...at first, it looks like a burial. Today's headline, front page, of the Moncton Times and Transcript is "N.B. has huge shale gas potential: Lapierre." But a substantial part, including several paragraphs at the beginning, has nothing to do with anything Lapierre said. It talks about a damning report on federal monitoring of the drilling. In effect, there isn't any. Well, I thought this is part of the old, news game of burying a story you don't like.
It seemed, as I read, the story was really about the lack of federal monitoring (a bad story for the shale gas industry); but that they hid it under a headline about Lapierre on a rather different topic (making it look like a good story for the shale gas industry).
You see, most people just glance at headlines, then turn to Sports or Miss Manners, or Hollywood gossip. So it's easy to bury a story you don't want people to know about by hiding it under a headline that is misleading. It comes in handy for stories it's hard not to mention - like the report of the auditor general on how Ottawa is pretty slack on safety when it comes to the oil and gas industry.
But then it does go on to Lapierre's speech - which seems to have been entirely on subjects he knows nothing about and on which he has no qualifications whatever to speak.
Then, in a bizarre closing, he admits we have to move away from fossil fuels because of their effect on global warming. But that will have to take time until we develop cheaper renewables. After all, he says, "...the world has to keep turning".
Actually, it doesn't. And more to the point, global warming doesn't have to hold off. Unlike professor Lapierre, the climate does not come under the control of governments or gas companies.
Anyway, the whole story is not a case of a newspaper burying news. It's a case of propaganda for shale gas presented in a style so badly organized as to be almost incoherent.
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In other big news, perhaps the most important story is that a trial had to be delayed when a man's glass eye popped out.
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In the editorial, we gotta get more people to drink beer. Absolutely. And private business can sell beer better than private business can. Nonsense. Nor can I see any reason why we should want to sell more. I mean, it's not as if it's a health food.
Norbert, for some weeks, climbed a slope. Now, he's sliding down the other side. Today, in one column, he discusses four topics, none of them adequately or intelligently. One of the topics is a free ad for a store that also got a free ad in yesterday's news. One is on oil and gas in which he doesn't know what he's talking about, provides no evidence, and calls anybody who disagrees with him a moron. This one is a real stinker.
Alec Bruce has a useful column on a bridge to Riverview.
Rod Allen----somebody once must have told him he was funny. So on a page for serious comment, we get pimple-age humour written in a style decades out of date. This is cornball stuff with a vengeance.
Jody Dallaire has a column that has a touch of humour that is quite serious, and a touch of seriousness that is quite warm. It's about Galentine's Day. But I'll let her tell you. Anyway, I'm not invited.
Good letters on "EI changes not fair to province" and "It's editorial that was 'flawed'."
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There's a bit of space left, so I'll play Norbert's 'Moron', and talk about the people he admires.
It's hard to think of industries throughout human history that have been more rapacious, destructive, and brutal than the resource industries. Notably in Africa, North America and South America, they have been indifferent to the destruction they cause, the poisons they sow, the people they kill or torture or enslave, the farmland and forest they destroy, the misery they leave behind for generations after they have finished.
And don't kid yourself, Canadian and American-owned resource companies have been world leaders in destruction. Nobody knows how many millions have been killed in Congo. South Africans suffered in poverty for over fifty years of western plundering of their gold. That story is repeated in just about every country in Africa. They, with the CIA, have murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Guatemala. They have been behind invasions and murderous dictators all over South America and Africa.
They have not given a damn about what they destroyed or who they killed or impoverished. Not in Africa; not in South America, not in the US. They are now active in the Arctic, where the slightest mistake could (and almost certainly will) cause irreparable damage.
Can you seriously think they give a damn about about your drinking water or your land? Or do you think they'll be nice to us because we're folks just like them? If so, give a thought to the asbestos industry, owned and operated in Quebec. Jes' folks.
For a century it has been known that asbestos was a killer, that it got into the lungs, that it caused cancer and a host of other diseases; and that it was so bad it was dangerous even in solid sheets behind walls. By 1930, it was proven beyond doubt how great a danger it was. The asbestos industry knew all about it. But it suppressed the story - with the help of the news media. Government, of course, pretended nothing had happened. (Alward was not the first of his type.)
As a consequence, it is estimated that some hundreds of thousands of American workers died due to the wide use of asbestos in war industries.
But still it was put behind walls by workers who cut it, breathing in the dust. And miners were sent down to spend their days ripping tons of it out of the earth.
The US did not begin to cut asbestos use until 1989, almost sixty years after its dangers had been shown.
It still has some use in the US, though almost all the developed world has abandoned it. However, Canadian governments continued to promote it - for sale to third word countries, and as "foreign aid".
When the Word Trade Centre was destroyed by terrorists, it released a thousand tons of asbestos into the air. Since then there has been a high death rate among emergency workers who rushed to the site.
This is an example how much you can trust the good ol' boys of the corporate world - and the news media - and the politicians.
They really don't give a damn. If they ruin this province, they will simply do as they did with any other place they have ruined. They will move on. They have no stake in you or New Brunswick.
Will they cause long-term harm? That's not even in their thinking. Large corporations plan for the short term and the quick buck, three months at a time.
What's happening now is that fossil fuels obviously cannot be used much longer. Even professor Lapierre can see that. When that day comes, all those oil fields, gas fields become worthless. What the companies have to do know is to pump out the stuff now, make as much money as possible before we realize the danger we're in (and also keep newspapers like the TandT onside so that the general public has no real sense of how big the danger is or how close.)
Then they scamper off with the money to find some more suckers. Hey, they can spend that money anywhere, It doesn't have to be in North America.
And realize another thing. You cannot trust this government of New Brunswick. You cannot trust their intelligence. You cannot trust their wisdom. You cannot trust their honesty. You cannot even trust that it is working for you. In fact, you definitely cannot trust that.
And you most certainly cannot trust any 'independent' organization they would set up to protect you.
Realize that, as well, about Stephen Harper. Why is he so cold to First Nations people? Why does he make so many damaging leaks to put them in a bad light?
Because the resources industries want him to. First Nations are in the way of uncontrolled resource development. First Nations have to be destroyed and destroyed.
There is not the slightest chance that the government of New Brunswick, whether Conservative or Liberal, will lift a finger to defend us. It's up to us.
Well, there might be one hope. Some months ago the TandT carried an ad for the Irving Chapel, inviting us common folk to feel free to go the chapel, take a seat, and reflect. That's a nice thought.
I pass it on to Mr. Irving. Invite your friends in the shale gas industry and government and the Irving media to come with you to the Irving chapel, take a seat, and reflect.
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Thursday, February 7, 2013
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Feb. 6: Northrop Frye - A threat to Canadians....
Yes,the dirty truth is out. Northrop Frye, the most distinguished product of Moncton was a common, filthy traitor. That's why the RCMP shadowed him and investigated him for years. They still have a big file on him. And they got some pretty strong evidence for their suspicions.
He was opposed to the war in Vietnam.
He had friends in the NDP.
That made him a shit disturber for the rich, and a prime example of a situation in which the police no longer enforce the law equally for all or, indeed, enforce it at all. The function of the police is to keep an eye on anybody that the rich and the powerful don't like. The function of the police is to compose long lists of names - names to be watched, and perhaps more than that.
Americans are on such lists by the millions (and, never kid yourselves), many Canadian are on those American lists.
Those lists, as we have now learned, are shared and discussed with corporate leaders, the rich and the powerful, so they can take steps to smear and discredit those who are in their way. We're watching it now with the Idle No More movement. First Nations are in the way of our oil and other resource industries. Big oil wants them destroyed.
Big oil can count on the cooperation of Harper. And so we bring together government, big money, - and police and CSIS - to mount a campaign of rumour and innuendo and propaganda against the Idle No More movement, a campaign supported by most Canadian news media, especially Sun News.
They all come together as one - the politicians, the corporation bosses, the regular police in the RCMP, and the secret police of CSIS. This is precisely what Mussolini, il duce, had in mind when he started his Fascist party in Italy. This is precisely what Mr. Irving foolishly and unconstitutionally proclaimed when he publicly announced he was in coalition with the government.
The US is further down that road than we are. But Harper is stepping things up with an agreement to coordinate Canadian and US activities in this field. Indeed, American police are already active in Canada, making lists.
(Don't look for t his story in The Moncton Times and Transcript. It appeared yesterday on CBC. You know, the one Norbert says is not very good.)
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Health Minister Flemming is clashing again with doctors, this time the ones at the Dumont who say the system he is imposing on them is wasteful and inefficient. They're pretty unhappy with it.
