Feb. 7: When I was in grades 1 to 4, children could have milk for recess......

....if they could pay for it. About half my class could pay. That meant we got a bonus of two free milks to be given to poor kids.  Each day, the teacher would glance over the class to guess who needed it more.

With only two free milks for the whole class,  that meant none of us got it very often. But that' was good. The milk was a luxury. But nobody wanted to be known as the only poor kid in the class.

At home, milk was a rarity, and had to be finished quickly in summer because we had no fridge.

As for meat, it was the cheapest cuts possible. I'm not sure it's even possible these days to buy heart or cow's tongue.

But those were the bad, old days. It wouldn't be like that now.

It wouldn't?

Yesterday, a researcher for Household Food Insecurity released a report that yes, indeed, it is like that now, and getting worse.

In New Brunswick, 15.6% of families can't get enough to eat, and much of what they can get isn't very healthy. In Nova Scotia, it's 17.5%. Even Alberta is pretty high at 11.5%.

Oh, I know, they're probably mostly those lazy, working class people who won't even bother to look for a job.

Wrong. The majority have jobs. But pay is so absurdly low, they can't feed themselves on it, let alone raise children. In New Brunswick, it's possible, even likely, to be working on minimum wage for 1600 a month. Trying paying rent, buying clothes, buying food, just the basics on that. And there are actually other things that a family needs - insurance, some form of entertainment, transportation, and much more.

It's not just lack of food that damages children on that budget.

That's four million Canadians suffering food insecurity -  some three million of them are children. What do you figure their chances are to grow up, get good educations, and face the world with some confidence?

Now - have you heard, in these election times, any mention of this in political campaigns?
Harper, as part of his campaign, visited Israel with 300 friends. That could have fed a lot of people.
Has it been a big issue in this province? Or even at the city level?

Of course, politicians prefer to run on non-issues, like Harper's determination to put more people in jail longer. Moncton discusses events centres - from which few, if any, of their profits (if there are any profits) will reach down to the hungry.

The only way for the poor to get a meal in this province is to get invited to a banquet honouring Mr. Irving as a philantropist.

This story, incidentally, did not appear in the TandT.
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The federal government has chosen recent months to exempt railway companies from rules concerning the freight cars that can be used to dangerous cargoes.  It has also reduced inspections. Very clever. Great timing. Of course, it was the companies who told him to do this,so Harper had to. He knows who he represents.

This didn't make the TandT, either. But the CBC  that Norbert has so much contempt for had it yesterday.
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Also released yesterday and covered by CBC but ignored by the TandT  is a report from a union representing scientists and professionals.  It says the government is going to cut 2.6 billion dollars and 5000 scientists and professionals who have been working on such matters as rail safety, health, and the environment; (the latter of which has pretty much ceased to exist, anyway).
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Veterans are still furious about the federal government's refusal to honour its commitment to help veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They also seem to be refusing to recognize that it can develop years after the experience of war, and can profoundly affect those who served as peacekeepers.

Buying poppies is nice. But we owe more to our veterans.
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Finally, the TandT has no mention of a stunning report from the UN that is highly critical of the Roman Catholic church for its tolerance of sexual predators in the priesthood. Apparently, the practice is far more widespread than we had thought, and the practitioners well known to church authorities.

That, obviously, is disturbing. But it can be worse. And it might be.

Just weeks ago, the Pope was universally praised for action he took to expel some priests who were pedophiles. Like everybody else, I cheered, and saw great possibilities for this pope.

And now, just weeks later ,we get this report which suggests a far bigger problem and far more collusion from authorities than the pope suggested. And that raises a suspicion. Did the pope act (and act only on a small scale) because he had advance information that report was coming down?

I hope not. Damage to the Catholic church does no good for any of us. The pope will have to take far, far more vigorous action than he has.
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I spent so much time on news that wasn't in the Irving press because there's so little news in it that there was almost nothing to talk about. The front page headline, for example, isn't really a news story at all. It's a kissup by Brent Mazerolle for the Stade-Moncton and how it's making money. It would be more useful if he were to do a little digging, and find you who it is that's getting the money. It certainly isn't the 16.5% who have food anxiety.

A2 has an article on the Liberals criticizing the Conservative plan to balance the budget. That's the Norbert Cunningham idea of campaigning - "argue about "the issues". In fact, arguing about "the issues" is a waste of time because any issue can be made to look wise or foolish.

Harper, for example, will argue over the need to put more people in jail longer. His opposition will argue that there is no need for this, that it's expensive, and it does no good. But the arguments don't matter. Harper knows that there are votes in locking up criminals He knows that very large numbers of people will not change their minds on some issues - and there's lots and lots of votes in the "yeah, lock 'em up and throw away the key" crowd.

As well, most voters have neither the information nor the training to make decisions on many of the issues. That's being snobbish? Not at all. We'll start with me. I don't have enough training to judge a budget. Neither does a good 95% or more of the population of New Brunswick.

The important thing, and easier to understand, is the reason the candidate is supporting or opposing policies. That is, it's important to know what principles lie behind his or her statements. Is the candidate acting out of concern for the well-being of voters? Or for the well-being of the rich and influential?

Look back at the headline on p. 1 "Stadium boosts Metro economy". It certainly boosts the economy of some people. But who? Who gets nothing or close to nothing out of it? What was the motive of the builders? That's important.

