charging taxes to build schools, and even gave land to hungry peasant families. That, in the view of the Americans who owned Chiquita Banana and her tropical friends, was a drain on their profits. So, there appeared stories in the papers of how Guatemala might bomb the Panama Canal. (Guatemala had no air force). Then, an armed force of some 5,000 suddenly appeared on the border of Guatemala
The American government called them "freedom fighters"; and all the news media followed the lead. Since Guatemala had no army, the freedom fighters easily won. And the first act of the freedom fighters was to overthrow the elected government, and establish a dictatorship. Guatemala has never regained its freedom, not since the victory of the freedom fighters. But nobody in the news media has ever noticed.
In the same period, veterans of the Korean War were never called simply veterans - as had been the practice for World War Two. No. In all news media of North America, they were called "Korean War Heroes" That term applied to anyone who was in the army at the time. My father had a Korean War Hero friend who never left Canadian shores.
More recently, we have read, often, of "Syrian rebels". Now, I would think of Syrian rebels as meaning Syrians - and, for the rebel part, Syrians who have turned against their government.After all, that's what those words mean.
But the majority of them aren't Syrians. They are mercenaries from Africa and the middle east financed and armed by Arab dictatorships like Saudi Arabia and the Emirates with substantial support from Turkey, Britain, France, and the US. As well, large numbers of them are Moslem Jihadists (usually called terrorists in our news media) of whom very few are Syrians.
So they aren't Syrians. And if they aren't Syrians, they can't be rebels.A rebel is someone who rises against someone who has authority over him- as his own government.Most of the these people are not rising against their own governments.In fact, they are invading another country. To call them Syrian rebels is like calling the the NATO forces in Afghanistanti Afghani rebels".
And so we have stories about people who who neither Syrian nor rebel (and commonly referred to in other situations as terrorists); but who are now called Syrian rebels. Why? Well, if we told the truth, we'd have to call them a terrorist game of foreign mercenaries hired and equipped by us to invade a country that has never threatened anybody. Syrian rebel sounds better.
In the same way, Moslems who indiscriminately kill civilians are invariably called "terrorists". Our side are never terrorists - not in Iraq where we killed over a million civilians, not in Afghanistan where we don't give the numbers, not in Guatemala where we slaughtered 300,000, not in Pakistan, Somalia or Yemen where we have launched drone attacks by the thousands to kill "suspects".
Who do news media use words like this? They do it for the same reason we did it as kids. To encourage ignorance and hatred - and to lie.
_________________________________________________________________________
We are now discussing shipping tar sands oil to an "East coast refinery" by rail as well as by pipe line.
A few days ago, I looked for entries dealing with oil pipeline dangers, and found some four million.
Now, as a service to the intrepidly digging reporters at the Moncton Times and Transcript, I suggest they google "oil by train dangers" I found twelve million entries this time. Apparently, it's the most dangerous way to move oil - and especially dangerous with "dirty" oil like tar sands.
But - oooh - it might create some jobs.
Or maybe not.
________________________________________________________________________
There's a case in the Supreme Court which the TandT seems to be uninterested in. A group of eight citizens are demanding that six ridings in which Conservatives won by very small margins have substantial evidence of the wide use of robocalls to mislead voters from other parties.
Conservatives, of course, say the eight citizens are just Liberals or other riff-raff. Possibly so.
But why is it left to a small group of private citizens to investigate this? Harper knew of the robocalls as soon as he took office - and probably long before. Why didn't our federal government mount a proper investigation in the first place? Why, instead, have they blocked an investigation at every turn?
Watch YOUR TandT to ask the hard questions, and get at the truth.
_______________________________________________________________________________
If you have a million and a half dollars to spend on education in Moncton, what would your priorities be? Chemistry labs? Libraries? Smaller classes? Well, that just shows how much you know about education. But the statues at the waxworks we call city hall have thought deeply about it. After all, they want to help education - though it has very little to do with their mandate;and when it does, their interest shows mainly in supporting questionable land deals.