Flemmings loutish response was that he was not in the happiness business; he was in the health business. (This was not quoted in the TandT). And, by inference, the doctors would do what he told them to.
Take a good look at Flemming. This is the portrait of a loud-mouthed and not very bright bully of the sort encouraged in the world of big business. It works in a business world full of loud mouthed and not very bright bullies. It doesn't work when dealing with professionals in a public programme.
In effect, Mr. Flemming is talking to you and me. And he's saying, "screw off".
There's not much else in the paper. Alec Bruce is a good read. On op-ed, Eric Lewis picks a good topic. Too bad he knows nothing about it. And the chief of fluff in the paper, Brian Cormier, wastes space telling us yet more about a moment in his uninteresting life.
Surprisingly, and shockingly even for the miserable Irving press, there is no mention of the City Council meeting on Monday evening. Gee. There seems to have been some pretty important information in there about the decision to buy land on a distant development, and to move a downtown high school to it. It's a deal that had a smell to it from the start and, so far as I can tell, smelt even worse after a report given at that meeting. (Lacking a written report, I know only the general outline of what was said.)
Now, this deal smells even more. Something highly improper, corrupt, and likely illegal is going on here. City Council is part of it. The provincial government is part of it. It has all the same smell that hangs over the 'events' centre.
All provinces have some corruption. Ottawa has a lot of corruption. But New Brunswick has something lower than corruption It has sleaze. It has sleaze that hangs over every part of the province, and reaches down to every level. Other provinces have corruption. But they also have islands of honesty. New Brunswick has a sleaze that reaches down into almost everything one can touch. And the great defender of that sleaze is the Irving Press.
TheMoncton Times is not just ignorant, biased, and lying. It's also soaked in sleaze.
You wonder why young people leave this province? Well, that smog of sleaze has a lot to do with it.
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In other unreported news, a dyamite report from Canada's Environment Commissioner and auditor of Candian environment regulations. This, too, was on CBC news yesterday but did not reach the ears of the happy gang at the TandT.
He says it is not possible to draw up regulations for safe, shale gas explorations. Governments don't even know what all the toxic substances used in the process are. In a province, we are talking of millions of litres of toxic substances. And we don't even know what they are, let alone what effect combinations of them will have.
In other words, when Mr. Alward tells us that it will all be perfectly safe because he will have adequate regulations in place, then he is either a liar or a fool. It could very likely be extremely dangerous to us and our province. But you can bet the gas company bosses don't give a damn.
Oh, that vast lake, Lake Winnipeg, has just been named the world's most threatened lake. Thank you for removing all those fresh water environmental controls, Mr. Harper. You're a good man.
Another oh, a British TV channel has announced it is running a documentary about the royal family - you know - Charlie, Liz... It's no secret that the family had an ancestor way back who was hiding behind the door when brains were passed out. That helps to explain Prince Andrew, Prince Charles, King George V, Queen Victoria, etc.
Less known are those who were born more severely afflicted, and who would have been a public embarrassment. It seems the practice for them has been to place them in asylums in remote places, then to ignore them and to deny they exist. Such cases have happened fairly recently.
According to the documentary, members of the family never visit them, and do not attend their funerals.
Isn't it just wonderful about Harry and Kate? I'm so excited.
I sure hope it's a - you know - normal baby.
He was opposed to the war in Vietnam.
He had friends in the NDP.
That made him a shit disturber for the rich, and a prime example of a situation in which the police no longer enforce the law equally for all or, indeed, enforce it at all. The function of the police is to keep an eye on anybody that the rich and the powerful don't like. The function of the police is to compose long lists of names - names to be watched, and perhaps more than that.
Americans are on such lists by the millions (and, never kid yourselves), many Canadian are on those American lists.
Those lists, as we have now learned, are shared and discussed with corporate leaders, the rich and the powerful, so they can take steps to smear and discredit those who are in their way. We're watching it now with the Idle No More movement. First Nations are in the way of our oil and other resource industries. Big oil wants them destroyed.
Big oil can count on the cooperation of Harper. And so we bring together government, big money, - and police and CSIS - to mount a campaign of rumour and innuendo and propaganda against the Idle No More movement, a campaign supported by most Canadian news media, especially Sun News.
They all come together as one - the politicians, the corporation bosses, the regular police in the RCMP, and the secret police of CSIS. This is precisely what Mussolini, il duce, had in mind when he started his Fascist party in Italy. This is precisely what Mr. Irving foolishly and unconstitutionally proclaimed when he publicly announced he was in coalition with the government.
The US is further down that road than we are. But Harper is stepping things up with an agreement to coordinate Canadian and US activities in this field. Indeed, American police are already active in Canada, making lists.
(Don't look for t his story in The Moncton Times and Transcript. It appeared yesterday on CBC. You know, the one Norbert says is not very good.)
__________________________________________________________________
Health Minister Flemming is clashing again with doctors, this time the ones at the Dumont who say the system he is imposing on them is wasteful and inefficient. They're pretty unhappy with it.
Flemmings loutish response was that he was not in the happiness business; he was in the health business. (This was not quoted in the TandT). And, by inference, the doctors would do what he told them to.
Take a good look at Flemming. This is the portrait of a loud-mouthed and not very bright bully of the sort encouraged in the world of big business. It works in a business world full of loud mouthed and not very bright bullies. It doesn't work when dealing with professionals in a public programme.
In effect, Mr. Flemming is talking to you and me. And he's saying, "screw off".
There's not much else in the paper. Alec Bruce is a good read. On op-ed, Eric Lewis picks a good topic. Too bad he knows nothing about it. And the chief of fluff in the paper, Brian Cormier, wastes space telling us yet more about a moment in his uninteresting life.
Surprisingly, and shockingly even for the miserable Irving press, there is no mention of the City Council meeting on Monday evening. Gee. There seems to have been some pretty important information in there about the decision to buy land on a distant development, and to move a downtown high school to it. It's a deal that had a smell to it from the start and, so far as I can tell, smelt even worse after a report given at that meeting. (Lacking a written report, I know only the general outline of what was said.)
Now, this deal smells even more. Something highly improper, corrupt, and likely illegal is going on here. City Council is part of it. The provincial government is part of it. It has all the same smell that hangs over the 'events' centre.
All provinces have some corruption. Ottawa has a lot of corruption. But New Brunswick has something lower than corruption It has sleaze. It has sleaze that hangs over every part of the province, and reaches down to every level. Other provinces have corruption. But they also have islands of honesty. New Brunswick has a sleaze that reaches down into almost everything one can touch. And the great defender of that sleaze is the Irving Press.
TheMoncton Times is not just ignorant, biased, and lying. It's also soaked in sleaze.
You wonder why young people leave this province? Well, that smog of sleaze has a lot to do with it.
______________________________________________________________________________
In other unreported news, a dyamite report from Canada's Environment Commissioner and auditor of Candian environment regulations. This, too, was on CBC news yesterday but did not reach the ears of the happy gang at the TandT.
He says it is not possible to draw up regulations for safe, shale gas explorations. Governments don't even know what all the toxic substances used in the process are. In a province, we are talking of millions of litres of toxic substances. And we don't even know what they are, let alone what effect combinations of them will have.
In other words, when Mr. Alward tells us that it will all be perfectly safe because he will have adequate regulations in place, then he is either a liar or a fool. It could very likely be extremely dangerous to us and our province. But you can bet the gas company bosses don't give a damn.
Oh, that vast lake, Lake Winnipeg, has just been named the world's most threatened lake. Thank you for removing all those fresh water environmental controls, Mr. Harper. You're a good man.
Another oh, a British TV channel has announced it is running a documentary about the royal family - you know - Charlie, Liz... It's no secret that the family had an ancestor way back who was hiding behind the door when brains were passed out. That helps to explain Prince Andrew, Prince Charles, King George V, Queen Victoria, etc.
Less known are those who were born more severely afflicted, and who would have been a public embarrassment. It seems the practice for them has been to place them in asylums in remote places, then to ignore them and to deny they exist. Such cases have happened fairly recently.
According to the documentary, members of the family never visit them, and do not attend their funerals.
Isn't it just wonderful about Harry and Kate? I'm so excited.
I sure hope it's a - you know - normal baby.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Feb. 5: Let's live a little...
Today's Moncton Times is the usual crapola. Not only does it not report on an important meeting at Moncton City Hall (concerning Moncton High), it doesn't even mention there was such a meeting. (Watch for their propaganda spin on it tomorrow). The editorial pitch for the pipeline is standard and, as always, carefully avoids mentioning that the reason the owners want to build their pipeline to the east coast is because no other part of the US or Canada will allow a pipeline that is so dangerous and has already suffered numerous accidents.