Stephen Harper, so far as I can tell, has only one principle. He wants to be prime minister; and he does it by serving the rich. That, in a nutshell, is why I would never consider voting for him.

And if Alward and Gallant have any principle different from that of Harper, I have yet to see evidence of it.

Forget the issues. Get a sense of what principles your candidate bases his actions on because that will decided how he will act - and for whom.
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On page 1 of a pretty drab NewsToday section, it says "NB pushes for pipeline job creation."

Oon page 4, another headline says, " Proposed pipeline will create pollution "- some 32 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year.

The political response? Well, oil sands will produce and export no matter what we do. So we might as well go with it and get some jobs building the pipeline.

But common sense should tell us that very, very little of what that pipeline will make will go to jobs in NB, and few of those jobs would last long.

So who do you think our politicians are supporting? Us or the billionaires? I think we can guess where their principles are.
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The editorial page is a little worse than it's  usual, weak self. This time, even Alec Bruce is a disappointment.  Essentially, he argues that oil is bad. But we should use it because coal is worse.
I think it is his closing paragraph that is most annoyingly illogical.

He says that  unless we are prepared to live in caves and eat beetles we should cut down on coal, but continue to rely on oil. Think about that.

The difference, at the point, is probably negligible. So what should be a useful article about how we can deal with global warming, it becomes are article on how we should use more oil.  This isn't a warning about coal. It's an apologia for oil.

I'm afraid we're going to have to do a lot more than that to deal with a problem we don't have much time to deal with. And we have a prime minister who has made it clear that he doesn't give a damn what the consequences are. This is the prime minister who has destroyed almost all environmental protection, severely cut research budgets - and who now intends to gut the little protection and preparation we have left with a 2.6 billion dollar cut, and the firing of thousands of researchers.

And that looks to me like a very good way to ensure we will one day in the not-too-distant future be living in caves and eating beetles.

I don't know whether we can hold off climate change or for how long. But I do remember a powerful lesson I learned as a child - and that I guess some parents still tell their children.

There are some things you cannot have.

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There is an excellent letter in Letters to the Editor, "First Nations unduly targeted".
Read it. That is an order. There will be an exam.

Feb. 26: great NewsToday section.

Of it's 12 pages, 9 are ads, many of them in full colour.

Then, there's a non-story that President Vladimir Putin of Russia is confident of security at the  Sochi Olympics.  Now, it he were not confident, that would be a story. As it is, it's meaningless.

Then, on C5, there's "Children are victims of both sides in Syrian fighting". Well, yeah. they are victims on both sides in any modern war I have heard of. However, there's another story about Syria that might be even more important.

The US has decided to continue support for the "rebels", who are really heavily composed of hired mercenaries. most of them with links to terrorist groups like al Quaeda, and  paid for by US allies in the region.

The US has always been involved in this war. In fact, it was the one that planned it. However, the heavy presence of extreme groups has convinced the US to provide weapons from now on only to the less extreme factions (which are still pretty extreme.) So the US, in the name of something or other, is now supporting units of Al Quaeda with weapons in a region already saturated with weapons.

There is a story on Harper's bill to reform election spending in what he calls his "Fair Elections Bill".
It points out a fault in the bill. In fact, it's much worse than this story suggests.

The bill says that money spent in campaigning is an election expense. But that which is spent on fund-raising is not an election expense.  There are some problems with this.
1. Fund-raising and campaigning are pretty much the same thing. Usually, they are exactly the same thing. So all a party has to do is to call most of its campaigning 'fund-raising' - and it's home free. In effect, there is no longer a ceiling on spending.

And that will benefit a party that has access to big contributions. And that party, for some years now, has been the Conservative party  (which has also been known to use tax-payers" money to campaign with - as in paying to that trip to Israel which was pure campaigning to nail down the Jewish vote for the next election.

2. There is a penalty for improperly claiming campaign spending as fund-raising spending. But:
a. Since the two are so much alike, it will be close to impossible to enforce such a penalty.
b. The penalty for unintentionally misreporting spending is $50.000. Given the millions of dollars involved, this is peanuts.
c. Investigation of such a case is done by one department (which doesn't have the power to force suspects to say anything), and to another which handles the prosecution - but has no power over the investigation.

It has always been possible for people with money to buy the government they want. The "Fair Elections Act" makes it even easier. We now have government by purchase - and the big money will, as it has for some time now, purchase the Conservatives.

Free Elections? Hell. This is the death of elections.

Will it get changed in the House of Commons debate?  Not a chance. There probably won't even be much of a debate or discussion. Harper will put a time limit on the debate to get this through before the public has thought much about it. Then he'll push it through with his majority.

Goodbye, democracy. It was nice to know you.

The is no exaggeration. Harper has always had contempt for democracy. And this is his kiss of death.

And not a single columnist of the Tand T had the wit to do a column on this.

If you want to see a good column on the subject, go to rabble .ca, and check out what Karl Neremberg has to say. Karl had long experience with the CBC in Ottawa. He's far and away one of the best in his field.

On the NB budget, the Conservatives, the Liberals and the Irving press have beaten the drums for panic over the budget. Gotta cut it. Gotta cut it. But it's not that simple. Before  you cut, you have to discover what got us into the budgetary hole in the first place. Dominic Candy of the NDP is the only leader I've seen to do that He's on C3.