Our city is contributing one and a half million of your dollars to - wait for it - put plastic grass (artificial turf) on two (count them, two) high school playing fields. Wow! that can mean a whole, new future for our children. (Oh, and they can be places for seniors to take walks. Moncton is just full of seniors desperate for a plastic field to walk on.)
Parent groups will be urged to raise the extra half million that is needed. To fire them up, an organizer told them that the fields are covered with litter. Well, artificial turf will certain fix that. Litter isn't allowed on artificial turf.
The TandT is quite gaga about how this will put Moncton on the map, and how the whole world is watching us. So there's a total of two million we're going to spend just for our children - and at a time when so many, notably the TandT - are warning against the rise of public debt. How noble!
And what a coincidence they will just fit in with athletic events the city is sponsoring a couple of summers from now. You know, the kind that will draw world attention to Moncton and bring in tourists to fill our hotels. I mean - it's really not worth a two million dollar investment just for that, but....
......nothing is too good for our children.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Dec. 14: hang out the flags, serve the drinks....
...this is a proud, proud day for Canada. Under the leadership of Harper, Canada today becomes the first country in the world to pull out of the Kyoto accord to control climate change. Imagine. Canada leading the world because, as Harper says, "the Kyoto accord is socialist". Why is it socialist? Because it takes money from the rich countries and gives it to the poor ones.
So that's what socialist means! Harper also says Sweden is a socialist country. But Sweden doesn't take money from rich countries and give it to poor ones. Oh! I get do confused.
Oil companies certainly don't intend to let anybody take any money from them. So they say there is no climate change problem. And they probably believe it. People are like that. If they don't want to believe something, well then, it isn't true because there is only one truth. And they have it.
That's why Harper exercises so much control over the members of the party and his cabinet. That's why he is so supremely confident. Harper is an ideologue. He has the truth, and the only truth. And the truth is that the only function of government is to ensure that the rich get richer. And if that conflicts with scientific opinion about what this is doing to the climate, the scientific opinion is wrong - maybe even :"socialist".
This man is an economist, an economist actually doesn't know what the word socialist means. But in his locked, little mind, he thinks he knows. He has the truth, the only truth, a truth beyond the understanding of us mere humans. He is an ideologue - which is something like being a religious fanatic who hears voices.
Harper is the only ideological prime minister this country has ever had. And the most dangerous one we have ever had.
That's why today we are leading the world in pulling out of Kyoto. So break out the champagne. (Oh, the story didn't make the TandT. Of course not.)
________________________________________________________________________
The big story in every paper is the school shooting in Connecticut. But I haven't seen any coverage that sees the full meaning of this tragedy.
Most of the focus is on calls for gun control. But that's not going to happen to any meaningful degree. It's not going to happen for the same reason that Canada is going to pay any attention to climate control. There's big money in the sale of guns. And that's only part of it.
There's also an ideology behind gun sales. Ideology - that belief of so many of us that we have the truth and the only truth whatever the evidence may say. The gun ideology is that American freedom and democracy arose out of violence and guns, that government may at any time become dictatorial, making it necessary for patriots to take up their guns. That's why why freedom to own assault rifles and other automatic weapons with large ammo capacity is so important. You need to match the military that you will be fighting with.
And the moment is here. Obama is not really an American. Obama is really a Moslem terrorist. The moment for patriots has come. Millions of Americans believe that.
It's an attitude supported by a generalized atmosphere of hared and fear encouraged by government and news media. America, the most powerful nation in the world, is constantly being attacked by enemies like Grenada, Libya, Venezuela, Cuba, by the sandaled warriors of Afghanistan. The nation with the world's most powerful forces and most defendable location lives in fear and hysteria or attack from small and backward nations.
All of this supports the gun culture. The killings were, indeed, terrible. What's even more terrible is that nothing will be done about them. Big business in the US needs a nation that lives in fear and hysteria to justify the use of the military for its own ends.
Oh, no newspaper that I have seen mentioned it, but I wonder how many children were killed yesterday in Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, Yeman, Somalia? How many were killed by drones? by bombs? by trigger-happy soldiers? How many children were killed in the great slaughters in Guatemala and Iraq?
Of course, they're different.