The only item worth reading in the whole paper is Alec Bruce who writes about how universities have strayed from their mandate. At that, he is gentle. The leaders of the academic world are now modelling themselves on corporate bosses, and are very quickly learning the rules of greed and self-interest - and kissing up.
(I couldn't do the story on city hall because I don't have a written report - and even with earphones, I have trouble hearing it adequately Hey! These are my golden years - that means I'm turning into a deaf and increasingly dumb lump of yellow rock.
If you want some New Brunswick news, check out NB Media Co-op on google. It has excellent articles on he pipeline and on Idle No More - as well as other topics. For more local focus on Moncton, google Moncton Free Press. Both sites are excellent.
But here, the hell with it. Let's talk about prime minister Harper. Let's have some facts. Let's develop some informed theories.
Ever notice that whenever Harper visits New Brunswick, he never says how happy he is to be back in the province of his father - and of generations before him? And he never goes to Port Elgin to see his father's home. Nor does the tourism department ever mention either the NB or the Port Elgin connection? There's not even a little sign on the house about its history.
I have never known the Irving press to mention it or to make any attempt to find out who the original Harper was or where he settled.
We even have two streets named after the Harpers, just off Main on its east end, very close to our federal mp's office.
This is a little unusual. More than a little. Ten years ago, workers clearing pollution from a railway yard (something like Highgate Square) uncovered the basement of an old farmhouse. A television station (Global, i think) checked, found it was the original Decarie farmhouse of 1670 or so, and asked me to come down to do an interview on it. (And I wasn't even a prime minister at the time.) I can tell you that I scampered down pretty quickly, and that time spent in the more than five hundred years old basement remains a warm memory.
Harper obviously has no such feelings about New Brunswick.
Some people say it's because his grandfather, a high school principal in Moncton (the school still stands, though now as an apartment building just off Vaughan Harvey and St. George)....anyway, his grandfather simply disappeared. There are all sorts of rumours about how and why. Most of them seem unlikely. The most plausible one was that he suddenly developed a severe mental confusion and, probably, died alone somewhere.
But it's not likely this would terribly bother Harper. He wasn't even born at the time it happened. And, in any case, it didn't happen in Port Elgin.
No. I suspect the reason Harper does not want to be reminded of his roots here (though he was born in Toronto) is because he just doesn't like New Brunswick. More - because he has contempt for it.
Now, let's look at Harper himself. This is a very insecure man. He shows his insecurity in his obsession with control. Everything in his government is secret. No cabinet minister would dare to say a word without his approval. When he chose Kevin Page to be an independent auditor who would check for waste, inefficiency or impropriety in the spending of money by government and would submit it to the House of Commons, government departments refused to give Page the information he needed. And Harper supported the departments.
Then, when Page's incomplete report was prepared, he found he would not be allowed to submit it to the House of Commons. It had to go just to Harper; and Harper would then snip out the parts he didn't want anybody to see. He has to control. Page has since resigned - and Harper has shown no interest in appointing another auditor.
In the same way, he bundles important legislation so that there is so much to be passed so quickly, it cannot be understood - or even fully read - before the vote.Harper has an intense dislike of democracy. That is not a sign of strength. It is a sign of insecurity.
The robocalls (misleading phone calls placed during the last federal election) were a very serious and illegal attack on democracy. So where was the independent investigation? It never happened. Harper has to be in control.
When Brian Mulroney was caught in gross corruption that haappened in his prime minister years, Harper killed any serious investigation. He would not have killed such an investigation of a union leader or of you or me. A strong and secure prime minister would have mounted a major and public investigation. Harper didn't.
I sat on a committee of a dozen senior civil servants chaired by a cabinet minister notorious for being the number one loyal servant to his master. The cabinet minister had a proposal for us that was wasteful, useless, and designed to benefit only the conservative party. The civil servants all nodded their heads, and obediently offered up thanks for such a wise proposal.
So I resigned from the committee.
That obsession with control is not a sign of strength. It is a sign of insecurity.
Similarly, he surrounds himself with yes-men and quite undistinguished cabinet ministers. Peter Mackay is a walking disaster who's incompetence (and lack of political ethics) has cost us heavily.Then there was Paradis, convicted of highly improper consultations with a businessman who needed favours from Paradis' department.
Then there was Maxime Bernier who had a very public affair with a very hot woman who was closely connected with Hell's Angels. Indeed, she was once married to a leader of the gang, and was still a very good friend of the gang. Bernier insisted on bringing her to public events he attended as a cabinet minister. And he insisted she wear tight clothing with low necklines so that everybody would be impressed - (with what a hot dude he must be.)
Mind you, so far he had done nothing that would not be perfectly acceptable under the employment rules for Crandall University.
Then, he accidentally forgot a portfolio of sensitive NATO documents after a night of ecstasy with his girlfriend.
Well, he had to resign in 2008. But all is now forgiven and he's back in the cabinet and on the rise.
This is one hell of a weak and submissive cabinet.
Choosing a weak staff in not a sign of strength.
If you check his economic thinking, you find that it's brand of economics that is more religious than scientific. That is, it's heavily based on faith rather than reason. Reliance on faith makes eminent sense in religion. It does not make sense in economics.
The basic tenet of the faith is that the very rich are the only people who know what they're doing. They should be allowed, therefore, to do whatever they want to do. And if you give the rich unlimited power and money, then we will all prosper.
In thousands of years of history, there is no evidence that this is true. It's not true in Saudi Arabia where the rich are stunnningly rich but where the rate of poverty is one of the highest in the developed world. Through the nineteenth century and later, the wealthy of Britain were the wealthiest in the world. But working class life was hell. The same has been historically true in Canada and the US. Any sharing of wealth we ever got came from unions and government programmes.
But Harper is a true believer. He brings us an economics of faith, not of reason. And the reliance on faith in matters that require firm knowledge is a sign of insecurity, not of strength.
With that, let's try an idea about how that insecurity developed.
Harper is man of humble background. His father, while in Port Elgin, made a respectable but not affluent living by doing accounting for local firms (of which there are few in Port Elgin.
He moves to Toronto where Stephen is born. He's not a rich man when he arrives. But he does do well over the years. So young Stephen is faced with a problem. He starts school as perhaps a member of the lower middle class. But within his education days, he has to cope with a rapidly changing class status, always trying to learn the rules of the new class he is moving up to - and then relearning them over and over all the way up to his MA. He's always the new kid, trying to figure how to fit in.
That can make you very insecure, indeed. At each stage, what he was, what his family was become embarrasments. There's no status in coming from a poor province or from a small, rural village. One also adopts the attitudes of the new and desirable social status - the poor are lazy, stupid, contemptible.
I suspect that Harper despises new Brunswick and its people. It's not really his fault. He is a dreadfully insecure man. He has to fit in with where is, not where his family was.
Anyway, there's no harm in despising the people of New Brunswick. He ignores them. He has done nothing for them. But the latest polls still show the conservatives leading in New Brunswick for the next federal election. Nothing could better confirm for him that these people are intellectually lazy, scarcely the level of cattle in the field, not worth paying any attention to - and certainly, with the exception of Mr. Irving, not worth being associated with. Indeed, anything that might connect him with them would be an embarrassment.
Incidentally, New Brunswickers might want to rethink why their young people leave in such numbers. It's partly for jobs, of course. But it also might have other causes, causes that are us and our attitudes and our failures to show a little spirit and a little independence of thought
Monday, February 4, 2013
Isn't it wonderful about William and Kate....
.. and how Elizabeth and the Phillip didn't have to pay a cent of the cost of their wedding. No. the whole thirty-eight million dollars was picked up by the British taxpayers. Isn't it wonderful she's pregnant. (although - now I think of it, I'd happily get pregnant for $38 million dollars.)
Actually, the cost of the wedding has been estimated at $15 billion dollars counting the cost of official holidays for the event, special celebrations, etc. That's really very nice of the British people who are now living in depression era conditions with no hope of getting out.
Then there's the cost of maintaining Prince Charles in style with, among other things, paying for his personal staff of 150. Why such a huge and expensive staff? Well---well----I mean---you know.... Anyway, there's really no cost. You just cut services to all those poor people who have no gumption, anyway. Besides, if you keep the poor really poor, you give them incentive to work. In the same way, if you make the rich really, really rich, that gives the rich incentive to work. It's really all psychological.
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When you have time, try to get the numbers of American and Canadian military suicides for last year. And good luck. In the US the number rises from one a day to much more. It all depends on who you read.
For Canada it's about two a month - maybe. The Canadian military's reputation in this area is a little suspect. Does military include veterans? Or just serving? Does it count suicides in a war zone? And how come the army has been caught hiding some figures? And why do they tell us that it is lower than the civilian suicide rate? Does that mean war helps to prevent suicide? (Actually, there is no accurate count of suicides in the general population in either Canada or the US, anyway.)