He suggests, for a start,  getting rid of the department of economic development (which is largely devoted to gift-giving to business friends of the government)

Candy has further suggestions for balancing the budget which will be announced later.

He doesn't go nearly so far as I would like, but Candy is the first leader to show some understanding of why we have such a deficit.

Or, if you prefer the advice of someone who hasn't begun to understand which end is up on this issue, read Norbert's column for today.

The key to deciding who to vote for is to look for principles reflected in the party's platform. In the view of the Liberals and the Conservatives, the parties' principles mean acting essentially as a servant to the rich. And if we do that, all else will be settled.

Candy's announcement shows at the beginnings of a basic principle that the party exists to serve the people of the province. There's   further to go; but this is a good start.
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There's a big story on A2. But it's a big story that's been made small, and hidden at the bottom of the page. "Submarine HMCS Windsor to undergo repairs". This is one of a number of submarines we bought,apparently so we could have something to repair. Windsor has just finished a refit that took
five years. And now it's back in hospital.

Then there's the disaster of our search for a new fighter plane.

Canada's department of defence has become notorious for the chaos of its purchases, the result being armed force that are unready for much in the way of any combat role. ( Gee. MacKay was minister there for a while. You'ld think it would all be fixed now.)
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For news that isn't in the Irving press, there's a recent poll that some 60% of Americans think the Iraqi dead in the Bush war on Iraq amounted to 10,000 or less. Only 6% said it was 500,000 or more.

And the 6% had it right. The scientific body counts put the number from half a million to over a million. These findings are consistent with other polls on the subject.

How can so many people be so far off on this? Easy. Their news media lie to them. They lie, and they withhold information. That's true all over North America.  When was the last time you saw a report on the number of dead in Afghanistan or Libya? When a senior CIA officer told Congress that American assassination squads and "secret" wars had killed 6 million people during his service, was that reported in the Irving press? Or the 300,000 Guatemalans, slaughtered as whole families and buried in mass graves?

Americans (and us) are kept ignorant of the realities of these wars - and we are kept in ignorance by a press that lies and trivializes. The purpose of the news media, especially the private news media, has become not to inform but to withhold information. to make us think that big news is that Justin Bieber will be in court, or to check out pages of sports results of games that mean nothing whatever to our lives from cities we have never seen.
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Finally, though it has not appeared in the North American press, Israel may have talked itself into a tight corner. It's treatment of Palestinians, and its obvious lack of interest in a peace treaty are isolating it all over the world.

Even the US (including American Jews) is losing patience. American government leaders are fed up with Israel's constant demands and its refusal to cooperate. As one commentator put it, "American governments are fed up with being treated as if the US were a colony of Israel."

One result is a worldwide movement, growing very quickly, to boycott Israeli products. And that could make some very real problems for Netanyahu.

That's why I said that Harper made an ass of himself and of Canada with his over the top visit to Israel. He did nothing to solve problems in that area. In fact, he was worsened some - including the negotiations with Iran. As for his promise to stand by Israel in a war, everybody except us knows it's worthless.Canada has no significant military power to offer.

Only the US can (and does) offer significant help.. And Netanyahu has spent the last six months, at least, publicly insulting Obama - and trying to wreck his attempts to bring some measure of peace to the region.

But don't worry. You'll never read about it in the Tand T.

Feb. 5: The news the Irving press missed...

Just after singer Pete Seeger's death, Rod Allen wrote a column on how the idealism and enthusiasm of Seeger's music had impressed him in his younger days. I knew what he meant. I had been caught up in it, too, the songs about racial equality in the US, about decent salaries, about peace, about fair treatment....

It was nice to read of a TandT editor who was moved by those same ideals. Then I came across a story about Seeger I had forgotten.

For seventeen years, at the peak of his popularity, he was banned from television in the US. He was on the US government's black list,  the equivalent of being a terrorist. He had government spies watching him even then. Today, he'd be in line for the president's power to imprison people with no charge, no trial.  Why?

Because he sang about racial equality, about decent salaries, about peace, about fair treatment....

But both Mr. Allan and I were young then. At some point, in the words  of one of Seeger's favourite songs, you have to decide. "Which side are you on?"

Along with millions, I decided. And I guess Mr.Allen decided, too.

There's a PBS video on Pete Seeger's life,  and it includes the story of his being banned on TV. You can find it on Youtube as The Power of Song. To find it along with several other such videos on Seeger, google Pete Seeger youtube pbs.
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In a story that didn't make the TandT at all, University of Toronto scientists have made some dismaying discoveries at Alberta's oilsands. It seems the oil sands generate a far higher proportion of air pollution than had been realized.

Gee. I wonder how those clever oil execs missed that. This is a result of a chemical  in the waste which readily evaporates into the air. It is highly carcinogenic, with very serious implications for human and animal life over a wide region.

On comment on it was that the government does not do adequate supervision of safety standards. Of course not. How could it? Harper has cut almost all the environmental budget. And, obviously, the oil companies have not taken up the slack.

Well, I give them credit for not taking up the slack. But maybe they did take it up. And maybe they found that dealing with that chemical was just too expensive. So maybe they just kept quiet to keep profits up.

Whatever the case, the Irving press will never tell.