__________________________________________________________________________
The front page has a very unprofessional news story, unprofessional because it's not a news story at all. It's "Should N.B. follow Ont. lead on teachers?" When I first looked at the story, I wondered who could have made such a proposal. It turns out nobody has. And, according to the story, the NB government isn't even thinking about it.
So why do we have a front page story on something that didn't happen and that nobody suggests should happen? This makes as much sense as having a story on whether all Monctonians should be dipped in luminous paint so that drivers can see them. Why on earth would a newspaper run such a non-story?
One possibility is crashing ignorance among TandT editors about what a news story is. I would hate, of course, to have to make such a suggestion. But the only other possible interpretation is that the TandT is deliberately trying to create an atmosphere of tension around education salary negotiations. Perhaps the owner has something in mind? Let's watch the TandT for developments.
____________________________________________________________________________
The Liberals say "It's time to move past Atcon..." (Acton is the company that seemingly falsified its financial record to get 50 million dollars from us taxpayers, all of which we got stuck for.) If that's what happened, it's a crime. It also suggests gross incompetence the part of the Liberal former government. Somebody should be facing criminal charges. But NB governments take a very Christian, forgiving attitude to crime. I mean, there no point in pursuing respectable criminals.
And the Alward government has done nothing to take up the slack in this case. Did Atcon commit a criminal offense? If so shouldn't there be a charge - not matter who the government is right now?
__________________________________________________________________________
On the same page, D4, is a story by Shawn Berry. It's worth reading because this is what a news story should look like. "Reverse 2009 tax cuts, gov't urged". It reports on a position taken by a large number of economists in this province, explains their case well, allows a response from Victor Boudreau (who was finance minister in 2009) - but not until after the story has made the position of the economists quite clear.
This is clear, honest, and thoroughly professional reporting.
(I could wish he had asked Boudreau a tough question or two because Boudreau's statement is both vague and slippery.) But this is still good reporting.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is nothing really worth reading on the editorial or op ed pages. Even Gwynne Dyer, who does have a point, lbut acks punch in this one.
On the Faith page, it looks as though columnist David Yount has become a regular feature in his role of feeding religious banalities to the intellectually toothless. This is a page with no news, no debate, no opinion worth discussing,
The sermonette is on giving to the poor at Christmas.I have no quarrel with that. But....
......if we have so many people in need that it is up to individuals to give them food (if only one day a year), then we do not live in a Christian (or any other kind of religion) society. We do not think of our governments (nor do they think of themselves) in terms of anything resembling morality.
Actually there are, of course, many people who are moral without having any religion, just as there are many people who have loads of religion (or religiosity) but not a bit of morality.Judging by the Faith page and the whole paper, I would put the TandT in the latter category.
So that's what socialist means! Harper also says Sweden is a socialist country. But Sweden doesn't take money from rich countries and give it to poor ones. Oh! I get do confused.
Oil companies certainly don't intend to let anybody take any money from them. So they say there is no climate change problem. And they probably believe it. People are like that. If they don't want to believe something, well then, it isn't true because there is only one truth. And they have it.
That's why Harper exercises so much control over the members of the party and his cabinet. That's why he is so supremely confident. Harper is an ideologue. He has the truth, and the only truth. And the truth is that the only function of government is to ensure that the rich get richer. And if that conflicts with scientific opinion about what this is doing to the climate, the scientific opinion is wrong - maybe even :"socialist".
This man is an economist, an economist actually doesn't know what the word socialist means. But in his locked, little mind, he thinks he knows. He has the truth, the only truth, a truth beyond the understanding of us mere humans. He is an ideologue - which is something like being a religious fanatic who hears voices.
Harper is the only ideological prime minister this country has ever had. And the most dangerous one we have ever had.
That's why today we are leading the world in pulling out of Kyoto. So break out the champagne. (Oh, the story didn't make the TandT. Of course not.)
________________________________________________________________________
The big story in every paper is the school shooting in Connecticut. But I haven't seen any coverage that sees the full meaning of this tragedy.
Most of the focus is on calls for gun control. But that's not going to happen to any meaningful degree. It's not going to happen for the same reason that Canada is going to pay any attention to climate control. There's big money in the sale of guns. And that's only part of it.