But there seems there is no doubt that the military suicide rate has been rising steadily.
Why?
Nobody in the news media has even asked that question. Okay. War is stressful. So we get suicides. But why is the rate rising even as the war of the moment winds down?
Could it possibly have anything to do with changes in military training since 1945 which are designed to sharply increase a soldier's desire to kill, to make them more contemptuous of human life?
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No, these stories are not in the Moncton TandT. I mention them only because they aren't there, and because what is there is such contemptible drivel. In fairness, you won't find much about them in any North American newspaper. And you certainly won't find any questions being asked.
Oh, sorry, the big story for today's front page and an inner one is "Smelts remain a popular treat." I was so relieved to read that....
Oh, sorry.There is another, huge story. "Alward hoping for progress in Alberta." Of course he's hoping for progress, you TandT twits. Would he go there hoping for no progress? Besides, you have already run this story in an earlier edition.
And that's pretty much it for Section A.
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NewsToday has an example of how journalists, themselves, get sucked in to the language of propaganda. The headline is "Turkey pledges continued support for Syria". Doesn't that sound nice?
Yes, Turkey is helping the Syrian people and their legitimate government.
well, actually ---
Turkey (along with others) is financing an invasion of Syria, with troops drawn largely from mercenaries, many of them Islamic Jihadists that few Syrians want to even see. (In the process, it is helping the deliberate slaughter of those Syrians who are Christian.)
The "government" Turkey is supporting was not elected, is almost certainly unwanted by the Syrian people and, in any case, doesn't exist even in shadow form.
Now, look at that headline again. Can you imagine any connection between it and reality?
Yes, Assad is not a nice person. Offhand, I'd be hard put to think of any national leader in the world who is a "nice' person. But whether Assad should go is a decision for the Syrians, not for Turkey, the emirates, Britain, France and the US - and their gang of hired thugs, heavily representative of people the US likes to call 'terrorists', unlike Americans who never, ever kill people.
BTW, the TandT has shown very little interest in the deliberate murder of Christians by the 'rebel' forces.
____________________________________________________________________________
Good cartoon by de Adder. (I take editorial cartoons very, very seriously. They usually have greater impact than the news stories do.)
The editorial is predictable. The economy is weak? People are suffering? Well, give money to business and that will cure everything. Then, when times get better....well...you do the same thing.
Superb column by Gwynn Dyer - and a scary one if you think about its implications. The crisis between China and Japan will almost certainly draw the US into confrontation with China. Don't kid yourself. The new, cold war is on.
Norbert-- very few are going to read that column. It's bit complex. And it's boring. And it's highly theoretical. Something big might happen. Some day. Or nothing might happen. Any day. It's not a bad column for the few who will care about it. But it really leads the reader nowhere.
Norbert ---You love reading. You say you are concerned about literacy in NB. Why not, once a week, review a book that you found interesting and enjoyable? Pick the books by age and education levels. Then write a column for the age level that book is aimed at. This would be something useful, and made for your talents.
Oh, and include an invitation for readers to attend my current events group at the library - Tuesday, February 5, at 7 p.m., Moncton Library.
Allen Abel contributes a story about an American who lost both arms and legs in Afghanistan. As it happens, I have a great admiration for that man - an admiraton that notes other qualities that Abel has missed.
And, as Abel commonly does, he takes a story of some importance, a story about strength and character, and makes it into a happy tale for a Sunday School class. This is not what an opinion page is for.
Craig Babstock joins Abel in Sunday School.
______________________________________________________________________
There is an excellent letter in letters to the editor "Where's the restraint in the MHS affair? And a very attractive and heartening letter, "Young cellist is just a marvel."
__________________________________________________________________________
Their is another news story I would like to address "Mounties snoop on Occupy protesters in Ottawa: documents. That fits in with the RCMP and CSIS spying on environmentalists, and passing the information on to big business, especially the oil business.
Things are even worse in the US where the level of domestic spying against anybody who uses free expression in a way big business and government don't like.
Democracy is suffering the death of a thousand cuts. That's no exaggeration. The job is almost done in the US, and it has gone further in Canada than I had realized.
Coupled with that, I have the story on Harper pretty well formed in my head. And I suspect it has a connection with the real reason young people leave New Brunswick.
These two will take up a whole blog. It's hard for the idea that we are living in what are increasingly police states with strong fascist echoes to sink in. People don't want to believe it. It takes a bit of space to cover it properly.
And I also have some desire to have a life.
The Irving press is such a stinkingly bad, lying, trivial and propaganda press that I begin to wonder if there's any value in following the same formula every day talking about what a morally and ethically corrupt newspaper this is.
I may take one day, skip the TandT, and just talk about police states,fascism, Harper, and why young people don't stay in this province.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Tuesday, February 5, Moncton Library, 7 pm. I shall get a haircut for the occasion.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Feb.3: Yesterday's issue of the Moncton TandT....
....because,as some of you know, I got steamed up over a story that didn't appear in the TandT yesterday - and talked just about that.
Page 1 is the usual trivia. Brent Mazerolle writes a "special report" about an ice storm we had ten years ago. Hot diggety!
Lots of people in Moncton are going to watch the Super Bowl on TV. Some of them will drink. Who would have guessed?
Then there's the headline, the big story - that isn't really a story at all. Three-quarters of it is simply a quotation from a doctor in Bathurst who used to be health minister. This isn't a news story. It's a press release.
It's a long quotation. It's a tedious read. Much of it is vague. Very, very few are gong to read the whole thing. Even fewer are going to get any understanding out of it. Why one earth is this "story" on the front page -and as the lead story?
It's probably for the headline, "Hospitals deal with patient confusion."
The real message for all those readers who don't read the whole story - and even for many of those who do? "Tut-tut. Always something wrong with those hospitals. It's a shame and a disgrace. The government should do something about it." Way to set up the health minister for more bull in a china shop behaviour. It's an old trick in unethical journalism. Editors know that few will read the story. However, just about everybody will read the headline- so they pick a headline that will send a message. The message of this headline is "trouble in the hospitals." It's designed to help out the Health Minister - who is not making reforms for the sake of anybody's health.
Eighty years ago, Hitler rose to power. We should remember that. We should remember Dr. Gobbels, his propagandist, who got Hitler into power through his control and skilful use of the news media.
That headline about the hospitals looks very much like propaganda.
______________________________________________________________________________
There's a big story on page A3 about how the New Brunswick RCMP is handling Idle No More demonstrations with discretion. I'm sure they are. I'm happy to receive full reports on the handling of this protest. I'm happy its being done properly.
BUT I'D BE EVEN HAPPIER IF THE MONCTON TIMES AND TRANSCRIPT TOLD US WHAT THE PROTEST IS ABOUT. What are the social and economic conditions on reserves? What are the health conditions? Has any Canadian government ever fulfilled its commitments to these people? Or have they just been dumped into an endless loop of social and economic problems?
Incidentally, the story on Super-Bowl drinking in Moncton is bigger than the one of police discretion which, in turn is bigger than anything the TandT has told us about Idle No More.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Picking is slim for any news about anything in NewsToday. The only item of note is that our Energy Minister is setting up an Energy Institute. It will be an independent body, separate from government and industry, to monitor and control shale gas development.
Why an independent body? Well, because as Energy Minister Craig Leonard suggests, we can't trust either government or the industy. I admire Mr. Leanoard's candour in telling us that he and his government colleagues and their big business friends can't be trusted. But...
Who is going to be the first chair of this Energy Institute? Well, of course, retired university professor Louis Lapierre - the very same man who gave the government and the industry their chance to ignore the recommendations of the province's Chief Health Officer (and most of the medical profession). And I'll bet the other professors who get picked will be just like him.
Sometimes, the stench of sleaze is overwhelming - as is the abuse of the people of this province..
______________________________________________________________________________
a) Premier Alward gave a brainless speech about the state of the province. b) the TandT editorial says it was a brilliant speech.
Add a plus b.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Take de Adder's cartoon very, very seriously. We are creating one hell of a mess in Africa. The western powers are trying to rebuild the old empires there and, at the same time, to block the economic challenges posed by China, India, Russia and, possibly, much of Latin America. We haven't begun to see the violence, the suffering, the cost - and hopelessness of what's going on. This is brought to you by the same folks who brought Afghanistan.
_____________________________________________________________________
A solid column by Bill Belliveau. He writes of NDP leader Tom Mulcair's move to repeal the clarity act (the act which forces Quebec to hold honest referenda on separation, and which sets terms for any separation.)