This story, by the way, comes from Norbert's detested CBC which, he suggests, doesn't have the high standards of the TandT.

That story is the sort that would have been in NewsToday. But they needed the space for a picture of Justin Bieber, and the gripping story of how his trial date has been set.
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The  Irving press seems also to have missed the story about the biggest scandal in American military history. It seems to be mainly in the marine corps; but there is a lot of investigating yet to do.

In order to maintain a supply of recruits for its war, the American government has covered the country with military recruiters. These get small bonusses for signing up recruits - and the recruit gets a bigger bonus.

Well, it seems that some recruiters, almost a thousand of them and of all ranks, have been working a msassive scam to get more money for themselves out of it. The cost of the scam is, so far, at least $300,000,000. It will take at least two years to complete the investigation.

So far, the investigation suggests an atmosphere of theft and corruption that runs through the whole structure of the military and the defence industries with the government, far from being a regulator, involved with it.

This comes within a week of the story that 39 officers in charge of firing nuclear missiles have been dismissed on charges of drunkeness, and drug use on the job.

This is not just a gossipy story. This is just the tip of an iceberg of corruption and bad morale that runs through the whole US military, and military spending. It has very serious implications for the effectiveness of the American forces (which have not, in fact, been effective at all for over fifty years.) There's a reason why the US keeps getting beaten by small, poor, and undeveloped countries.

It has now just lost a war (Afghanistan) which is not only against a small country, but one that had virtually no military.
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Must of California is suffering the worst drought on record. Some of the worst areas are those which grow grapes for the California wine industry. The drought is so bad, the state has no more water in its reservoirs - so the affected areas are on their own.

Gee! I'm so relieved when I see a letter to the editor assuring us there is no climate change happening.
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Oh, yes. A length of the Trans-Canada pipeline blew up in Northern Alberta. It happened in 2009; but the government forgot to tell us. In fact, such explosions have happened at least seven times since the 1970s.

The story came out only when fearless reporters for the Irving press made repeated demands for the story - under the freedom of information act.

Okay. You caught me. They weren't Irving reporters. They worked for that awful CBC   which isn't nearly as good as the Irving press.
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However, the TandT is not without important items today.

B7 has a full page of photos (in colour) of people smiling and handing big cheques to each other.

A1 has a headline which looks like a big story.  $27 million will be spent in Moncton for the women's world cup in soccer. But don't buy that personal, stretch limo yet. There is no mention of exactly who will get that money.

And there never will be.
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There's also a story in which VIA rail union workers say VIA services in New Brunswick need to be saved. I agree they do, and for many good reasons. But the word I'm hearing from people closer to the situation is that Harper has made up his mind. And he is not going to save it.

Harper's mind works on a very, narrow business model. All that counts if profit. He has no understanding that governments also have to think of the needs of people and communities. Our provincial Liberals and Conservatives think the same way.

Neither of them realizes that the major role of government is to reply to the needs of people - not just to the profit margins of rich ones.
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Feb. 4: Happy Guilt Trip day

Yes, it's right up there on the front page, "Police shale protest costs reach $9,5M"

(That headline, by the way, means that the  police were protesting against shale gas. Do we have a secret agent writing headlines for the TandT?))

Still, it's sad, but true. When governments and big business lie and cheat and mislead to force something on people they don't want, it often leads to a situation that costs money to handle. We should re-write our history books to make people more aware of that. Perhaps with chapters like,
"How the American revolution drove Britain over its budget estimates". "How the impertinence of Iraqis in shooting back cost the US money that could have been spent on building more prisons."

Public Safety minister Bruce Northrup said, "The highest priority of this department to ensure New Brunswickers are safe..." Duh, yeah. I guess that would be the highest priority of a department of public safety.

"...and at the end of the day we are seriously lucky that no one was hurt..."  I guess so, considering there were some 200 police there, all armed with pistols and clubs, and some mysterious figures in camouflage and carrying combat rifles.

"....$9.5 million is a lot of money that could have been spent on education....."  Sure, Bruce, this government is always looking for ways to spend money on education -and nobody has encouraged that more than the hired hands of  Irving press.

Northrup ends the story with two, glaring errors in grammar in the, last sentences.

Look, putting bad grammar aside, this is a government and a newspaper that set up that whole demonstration.

It ignored a report from the chief medical officer, and hired a phoney professor - one who had done this sort of dirty work before for his masters - to discredit the chief medical officer, to write an incompetent report of his own, and to set up a front of "experts" to supervise the whole project.

The Irving press supported this every step of the way, promising information but never delivering, largely ignoring the the chief medical officers' report, then lying and covering up and misrepresenting when the phoney professor was unmasked.

Who caused that breakdown in civil order? You did, Mr. Public Safety Minister, you and your lying government and the lying press that serves your master.
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Then there's a statement by the fire chief that his department is well prepared for a train derailment in Moncton, but says the chances of one are small. After all, the last two derailments were in the 1990s.

Really? Well, that's practically forever. So, what the hell. Let 'em roll.

When was Lac Megantic's previous disaster? or Plaster Rock's?
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In NewsToday, there's a story about the report on the story that our spy agency, CSEC, was illegally spying on Canadians.  Not  so, says the chief of the agency. And, if you can wallow through his gobbldey gook, his claim appears to be that they were developing a system to spy on Canadians by following their air travel.