There's also an ideology behind gun sales. Ideology - that belief of so many of us that we have the truth and the only truth whatever the evidence may say. The gun ideology is that American freedom and democracy arose out of violence and guns, that government may at any time become dictatorial, making it necessary for patriots to take up their guns. That's why why freedom to own assault rifles and other automatic weapons with large ammo capacity is so important. You need to match the military that you will be fighting with.
And the moment is here. Obama is not really an American. Obama is really a Moslem terrorist. The moment for patriots has come. Millions of Americans believe that.
It's an attitude supported by a generalized atmosphere of hared and fear encouraged by government and news media. America, the most powerful nation in the world, is constantly being attacked by enemies like Grenada, Libya, Venezuela, Cuba, by the sandaled warriors of Afghanistan. The nation with the world's most powerful forces and most defendable location lives in fear and hysteria or attack from small and backward nations.
All of this supports the gun culture. The killings were, indeed, terrible. What's even more terrible is that nothing will be done about them. Big business in the US needs a nation that lives in fear and hysteria to justify the use of the military for its own ends.
Oh, no newspaper that I have seen mentioned it, but I wonder how many children were killed yesterday in Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, Yeman, Somalia? How many were killed by drones? by bombs? by trigger-happy soldiers? How many children were killed in the great slaughters in Guatemala and Iraq?
Of course, they're different.
__________________________________________________________________________
The front page has a very unprofessional news story, unprofessional because it's not a news story at all. It's "Should N.B. follow Ont. lead on teachers?" When I first looked at the story, I wondered who could have made such a proposal. It turns out nobody has. And, according to the story, the NB government isn't even thinking about it.
So why do we have a front page story on something that didn't happen and that nobody suggests should happen? This makes as much sense as having a story on whether all Monctonians should be dipped in luminous paint so that drivers can see them. Why on earth would a newspaper run such a non-story?
One possibility is crashing ignorance among TandT editors about what a news story is. I would hate, of course, to have to make such a suggestion. But the only other possible interpretation is that the TandT is deliberately trying to create an atmosphere of tension around education salary negotiations. Perhaps the owner has something in mind? Let's watch the TandT for developments.
____________________________________________________________________________
The Liberals say "It's time to move past Atcon..." (Acton is the company that seemingly falsified its financial record to get 50 million dollars from us taxpayers, all of which we got stuck for.) If that's what happened, it's a crime. It also suggests gross incompetence the part of the Liberal former government. Somebody should be facing criminal charges. But NB governments take a very Christian, forgiving attitude to crime. I mean, there no point in pursuing respectable criminals.
And the Alward government has done nothing to take up the slack in this case. Did Atcon commit a criminal offense? If so shouldn't there be a charge - not matter who the government is right now?
__________________________________________________________________________
On the same page, D4, is a story by Shawn Berry. It's worth reading because this is what a news story should look like. "Reverse 2009 tax cuts, gov't urged". It reports on a position taken by a large number of economists in this province, explains their case well, allows a response from Victor Boudreau (who was finance minister in 2009) - but not until after the story has made the position of the economists quite clear.
This is clear, honest, and thoroughly professional reporting.
(I could wish he had asked Boudreau a tough question or two because Boudreau's statement is both vague and slippery.) But this is still good reporting.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is nothing really worth reading on the editorial or op ed pages. Even Gwynne Dyer, who does have a point, lbut acks punch in this one.
On the Faith page, it looks as though columnist David Yount has become a regular feature in his role of feeding religious banalities to the intellectually toothless. This is a page with no news, no debate, no opinion worth discussing,
The sermonette is on giving to the poor at Christmas.I have no quarrel with that. But....
......if we have so many people in need that it is up to individuals to give them food (if only one day a year), then we do not live in a Christian (or any other kind of religion) society. We do not think of our governments (nor do they think of themselves) in terms of anything resembling morality.
Actually there are, of course, many people who are moral without having any religion, just as there are many people who have loads of religion (or religiosity) but not a bit of morality.Judging by the Faith page and the whole paper, I would put the TandT in the latter category.
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