I knew Mulcair some years ago through a board that I sat on. He was an amiable sort; and it was obvious then that, like many on that board, he had political ambitions. But I never realized his ambitions were so narrowly political. I'm appalled by what he has done with the NDP; and I think Belliveau is bang on the money when he says Mulcair is doing this simply to boost his party's chances among separatist voters.
As Belliveau says, most Canadians don't care about Quebec. They just want it to go. They will soon wake up if Quebec were ever to get the separation terms that Mulcair proposes. Canada would be shattered.
There is not now, and never has been, a time when a majority of Quebeckers wanted to separate. The separatists lost their referenda, even with massive support from francophone newspapers and from francophone media in general - including Radio-Canada (CBC) Montreal. And, at their best, the separatist vote was way overstated. I was closely involved with events in those referenda. The Quebec government cheated, lied, disqualified votes by the thousands, counted votes for people who had never voted...the fraud was massive; and they still lost. Then it destroyed all the ballots so there could never be judicial examination of what went on.
There was a time, quite recently, when the federal NDP was a party of principle. One can only hope that the Mulcair's in the party will go - and soon.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Norbert writes about how some scientific media are often alarmist, don't know how to do a news story, don't understand reporting...... Please Norbert. You work for the Moncton Times and Transcript. Have some sense of shame.
____________________________________________________________________________
On op-ed, Brent Mazerolle is Brent Mazerolle with yet another utterly pointless story about his life. He should write it all up and have it published. Then the TandT offices will have two autobiographies they can't sell.
________________________________________________________________________
There's an excellent opinion piece by Gwynne Dyer on Mali. It's worth reading because, yes, Mali is going to affect you - even more that the Super-Bowl will.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Then there's the sermonette on the Faith page. Why are these things always so limp and soggy? This one makes a worthwhile point - in the last sentence but, oh, it's tippy toes all the way. It makes me think of a warrior who throws away his battle-axe, then charges into his enemies swinging a lollipop at them. The theme is that it's nice to say 'I'm sorry'. But you have to learn to really mean it.
Did Jesus actually talk like that? I don't think so. Did He voluntarily lead a life of poverty and finally suffer crucifixion so He could tell us to really mean it when we say we're sorry?
If Jesus were here, is it possible he might have something to say about the conditions we force our people to live under? About how we force whole nations (Haiti, Congo, Guatemala, Irag) into poverty and suffering so we can rip off their resources and cheap labour?
Or would Jesus be blessing the drones before we send them off to kill whoever happens to be in the wrong place? Would he be pointing out that torture is okay so long as we get the occasional piece of information from it? Would He point with pride to a US that spends ALL of its income tax revenue on the military - while millions of Americans go homeless and hungry? Would He congratulate the people of Moncton on their sense of priorities in planning to spend a hundred million on a hockey rink?
Or would He avoid the issues and cover up by writing whimpy sermonettes so eminently acceptable that not even the most self-righteous person in the congregation will feel offended?
And would he talk down us with cutesy signs like the one I saw on a local church? "Seven days without prayer makes one weak."
I prefer to think Jesus is a lot gutsier and more mature than that.
______________________________________________________________________________
If you have a severe brain disorder, and find it painful to read anything that causes you to think, then I recommend Rod Allen's My Spies on the back page.
However, if you are of normal health, I more strongly recommend a letter to the editor, "Why no report on school issue?"
__________________________________________________________________________
And mark your calendar for Tuesday, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. in the Moncton Library for current events - the sort of stuff you've just been reading about.
Page 1 is the usual trivia. Brent Mazerolle writes a "special report" about an ice storm we had ten years ago. Hot diggety!
Lots of people in Moncton are going to watch the Super Bowl on TV. Some of them will drink. Who would have guessed?
Then there's the headline, the big story - that isn't really a story at all. Three-quarters of it is simply a quotation from a doctor in Bathurst who used to be health minister. This isn't a news story. It's a press release.
It's a long quotation. It's a tedious read. Much of it is vague. Very, very few are gong to read the whole thing. Even fewer are going to get any understanding out of it. Why one earth is this "story" on the front page -and as the lead story?
It's probably for the headline, "Hospitals deal with patient confusion."
The real message for all those readers who don't read the whole story - and even for many of those who do? "Tut-tut. Always something wrong with those hospitals. It's a shame and a disgrace. The government should do something about it." Way to set up the health minister for more bull in a china shop behaviour. It's an old trick in unethical journalism. Editors know that few will read the story. However, just about everybody will read the headline- so they pick a headline that will send a message. The message of this headline is "trouble in the hospitals." It's designed to help out the Health Minister - who is not making reforms for the sake of anybody's health.
Eighty years ago, Hitler rose to power. We should remember that. We should remember Dr. Gobbels, his propagandist, who got Hitler into power through his control and skilful use of the news media.
That headline about the hospitals looks very much like propaganda.
______________________________________________________________________________
There's a big story on page A3 about how the New Brunswick RCMP is handling Idle No More demonstrations with discretion. I'm sure they are. I'm happy to receive full reports on the handling of this protest. I'm happy its being done properly.
BUT I'D BE EVEN HAPPIER IF THE MONCTON TIMES AND TRANSCRIPT TOLD US WHAT THE PROTEST IS ABOUT. What are the social and economic conditions on reserves? What are the health conditions? Has any Canadian government ever fulfilled its commitments to these people? Or have they just been dumped into an endless loop of social and economic problems?
Incidentally, the story on Super-Bowl drinking in Moncton is bigger than the one of police discretion which, in turn is bigger than anything the TandT has told us about Idle No More.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Picking is slim for any news about anything in NewsToday. The only item of note is that our Energy Minister is setting up an Energy Institute. It will be an independent body, separate from government and industry, to monitor and control shale gas development.
Why an independent body? Well, because as Energy Minister Craig Leonard suggests, we can't trust either government or the industy. I admire Mr. Leanoard's candour in telling us that he and his government colleagues and their big business friends can't be trusted. But...
Who is going to be the first chair of this Energy Institute? Well, of course, retired university professor Louis Lapierre - the very same man who gave the government and the industry their chance to ignore the recommendations of the province's Chief Health Officer (and most of the medical profession). And I'll bet the other professors who get picked will be just like him.
Sometimes, the stench of sleaze is overwhelming - as is the abuse of the people of this province..
______________________________________________________________________________
a) Premier Alward gave a brainless speech about the state of the province. b) the TandT editorial says it was a brilliant speech.
Add a plus b.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Take de Adder's cartoon very, very seriously. We are creating one hell of a mess in Africa. The western powers are trying to rebuild the old empires there and, at the same time, to block the economic challenges posed by China, India, Russia and, possibly, much of Latin America. We haven't begun to see the violence, the suffering, the cost - and hopelessness of what's going on. This is brought to you by the same folks who brought Afghanistan.
_____________________________________________________________________
A solid column by Bill Belliveau. He writes of NDP leader Tom Mulcair's move to repeal the clarity act (the act which forces Quebec to hold honest referenda on separation, and which sets terms for any separation.)
I knew Mulcair some years ago through a board that I sat on. He was an amiable sort; and it was obvious then that, like many on that board, he had political ambitions. But I never realized his ambitions were so narrowly political. I'm appalled by what he has done with the NDP; and I think Belliveau is bang on the money when he says Mulcair is doing this simply to boost his party's chances among separatist voters.
As Belliveau says, most Canadians don't care about Quebec. They just want it to go. They will soon wake up if Quebec were ever to get the separation terms that Mulcair proposes. Canada would be shattered.
There is not now, and never has been, a time when a majority of Quebeckers wanted to separate. The separatists lost their referenda, even with massive support from francophone newspapers and from francophone media in general - including Radio-Canada (CBC) Montreal. And, at their best, the separatist vote was way overstated. I was closely involved with events in those referenda. The Quebec government cheated, lied, disqualified votes by the thousands, counted votes for people who had never voted...the fraud was massive; and they still lost. Then it destroyed all the ballots so there could never be judicial examination of what went on.
There was a time, quite recently, when the federal NDP was a party of principle. One can only hope that the Mulcair's in the party will go - and soon.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Norbert writes about how some scientific media are often alarmist, don't know how to do a news story, don't understand reporting...... Please Norbert. You work for the Moncton Times and Transcript. Have some sense of shame.
____________________________________________________________________________
On op-ed, Brent Mazerolle is Brent Mazerolle with yet another utterly pointless story about his life. He should write it all up and have it published. Then the TandT offices will have two autobiographies they can't sell.