Well, if it's illegal to spy on Canadians, why is he developing a system to do it? Anyway, Harper's chief security officer says it's okay to spy on Canadians. So that takes care of that.

On, it's not in this story, but there was discussion in the House of Commons about whistleblower Edward Showden, and one of his helpers who said that Canada is spying on Canadians - and it shows up in the Wikkilleaks documents.

Harper's closest adviser on seccurity told the house it's not true, and that the man who said so is a porn spy. Now, I'm not sure what a porn spy is. But what does this have to do with whether Canada is spying on its own citizens?

And if the man is a porn spy - whatever that is - how would Harper's lackey know it unless he has access to spy reports on the man?

Harper's conservatives, always the first the wave the flag and spend money on portraits of the Queens for every bare wall in Canada, have turned down an NDP motion to honour promises made to veterans who need help. One Conservative MP, Cheryl Gallant, said that veterans who suffer post traumatic stress disorder have to "overcome the stigma within themselves".

That's, arguably, the most disgusting comment ever made by an MP.
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The editorial and op ed page are the usual stuff. The editorial page discusses the economy without ever mentioning the problem. The op ed page is just silly.

We are suffering economically, largely because St. Ronald Reagan and St. Margaret Thatcher encouraged the silly idea of turning capitalism loose. It is, they preached, the only humanly-created system in history that does not need control and regulation. No. Why, we just have to let it run, and prosperity will shower down on us.

That's pure rubbish. Capitalism does not, by its nature, create wealth - except for itself. It exists only  to create wealth for itself. And it does that partly by creating poverty for most others. That's why we are living in a time economic decline while big business is enjoying record growth.

You don't need to read editorials to know that. Just take a look around at the world

And it gets worse. Free trade enables big business to make even bigger profits by shifting operations to poorer countries. (And it does it without making those poorer countries richer. Haiti, Guatemala, and Bangladesh and Congo are good examples of that.

As well, free trade has done much to make our elected governments simply decorative as private business slipped out of national boundaries and as it has come to own national governments (and smaller ones like that of New Brunswick.)

We are not going to get rich by a shale gas miracle. Shale gas developers come here to make money, not to give it away. We are not going to get rich by cutting budgets - though it might help to take a look at where are tax money is going (and to include tax breaks to the rich as a part of the money that is going.)

Not only is big business taking a lion's share of the profits of our society, it is also using our tax money to fight its wars, and its propaganda clout and control of politicians to stir up the hatreds necessary for any good war - and to spend billions on spy agencies to spy on us, largely for the benefit of big business.

Alas! Big business is no better at planning foreign policy than it is at creating wealth for others. The US is obviously closing down its longest war. Riddled by the corruption of big business, that war has cost over a trillion dollars - and its been a dead loss. And the demand for wars for big business goes on. Do you seriously think the drones and assassination squads in Africa, the threats on Syria and Iran have anything to do with terrorists?

And, if so, why do we have this sudden appearance of terrorists? And why are they terrorists when they kill civilians on our side - but we are not when we kill far more civilians on their side?

We are now in one hell of a dangerous situation - largely because big business is allowed to be greed unlimited.

Big business is not going to save us. It has never shown any talent for saving anybody - and it's the biggest, single threat we face.

It's not at all like the fairy tales we read in the Irving press. The reality is that the only salvation for us is us. Yes, maintain capitalism. But make it operate according to rules that we set, the sort of rules we freely use against protesters; but never use against the rich who do far more damage than any protesters.

And recognize that some business is far, far better run by government than by private business. And we h d better do that fast because we are rapidly moving to hospitals and schools that will run for only one purpose - to make the rich richer.

The theory ( seriously) is that greed is good. You'll find lots of people writing in praise of that theory. Greed gives incentive for the rich to develop wealth - and we all get richer.

You don't need to think very hard to see what drivel that is. Just look at the world. Look at the abyss we now stand on the edge of.
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I have several items that have never appeared in the Irving press. But I'll save them for tomorrow. One of them is about the Alberta oil sands - and it's hard to see how New Brunswick newspapers could have missed it.

Another is something about Pete Seeger that our news agencies never mentioned. It may upset Rod Allen.

But I doubt it. He's been well house-broken.

Feb.3: page C4 - only in the Irving press....

 C4 is in NewsToday, the place for big national and international news. At the top of the page is a story about Toronto mayor Rob Ford. He got a jaywalking ticket.

Well, for openers, this story is at least several days old. This isn't news; this is history.

Was he drunk? No.  Did he fight with the policeman who issued the ticket? No. Was he on drugs? No.
Was he walking with gangsters? No. Was his fly open? No, not even that.

Not even is this old; it's not even a story. People jaywalk every day. But I've never heard of any such ticketing being a news story. In fact, in Montreal where I lived most of my life, and drivers have so little regard for their brethren on foot jaywalking can be the safest way for pedestrians to get across the street. Why would such a story so out of date and so trivial appear in a newspaper?

It happens because editors at the Irving press either have utter contempt for their readers, or are too lazy and unprofessional to care what appears on their pages, or just aren't very bright.

I don't which which of the above is the case. But in a good newspaper, an editor who approved of that story appearing would get at least a severe dressing down.

For more of the kind of serious editing one expects of a newspaper, check out A 3 with its thought-provoking pictures of women getting bridal gowns on sale. Then turn to A 4 for a whole page of even more exciting pictures of horses, and children eating maple taffy, and everything.
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In even more serious news, an Ontario mp is going to call on Harper, in parliament, for action on VIA rail service in New Brunswick.

Of course, as Robert Goguen and other Atlantic mps have been working on this for years - but not out loud.  After all, as Mr. Goguen puts it, Mr. Harper needs to get a "total vision" of the whole Canadian railways system. And that will take time....lots of tme.......Z-Z-Z-Z...

But it just makes sense. You can't do anything without a total vision - whatever that is.

A6 has the story that Finance Minister Higgs will present his pre-election budget tomorrow - and business and taxpayer groups are telling him to resist a spending spree. Relax, folks.

Mr. Higgs' budget advisers are Irving appointees. Remember that story that appeared in a column by Mr. Irving several years ago - but was never reported? The one in which he said he was in coalition with (meaning a member of) the government? Remember the big gathering of flunkies like university presidents to decide the economic future of the province? That was when he told Alward who to appoint as financial  advisers.

So you aren't going to see any wild spending to ease poverty, to ensure that children have breakfast before school, to waste on health. No. Any wild spending will go where it always goes - to the right sort of people.
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Remember Saudi Arabia? It's one of our closest allies in the Middle East. And it's one of the tightest dictatorships in the world. It has now passed an "anti-terror" law. And how does it define terror?

Anything the government does not like is terrorism. If you report corruption, that's terrorism. If you're a woman and  you drive a car, that's terrorism.  If you ask for democracy, that's terrorism.

On his middle east trip, Harper praised Israel as a beacon of democracy and freedom in the middle east. So will he now criticize Saudi Arabia? Not bloody likely.

Israel, by the way, is that beacon of freedom and democracy.in which arabs who are Israeli citizens are not allowed to walk in Jews-only sections of the city, who are forced to live in segregated districts, and who can be and are expelled from their homes with no compensation if Jewish-Israelis want those homes.

That information came to me from a Jewish friend who lives in Israel, and was infuriated by Harper's foolish statements on his visit.
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Norbert, that great advocate of voting for politicians who have "neat ideas', has nothing but praise for Trudeau's decision that Liberals who become senators will no longer be called Liberals, or meet with the Liberal mps.

Well, that is a neat idea. It does nothing whatever to solve the Senate problem. But it's good politics.

Yep. That's Norbert's idea of what a great politician is.

Alec Bruce has a column that sounds reasonable. It's on the economic problem of New Brunswick. And, once again, it discusses that problem without a mention of the very rich people and the sell-out politicians that have caused most of it.

Steve Malloy's column struck me as being lightweight for almost two-thirds of its length. And I was wrong. It's about the possibility we are over-protective with children.  It has a slow start. But that just makes the ending all the more effective. This one is worth reading and discussing.
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Anything missing? Well....

1. When do get the report from our social betters who met for a whole weekend to decide on the economic future of Moncton and us?

2. When do we get the government report on environmental damage at the Plaster Rock derailment?
In this context, I  came across an old  item from The National Post. Now, The National Post is not one of the world's great newspapers - or even one of Toronto's great newspapers. But when it reported the Lac Megantic disaster, it said that was Quebec's worst environmental disaster. I can't remember the TandT paying a whole lot of attention to the environmental aspect of it. (or any other aspect).

3. When are we going to  hear about the Quebec Charter of Values? When are we going to discuss whether this is the denial of freedom that it certainly seems to be?

And let's not start by ranting about language. Language has nothing to with it. Hitler began his persecution of Jews with very similar legislation - and Hitler was neither French nor English.

The Charter of Values is intellectual bunkum from the start, verging on  racism so far that it sometimes goes right over the edge.

It's pure politics and juvenile politics at that because it addresses problems that don't exist.

At the core of it is legislation which forbids people from wearing indications of their religion in the civil service. That wipes out the job of a friend of mine. He's English but speaks fluent French, has a French wife, and has a daughter in a French school. He was sympathetic to Quebec separation. But///

He's a Jew, and an observant one. So he wears a yarmulka (a small head -covering) indoors. He belongs to a conservative branch of Judaism, so that head-covering is required at all times. But that will be against Quebec law for his job.

Oh, if he were a Catholic, he would be permitted to wear a cross - so long as it isn't a big, clanging one. And there will be crucifixes in some offices because that's part of the Quebec heritage. (There will, of course, be no religious symbols for native peoples since they aren't part of the Quebec heritage.)

The new, Catholic cardinal of Quebec, by the way, has condemned the whole charter.

No Moslem woman wearing a veil can be hired. (It's not as if the civil service is now just swarming with veiled Moslems. In fact, there are none, and never have been. But you can't be too careful.)

In fact, no man or woman wearing anything that could identify the wearer as a Moslem will be hired. Again, there are no such employees now, and never have been.

And just when did these become Quebec values? Damned if I know. They weren't in all the time I lived there. Quebec was littered with crucifixes - in almost every home, in offices, in police stations, in courts...and a great, ugly monster of a cross in steel dominating the skyline.

The is a deliberate attempt of one group to give rights to itself while denying them to others. It is against the Canadian constitution.

Now, will Harper, who spoke so eloquently on the democracy and freedom of Israel (despite its abuse of its Palestinian residents), now take action against Quebec for this attack on basic rights?)