________________________________________________________________________
There's an excellent opinion piece by Gwynne Dyer on Mali. It's worth reading because, yes, Mali is going to affect you - even more that the Super-Bowl will.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Then there's the sermonette on the Faith page. Why are these things always so limp and soggy? This one makes a worthwhile point - in the last sentence but, oh, it's tippy toes all the way. It makes me think of a warrior who throws away his battle-axe, then charges into his enemies swinging a lollipop at them. The theme is that it's nice to say 'I'm sorry'. But you have to learn to really mean it.
Did Jesus actually talk like that? I don't think so. Did He voluntarily lead a life of poverty and finally suffer crucifixion so He could tell us to really mean it when we say we're sorry?
If Jesus were here, is it possible he might have something to say about the conditions we force our people to live under? About how we force whole nations (Haiti, Congo, Guatemala, Irag) into poverty and suffering so we can rip off their resources and cheap labour?
Or would Jesus be blessing the drones before we send them off to kill whoever happens to be in the wrong place? Would he be pointing out that torture is okay so long as we get the occasional piece of information from it? Would He point with pride to a US that spends ALL of its income tax revenue on the military - while millions of Americans go homeless and hungry? Would He congratulate the people of Moncton on their sense of priorities in planning to spend a hundred million on a hockey rink?
Or would He avoid the issues and cover up by writing whimpy sermonettes so eminently acceptable that not even the most self-righteous person in the congregation will feel offended?
And would he talk down us with cutesy signs like the one I saw on a local church? "Seven days without prayer makes one weak."
I prefer to think Jesus is a lot gutsier and more mature than that.
______________________________________________________________________________
If you have a severe brain disorder, and find it painful to read anything that causes you to think, then I recommend Rod Allen's My Spies on the back page.
However, if you are of normal health, I more strongly recommend a letter to the editor, "Why no report on school issue?"
__________________________________________________________________________
And mark your calendar for Tuesday, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. in the Moncton Library for current events - the sort of stuff you've just been reading about.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Feb. 2: Li-ar. li-ar, pants on fi-re.....
The great issue in Moncton is the building a hundred million dollar 'events' centre (hockey rink). This debate has been going on with one, constant theme in The Moncton Times and Tribune. At no point has the tandt said a word of criticism or doubt about the whole thing. It hasn't even asked any questions about it. Insteand, news items and opinion columns and editorials have been open and obvious pimping for this scheme.
Anyone was has ever followed one of these projects knows that it is almost invariably a scam to rip off the general public in order to make money for a team owner, for contractors with the right connections, and/or land owners who have worthless land to sell.
Such schemes are usualy sponsored by a municipal or other government (with some private but often shady connections) because only a damn fool of a private business investor would think such a scheme would possibly make a profit. Uusually, they are big losers, and expensive big losers. Few are ever finished within the estimated cost. Few make any money except for the millionaire hockey team owners and other promoters who make special deals to get the profit while we pick up the debt.
As a general rule, events centres do NOT bring in new money, do NOT make a proft, do NOT attract business into the district, do NOT make huge hotel profits....
Hockey rinks, stadia, events centres are a mug's game. That's why private investors either stay out of of it, or go in for just a share with us mugs picking up the rest of the tab.
I mention this because some two weeks ago, Brent Mazerolle wrote a very superficial story about the John Labatt centre in London, Ontario, and what a great success it is. I have no idea whether that's true and, given the limited research evident in that story, neither does Brent Mazerolle. But it fit right into the pimping mode that has characterized every word of coverage of this centre in the TandT.
Yesterday, the CBC (which has real reporters) ran a major story based on studies across Canada and the US. Bottom line? "Building stadiums and arenas have little economic benefits for cities, research shows."
In 2005, University of Ottawa researchers looked at the economic impact of such activity in eight Canadian cities
1. 80% of the tickets are bought by local residents. In other words, this is money going to the centre - but therefore lost to local merchants. So where's the gain?
2. The impact on hotel and restaurant profits is very small.
3. Estimated costs are usually far below the final figure.
That doesn't surprise me. I watched the disaster we call the Montreal Olympic stadium rise to $150 billion paid over 30 years - at interest. It attracted no business to the area. Today, it is a ghost stadium in such bad condition that it is dangerous to walk into it. (The roof of the parking basement recently collapsed.)
When the Montreal Canadiens moved, the only new business that appeared in the area was a sandwich shop with an owner and one employee.
For Canada, you can find information like this in Journal of Sports Economics. And there are far more studies available from the US. The Super Bowl in the US actually makes one tenth to one quarter the profit for the host city than the league claims it does.
As well, of course, other things the city should be doing don't get done. And if the provincial government is in the game, then there are other things it cannot do - and this in a province already wildly over budget. We can't even properly fund schools or look at pre-schools. But we're going to spend a hundred million (and much more) to give hockey fans nicer seats for sit in?
This is a deal that smells from the start. Did the owners of Highgate Square do what they were legally required to do? To inform the government of the extent and nature of pollution in the soil?
If they did, why did the minister of the environment not tell them to clean it up? Did he think pollution was good for the centre of the city?
What are the terms on which the owner of the hockey team will have use of the arena?
What will the cleanup of the land cost?
Did nobody in city planning ask these questions? Anybody on council? Anybody in Fredericton?
Does it fit into the city plan? Exactly what is the city plan?
And, yes, I know we can attract a huge audience if we can put on a show featuring a guitarist who can jump up and spread his legs while singing through his nose and covered in flames. But we can't do it 365 days a year. We probably can't do it even 3 days.
And we're doing all this while deep and slipping deeper into financial collapse across the whole western world.
Why didn't the TandT pick up that CBC story? Okay. I admit the possiblity that the editors of the TandT are too lazy, too sloppy, and/or too ignorant to know what's going on in the news.
If it's not one of those, we are left with only one possiblity for Brent Mazerolle's "news" story and for the TandT failure to pick up on this CBC report.
The polite term for what they are doing is 'misleading'. The other, and more accurate, term is not a polite one.
And what can one say about our political leadership at both the city and provincial level? What does this tell you about our political leadership? I certainly wouldn't want to accuse them to being corrupt. It's quite possible that they aren't corrupt. They might well be blindingly stupid. And there's another possiblity.
This is a province with a long history of shady deals, exploitation, unhealthily close connections between government and big business, newspapers that are beneath contempt.... And nobody complains because this is a small province; and it has some of the elements of village life about it. So you don't complain because - you know - word can get around.... For a big city hub, this sure feels like a village.
Oh, one thing I must mention that reflect this ignorance or incompetence or lying of the Moncton Times and Transcript. Read the letter to editor, "Why no report on school issue?"
_________________________________________________________________________________
Good news from our ever-alert Prime Minister. Romanys will not be permitted to immigrate to Canada. Romany's (gypsies) are severely discriminated against in their major home, Hungary. They have almost no legal rights; jobs are denied them; they live in enforced poverty. Now, that would fit the usual international definition of eligibility for refugee status. So why does Harper say know?
According to the excellent blog by Karl Nerenberg on Rabble.ca, reason has to do with a fear that if those reasons are taken as adequate for Canada to accept them as refugees, then our own First Nations people would quality to flee Canada. And that would be embarassing. He learned that from a senior fiture in government. And Karl is a reporter, a real one and a superb one. He gets his facts right; and he doesn't pimp for anybody.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I seem to have gone on over my time on the proposed hockey rink. Sorry. But this is one dreadful mess we're being lied into. I'll have to deal with today's paper tomorrow (Sunday).
_____________________________________________________________________________
Remember, current events at the Moncton Library at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 5. I'll be the person with sad eyes looking pitifully grateful as you come in. One thing we'll talk about is the events centre.
Any journalist from the TandT would be welcome.
Anyone was has ever followed one of these projects knows that it is almost invariably a scam to rip off the general public in order to make money for a team owner, for contractors with the right connections, and/or land owners who have worthless land to sell.
Such schemes are usualy sponsored by a municipal or other government (with some private but often shady connections) because only a damn fool of a private business investor would think such a scheme would possibly make a profit. Uusually, they are big losers, and expensive big losers. Few are ever finished within the estimated cost. Few make any money except for the millionaire hockey team owners and other promoters who make special deals to get the profit while we pick up the debt.
As a general rule, events centres do NOT bring in new money, do NOT make a proft, do NOT attract business into the district, do NOT make huge hotel profits....
Hockey rinks, stadia, events centres are a mug's game. That's why private investors either stay out of of it, or go in for just a share with us mugs picking up the rest of the tab.
I mention this because some two weeks ago, Brent Mazerolle wrote a very superficial story about the John Labatt centre in London, Ontario, and what a great success it is. I have no idea whether that's true and, given the limited research evident in that story, neither does Brent Mazerolle. But it fit right into the pimping mode that has characterized every word of coverage of this centre in the TandT.