Not bloody likely. Nor will Trudeau. We can guess that from the behaviour of his father in a similar situation. I was there, and I remember it well. Only the NDP, at the federal level, has taken a position against the charter of Quebec values.

I am in favour of the defence of both French and English. But I have no patience whatever with those who attempt to create a dominant class, to assign different rights, and who do it with laws that have a strong hint of racism.

Feb. 2: This is not news......

.....and it's not even analysis. This is simply thinking out loud about some extraordinary events that the Irving press hasn't even noticed yet. It's about Japan and China and the Roman Empire and the Boer war...and big money.

Empires have a purpose. They are not to spread the true faith or to civilize others. They are not to punish evil. They are very seldom begun for purposes of defence. The idea, for example, that Guartemala threatened the US or that South Africa threatened Britain  back in the Boer War is absurd.

The US staged an invasion of Guatemala because that country has mineral wealth, and the president of Guatemala wanted the Guatemalan people to get some of the benefit of that wealth. So the wealthy of the US who wanted all that wealth for themselves, used tax payers' money to send in a "liberating" force.

South Africa had, among other things, gold and the potential for very cheap labour. So the British (and Canadian) taxpayers financed an invasion to get rid of the Dutch rulers of South Africa
 who were , themselves, busy ripping off the locals.

It was the same with the Ancient Romans. Conquered countries supplied (free of charge) the food and entertainments to keep the dangerously unemployed in Rome fed and amused (rather like the Irving press now does for New Brunswick.) And they also supplied mineral wealth and slave labourfor the upper classes of Rome.

Most wars are simply armed robbery. That rich - who have great influence in government - use wars to make themselves even richer. Historically, the common soldiers were the poor who could be hired for pennies a day. And, to make sure the ranks had no troublemakers who might make unreasonable demands, the officers were chosen from the upper classes.

The wealth of the very rich depended on war. It depended on controlling governments so that the peoples' taxes would finance the war, and so the wars would be fought by commoners in the excuse that they were fighting for the Queen, or loyalty to country or to bring peace - that sort of thing.

Of course, we all have to learn the hate the enemy.  Just in my life, I have been taught to hate Germans, Italians, Japanese, Russians, Chinese and Moslems - only to meet them, and to discover they are aren't a whole lot different from us.

The last of the great, western empires is the US. It's wealth was built on stolen land and exploited people. The stolen lands were most of the US itself, Mexico, much of Latin America, Hawaii, The Phillipines and, almost, Canada. It was built on forced, cheap labour and on slavery (the latter not only within the US).

World Wars One and Two combined to destroy most of the western empires., notably those of Britain, France, Spain and The Netherlands/

The US actively helped the old colonies to break away. That was a major reason it entered World War Two. It was not to spread democracy. It was so its business leaders could  have a bigger share of armed robbery. Much of the chaos we're seeing in the world now is the US  (and France) trying to get control of the old colonies of the West - like Libya and Iran and China.

Big business needs wars. It does not need or even want democracy. That's why it so busily destroyed democracies (and still destroys them) in Central America. That's why it insists that Assad must not be permitted to run for election in Syria. (How can you have a democracy when a foreign government can tell you who is allowed to run?)

In fact, democracy is not the issue. The issue is control. American governments have hated Cuba for fifty years, and have criticized it for lack of democracy. In fact, the US governments couldn't care less about democracy. Some of their best friends are the worst dictatorships in the world - as Saudi Arabia. The US doesn't want democracy. It wants obedience.

The great, imperial jewel, the one that American big business has wanted for well over a century is China.

No country has been plundered and brtualized and starved as murdered as China in more than a century of western control, including by US business.

That might explain why the US now has the greater part of its fleet stationed in the Pacific, and designed for Pacific service.  The might be why the US, which for years has vowed to keep Japanese armed forces small is now encouraging Prime Minister Abe to enlarge them..

That might explain why it is encouraging Japan to insist that some islands between it and China are Japanese. (In fact, the islands were Chinese. They were stolen by Japan during one of the invasions of China by Japan.)

Whatever the reasons, the US seems to be encouraging a showdown of itself,, Japan, North Korea and Taiwan against China. And that is insane.

Such a showdown would almost certainly lead to a nuclear war involving the US, China, Russia, and perhaps others. Such a war over a few, small islands hardly seems worth it. Would big business be foolish enough to do that?

Quite possibly, Greed and stupidity are a deadly combination. That's why American foreign policy has been such a mess for the last fifty years and more. But - there's something else....

Big business has always depended on its control of big government, and the military power of big government. Since World War Two, the big government and big armed forces have been in the US. That is why we have seen such a growth of the power of US big business all over the world.

But the American empire seems to be in advanced collapse. There are even fears that its dollar may soon collapse.

You are a big businessman who has stashed away billions in the last decades of extraordinary wage gaps.  Where are you going to invest it?

China? Argentina? Russia?

Those are attractive. But you're an outsider. These are countries which have grown their own stock of greedy and not very bright rich. That's not for you. You need to control the market as was done in the European empires and the American empire.

You do that with military power - and that you means you have to do it while you still have military power. The US cannot afford to maintain its current military power much longer - not even if it gets rid of the vast corruption in the whole, defence industry.