Yesterday, the CBC (which has real reporters) ran a major story based on studies across Canada and the US. Bottom line? "Building stadiums and arenas have little economic benefits for cities, research shows."
In 2005, University of Ottawa researchers looked at the economic impact of such activity in eight Canadian cities
1. 80% of the tickets are bought by local residents. In other words, this is money going to the centre - but therefore lost to local merchants. So where's the gain?
2. The impact on hotel and restaurant profits is very small.
3. Estimated costs are usually far below the final figure.
That doesn't surprise me. I watched the disaster we call the Montreal Olympic stadium rise to $150 billion paid over 30 years - at interest. It attracted no business to the area. Today, it is a ghost stadium in such bad condition that it is dangerous to walk into it. (The roof of the parking basement recently collapsed.)
When the Montreal Canadiens moved, the only new business that appeared in the area was a sandwich shop with an owner and one employee.
For Canada, you can find information like this in Journal of Sports Economics. And there are far more studies available from the US. The Super Bowl in the US actually makes one tenth to one quarter the profit for the host city than the league claims it does.
As well, of course, other things the city should be doing don't get done. And if the provincial government is in the game, then there are other things it cannot do - and this in a province already wildly over budget. We can't even properly fund schools or look at pre-schools. But we're going to spend a hundred million (and much more) to give hockey fans nicer seats for sit in?
This is a deal that smells from the start. Did the owners of Highgate Square do what they were legally required to do? To inform the government of the extent and nature of pollution in the soil?
If they did, why did the minister of the environment not tell them to clean it up? Did he think pollution was good for the centre of the city?
What are the terms on which the owner of the hockey team will have use of the arena?
What will the cleanup of the land cost?
Did nobody in city planning ask these questions? Anybody on council? Anybody in Fredericton?
Does it fit into the city plan? Exactly what is the city plan?
And, yes, I know we can attract a huge audience if we can put on a show featuring a guitarist who can jump up and spread his legs while singing through his nose and covered in flames. But we can't do it 365 days a year. We probably can't do it even 3 days.
And we're doing all this while deep and slipping deeper into financial collapse across the whole western world.
Why didn't the TandT pick up that CBC story? Okay. I admit the possiblity that the editors of the TandT are too lazy, too sloppy, and/or too ignorant to know what's going on in the news.
If it's not one of those, we are left with only one possiblity for Brent Mazerolle's "news" story and for the TandT failure to pick up on this CBC report.
The polite term for what they are doing is 'misleading'. The other, and more accurate, term is not a polite one.
And what can one say about our political leadership at both the city and provincial level? What does this tell you about our political leadership? I certainly wouldn't want to accuse them to being corrupt. It's quite possible that they aren't corrupt. They might well be blindingly stupid. And there's another possiblity.
This is a province with a long history of shady deals, exploitation, unhealthily close connections between government and big business, newspapers that are beneath contempt.... And nobody complains because this is a small province; and it has some of the elements of village life about it. So you don't complain because - you know - word can get around.... For a big city hub, this sure feels like a village.
Oh, one thing I must mention that reflect this ignorance or incompetence or lying of the Moncton Times and Transcript. Read the letter to editor, "Why no report on school issue?"
_________________________________________________________________________________
Good news from our ever-alert Prime Minister. Romanys will not be permitted to immigrate to Canada. Romany's (gypsies) are severely discriminated against in their major home, Hungary. They have almost no legal rights; jobs are denied them; they live in enforced poverty. Now, that would fit the usual international definition of eligibility for refugee status. So why does Harper say know?
According to the excellent blog by Karl Nerenberg on Rabble.ca, reason has to do with a fear that if those reasons are taken as adequate for Canada to accept them as refugees, then our own First Nations people would quality to flee Canada. And that would be embarassing. He learned that from a senior fiture in government. And Karl is a reporter, a real one and a superb one. He gets his facts right; and he doesn't pimp for anybody.
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I seem to have gone on over my time on the proposed hockey rink. Sorry. But this is one dreadful mess we're being lied into. I'll have to deal with today's paper tomorrow (Sunday).
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Remember, current events at the Moncton Library at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 5. I'll be the person with sad eyes looking pitifully grateful as you come in. One thing we'll talk about is the events centre.
Any journalist from the TandT would be welcome.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Feb. 1:some good news for a start....
Without a doubt, one of the best newspapers in the world and in the English language is the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. It speaks the blunt truth about the Middle East and North Africa in a way that most North American news media wouldn't dare to even hint. It also has more intellectually stimulating opinion columns and web links that you will find in a lifetime of the Irving press. And some great humour.
In the current issue, it speaks plainly about the dangerous position Netanyahu has led Israel into. His behaviour towards Palestine has led to a damning report from the UN on Israel's human rights record which I would guess (I am writing this part on the evening of Jan. 31) will not be mentioned in the TandT on Feb. 1.
Israel has so alienated most of the world by its behaviour (most of which we have never heard about) that even the US has openly opposed its theft of even more Palestinian land to evict the Palestinians and create Israeli settlements. Perhaps the only national leader left in the world who has not been critical of Israeli behaviour is Stephen Harper. Hey, his power base relies heavily on evangelical Christians who are looking forward to all Jews being converted, to a war of enormous destruction beginning with Israel - and then (clap hands) the return of Jesus, and the sending of most of us to eternal Hell (where we will get only the Irving papers). Harper also relies heavily on Canadian right wing Zionists who support Netanyahu.
Then there's a hilarious opinion piece called "Things to hate about Christian music". It's about pop music, rappers, and goes back to Debby Boone and her truly awful "Christian" songs
.
I mention this because now, for a limited time only, Haaretz will give you a subscription for four, whole weeks for just one dollar. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. You can find it on Google.
Hey! That's less than you would pay for one copy of a dreadful magazine with a picture of Kate and what's his name on the cover, and a story about how happy they are she's having a baby.
(Oh, on a glance, I note the TandT does not mention the UN report on Israel's human rights record. Quelle surprise. They needed the space for a big story that a woman could become queen, even if there is a younger male in line for the throne. And she doesn't have to be an Anglican. So the way is open for a lesbian Baptist queen.)
______________________________________________________________________________
Nothing much in the paper.
The front page has a big story about premier Alward saying nothing - and it's a nothing he has said before. There must be hope, he says and, being more specific, for the future.
Clap, clap, clap went the largely business crowd.
Brian Gallant, the Liberal leader, responded with a fiery burst of nothing which showed that he can say nothing just well as Alward can. The government, he said, spends too much time on committees and forms.
Clap, clap, clap went the largely business crowd.
The premier shot back that his was a message of hope and opportunity, proving that he can say even more nothing than Gallant can.
Clap, clap, clap went the largely business crowd.
Neither Alward nor Gallant confused matters by suggesting anything that could be called a value or a principal.
____________________________________________________________________________
Also on page one, "Reversing tax cuts will hurt N.B.: expert." The expert is from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, a propaganda 'think-tank" to supply newspapers with stories that will please the rich. There is no indication of what makes its maritime spokesman either the "expert" or the "analyst" the rerporter claims him to be.
He says, "the government.....cannot put its problems on the backs of middle class taxpayers."
Okay, what about rich tax payers? Oh - no - no -no - scratch that.
No, the answer is to put the problem on the backs of the poor, the elderly, the sick by cutting the services they need. Then we'll have enough money to give Mr. Irving and friends all the gifts and loans they need.
In fairness, the 'expert' did mention this problem of us being a welfare state for big business. For some reason, though, that comment appears not in this story, but at the end of a long, long story on the One-Job plan in whcih government will pay 70 of the salaries for companies who hire post secondary graduates.
The headline on the other story is "New job initiative praised". In fact, the story is also about it being criticized. But the praisers get long quotations. The critics are hidden at the bottom of the story.
Incidentally, this story appeared yesterday. Why are we getting it again today?
There's also a fast-breaking story on Page A 6. A big one. With a picture. In a startling innovation by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, it is now law that boneless chicken wings must contain meat from chicken wings - though the wingtip in optional. Just one more example of planning and hope for the future.
Watch for this story to be repeated tomorrow, possibly with a speical ope ed column by Rod Allen.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Predictably, the editorial favours a user fee for medicare. Very thoughtful. Medicare is one of the very few measures enacted in Canada on the basis of principle, the principle that we should all have the right to equal access to health care.
That, Mr. editor, is what is called a principle, a value. A small fee is no problem? In fact, it's one hell of a problem for many people, perhaps for most. Something seems wrong with your child? Maybe you should go to emegency? Well,let's wait. Things are tight....