Big business doesn't just want a market. It also wants control of it. Simply investing in China or Latin America or India isn't enough. It needs the power that can come only from military conquest.

Would big business be dumb enough to try that with modern China? Would it be foolish enough to risk everything on a last throw of the dice?

So far, big business has led the US into disastrous wars with Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan; and it has made a chaos out of Africa.

Do we really even have to ask if it would be dumb enough to start a war with China?

The Irving press has paid almost no attention to the assembly of force aimed at China. This makes it worth following better sources - like The Guardian or CBC.

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I forgot to rant about the Faith page yesterday. The weekly events list suggest that Moncton Christian have not forgotten their obsession with their bellies.  The hungry might not get fed in this      town; but the faithful sure do.

The sermonette , like all the others, is one that is guaranteed not to offend anybody who is rich or socially prominent.

How is it possible that a society based on such unChristian principles can still have so many churches?

Feb. 1:: There is a real news story on p. 1...

....unfortunately, it doesn't say anything.

The rest of Section A, as usual, says nothing, being devoted largely to "news stories" that are really ads for Walmart, the Super Bowl, and various 'entrepreneurs'.  But the front page headline is news. The Mount Allison strike has gained some muscle in the form of financial support and participation from university teachers across Canada. But what I have said in just that one sentence is all it tells us.

The story does mention 'academic freedom' as a demand. But - hint to editor - very few people, including university teachers - have any clear and consistent idea what academic freedom means. I doubt, then, whether most readers have a clue what it means.

Y'see, Mr. editor, what you do in a case like this it you get the reporter to ask both sides what they mean by academic freedom - and I don't mean just to get more jargon, but to pin down some meaning for it in terms that readers will understand. You could find the space by dropping 90% of the useless information you have in this story.
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In NewsToday, there are big stories on how "Bieber could face travel woes", on whether it will be possible for Amanda Knox who helped commit a murder to be forced to return to Italy to serve her sentence. amd the biggest story - on the Super Bowl and on how to be a good Super Bowl guest (at a house party), and a good host.

There are also valuable hints on how to follow the game. For example, the team that has the ball is called the offence. It's a treasure house of information, complete with useless pictures.
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The editorial supports the premier on developing shale gas. It also ridicules opponents of shale gas by misrepresenting their views with a gross exaggeration of them.

Norbert Cunningham once again demonstrates his ignorance of politics. In this case, he confuses 'basic principles' with having neat ideas. The two are not the same,  Norbert.

Liberals and Conservatism are statements of basic principles - of what values are on what a society is all about and how it should operate. (Neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives in New Brunswick have those principles - or any ptinciples at all so far as I  can determine.

But principles and social values are of first importance in deciding who to vote for. Hitler had some very neat idea on easing the depression and rebuilding German optimism. He'd be just the kind of man Norbert is looking for in deciding who to note for - a man who talks about the issues.

Unfortunately, most German voters were Norberts who ignored the essential part - Hitler's  values and principles - and that gave us a massive tragedy that we are still living through.

Bill Belliveau  begins well to discuss the provincial debt. Alas! Like all writers for the Irving press, he will discuss everything but who caused the debt and now pays almost nothing to reduce it.

Brent Mazerolle continues in his role of saying nothing of any use whatever.

Gwynne Dyer is a must read. It's about Greenland whose 56,000 aboriginal hunters are about to have the modern world forced on them. Generally, we don't begin to understand what that means. The process so far has produced the highest suicide rate in the world. It is no surprise, then, that our native peoples have a high suicide rate. In the far north, our Inuit adult suicide rate is 10 times the national average  Among Inuit children and teens, the rate is 30 times the average.

Any intrusion into a society has effects that are staggering, and can go on for centuries. African slavery began in the US well over 300 years ago. It ended a hundred and fifty years ago. But African Americans still live with the damage of it.

Africa, itself, is in a chaos because of the west's forcing itself and its ways on that continent.

Generally, we don't begin to realize the damage done by a forced assimilation, and how very long it can last.
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There were lots of missed stories that an editor could have picked up by listening to CBC. Conrad Black, that paragon of Canadian enterpreneurs and advocate of lower taxes for the very rich - and ex-con - has been stripped of the Order  of Canada.

Or they could read The Detroit News which says the infant mortality rate in Detroit is only slightly below that of a third world country. Keep a note of that for the day one of your columnists does a column on the superiority of privatized health care.

Gee! there was no mention of a summit conference of 33 Latin American states in Cuba.

No big deal? On the contrary.

The US has wanted to control Latin America almost as long as there has been a US. In the 1920s and 30s, especially, it fought a long series of wars (oops - sorry police actions to protect American citizens and property) to steal land and cheap labour from Central American countries to please families like the Doles of tropical fruit fame. Then they consolidated it with the Organization of American States, a front to extend American dominance and exploitation. Canada joined it as a willing stooge.

Now, Latin American have their own organization. The US and Canada have been dumped.

This really began with Castro's successful defiance of the US. It's not over  yet. The US will certainly use military force - if largely in the form of special ops and other secret forces. But this has certainly hit the American empire at its heart.

It is still, militarily, an enormously powerful country on paper. But that military has not performed impressively for over 50 years. And it cannot be maintained in a dying economy.

We may well be watching the collapse of the last of the world's great empires.

Tomorrow, I'll write about some possible consequences of that.