I grew up in a pre-medicare world. Result? I never saw a doctor or dentist until I was in my twenities.
My teeth were so bad that a school nurse gave me a note for my parents to see a dentist free. I never showed it to them. I knew they would be humiliated at receiving charity.
That's why, when I read an editorial like this one, I have an urge to deliver a kick to that editor's smug, rear end.
Medicare was brought to Canada by Tommy Douglas, a Baptist clergyman and politician.. It is perhaps the most principled piece of legislation ever introduced in Canaada. (that's why the RCMP and CSIS spent years spying on Douglas.)
Douglas was a man who acted on principles and values. I have yet to see a person in the New Brunswick legislature who does that. And I've seen only a few in the Irving press.
___________________________________________________________________________
Norbert is back to rambling and calling names in the latter half of his column, and on a subject he knows nothing about. He's one of those biigots who see politics in terms of good guys and bad guys. (Those who like Harper are good. Those who don't are probably mentally disordered.)
Alec Bruce writes on the dazzling, dizzying world of smartphones, a world that, after forty year of using computers, I have to admit I can no longer understand. Hey! I just want to make phone calls. Got a phone that will do that?
Steve Malloy's column shows a good deal of common sense - and well worth a read. It's something we should all be concerned about.
Read David Suzuki on the hazards of drilling for, among other things, shale gas in the Arctic. Then go back to page A1 to compare what Suzuki says to the mindless blathering of David Alward and Brian Gallant.
(I bet the RCMP and CSIS spy on Suzuki, too, for their reports on environmentalists who are terrorizing Mr. Irving and other, good Canadians.)
_______________________________________________________________________________
There are several good letters (and a couple of stinkers)."Increase income, reduce demand" is a solid letter based on principle. Nice to see that. "Who really owns, controls forests?" is an eye-opener.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Oh, a small note about the bridge playing column on the first page of the puzzle section. The headline refers to playing a discreet hand, meaning one that is subtle, perhaps not noticeable. Unfortunately, the page editor spelled it as a descrete hand -which actually means something quite different. No wonder there's a literacy problem in New Brunswick.
______________________________________________________________________________
Remember Tuesday, Feb. 5, at 7 pm in the Moncton library when we talk about questions that should be asked about our city and provincial governments.
Please don't leave me all alone. If you do, the librarians hit me and make fun of me.
In the current issue, it speaks plainly about the dangerous position Netanyahu has led Israel into. His behaviour towards Palestine has led to a damning report from the UN on Israel's human rights record which I would guess (I am writing this part on the evening of Jan. 31) will not be mentioned in the TandT on Feb. 1.
Israel has so alienated most of the world by its behaviour (most of which we have never heard about) that even the US has openly opposed its theft of even more Palestinian land to evict the Palestinians and create Israeli settlements. Perhaps the only national leader left in the world who has not been critical of Israeli behaviour is Stephen Harper. Hey, his power base relies heavily on evangelical Christians who are looking forward to all Jews being converted, to a war of enormous destruction beginning with Israel - and then (clap hands) the return of Jesus, and the sending of most of us to eternal Hell (where we will get only the Irving papers). Harper also relies heavily on Canadian right wing Zionists who support Netanyahu.
Then there's a hilarious opinion piece called "Things to hate about Christian music". It's about pop music, rappers, and goes back to Debby Boone and her truly awful "Christian" songs
.
I mention this because now, for a limited time only, Haaretz will give you a subscription for four, whole weeks for just one dollar. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. You can find it on Google.
Hey! That's less than you would pay for one copy of a dreadful magazine with a picture of Kate and what's his name on the cover, and a story about how happy they are she's having a baby.
(Oh, on a glance, I note the TandT does not mention the UN report on Israel's human rights record. Quelle surprise. They needed the space for a big story that a woman could become queen, even if there is a younger male in line for the throne. And she doesn't have to be an Anglican. So the way is open for a lesbian Baptist queen.)
______________________________________________________________________________
Nothing much in the paper.
The front page has a big story about premier Alward saying nothing - and it's a nothing he has said before. There must be hope, he says and, being more specific, for the future.
Clap, clap, clap went the largely business crowd.
Brian Gallant, the Liberal leader, responded with a fiery burst of nothing which showed that he can say nothing just well as Alward can. The government, he said, spends too much time on committees and forms.
Clap, clap, clap went the largely business crowd.
The premier shot back that his was a message of hope and opportunity, proving that he can say even more nothing than Gallant can.
Clap, clap, clap went the largely business crowd.
Neither Alward nor Gallant confused matters by suggesting anything that could be called a value or a principal.
____________________________________________________________________________
Also on page one, "Reversing tax cuts will hurt N.B.: expert." The expert is from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, a propaganda 'think-tank" to supply newspapers with stories that will please the rich. There is no indication of what makes its maritime spokesman either the "expert" or the "analyst" the rerporter claims him to be.
He says, "the government.....cannot put its problems on the backs of middle class taxpayers."
Okay, what about rich tax payers? Oh - no - no -no - scratch that.
No, the answer is to put the problem on the backs of the poor, the elderly, the sick by cutting the services they need. Then we'll have enough money to give Mr. Irving and friends all the gifts and loans they need.
In fairness, the 'expert' did mention this problem of us being a welfare state for big business. For some reason, though, that comment appears not in this story, but at the end of a long, long story on the One-Job plan in whcih government will pay 70 of the salaries for companies who hire post secondary graduates.
The headline on the other story is "New job initiative praised". In fact, the story is also about it being criticized. But the praisers get long quotations. The critics are hidden at the bottom of the story.
Incidentally, this story appeared yesterday. Why are we getting it again today?
There's also a fast-breaking story on Page A 6. A big one. With a picture. In a startling innovation by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, it is now law that boneless chicken wings must contain meat from chicken wings - though the wingtip in optional. Just one more example of planning and hope for the future.
Watch for this story to be repeated tomorrow, possibly with a speical ope ed column by Rod Allen.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Predictably, the editorial favours a user fee for medicare. Very thoughtful. Medicare is one of the very few measures enacted in Canada on the basis of principle, the principle that we should all have the right to equal access to health care.
That, Mr. editor, is what is called a principle, a value. A small fee is no problem? In fact, it's one hell of a problem for many people, perhaps for most. Something seems wrong with your child? Maybe you should go to emegency? Well,let's wait. Things are tight....
I grew up in a pre-medicare world. Result? I never saw a doctor or dentist until I was in my twenities.
My teeth were so bad that a school nurse gave me a note for my parents to see a dentist free. I never showed it to them. I knew they would be humiliated at receiving charity.
That's why, when I read an editorial like this one, I have an urge to deliver a kick to that editor's smug, rear end.
Medicare was brought to Canada by Tommy Douglas, a Baptist clergyman and politician.. It is perhaps the most principled piece of legislation ever introduced in Canaada. (that's why the RCMP and CSIS spent years spying on Douglas.)
Douglas was a man who acted on principles and values. I have yet to see a person in the New Brunswick legislature who does that. And I've seen only a few in the Irving press.
___________________________________________________________________________
Norbert is back to rambling and calling names in the latter half of his column, and on a subject he knows nothing about. He's one of those biigots who see politics in terms of good guys and bad guys. (Those who like Harper are good. Those who don't are probably mentally disordered.)
Alec Bruce writes on the dazzling, dizzying world of smartphones, a world that, after forty year of using computers, I have to admit I can no longer understand. Hey! I just want to make phone calls. Got a phone that will do that?
Steve Malloy's column shows a good deal of common sense - and well worth a read. It's something we should all be concerned about.
Read David Suzuki on the hazards of drilling for, among other things, shale gas in the Arctic. Then go back to page A1 to compare what Suzuki says to the mindless blathering of David Alward and Brian Gallant.
(I bet the RCMP and CSIS spy on Suzuki, too, for their reports on environmentalists who are terrorizing Mr. Irving and other, good Canadians.)
_______________________________________________________________________________
There are several good letters (and a couple of stinkers)."Increase income, reduce demand" is a solid letter based on principle. Nice to see that. "Who really owns, controls forests?" is an eye-opener.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Oh, a small note about the bridge playing column on the first page of the puzzle section. The headline refers to playing a discreet hand, meaning one that is subtle, perhaps not noticeable. Unfortunately, the page editor spelled it as a descrete hand -which actually means something quite different. No wonder there's a literacy problem in New Brunswick.
______________________________________________________________________________
Remember Tuesday, Feb. 5, at 7 pm in the Moncton library when we talk about questions that should be asked about our city and provincial governments.
Please don't leave me all alone. If you do, the librarians hit me and make fun of me.
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